The Guardian - 07.09.2019

Section:GDN 1N PaGe:53 Edition Date:190907 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 6/9/2019 11:24 cYanmaGentaYellowbl

Saturday 7 September 2019 The Guardian •

Money^53

Name

Victoria

O’Dwyer

Age 42

Income

£24, 000

Occupation

Gardening

trainer

How I spend it

W

hen I was

younger I threw

myself into

the drugs and

dance scene. It

was a form of

escapism – although I grew up in a

very nice family, I felt like I didn’t

fi t in. I was always looking for an

escape through substances, partying

or travelling.

When I was 18 I left home for

university in Wales. I spent two

years of university living in a tent

in the Gower. I wanted to get away

from campus. Somehow I did end

up scraping through and I returned

home with an arts degree.

I worked in the hospitality

industry for 13 years; it suited my

lifestyle at the time. But, under

the radar, I was using substances.

Nobody noticed during all those late

nights as everyone was drinking.

However, when I was in my mid-

thirties I realised I needed to change

my lifestyle. I decided to study

psychodynamic counselling. I was

always interested in psychology

• I think it stems from wanting to
  understand my family dynamics.
  I moved out of hospitality and
  worked for seven years running a
  tennis centre. I thought that hanging
  around healthy people might help
  me, but actually it didn’t work. I
  gave up my job and entered rehab. It
  was there that I was encouraged to
  try garden therapy.
  I’d always had gardens growing
  up. Actually, my garden was always a
  good indication of where I was with
  my wellbeing – if I felt good, it was
  buoyant and green. If I was partying
  hard, my garden was full of weeds
  and uncared for.
  I returned from therapy and was
  put in touch with the St Mungo’s
  scheme, Putting Down Roots,
  which teaches gardening skills to
  homeless people or those at risk of
  homelessness.

We are keen
to hear how
you spend it:
maybe you’re
a “squeezed
middle” just
about coping
fi nancially;
a pensioner
working part
time; or a young
adult saving
furiously for
a home. If you
would like to
appear in this
column, contact
spend.it@
theguardian.com

‘I got into substance abuse but now

help others with gardening therapy’

▲ Victoria

O’Dwyer has

been working as

a gardener and

trainer for 18

months

£600

Approximate monthly cost of

Victoria’s rent and bills

£80

How much Victoria spends on food

a week

I’m now a gardener and train er.

I’ve been in my role for 18 months

now and I love it. I enjoy helping

others who have found themselves

in a less preferable situation, and

being an example of that you can

actually pull yourself out.

I’m really lucky to be living by

myself in council housing. I can’t

imagine doing a houseshare at this

age. My rent is low compared with

other people – with bills, it comes to

about £600-£700 a month.

I spend about £80 a week on

food , and also grow my own. My

dream afternoon or evening after

work is coming home and picking

up a handful of spinach and some

tomatoes from my garden and

cooking it with some pasta. I do like

to spend money on good coff ee,

crackers and pasta.

I love to travel. In the past few

months I’ve driven over 1,000 miles

across California. I headed off on

I don’t drive it a huge amount I just

spend about £10 a week on petrol.

I’m starting to think about the

future. I put £100 month into a

pension scheme and my work

matches it. I have money set aside

for when my Mac goes down and

I squirrel money away so I’m not

surprised by a bill or card payment.

I feel more responsible now.

Before I rarely slept and was often

hanging on by a thread. I didn’t

have much confi dence. Now I work

really hard and my confi dence is

real confi dence.

St Mungo’s is one of the UK’s leading

homelessness charities. Each night

it provides housing and support to

2,800 people across London and

the south. It also helps thousands of

others with advice, welfare, skills and

work services. http://www.mungos.org

As told to Suzanne Bearne

Christmas Day and spent two and a

half weeks in a transit van travelling

from San Francisco down the desert

then back to LA on my own. In the

past year I’ve also visited Berlin and

France. This year I’ll probably spend

about £5,000 on holidays.

When I recently passed my

driving test , I bought myself a car.

Lessons were a massive outlay but

I’ve got a little runaround now. As

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