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 public servant on €44K living in Dublin. This week, a social care worker on €30K living in the Midlands.
I’m a social care worker in my 20s working in residential care. I am originally from the south east, however I moved up to the midlands to live with my boyfriend a few years ago. I worked full time up until last year, when I went relief as I was struggling and needed a change. I’m lucky that I do get consistent shifts as I’ve been with my company since I finished college, but I love having the option to pick my hours.
My boyfriend and I built a log cabin a while back on some family land. We saved hard while living at home and we paid the deposit from our savings and did a lot of the work ourselves. We borrowed the rest and we should have it paid off within two years. We are so fortunate as a lot of people in our age bracket are struggling and still living at home.
At the moment, I’m just trying to build back up my savings while also enjoying life! When it comes to money, I budget pretty well thanks to Revolut vaults. All the below figures are what I put into my Revolut vaults. Whatever is left over, I’ll put away for whatever I’m saving towards. My boyfriend and I also have a joint vault where we put money aside for any big unexpected expenses and for vet bills for our dog.
Occupation: Social care worker
Age: 20s
Location: Midlands
Salary: €30,000
Monthly pay (net): €2,200 (it changes each month depending on my hours)
Transport: €80.00
Rent: €650
Household bills: €80.00 (this is how much I save monthly)
Phone bill: €40
Groceries: €300
Subscriptions: €35
Vet bills: €75
House: €75 (We have a bit of decorating left to do)
Savings: €150
Birthdays/gifts: €50
Emergency fund: €30
Personal spending: €330
Travel: €60 (my parents and I are planning to go away soon)
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9.30 am: It’s the day after my birthday, so I have a lie in, which is unusual because our dog usually wakes us up around 8am! My partner took the day off so it’s nice to have the morning together. We head outside to play with our dog for half and hour.
1.00 pm: We leave the house and head to go food shopping – but we go for brunch first. I have a turkey sandwich and my partner has eggs benedict. He pays! We go food shopping in Dunnes and the total comes to €72.54. We usually split it, however I pay for this as we ended up going to Tesco afterwards and my partner paid for that.
4.00 pm: We get home and put all the shopping away. We do a few boring household chores and then bring our dog for a walk. We are lucky to live so close to a lovely walkway, so she has a nice run around and a swim and we get our steps in! We chat about the week we have ahead as I’m back to work tomorrow.
5.30 pm: We get back home and start prepping dinner together. We have jacket potatoes for dinner.
7.30 pm: We have the rest of my birthday cake with my partner’s family and we spend the evening chatting and drinking wine.
9.00 pm: I head to bed and scroll on TikTok while my partner plays his Xbox. He comes to bed around 10pm, we do the daily Wordle and head to sleep as we are both up early for work tomorrow.
Today’s total: €72.54
7.00 am: Alarm goes off, but I’m slow to get up this morning. I eventually get up, get ready and head to the train station. I bring a snack as I’ve a hour journey to get to work. I get on the train for 7.30am (€6.75). It’s quiet this morning so I put my AirPods in and listen to music and scroll on my phone for the hour.
8.30 am: I get to my destination and I grab a coffee for myself. Someone else’s card declined, so I paid for their coffee as well. That’s my good deed done for the day! It comes to €7.10 altogether. I get to work and get a handover of what’s been happening as I’ve been off for a while on annual leave.
12.00 pm: Quiet enough morning, I spend some time catching up with the staff and the kids. I plan an activity with one of the kids. We watch some TV for a while and play outside.
2.00 pm: I head off with one of the kids. We go for a walk in the local woods and have an ice cream on the way back. The house card pays for this so it costs me nothing.
5.00 pm: We have dinner in the house, watch TV and do a few chores around the house. I’m only on day shifts this week as opposed to 24-hour sleepover shifts. When I tell people I do 24-hour shifts, people seem horrified, but I genuinely enjoy my job and you do get used to them!
8.30 pm: I get the train home (€6.75) and I’m back in my house by 9.30pm. My partner and I sit and chat about our day and we finish off the wine we had left over from yesterday.
10.00 pm: We head to bed, do the Wordle and I’m asleep by half ten!
Today’s total: €20.60
9.00 am: My alarm goes off and I check my phone and scroll through TikTok. I let the dog out, I have a quick shower and throw on some comfy clothes for the day as I’ve no plans to go anywhere. I have a bagel for my breakfast and a cup of tea. I love having a slow morning.
12.00 pm: I play with our dog for half an hour. We come inside and she falls asleep while I start on some housework. For some reason, I get the urge to do a deep clean so I spend hours cleaning out the presses and do a deep clean of the house.
3.00 pm: My boyfriend rings me saying his Amazon parcel is a few stops away so I make a cup of tea, go out with the dog and sit on the porch while I wait for the driver to arrive. This is as exciting as my days off get! I grab the parcel and spend some time chatting with my mother-in-law who is heading out the gate. I then sit down and binge some Gilmore Girls.
6.00 pm: My boyfriend is finished work and is on the way home so I get started on dinner. It’s spaghetti and meatballs tonight. He gets home for half six, we sit down to have dinner and catch up on how our day has been. We recently found a card game we enjoy playing so we spend a while playing that.
8.00 pm: We head outside and play with our dog. She loves football so we have a kickabout for half an hour. She is a springer spaniel so she’s has endless energy! We do a lot of running around with her and after her.
9.00 pm: I head to bed while my boyfriend plays his Xbox. I scroll through social media for an hour. We do the Wordle and we go asleep. I find myself tossing and turning a lot tonight.
Today’s total: €0:00
10.00 pm: My alarm goes off and I cannot be bothered to get out of bed! I’ve a work meeting scheduled for 11am, but I keep pressing snooze and suddenly it’s almost 11am. I drag myself out of bed and get half ready. I keep my pajama bottoms on and throw a jumper on. I quickly log on and say hello to my team. We get through our agenda, however a few things have cropped up so we spend a lot of time planning interventions.
1.00 pm: The meeting ends and I make some lunch. I am starving at this point! It was a heavy meeting. The weather is shocking today, so I’m raging I can’t get out for a walk! Our dog spends most of the day snuggled beside me as she hates the rain.
4.00 pm: I check my bank account and see I got paid early! I set aside all the figures I’ve mentioned above into my vaults. I had €220 left over in my account so I split it and I put €110 away for my boyfriend’s birthday and I put the other half away for a trip I have coming up in October. Speaking of that trip, I ring my boyfriend and he buys the flights to London, I send him the €30 for my flights.
6.00 pm: Boyfriend is on the way home so I make some salmon and baby potatoes with veg for dinner. We have dinner, play the card game we played last night, take the dog out for a run and then I scroll on my phone while he plays Xbox for the evening.
10.00 pm: We head to bed and do the Wordle. Chat for an hour and then fall asleep.
Today’s total: €30.00
9.30 am: My alarm goes off and to my surprise, I don’t press snooze! I scroll through my notifications and there is nothing of great importance after coming through. I get up, have a shower and get ready for the day. I make a bagel for breakfast and I sit down to watch Love is Blind UK. I love this show!
2.30 pm: Our dog has a vet appointment and the vet recommends getting her bloods done to rule any infections out. Our dog can become quite reactive at the vets so it’s a struggle to get them done. We rescued her a few months back and the vet recommended we bring her to behaviorist. We wait ages for the vet to come out with her results and medication. We bring her on an walk while we are waiting. The total bill comes to €152. We take the money out of our joint vet bill vault.
4.00 pm: We head out for dinner after deciding on Zambrero. I pay and it comes to €27 all together. We decide to do a food shop today as I’m working a 36hr shift this weekend.
5.00 pm: We head to out shopping and go to Dunnes. We avail of the Deposit Return Scheme so we brought our bottles back and got €9.50 in vouchers. We do our shop and the total comes to €120. We use our Dunnes vouchers with the Deposit Return voucher and another one we had for €30. Our new total is €61. This is your sign to use the Deposit Return Scheme!
6.00 pm: We finally get home and put all our shopping away. We sit down to watch a film and share a bottle of wine. Afterwards, I pack my work bag.
9.00 pm: I opt for an early night as I’ve a long weekend ahead of me!
Today’s total: €240.00
8.15 am: The alarm goes off and I press snooze. The alarm goes off again, so this time I get up and shower. I get ready and head out the door. I get to work around half nine and have breakfast there before spending some time with the kids.
2.00 pm: We take the kids on a group activity. This kills a few hours!
6.00 pm: We have dinner and we all play a few board games and watch a film. I then do some paperwork.
11.30 pm: Paperwork over and it’s time for bed. I am so tired! I never sleep well on shift, so hopefully I can get a decent sleep in.
Today’s total: €0.00
8.45 am: I didn’t manage to get a good sleep so I decide to get up a bit early and a few bits of cleaning around the house. No one is awake so I take advantage of the quiet time and make some tea and sit down.
9.30 am: The staff on shift with me arrives and we start on our morning bits. We have a catch-up as I haven’t seen her in a while!
3.30 pm: I take two of the kids off and we go for a walk and get some snacks for later.
7.00 pm: We have dinner, play some Connect 4 and have the chats. I love these type of evenings with the kids as in a few years, they will be too busy hanging out with friends!
9.00 pm: I finish off a few paperwork bits and it’s home time for me.
10.00 pm: I get home, shower and get ready for bed. I get straight into bed and we do the Wordle. Pretty sure I’m asleep within minutes.
Today’s total: €0.00
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What I learned –
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