A Week In Chicago, Illinois On A $4,059 Salary

Welcome to Money Diaries where we are tackling the ever-present taboo that is money. We’re asking real people how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period — and we’re tracking every last dollar.

This week: An international medical student, rotating in the US working in medicine who makes $4,059 per year and spends some of it on a vinyl record.

If you’d like to submit your own Money Diary, you can do so via our online form. We pay $150 for each published diary. Apologies but we’re not able to reply to every email. We are legally unable to publish any diaries that have been written with the use of AI.

This diary was written in 2025.

Occupation: International medical student (currently rotating in the US)
Industry: Medicine
Age: 24
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Salary: $4,059.06 (I was paid 30,000 INR a month, which over twelve months adds up to 360,000 INR. In USD (according to the conversion rate at the time of writing) it works out to be $4059.06 annually).
Joint Income/Financial Setup: At the moment, I’m living alone and trying to survive on my own two feet.
Assets: Nothing in my name as of yet. I’m usually burning through my entire salary by the end of the month.
Debt: $0
Paycheck Amount (1x month): $338
Pronouns: She/her

Monthly Expenses

Housing Costs: $2500/month for my rent. Currently, I’m living in student housing at my university in Chicago, and paying this astronomical amount for an apartment the literal size of my balcony back in India.
Loan Payments: $0
Cell phone: $50 — I paid for a SIM card with a month of data included the day I landed in the US.
Internet: $0 (this is covered by my phone and campus wifi)
Spotify: $0 (I piggyback off my best friend’s family plan. Yeah, we’re close close)
Amazon Prime: $0.27 — my friend group splits a subscription, but it ends up being so little when so many people split it that it’s negligible. Yay anti-capitalism, I guess.
Netflix: $0 — I canceled it on principle because the geolocking is just getting pedantic at this point. I can’t be forced to verify myself every time I so much as walk across the hall now, can I?
Ventra Card: 30 days at $75
Hydroelectricity: This is covered in the university housing price.

Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
I’m Indian, which means unless I go to college, I’m practically a pariah. I went to med school straight out of high school, as per how things work in my country. My parents paid for all of it, and it was a lot by Indian standards, around $170,000.

Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent(s) educate you about finances?
My dad didn’t grow up very financially secure and was basically a breadwinner from the age of 20 or so for his entire family. So even though nobody ever really sat me down and had a talk about being financially responsible, I grew up seeing how careful he was with money. My parents did try to spoil me since I’m an only child and they didn’t want me to grow up wanting for anything, but I try to be somewhat sensible with how I spend my money.

What was your first job and why did you get it?
I worked as a math/science tutor in high school. It was kind of a problem at home because again, in Indian culture, kids don’t really do jobs at that age, but I went to high school abroad in a very international environment and everyone around me was doing it. I got the job because I was kind of a nerd and did really, really well on some super difficult exams, and everyone in the grade below me wanted to be tutored so they could do well, too. I got paid around $30 per hour, three times a week, for one person, and I tutored five kids.

Did you worry about money growing up?
Not really. As I mentioned, I did go to a kind of posh school, so everyone was quite rich; like, home theatres and giving-each-other-MacBooks-as-birthday-presents rich, and though my family was definitely well off, we certainly weren’t that. I did wish when I was in high school that I was that kind of rich, but then I came to India for med school and realised I’d had a lot more growing up than the people around me did, so I guess I felt kind of spoiled there in comparison.

Do you worry about money now?
When I was in India, no, because my salary covered everything I needed and more, even stupid things like online shopping splurges and random unplanned trips with friends. In the past month of being in America, though, I’ve started to worry. It’s weird; the immense difference in cost of living has given me a bit of a miserly mentality. I think about my choice multiple times before I even treat myself to a cab or an extra sandwich at lunch.

At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
I started my medical internship (the mandatory year of work doctors do as part of training) about 11 months ago, which is when I started earning. I’ve been paying for my own rent, groceries, living, and travel costs since then. I do have a huge, huge financial safety net in terms of not having to save up, since I know my parents have done that for me already.

Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.
I haven’t, but I will receive a significant sum in the ballpark of six figures in USD as an inheritance.

Day One: Monday

7:15 a.m. — I wake up to five Citizen app alerts about random concerning events in the area around me, including a couple of robberies and shootings overnight. I take screenshots to send to my friends back in India, because back home, this would be NEWS. BIG news. After that, I get ready for my second week of rotations in my US hospital; I still haven’t figured out whether it’s okay for me to wear scrubs or not, so I stick to business casual. I wonder whether I should keep the sleeves of my dress shirt down or roll them up; down makes me look like the kid you’d bully in a high school movie, and up makes me look a bit like I’m trying to be sexy in a different kind of movie, so I stick to down. I have a mug of coffee and two slices of cold bread from the fridge.

8:00 a.m. — I dash to make the 10-ish minute walk to the hospital on campus, because the last thing I want to do is annoy my attending somehow, who has already been very sweet, kind and patient with me during my first week when I couldn’t work the electronic medical records system (back in India, we use paper records at the hospital I work/study at, because it’s a big hospital serving predominantly an underserved population, and it’s run by the government as a non-profit). My resident tells us our attending is running late, and since all my follow-ups have been discharged, I’m kind of at a loose end. I stop by the underground cafeteria thing and get myself a medium-sized cappuccino. $5.99

12:00 p.m. — I’m finally done with rounds for today. I’m kind of cruising, because I’ve finally presented my patient really well for once, and managed to answer all my attending’s follow-up questions, too. If you’re in medicine, you’ll know rounds are one of those times when, sometimes, you even forget your own name when the whole team is shooting questions at you left and right, and it’s always quite a frazzling experience when you’re presenting a new patient to the whole team.

2:00 p.m. — After notes are done for the day, I’m told very kindly by my resident to go “grab lunch; enjoy the sunshine”. Which would be lovely if I could actually afford anything; everything near our hospital costs an arm and a leg, and I’ll have to make the 30-minute trek down to the student-y area nearby to actually be able to eat anything. I decide it’s not worth the hassle today, and fish this pack of trail mix out of my bag to eat instead. My previous rotation was at this hospital that had a FULLY stocked doctors’ lounge that they were kind enough to let me raid on the daily, and I’d accrued enough uneaten snacks to last through an apocalypse.

8:00 p.m. — I attempt to cook my first proper meal of the day — it’s an avant-garde mishmash of all the vegetables I had left from the past few days, some pasta, plus the bottom scrapings of the jar of red sauce I’d bought. I scroll through DoorDash while it’s cooking, and have to fight hard not to order the delicious-looking pizza I see on the front page. I know my parents wouldn’t mind at all sending me more money while I’m here, and they’d be horrified at some of the meals I’m having, but I somehow feel on principle that I want to get this done on as low as a cost as possible; spending two months doing medical rotations in the US isn’t cheap by any means, and I don’t feel right spending more than initially budgeted.

11:00 p.m. — Citizen’s going off again. I try to ignore it while I videocall my parents and put in a load of laundry in the communal machines downstairs, but then the group chat we have going for all the international med students starts going off. The guy living 10 minutes away says he can hear sirens and… helicopter noises??? I watch Independence Day to distract myself and fall asleep, praying we’re not actually in a real-life version or something.

Daily Total: $5.99

Day Two: Tuesday

7:30 a.m. — I wake up a little later today, mostly because I’m feeling super lazy, and also because my attending physician usually gets to rounds late on Tuesdays, which means I have an extra half hour to relax. I wonder about making breakfast, but then I realise I never actually took out the laundry I put in last night, and run down in a manic panic. I breathe a sigh of relief when I realise it’s still there; soggy and damp, but there. I throw it in the dryer for a 45-minute cycle — something I’ve realised works best to actually dry stuff out, though it weirdly washes the colour out of the clothes. Or maybe I’m imagining things?

9:00 a.m. — Rounds begin. I’m feeling a little extra grumpy today because I’ve wasted my precious extra half hour of relaxing on the laundry situation, and my stomach’s rumbling as well. I didn’t manage to get a cappuccino, either; we have a lot of patients to see today, and a noon conference afterward. I have yet another snack I squirrelled away from my previous rotation: a peanut butter granola bar.

12:00 p.m. — We walk straight to noon conference from rounds. I’m in a much better mood now, even though I’m starving, because our patients have all been so sweet and accommodating the whole day. I’m realising every day that my favourite part of hospitals in the US is the patients; they’re very friendly, and go out of their way to answer the same medical student questions again and again. My attending and residents have placed bets on whether there’s going to be lunch at noon conference, and what it’ll be. So far, we’re at one vote for no lunch, one vote for lunch and Panera, and one vote for lunch and pizza. I add my own vote to no lunch, because I like to expect the worst, so I’m pleasantly surprised otherwise.

12:30 p.m. — There was lunch! Someone had come to give a presentation about some therapy or the other, and brought along an absolute spread: pizza, pasta, and about four kinds of salad. I’m a vegetarian, so I’m extra happy to see the salad, which turns out to be this delicious thing with kale and candied pecans, and blue cheese dressing. I have seconds, and then thirds, and manage to sneak in fourths while I listen to the presentation. Everyone in the room is making jokes and saying intelligent things; they say the best way to make a bunch of medical students and residents happy is to feed them, and I think that’s a fact.

4:00 p.m. — We wrap up the day a little early today, and life’s looking good. I have to go get groceries on my way home, so I decide to do a little exploring on the way, and figure since I haven’t spent anything on lunch, I can treat myself to cannoli and coffee from this adorable Italian deli. I have one, and like it so much I get another. I think cannoli might just be the greatest thing in the world. $12.49

6:00 p.m. — I’ve spent two hours wandering around random streets looking in random shop windows at this point, and realise I should grab some groceries before it gets late. I get some assorted veg, pasta, bread, and some bananas, because they’re on discount and I’m probably getting zero fiber these days. As an afterthought, I throw in a giant bag of pickle-flavored chips. It’s an addiction I’ve picked up through my time in the US, and I remind myself to stock up on the flavor before I go home. $78.49

8:30 p.m. — I’m exhausted after I lugged two huge bags of groceries home and caught two buses (I miss the autos [rickshaws] in India with all my heart). For less than a dollar, you can go pretty much anywhere, anytime. I muse about beginning a start-up involving autos in the US, and bandy the thought around for a while as I cook dinner in my teeny-tiny kitchen. Fresh vegetables! Rice! My dinner tastes incredible today; butter chicken with the chicken subbed for tomatoes and peppers instead. God, I’ve missed eating. I think this is the most food I’ve eaten in a day since I came to Chicago.

Daily Total: $90.98

Day Three: Wednesday

8:00 a.m. — I have barely managed to get to work today, and I definitely look it. I’ve spent most of the night wrapping myself in layers of clothes and blankets, because the weather decided to lose its mind at around midnight and get really, really cold, and for some reason, the heating system was doing nothing to help the situation. I’d tossed and turned for about three hours before I’d given up and put on my giant duffel jacket instead.

1:00 p.m. — I’m slowly realising the cold was probably partly the temperature, and partly an infection, because my head is killing me and my muscles are in agony. I take a vitamin C tablet I have in my bag, and a paracetamol, but it doesn’t seem to help much. My international student friends are planning on exploring the city today, and I’m burning up with jealousy reading the texts. Unfortunately, I’m also burning up with a fever by late afternoon, so I have to ask my resident to leave early so I can go home and bury myself in my bed.

3:00 p.m. — On my way upstairs, I ask the helper at the desk why my heater isn’t working, and she informs me, “They’ve switched to cooling for the summer”. I can’t help wondering why I’m not allowed to pick my own temperature, especially when I’m paying more than a year’s rent of my apartment back home for one month of housing, but c’est la vie, I guess.

6:00 p.m. — I wake up after a two-hour nap when my mom calls me, and I realise I haven’t eaten anything all day, not even breakfast. My mom is horrified and makes me order myself DoorDash on the spot because I’m not looking too good to cook, and I get a Chipotle bowl with extra guac. The app asks me helpfully if I’d like a vegan maple donut from Voodoo Doughnut nearby, and I do. I’m too tired to be economical today. $28.65

11:00 p.m. — I see pictures of my friends hanging out back home on Instagram, and suddenly I’m feeling horrible. One of the things you really miss as an international student in the US is the sense of community you get back home, where there are people around 24/7 to yap with, run errands with, hang with. Although I love my job and these rotations are great for my future career, and I’ll need them if I want to practice here, being in the US all alone is super isolating sometimes, especially on days like today.

11:45 p.m. — I’m mindlessly scrolling on Ulta Beauty to distract myself, and before I realise it, I’ve added a couple of things to my cart. One of the things I was excited to come to the US for was the makeup and skincare; though we have many brands in India, there are some you can only get in the States. I saved up about a month and a half of my salary back home (which is a big deal, because saving has not been my strong suit historically) just to shop for this stuff, and I decide to put some of it to use. I order the ILIA Fullest Volumizing Mascara and the Clinique Black Honey lipstick that everyone’s been raving about. I browse through the Milk makeup list for fun, but the jelly-looking blush is insanely cute, and I decide it’s coming home, too. At least shipping’s free? I feel a little guilty afterwards, so I decide to study a little extra. Not that that makes any sense, but it is what it is. I fall asleep reading about the thyroid. $80

Daily Total: $108.65

Day Four: Thursday

7:00 a.m. — I’ve woken up feeling much better, and not in the least because of the online shopping last night. I check the little tracking thing and feel all warm and fuzzy, in the way only over-consumption makes you feel. And also, my clothing cycle has circled back around, and I get to wear my favourite shirt again! I have this thing where I’m always a little extra happy when I wear the clothes I like, and my day goes better as a result. Not that there should be a reason I don’t like some of my clothes, because I have free will and picked out every single one of them myself.

11:00 a.m. — We’ve breezed through rounds today, and the day looks like it’ll be a chill one. My attending doctor is changing rotations today and I’m sad. I’ve really enjoyed working with him for the past couple of weeks, and I will miss the relaxed energy he brought to rounds. I also have to do the nerve-wracking job of asking for a letter of recommendation, which is never easy. How do you even ask someone to review you and (hopefully) say all sorts of nice things about you on paper? It feels like fishing for compliments in the least subtle way possible. I finally manage to ask, and he says he’ll be happy to do it. I fist-pump internally.

12:30 p.m. — I’m feeling a little more energetic today, and decide to make the trek down to the student-y area nearby to get an actual decently-priced lunch. I put on an audiobook, The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green, as I walk. I feel a bit old and a bit pretentious, but I’m really enjoying John Green’s pivot into nonfiction. I stop by at the little sandwich place I like and grab an eggplant sandwich, and make an almost direct U-turn afterwards and eat as I walk back to the hospital. $6.99

5:30 p.m. — The rest of the day goes by in a haze because we have a lot of new admits this afternoon. It’s kind of a nice distraction because just before I got back to the hospital, I saw on Instagram that my ex had reached the US for his own rotations. It makes me a little sad because we’d planned out this crazy itinerary when we realised we’d be in the country at the same time, including visiting the Art Institute of Chicago to see our favorite paintings and eat at Mr. Beef because we both loved watching The Bear. I bump into my friend, K., again on my way back, and overshare to him about the situation (never mind that we’ve only known each other for two weeks and spoken about four times). He asks for permission to say some mean things, which turn out to be quite funny, so thankfully, I’m in a much better mood when I get home.

7:00 p.m. — I spend the evening doing more laundry. It’s funny how I’ve done less laundry in my entire life than I’ve done in one-and-a-half months in the US, and I can’t seem to figure out why. I see someone next to me holding a box of dryer sheets, and I am immediately curious as to what those are. I learn they guard against static, which is pretty useless if you ask me. Are you even human unless you get a little static shock here and there? Isn’t that the zing of life?

9:30 p.m. — Another dinner of rice and mystery-mix curry. I really am starting to enjoy my own cooking, something I had such a hard time doing the first few weeks here. I wrap the day up earlier than usual, mostly because I feel like I’ll stalk my ex on Instagram, or worse, end up calling him to cry about getting back together. As I fall asleep, I resolve to start journaling. I probably have too many blocked-up emotions, like constipation.

Daily Total: $6.99

Day Five: Friday

9:00 a.m. — I wake up late and spend another hour dozing on and off, because I’m off work! There’s an American holiday today, so we get a long weekend, something I never got back in India. As a doctor, especially a young one in training, work is quite literally 24/7 there, with no weekly offs, so it was quite mind-blowing to me that even residents and fellows got a day off a week here, even if it was not necessarily on the weekend every time. I scroll on my phone for a while before taking a shower and getting dressed; I’m going to see my aunt and uncle in the suburbs. They’re quite distant in terms of relation, and we’ve never actually met in person, but Indian families have a way of not really caring about that.

10:30 a.m. — I make it to the train station on a bus, which is already covered by my Ventra card. After a little confusion, I realise the trains to the suburbs are different Metra trains, so I’ll need to buy a ticket. $13.50

3 p.m. — My aunt and uncle pick me up at the station, which is lovely since I don’t have to get an Uber. We have lunch, proper Indian food, which I haven’t had since I left home. Their house is beautiful, and I ooh and aah over everything. After lunch, my aunt apologizes for not having made any dessert and pulls out a tray of nut-free, gluten-free chocolate fudge she made for her grandson, who has allergies. I tell her not to worry and have a piece to be polite. The fudge is AMAZING. Over the space of an hour, as we sit around talking, I manage to eat about fourteen squares of the stuff, and the container is looking emptier by the minute. I apologise about ten times for eating so much of it, but my aunt just laughs it off.

5:45 p.m. — They decide to drive me back to Chicago so I don’t have to spend so much time on the train, which is super kind. On the way, we end up having a heated discussion about the beauty industry, of all things, which turns out to be really fun, so much so that I’m a bit sorry to be home. They drop me off at my doorstep and my aunt hands me the rest of the container of fudge, and I’d be lying if I say I didn’t get a little choked up. Family I’ve never met before, and they turn out to be some of the nicest family of all.

10:00 p.m. — The fudge is all gone. I yearn for the fudge. Is it possible to be addicted to fudge?

Daily Total: $13.50

Day Six: Saturday

10:00 a.m. — I sleep in today and wake up to a barrage of messages from my other international student friends, asking if I’d like to go out to the city. I respond quickly that I would. I’ve been meaning to see some more of Chicago, beyond the touristy stuff I did on my first weekend here, and today’s a good day as any. I eat a granola bar I have left from my hospital stash.

1 p.m. — We decide to meet at this bar place in the city, which means I have to walk to the Pink Line station. J., another friend from India, lives nearby, so I text him and ask if he’d like to walk together. We end up missing our stop and getting the wrong line yet again, which is incredible since everything is… quite clearly marked everywhere. Either way, it’s fun, and by the time we get to the bar, we’re starving. There are five of us, and it’s a hassle getting a table without a reservation, but we’re finally seated and ready to go. The conversation is quite raucous and everyone is getting along great; we order appetisers to share and beer, which soon turns into a cocktail each, which turns into tequila shots. Hey, it’s happy hour! We’re quite sloshed by the time we leave the bar, which is awesome because I’ve really missed drinking with friends, being loud and annoying. The bill comes to $38.50 per person. $38.50

6:30 p.m. — Someone says there’s a jazz festival happening in Millennium Park, which is not far, so we decide to head there. The music is good, and as the evening goes on, we have more beers from a vendor at the park and a plate of nachos to share. We split the total. Beer has a ton of water, so everyone keeps having to pee. $20

11 p.m. — We decide to continue hanging out because everyone’s still having fun; since there’s nowhere else to go, we end up going back to our friends’ place to chill. We get Chick-fil-A on the way, but I just get fries. They end up having a six-pack of beer in their fridge, so we drink that and play charades until 2 a.m., at which point I go home $4.19

Daily Total: $62.69

Day Seven: Sunday

10:00 a.m. — I wake up feeling weirdly un-hungover, and credit it to the water in the beer. Unscientific, but it works for me. I decide I want to do something really wholesome today, like churn butter or skip in a meadow or something, but then I realise there’s a farmers’ market happening nearby and settle for that. I text the group chat to see if anyone wants to join, but everyone’s asleep or tired.

11:30 a.m. — I attempt to do cottagecore with a cute dress and everything, but it’s still cold out by my standards, and I’m worried I’ll freeze. Instead, I wear a sweater and jeans. I take the bus to the adorable neighbourhood where the market is, all red brick houses and leafy streets, and spend a little time just wandering around looking at how pretty everything is. A woman with impossibly beautiful hair walks by pushing a baby in a stroller, and suddenly I’m struck by the intense urge to become her, immediately. But I realise that blonde wouldn’t go with my colouring, so I walk inside and try free samples of farm-to-table honey and fancy spotty cheese instead. Everything is delicious and really, really expensive, but I get an almond-something-something croissant anyway, and wander around smelling artisanal soap. $6.50

1:30 p.m. — The sun starts getting far too bright, so I head to look at some shops nearby instead. Why do Americans love the sun so much? My friend from back home wants a vinyl record because they’re much cheaper in America, so I go to a record store and sift through the stacks looking for the one he wants. I can’t help but want one myself, because everything is so cool and they have all these esoteric records that are near impossible to find in India, and besides, they’re half the price they are back home. I’d once bought someone a $50 record for their birthday, so I figured I could treat myself to a Khruangbin record for less than half the price. $54.50

2:30 p.m. — I find this really cool hole-in-the-wall bookstore nearby, and I suddenly have the urge to buy absolutely everything. I’ve realised that if there’s aesthetic lighting and a kind of thrown-together vibe, then I’ll buy just about anything, so I have to remind myself every 10 seconds that I already have four unread books on my nightstand. I don’t buy anything, but it’s a task. I pass a sign for the Art Institute of Chicago, and remember I still haven’t been, half because I keep forgetting and half because it’s somewhere I really wanted to go with my ex. I tell myself to stop being lame and needy, and that I can’t possibly leave Chicago without seeing Nighthawks, a painting I’ve loved since high school.

3 p.m. — I get to the museum. I’m already ready to fork over the $27 for admission, but a nice lady at the counter asks me if I’m a student by any chance, and when I show her my campus I.D., she says admission is free. They’re the most beautiful words I’ve heard in a while, and I’m deliriously happy as I head inside.

4:45 p.m. — Finally, there it is in front of me: Nighthawks. It’s smaller than I thought it would be, but it’s better, so much better. In the painting, the diner’s light glows against the dark, and I think about how it’s kind of the perfect painting for anyone who’s ever been alone in a big city; not necessarily sad-alone, just existence alone. When I finally walk out, the sun’s setting on Michigan Avenue, and everything is all beautiful and golden and warm. I don’t buy anything from the gift shop. I don’t think I need to.

Daily Total: $61

The Breakdown

Conclusion:
I definitely spent more than I wanted to. I could’ve eased up on the random impulsive buys and the coffee/junk food/beer purchases, and focused a little more on having three square meals a day. My diary definitely taught me to pay a little more attention to where my money is going.

Money Diaries are meant to reflect an individual’s experience and do not necessarily reflect Refinery29’s point of view. Refinery29 in no way encourages illegal activity or harmful behavior.

The first step to getting your financial life in order is tracking what you spend — to try on your own, check out our guide to managing your money every day. For more Money Diaries, click here.

Do you have a Money Diary you’d like to share? Submit it with us here.

Have questions about how to submit or our publishing process? Read our Money Diaries FAQ doc here or email us here.

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

A Week In Portland, OR On A $108,000 Salary

A Week In New York, NY On A $90,395 Salary

A Week In Los Angeles, CA On A $65,000 Salary