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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 production manager living and working in Co Meath. This week, an advertising account manager now planning to move to Australia.
I’m 27 years old and I live in Dublin. I’ve recently moved in with my grandparents to save money as I’m planning to move to Australia in September for a year or so. I had lived in a rented house with two of my best friends in the area for the previous 18 months, but our lease finished in October, thus prompting the move into my grandparents as they had converted the basement of their house years ago into a granny flat.
I am the third in the family to live in the basement and it’s great to have that connection with my grandparents and see them nearly every day along with helping out when I can with technical support, etc.
I was previously paying €1,075 per month before bills in my rented accommodation in the area to live in an E energy rating house with one of the rooms getting to -2 degrees in the winter. I did love that house, but once the idea of moving abroad came into my head, it was necessary to move home and start saving money and my grandparents’ basement provided the perfect solution. The rent I pay there is a nominal amount, and I understand that I am in an extremely privileged situation to be able to take advantage of this.
The Australia dream is alive and well amongst people my age. Around 80% of the medicine course in my graduating year moved to Australia for the dream of “double the money for half the work”. 27 is a funny age in life. I have one friend who is about to buy a house whilst another is living in a monastery outside of London. The duality of man! In recent years, many of my best friends have emigrated, with three going to Vietnam, one to Barcelona and eight of them have now followed the path to Australia, each in varying jobs, all living life to the fullest.
My idea to move to Australia stems from the notion that myself and my girlfriend want to live together, but with similar rents in each country, we cannot imagine wanting to pay around €2,000 per month to live in Ireland. My work has also hit a bit of a lull with it being quite consistently stressful, without much enjoyment, so I am very much ready to leave this role behind. Australia has better weather, a more positive active life and provides a life experience and adventure that would otherwise be impossible to come by in Ireland. I hope to move to Australia in September and myself and my girlfriend are beginning to plan our adventure already.
I’m quite an active 27-year-old and I like to keep myself fit in my day-to-day life. The transition from living with my best friends to living on my own, albeit beneath my grandparents who are quite active in their retired lives, has been difficult in the quiet times, so I try to surround myself with my girlfriend, friends that still live in Ireland and family whenever I get the chance.
On average, I save about €1,200-€1,500 per month. My tactic of saving is moving the majority of my money to my savings account with Bank of Ireland as soon as I get paid. I also try to put €100 per month into a Revolut vault to cover some items like gifts for birthdays, a new phone which I will have to buy and unplanned expenses, etc. I also have this Revolut vault set up to take in spare change x2 which rounds up your card spending and saves it there.
Occupation: Advertising account manager
Age: 27
Location: Dublin
Salary: €45,000.
Monthly pay (net): €3,100 (varies each month)
Transport: €30-€40 on Leap card
Rent: €350
Household bills: Covered in the rent.
Phone bill: €10, thank God for GoMo
Health insurance: Covered by work
Groceries: €260
Spotify: €11.99
Netflix: €8.99
Amazon Prime: €5.33
Car insurance: €37.10 (monthly direct debit)
Petrol: About €40-€50
Gym: €26.67 (covered as part of my payslip in work)
Pension: €75 (covered as part of my payslip in work)
Savings: At the moment, I am trying to put away between €1,200-€1,500 per month into savings as part of the fund for Australia
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8.40 am: Wake up. Thankfully, I’m working from home today. Turn the laptop on then shower and head to my desk as I’m preparing for a big presentation on Tuesday afternoon. It’s a monthly presentation but it never gets easier as no matter how much work you do, the client can easily make you look the fool with their endless questions and queries.
10.00 am: My director has started to review the presentation and starts to question parts of the deck to put doubt into my mind. A fun start to a Monday. I also complete a Bounce Insights survey and get paid €10 to my Revolut. Surveys are a quick and easy way to earn money but it is slow, with it taking about three weeks to earn the €10 but I can’t complain as it’s easy work.
12.30 pm: I log off from work and head to do my lunchtime routine of picking up my girlfriend and bringing both of us to the gym. Working from home has many benefits and going to the gym for my lunch break is one of them, as it is significantly quieter than the evening time. My girlfriend living 10 minutes away from me also has many advantages and driving to and from the gym has become part of our weekday routine.
2.00 pm: I log back on to work for an afternoon of meetings and try to do all I can to prepare for the presentation tomorrow. These are an unenjoyable few days, but I rationalise it in my head that it only happens once a month.
3.00 pm: I have a late lunch/dinner of a homemade chicken burrito bowl and some yogurt with berries. I usually try to eat early when I have training later that day.
5.00 pm: I log off work for the day and begin to unwind for the evening by throwing on Netflix for a small while.
7.00 pm: I head for a quick walk on the pier then drive on to touch rugby training. It’s a great sport that I have only got into in the past two or three years. It’s a highly technical and skills-based version of rugby that tests your fitness. It’s about a 25-minute drive to training from my house.
9.15 pm: I get back from training and after a quick Fulfil bar, some cauliflower hash browns and water, I turn on Netflix for about an hour. I’ve started to watch Designated Survivor and am enjoying it so far. I’m wrecked then so head to bed to finish some of my book. I’m reading ‘Down the Road West’, a great book based in the West of Ireland, a place where I would have spent many summers. I have gotten back into reading in the past year and it’s a great habit that I have neglected previously.
11.30 pm: Lights out and fast asleep.
Today’s total: €0.00
8.40 am: Start my day with the same routine. Wake up, log on and then shower. I feel oddly prepared for the presentation this afternoon.
10.00 am: I decide to book a court to play badminton with my girlfriend this evening (€24). We play in our local leisure centre and both enjoy the competitive aspect of the games and our booking gives us the court for an hour.
1.00 pm: I drive up to see my other grandmother for lunch and pick up two sandwiches on the way (€16.90). In recent years, I am the only one of my siblings that still live in Ireland, with my younger sister living in London along with my younger brother, and my father and stepmother living abroad, so it is important to try and maintain the familial relationships and do what I can to help out. I am very fortunate to have three of my grandparents still alive and I try to cherish this whilst it’s still the case.
2.00 pm: I head back home and try to finish the last touches to the presentation and for once, I am feeling confident about the presentation going off without a hitch.
4.00 pm: The presentation begins and it turns out I will be sharing my screen for the full 90 minutes. All the fun.
5.30 pm: The presentation ends and I breathe a sigh of relief. I log off work for the day and begin to unwind for the evening by throwing on Netflix for a small while. Back to Suits as I couldn’t stick with Designated Survivor.
7.00 pm: Myself and my girlfriend drive over to badminton as the centre is only a 15-minute drive away. We end up playing four games and it’s a tight encounter in which she wins one of the games which is progress.
8.00 pm: We drive back to mine and we put on Bloodline for the evening. We watch three episodes and it has us hooked.
11.30 pm: Lights out and fast asleep.
Today’s total: €40.90
8.00 am: We wake up early and I drive my girlfriend home. On my way back home, I decide to head into Lidl to do a food shop as I have just enough time before I start work. My food shops vary from week to week so I try to go in with a plan and a list which can work well (€72).
9.00 am: What do you know, I’m working from home again. My director is on to me about coming into the office more, but in the office, I get bogged down with unnecessary questions and tasks that inevitably take up my day, whilst from home I can do the work that is necessary, to a higher standard. Once you take back that control with working from home and being able to structure your own day, it is tough to give that up once again. I know the pressure will ramp up in the coming weeks to head into the office more, but will take that as it comes.
10.00 am: I get paid today which is a nice feeling as it’s early, but it will be a long wait of over five full weeks till 28 February, the next payday. My pay amounts to €3,098 which seems to differ each month. It seems that one of my tax credits did not transfer over in the new year which is annoying, but I will get it back next month. My month-to-month pay is rarely consistent annoyingly, due to a small issue with a previous employer underpaying my tax and myself having to take the brunt of this underpayment over the coming months and years. I transfer €200 to my savings account which is quite low but I will top this amount up throughout the month after the big purchases are made. I also transfer €100 to my Revolut savings account which is for surprise expenses and birthdays etc.
1.00 pm: I log off from work and head to try to do a quick session in the gym. Consistency is probably the only thing that has gotten me results in the gym and I have got back into the habit of tracking my lifts in recent months which helps to make progress rather than just going through the motions. My girlfriend is stuck at work over lunch so she doesn’t join me today.
2.00 pm: I have a quick lunch of two sandwiches then continue my afternoon of 1:1s and trying to catch up on a few outstanding bits from work.
5.00 pm: I head from home to my therapy session. I park my car and pay for parking, which triggers an auto top on the app. Thanks Payzone (€10). The therapy I do is CBT and it has been a journey to get my head around it and even put into practice the work from the session. It is very beneficial and I currently do weekly sessions after starting three months ago. (€70 but €30 is covered by VHI so €40 cost).
6.00 pm: I ring my dad after my session and we have a brief catch up. With him living abroad, we try to call each other once a week to maintain a nice level of contact.
6.30 pm: I meet my girlfriend for a quick walk after, but it is unbelievably cold. We head into the shops along the way and I pick up a VitHit each (€5.60). The bottle deposit is still an annoying addition to any purchase as we end up putting the bottles in recycling bins on the way back.
7.40 pm: I arrive home and make my dinner of garlic prawns and vegetable rice. I put on Suits for the rest of the evening which is a nice background watch.
11.00 pm: I head to bed and finish ‘Down the Road West’. It was a nice enjoyable read and a satisfying feeling to finish the book. I fall fast asleep soon after.
Today’s total: €127.60
6.05 am: The alarm goes off and I’m up and getting showered and changed as I’m into the office today. It’s lashing rain as I leave the house, so the umbrella will be accompanying me today.
7.00 am: I tag on my Leap card, which was topped up the previous week and get on the DART, slightly bleary eyed, and listen to a podcast on my journey in. The new Indo Sports Daily podcast has me hooked and Bits and Bobs is the latest episode to grace my ears.
8.00 am: I open my laptop and begin work for the day. When I’m in the office, I try to start early so that I can get through at least an hour of work uninterrupted. We have flexible working hours so I use the office days to work 8 am-4.30 pm.
12.40 pm: My morning at work has been mostly stress-free thankfully. I head to DoppioZero at lunch, my favourite Italian cafe and I decide to treat myself to a Parma sandwich (€6.90) and a VitHit (€3.50). The rain has eased off a bit so I go for a stroll around town afterwards.
3.00 pm: My afternoon is spent catching up with colleagues and I finish my to-do list for once, which caps a pretty successful day of work. My Amazon Prime subscription comes out of my account (€5.33).
4.15 pm: I head back towards the DART and tag on to head home. Once I get off the DART, I pick up a TooGoodToGo bag for my grandparents on behalf of my mum who paid for it. They are delighted with the contents with a lot of snacks for the impending storm.
6.00 pm: After a quick snack of some sushi and a cookie, I decide to head for a run. It’s a beautiful, brisk evening. The literal calm before the storm! I end up going for 8k which I am happy enough with after the day of work.
7.00 pm: Dinner is consumed and consists of chicken and chorizo paella along with a blueberry scone, all the carbs. I take it easy for the rest of the evening and watch a few episodes of Suits, which is living up to its billing. I move on to reading ‘Yellowface’ tonight, which comes highly recommended.
11.45 pm: Lights out and fast asleep.
Today’s total: €15.73
8.40 am: My alarm goes off and I check to see the aftermath of the storm. The power is gone, but a quick look and flicking of the switch at the mains and we are back up and running. No damage to the garden fences either and we consider ourselves quite lucky to have escaped. The storm has put paid to any ambitions of my second office day of the week and I begin working from home.
10.00 am: The power is gone in many of my colleagues’ homes so work is stop-start. I make progress though and get through my to-do list.
1.00 pm: I end up meeting my mum at lunch and we go for a quick walk of a few laps around the local park with the dog.
2.00 pm: I pick up a prescription in my local pharmacy (€6.40) and head home to continue work.
4.00 pm: I log off from work for the day and have a sandwich as a late lunch. I put on Suits and laze away on the couch for a few hours.
7.00 pm: I drive over to my girlfriend’s house as I am staying the night there. We decide that tonight is the night that we book our flights to Australia. She has just got her bonus in work and I have just got paid so we decide to get this big purchase out of the way. Our one-way flights are booked (€932.95 each). I pay €50 extra as at 6’3″, I need the emergency exit row for the 13-hour leg of our flight. We also begin the process of applying for our visas which gets approved almost immediately (€397.92). An expensive few minutes, but worthwhile for a lifetime of memories.
8.00 pm: We decide to watch Below Deck to unwind and relax for the rest of the evening as we discuss our excitement for our upcoming trip.
12.00 am: Lights out and fast asleep.
Today’s total: €1,337.27
9.00 am: We are both up early as my girlfriend’s brother has a coffee and pilates morning in his coffee shop. I had bought a ticket the previous week as I wanted to support the event, but I give it to one of my girlfriend’s friends as she will get more enjoyment out of it. I drop my girlfriend off at the coffee shop and drive on to the gym.
11.00 am: Back home after the gym and I shower and get ready as I will be meeting my friend along his marathon route today. He is running an ultra marathon in a few months so is running the distance of a full marathon today in preparation. I pledge to meet him en route armed with water and motivation.
1.30 pm: I meet my friend en route to his marathon with water and Jelly Tots in tow which I bought in the garage (€3.45). He is doing great and we arrange to meet up later that evening to celebrate.
3.00 pm: I meet my mum for a quick walk with the dog before heading home to relax and watch Liverpool win and some of the rugby before heading out again later. I have a late lunch of soup with a sandwich.
7.00 pm: There ends up being seven of us who are around that night so we head to our local pub, which I’m happy enough with – rather than the usual of going into town and having to pay for a taxi, etc.
11.30 pm: It’s a very fun night spent catching up with friends. I have three or four drinks, usually Hollows ginger beer, and also get chips in the pub. I Revolut my friend who paid (€30) and am home by around 12am.
Today’s total: €33.45
9.00 am: The power is gone in the house this morning, which is a mare. I ring ESB but they say it could be Wednesday before the power is restored. Luckily, my mum’s house has power so I pack an overnight bag with my work laptop and bring all the perishable foods for myself and my grandparents to put in her fridge/freezer.
10.00 am: I arrive at my mum’s and shower there. My grandparents try to keep themselves busy for the day, but we know that if the power is not restored by Wednesday, we will be spending the rest of our time at my mum’s.
12.30 pm: I drive over to my girlfriend’s house and we go to her brother’s coffee shop. We each get a toastie (she pays) and we sit in there looking out upon the miserable weather. We stop off in Centra on the way back to her house and pick up two soft drinks and Mini Eggs, my favourite chocolate at this time of year. (€8.08)
2.00 pm: We spend the rest of the afternoon/evening watching Netflix as it’s too miserable to even leave the house.
6.00 pm: We decide to make dinner and cook homemade pizzas as she already has all the ingredients in her kitchen. The pizzas turn out very tasty and they’re very simple to make!
9.30 pm: I head back to my mum’s house and check in on the grandparents’ house on the way back. The power has been restored thankfully so we all agree that we’ll return in the morning as it’s quite late now.
11.30 pm: I continue reading ‘Yellowface’ when I get back as I’m really enjoying it before deciding to call it a night and head to sleep.
Today’s total: €8.08
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What I learned –
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