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WELCOME TO HOW I Spend My Money, a series on The Journal that looks at how people in Ireland really handle their finances. We’re asking readers to keep a record of how much they earn, what they save if anything, and what they’re spending their money on over the course of one week.
Are you a spender, a saver or a splurger? We’re looking for readers who will keep a money diary for a week. If you’re interested send a mail to money@thejournal.ie. We would love to hear from you.
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, so let’s be kind.
Last time around, we heard from a medical student on €20K living in Munster. This week, an accountant living in Leinster earning €45K.
I’m currently living in our new house with my soon-to-be husband. We will be married on our fifth anniversary this year! We saved and looked from 2022 and finally got somewhere just in time for Christmas 2023. A three-bed, three-bath house is barely more expensive to run than the one-bed new build apartment we trialled for a year. Housing is a joke here. We decided three months later to finally get married (for love and also tax purposes with the new house).
Being an accountant and leaving home at 17, doing part-time work with full-time college in rentals, I learned to survive on little and still put away to get here. I’m currently saving around €1,000 a month due to a raise and having no pension yet with my new job.
Realistically, I’m dipping in every now and again so probably actually saving between €700-€900 depending on the month. I’m hoping to buy my first car this year and finish my two exams, which are €250 a go with €800-€1,500 a course each – so it disappears as quickly as it comes in!
Occupation: Finalist financial accountant
Age: 25
Location: Leinster
Salary: €45,000
Monthly pay (net): €3,100 – no pension, no health and get paid WFH allowance for higher net
Household pay: €700 – we have a student lodger (he works full-time and studies part-time, hence the higher rate) and it comes under the €14,000 Rent a Room cut-off, so tax free to help pay for the wedding costs. It goes wholly into joint savings. We might do it again next year to get rid of the loan quicker, we’ll see.
Transport: I WFH four days a week and I have a young adult Leap card (which expires next month), so €18.28 a month now but will go back to €25.56 (I am truly blessed).
Rent and household bills: I put €2,100 a month into our joint account to cover my half of the mortgage, bills, loan etc. I earn slightly more but put down less for the house and I also don’t drive, so he keeps more than me a month to cover driving and his contribution.
We budget the rest after expenses on our sheet. We divide it so we have random spending money each week/month for household bits as we’re still buying décor and gardening stuff. Anything leftover on the 24th of each month is put into the wedding fund for now and will be used to clear the loan after that.
Then a mortgage overpayment fund as 4.1% on that saving is better than 0.25% interest being earned. Our mortgage is 25 years as we could happily afford a higher fixed rate, and hopefully, even less time when we get to overpayments.
Phone bill: €10.99 with 48
Health insurance: I have it through his work as of January as I’m in a waiting period; €60 a month.
Subscriptions: I’m still on my family’s Netflix and Spotify plans so I pay nothing. He pays for Prime for his family and we can use their Sky login on the PlayStation, and Paramount comes with it.
Future pension/car loan: Putting it in as I might be buying a car when the student renting with us leaves for the summer. It will take up the pay rise I’m due after passing my probation period. €300 a month to one of those so will affect my savings. Might do both if I need to get matched contributions as well.
***
6.00 am: Early start as it’s an office day. Up, changed, let the dog out to pee, have a yoghurt before going out the door.
6.25 am: Use my Leap card for the bus (€1.82) and sleep for another 30-40 mins. Sometimes – if I go to bed early the night before – I will use this time to read notes or watch lectures.
7.30 am: Arrive at Connolly. Buy an office day treat of hot chocolate from Insomnia. €4.95 for a medium is ridiculous, but I have the loyalty, so I get a few cents back and a punch on my card. Spend €0.75 on the Dart (one stop) and free shuttle bus to office.
8.15 am: Reach the office. Usually, there are free porridge pots but it’s only the strawberry ones today. Yuck. No thanks. I get a coffee and go to my desk to work.
1.00 pm: Lunch is free in the office. We got Boojum today and I buy a bottle of Coke as my other one-day-a-week office treat. (€2.65 not including Deposit Return as will get back).
2.00 pm: Back to work.
4.15 pm: Leave the office and walk to the station about 10 mins away. I like to get a stretch in the evening. €2 for the Dart to Connolly and then get the train home. Watch lectures on my phone to kill some time on the way. My partner works from home the day I’m in the office, and collects me from the train as it’s 45 mins + a 5-minute trip from the house vs 1.5+ hours on the bus usually due to traffic.
6.00 pm: Dinner is leftovers (chicken and rice) so no spend. We bring the dog for a walk afterwards and do more wedding planning. Only a few months left!
10.30 pm: Bedtime.
Today’s total: €7.22
8.45 am: Slept in today as I’m recovering from a very bad flu. Himself makes breakfast so I eat while my laptop turns on at the table. Before I forget, himself walks the dog every morning before work, about 30 minutes. He’s a three-year-old Jack Russell mix that we rescued and he’s an absolute headcase, so he needs the walk.
11.00 am: Get a snack from the kitchen and let the dog out, won’t pee.
12.00 pm: Get a coffee, let the dog out but he still won’t pee. I give him his Lickimat – they encourage slow feeding and reduce anxiety. Bits of frozen porridge oats with water and peanut butter today. He’s learned he can bite off chunks rather than lick it so he’s back annoying me in ten minutes. I watch some YouTube on the TV and check the weekly planner we both update. I somehow forgot we were going to Pitbull tomorrow. I CAN’T WAIT! Let the dog out again and he finally pees.
4.30 pm: I haven’t done much other than work for the rest of the afternoon. Finish up and go down to preheat the oven. Try to get dinner done before the peak electric rates between 5-7pm kick in. It’s a ‘random day’ as we call it where I don’t batch cook, and we eat the one meal for the one day. Just some fish and veg! I call my dad while I wait for himself to come home. He lives abroad so I call him every other day, and we usually chat for an hour. Mostly about politics.
6.00 pm: Feed the dog by throwing food up and down the hall to the kitchen so he gets more energy out. We feed him this way most days or throw it in a cardboard box with a towel, so he has to dig it out. Once he’s fed, I discover there are no sweets (didn’t buy any in the weekly shop) and I’m a bit bored, so I head to Tesco/Aldi for a wander and end up spending €13.50.
7.15 pm: Back home. Play with the dog and watch some Prime for a while.
9.00 pm: Head up for a bit of studying before going to sleep.
10.00 pm: I ended up falling asleep at the desk, flu still beating me up. Head to bed.
Today’s total: €13.50 from the joint account
8.15 am: Up to see himself and the dog. Stick the immersion on and have a shower.
9.00 am: At my laptop with breakfast also made – again – by himself (this is not usual, it’s just while I’m sick). I’m starting to feel run down after I was feeling better over the weekend, so I’m trying to get as much sleep as possible to fight it off, but also, we have Pitbull tonight!
1.00 pm: Finish on a half day today. Prep some spaghetti bol for later/tomorrow and do some more studying. I watch some TV and play with the dog when I’ve had enough of studying.
5.00 pm: He’s finished work. We eat quickly and head to the in-laws. We drop the car off at theirs and my MIL brings us and his sister to Red Cow to get the Luas in. We wouldn’t leave the car parked there. €2 fare and we arrive 7.30 pm. We get a bottle of Coke each (€7 for two).
8.00 pm: MIL pops to ours to check on the dog and feeds him. She sends us some pictures. (He’s the favourite grandchild for now)
12.00 am: We had the TIME OF OUR LIVES. €2 fare again and MIL picks us up from Red Cow and brings us to their house. We chat for a bit as I don’t see them as often as himself and catch up on wedding plans before he drives us home.
12.30 am: Play with the dog a bit as he was alone for a few hours then off to bed.
Today’s total: €11.00 (€4 from me, €7 from the joint)
9.00 am: I take today off for some more study time and to do some bits around the house. I make a bit of porridge for us both. He usually works at home until 10 am and then goes to office to avoid traffic. I stay chilling, watch a few episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale.
1.00 pm: Let the dog out. I put the immersion on for a shower and do a few chores. Put clothes away and clean out the main bathroom, silicone around the edges to avoid water damage. We bought second-hand and there was a load of lovely “it’ll do for now” jobs from the previous owners that we’re still finding. Wedding first though!
3.00 pm: I watch some lectures online while he finishes work. Dad calls to ask how the concert was while he’s out – only a 15 min call this time.
6.00 pm: We were going to have the leftovers, but we’re both feeling wrecked from last night, so to perk up, we decide to change up our takeaway to tonight and have the spag bol leftovers tomorrow instead.
6.15 pm: €24.30 to try the local Chinese for the first time as it’s not usual on our rotating list. We normally spend between €20-30 and usually don’t end up eating it all so that we have leftovers for the next day. We’re also planning on going to Aldi/Lidl once a month to get a cheap meal deal oven pizza and side to cut the takeaway budget a bit more. We want this home loan paid off ASAP after the wedding. We had to get new doors and windows immediately after buying as they were not maintained at all. At least the house retains heat now after €15,000 extra pain of cash out, but the BER will be good after our fixed rate is up for Eco rates.
6.30 pm: We sit and chat while eating.
7.00 pm: Spend the rest of the evening playing with the dog and sit down to watch a couple of things on TV before bed.
Today’s total: €24.30 from joint
8.50 am: Late start again. Not feeling great again. Have two yoghurts for breakfast, but I feel wrecked. I was in hospital last week for this flu and chest infection and it’s not letting up. Our three-hour straight disco of Pitbull probably didn’t help the rest I should have been getting either. Himself works from home on Fridays as his other WFH day.
10.00 am: Felt the need for a coffee so I got one. The weather’s awful so no walk for the dog today, meaning he’s hyper. Bit of work to catch up on and I have to prep for our payment run next week, so head down.
3.30 pm: Spend all day at this after losing a day and a half this week. I maybe got up once or twice to go to the bathroom.
4.30 pm: Finish early as I didn’t have lunch. Dad calls for an hour, politics hour (yay), and then we sit down for leftover spag bol for dinner. I check the joint account to see what we should have tomorrow to move to savings as the loan payment came out this morning. I won’t count it towards the weekly spend as it’s a monthly bill.
6.30 pm: We chill out for the evening and plan the weekend. He’s going out with his lads for suit shopping tomorrow while I prep my free uninterrupted day at home. We watch some more Handmaid’s Tale. It’s honestly an insane show. I head upstairs for a bit.
10.00 pm: Bedtime.
Today’s total: €0.00
8.00 am: Up early (like every Saturday). Let the dog out to pee and head straight to Dunnes afterwards for the weekly shop. The queue for the car park is already huge by 8.30 am. We sit in queue for 20 minutes waiting to go in, planning the meals for the week ahead as we wait. I usually cook, so I grab what we need and he adds it up on his phone as we go. Keeps us to our Dunnes vouchers spend. The €75 shop was €60.02 this week. That’s what we usually spend since we started paying attention vs the €100+ to €80+ before Christmas. Extra money regardless! We also nip to the local florist. We got a quote for flowers for the wedding, but she hasn’t replied to my emails, so we pop in and pay the deposit. (€100)
10.30 am: Home and time to make some breakfast. I remove everything left in our joint account as we shouldn’t need to spend anything until I get paid on Tuesday, so €310.03 goes into the wedding fund. We were good this month! Usually, it’s about €100-ish but we added a few more bits to the wedding so the budget has gone up to total approx. €15,000. Half of it is already paid, and we have most of the rest in savings/projected savings, so no more loans.
11.00 am: Himself heads for town. I sit and watch another episode of The Handmaid’s Tale before I start cleaning. Decide to bag up a donation bag of clothes and donation bag of duvets, curtains and towels for the local dog shelter. I call and arrange about my dress fitting as I missed the email saying it arrived. I end up scrolling on Pinterest for a bit too for more ideas.
1.00 pm: I continue cleaning the house a bit – taps, sink, bedding changed, fish tanks cleaned. Play with the dog for a while and then do some more lectures online.
4.00 pm: Take a break and make some dinner, as he’ll be eating out today for dinner, and then head up to play something on my PC.
6.00 pm: Himself is home, showing me pictures of the suits from him and the lads. Yikes. Why do men not double check things? Photos came out badly, so colours were not accurate for me to give approval for. We decide we will have a look at local places tomorrow so I can see what is more accurate in person.
7.00 pm: We decide to bring the dog for a walk as he didn’t get one this morning.
8.00 pm: Sit down for more shows. We were starting running together three times a week before I got really sick last week, so I’m waiting for it to be over to go back. Three weeks of training out the window!
10.00 pm: Bedtime.
Today’s total: €160.02 from joint
8.00 am: Sunday reset. We have free electric from 9-5 on a Sunday so we do all our cleaning then. Let dog out to pee and then breakfast.
9.00 am: Immersion on, vacuum on, laundry on, dishwasher on, steamer on. We do this every week. We’ll do the odd extra laundry during the week, but mostly it’s three or four loads on Sunday. Very busy but nice, deep clean to start the next week.
12.00 pm: I sit down to do a bit of study, but ultimately get distracted by games.
2.30 pm: Arrive at Blanchardstown Shopping Centre and go see the sister-in-law at work and see if she has any discounts for us. See the queue for the New Look sale INSANE! SIL’s friend has been in there for three hours waiting to PAY. Mad what the hype will do to someone.
3.30 pm: We have a look in the suit shops and agree on colours. Now to find a place that does grey… Why is grey so difficult apparently? Go into Penneys and I get two tops and two pairs of jeans. I’ve lost some weight so some are a bit too loose on me (€47). Realise we skipped lunch and we’re going to get something, but decide to head home in the end.
6.00 pm: Home and I start dinner. Duck and veg today for something different. We try varying so we don’t have something for multiple meals in a row beyond leftovers.
7.00 pm: I decide to head for a shower, but our lodger is home. He was off for the week and has arrived back, so I have to find out the goss. Catch up with him for a bit. Dad then calls so delayed again.
8.15 pm: Finally showered and in the PJs. I go play games while himself plays his own on the PS5 downstairs. We try to also have time apart sometimes after spending all day together.
10.30 pm: Late bedtime for a Monday office day tomorrow, but I’ll sleep on the bus.
Today’s total: €47.00
***
What I learned –
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I think it’s too soon to get worried about the Icelandic volcano, we should at least wait until the dust settles……..
I see what you did there ;)
I sold my hoover – it was just gathering dust….
Care to share with us whose joke that is?
I preferred the fish one.
What did the fish say when it swam into a wall
DAM!!!
Dunno Red – heard it in the pub, last night.
that joke won top joke at the Edinburgh comedy festival this year.
“I’ve decided to sell my Hoover… well, it was just collecting dust” – Tim Vine.
“I’ve written a joke about a fat badger, but I couldn’t fit it into my set” – Masai Graham.
“Always leave them wanting more, my uncle used to say to me. Which is why he lost his job in disaster relief” – Mark Watson.
“I was given some Sudoku toilet paper. It didn’t work. You could only fill it in with number ones and number twos” – Bec Hill.
“I wanted to do a show about feminism. But my husband wouldn’t let me” – Ria Lina.
“Money can’t buy you happiness? Well, check this out, I bought myself a Happy Meal” – Paul F Taylor.
“Scotland had oil, but it’s running out thanks to all that deep frying” – Scott Capurro.
“I’ve been married for 10 years, I haven’t made a decision for seven” – Jason Cook.
“This show is about perception and perspective. But it depends how you look at it” – Felicity Ward.
She gonna blow Jim,
Bárdarbunga (Bar-dar-bunga) volcanic system is the largest in Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull and Grimsvotn could easily fit a corner of it. It’s main crater is 10km wide and entire volcanic system is 200 km long and 10 km wide. It erupted more lava than any other volcano on Earth in the last 10,000 years.
It’s largest historical eruption was in 1477, it was VEI-6 level of intensity i.e. it erupted > 10 km3 of ash and ash column was > 30 km high. It was like Pinatubo (1991).
The ground is now swelling as the magma tries to reach the surface. Geologists installed several GPS monitoring stations across Iceland and they are detecting the swelling / movement caused by the ascending plum of magma. Two GPS stations, 25 – 50 km away from where the earthquakes are happening have so far moved 7 to 8 cm in the last 4 days. This station shows the trend suddenly changed last night, it might have started erupting within the last ~24 hours.
http://strokkur.raunvis.hi.is/~sigrun/DYNC_3mrap.png
One geologist so far thinks there has already been a small eruption (I agree), that lava has already reached the surface (the eruption is hidden beneath 0.5 km of ice of Vatnajokull Glacier). This eruption would be meting the ice under the glacier, potentially creating Glacial lake outburst flood called a Jökulhlaup, which can exceed the flow of the Amazon river. If the eruption reaches the surface, it will look like this but possibly allot bigger.
http://glacierchange.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/grimsvotn-mjr_07.jpg
The Laki eruption of 1783-84 in Iceland is estimated to have killed 23,000 people in England due to poisonous sulphur dioxide pollution and a further 8000 died died to the extremely cold winter weather caused by ash and sulphur dioxide haze obscuring the sun.
Is a major eruption imminent? I
oyal…there ain’t no being on the planet m8 (or on the ISS) wot knows the answer to your most stupid and extremely daft question
are you a 5 year old, m8?
So..:to summise…Iceland is fkd.
Just been for a major eruption myself there… There’s a large cloud rising from the crater, so I opened the bathroom window for a while
I nominate the volcano for the ice water challenge !!
Don’t forget to take out your volcano insurance if You are traveling.
Is it compulsory? will I get penalised for not taking it out when I was younger?
See this is what would have happened if we defaulted
GEOLOGISTS DON’T USE THE RICHTER SCALE!!!!!
WE HAVEN’T USED THEM IN FORTY YEARS!!
We’ve been using the moment magnitude scale since the 1970s.
Well I for one am esoterically outraged!
Fecking Iceland with its fecking volcanos .
every house needs a chimney Catherine …
Im going away the weekend and i dont care if im stuck there a few extra days or weeks once I get there……Viva Las Vegas …Viva Las Vegas….Viva,Viva Las Vegaaassss……;)
Anything more than 3 days in Vegas is a waste.
No more chemtrails for a few weeks.
Chemtrails …… that is absolutely ridicules considering they stopped spraying a few years ago.
They were spraying the other day Glen -
No seriously, the chemtrail switch is right next to the landing lights switch.
Dermot
They still do but nowhere near the scale they were spraying a few years ago …. I know this cause I’m always watching the watchers watching me watching them.
Hello again Glen ;-)
I thought you chaps were into chembursts from clouds now that your insane chemtrail conspiracy has been totally debunked?
@Glen, so they stopped a few yrs ago but still do it!!!!! which is it to be as im confused
Re Paul
I’m not too sure it’s a conspiracy when you have people like the ex Governor of Colombia in Canada stating he knew they were taking place.
have you checked out chunkymark on youtube Glen – he’s a gas man altogether ..well worth it ..no one’s fooling him and his rants are pure quality !
There are farmers in the marts talking about chemtrails…last summer was a great year for watching them …. big xs in the sky and the whole lot …
Lance
Around 2010 they stopped spraying on a massive scale almost daily.
In 2014 you see the odd chemtrails here and there but nothing like it was a few years ago …… Hope that clears it up.
Paul
You only sound silly denying chemtrails when there is thousands of vids of them and billions of witnesses.
I don’t know what a chemtrail (or a tracker mortgage) is!
I don’t know what a glen is
Must go to that country before im 50
…if that country doesn’t come to you first!
Gorgeous people, food and the landscape is alien. Though the hot water smells like farts.
So will ours when the frackin shale-lackin kicks off….. prob cost more too
Imagine if it got really bad and we would have to start taking the ferry again to Britain and France for a awhile instead of flying. ….. Methinks we are living in fairly easy times here in most of Europe
Well for all you home birds this is terrible news for me. I travel a lot and the thoughts of getting stuck like folks were the last time this happened is something I dread.
Guess which way the wind is blowing for the next week? From the North! Get the washin in !
My cat looks after all that. Some day soon – as a reward – I’ll feed him.
Etna to the South of us
Iceland to the North of us ,, and earthquakes from fracking in England …..
here I am stuck in the middle with you.
Good one sir …. Good one lol
well done simon that was the song in my head at the time , now it’s in your head ….ha,ha,ha…. funny how music works isn’t it !
Now now Dermot , stop that , no one believes a word of it .
They should take that bleedin volcano of them
Is this the same one which erupted a few years ago? I saw a science program a while ago saying it’s possible that Iceland could easily come apart as their is a plate that runs straight down the middle.
A crack in the Ice(land) so to speak?
That was shameful…. I’ll give you a green thumb though just because I feel sorry for you …!
A pit(h)y thumb so to speak?
Those Icelanders, up to no good as usual.
Personally I blame Isreal for all this UN should investigate.
This must be good news for the economy – can it be that geological change and the dynamics of plate technology will do what our useless politicians have failed to do – as in impede air transport and so stop all those euro fraudsters coming over here every month to pick up their dole and children’s allowance payments when they are not even living here…..Mother earth works in mysterious ways indeed.
have your say