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 sales manager on €240K living in Dublin with her partner and their three dogs. This week, a 25-year-old trainee accountant on €30K living in Dublin.
I am a 25-year-old trainee accountant and I have been living in Dublin for the last seven years. I currently live with my partner and one of my friends from my hometown. I am studying for my Final Admittance Exams, and I will be a qualified accountant by this time next year. In true accountant fashion, I have a (very) detailed excel budget workbook where I have all of my expenses, income, debt, and savings split out for each month since February 2021. I have been following these stories for a while on Money Diaries and I thought that I would share a week in my life.
Since the pandemic, I have found that I am more willing to spend money on experiences rather than save for a new phone, and going to a restaurant or coffee shop rather than staying at home. I enjoy sea swimming and I love that it has become more popular since the series of unfortunate lockdowns. I cycle primarily to get from A to B or to do my weekly shop – the new lanes in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown have been such a blessing! I enjoy urban planning and I have been designing my own ideal city for the last few years one bit at a time – I will probably never finish it as I do not have the free time that I did when I was a teenager. I made a New Years’ resolution to not take any flights where reasonably possible so I am planning a mini interrailing trip across Western Europe in April (it will be my first time abroad since 2018).
On an average month, I put away about €200 – €300 in savings. I have two credit cards (one is a student one with a small limit of €750 and the other is for emergencies, or once-off spending and the limit is €2,500) and I usually knock about €300 – €400 off a month. My smaller credit card is used for monthly bills and subscriptions. I have allocated monthly general spending money via my excel budget workbook and I also allocate money for my weekly grocery shopping too.
Occupation: Trainee accountant
Age: 25
Location: Dublin
Salary: €30,000
Monthly pay (net): €2,070
Transport: €20 on trips to visit my mam, and about €15 on general trips as I primarily cycle
Rent: €700 (my share)
Household bills: €90 (ESB, gas, and WiFi)
Phone bill: €30
Health insurance: €0
Pension: €62.50 paid by me per month, €275 paid by employer per month
Groceries: €200
Subscriptions: €5 – IrishCycle.com, €7 – MS Office, €2 – Google One, €13 – Netflix (split with partner), €17.99 – Spotify (split in family plan so works out €3 per month),
Flexible payment plans: €65.17 for my laptop (until next June) and €72.74 for my treadmill (the payments don’t start until next month)
***
7.45 am: I wake up and start work for the day. I usually start at 9 am but we are in the midst of overtime season, so I have to work earlier and later than usual.
10.30 am: I order breakfast from a nearby café because it’s Monday and I’m surviving on four hours of sleep so why not treat myself? (€9.50) I eat this during work so that I can take a longer lunch to go for a walk.
1.00 pm: I walk to the shop and grab milk and a box of smokes (€15.70). I know it’s a bad habit, but it is what it is for now.
2.00 pm: Back to work – some minor tasks, emails to action and calls to take for the rest of the afternoon.
5.00 pm: Small break for a cup of tea before heading back to work – doesn’t look like I will be done before 8 pm tonight. My partner has suggested getting a takeaway but there’s a potato gratin with bacon in the fridge that expires tomorrow so it might be best to save the takeaway money for another night.
10.00 pm: Just finished work for the day. Surprisingly not too tired thanks to a strong coffee I made at 7 pm. It’s time for a bit of TV and drawing – this helps me to unwind so that I am not spending too much time on screens.
11.30 pm: TV is off and time to get ready for bed.
Today’s total: €25.20
8.50 am: Later start to the day today – I make a cup of tea and start work.
12.00 pm: I have a meeting during lunch so I make a quick cup-of-soup to stop my stomach from growling at me.
2.00 pm: I shower and then take a quick walk to one of the local coffee shops and grab an oat milk latte (€3.70) and treat myself to a large cookie (€2.80). I call my mam to see how she is and then video call my brother on the walk back.
2.30 pm: Back to work for the afternoon – the walk has really lifted my spirits (or perhaps the cookie did, it’s hard to tell).
5.00 pm: Another meeting – will not be done early this evening either.
7.00 pm: Partner has just got back from work and I have finished work too – he is on overtime as well today so we’re picking today as Takeaway Day. I paid for the takeaway last week so he has kindly offered to pay for this one (I cannot remember if I did pay for last week’s takeaway or not but it’s a free takeaway, so I won’t question it).
9.00 pm: We are watching Netflix and switching back-and-forth with NowTV to find out what to watch. We settle on Snowpiercer and then South Park.
12.00 am: I may as well have insomnia because I am always exhausted but then I cannot sleep when it comes to bedtime – either way, it is time to force myself to go to bed.
Today’s total: €6.50
8.30 am: I am in an unusually happy mood this morning before I realise that it’s payday! I have been paid about €400 more than I usually take in (above) so I put €250 into savings and pay €600 off the credit cards.
11.00 am: As I stated in my bio, I am booking a mini interrailing trip to visit my friends in France this April. My New Year’s resolution was to cut back on air travel so I’m boating and training it to the South of France. The ticket for all trains is €235 which I pay immediately.
1.00 pm: I walk to the shop to get a few essentials and a box of smokes – I have not finished my other box but it’s nice to be prepared for tomorrow (€17.40). I plan on eating lunch at home but I misread the expiry date on the turkey burger, so I head to the nearest coffee shop to get a sandwich and coffee. They weren’t doing sandwiches today so I get a coffee (€3.50) and said I would get a sandwich in the shop I was heading to anyways. The queue is big for the deli, so in frustration, I order a Mad Egg (€15) on Deliveroo.
2.00 pm: Back to work for the afternoon; overtime is coming to an end today! Just tying up loose ends now.
6.00 pm: I finish up work for the day and turn my attention to my budget – I have to enter in my current expenses so that they can pull into an analysis sheet for me to “learn from” for future months. I also need to label some items as ‘Processed’ so that the balances on my credit card update and then I tie these back to my actual bank balance. This is my life now… and I love it.
8.00 pm: I start boiling some beef for a stew that I am cooking for tomorrow. After having a large lunch, I don’t particularly feel like a big dinner. So, my partner makes himself something small and I just make a toasted sandwich.
9.00 pm: Doing some laundry and cleaning the kitchen – the wall is a bit murky, so I take out the paint our neighbours have loaned to us (all of our walls are the same shade of cream, it’s so handy) and begin patching over some noticeable areas.
11.00 pm: I go to lie down in bed but, surprise, I can’t sleep and I eventually drift off somewhere close to 1 am.
Today’s total: €270.90
8.50 am: I wake up and start work. My good mood is cut abruptly short when I receive the electric bill for our apartment – €694! Turns out we were undercharged for a year and a half. Luckily we can spread the payments over the year and incur no cost today.
11.30 am: I am still working away but the busy period has all but ended. I send across my portion of the rent (€700) to my partner as it comes from his account. I have put the beef stew on again after leaving it overnight and let it simmer away.
1.00 pm: On my lunch, I decide to order the shopping. Usually, I do the shopping on my bike but one of my baskets broke and I do not drive so it suits us to get it delivered. My share comes to €44.50 which is not bad considering we have all of our meals sorted until next Thursday. I also finish preparing the beef stew and eat that for my lunch.
2.00 pm: Back to work – it does not look to be too busy so I might get off at 5 pm or 6 pm.
5.00 pm: Woohoo – first normal finish in three weeks! I cannot remember what I used to do in the evenings so I just do some of the Nerdle and Wordle puzzles from the archive website.
7.00 pm: One of my friends from college calls over for a cup of tea and a catch up. We were going to go to the local coffee shop but it’s miserable outside, so we stay in mine.
8.30 pm: Exhaustion has gotten the better of me, so I go for a tiny nap (about 45 minutes). I will soon learn that it was a massive mistake.
11.00 pm: Head back to bed but cannot go back to sleep – I start to plan my trip abroad in my head until I drift off two hours later.
Today’s total: €744.50
8.50 am: I start my day and work is lovely and quiet today. It feels like the peace that comes after you finish your last exam.
10.30 am: My mam comes up to see me. My mam offered to clean our apartment for us once every two weeks to help me and my partner out when we were working a lot and we pay her €45 for the day (€15 is my share).
12.00 pm: I bring my mam over to one of the coffee shops nearby and we get a coffee each and a large treat (€12). We go for a short walk and catch up with one another.
1.00 pm: Mam starts to clean and I return to work. It is very quiet so I start tidying up the files on my laptop (I regret saving everything down on my desktop screen over the last two months).
3.00 pm: After a team call, I put a steak on the grill and cut it up to make a steak and rocket panini with pepper sauce for myself and mam.
5.00 pm: Finished with work, I sit down with my mam and we watch TV and chat about the dogs and my brother.
7.00 pm: Mam and I eat scones and drink tea (reading that back it sounds a lot posher than it looked) and we get the Dart to town so she can get her Bus Éireann bus home. I top up my Leap card by €5 to get me back home as I already had some money on it (the 90-minute fare has made everything so much easier).
8.00 pm: I grab an oat milk latte (€3.40) and make my way to the bus home.
10.30 pm: There is no nonsense tonight – I fall immediately into a deep sleep.
Today’s total: €35.40
10.00 am: Early start to the day as my friends and I are heading to a swimming spot outside of Dalkey. The weather made it too treacherous to go swimming, so my friend takes some photos for his company (he makes sustainable, natural deodorant named after the Vico baths so it’s a perfect time to take pictures!).
11.00 am: We pop into our favourite nearby restaurant and get some brunch (€15.60) and I pop into a shop to grab some smokes (€14).
1.00 pm: I get home but I accidentally climb back into bed and fall asleep – for five and a half hours.
7.00 pm: After a quick shower, my partner and I have dinner that he made the night previous and watch movies together.
11.00 pm: The exhaustion of the past few weeks must have built up as I am ready for sleep again!
Today’s total: €29.60
11.00 am: I have never felt more rested in my entire life. I put the TV in the kitchen on to hear about current events whilst I prepare my breakfast (I try to limit the amount of news I consume to just the morning time, it’s overwhelming to be constantly switched on all of the time).
1.30 pm: Partner and I head out to Dundrum to go for a little shop. I pick up a small number of clothes (€90) that I like and I get some milk and bread (€3.20). Since the clothes are a one-off, I use the credit card for that purchase.
3.30 pm: We grab a coffee and a pastry (partner gets these) and then head home.
5.00 pm: I cook chilli and lime chicken breasts with some potatoes for us to have for dinner. We had initially planned to go into town for a walk but the weather is not going in our favour so we sit down for a while.
7.30 pm: I clean up the kitchen and put the dishwasher on, and my partner makes a start on the ironing. I book a desk in the office for tomorrow as I am meeting up with a friend for coffee and a catch up.
10.30 pm: I get ready for bed but, of course, I don’t actually end up falling asleep until 1 am or shortly after.
Today’s total: €93.20
***
What I learned –
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say