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 social care worker on €30K living in the Midlands. This week, an Irish primary school teacher currently living and working in Vietnam.
I’m a primary school teacher working in an international school in Vietnam.
My school gives a good international package for teachers and the cost of living in Vietnam is low, so saving over here is fairly easy if you have a goal. In fact, you would really have to try to blow all of your money every month here to not save. If you have a goal and you’re disciplined, you can save over half your wages here easily.
My motivation comes and goes so the amount I save is up and down, but I generally try to save around half of my pay unless I have a big expense such as trips home or going on holidays. The main saving motivation is to hopefully buy a home one day without having to get a mortgage. Ideally, that would be in Ireland, but with what the situation is like at the moment, who knows?
Occupation: Teacher
Age: 35
Location: Hanoi
Monthly pay (net): 96,785,505 VND or €3,500 (this includes housing allowance, which is standard in international schools. We also receive a flight allowance of one return flight home per year)
Transport: I get the free school bus provided by school. Taxis are very cheap here, I generally get around four or five a week, at €1-€6 a go. Petrol for scooter around €4 per week.
Rent: €383 is my half of the rent. My girlfriend and I live in a two bedroom apartment in a central location. We could easily stay somewhere a lot cheaper but this is the nicest place we’ve ever stayed in, having lived in some really mouldy places in Ireland.
Household bills: Internet, water, and a cleaning service twice weekly is included in the rent. Electricity fluctuates depending on how much we use the AC. Average of around €20 a month.
Phone bill: €10 a month
Health insurance: Free with the job.
Groceries: As eating out is so cheap, we rarely buy groceries. The locals regularly eat out for breakfast and lunch.
Subscriptions: Spotify Premium – €2, YouTube Premium – €3 (both are cheaper in Vietnam than in Ireland as local people couldn’t afford it if it was the same price globally)
Grammarsaurus: €5 (a good website for additional resources for my students)
Monthly donation to local charity: €300 (this is in various forms, rather than a direct debit)
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6.30 am: I get the free bus to school. I’m never hungry in the morning so I don’t eat till lunch time. It’s the first day back to school for my students. I go downstairs to greet them. They have a long breakfast time and a lot of them get restless, so every morning I bring them to the sports hall to play some Gaelic football. The kids love it over here and we have kids from all grades playing in the morning.
11.10 am: I’ve double break duty today so I don’t have much time for lunch. I run over for Pho Ga (chicken noodle soup) which costs 35,000 VND (€1.27). It was absolutely boiling today, so I bought some cold drinks for my coworkers. The drinks were only 50c each, so that’s another €5.
3.30 pm: Classes went well, my students were all happy to be back in and there were no tears. Back home on the bus. I go out for a run. I’ve been trying to improve my fitness all summer. It has been a bit harder running in the heat since I got back to Hanoi but I’m trying to stay disciplined.
5.00 pm: I get an egg Banh Mi for dinner 15,000 VND (54c). After dinner, me and my girlfriend go for a drive on the bike.
Today’s total: €6.81
6.45 am: On the bus to school again. Fairly tired this morning so I nap on the bus.
7.30 am: I go down to greet the kids again and bring them to the sports hall to play some football.
8.00 am: Lessons begin. My class have P.E., so I have a free lesson. I do a bit of planning for the week.
12.00 pm: Lunch time! One of my expenses that I don’t really need. The school provides lunch for €1 a day, but I like to get out for break and have a walk. Today, I go for an international dish, spaghetti bolognese. A bit much for lunch, but if you don’t have a breakfast, it all evens out, right? Spag bol costs around three times the price of yesterday’s lunch at 100,000 vnd (€3.77). The security guard at one of the local clothes shops looks absolutely roasting, so I got him a lemonade (54c). I can’t speak much Vietnamese and he can’t speak English, so it’s a slightly awkward interaction, but he seemed chuffed.
3.30 pm: I’ll spare you the details of my lessons, they don’t cost me anything. I get a taxi to the bank to show them my new work permit so I can continue banking with them. The bank has a great savings account, giving interest of up to 6% on 12 months’ savings. This is where I send my money every month. I send a chunk at the beginning of the month, and whatever I have left at the end of the month. There’s no tax on interest here, so I don’t get ripped off like I do on my half a percentage in my Irish bank. The motorbike taxi was 33,000 vnd (€1.19 for a 12 minute drive). I got a taxi back to my apartment after for €1.63.
5.00 pm: Dinner time! I order a carbonara and a can of Coke Zero. Double pasta is a mad move, but sure it does the job. The order comes on a delivery app similar to Uber Eats. It comes to €3.22 including delivery.
7.30 pm: Football training. I have a shed load of energy after two pasta meals in a day. I swear I embrace the local cuisine a lot of the time! The training session went well. It was around 33 degrees and fairly humid, real feel 41 degrees. After training, I bought a drink with rehydration salts (48c)
10.00 pm: I’m wide awake after training, so I decide to make use of my time. My girlfriend and I have different school calendars so we don’t have too many holidays at the same time. So, we book our flights for our Vietnamese new year trip in January. We are going to Japan and Korea. The flights from Hanoi to Tokyo, Tokyo to Seoul, and then Seoul back to Hanoi cost €380 each. Accommodation is in Tokyo can be fairly pricy but it is good craic, so it is worth it.
Today’s total: €390.83
6.30 am: Up and out for work again. No breakfast as usual. The bus driver is playing some fairly annoying tunes, so I stick in my earphones and watch some YouTube videos to catch up on current events in Ireland. Usual cheerful stuff, house prices are up, etc. etc.
7.30 am: I get to school and go in to greet the students in the canteen. Today, I bring the middle school girls up to play Gaelic by themselves. A big priority this year for the club is to retain our players who have transitioned to secondary school and increase the number of girls playing football at youth level. We have great numbers from U6-U8 and at adult level, but in between that, we have some work to do. I started a Gaelic for Girls club this year and it has seen a big increase in female participation. Some of the girls had mentioned that they are not confident playing with the boys, so I make sure to give them time during the week to practice by themselves on a morning and I run an extra weekend session for girls from all around Hanoi. It seems to be working. This group of girls have just transitioned into secondary school and really enjoy Gaelic, so I started an extra after school club for them as well.
8.00 am: Lessons start. Wednesday is a fairly busy day without much planning time. The students have settled in really well and seem to be enjoying the year so far.
12.00 pm: For lunch today, I go with one of my Vietnamese colleagues to a Japanese restaurant. We both got a nice Teriyaki chicken and rice. This is a bit more expensive than Vietnamese food but cheaper than the pasta. 80,000 vnd (€2.88).
3.00 pm: Classes are finished. I meet with some of my former students who have moved to secondary school. They’re enjoying the freedom of secondary school life but are struggling a bit with the lesson content. We go for a game of football against the older secondary students. I miss the bus to stay longer and get a bike taxi home (€1.10)
4.30 pm: I’m hosting a quiz tonight with one of my friends. I coach a group of children from a local charity on the weekend. They are from the most deprived areas of Hanoi. The pub quiz is to send them to the Asian Youth Championships of Gaelic football in Thailand. So far, we have raised 20 million VND towards flights and accommodation for them. I spend a while editing the quiz my friend made while eating a Thai chicken and noodle dish which we got delivered (105,000 vnd/€4.25).
8.00 pm: It’s time to host the quiz. You never know how many will show up to these things. The Gaelic club here have been great for raising money for Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation. The club has always been fairly involved with them, but since Covid, we really went hell for leather with fundraisers and events. They are most famous for rescuing victims of human trafficking but they do so much other stuff, like community work, sports activities, and supporting local families who are living in poverty. Our most recent fundraiser for them was a scholarship to put two children through four years of education. We were very proud to raise a lot of money and I look forward to presenting the scholarship to the chosen recipients. It was because of this that I was a bit worried that people may be fatigued and we wouldn’t get a great turnout. But I couldn’t have been more wrong! The bar was absolutely packed. Every seat in the bar was full. The quiz went well and we ran some mini competitions to make more money. We only charge €2 per person to play because it is a weekly quiz, but it is a great way to raise awareness of the cause. Lots of people gave more than the entry fee. We raised 5 million vnd (€180).
10.30 pm: Quiz is finished. Time to go home. I hate going straight to bed after a busy day so me and my girlfriend watch a bit of YouTube to unwind. After she goes to sleep, I get stuck in a loop of YouTube shorts. Lots of valuable memory space in my brain wasted. I struggle to get to sleep. I wonder why.
Today’s total: €8.23
6.30 am: Usual morning routine before the bus. Shower, shave and so on. Good craic on the bus this morning. The driver isn’t playing any mad tunes so we’re all talking. The pre-weekend buzz is building.
7.30 am: You know the drill! And so do the students. This morning, it’s the turn of the students in 3rd and 4th class.
8.00 am: The students are a bit sleepy this morning, so we do a bit of exercise to wake up and some drama scenarios to start the literacy lesson. They love to do improv. Can’t say I’m great at it, but the students give it a good go! Once they are properly awake, we start the lessons.
12.00 pm: I order lunch in today so I have time to plan some drills for training this evening. We have adults’ training every Thursday. I get Bimimbap (rice, vegetables, egg, chicken. It was delicious and cost 65,000vnd (€2.34).
3.30 pm: School day is over. Back home! I get the bus back with my coworkers and catch up with how their days went.
5.30 pm: Pump up the footballs, pack up the bibs and get ready for training. My bike seems to be on its last legs. Every time it stops, it cuts out. I probably should bring it to the garage. Parking at the pitch 5,000vnd (€0.18)
6.00 pm: Training starts. We’ve got a team of coaches who take turns doing drills. We have quite a mixed bunch of players with different levels of experience. There are a lot of us who have played more Gaelic football or hurling in Vietnam than we have in Ireland. There are a good few from other countries as well who had never even heard of Gaelic before coming here. Training goes well, I get a sports drink for a bit of sugar after training. It was real feel 41 degrees, so I badly needed the drink.
7.40 pm: Off to the Bia Hoi (a bia hoi is a place that serves cheap. fresh beer and food). I’m off the drink during this fitness buzz but I go for the craic anyway. I get a nice traditional Vietnamese dish called, a chip butty. I’m so cultured. I stay for an hour because it is forecast to bucket down. Sprite (50c), chip butty (€3).
Today’s total: €6.02
6.30 am: Off out to get the bus! We play TGIF every Friday on the bus to get the mood going. I’m not really one to live for the weekends. I like teaching so I don’t really ever dread work, but it’s still nice to have a bit of free time. The weekends are good here though. There’s a great social scene. You can go out for dinner or a drink with people pretty much every night if you want to but on the weekends, there’s always something on. There are lots of bands here and even a trad band called Lump of Ceoil.
7.30 am: The same as most of the other mornings, so I’ll spare you the details.
8.00 am: Whole school assembly. The children all go to the assembly room. Any competitions or announcements are made at these weekly assemblies and there’s often a theme such as integrity or empathy. We sing happy birthday to whoever had their birthday that week and they get a nice card. One of my students gets called up for her birthday. I feel a bit guilty that I didn’t know it was her birthday that week. I usually remember all of their birthdays so well and like to make a big deal of them. Turns out it wasn’t her birthday at all. The admin made a mistake and the poor girl got sang to at 8am for nothing. Nice and awkward start to the day for her!
12.00 pm: I don’t really feel like a big lunch today so I go to the supermarket for some fruit. When I get there, I get an idea for a lesson. The kids had an activity earlier in the week where they had to describe different types of bread after they had tasted them. They weren’t very descriptive and I thought they could do better. So I bought loads of different types of bread, with more extreme differences. To make them explain themselves a bit more, I changed the task to be a blindfold challenge. The students would put on a blindfold and taste a mystery bread. After everyone tasted their bread they had to find someone who had tasted the same bread by going up to each other and describing the bread they had tasted. A long winded way of telling you I spent a tenner on bread. It was a serious amount for 270,000vnd (€9.76)
3.30 pm: Lessons are over. I do some admin, send off the weekly newsletter on the way home. When I get back, I go for a run. It’s nice and cool compared to the rest of the week.
6.00 pm: Me and a few lads go for tapas. I get a some albondigas, patatas bravas and a Sprite (250,000vnd/€9.03).
8.00 pm: We go to a bar nearby. It’s a nice way to end the working week. The lads are having a few beers. I’ve moved from the Sprite to the water (€0.42). We’re debating on going into the old quarter.
10.00 pm: Debate over. To the old quarter it is. We randomly run into a fella from Tallaght who just landed in Hanoi.
1.30 am: The lads are still on it, but I don’t want to be too hydrated so I call it a night. Three waters (€1.50) and a taxi bike home (€1.20)
Today’s total: €21.91
7.00 am: I’m up early. I forgot to wash the bibs for kids’ training today, so I have to throw on a quick wash and get them dried asap. Even on the weekends, I don’t eat till lunch time, so no expense to write about for now.
9.30 am: Kids training is at 10am, but I’m down early to make sure the balls are pumped. We have a nice group of coaches who give up their chances of a lie in on the weekend. I’m coaching the U8s today with another coach. At the same time, there are two coaches with the U6s and another with the 10-14s group. Our Saturday training is for boys and girls. There is a mix of Irish, Vietnamese, and other nationalities playing. The majority are Vietnamese though. Thanks to the Global Games Development Fund, we are able to keep the sessions free for the kids. In Hanoi, there can be a huge disparity in income. In a five-minute drive, you can go past a Rolls Royce or a Maybach and then go past people working for less than a euro an hour. We like to keep training free so everyone has the chance to take part.
11.30 am: Training is over, there are a few stragglers left who have parents stuck in traffic. I have a match at 12.30 pm so I need to be out asap. Not much expenditure in the day so far. Two bottles of water for kids who forgot to bring their own (€0.80). I get an egg Banh Mi on the way back from training (€0.54)
12.30 pm: After a bit of a rest, I head off to the match. Soccer today with the Hanoi Harps (you can guess where the majority of our players are from!). We’re playing a friendly against a bunch of lads who don’t usually play 11-a-side. It was the height of the heat, so it was tough going. We won comfortably in the end though. Parking ticket cost €0.18 and a bottle of Revive costs €0.40.
3.30 pm: I go back home for a shower and then my girlfriend and I go off to join a pub crawl which is going from one end of the metro line to the other. Like going from Tallaght to The Point on the Luas and getting off at every stop, but with far fewer stops. It is 30,000vnd for a daily pass (€1.08). It starts to lash rain just as we get to the first Bia Hoi. There are about 20 of us, so the owners of the Bia Hoi are delighted it’s raining because we end up staying for ages. There was mad Vietnamese house music when we arrived but that quickly changed to The Saw Doctors. A long way from the Green and Red of Mayo or the N17, but it felt like when those tunes come on, you feel like you’re back in Ireland going past some stone walls and green grass. Everyone is in great spirits and we move on to the next Bia Hoi. Water (€0.40). Crisps (€0.50)
7.30 pm: I’ve to leave the pub crawl early as a workmate is having a housewarming. I go to a shop to get a housewarming gift. What do you get for these things? Couldn’t decide, so I went with the old reliable, a bottle of spirits. Jameson (€16). Bike taxi to the housewarming (€2) Have some pizza at the party.
11.00 pm: Back home. Watch a bit of YouTube and then go to sleep.
Today’s total: €21.90
7.30 am: On Sundays, I coach two sessions in the morning. One with the Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation. These are teenage boys from one of the poorest areas of Hanoi. The charity provides the pitch for them to come and play every Sunday. I’ve been teaching them Gaelic for the past few years on Sunday mornings. Long before I came to the club, the charity had a great relationship with the Viet Celts. The Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation team were the first Asian Youth Champions at U18 champions back in 2016. I am happy to have carried on the tradition, and last year coached them to U16 glory. The second session of the morning is Gaelic4Girls. Many of these girls are also from Blue Dragon, but there are also girls from international schools in Hanoi, so it is really nice to see a group of kids playing together who would definitely not be mixing if it wasn’t for Gaelic football.
12.00 pm: The session went well. We had lots of newcomers. After the girls’ session, I bring them all for ice cream to cool down. 15 ice creams cost me €11. I definitely couldn’t get this back home in Dublin. I’d have to take out a mortgage for 15 ice creams these days. Probably wouldn’t get approval either. After the group goes, I go for lunch with the Blue Dragon girls and the social worker. We do this every Sunday after training. It’s a good chance for the kids to practice their English and for me to practice Vietnamese. Five bowls of indomie and veg, five juices and two banh mi’s come to €10.50. I only had a water, which was free. I wanted to be still hungry for lunch. Lunch and dinner are the main events once you hit your mid-30s.
1.00 pm: I drive back and have a shower and then my girlfriend and I go for lunch. We get a Bun Cha, my favourite Vietnamese dish. (€1.27)
2.00 pm: We head for a nice ice cream to cool down. I don’t usually eat so many ice creams, but it is such a sunny day today. (€1)
3.30 pm: It rained for a bit so it’s much cooler out. We go for a run.
5.30 pm: I have an online conversational class with two of my former students. They had to leave international school for different reasons, so I set up a weekly call with them to help them maintain their English level. They’re two very inspirational kids. I admire their parents for the way they raised them.
6.45 pm: My girlfriend and I go into the Old Quarter with some friends for a walk. It’s a lovely evening. We get a nice cool smoothie (€1.20). There are loads of people around. If you’re ever in the Old Quarter in Hanoi around Hoan Kiem lake, you’ve got a good chance that someone will stop you to practice their English. Often they ask a series of questions, but take no heed of your answers. A young boy and his mother stopped us so the boy could practice his English. He was only 8 and didn’t go to international school and his English was great.
7.30 pm: We go to a burger and chips place. The waiter is a bit intense. He is Vietnamese but speaks with a southern American accent. He was on an upselling mission. I wanted a normal burger with chips but I took his recommendation just based on his mad accent. (€9.80)
9.30 pm: Back home on the bike taxis. My girlfriend and I have a taxi race. I lost. (€1.50)
10.30 pm: Watch BeardMeatsFood, some news and some other random YouTube stuff and go to bed.
Today’s total: €36.27
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What I learned –
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