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WELCOME TO HOW I Spend My Money, a series on TheJournal.ie 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 public sector manager on €96K working remotely. This week, one woman outlines how she and her partner saved hard to get a mortgage for a new house.
I came to Ireland with my long-time partner, who is Irish, in October 2017. Like a lot of couples, buying our own property to live in became the main goal straight away, after realising very quickly how brutal the rental market was.
We started from scratch. At the time, I couldn’t work for about six months due to my visa status. My partner got a €23K salary job at a call centre in the midlands. We began putting away money in May 2018, when we both started working and renting in Dublin.
By July 2020, after a short two years of saving, we put together €28,000 and got the keys to our first home in north Co. Dublin in November.
Our plan was to put away €500 per person per month, but it was very difficult and seemed ambitious at the time. Quite frankly, our approach was on the “lack of fun” side. But if we managed to do so, it was a good (tough) month. The budget below is based on an average week while we were saving, just before Covid hit. It gives an indication of how we tried to curb spending.
Occupation: Linguistic Specialist
Age: 30
Location: Dublin city centre
Salary: €35,000 (my partner earns €40,000)
Monthly pay (net): €2,334
Rent: €800 (before our mortgage)
Transport: €10
Household bills: €200
Phone bill: €50
Health insurance: €230
Groceries: €215
Subscriptions: €35
Leisure (takeaway): €450
Visa renewing: €25
Motor tax and insurance: €117
GP: €35
Video games: €30
Travelling: €170
Concerts/movies: €20
GAA matches: €10
Parking: €22
Presents and cards: €70
Irregular spending (furniture, car tyres, donations etc): €27
Wedding-related booking (once-off): €2,100
***
My partner and I have quite stable patterns on workdays. They’re pretty much the same every day:
8:00 am: My partner would always have cereal (unbranded bran flakes or Weetabix with milk), then usually packs a cold mayo chicken/tuna lettuce/pepper sandwich then ride his bike to work. He would shower at work before he starts.
9:30 am: I get up, wash, then have breakfast, usually eggs and toast or boiled noodles. While having breakfast, I usually check social media and the news. I’ll also check the post before work.
10:00 am: I turn on the computer and make myself a cup of tea, then start to work.
11:00 am: My partner would usually have coffee from the cafeteria spending €2.00. Sometimes fruit.
12:30 pm: My partner’s lunchtime. He brings his homemade sandwich down to the office cafeteria to have his food. He tried going to the gym near work, but he didn’t like it at all, as it was always packed. Then he tried to go jogging at least twice a week, with occasional social sports with work. Sometimes he would crave a fancy cup of coffee from the café nearby and would go get coffee about twice a week, spending €8.00.
I stand up from the desk and go check the fridge or kitchen press for something to snack on. Usually bananas, orange juice, or all sorts of crisps and biscuits.
2:00 pm: My partner goes back to work. It’s my lunchtime now. If I didn’t have noodles for breakfast, I’d most likely have boiled noodles for lunch, with an egg … There’s a Tesco nearby that sells hot food at lunch. I usually head to the shop for a walk twice a week to pick up some hot pies or chicken pieces, spending €15.00. On Wednesday or Thursday, I would also pick up a few grocery items, if our Sunday shopping is running low, spending an additional €25.00.
4:00 pm: My partner gets some coffee at work for €2.00. I would make a cup of tea and search for some snacks once again… I would also check the fridge to see what to make for dinner, then take out a few items from the fridge and put them on the chopping board. Back to work.
5:30 pm: My partner finishes work and bikes home. It’s uphill on the way back, so he’s usually wrecked when he’s home by 6 pm. I finish up work and start cooking our dinner. I cook stir fry vegetables with pork and steamed rice most of the time, and change up the vegetable combination on other days. Sometimes I cook curry, roasted chicken wings, lamb stew etc. We cook together, my partner makes an amazing roast chicken dinner with gravy, boiled potatoes and veg, and stuffing. Leftover chicken would go into our sandwiches the next morning.
7:30 pm: We head out for a post-dinner walk at least three times a week. If it’s summertime, we mostly head to the park. Might sneak in a small pack of crisps if we walk by corner shops… probably spending about €10.00 a week. The length of the walk is usually 4-5k.
9:00 pm: We sometimes turn on the news. We mostly read the news during the day already, so it’s kind of an excuse to sit together on the sofa and chat, or maybe look at our phones until bedtime.
Monday to Thursday’s total: €62.00
8:00 am: The weather is quite miserable today. My partner gets up having cereal as usual, then decides to get the bus to work. It costs €5.00 (have to get two buses).
9:30 am: I decide to have a lie-in. After getting up, I put on breakfast (noodles, surprise surprise), then turn on the computer.
10:00 am: By the time breakfast is ready, I have to start work. I bring my bowl of noodles to the desk and sit down, start to check work emails and my task list. I skipped tea today.
12:30 pm: My partner didn’t pack lunch today, so he got a cafeteria meal (subsidised) for €5.00. He also headed to the café nearby and grabbed a fancy cup of coffee for Friday, spending €4.00.
2:00 pm: I made myself a toasted smoked paprika chicken bagel with leftover roast chicken.
Regarding food waste, I think we are quite good at managing it. We always hate throwing away food when we bought too much or leave it there for too long and let it go off. “Fridge salad/stir fry/casserole”, that’s a phrase I learned from a coworker when you cook something just to use up the leftover ingredients in the fridge.
5:30 pm: My partner gets the bus home, spending €2.00 (€7 Dublin Bus daily cap on Leap card). We decide to eat out tonight. We go to a small burger restaurant in town. Both of us get burgers, a side each and fizzy drinks for €38.00.
7:00 pm: After burgers, we go to sit outside a small pub across the road. We get a few drinks, along with peanuts and bacon fries for €37.00.
Today’s total: €91.00
10:30 am: We get up and go out for brunch. My partner gets a gourmet ham and cheese sandwich, a small soup and coffee. I get a full Irish (it’s rarely a real down-to-earth full-Irish in Dublin city centre nowadays, the trend is about half a full-Irish with “fancy” ingredients but costs more than a real full-Irish), and tea to go with. That was €33.00.
12:30 pm: We decide to head to Temple Bar and stroll around for the afternoon.
I always take a bottle of water with me, mostly because that’s how my mom raised me, and also because 1. I just hate not being able to drink water straight away when I’m thirsty and 2. plastic water bottles are the worst – everything’s in them and despite the effort in trying to avoid buying them, they always find their way to fill your house, e.g. all of the bottles of water I bring with me are in these plastic bottles. (Remember the order: reduce, reuse, then finally, recycle)
We get the Luas to get to O’Connell street first (€5.60) then walked south. My partner stops by a book shop and a charity shop to pick up some books. A new book for €23.00 because he really likes the author and a few second-hand books for €6.00. I pop into M&S for a pair of good trousers, and Penney’s for a couple of pairs of cheap jeans and other bits and pieces, €75.00 altogether.
2:30 pm: We sit down at a café and got tea and dessert for €16.00.
3:30 pm: We got home by bus (€4.50) and set off to head to the family home in the midlands. On the way, we get diesel spending €40.00 (we don’t usually fill up the tank).
5:00 pm: We arrive, only to find that one of the tyres has a nail stuck in it. It was lucky it didn’t give up on the middle of the motorway. After checking the opening hours of the tyre shops, we drive to get a car tyre for €65.00.
6:30 pm: We have dinner and chat with family for the rest of the evening.
Today’s total: €268.10
10:30 am: We have breakfast and sit in the garden with family for the morning.
1:30 pm: Have dinner together and watch GAA and rugby for the afternoon.
4:00 pm: We take off to head back to Dublin.
5:30 pm: We put together a shopping list and go to Lidl to getting shopping for the week. We usually buy a few types of vegetables, meat, bread, cereal, milk, eggs etc, some daily essentials, and snacks. It was €35.00 in total.
6:15 pm: We put on a couple of frozen pizzas for supper. We almost never cook on Sunday evenings. On the odd days, we would get takeaway instead.
Today’s total: €35.00
***
What I learned –
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89.8% is a remarkable figure. I remember doing a study a few years back and we discovered that most charities work at around 60%. We’ve always been a very charitable country and it’s great to see that we still are, even in the “current economic climate”.
God, I hate them three words.
Chuggers are fine but when they block your path with big open arms and silly lines….aaaargh!!
I was giving a tenner a month to concern via standing order for 4 or 5 years. But, I would get annoyed at the sheer amount of junk mail sent to me. I emailed them 5 or 6 times over the course of 2 or 3 years asking them to take me off the mailing list. It didn’t happen so I cancelled the standing order and instead set one up with my local, family run animal shelter.
The amount of communists and bigots on this site is increasing every week. Is no one in ireland now able to earn more then the average wage without criticism. Everyone should be on the same wage should they???. As for this ‘charity begins at home’ comments. Actually look up what it originally meant before you spout bigotted rubbish.
It’s mostly ordinary decent people that donate to these charities but do they realize that the CEO maybe taking a huge amount in wages from this charity money that most donors could only dream about
Agreed. People seem to have this terror/jealousy of anyone who makes money now. Probably an offshoot of feeling powerless over bank bailouts but the anger people turn on charities on here is reaching ridiculous levels.
Niall, The truth hurts but its still the truth.
What truth?
How much wages does the new CEO receive
Surely someone who makes a living helping people should be as entitled (if not more entitled) to a decent salary as anyone else…
Not sure about the new CEO, but in 2011 John O’Shea was paid 98k. Concern employ 3,200 people in 25 countries,so I don’t really think It’s excessive. They have also had a pay freeze in place since 2010.
John O Shea was paid 230 thou euro plus expences and got a big pay off when he left Goal.
I think John O’Shea is with Goal and that the CEO of Concern gets about €130,000 per annum………..
Think again.
My mistake, I meant to say Tom Arnold. Even still your figures about John o Shea are way off. He founded goal as well btw, saved countless lives all over the world and in 2010 was shortlisted in an rte poll to find Ireland’s greatest person. What have you done lately?
@chris I think you’ve been PWNED !
You forgot to mention that he is also a millionaire.
Always work checking out the background of the CEO and the boards. Mr MacSorley has worked with concern for over 30 years. He is running a large organisation. Any charity thought with an ex banker boss I walk away from
@killian
At the expense of the people they are helping
Not at all. Charity’s need to be run like businesses. Good salaries will attract the brightest, best and most committed to a sector where they’re badly needed.
Similar situation on the “overheads” issue. I don’t give a toss what percentage of a charity’s income is spent on overheads, because “overheads” (paying fundraisers and admin staff etc) are investments which make more money in the future. We shouldn’t be asking what percentage of their income goes to charity, but rather how much, in absolute terms goes to charity. What does it matter if 99% of your income goes to charity, if you’ve only raised 10 quid; surely it’s better to raise 10 million quid and have 70% going to charity?
Sure salaries and “overheads” make the fraction of the income going to charity smaller, but they make the income itself bigger.
Charities expect volunteers to work for free while the CEO and management earn astronomical salaries. I myself lost all faith in Concern years ago when they renovated their HQ on Camden Street with all that marble cladding (you could run a charity out of a few portacabins, and they don’t need to be in such high rent areas). An outward expression internal excesses.
Concern’s work on the ground is streets ahead of other charities. The targeted approach means that they can deliver on crucial programmes that help society as a whole.
They are an amazing group of dedicated people who place themselves in often hostile environments, simply to help those who need help the most.
Help if you can. Comment if you want. But criticism should be left to those who have gotten off their behinds and actually helped, no matter how that help is delivered.
That said, the Chuggers around Dawson St. and Nassau St. are starting to reach saturation point!
Wake up!!!!!’ Charity begins at Home!!!!
There are even charities at home that will pay your NTL. Ireland has 1st world charity issues not comparable with 3rd world.
We have been told that Donegal has least disposable income in Ireland but at the weekend the people in 2 days raised Over €100,000, in Relay for Life.
People are so generous in Ireland.
Well done everyone involved and everyone who donated.
I presume the desired accounts are on the public record? Chuggers are an unfortunate method of revenue collection. I don’t know why anyone tolerates them.
Guys I work in accounts, trust me the figure of 89% is the best one they could give you which means they defo buffed it out. Look up their full accounts to see the real story. I do not support them because they have become too big and need too much money for staffing, ads, offices and all sorts so a lot of money is dwindled away before your €10 ever sees a 3rd world country.
That said they do amazing work all around the world with the money they do eventually spend so hats off for that.
Like you, I do respect that they do great work, no quibble with that.
Recently got accosted/ambushed TWICE during my lunch hour by one of the lovely chuggers. Politely declined and was chased down the street with an agressive “What’s your problem with Concern?” to which I answered (honestly) that I don’t give money to charities who spend such a high percentage on advertising/administration. My relentless friend continued to harrass me, insisting he knew better than me, although I had politely reiterated that I do give to charity, just ensure that in doing so, every cent of every euro goes to where it’s needed.
Clearly, I’m not on Concern’s mailing list and I have learned that the only way to deal with chuggers, however well meaning they are, is to hiss and snarl. They don’t get more subtle social cues. Sad but true :(
I wonder how much of the money thats collected goes to the needy when the head of the charities get massive wages and expences.
Eh 89% id say !!
Fergus Finlay is paid 119 thousand euro per year plus expences. 89% my hat.
So the guy who runs an organisation that helps millions of people every year, probably saves countless lives too, gets paid the same amount in a year as a dentist and approx. half of what Wayne Rooney is paid in a week. And people think he’s getting too much??
Niall,yes because he is just a spokesman and has 2 other well paid jobs as well.
And Wayne Rooney kicks a bag of air around a patch of grass, what’s the point?
What’s Fergus Finlay got to do with it?
Do you not know that our nice Fergus is the spokesman for Barnardos.Wakey Wakey
This article is about concern. Wakey wakey !!!
Denise are you for real? Could anyone really be as dumb and ill informed as you continually appear to be? Fergus Finlay works for Bernardos. The figures quoted above refer to Concern. Whether you agree with them or not, they have nothing to do with Fergus Finlay, I can’t understand why you would even mention him.
Fergus Finlay is relevant to this debate because he is head of a charity.
He’s the head of a completely different charity, it has no relevance here. The article tells us how much of the money concern receives is spent on charity. How is the salary of an employee of a different charity relevant?
89.8% of €147m spent on charitable causes, leaves about €15m spent on what? Is that’s how much it costs to run Concern? If so, that’s €1.4m per month!!!
So?
They employ 3,200 people.
So,the man is correct.
Do the 3,200 people get paid I bet the majority of these people do this work of their own free will and fair dues to them they do wonderful work its not these people that are the problem. It’s the people at the top of the chain who make it a business for themselves. How can anyone justify taking 100,000 plus Euros from a charity when the money being collected is supposed to help the poor of the world do these people have any morals
I assume they do. The 3,200 are employees. If you’re a volunteer you are not an employee. After costs they still provided appx. €132 million for charitable purposes. That’s still a serious amount of wedge!
My point was the fact that their “employees” are volunteers (or at least that’s what I thought) so I was wondering what kind of expenses could they have that cost them over €1m per month? How much more good could they do with another €15m in the pot?
Chuggers in 2011 got paid over 10 euro an hour…..
It’s mad that you get a negative score for questioning the questionable slant on the concern advert.
3,200 salaries, building rental, building maintenance, electricity bills, various insurances, various travel expenses, advertising, etc, etc… Do I need to go on? For god’s sake 11% on running costs is fantastic, stop looking for excuses to moan.
I taught concern was a charity?
It is, so keeping on teaching that.
Sorry but I don’t believe that… I have been told for a fact by several individuals who have worked signing people up for donations that the first year of any subscriptions paid goes to the outsourced sales/collection firm. I also suspect the average life of a donor to be somewhere between 3 and 5 years max.
I assume you’re quoting that income as net of the collection firm which as they are outsourced can cover their costs themselves before reporting what’s left as net donations to the concern parent company.
Thats true of other charitys bot concern or Amnesty as they are in house and dont work for a private agency
Bot = not. Damn autocorrect switching to Italian!
You have been told for a fact? I’ve been told many things “for a fact” but that doesn’t make them true. I’m sorry but hearsay and your suspicions aren’t really much to go on!
All the chuggers have turned me off supporting concern. They seem to be unable to hear the words ‘no thanks’ and plague elderly people who can’t walk away fast enough. I am beginning to put them in the same bracket as those vile ‘pro-lifers’ as another reason to stay away from town.
Not sure about the percent there what I would like to know is why they need such a huge office in Camden St ?
They are a WORLD WIDE NGO, working in 26 countries including the DRC, Afganistan, Burundi and Haiti which are some of the worst places in Earth for living -and they are there, representing YOU. Here in the US, I work with refugees from Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Sudan, Guinea and they all say the same: the Irish are the best, most trustworthy, intelligent and caring of all they have met in their struggles as refugees. I am ver proud of that and what our NGOs do on behalf of the Irish people. We are everywhere and it takes a huge skill, time, talent and tact to navigate the cutthroat and ruthless world of non-partisan, diplomatic aid in some of these countries that are being run by thugs and gangs. We’re there cos we are trusted to have no allegiance except to the People in Need. So, in order to maintain that reputation and gave the organization at its best it meeds not only to attract the best, but pay what the reputation of that group has developed. I know it’s hard to understand that when you’ve got something stuck up the proverbial but try!
So it cost 16 milliion euro to run Concern that year, I asked on of there chuggers in Cork recently and he very reluctantly told me he is paid €13 per hour, In my opinion all charities should be run by volunteers and collections done by volunteers, Concern is a money making machine for those at the top and i will never give to a charity that takes 16 million a year for so caled “Running costs” and constantly bombards us looking for money
Will you take a full time volunteer position with them micheal?
Where did the other €16,000,000 go?
The heads of charities in this country is a very lucrative earner , Amazingly they are very coy about how much they pay there execs whilest constantly asking for more donations,
The more I think about charity the more I think it can do more bad than good sometimes. It distorts the markets, props up failed regimes and puts people in long term poverty traps.
Fair play for people for giving to charity and for people who work for charities their hearts are on the right place.
have your say