WELCOME TO HOW I Spend My Money, a series on The Journal that looks at how people in Ireland really handle their finances. 

Are you a spender, a saver or a splurger? 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. 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 head chef on €43K living and working in Dublin and saving towards starting their own business. This week, a follow-up diary from a fintech worker on €65K living in Dublin. 

This is a follow-up to my beer-soaked, concert-filled Money Diary last year.

I’m happy to report that life is good! I’m still a feckless child, but things are going in the right direction. I got a promotion and a nice pay bump in work at the start of the year, which has more than offset, for me, the rise in the cost of living, thankfully. It’s also allowed me to ramp up my savings a bit. 

In terms of my 2026 savings goals, it’s all up in the air at the minute. Provisionally, I’m aiming to bank €16,000 this year – €10,000 into my savings account and €6,000 for my pension. I intend to make a ~€10,000 Additional Voluntary Contribution (AVC) to max out my pension contributions and I’ll get ~€4,000 back to me in January as a sweet, sweet tax refund… when did I become the old guy obsessed with the tax benefits of pensions?

I say ‘provisionally’ here as my partner and I are looking into buying a place of our own. We’re in no major rush and are both enjoying our current situation. However, we have our approval-in-principle in the back pocket and an ever-increasing deposit, so we are ready to pounce if a property that ticks all our boxes comes on the market.

In the hunt for a couple of extra euros, I have the bulk of my savings sitting across Trade Republic and Trading212 (as uninvested funds, zero risk – I don’t like risk) to avail of their current 2.25% and 3.5% respective interest rates. This will work out at about €1,500 for the year. I also continue to engage in risk-free matched/spread betting (although far, far away from my bank statements considering the mortgage approval process). On course for around €3,500 this year. Better in my pocket than with the bookies.

Occupation: Fintech

Age: 33

Location: Dublin

Salary: €65,360

Monthly pay (net): €3,900

Monthly expenses

Rent: €800 – very, very thankful for a very, very nice rate

Gas + electricity: €100 – I top up my meters by €50 every month. It builds up during the summer to give me and my BER-exempt palace a buffer in the winter

Bins: €22.50 – on a completely unrelated note, the Panda is my least favourite kind of bear

Transport: €75-ish – Leap Card costs for my couple of days in the office each week

Phone bill: €15 – why isn’t everyone on Tesco pay-as-you-go?

Gym: €30 – this is included as part of my GAA club membership. I have not darkened the door of our gym in many a month

Health + dental insurance: €350 – have taken this out for myself and my partner. Paid as a benefit-in-kind by my employer so it’s really only costing me the extra €175-ish in income tax. As far as I understand, I’ll be able to claim back €400 relief in my tax return next year, plus it will allow me to make a bigger AVC

Pension: €271 – 5% of my salary, the maximum which my employer will match, and then I will make the big AVC at the start of next year (house deposit/renovations/furnishing dependent)

Groceries: €150 – relatively low as I continue to lean heavily on the office kitchen (how many protein bars can one man eat?) and packing my freezer with stuff from the reduced section of my local supermarket

Subscriptions: Spotify Duo (€18.99), Revolut Premium (€7.50), the42.ie (€3.50), Second Captains (€6.15)

Mammy: €216.67 (€50 per week) – never forget your mammy

***

Monday

8.00am: It’s a beautiful morning on the Algarve as sunlight sneaks through the curtains of a preposterously boujee boutique hotel. It’s the final day of myself and my partner’s summer holidays and we have rounded off our trip in southern Portugal’s best impression of The White Lotus. It’s far from bedroom bathtubs and balcony hammocks I was raised on, but I’m coping well.

10.00am: Breakfast is fancy bacon, fancy eggs and fancy toast, along with some fancy coffee and fancy orange juice. The portions are tiny to appease the waif-like Americans dotted around the patio, but no amount of Catholic guilt will stop me ordering double portions. Sure, breakfast is included.

11.00am: Back to the room to pack everything away before heading down to spend our last afternoon by the pool.

1.00pm: Notice that the direct debit for my bins is about to come out and it is almost triple what it usually is. I realise that I have full creative control over this diary and could just ignore this part but, in the interests of accuracy and transparency, I must admit that I rang my provider to ask why. My contract is up. I manage to negotiate them down to just €22.50 – a tenner increase. I wash this poolside bargaining down with some sunny beers (€6).

1.15pm: Sizzle by the pool for another few hours as I motor through my book – London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe. Very good. Only started it yesterday evening, but won’t be long finishing it.

4.00pm: Head out for a late lunch: a stream of different-flavoured delicious empanadas to fuel our journey home. (€36.10)

6.00pm: Off to the airport. Partner picks up the Uber and it’s time to say goodbye to Portugal – although not before a quick airport beer (€7.30) and a long wait in a sweaty, stationary bus before our flight.

12.00am: After another chunk of my book and a neck-breaking nap, we land safely back in Dublin and grab a taxi (€52) back to my place.

1.00am: Arrive home to complete darkness. The meter is in a negative balance. Great planning. Top up €50 and fall into bed and straight to sleep.

Today’s total: €173.90

Tuesday

8.00am: Back to reality. Give myself an extra bit of time as I know everything will be in slow motion this morning.

8.45am: Make it to the train station and realise I need to top up my Leap card (€20). Great planning, again. Hop on the train and open up my Slack and email accounts. Oh my God. 

10.00am: Arrive at the office and am reunited with my beloved protein bars as I continue to try and catch up on everything I’ve missed. 

1.00pm: Following this crash course, I meet my partner for a post-holiday blues lunch. She gets me a much-appreciated spice bag to lift the spirits. An actual saint.

4.00pm: With my will to live diminishing – and knowing that I’ll be messaging back and forth with American colleagues for the next few hours – I elect to bunk off for the earlier train home.

6.00pm: My house is in a state after the customary last-minute rush out the door to the airport a week ago, so I hunker down and give the place a proper tidy and listen to some podcasts.

9.30pm: Sit down to finally finish my book, a punchy true crime mystery. Would recommend. Follow this up with something punchy of a completely different sort – the latest episode of Reacher. Alan Ritchson has not yet found a problem his biceps cannot solve. Would also recommend. 

2.00am: Following a holiday of early nights, I’m straight back into my awful sleep schedule.

Today’s total: €20.00

Wednesday

9.00am: Much-needed lie-in today. Working from home as I have blood tests. Have a coffee and respond to some emails and Slacks before my couple of hours off.

10.00am: Top up my phone (€15) and head out to the medical centre. After a bit of a wait, I’m in and out in a matter of seconds. The tests will come to €20 once I get my health insurance refund. While I’m out, I pop to the shops to pick up some food for the rest of the week. Offset by a few weeks’ worth of bottles and cans that I returned, it comes to a total of €11.98.

12.00pm: At this stage, I’m absolutely starving, so make myself a sausage bap and get back to work. Lots of calls this afternoon and the (half-)day, thankfully, flies by.

5.30pm: Clock off and, having put it off all summer, have a personal mini-fashion show where I try on every suit I own ahead of a wedding next weekend. Post-holidays may not have been the best timing in terms of waistline, but I sort something out.

6.00pm: I’m running the Belfast Half Marathon on Sunday and am into the very final stages of training. Had a slightly tight hamstring during my boozy taper week in Portugal but it’s feeling good now, and I bash out a quick little 3k. Aiming nervously for a PB and have changed my phone’s screensaver to a list of all the split timings I need to hit – this is perhaps the most ‘high performance’ thing I have ever done in my life.

7.30pm: Walk down to the Gaelic club to watch our ladies footballers in their big Championship match. There’s a huge crowd at the match, which is great to see, and they get to witness a nail-biting win in an absolute barnstormer (the new rules make the sport so much better to watch). 

9.00pm: Drop into my brother’s on the way home and my legend of a sister-in-law hands me a big bowl of pasta that may keep me going until Friday. I wonder if the Mikados I scoff down afterwards also count as carb-loading.

10.00pm: Home and into bed. The Reacher season finale is out! I wonder if he is going to save the day against impossible odds. Who knows? No spoilers. 

2.00am: After a lot of scrolling and YouTube, I finally fall asleep. Why do I do this to myself?

Today’s total: €46.98

Thursday

8.30am: Wake up and quickly swallow down a cup of coffee and a protein bar before getting the train into town.

10.00am: Arrive to the office and log straight into a virtual workshop with our industry body. Normally, for something remote like this, I’d have stayed at home – but lunch is being ordered in and I am not a man to turn down a free lunch.

12.30pm: Have a deliciously free chicken parm and catch up with some of my coworkers.

1.30pm: For what feels like the first time in ages, I have a clear afternoon with no calls, so I get the head down and do a good bit of actual work. Shocking.

5.30pm: Clock off and make my way back to my mam’s house. Between her holidays and mine, we haven’t seen each other in a good while. Afraid that I am not feeding myself sufficiently, she provides me with a seemingly endless burrito bowl for dinner as we put the world to rights.

9.30pm: Land back at my house and get some committee work done for the GAA club, as well as planning for the morning. Aiming to do my final training run before starting work and hope that leaving out my gear will shame me into doing so.

Related Reads

Money Diaries: A chef on €43K living and working in Dublin

Money Diaries: An IT consultant on €76.5K living in the southeast of the country

Money Diaries: An administrative officer on €55K living in Dublin

1.00am: After an episode of Fightland (an extremely stupid show which hits the spot tonight), I fall asleep.

Today’s total: €0.00

Friday

8.30am: Shockingly, I’m up early enough to go for my run. 3k of intervals in the bag and that is my half-marathon training plan complete. Not confident I’ll break my PB on Sunday, but at least I put the work in.

9.30am: Coffee and protein bar in hand, I join a work call with some very important heads. All the adults in my team are on leave, so I am somehow the point of contact for people today. Worrying.

12.00pm: It’s actually relatively breezy today in work, so I mix dialling into calls and responding to messages with some housework like the multitasking king I am. Also send my ma her few quid (€50).

4.00pm: My partner is over today and I can’t in good conscience subject her to a gym-bro microwave ready meal so I go to the shops to pick up actual food. While there, I pretend I’m on an episode of Extreme Couponing and combine lots of deals and use loads of vouchers to stock up my toiletries press and get some junk food (intended for Sunday, but likely to be eaten tonight). Total comes to €43.61 for about €60-worth of stuff. Satisfying.

6.00pm: Dinner is, if I do say so myself, some delicious fish tacos. One of my few specialities.

8.00pm: Quiet evening considering the big weekend ahead. We start watching the alternate-history show For All Mankind and are instantly bet into it.

11.00pm: Asleep at a normal hour. My partner is an incredibly good influence.

Today’s total: €93.61

Saturday

8.30am: Up early for a mates’ rates before-hours haircut (€10). Hopefully this will give me an aerodynamic boost tomorrow. Every little helps.

10.00am: After dragging my partner out of bed, we go across to the bakery to meet a friend. Lots of pastries and coffees (€29.30) later, we head home to get ready for Belfast.

12.30pm: On the road north. We’ve to head to the convention centre to pick up race packs. We were initially due to run together but, unfortunately, my partner has had to pull out with a frustrating niggle and is instead now in a much-appreciated coach/support role. Grab the race pack, pay for parking (£3.80/€4.43), spin around the city for a bit and then make our way to the accommodation.

4.00pm: My partner has sorted the Airbnb, so I’m looking after the food this weekend. First up is a big burrito bowl (£25.45/€29.70) and then we pick up some supplies (I wish fifteens were a thing down south) in the newsagents. (£10.48/€12.21)

6.30pm: Take a long, leisurely walk into town to stretch the legs. We’re meeting friends for some dinner in a funky pizza place where the ‘fuelling’ will continue. Our half comes to £37.50/€43.72, then it’s a taxi (£10/€11.66) back to the accommodation.

10.00pm: Into bed and doze off to an episode of For All Mankind.

Today’s total: €141.02

Sunday

7.45am: Awake and ready to voluntarily inflict pain upon myself in return for smug satisfaction and Strava kudos. My elite athlete breakfast is some potato waffles, ibuprofen, black coffee and a white Monster. Let’s go.

8.45am: Get to the start line and, thankfully, the weather is perfect. I learnt recently about the ‘Fun Scale’. This is very much ‘Type 2’ fun – miserable while it’s happening, but fun in retrospect.

10.45am: Personal Best! Started strong, overcame a rough spot at about 10k (needed to switch from podcasts to heavy metal bangers and the Rocky soundtrack) and managed to cling on for a 44-second PB. 

12.00pm: After some photos (it’s always such a lovely buzz at the finish area) and a hobble to the car, we’re on the road back to Dublin. My stomach is not ready for proper food, so we pick up some snacks (£10.47/€12.18) in a petrol station. Colin the Caterpillar never tasted so good.

2.30pm: Arrive back and take a quick shower before heading across to the Gaelic club to watch the men’s team in Championship action. Top up my bar card (€20) to avail of the discounted members’ pints and have two of the nicest Guinness I’ve ever drunk.

4.30pm: One spirited defeat later, it’s time for some food and, in a full-circle moment, we’re back to spicebags. (€20)

6.00pm: Burning the last vestiges of my energy, we meet a friend in the pub for a couple of drinks. My round is €13.90. Standing up afterwards is not fun, but the throbbing pain in my heel is next week’s problem.

8.00pm: Back to the house and unashamedly into bed to watch some For All Mankind and devour a tub of Ben and Jerry’s.

10.30pm: Asleep/unconscious. Have booked tomorrow off work, so I may not leave this bed until Tuesday.

Today’s total: €66.08

Weekly subtotal: €541.59

Interest payments: €46.91

Matched betting: €43.93

Weekly total: €450.75

***

What I learned -

• Definitely spent more this week than a regular week, but it’s been accounted for in all my budgeting.
• The cost of living has gone up. I definitely notice it in my utility bills and groceries. Events and trips cost an increasing amount of money but, to be honest, it’s still worth it for me and I can – thankfully – still afford it. I need regular things to look forward to – I’d go insane otherwise. It can also be free things, too, like going to local matches. It’s good to stay busy.
• Interested to learn more about the government’s new ISA scheme. I won’t be availing of it ahead of my pension, regardless, but it could be a good option for anything I have left over.
• Any gaffs going?