WELCOME TO HOW I Spend My Money, a series on The Journal that looks at how people in Ireland really handle their finances.
We normally ask our 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.
This year, given we’re living through a cost-of-living crisis, we’ve also asked readers who kept a Money Diary for us in the past to revisit their spending and saving and make a note of any changes.
So, this week, we hear from a HR professional who wrote a diary for us in 2020 during the pandemic. They were living in Dublin and earning €24K at the time, having just graduated. This time around, they’re now on a salary of €47K after changing jobs and they’re now living at home in the Midlands.
Three years ago, I wrote a money diary here while living and working in South Dublin as a newly graduated HR staff member in the public sector. Since then, my situation has changed completely – I have been promoted twice, changed jobs, and very recently moved home with my parents. Due to these changes, along with the drastic increase in the cost of living, I thought it would be interesting to compare my expenses then and now.
I am still working in HR in a public hospital but am now based in the Midlands. I had always aimed to settle at home near my parents so when a job opportunity came up near their house, they were happy for me to move home rent-and-bill-free to allow me to save for a mortgage. My salary has increased from €24,601 to €47,335 with another increase due this month, which will bring it up to €48,810. I have yet to fully see the effects of moving home on my expenses and saving, as I only moved around three weeks ago. I now have further to travel to work and my fuel costs have already increased a lot, especially now that prices are due to go up. I am very lucky that my parents pay for the majority of the groceries in the house, but I can still really see the effects of the higher cost of living with everyday items. At the moment, I only pay for groceries for my lunches for work and my grocery bill is only half what it was three years ago when I was paying for everything.
In terms of saving, I hope to save a minimum of €1,000 a month, but some months it may be more. My first savings account is full so I am trying to decide where to open another one now and will use a Revolut vault in the meantime. I also transfer €100 a month into a different Revolut vault for a personal fund. I utilise the Spare Change feature on Revolut in another vault but this doesn’t save me that much money – I have had it since December and have only got €20 in it. That being said, it’s still €20 I probably would have wasted otherwise! I am saving with the aim of trying to get a mortgage in the next few years, but my boyfriend and I are also thinking of doing some travelling next summer, so some of my savings will go into that.
I don’t have many hobbies or do a lot in my spare time. I mostly like to go for walks and read in my downtime but I have really gotten out of the habit of reading lately. I used to go to the gym a couple of times a week when I lived in Dublin, but have yet to find one at home.
Occupation: HR staff
Age: 25
Location: Midlands
Salary: €47,335
Monthly pay (net): €2,251.70 (approx) – my net pay should be slightly higher than this after the latest government increase on 1 March but my new hospital hasn’t implemented this yet. It will be implemented this month and we will receive any back pay due to us with it.
Car tax: €22.50 annually (€22 in 2020)
Car insurance: €34 annually (€130 in 2020)
Petrol: €150 (€40 in 2020)
Car loan: €0 (€150 in 2020)
Public transport: €0 (€20 in 2020)
Rent: Now €0 – was €520 in 2020
Household bills: €0
Phone bill: €12.99
Groceries: €60, was €120 in 2020
Subscriptions: Spotify – €9.99
Health: €26 for contact lenses
Pension contribution: €154, up from €57 in 2020. This is deducted from my salary
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8.00 am: It’s a Bank Holiday today, so I get to have a bit of a lie-in. I stayed in my boyfriend’s house last night so I watch TikToks to pass the time for a while until he wakes up.
9.30 am: Boyfriend finally awake and we discuss a potential trip for the coming weekend. I have to use a day of Flexi Leave I have built up by next Friday so we’re making the most of it and we decide to go up the North for two nights. My boyfriend had done some research the night before and found a really good deal on an apartment. We book it but pay nothing yet. We get up and get ready to go to a food shop. He just moved house the evening before and has no food in, so we stop at Mcdonald’s and have breakfast. I pay for both of us (€15.00).
11.00 am: We do a food shop together in Aldi to save us getting two trolleys. He pays but I Revolut him my share which is €17.90 – expensive enough for four days’ worth of breakfast and lunches. I also pay €2 for multi-storey parking, as I drove.
11.30 am: We go home to put away the shopping and head straight back out to go for a picnic – have to make the most of the nice weather! We stop in Tesco on the way for a meal deal but he pays for mine. We spend some time in the park having lunch, reading and sunbathing. The book I’m reading at the moment is boring so I give up after a few minutes. I’m disappointed because I really like the author’s other books. At least I used a voucher I got for Christmas to pay for it.
2.30 pm: We head back to my boyfriend’s new place and watch Netflix with his housemate and her boyfriend. His new housemates are my friends from college so it’s worked out really well for all of us! After a while of watching Friends episodes we’ve all seen a hundred times, we go upstairs to finish last night’s unpacking.
4.00 pm: It’s time for me to head back to my own home, so I say goodbye and hit the road. I listen to Bruce Springsteen for the hour drive home. I was never that into him but since seeing him play in the RDS last month I can’t get enough of his music. I pass through the M4 toll on the way back and pay €3.
5.15 pm: I’m greeted by the dog when I drive in the driveway which is always lovely. I have dinner and a cup of tea with my parents while we catch up on each other’s weekends.
7.30 pm: Eventually I get the energy to go upstairs and have a shower before work tomorrow. I feel a lot better afterwards so decide to spend some time doing some much-needed skincare. I also unpack my bags from the weekend.
8.00 pm: I go downstairs and watch a quiz show with my Dad that we watch nearly every evening.
9.00 pm: Love Island is back, baby! I watch the first episode in bed, as my parents can’t stand it. It’s a very good first episode so I have high hopes for this season.
10.30 pm: After I turn off my iPad, I settle down to watch TikToks until I fall asleep.
Today’s total: €37.90
7.10 am: Back to reality. I reluctantly get up and have breakfast – usually just a bowl of cereal. Then I get dressed and am out the door by 7.35 am. I listen to a podcast as I drive – just a comedy one, it’s far too early in the morning for anything intellectual.
8.20 am: Arrive at work, find parking, and clock in at 8.30 am on the dot. I’m still very new to this role and my colleague is off this week so I know it won’t be an easy week.
10.30 am: Time for a cup of tea and a cereal bar in our little kitchen.
11.00 am: I head back to the desk and see an email about an error I’m not really sure about, so spend a long time trying to figure out how to fix it. I figure out half a solution but don’t know how to do the rest so will have to wait for my colleague to come back on Friday to show me.
12.45 pm: I have lunch with some colleagues from our floor.
1.15 pm: Back at my desk and have some interviews to organise for the afternoon. I was having some trouble with my Flexi leave in the morning but I see when I clock back in that it’s been fixed – thank God.
4.30 pm: Clock out and drive home while listening to the podcast again. It’s just two Australian TikTokers talking about nothing in particular but it’s really funny.
5.30 pm: I arrive home and have a cup of tea. I usually wait for my parents to come home from work to have dinner so I like to have a cup of tea to tide me over until then. I discover that my brother made chocolate meringues and started to make coffee ice cream while we were all at work – unreal.
6.00 pm: Myself and the dog head out for a quick walk to stretch our legs.
7.00 pm: I have dinner with my parents and we sit down to watch TV again until Love Island is on, at which point I disappear up to my room again.
10.30 pm: Love Island is over so time to go to sleep.
Today’s total: €0.00
7.00 am: Alarm goes off. I have breakfast, get ready and I’m in the car by 7.35 am.
8.30 am: I get to my desk and start today’s work.
10.30 am: I have my usual break in the kitchen.
11.00 am: Work is really quiet today, so I do some research for the trip my boyfriend and I are going on at the weekend. I text him about some logistics for our Saturday plan and we decide to book the activities in advance. He pays but creates a Splitwise for the trip so I owe nothing for the moment. It’s a really handy app for trips where you’ll each be spending different amounts of money. You just put in everything you each pay for as you go and it calculates who owes what to each other at the end. We use it for all of our holidays rather than splitting each bill there and then. I check the app and I owe €108 so far.
12.45 pm: Lunch time. I eat leftover risotto that my brother made yesterday – the perks of having a budding chef in the family. Topic of conversation in work is silage – it’s a big change from working in South Dublin.
1.15 pm: Back to the desk for the rest of the afternoon. Nothing exciting going on, just working on some reporting.
4.30 pm: Clock out and drive home.
5.30 pm: Arrive home and my brother has dinner ready for me so I eat with him. I have cake and coffee ice cream for dessert – I’m at risk of getting very spoilt.
7.00 pm: After some guilt-inducing side-eye glances from the dog, I go out for a walk with her. My Nana calls in afterwards and asks me to water my great aunt’s plants for her while she’s away. I stop in the local shop on the way for petrol (€55).
8.00 pm: I drop my brother to the local pub to meet one of his friends for a few. There are half-finished roadworks on the road and it’s like driving on Rainbow Road from Mario Kart – almost lose a tyre in the process.
9.00 pm: Once I get home, I decide to forego Love Island, as I haven’t sat down with my parents all evening. It was a busier evening than anticipated. We watch a bit of the French Open while we chat.
10.30 pm: Off to bed with another book that I’ve been reading. Have well and truly abandoned the other one. I’m trying to cut down on my screen time before bed because it’s keeping me awake longer and the book definitely does the trick tonight.
Today’s total: €55.00
7.00 am: Usual routine – up, breakfast, out the door by 7.35 am.
8.30 am: Clock in and get to work.
10.00 am: I decide to check my bank account and see that there’s a transfer of €124.68 from my previous job. I had noticed that my final payslip was lower than usual so I contacted the payroll department to see if there was a reason and they must have found an issue. Nice way to start off a Thursday!
10.30 am: Off for break again and then back to the desk to do some more reporting.
12.45 pm: Lunchtime. I take half an hour and then go back to my desk to set up for some interviews taking place in the afternoon.
5.30 pm: Home from work. Have tea with Mam and take the dog out for our usual walk. We don’t do anything exciting for the rest of the evening.
10.00 pm: My sister arrives to stay for the night. She’s working from home tomorrow so decided to work from our house. I haven’t seen her for a few weeks so we catch up for a while.
11.00 pm: A late bedtime for me. Watch TikTok for a while until I fall asleep.
Today’s total: €0.00
7.10 am: Eventually pull myself out of the bed. Have breakfast and head out the door a little later than usual. The great thing with Flexi time is I can be two hours late to my usual start time and still not technically late.
8.30 am: Get to work on time anyway because there are usually fewer cars on the road on a Friday. Clock in and start working. Work today is much the same as the rest of the week. Very quiet Friday.
4.30 pm: I check my bank account just before I clock out for a long weekend and see that my phone bill has come out. (€12.99)
5.30 pm: Home from work. My boyfriend arrives right behind me and we all catch up and have dinner.
6.30 pm: My sister, my boyfriend and I all head out for a walk with the dog and then come home and go to the pub for one or two. It’s a lovely evening and that always puts you in the mood for a drink outside, doesn’t it? Bf gets the first round. My Nana and Aunt happen to walk past the pub we’re sitting outside so they sit down for one. I get the next round for four of us and it costs €25.10.
10.00 pm: We all walk home and go to bed at a reasonable hour for a Friday evening.
Today’s total: €38.09
7.30 am: Up and at ‘em early to head off on our weekend away. We pack up the car and have a good breakfast and leave by 9 am.
9.30 am: We stop at a petrol station on the way to fill up and pick up some lunch for later. My lunch sets me back €5.50.
11.30 am: Arrive up North and set off on a hike. It’s raining a bit but we’re prepared so it’s ok. On the way back down I slip and scratch my knee – don’t think that’s happened to me since I was about 10 years old. We quickly eat our lunch as we walk back down because we have our next activity booked and are cutting it very close time-wise.
2.20 pm: Make our cave tour by the skin of our teeth.
4.30 pm: We head into the main town to drop our stuff off at the apartment and stop in the shop for plasters for my knee. I also get a drink for my boyfriend and pay €3.50 altogether.
6.00 pm: Off we go to a football match in the town. Neither of us has any real interest but we said we’d go when we’re there. It ends up being very entertaining.
8.00 pm: We have dinner and a few drinks in a local pub while watching the soccer (well, he watches the soccer and I catch up on what I missed on Instagram). Boyfriend pays for dinner but sticks it into Splitwise for me to pay him back later.
Today’s Total: €9.00
9.00 am: Finally have a proper lie-in. We chill in the apartment for a while because nothing is open that early anyway.
11.00 am: Off out to a castle for the morning. Entry is €5.50 each and I put it into Splitwise for my bf to pay his share.
12.30 pm: Lunch time. We have a gorgeous lunch at a street-food style café.
2.00 pm: We go kayaking for the afternoon on a lake. The muscles are tired after our hike yesterday but it’s worth it.
4.00 pm: Off to a pub now to watch Kilkenny vs Galway in hurling and we have two pints each. We’re really in the habit of my boyfriend paying for everything so I have to be really careful to remember to pay him back. It’s not too bad when we’re on holiday and splitting everything, but for random nights and dinners out, it can slip my mind.
6.00 pm: Kilkenny abú! We head to a different pub for dinner and then have one last drink. My boyfriend doesn’t feel like any more by now, so I pay for my last drink myself (€5.50). This should be our last expense of our holiday so we settle up our Splitwise. I owe him €217 between the accommodation, the football match, car parking for our hike, the cave, petrol, two dinners, kayaking, lunch, and drinks – not too bad.
Today’s total: €228.00
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What I learned –
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