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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’re asking 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. Want to take part? Details on how to do it are at the bottom of the piece.
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.
At the weekend, an engineer in Kildare on €70,000 wrote about everything from kids’ costs to his desire to leave the country. This time out, a marketing manager in Dublin talks about his daily spending and plans to move home next year.
Occupation: Marketing manager
Age: 28
Location: Dublin
Salary: €40,000
Monthly pay (net): €2,514 (after €98 going towards ‘bike to work’ scheme)
Monthly expenses
Rent: €850
Household bills: Included in rent (jammy!)
Transport: €200
Phone bill: €60
Health insurance: Paid by my employers
Groceries: €80
Gym membership: €30
Subscriptions: €28 (current affairs magazine, Netflix)
Donations: Concern (€10)
Savings: €1,000
My girlfriend and I have recently decided to save for our first home. We rent together in Dublin and pay €1,700 between us, but we’re moving back to my mum’s house at the end of our lease in early 2019. We’ll pay her roughly €100 each per month when we do move in with her, so €200 a month in total.
So we’ll cover some rent and general costs, but moving back will put us in a position to save a lot more than we would if we kept renting! I save about €1,000 per month now, but I’m hoping to up it to about €1,200 per month if I get my salary increased to €42,000 later this year. Our aim is to save about €2,000 per month between us – more if possible, of course.
***
I get up early at 5:50am and head to the gym. I’m always too lazy to go after work and it’s a nice start to the day. I start with a smoothie made from porridge oats, milk, banana and protein powder.
Everything except the protein (which costs me about €5 a month) is bought in Lidl during our weekly shop, which is normally €40 between us each week. The fruit I used this morning would have cost about €1.45 all in. Lunch is a ham and lettuce sandwich on Hovis Granary bread, also from Lidl.
I start work at 8:00am and finish at 4:30pm, so I get hungry at weird times. My employers provide free fruit – so snacks are healthy and free – which is a plus! Dinner is homemade pizza on pre-made pizza bases. That roughly cost us €7.50 in the weekly shop.
I’m into bed by 10:00pm for a bit of reading before it’s time for lights out.
Today’s total: €0
Slightly earlier start at 5:30am this morning so I can have a longer session in the gym. I’m newish to it – I jog one day and weight lift the other.
Breakfast is the same bunch of bland coloured things blended into a purely functional beverage. After the gym, I skip home full of energy and head to work on my bike that I’m gradually paying for via the ‘bike to work’ scheme. I’m still paying €98 per month, and it’ll be done by June next year.
Lunch today is a ham and Swiss cheese roll – ingredients cost me about €5. I’m hungry basically all day after the morning’s exertion.
Dinner is a Lidl recipe we came across on TheJournal.ie for sticky rice with veg and a fried egg. It’s super cheap and makes you wish you’d made enough for seconds. The bits and pieces for that meal would come to about €4 in our weekly shop, which is ideal.
I listen to an hour and a half of our favourite podcasts in the evening – a bit of The End of the World and Serial season three – before hitting the bed. I also listen to Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness because he’s a bit wild/eccentric, but a total genius.
Today’s total: €0
I’m up at 7:00am. No gym today. I’m taking the morning off to prevent burnout. I have breakfast in work, so it costs nothing. Lunch today is the same as last night’s dinner – I made an extra portion specifically for this.
We go grocery shopping after work (great craic!). It comes to €44 today (so €22 each). We try to do it on Tuesdays, but we also try to use up everything in the fridge before refilling it. So occasionally we have to go on a Monday or a Wednesday.
Say what you like, but the weekends are not made for grocery shopping – no thank you! Groceries usually cost us about €40 per week, but we had to replace some cleaning products, so it was a little higher this time.
Dinner was homemade pizzas again because we weren’t feeling very creative after a day of work and shopping.
Today’s total: €22
Up at 6:30am, so straight to work. I had the usual €1.45 breakfast – purely out of convenience – and brought a packed lunch with me.
The packed lunches are probably the main way I save money every day. Buying a lunch every day would really rack up the costs. Overall, I spend about €8 per week on lunch, whereas you could easily spend that much each day in some places in town. So it’s quite a difference in the long run!
We have pasta for dinner, with a tomato and veg-laden sauce. My other half is a vegetarian so I rarely have meat for dinner unless I make something specifically for myself. And it’s the main reason our weekly shop is so cheap.
Today’s total: €0
Quick run on the treadmill at 6:00am before work and I have the usual breakfast. I’ve got a packed lunch again to save a few quid.
I get the Dart back to my mum’s house after work and had to throw €20 onto my Leap card. I bought us an Indian for dinner, which came to €27. Then I headed out for drinks with a few friends and spent about €25. It really feels like a lot when you list it out like this!
Today’s total: €72
I let myself have a hard-earned lie on until 11:00am this morning! Then it’s toast for breakfast – Sean’s Bread from SuperValu kindly bought by my mum.
I was having dinner on my own, so I bought a Cully & Sully cottage pie for €5. I threw in a couple of beers and some wine for the evening on top of it. All in all, it came to €30. Originally myself and my girlfriend planned to go to the pub, but we changed our minds at the last minute. That’s why we could justify buying the slightly more expensive wine and beer.
Today’s total: €30
Another lie-on this morning – this time until 12:30pm. We’ve got hazy heads after the night before.
Homemade scrambled eggs on brown bread for brunch – with buckets of tea – are on the menu. Again, these breakfast bits are courtesy of the mother, so no cost there.
We headed back to Dublin in the late afternoon and had a Boojum for dinner, which set us back about €16 (so €8 each). I booked cinema tickets (€20) for tomorrow in Dundrum using their €10 Monday deal.
Today’s total: €28
What I’ve learned:
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.
Those f**king bastards. This is basically a non violent repeat of Hitler = Germany ruling all.
Oh great, another Daily Mail reader still fighting World War 2.
Yeah, Germany want to rule Europe. The German taxpayers love sending billions to badly run countries like Ireland and Greece.
If there was a referendum in Germany tomorrow on kicking Ireland out of the EU and the euro how do you think it would go?
@Neil would they be asked to vote twice if the EU didn’t like the first result? Germany are borrowing money true but it is Ireland that will pay for it with Interest to Germany.
It’s just basically the old order with new tools.
That comment is just offensive. Totally clueless.
@Cathal
Ireland can leave the EU and the euro any time it wants.
Unless you have mad visions of German stormtroopers parachuting into Ballyhaunis then you must admit this.
We are in it because a unilateral withdrawal would be seen as such a kamikaze act that any new Irish currency would be worth buttons . And we would not have the access to cheap finance like we have at the moment which is avoiding the country having to balance the budget overnight.
I repeat again: Ireland can leave the euro and EU anytime it wants. It’d be messy. Far more messy than those who woud Ireland to be part of the UK will admit. But it could do it.
Do you really think the German army would invade? Is that your view?
@ Neil What planet are you on? To answer your question No.
I’m sorry but wasn’t the main problem with Hitler the violence? non violent hitler = shouty ginger with stupid tashe
Will they kick France out of the elite bond system once they get downgraded or is this a ploy to protect the French
The Merkozy pact sbourke
No they will not
Finland eh? A small country on the fringes of Europe, now one of the “elite”.
Good luck to them. They took the euro, but are a very well run country, with well regulated banks, and fair levels of public sector pay.
If only Ireland could have been more like them.
Still blaming the public sector for our economic meltdown Neil. I give up…
High public sector pay rates are a major element in our yawning deficit. The public sector in Finland are paid less yet achieve far better results. They are widely thought to have the best education system in the world.
Neil, change the record. You only seem to get your facts from the public sector bashing Sindo. I bet you public sector workers are paid much less in Ecuador too so unless you compare salary to cost of living your point is almost redundant. Yes I agree top ps salaries are unjustifiable but the vast majority in the public sector earn less that €50k and many perform specialized functions such as teaching, policing, health care etc so naturally professional salaries are going to be higher than the average industrial wage. I also agree as a public sector worker that millions could be saved by sharing services and better efficiencies etc. You want to see public sector pay slashed ok?? Was the 22% cut already taken not enough for you? I’d take another 20% paycut tomorrow but only if my mortgage provider agreed to give me a 20% write down on my mortgage. I use my salary to pay my bills. I’m not going off on 2 foreign holidays a year and driving a 11 reg car. I pay PAYE and I pay for my rolls royce pension as some commentators call it. I’m just about coping like everyone else, so listening to you rant on about public sector pay all the time when you’ve only got a distorted view point is tedious. Public sector workers did not ruin Ireland, the banks did. Compendo?
The majority of public service workers never expected to be rich for doing important and difficult jobs (nurses, garda, social workers etc) and were almost looked down upon for choosing these careers when things were booming. Now all you twits who bought huge houses and apartments in Bulgaria etc complain that these same workers are the cause of all the trouble?
Silent P – you do know what will happen to your wages if didn’t have the bailout funds – right?
We would be talking about an immediate €20Bn adjustment.
The simple fact is this, we have to cut expenditure and raise income. Neither of these can be done in a palatable way but they still have to be done.
Silent P….ah Finland is much more expensive to live in than Ireland. I’ll leave it to Neil to equate whether Their Public service get paid less relative to their own cost of living or indeed relative to the cost of our public service.
Silent P
Pubic sector pay and pensions in Ireland were built up to highest average levels in Europe by a Fianna Fail government that gave us benchmarking and other giveaway,s without any thought to whether they could still pay all that when the property market cooled.
Well that property bubble has collapsed and guess what, there’s no money to pay that massive PS pay and pension bill. The IMF are sending billions to help pay it. For how much longer they will pay it we will see.
The elevated rate of PS pay in Ireland is a direct result of that property bubble then bankers fueled. If the bankers had been under a tight leash in Ireland like they were in Finland then there would have been no property bubble, but guess what, you would not have seen the Irish PS become the best paid in Europe either.
I
Part of me hopes we reach Armageddon and public sector salaries are cut by 40%+. I’ll be able to come on here in a years time and tell you it didn’t improve the economy one bit. In the meantime enjoy being so bitter.
One doesn’t expect it to necessarily improve the economy, but it will certainly help close our budget deficit and reduce our borrowing. That in itself would be an important starting point.
So one of the enticing things about the Euro as a currency in the beginning was that it was tied to Germany’s old currency, yes…? What’s the point any more if Germany wants to race ahead with five others, four of whom it shares a border with? I don’t know how true this elite bond idea is, but if it turns out to have been seriously discussed she’s been completely rumbled as being only out for the good of Germany despite all her banal rhetoric about loving Europe.
Have you ever thought that any political leader anywhere is interested in anything other than their own country/ voters? Apart from dictators whose interests are even narrower.
one thing for sure our leaders are not interested in either their country or their voters
OMG – she actually smiles !
The journal.ie picture pixie has a wry humour!
Yeah she does, I had to look twice, thought the eyesight was going there!!
I know one could get tied up in conspiracy theories etc but the way the like of Moodies and S&P decide to downgrade ratings without explaining how or why they reach their decision one would wonder is there another agenda being followed behind the scenes. Who are these rating agencies. Who if anyone controls them. It seems sometimes that we are all being manipulated into a position where one big power in Europe ie Germany will eventually literally have control over all of Europe aided and abetted by France. More or less the same as was attempted in WW2. It also looks like if we are to be “freed” it will once again be Britain who will make the stand against this takeover. If Ireland had any sense it would pull out of euro now and align itself with sterling before we are relegated to being the beggar outside the door of the feast begging for scraps from our German masters.
Well put CMD. The historical precedence for all of this is uncanny – Europe divided along ancient lines and Britannica cautions it’s consuls.
I do think it’s correct to look to historical parallels – but I’m not sure about the WWII analogy. Seems to me that Germany are as much at the mercy of “the markets” and global capital as any other sovereign nation at this point. It’s almost more a feudal situation, or even pre-feudal.
The new Reformation Niall. The Reformed Church of Mammon!
What brought the Nazis to power in Germany in the 1930s was massive deflation, austerity, high unemployment caused by a credit crunch as a result of global recession…..sounds familiar. Europes political leaders have a responsibility to ensure history does not repeat itself…so far they have failed miserably mainly due to Germany’s revisionism in thinking that inflation is the danger.
Why would the Germans want to invade anybody now anyway? They are in charge already
Just what was Nick Clegg coming over from the UK for ? He canceled out of respect for Enda Kennys bereavement. Bet hes back soon.
I wonder what Pontificus Maximus has to say about this?
If you want historical comparisons then WW1 is a better bet. A complex series of alliances that led to a large part of the world being drawn into a cataclysmic event leading to instability, a further cataclysmic event (WW2) and a consequent realignment of power structures.
Another historical comparison… Punishing citizens with austerity to pay for the sins of their leaders was another underlying cause of WWII.
Comparisons to WWII ate not exactly helpful. I do think it’s true though that the situation is being mishandled, with the leaders of certain countries trying to gain leverage over other other states rather than concentrating on finding a stable solution. Is it better to be a general of a failing army than a lowly captain during peacetime. Merkel took a risk, choosing to use the current situation to strengthen Germany’s position within the EU, and she’s lost through backing the wrong horse. Unless she’s lucky enough to be around for a miracle, she’ll be out of a job when all of this settles down. The fact is that, no matter what, the EU member states are not going to vanish from the planet, and they will need to produce goods and services and to trade with one another. These needs will, eventually, overtake the political playground pushy-pushy. And sooner would be better than later…
Either there is a technical issue with this site or my phone or I just can’t follow what’s going one here. The article is about elite bonds. Below it states tat there has been 2600+views and 39 comments. I scroll down and there are 4 comments only. 3 of which mention a world war (there is no mention of either war in the article) and the last comment focuses on pay cuts. I refreshed it twice.
Anyway, what do you mean when you say Merkel backed the wrong horse. I believe Germany are major beneficiaries of this bail out era. And the only reason she is against Eurobonds is because Germany would lose out on the income they earn from lending to the likes of us.
@cormac – I’ve been living in Germany for six and a half years now, and so I’ve been around for the whole of Merkel’s reign of power and for the euro crisis. I could go into detail, but Merkel was far from a unanimous choice when she was elected, there’s always been a large euro sceptic “bring back the Mark” lobby and the economic situation is rapidly heading south. Jobs dying up, no minimum wage, an over-generous but highly unfair social welfare system, bloated civil service, escalating cost of living and an office property bubble on the verge of bursting. This is only my opinion, but the view of Germany as superior and economically stable is both untrue and was actively promoted by the current federal government. And it’s begun to backfire over the last few months. I don’t mean to say it’s as bad a situation as Ireland’s in, and it’s easy to say ” ha ha” like Herman Munz, but life’s just scraping by and I’m getting used to seeing large groups of police in full riot gear. And that’s what I mean when I say that Merkel took a gamble but backed the wrong horse…
This is a great idea, let’s hope it pulls through.
Six Elite nations standing ,not on our shoulders, but on our backs mashing us into the ground! How long again before the elite split and they all want to be top dawg !!!Then what ???
Donal I get that. My argument is the Government needs to look seriously at reducing the costs of running the country before they cut peoples income again. Cutting pay is the easy, lazy way of balancing the books on a macro level, but less income leads to less expenditure in the real economy etc and causes real pain to working families who pay for everything and get nothing back. The waste is the real problem not the average public sector salaries.
so she finally did something this is good. In fairness to her she was being asked to bailout italy which she could not do. Germany has to look out for its own too. unfortunately for them they need the euro too to keep their export costs low.
have your say