What We Spend — "Laying the Foundation" (Sept 17, 2025)

Podcast: What We Spend
Host: Courtney Harrell
Episode Theme:
This episode features Alden, a 30-year-old union carpenter in Massachusetts, as she opens up her finances and daily life. The show explores how Alden navigates the realities of blue-collar trade work, the financial security it brings, her journey through money anxieties, and the challenges of being a woman and queer person in a male-dominated field. Over the week, listeners follow Alden’s expenses, professional hurdles, and reflections on community, identity, and aspirations.

Main Themes and Structure

• Challenging Stereotypes about Trade Work: Why trade careers are undervalued, both culturally and financially, and the impact this has on people considering these paths
• Alden's Personal Journey: Her family background, attitudes towards money, and pursuit of stability and satisfaction through a union apprenticeship
• Daily Life & Weekly Spending: Through Alden’s audio diaries, listeners get an intimate look at her routines, work, expenses, and relationships
• Gender, Identity, and Belonging in the Trades: The unique obstacles faced by women and queer people in construction, and the importance of solidarity and community
• Financial Transformation and Stability: How trade work has radically changed Alden’s relationship with money and her vision of a secure, joyful future

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Trade Work and Cultural Perception

• Value of Trades: Courtney and Alden discuss the cultural devaluation of trade work vs. white-collar paths.
  • “There’s like, at least big portions of our culture that doesn’t encourage trade work in the way that we encourage white collar work. Why do you think that is?” — Courtney (02:40)
• Alden’s Perspective:
  • “There is not widespread knowledge that trades people make money, like a lot of money… I'm making more going to trade school than I ever made going to college.” — Alden (02:54)
  • Trades are demanding: “I'm like, girl, I have swamp ass all day. Like, I am sweaty, I am dirty, I am tired, I am fighting for my life. But I do feel that most days it’s worth it.” — Alden (03:13)

2. What it Means to Work as a Carpenter

• Alden explains what modern carpentry entails: working with wood, metal, concrete, vinyl, and large-scale commercial projects (03:40–04:00).
• Importance of trades: "For every five tradespeople who retire, only two are replacing them…more than a million trade jobs are unfilled." — Courtney (04:00–05:00)

3. Union Apprenticeship: Structure & Benefits

• A union carpentry apprenticeship lasts four years, combining on-the-job work with specialized classes (05:20–05:47).
• Financial Upside: Apprentices move up the pay scale each year, starting at 45% and reaching 80% of the journeyman rate in year four (~$34/hr for Alden, or ~$4,000/month take-home) (06:30).
  • “I've never made this much money in my life ever.” — Alden (06:56)
  • “Even the first year… people were like, ‘How are you going to live on $17 an hour?’ and I’m like, girl, I’d never made more than $14.” (07:10)

4. Alden’s Finances and Expenses (07:43–09:29)

• Annual income: ~$48,000 (before taxes/dues), plus health insurance and pension.
• Major monthly expenses:
  • Rent: $1,000 (solo apt.)
  • Utilities: ~$200
  • Truck gas: ~$100
  • Storage: $88
  • Wi-Fi/Phone/Insurance: <$90 combined
  • CrossFit: $180
  • Groceries: $200–300
  • No debt: “I feel very privileged to not have any debt… I have such extreme money anxiety that I have not let myself accrue any debt.” — Alden (09:29)

5. Root Causes of Money Anxiety

• Family background: Dad (doctor) with severe ADHD and unmanageable debt; mom scraping by, extreme couponer, deeply frugal (10:02–12:55).
  • “It was so confusing as a kid going back and forth between these two worlds of like living in scarcity and then going to my dad’s house and living in this guilt-filled abundance.” — Alden (11:55)

6. Alden’s Early Adulthood and Path to Trades

• Attitude in youth: Disengaged from money — “I was kind of just like a crusty punk kid… I hate money, I’m an anti-capitalist, I don’t want any money.” (13:26)
• Nonprofit and manual jobs, always low pay, often using food stamps (13:59)
• Turning point at 25: “I was like, you know what, I'm actually really, really tired of being poor… I really sat down with myself and I made a list… and what is a career that is focused on that joy?” (14:16–15:14)
• Discovering trades: Sought advice from women in trades; realized financial and job satisfaction potential (15:20–16:40)
  • “Just learning that information was really life changing and just, I knew… that was what I was going to do… The second somebody put like a circular saw and a screw gun in my hand… I am so in. This is it.” — Alden (16:41)

7. Alden’s Week: Daily Audio Diaries & Spending

Day 1 (18:44)

• No spending; just at-home meals, reflecting on a recent three-week gap in income (school week, certification, then layoff before new job).
  • “It feels a little bit more like the 1950s… you can just show up to a job site and get a job.” (18:44–21:23)

Day 2 (21:30)

• Work: Metal framing; side job: building a fancy deck for a friend (money anxiety about billing).
  • Bought $162.14 sealant (will be reimbursed).
  • Paid her split for an Airbnb and event: $378.54 total.
  • Discusses tension with girlfriend around money and fairness—banana bread “split” anecdote (22:35–26:35).

Day 3 (26:55)

• Payday: $992.40 net; received $1,000 check for deck work.
• Turned down overtime for a women-in-trades barbecue: “I don't live to work, I work to live and I really live by that.” — Alden (27:50)
• Doesn’t spend anything that day.

Day 4 (30:10)

• Grueling work insulating in heat (“drenched in sweat… scratched in my corneas… so itchy”). (30:10–30:54)
• Experiences homophobic slur at work (“A guy at work today did say faggot, which I hated… I try to just keep my mouth shut because I don't really want to be labeled as a troublemaker…”).
• Buys groceries ($126), gas ($42).
• Attends union meeting where the “Sisters of the Brotherhood” (women’s group) is dissolved due to legal pressure, raising concerns for support networks in the trades (32:47).

Day 5 (38:07)

• Enjoyed working on the roof, prepares for the women-trades barbecue and T-shirt exchange.
• Reflects on isolation as only woman (and as a queer person) both at work and in her broader community. Importance of mentorship/community for women in trades (38:07–42:49).
• No spending.

Day 6 (45:12)

• Busy with barbecue prep (up at 5am), spends $21.25 at Dollar Tree (bbq supplies, kid gifts).
• Gets $2,000 deck work payment, pays $72.25 for drinks and parking at a burlesque show.
• “These are some of my closest friends… I’m so happy about this day.” — Alden (46:14)

Day 7 (47:09)

• Recovers from a heat-induced migraine, attends friend’s kid’s birthday.
• Spends on household subscriptions, vitamins.
• Totals the week’s expense: $738.69.

8. Women in the Trades: Gender and Inclusion

• Alden is often the only woman on site; faces open sexism and skepticism about her abilities (34:27–36:29).
  • “I have been told to my face that I couldn't do certain jobs because I'm a woman… I feel constantly underestimated every single day.” — Alden (35:22–36:12)
  • “Men don't do that. Men don't have to show up to work and be like, I have to prove that all men are worthy of being here… It's so exhausting.” (36:28)
• Why it’s worth it: “The money makes it worth it. And doing something that fulfills me physically and intellectually… I feel like I’m becoming a really good carpenter.” — Alden (36:33–36:44)

9. Work, Community Division, and Solidarity

• Alden feels isolated in both her work and friend communities: “It can be really isolating… because we just experience really different things every day.”
• Navigating political divides: “It’s so bizarre to be stuck right in the middle of that, between my super far left, radical queer community and all of the right wing guys that I work with.” (43:19–44:45)
  • Builds bridges through class solidarity and shared union membership.

10. Relationship with Money: Transformation and Vision

• The experience of earning and saving has provided Alden with a sense of agency and healing.
  • “The only way to heal an insecure attachment is to build security with it.” — Alden (48:57)
  • Now, Alden wants “security and enough to feel like I can really experience the joy of my life without the anxiety about money.”
  • Future: Journeyman status ($60–100k), hopes for a small house, vacations, “my cute little life with my cute little wife.” (49:52–51:08)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “You do an apprenticeship and you learn by working, and you get paid to do it.” — Alden (06:17)
• “I just knew that high on my list of things I loved was making things with my hands.” — Alden (15:43)
• “I try to just keep my mouth shut because I don’t really want to be labeled as a troublemaker or like somebody who is an HR problem… I have learned to pick and choose my battles because I am often in the minority.” — Alden (31:39)
• “We're both union workers, we're both union carpenters. How can we use that to bring us together?” — Alden (44:48)
• “I don’t even make that much money… If I were like, whenever I become journeyed out, I'm expecting to make anywhere from like 60 to 100k… that's perfect. I can afford like a little duplex… have my cute little life with my cute little wife and just live.” — Alden (51:08)

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Start | End | Content | |--------------------------------------------|------------|------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------| | Trade work perception, Alden intro | 02:40 | 04:00 | Why the culture devalues trades, Alden’s career | | Union apprenticeship explained | 05:20 | 06:30 | How apprenticeship works, pay scales | | Alden’s finances and big money change | 07:43 | 09:29 | Income, budget, no debt | | Family money history, roots of anxiety | 10:01 | 12:55 | Stories of Alden’s dad/mom and childhood | | Fraught relationship with money in 20s | 13:26 | 14:16 | Punk/anarchist phase, low salaries | | Discovery of trades | 15:20 | 16:41 | Network, moment of realization | | Daily audio diaries: earning & spending | 18:44 | 47:09 | Each day’s log, including relationships with co-workers/friends | | Sexism and isolation on the job | 34:27 | 36:29 | Explicit sexism, pressure, why she stays | | Feeling between two worlds | 43:10 | 44:45 | Being between conservative coworkers and a queer community | | Healing money anxiety, hopes for future | 48:51 | 51:08 | How security and stable work changed her mindset, dreams |

Episode Takeaways

• Trade work can be financially and personally rewarding, but faces ongoing cultural devaluation and gender barriers.
• Financial security and a stable career transformed Alden’s lifelong anxiety about money into tangible goals and self-sufficiency.
• Being a woman (and queer person) in the trades brings unique challenges, isolation, and the need for support networks—which are under threat.
• Community, empathy, and solidarity can transcend cultural and political divides when built on shared labor and experience.
• Wise money management, self-advocacy, and personal reflection can overcome adversity and create new opportunities for stability and fulfillment.

For more stories like Alden's or to share your own week of spending, contact whatwespendpodcast@gmail.com.