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WELCOME TO HOW I Spend My Money, a series on TheJournal.ie that runs on Wednesdays and Sundays and looks at what people in Ireland really do with their cash.
We’ve asked readers to keep a record of how much they earn, how much they save, if anything, and what they spend their money on over the course of one week.
Each money diary is submitted by readers just like you. When reading and commenting, bear in mind that their situation will not be relatable for everyone, it is simply an account of a week in their shoes.
Last time, a public policy worker on €91,000 walked us through her week, which involved trying to save money for household items after recently purchasing a home in Dublin. Today, a new father living in Dublin with his partner talks about his spending over the course of a week.
Occupation: Manager in the construction sector
Age: 36
Location: Dublin
Salary: €38,000
Net pay: €2,500
Rent a room scheme: €1,000
Transport: €50 (I have a company van so I use my own car only at the weekends)
Mortgage: €800
Household bills: €150
Groceries: €0 (normally my partner pays for this)
Car loan: €242
Personal loan: €170
Joint savings account: €250
Phone: €30
Subscriptions: Spotify €10
6:20am: I wake up and have a quick shower and I’m out the door by 6.45am.
I’m not really a breakfast person but I pick up a coffee on my drive in to work for €3.35. I arrive at work at 7:15am and head to our first job site.
10:00am: I stop for breakfast and usually bring a packed lunch but today the temptation to buy something hot is hard to resist so I get a wrap and a coffee €7.50.
5:00pm: After work I pick up a TV stand that my partner bought online and it costs €50 which we take from our joint savings account.
The rest of the evening is spent having dinner and watching TV after bathing our baby.
Today’s total: €10.85
6:20am: The alarm goes off and I’m up and gone by 6:45am. I pick up a coffee on my way in (€3.35).
10:00am: For breakfast I have my usual Weetabix and banana. The last couple of weeks I’ve been quite good with not buying food while I’m out and about during the week.
1:00pm: For lunch, I eat a salad brought from home, courtesy of my partner (I’m next to useless in the kitchen). She would normally do most of the cooking while I do the washing up.
5:00pm: I finish up at work and I’m home for the evening. I normally take the baby in the evening time to give herself a break so we usually just spend time at home.
8.00pm: We relax for the evening before heading to bed.
Today’s total: €3.35
8:30am: I’m off today so I sleep in until 8:30am. My partner is meeting some friends in town so I’m looking after our baby for the day. I head straight out the door to finish off a few things I’ve been meaning to do for days and while I’m out I pick up a coffee and also some wire mesh for gardening. These come to €28.50.
1:00pm: I’m home then for most of the day with the little one except for when we visit my sister.
8:00pm: My partner arrives home and we relax before bedtime.
Today’s total: €28.50
6:20am: Alarm goes off and I leave for work by 6:45. I grab a coffee and a pint of milk for €4.45.
10:00am: One of the boys treats me to a chicken fillet wrap which I thoroughly enjoyed after I got him breakfast the week before.
1:00pm: For lunch I have a homemade salad courtesy of my partner. I’m definitely saving more now I that I try to bring lunch with me as much as possible, and I feel the better for it too.
5:00pm: I arrive home and spend time with my wife and daughter. I usually go to the gym after work but haven’t had time since our baby was born so at home I try and do 20 mins exercise.
Today’s total: €4.55
6:20am: Alarm goes off and I leave for work by 6:45 as usual. I grab a coffee and doughnut seeing as it’s Friday for €4.25.
10:00am: For breakfast I have my usual Weetabix and banana but that’s the only food I brought so for lunch I get a wrap and coffee for €7.75.
5:00pm: I arrive home for the evening and do a few chores before heading to bed early.
Today’s total: €12.00
8:00am: I wake up and take the baby downstairs to make us all breakfast.
10:0am: I help my sister move some furniture into her new house.
12:00am: We visit my other sister for tea and sandwiches and watch some rugby. The little one isn’t feeling the best so we head home soon after.
5:00pm: We have a nice chilled evening spent at home and watched some TV. We decide to order in for dinner and get sushi for €35.20.
Today’s total: €35.20
8:00am: I wake up and head over to my sister’s house to help her move some more furniture.
10:00am: I return home and myself, partner and baby decide to head out as the weather is nice. We walk about the shops and then stop for lunch in Nandos (our first time there and not particularly impressed). Lunch costs €32.40.
1:30pm: After lunch we pick up a doughnut each, they seem to be everywhere now and difficult to resist (€5.00). Before going home we pick up a TV that we bought a few weeks ago before for the living room.
5:00pm: We get home and have salmon for dinner and spend the evening with the three of us on the couch in front of the fire.
10:00pm: Get ready for bed and I’m eternally positive the little one’s sleeping habits will improve.
Today’s total: €37.40
What I learned:
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Current national debt is circa €190B. Is Noonan giving up on getting the ECB to finance the Bank debt and get it deducted from the €190B. This was one of FG’s election promises. The real national debt figure is probably close to €500B if we were to accrue all PRSI pension liabilities. Yesterday’s article in the Sunday Times is frightening on this.
Why would they include future liabilities? At that rate you could bring future expected revenue into the equation!
Because as from 2017, we have to account for unfunded liabilities to give a true picture of national debt. Just as companies have had to do for years. There’s no real difference between a bond you have to repay and a pension you’re committed to paying, except in accounting terms.
Well said. Couldn’t have put it better myself.
Where will the money to fund these early repayments come from ? I know it’s a stupid question but does anyone know the answer ?
Maurice the minister is doing lip service for the next election. Europe is in receivership and has told Noonan no to what you have noted. It would be nice but our politician didn’t talk hard they were the good boys in the class. So Europe expects them to keep paying.
They will be coming from 15 year loans/bond issues so the banks will be lending this money to repay them back early.
Wait ’til Ireland doesn’t get the retroactive bank recapitalization.
And when – not if – new international corporate tax rules take effect from 2016 (OECD), at least €50 billion, or half the annual value of services exports will be vapourized.
Plus, some multi-nationals have also said they will leave when that happens i.e. when they have to start paying a lot more corporation tax back home on top of high wages in Ireland.
Hold on to your tin hats.
Emily
Perhaps now the penny might drop when we consider the point John Bruton was making when discussing such liabilities recently.!
He was massively abused on this site when his opinion about defaulting by the State on pensions etc when the alternative was bankruptcy .
How quickly we shoot the messenger in Ireland rather than trying to deal with realities.
Still think that a debt deal will have to be done.
The EU live in a fantasy world where real economic reality is denied and put on long finger.
They blew their chance to resolve the Euro crisis.
That would apply to unfunded civil service pensions but not to PRSI pensions. That liability is subject to year by year legislation and, in theory, could be reduced or abolished by a new Finance Act. It won’t happen of course, but the possibilty means that it is not a reckonable long term debt.
What do you mean give up, they didn’t even ask for feck sake
ohhh I feel another seismic shift coming on….
Property tax
Water charges
USC
….any if these terms familiar to you????
No financial penalty for paying off loans early. Ha ha. We should be getting a discount for paying early.
Don’t get into finance. I can tell by this one comment that it’s not for you.
We should never have had them in the first place…ffs
Getting a bit annoyed with this sycophantic attitude the government has with Europe.
What, you feel no surge of patriotic pride when our minister begs the faceless financiers to kindly allow us to give us a big ball of cash?
* you a big ball of cash *
The Germans will never forgive us for the Hypo/DEPFA mess.
Peter.
What a brain and what a genius. Please tell us how yo can save the State a cool three hundred and seventy five million Euro a year as proposed by Minister Noonan so that we don’t have to politely ask our creditors for agreement to vary the terms of our Bailout.
You must be a whizz with figures and I envy the confidence with which you stride across these pages.
I showed your comments to a colleague and I could see straight away that he misunderstands you. In tact what he said about you couldn’t be printed here but all great men Peter suffer from such slingshots!
@Rodgers as per usual your wisdom knows no bounds you and your comments are wasted on the journal.
Its time you took up your true vocation and that in my humble oppinion is that of chief Fine Gael ass wipe.
Paul
Thanks! Your opinion in your own words is indeed humble and it is quite clear that you never aspired beyond that though instinct probably told you that there was enough material in you to heft a Sinn Fein shovel but you would need to be told what to do after that.
The world needs simple folk Paul and at least you have recognised that!
Well said Paul Mc. When Rodgers is in the company of Edna its like a scene from the film The Human Centipede.
hows life as the chief arse kisser and male cheer leader to enda and his brigade richard cos clearly you are one of them patriots big nose hogan was on about
So Richard hows that seismic shift of Enda the statesman performing these days?
Kerry
Whaaaaaaaaat?
When the cost of Noonan’s very generous minster’s pension to which he does not contribute a cent is added to the debt it could be the last straw that breaks the taxpayer’s back.
Wow, we are so lucky.
Looking at the returns, it is all rosy for Noonan – revenue’s new mantra is to suck every last penny of savings and profit out of small business and their employees and to present it as a gift to some unelected ex-politicians and expect a pat on his obnoxious head.
“Look what I brought you – someone else’s debt, maybe I’ve ruined a few small businesses and taxed earnings and savings from Irish people to the hilt, but as long as we’re all happy let’s make this look like good news to the ‘media’ – you’ll print it like that, you property funded news website”…
At the end of the 1st 1/4 2008 this country was heading towards a deficit of 22bn euros. In d last 5 yrs we have undertaken a huge social experimenr in how to balance d books without strikes/riots etc and we have nearly made it. There is huge credit due to fg and lab and enormous credit due to d dept of finance and public expenditure.
Why should lab and fg get any credit. Ff told them what to do before they got booted out.
How is it any credit to them, it’s a credit to the irish people not the politicians. The politicians didn’t stop riots they hid away in Leinster house and quietly stripped us of our pride and dignity and left most of us demoralised and close to bankruptcy. Suicides are through the roof, let’s see these magnificent politicians of yours deal with that elephant in the roof. Crime.? It’s bandit country in ireland again, those shower deserve no credit for anything.
The simple fact if the matter is that this country of 4.5million people withdrew over 16bn from circulation over the past 5 years. Politicans put their names forward as spokespeople for that. You didnt. You come on forums and talk abt how bad it is. Pokiticans arent stupid or even greedy anymore. They all know the suicide numbers, the high taxes, the unemployment but they still put their names forward. You didnt. it is easier spew vitriol from d sidelines
More bad news for the Shinners. Tax take up. Ahead of forecast.
Where are the Shinners anyway?
I suppose it’s hard for them to spin positives into negatives. Especially when there’s an election coming up. Just doesn’t appeal to voters.
But it’s all they have.
so anyone that has a different opinion to them muppets in power are shinners………explains the mental state of the cheerleaders for the likes of the FG/LB/FF crowd on hear…..deluded one trick ponies who believe anything that comes out of the lot in the dail
Election spew has started
” Noonan ” and ” charm ” in the same sentence !! . It is just so wrong, Jack Horgan-Jones. Just so, so wrong.
Will Mr Noonan be dancing suggestively for Mario Draghi et al as well?
Charm?? God help Europe…
Jam?………………………………..
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NEVER!
Why was my two comments deleted?
Just in time for the general election!
have your say