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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 project manager living in Munster earns €48K. This week, a software consultant on €76K living in Co Kildare.
I am a 28-year-old working in the financial and technological (FinTech) sector in Dublin City, and I live in a commuter town in Kildare. I live with my fiancée in a semi-detached house we bought in December 2023. We’re thrilled to have a place of our own, and we’re currently living relatively frugally in saving for our upcoming wedding.
We both have a car which we use for our commutes to work, and both save a good chunk of money each month for our current short-term goal of paying for our wedding.
I’m very passionate about personal finance. I save anywhere from €1,000 – €1,500 per month, which affords me peace of mind for any unexpected emergencies that might arise. I add these savings to a savings account to hold as cash for the upcoming wedding expenses, but after the wedding is done, I will add most of this to an investment account to allow the savings to grow into the future.
I will aim to keep around six months of monthly expenses in an emergency fund and invest the rest. However, if a short-term large payment, such as a housing renovation, were to be planned, I would direct each month’s savings into the savings account to afford the short-term expense.
Occupation: Software consultant
Age: 28
Location: Kildare
Salary: €76,500
Monthly pay (net): €4,205
Transport: €35
Mortgage: €1,546 (€850 my share)
Household bills: €99 on average
Phone bill: €9.99
Broadband/TV: €55
Health insurance: Benefit-in-kind from work
Groceries: €400
Bins: €22
Subscriptions: Netflix, Spotify, Chatgpt, Microsoft (€51 total)
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6.25 am: The first of three alarms, spaced out by two minutes, goes off. I use a silent alarm on my watch so as not to wake my fiancée. I get out of bed and get ready to leave for the office.
6.50 am: Hop in the car and head to the train station, which is a quick five-minute journey. I decide to buy one month’s parking as I’m in a new car. My car was written off in a car accident three weeks ago, so I had to buy a new (2016) car last week (thank God this Money Diary wasn’t for last week, eh?). Parking costs €30.
7.55 am: Had to stand for the majority of the train journey. I get off at my stop and make my way to the gym for a dreaded day of training legs. A gym subscription is provided as a benefit in kind from our employer and the gym is in the same building as the office. Very handy.
9.10 am: Gym and sauna complete, I head up to the office to begin work.
12.30 pm: I had a busy morning, lots of meetings and delivered training to some new hires. A colleague pops his head above the divider and asks if I want to go to Centra for lunch. I oblige. Our employer provides us with a preloaded €1,000 virtual card to be used for lunch expenses, etc, so I put my €5 chicken fillet roll on this and chow down.
5.00 pm: I leave work early as I have an appointment with the priest in my local parish to sign off on some church paperwork for the upcoming wedding. There is an admin fee of €30 – we’ll each pay half of this (€15).
7.30 pm: The appointment went well and after an hour, my fiancée and I are starving. We walk back home to finish cooking the meatballs and pasta she prepared earlier in the day.
8.30 pm: The meatballs were a win, and it’s time to settle down for an hour-long episode of one of our new Apple TV shows.
10.00 pm: Bedtime!
Today’s total: €45.00
6.25 am: I do the whole triple silent alarm charade and am out of bed by 6.30 am. Get ready for work and head for the train station.
6.55 am: Arrive at the station, only to realise my Leap card funds are low. I decide to top up €30 so I won’t have to worry about it for another while.
8.00 am: I spend the train journey researching fancy island honeymoon resorts, which dulls the monotony of the early morning commute. Arrive at the gym and feeling good for today’s session.
9.15 am: I leave the gym and head up to the office to start work.
12.45 pm: After another busy morning, I dart down to Centra for lunch. Wrap today. Riveting. €5 (paid by work).
1.30 pm: After lunch, I head out to a local coffee shop to get a latte. I’m not a big coffee drinker, but I enjoy a latte from time to time. (€4.50 – paid by work)
5.50 pm: I log off, leave the office and head for my train home. My fiancée will be out this evening but has already prepared dinner, which I’m grateful for.
7.30 pm: Train was delayed 25 mins (nice one Irish Rail). I hurriedly reheat the homemade sweet and sour chicken my fiancée prepared and wolf it down before throwing my feet up on the couch to switch off for an hour.
10.45 pm: My fiancée arrived home around 9pm and before we know it, we’ve two episodes of our latest TV series down, and it’s off to bed.
Today’s total: €30.00
8.15 am: I’m working from home today as I have an appointment to renew my driver’s license as its 10-year expiry date is next month (feeling old). I enjoy the almost two-hour lie in before getting up to get ready for work.
10.30 am: I plug in the printer to print off some needed documents for my NDLS appointment, only for it to be on the fritz. Can’t beat a bit of last-minute panic. I get it working with moments to spare, and race out the door for my driver’s license appointment (€65).
12.30 pm: I log off for lunch, which is leftover meatballs from Monday. And they say there’s no such thing as a free lunch, eh?!
5.45 pm: After a busy afternoon, I log off and head downstairs. Chicken and broccoli pie for dinner, yum. We are low on our daily supplements, so I do a bulk order online. It comes to €98.43.
7.00 pm: We light the fire and organise some pieces for the wedding. There can really be an endless amount of organising to a wedding, but luckily our wedding is on the smaller side, so we’re well on top of things.
8.30 pm: One planned episode turns into two for the second night running. It’s great to have a TV series that compels you to binge again.
10.00 pm: Time for bed.
Today’s total: €163.43
6.25 am: While yesterday’s lie in was welcomed, I feel well rested waking today at my usual time for the gym and office.
7.00 am: I board the train in the miserable weather, only to be greeted with a big, green, free seat. I have been wondering why the trains were a little less busy this week, when it suddenly dawns on me that it’s midterm for schools. No wonder my fiancée has been off work all week!
9.10 am: I finish in the gym and sauna and head upstairs to work. I have a day crammed with meetings. Days like these tend to pass quickly, but are terrible for getting through my workload.
12.30 pm: I finish my fifth consecutive meeting of the morning and head down to grab a wrap in – yes, you guessed it – Centra! I add two protein bars to my purchase, one for now and one for another day (bulk discount). €10 (paid by work).
5.35 pm: I log off after a day of providing updates on work which isn’t being done to cater to providing the updates. I head for the bus. Yes, bus today, as I’ve got a hot date in town…
6.30 pm: I meet my fiancée at a cool new taco bar in town. We have tickets to a comedy gig, which were part of my Christmas present to my fiancée. We really enjoy comedy gigs and often wonder why we don’t go more regularly.
8.00 pm: The show starts in the venue, and we have an absolute blast. There’s nothing like a good laugh after some great food and drinks.
11.00 pm: We hit up a second pub after the gig ends as the pub was, ahem, on the way to the bus? At least that’s the excuse we tell ourselves. We have a fifth drink here and hop on the bus home. Food and drinks comes to €110, which we go half on.
12.30 am: Time to hit the hay.
Today’s total: €55.00
8.45 am: It’s a planned working from home day today. Our company expects us in the office three days a week, which I’ve hit this week with my Monday, Tuesday and Thursday visits. The extra sleep is needed after the five drinks last night.
9.30 am: I knock back a protein shake, a Dioralyte and an ibuprofen for breakfast. Despite the mild hangover, I’m feeling optimistic about the day’s work. I have very few meetings this morning which is great because I can actually get some work done.
12.30 pm: I take a well-needed lunch break. Instant noodles and a tuna salad wrapped up and toasted in the George Foreman. The hangover is starting to ease.
5.30 pm: I ended up with a lot of meetings in the afternoon, which meant the day was less productive than I’d hoped for. My fiancée is back in her home county for a hair appointment and is staying overnight with her parents. I quite fancy not having to cook for dinner, so I order a burger and wings from a nearby takeaway on Just Eat. (€24.99)
6.00 pm: I call into SuperValu before collecting the takeaway to stock up on more fire lighters and logs. (€19.88)
7.30 pm: The takeaway was delicious; it really hit the spot. It’s a place my fiancée and I have been eyeing for a while, so I’ll share the good news with her. I light the fire and sit down in front of the telly for the evening.
11.00 pm: After watching some sitcoms and a docuseries, I decide to call it a night.
Today’s total: €44.87
8.30 am: I awake 30 mins before my alarm. I find it difficult to sleep in at the weekends as my body clock is well-established from the midweek early mornings. I chill for a bit before getting changed for the gym.
9.45 am: I drive to my local gym. This is a different gym to the subsidised gym I use before work. It’s a no-frills local gym, so a yearly membership subscription is reasonably priced. Some people might find it excessive to have two gym memberships, but I truly believe you can’t overspend when it comes to your health and fitness.
10.45 am: I get home and do a few jobs around the house before my fiancée arrives home.
11.30 am: It’s a glorious day outside so we go for a walk through the village, stopping to grab two takeaway coffees on the way. (€4.10 my half)
1.30 pm: We stop into Aldi and grab a few bits for lunch and dinner. (€10, but €5 my half)
2.45 pm: I make a homemade chicken fillet wrap for lunch while watching the rugby.
4.10 pm: Rugby is over, and I head out the door to go watch my fiancée play her match. They’re in the final stages of their season so these matches are crucial, and I love going to cheer them on. I bring a hot drink in a flask to keep me warm on the cold sideline.
6.00 pm: The match ends a 0-0 draw. Despite the scoreless result, they’re happy with this outcome as the one point is helpful.
6.45 pm: We arrive home and put on the heating, light the fire and I get started on dinner. We had two steaks in the fridge from the previous weeks’ shop, so I suggested we buy a ciabatta loaf to make steak sandwiches. I fry the steaks, bake the loaf, cook off some onions and whip up some ranch dressing and we chow down in front of the fire.
8.00 pm: We’ve two episodes left in our TV series, so we settle down for the night and are excited to see the season culminate in a dramatic finale. A cup or two of peppermint tea later and we’re off to bed.
11.30 pm: Bedtime!
Today’s total: €9.10 (€18.20 split between the two of us)
8.00 am: We arise early and get ready to go to mass. We don’t normally attend mass, but we had a really pleasant meeting with the local parish priest on Monday to arrange our church documents for the wedding, so we agree we’d like to attend this week’s Sunday mass. We decide to go to the 9am slot as we’re both early risers and decide to go to the local gym after.
9.45 am: Filled with divine strength, we head straight from the church to the gym.
11.00 am: My fiancée quite fancies an Acai bowl after the gym, so we drive to a neighbouring town to pick one up for her. I’d rather make eggs back home, so it’s just an Acai bowl for one.
11.30 am: Upon arrival back home, I whip up a breakfast burrito of three scrambled eggs, two bacon, cheese and some sauce. I’m starving after the busy morning with no breakfast, so the burrito didn’t stand a chance.
12.15 pm: I shower, and we head out to Aldi for our weekly shop. Like most weeks, I plan to make packed lunches for work. I normally make a chicken wrap or some steak mine, rice and veg to try meet my macronutrient goals. The shop comes to €89, which we’ll split (€44.50). It’s a little expensive, but once again, we’re happy to spend the money when it comes to our health.
1.30 pm: We sit down to do some work for the wedding. We had to submit our final numbers this week, so we’re now in a position to start the table plan.
3.30 pm: Table plans are done! We’re thrilled with how well it went; we expected it to be difficult, but it ended up going quite smoothly.
4.30 pm: We head down to the local pub for a few afternoon drinks and to watch the football match.
7.00 pm: After three drinks, we walk home. It’s great to live so close to the main street in our town. It means we can frequent our local pub for an hour or two without much pre-planning needed. (€18 each)
7.30 pm: We bought a gourmet oven pizza (an oxymoron, I know) with wings and broccoli for dinner tonight. I make more ranch sauce after last night’s success, and we eat in front of the telly and fireplace.
9.00 pm: We start season two of our TV series after last night’s thrilling double-bill.
10.15 pm: It’s off to bed to conclude another week.
Today’s total: €62.50 (€125/2)
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What I learned -
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