Millennial's money diary has people outraged

A 21-year-old's money diary is being torn to shreds online. File photo / Getty Images

This was one of Lifestyle's top stories in 2018

Reading other people's money diaries is so much fun.

It feels super pervy to take a peek inside the spending habits of those who have wildly different lifestyles and pay cheques.

Enter one very naive 21-year-old intern living and working in New York City.

She anonymously shared her money diary with Refinery29 and has been absolutely torn to shreds for it online.

The reason? She is insanely privileged but totally cannot see it.

She works for a marketing company and is paid $25 an hour but somehow manages to live a luxurious life filled with zero responsibilities and very little actual work.

Do you remember what life was like when you were a 21-year-old intern? Chances are there was plenty of gross but cheap processed food and Saturday nights spent trying to conceal your goon bag. This woman does not do two-minute noodles and certainly does not quaff down a goon.

Here's how she introduces herself. Keep in mind all these figures are in US dollars.

Occupation: Marketing Intern
Industry: HR Consulting
Age: 21
Location: New York City, NY
Income: $25/hr
Paycheck Amount (Weekly): $747.50, plus $100-120 every one to two weeks from babysitting.
Additional Income: On top of my intern salary, my parents give me a $800/month allowance, and my grandpa also wires me $300 every month (#blessed).

OK, so she gets an allowance from her parents and her grandparents. Good for her.

But understandably, people online are p***ed.

But wait, it gets worse.

Now she breaks down her monthly expenses. Her parents also pay for her rent, education, phone, entertainment and health insurance.

Rent: I live in a one bedroom/one den apartment. The total rent is $4050. My share is $2100 (my parents pay) and my roommate's share is $1950. (She lives in the den.)
Student Loan Payment: $0 (I'm still in school, and my parents pay for my education.)
Health Insurance: $0 (I'm on my parents' plan.)
MoviePass: $9.95
Sugared + Bronzed Pass: $40.76. (I get one Brazilian sugaring a month.) — FYI, "sugaring" involves scrubbing the skin with sugar to remove hair.
Equinox Membership: $210
Phone Bill: $0 (I'm on my parents' plan.)
Netflix, Spotify, Amazon: $0 (I use my parents' accounts.)

So you don't have to, we've trawled through her diary from the week to bring you the 10 most outrageous quotes.

1. She does no work at her internship

"I spend most of my morning working on a small project, online shopping, and journaling. Perk of being an intern is that I don't get too much work assigned in a day. But I do find myself bored occasionally … I sit around and do nothing until my 3pm meeting … I leave every day at 5 on the dot."

2. She has a super rich friend with a house in the Hamptons and a chef

"I spend the rest of my afternoon packing for my Hamptons trip this weekend! My awesome friend always hosts my entire girl squad for weekends out there.

"My friend's chef (?! I know) prepares vegan tacos, chicken tacos, and a veggie salad for all of us. Perfect pre-drinking meal. After dinner, we all get dressed up for a party tonight."

3. Wait for it, they are not drinking cask wine. NO way

"We decide to pick up some wine before the trip. I buy a bottle of rosé and a Gavi di Gavi (an Italian dry white wine). Cost = $32."

4. Her friends split all costs using share payments app Venmo

"A friend of mine let me make four drinks with her Bacardi, so I Venmo her a little money."

At one point, she says: "My friend requests $4 on Venmo for breakfast."

5. She buys her groceries from Whole Foods

"I head to Whole Foods straight from work. My fridge is completely empty from eating everything before I left for the weekend. I buy salad dressing, soy sauce, olives, a salmon fillet, feta cheese, avocados, blackberries, baby kale, a tub of Siggi's yoghurt (an American gourmet yoghurt brand), a cauliflower head, an orange pepper and Fuji apples: $48.24.

6. Her breakfasts are super bougie

"I have some vanilla yoghurt with granola, blackberries and cashew butter."

7. Again, she spends very little time doing work

She most certainly doesn't request any extra tasks: "Now to figure out what to do for the next hour I have at work. I've spent most of my day researching podcasts for 'living your best life'."

8. She uses share riding services heaps

"I opt to take a shared Lyft because I wanted to get home quicker. I usually get a lot of guilt-ridden anxiety from choosing to take cars, but I relax once I realise the subway is only $1.78 cheaper than this ride. $4.53."

9. She snacks on olives at work while she's bored

"I start getting munchies and am thankful I brought olives. I used to have a major fear of olives due to my dad force-feeding them to me at age 12. (Gracias, Papi!) Now, I love them so much I bought a fat tub of them to bring to work. Lemon garlic green olives."

10. She knows how to get waitstaff to give you free stuff

When it takes 45 minutes for her and her "BFF" to be seated at a pizza restaurant, she finds a way to make sure the staff make it up to them.

"We finally sit down at a lovely table outside. We order two small pizzas and a grilled calamari appetiser to share. I tell her that there's no chance we leave without getting some free stuff. I suggest to the waiter that he brings us some wine on the house, and he does. He also brings us a panna cotta dessert with our check."

If you'd like to read her diary in full, it's on Refinery29.