{"id":834663,"date":"2026-11-14T19:16:15","date_gmt":"2026-11-14T19:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/834663\/"},"modified":"2026-11-14T19:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-11-14T19:16:15","slug":"river-medway-i-was-earning-6-an-hour-before-making-100000-after-drag-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/834663\/","title":{"rendered":"River Medway: I was earning \u00a36 an hour before making \u00a3100,000 after Drag Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

In our How I Manage My Money series<\/a>, we aim to find out how people are spending, saving and investing to meet their costs and achieve their goals.<\/p>\n

This week, drag queen and RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race UK<\/a> star River Medway, 28, tells us about growing up in a single-income household, spending thousands preparing for the show, and buying a house in London at 25.<\/p>\n

What was money like in your household growing up?<\/p>\n

I was very aware of money<\/a> growing up. My mum was a stay-at-home mum, and my dad was the only one earning. He has always just done warehouse work, so he\u2019s never had a particularly well-paid job.<\/p>\n

My parents never made it<\/a> my problem, but I always knew there were certain things I wouldn\u2019t have that other kids had. <\/p>\n

Whenever I\u2019d have a birthday or Christmas, if I had money, I would save it. I had this little red safe that I got given when I opened a bank account with HSBC, and I\u2019d put all my savings<\/a> in that.<\/p>\n

When my dad got made redundant, I was on free school meals. My parents always found a way, whether that was finding coupons or discount things. We didn\u2019t go on holiday a lot, and I just accepted that.<\/p>\n

When did you first start earning your own money?<\/p>\n

When I was 16, I got my first job. I was at college, and there was going to be a trip to New York<\/a>. It was about \u00a31,500, and my dad said we couldn\u2019t afford to pay for me to go.<\/p>\n

I got a job at a Chinese takeaway near where I lived and think I was getting paid \u00a36 an hour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They paid me in cash, and I\u2019d get to eat on the job. I worked there three times a week, saved everything, and by the time the trip came around, I paid for most of it myself.<\/p>\n

I also worked there at weekends while studying musical theatre in London. I had a government-funded place at drama school, but the living allowance wasn\u2019t enough, so I\u2019d travel home every Friday to work and return on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Everyone at college had such fancy costumes but I only had the one \u2013 I would be washing my leotard in the sink every night and turning up with damp tights the next day because they didn\u2019t have enough time to dry.<\/p>\n

How did you afford to pursue drag?<\/p>\n

I started styling wigs when I was about 15, before I\u2019d even started doing drag. I eventually started doing wigs for drag queens as well.<\/p>\n

I got a job at Disneyland Paris after graduating, where I danced in a parade. I saved enough to pay off my student overdraft. Then I came home and got a Christmas job at Argos.<\/p>\n

I started getting drag gigs around 2021. Some of them were paying \u00a350 for a gig, which is absolutely insane. I\u2019d work at a club in Canterbury, so I\u2019d have to get the train, which was about \u00a320. <\/p>\n

I was buying all the wigs, the costumes, everything. I was basically in the minus after that. But I just wanted to do drag, and was like, if I get paid at all for it, that\u2019s amazing.<\/p>\n

How much were you paid to appear on Ru Paul\u2019s Drag Race UK?<\/p>\n

I went on Drag Race shortly after my mum passed away from Covid in December 2020.<\/p>\n

We were getting paid about \u00a3250 an episode. It was two days per episode. I ended up being in eight episodes, so I got \u00a32,000. It was tuppence.<\/p>\n

You also have to prepare all these costumes yourself, and they didn\u2019t give you any money towards that. Some costumes were \u00a31,000 upwards.<\/p>\n

\"\"River has been styling wigs for cash for years before taking part in Drag Race UK (Photo: Tom Buck)<\/p>\n

I was dealing with my mum\u2019s funeral while preparing for the show. My friends and I made most of my outfits, and I managed to get two custom-made by designers. One was about \u00a3500 and the other was about \u00a31,000. The rest of it \u2013 I was buying fabrics on eBay.<\/p>\n

I remember getting to the show and seeing people who had spent maybe over \u00a320,000 preparing.<\/p>\n

How did your finances change after the show?<\/p>\n

I was earning over \u00a3100,000 in that first year after Drag Race. I was 23 years old, which is insane. Obviously, I had to pay a lot of tax on that \u2013 about \u00a330,000 or something.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always been super aware of being self-employed, tax and VAT. I got an accountant, declared every single penny that I owed, and did everything the right way.<\/p>\n

Are you a saver or a spender?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a saver. I was very lucky because I lived with my dad rent-free during and after the show. He wanted me to have a good start, so I could save everything.<\/p>\n

Now, my partner and I divide our bills straight down the middle.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m very good at adjusting. I might be on really good money now, but the second I\u2019m not, I can instantly switch back to \u2018what\u2019s the cheapest way I can do everything?\u2019<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the best investment you\u2019ve ever made?<\/p>\n

Buying my house. My partner and I bought a house in south London when I was 25.<\/p>\n

The first big chunk of savings I had went towards the house. Over the last two years, I\u2019ve been rebuilding my savings.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your biggest weakness when it comes to spending?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a bit of a toy collector. I love Lego. When I was younger, I\u2019d maybe get one set at Christmas, and that was kind of it. My friends would have the really big Star Wars ones, and I never got those.<\/p>\n

As I started to make money, I started buying them. I can buy a \u00a3200 Lego set, and it brings me so much joy.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also got Barbies and Bratz dolls on display. When I was younger, I just wouldn\u2019t have been able to get that straight away. Now it\u2019s like, wow, I actually can buy whatever I want.<\/p>\n

I also love buying things for my friends and family. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s the best piece of money advice you\u2019ve ever been given?<\/p>\n

What my dad taught me when I was younger. When you want to buy something, you have to ask yourself these questions every single time: will I want this tomorrow, or do I just want the rush of buying it? Am I going to continue to use this after I\u2019ve bought it, or is it going to be something that I regret?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In our How I Manage My Money series, we aim to find out how people are spending, saving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[80772,96,8719,54062,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-834663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-drag-race-uk","tag-entertainment","tag-how-i-manage-my-money","tag-rupauls-drag-race","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}