"Parenting is hard but parenting with financial worry is even harder."

+ me, milking my birthday

Hi and welcome to The Ladybird Purse, my weekly newsletter about women and money.

Just an interview this week because it’s still my birthday week (yes, I’m milking it) and also a bank holiday. Plus I’ve started waking up at 4-ish again and I am knackered. I suspect it’s for perimenopause reasons and I’m going to be writing about that next week.

In the meantime, a poll!

*One of them is the title of Sophie Ellis Bextor’s forthcoming album.

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An interview with Dawn McLachlan, late 50s

Poet and author Dawn McLachlan’s most recent published work can be found in Heroes and Villains (Ed. Ana Sampson - Illus. Chris Riddell), published by Pan Macmillan Sept 2024. She’s a member of the Huntly Writers and lead judge of the Brian Nisbet Poetry Award.

www.dawnmclachlan.com

What is your relationship with money currently?

Content. I'm not rich but I have enough to live comfortably on and I have no debts.

What’s your earliest money memory?

My earliest money memories are of crouching behind the front door when the bailiffs came and listening to them banging and shouting for my parents to come out. I also remember when we used to run out of money for the electricity meter. That was quite a regular feature of childhood.

Did you have a job as a teenager? If so, what did you do? Do you remember what and how you got paid?

As a teen (15? 16?) I waited tables and served in a café. I was paid 85p an hour and felt rich! I also had all the cakes and sandwiches that I could manage to sneak out. I got my first proper job at 17 and I earned £250 a month and felt that I had more money than I'd ever have time to spend. How naïve!

Did you feel pressure to ‘have it all’ - family, career, etc. If so, do you still?

I think I only ever felt under pressure to not fall into debt. I vowed that I would never be beholding to anyone financially and there were times in my life that I went hungry and cold to keep to that vow… It was hard work, but worth it.

Now I earn very little and I don't think I'll ever get used to feeling dependent on someone else financially. I'm lucky that we can both live on my husband's wages. I still feel as if I should be earning money and looking for work but in my late 50s and in a rural area the opportunities are slim!

We both have modest tastes and enjoy simple pleasures so we don't want for anything apart from plants for the allotment and enough to make trips to see family.

What did you learn about women and money from TV or film? Or even music?

Oh dear, that's a tough question. I can't say that I learned anything from TV, film or music specifically about women and money.

Beginning my working life in the 80s I think I was supposed to believe that money, clothes, property, cars, holidays, and all the luxuries of the greedy 80s were what I should aspire to, but I didn't feel like that. I was a punk and all I really cared about in the 80s was CND, protest, Stop the City, Ban the Poll Tax, animal and human rights, and I really only wanted enough money to pay 50p to get into a gig at a local pub and buy a pint of snakebite.

I think that I learned a lot from bands like Crass but not relating to my womanhood as much. There were still relatively few female voices of power even in those worlds of alternative music.

What advice would you give your younger self about money?

I think I'd probably say the same thing that many people say - hang on in there, it's worth it. I know I was right to avoid debt. I think I'd probably say not to waste money on expensive face creams in my youth so I'd tell myself I was never more beautiful and to enjoy it.

What have you learned from the generations on either side of Gen X (Boomers and Millennials) about money?

Tricky one... I think from my parent's generation I've learned that greed has a price and that might be a price for your children, or for the children of others.

They were taught that they could have it all and that has had a negative impact on the long-term economy. It's not that it's their fault, it's the fault of a society that pushed them to believe that they should have guzzling cars, cheaper houses on 100% mortgages, power-hungry appliances, international holidays, cheaper clothes, exotic foods... all things that have had a negative impact on the generations that followed.

From my child's generation I have learned to care passionately about what is right and about standing up for the oppressed. I have learned that money won't buy fairness, or equitable treatment, or human rights but it can amplify voices.

What’s the best thing you’ve ever spent money on?

The best thing I have ever spent money on was my child's wedding. They were married a couple of years ago and I was in the enviable position to be able to pay for a significant chunk of the wedding.

This made me so happy for many reasons. There were times in my life when I felt as if I was constantly in a financial struggle that would never end and to have reached a point when I am financially content enough to make those I love happy was a very special feeling.

Do you have a pension? If not, do you have a plan?

I don't have a private pension but I have always paid full stamp on my state pension so (hopefully) will have that at some point. I do have a plan but I'd rather not go into all the details.

What would you do with £10,000?

I would set it aside in a savings account for my grandchild so that he could draw on it when he's ready to go out into the world on his own. It would also be a net in case his parents needed anything for him during that time. Parenting is hard but parenting with financial worry is even harder.

What little treat would you buy with a tenner?

I would buy some lovely paper for printing. For pleasure I do some art printing at home but can never really justify buying really nice paper and am always cutting costs. I'd just blow it all on 3 sheets of lovely paper.

If you were me, what would you want to ask women about money?

I think I would ask about their happy money memories too. I remember how good paying off the mortgage felt, how liberating that moment was and how much financial freedom it gave me.

I also remember the day we signed the papers for our first house after years of unstable housing situations. That joyful moment when we walked through the door with a safe roof over our heads. We had no money left over after the mortgage payments each month but we had our own front door and our own space that was wonderful.

Read more Gen X posts

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