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WELCOME TO HOW I Spend My Money, a series on TheJournal.ie running weekly and looking 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.
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. If you’d like to document your spending, or lack thereof during this Covid-19 period, we’d love to hear from you. Send an email to money@thejournal.ie and we’ll be in touch.
Last week, we heard from a 35-year-old man from Dublin living in Gothenburg on the west coast of Sweden for the past six years. This week, our reader is a 37-year-old junior civil servant who signed on to social welfare just before Covid-19 hit as his contract had ended. His diary was written before the last tougher social restrictions came into place.
I am a 37-year-old man from Dublin and I returned to university as a mature student to study journalism a few years ago. I found it hard enough to get full-time work in media so I found myself working in a call centre for a large company for two years. I nearly lost the will to live doing that, so decided to apply to the civil service and I got a temporary appointment in the prison service.
I had enjoyed the time working in this department but the contract was temporary, so that finished up at the end of February, meaning I had to sign on. I am waiting on interviews for further civil service roles, but as things stand, it’s hard to know if the recruitment process will be extended as a result of the crisis
I immediately applied for social welfare to get some breathing space ahead of deciding what to do. I wasn’t really in a hurry as my lease had just finished in my flat in Dublin city centre so in terms of pressures being brought on by the crisis I was doing OK.
When the Covid-19 thing kicked off, I panicked as my mum and dad both have underlying health conditions, so I was afraid to cause any hassles for them. Some old friends of mine, a couple, live in Dublin and invited me to stay with them. We know each other for over 15 years, so it’s working pretty well, this whole isolation thing, as we share the cooking and cleaning load.
Occupation: Civil service clerk
Age: 37
Location: Dublin/Meath
Salary: Base was €26,000, now on social welfare
Monthly pay (net): €203 per week
Phone bill: €20
Subscriptions: Spotify €5 Netflix €10
***
8am: It’s the first week of proper isolation in Ireland. We’re not quite on lockdown. You can still go for walks, but pretty much everything is closed. I was in town walking around over the weekend though and I couldn’t’ believe how many people were still about. Lots of my friends are still working in offices.
8.05am: I’ve made the mistake of checking social media and the news is so bad about Covid-19, so I turn around and go back to sleep. I’m not ready to deal with this new reality.
9.30am: Everyone is up now. One of my friends has to work today so he’s in the small office they have. They both work so I’m doing my best to help out by cooking nice breakfasts and dinners whenever I can. We’re all into cooking nice food, so there’s no suggestion any of us will starve during this time. Today, I’m doing poached eggs with spinach on toast, with Lidl’s pesto. We did a monster shop in Lidl on Saturday. It wasn’t a panic buy, because we are hammering through food, isolating as if it were Christmas week. None of the food is going to waste.
12pm: Breakfast finished and cleaning done. Now what? I’m struggling to come to terms with not working, let alone this new dystopian world we live in. I decide to video-call a couple of friends.
1.30pm: Myself and my friend decide to go to the Phoenix Park for a walk. She’s on her bike and I attempt to cycle her husband’s one. We’ve decided, like most people in Ireland, that the great outdoors is going to be our saviour at this time. Who knew walks were the new dancing on tables? We bring some sandwiches and a flask of coffee, so we don’t spend anything. Phoenix Park is packed but lovely and we enjoy our walk, cycle and picnic.
4pm: Well, we’ve wasted a good couple of hours in the park and are now headed home. I stop off at the local shop and get a bottle of Coke (my guilty pleasure), some crisps and chocolate. Methinks I am comfort eating this week. That comes to €4.25.
Today’s total: €4.25
10am: Wake up, weather is freezing, so over this Covid-19 stuff so I stay in bed.
12pm: OK, not my finest hour but I slept in and now I feel human again. Sure, what else am I getting up for? It’s not my style, however as I do like to always be up and showered and ready for the day. I’m consoling myself with the idea that we’re all processing a lot and sometimes you just need a good rest. I get up and make some food and head out for a walk.
2pm: I video chat with my family. My parents are in great form and at this stage, they’re laughing at all our panic. But I think it’s bravado, they are concerned about what they see in the news. One thing about their generation though, they’re not into the drama, they just get on with it. My siblings and I will be fine through all of this once my family stays healthy.
3pm: We all decide to hit the couch and watch movies. We cook a nice dinner and don’t move for the rest of the day. We’re on a news embargo, too. Sometimes you just need a break.
Today’s total: €0
10am: The social restrictions are really starting to bite. I go for a walk in the park and then head towards town. On the way, I drop into Dealz and pick up some toiletries and cosmetics. That comes to €12.00.
2pm: Getting bored again so I head out on a cycle down the canal to get exercise. The town is so quiet with hardly anybody around. Also, I top up my phone with €20 credit. I have a deal with Vodafone so this will cover me for the next four weeks.
7pm: Not spending any money is actually totally feasible given how we all have to stay indoors. But even so, I get a packet of cigarettes from the shop, costing €13.50. Crikey, when you write it, it’s a scary amount. I am supposed to be quitting but what with the world being turned on its head I decide to pick my battles. Cigarettes are ridiculously expensive though and if this Covid-19 shutdown lasts much longer I am going to have to reconsider them.
Today’s total: €45.50
7am: Wake up and decide to make breakfast. With all the free time and no work the skies really are the limits when it comes to breakfast. Do a quick reconnaissance of the shelves to see what we need. Wait until 8am until the shop opens to pick up eggs and bacon which come in around €4.10.
10am: The National Concert Hall has just refunded me for four tickets that I bought pre-crisis for concerts which were supposed to take place in April. I must resist the urge to waste it all on pandemic comforts. Although I still find myself looking at weights on Amazon, which I am pretty sure I will never use.
2pm: Take what feels like the 700th walk of the crisis towards Thomas Street. The regeneration of that area is really cool and the streetscape is starting to look slick. Too bad everything is closed. I join the queue to the supermarket which, to be honest, feels like something from the last days of communism. Everybody is sketchy, eyeballing each other and non verbally communicating a “don’t get in my space” vibe. I pick up a couple of groceries and then some bottles of wine. The cancelled concerts should at least be parlayed into some quarantine fun. The total bill for the shopping excursion is €36.
7pm: Take a stroll around the neighbourhood. It’s starting to feel like groundhog day. Everybody looking ashen as you walk towards them. I swing by Spar on the way home and grab water which costs €1.
Today’s total: € 41.10
9am: Get up and take a stab at all the ironing that I need to do. Ordinarily, I am an iron-as-you-go kind of guy. But I decide to do it all in one go. Turns out I am turning into my Mother. Upon completion, I take a stroll with the dog around the neighbourhood and grab a coffee from the cafe attached to the local shop, which now has all the warmth of a train station at 2am. Total cost €3.
3pm: Decide that tonight I will cook a Thai curry for the household. We’re still ploughing through the massive shop we did the last week so we have plenty of ingredients. Still need to get an aubergine and some coconut milk, so I decided to walk down to the Lidl. Even at this early stage the queues to get in are quite considerable. I gather up what I need and head back. Total cost €3.30, which will pretty much conclude my expenditure for the day.
Today’s total: €6.30
9am: Everything changed last night as the Taoiseach announced a total shutdown, in all but name. We now have to only move within 2 km of a house, except to go shopping. Everyone was expecting it but it is still a shock. Get up, go for a run. It’s actually quite sunny out and the canals are pretty deserted which is nice. Stop at a convenience garage on the way back and pick up some treats. Total cost is €2.50.
11am: Have to go and pick up potatoes for the cooking, so I cycle to Rathmines and the total cost was €2. However, on the way back I get a puncture. It’s not the end of the world. Thankfully the local bike shop was winding down but not totally closed so I am able to get it repaired for €12.
7pm: As it’s the weekend and we are in dire need of some distraction from the onslaught of Covid 19 news, we decide that we should get some snacks and alcohol. I nip round to the local shop and pick up some crisps, dips and some gin and lime. Total cost €28.75.
Today’s total: €45.25
9.30am: Do a weekly shop in local Aldi which comes in at €60. As we are all cooking in the house these groceries will pretty much last the week as we are strategically shopping in order to minimise waste.
2.30pm: Take a walk in the local park. There are not too many people there on the way back I grab a coffee. Given how most of the nice place around have closed their doors the coffee options have really dwindled. I grab one from the convenience station and it costs €3.
7pm: I pick up some moisturiser online that is on sale. It was severely reduced in the sale so I decide to treat myself. It costs €20.
Today’s total: €83.00
What I’ve learned:
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