Although Alicia and I weren’t officially working together at The Purse way back in December 2023, I often turned to her for advice about editorial ideas. At the time, The Purse had a much smaller audience (fewer than 1,000 subscribers), and the weekly newsletter was usually just a personal essay where I waxed poetic about everything from kids’ birthday parties to rage spending. It was fun but not sustainable, and at times, I felt like The Purse didn’t have a true direction.
But in the fall of 2023, I took part in an intensive 100-day program at CUNY’s Craig Newmark School of Journalism designed to support entrepreneurial journalists trying to get their big ideas off the ground. It helped me clarify my goals for The Purse and inspired me to create a few editorial series, including Home Economics and Division of Labor.
Even though I rarely have trouble coming up with ideas, I find it much more fun to brainstorm with others, and so I turned to Alicia for her thoughts, even sending her the first iteration of the Home Economics questionnaire to get her feedback.
In January 2024, I moved The Purse to Substack and shortly thereafter sent out the first edition of Home Economics, featuring a high-earning family in Brooklyn. Substack featured it in one of its weekly roundup newsletters, and it positively blew up. In just a few weeks, it got more than 100,000 page views, and The Purse added a few thousand new subscribers. It was wild!
It also wasn’t entirely surprising to me that this series was so popular. As the founding editor of Refinery29 Money Diaries, I know how much readers love to know all the details of other people’s finances.
But there’s one really big difference between Money Diaries and Home Economics: I interview every single person we feature. And hands down, it’s the best part of my job. I feel so lucky that so many people have trusted me with these intimate details. And when we get on the phone, I always say: “I’m just the steward for your story. I want you to feel good about what gets published.” And while I can’t speak for the former Home Ec writers, I think most of them have had a good experience. Part of that is thanks to you readers who have made the Home Ec comment section a kind corner of the internet.
Since launching in January 2024, we’ve published 50 editions of Home Economics. We’ve featured a wide range of ages, salaries, relationship statuses, and locations (29 states). But we’re just getting started! It’s been fun to see this series grow and evolve, but I feel like we’ve only just scratched the surface.
Want to share your story? Fill out the form here. If we publish your Home Economics, we’ll provide you with a comped six-month subscription as a small thank you.
Following the publication of our 50th edition, Alicia and I wanted to share a few of our big takeaways from Home Economics. And because we’re data nerds at heart, we’ve sprinkled some stats throughout.
We’d love to hear what stories moved or inspired you!
For better or worse, everyone loves (to hate) the high earners
I remember when I sent out the first edition of Home Ec, a former colleague texted me, “Big salary in the subject line! Love to see it!”
Since my Refinery29 days, readers have always complained about the high-earning entries, saying they “aren’t relatable.” But the fact of the matter is they are more likely to click—and in the case of The Purse, upgrade to paid—when there’s an eye-popping salary in the headline.
And I get it. People want to see how the 1% earn, spend, and save their money. Especially if you live in a high-cost-of-living area like New York City or San Francisco, where it can sometimes feel like a total mystery how people make ends meet.
But it bums me out a tiny bit because sometimes I’ll put a really wonderful Home Economics behind a paywall, and not many free readers will think it’s worth the upgrade. I still think all the time about the insurance adjusters who were living in an RV in Texas and following one hurricane after another in the hopes of saving enough money to buy their own home. The writer was a wonderful storyteller, and it’s such a fun read. But it got nowhere near as much attention as, say, the Home Ec we published earlier this year featuring a family of four in Brooklyn living on a $685,000 income.
I always feel like a broken record when I chirp on about how much I love each edition of Home Economics. But I do! I especially appreciate when women read an entry and feel inspired to share their own in an effort to help us show a range of incomes and life experiences. This series—and The Purse in general—is better when we are diverse in our storytelling. So you never need to worry that I’m only publishing high earners! (But could you make sure to open all the Home Ec newsletters, regardless of the income! I promise each one is worth the read!)
-Lindsey
I’ll always compare myself—but in a good way
Reading through all of the Home Economics, it’s hard not to compare myself and my finances to our wonderful writers. But rather than feeling like I’m falling behind or not doing what I should be doing with my money, I mostly feel inspired!
Everyone we feature has something going on with their finances that I then try to instill in my own life or use as inspiration for the future—whether it’s savings accounts dedicated to a 40th birthday party, an enviable income, or a healthy money mentality.
Of course, I try to keep in mind that we all have unique circumstances, and so what one person does with their money won’t necessarily translate to my own finances. But I so enjoy having an idea of what others are spending on food, housing, and so on.
Home Ec also makes clear that a headline can’t capture anyone’s full money story. We all have so much going on behind the scenes; a salary doesn’t describe a whole life.
-Alicia
There are a dozens of little expenses that we forget about
When I first came up with the Home Economics questionnaire, I forgot to ask how much people were spending on their cell phones. Whoops. Over two years, we’ve worked to refine the questions so that we can get closer to seeing the full picture of how people spend, save, and earn their money. Most recently, we added “hobbies” to the list, inspired in part by the Houston lawyer who spent nearly $3,000 on needlepoint supplies over the course of a year!
Most of the time, writers will forget to share how much they spend to get their hair cut. (Though a shocking number cut their own hair!) And the “home goods” category is another one that causes some consternation, especially if you buy all your toilet paper, laundry detergent, and cleaning supplies on your weekly grocery runs.
Home Ec writers who use a budgeting app like Copilot Money or You Need a Budget tend to be able to give us a clearer picture of where every dollar goes. But in our day-to-day lives, not every expense fits neatly into one of our categories. I’m personally OK with a little bit of messiness—it makes for a more interesting read, IMO!
-Lindsey
Pay transparency comes in many forms
I wasn’t familiar with the Cravath scale until Home Ec. number 45, which featured a 29-year-old lawyer in Houston whose firm follows it. Basically, it’s a payscale big law firms use to stay competitive. As a third-year associate, she earned $235,000 and could count on an established yearly raise.
A subsequent Home Ec. had this to say about the Cravath scale:
“[O]ne upshot of [the Cravath scale] is that I always knew what all my coworkers and law school friends were making, and I always thought that led to a healthy culture. Transparency is winning out here, but I want to be clear I know that my family is doing really very well.”
This conversation reminds me of the good intentions behind job description pay ranges, though they are far from perfect. It’s also a good reminder of why we publish Home Ec and recently launched Work History. More pay transparency!
-Alicia
It’s easier to be transparent about your situation when you feel good about your finances
Okay, this might be a “no duh” realization, but I think it’s important to say it out loud. (Or you know, in this case, write it down.) We will inevitably have more editions of Home Economics featuring people who have a lot in savings and little (or no) credit card debt, because it’s easier to share those stories.
There’s so much shame tied up with carrying debt. We treat it like some kind of moral failing. We might give someone a pass if they acquired the debt paying for a medical treatment, but that’s about it. Otherwise, the prevailing line of thought is that you should have planned better and made smarter financial decisions in the first place.
But the reality is a lot of people carry credit card debt for all kinds of reasons. (Want stats to back it up? In 2024, 46% of Americans carried a balance for at least one month throughout the year.) And it’s all fine and good to tell people to “just plan better,” but life has a way of throwing all kinds of curveballs our way. One day you could have a great paying job, and the next, you find yourself unemployed with two young kids, stuck with a money pit of a house, trying to figure out how to make it work. Inevitably, you may have to rely on credit cards.
Home Economics is a better series when we’re able to share a range of stories and feelings about money. I often think of the marketing manager in Boston who had wracked up $30,000 in credit card debt while also having $100k saved for retirement. She was wonderfully open about her somewhat laissez-faire response to her mounting credit card debt, and it made for a great read.
Perhaps this is an unofficial request for anyone who’s on the fence about sharing their Home Economics because it’s a little messy or you have unconventional views on money. We want to hear your story! It’s worth telling!
-Lindsey
There are a million ways to live a life
I absolutely loved one of our most recent Home Ecs that featured a woman who owns a tiny cabin resort, because it was a reminder that you can just do…whatever you want. Yes, her current success was hardwon—and not everyone could do what she did to eventually buy her business—but I found it so inspiring how she kept trying new and different things with her money, even if I wouldn’t do them myself.
I tend to be risk averse, so when someone takes a big swing, I can’t help but admire them. I see that throughout many of the Home Ecs: women taking big swings, trying new things, and learning from any mistakes they make along the way.
-Alicia
Your current financial situation is not forever
Ultimately, the Home Economics features we publish capture a single moment in time. We try to detail how the writers got where they are, but it’s impossible to evoke someone’s entire life—the worries they had in their early 20s, the first time they breathed a sigh of relief after a much-needed payday, and all of the spending lessons learned along the way.
This became even more clear to me this week as Lindsey and I reviewed the follow-up responses she received from previous Home Ec writers about how they’re doing now. Thankfully, many are doing well, celebrating raises, debt payoff, and additions to their families. But others have faced setbacks: Job loss, all-consuming caregiving duties, and divorce have also popped up.
These stories have really driven home how changeable our finances are. Some of these women were doing “well” by traditional personal finance standards when they were featured on The Purse and have since fallen on harder times, often through no fault of their own.
It’s a reminder to me to enjoy my relatively stable financial situation now and try to do as much as I can to set myself up for a successful future. But also, there’s a lot that’s simply out of my control. That’s life.
-Alicia
What else we’ve published on The Purse this week:
Alicia hit a big emergency fund goal! We want to hear about your emergency fund.
Alicia Adamczyk
After 50 editions of Home Economics, we started wondering how past writers are doing. Check out our new (limited) “Where are they now?” series!
Lindsey Stanberry
