Home truths: Hannah Fry, who is renovating her home, says the bills that people face now would have ruined her when she was younger
Maths professor and TV broadcaster Hannah Fry has always admired the frugality of her mum – who uses a single tea bag for three cups of tea.
However, Hannah, 39, who has two young daughters and recently overcame cervical cancer, tells Donna Ferguson she does not always live up to her mum’s standards.
She recently bought fabric that cost £300 to upholster a single cushion. However, she sees the cushions as a trophy of her achievements.
Hannah co-presents the podcast The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry and presents BBC Two show The Secret Genius Of Modern Life.
The Future With Hannah Fry, where Hannah examines the science, technology and people on the cusp of the most transformative breakthroughs of our age, is available to watch on Bloomberg.com and the Bloomberg app.
What did your parents teach you about money?
They taught me the value of money. Money was insanely tight when I was growing up. I know everyone thinks that I’m posh or went to a posh private school, but I didn’t. I come from a very working class family. My dad worked in a factory that made hydraulic lifts for trucks and my mum was a stay-at-home mother. She was 100 per cent in charge of the money. I think my dad probably got given an allowance by her, from his own wage packet.
She handled the household budget and she takes being frugal to a superpower level. It’s a hobby of hers to go around different shops and work out which item is three pence cheaper than others. She will use a single tea bag for three cups of tea. It is absolutely extraordinary.
Did you ever go short of food?
No, we were never at the point where we couldn’t afford to eat. But, certainly, having new clothes or toys just wasn’t ever really an option.
Are you frugal yourself?
My mother would say that I’m not. When I first started earning money, I could be very flippant with it in an attempt to rebel. I remember earning £3.33 an hour at my first job, which was in a newsagent on a Saturday, and then going to the clothes shop New Look and blowing the entire lot.
I was definitely like that when I was younger. As I’ve got older, I’ve come to recognise that my mother definitely has a point.
Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?
All through my time at university, I worked as a cleaner and in restaurants and bars. I didn’t finish my PhD until I was 28, and while I was doing it I was on £14,000 a year. I had the basics, but not enough for luxuries.
I wouldn’t say it was a struggle because I don’t have fancy tastes. I’m very happy eating a can of chopped tomatoes, a couple of cloves of garlic and some spaghetti. I can live off that.
So I didn’t get into money trouble – although I would say that I know how to sail very close to the wind without actually capsizing. I’m really lucky I’m not in that position any more. The energy bills people are facing today would have been so ruinous for me, because I didn’t have a backstop like other people around me at university. They could call their parents if they got into financial trouble. My parents didn’t have that money to give.
It wasn’t until I was in my 30s that I got my first proper job as a university lecturer and started earning £30,000 a year, which was great.
What was the best year of your financial life?
Last year. I did a lot of filming. I had two TV series – my Bloomberg show, The Future With Hannah Fry, and a BBC Two series called The Secret Genius Of Modern Life. I also did my podcast, The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry, and a number of other projects.
I’d rather not say how much I earned, but it felt as though things fell into place. For a long time, I’ve been a maths professor who made documentaries. Last year, it felt like I was a documentary maker – who was also a maths professor.
What are you splashing out on at the moment?
For the last two years, I’ve been doing up my four-bedroom house, which is an old Victorian bakery, dating back to 1875, in Greenwich, South East London. When I bought it five years ago, it was an absolute ruin.
Recently I really wanted this cushion fabric. I treated myself to two metres and insanely, it cost about £300 a cushion, which is disgusting. That’s like Boris Johnson wallpaper levels of spending.
But the thing is, now those cushions are in my living room and every time I see them, I think they are a trophy to what I have achieved. I won’t let anyone else touch them.
What is the most expensive thing you have bought for fun?
A print that I have framed and hung in my office. I bought it in 2021 for about £700 when I got the all clear from cancer.
I had been diagnosed with cervical cancer when I was 36. And I was lucky. I vanquished it.
The print reminds me of that. It has this kind of feminine energy, with pink smoke, and what looks like nuclear attacks in the sky.
Host: Hannah in the BBC Two show The Secret Genius Of Modern Life
What is your biggest money mistake?
Not starting a pension when I was younger. At the time, it felt like such a significant sum of money to put aside every month and I was living on buttons.
But I think people underestimate the impact of compound interest. I hadn’t taken into account how putting aside even a small amount of money can grow. It’s going to take so much money for me to catch up, now that I’m 39.
When did you start saving into a pension?
Any day now, I’m going to start. In the meantime, I’ve spent it all on cushions and fabric prints.
No, I’m joking… I do have a really little university pension. And saving into a private pension is a big priority for me in the future.
The best money decision you have made?
Buying a home in West London with my husband in 2011. When we sold it in 2016, it had nearly doubled in value.
Do you invest directly in the stock market?
Yes. I have some shares in ethically-decent companies, wrapped in Isas, for me and my children. I think it would be ironic if I chose to actively disinvest in my children’s future, by funding companies that are destroying the world.
What is the one little luxury you treat yourself to?
I get Freddie’s Flowers delivered every week. It is a bit extravagant to spend about £100 a month on fresh flowers and my mum naturally detests the very idea of it.
But, I think it does make a real difference to your home.
If you were Chancellor what is the first thing you would do?
I would think very seriously about introducing a universal basic income, because I think that’s a policy that unites both Left and Right wing. I think there are a lot of really good arguments in favour of it.
I also think we shouldn’t live in a world where people in modern Britain are unable to feed themselves or heat their homes. I think that’s morally bankrupt of us.
Do you donate money to charity?
Yes. I donate to the homelessness charity Shelter and I support my local food banks. I don’t understand how we can consider ourselves a civilised nation when we allow people to sleep rough on the streets. It doesn’t make any sense to me.
What is your number one financial priority?
To get through the renovations of my house and then focus on saving, starting with a private pension. So it’s filling the coffers.
