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 project manager on €46K living in Co Galway. This week, an arts project manager on €52K living in the west of the country who, despite earning more than they ever have, is struggling to make ends meet. 

I live in a rural village in the west with my teenage son. Despite earning more money than I ever have before, I’m poorer than I’ve been in decades. I’m living week to week, dreading anything going wrong that might cause additional expenses. I used to have a house full of everything a family could need, but when the landlord told us he was selling, I had to give most of my belongings and all my furniture to charity. My son and daughter had to live with their father as I couldn’t find a house I could afford to rent for all of us. I became one of the ‘hidden homeless’ people in Ireland, living in other people’s spare rooms for two years. A few months ago, I finally found a place to live for me and my son. It’s very rural and far away from my work, which makes my travel costs expensive, but it’s the only place I could find available to rent in my price range.

It’s been expensive having to kit out a house again, and very frustrating as I’m having to buy cheap versions of all the lovely good-quality stuff I owned a few years ago. I’m waiting on child benefit, moving it from my ex to me is taking Social Welfare a long time to sort. After rent, bills, food etc, I have €150 left each month to put aside for home heating oil/car maintenance/clothing/doctors, and anything additional. I’ve had so many extra expenses like moving costs, household items, school uniforms, school fees etc since I moved to the house that I haven’t managed to put aside any money at all yet.

I don’t have any media subscriptions, I listen to podcasts on Pocketcast which is free, I listen to music on YouTube through the Brave browser which cuts out the ads, and I often borrow books from the library. I mostly cook from scratch, maybe having a takeaway once or twice a year. My house is often full of teenage boys so I bake several times a week – cakes, biscuits, and tray-bakes, as they get hoovered up fast by all the lads. In my spare time, I make art, write, sew clothes and read.

Occupation: Arts project manager

Age: 49

Location: West of Ireland

Salary: €52,700

Monthly pay (net): €3,090

Monthly expenses

Rent: €1,500

Diesel: €320

Son’s Leap card: €30

Electricity: €120

Bins: €28

Mine and my son’s phone bills: €26

Car loan: €93

Car insurance: €53

Union fees: €9

Groceries: €500

Money given to support older children who are young adults on low wages: €100-€200

Teen son’s spending money: €100

Google Drive: €1.99

Bank fees: €4

***

Monday

11.00am: Today is my Sunday as I worked on Saturday, so I’m off today. My partner is visiting for the weekend, so we stay in bed talking for a while, then we meditate for 50 minutes. We’re both tired as we’ve both been doing lots of travel for work and it’s a busy time of year for us both (he also works in the arts).

12.00pm: We get up and I have a herbal tea. I make us French toast with bacon and berries for breakfast as we’ve leftover tiger bread that needs to be eaten. I give the leftover mixture to my cat who loves French toast mixture!

12.45pm: After a leisurely brunch, I go to get dressed and my partner cleans the kitchen. It’s a crisp but sunny day so we decide to go to a nearby stately home and walk in their woods. Before we leave, I pay my rent which is due today. (€1,500)

1.15pm: We arrive at the visitor centre and my partner pays for us both to enter. We walk around the visitor centre and the gardens and then stop for a coffee at the café which my partner pays for as he knows I don’t have much money.

1.50pm: We go for a long walk in the woods. It’s a gorgeous day and we spot loads of interesting mushrooms. I wish I knew what ones were safe to eat, but sadly I don’t and I’d be worried I’d poison us if I tried to learn how to forage.

3.15pm: We head into the nearest town and I go to a shop where I think they might sell silicon moulds. I’ve been Instagram influenced to try and make sugar-free immune-support gummies. I have all the ingredients at home but I don’t have a mould. I’m a bit annoyed as I used to have a wonderful mould collection, but I couldn’t afford to store all my belongings when we lost the house. I buy two small moulds for €3.99 and a dustpan for €3.50 as the one I own already doesn’t pick anything up.

3.40pm: We stop at the supermarket on the way home and I buy some groceries, which come to €45.11.

4.30pm: We arrive back at my place and my son isn’t well, so I tell him I’ll make him some chicken noodle soup from the leftover roast chicken we had. I make the chicken soup and I also make a French onion soup before having a go at making the gummies. I also make a fruit salad, though I end up having to compost most of the fruit as despite being bought in the last few days, the nectarines are rotten inside and the pineapple has also gone off. I hate food wastage so I feel a bit annoyed at the poor quality of the fruit, and the waste of money too.

6.30pm: I sit down finally to eat my soup – I went for the French onion soup and some fresh bread. My partner is finishing up some work so I check in on my son and then spend some time on Instagram while I wait for my partner to finish up.

7.00pm: We watch the final two episodes of Black Snow on my partner’s laptop. I don’t have a monitor or a TV and I mostly watch TV shows when I’m with my partner. We both have a small bowl of fruit salad while we watch. After the episodes, we both shower and head up to bed where we start another series: War.

11.45pm: It’s late but we decide to meditate. The meditation is 50 minutes long and I find I can’t sleep after it, I feel too energised. I eventually put on some white noise and that helps me get to sleep.

Today’s total: €1,552.60

Tuesday

7.10am: My alarm comes on and I decide to go to work a bit later today, so I reset it.

8.00am: I get up and wake my son. He’s still not feeling well so we agree he can stay in bed for the day. Hopefully he’ll be okay after some rest. I check my gummies and I’m disappointed to discover they’re more like jelly than gummies. I make myself half of a sachet latte, and I eat some of the fruit salad with yoghurt, granola and flaked almonds. While I eat, I research how to make gummies. I’m amused that I got suckered in by an Instagram recipe reel again that hasn’t delivered on the promise – it’s made me determined to nail making them! I put down some additional ingredients onto my list; I might try and get to the shops during my lunchtime.

8.30am: I get dressed while listening to a podcast about writing; I’m halfway through writing a book, and I like to listen to other writers talking about their process; it inspires me to keep working on my story. I pack some homemade biscuits and a container of chicken noodle soup for lunch.

8.50am: We drive to my work, and I say goodbye to my partner who is off to Dublin for work. I’ll see him again in about two weeks.

9.40am: I’ve been out of the office for three days, so I spend the morning catching up on the dozens of emails in my inbox, catching up with all my colleagues and making a to-do list based on all the emails. I find out an exhibition I curated has been messed with, which means I’ll have to get to the venue to check it today or tomorrow. My son messages me and says he needs new shoes, and he’s found a pair of waterproof shoes on a second-hand site for €50 including postage. I Revolut him €50 to buy them.

1.00pm: I’m not that hungry, so I go in search of my gummy ingredients, hoping some fresh air will make me want my lunch. I buy pectin and carrageen moss at the health food shop for €10.50, then I go to Penneys to buy my son a dressing gown and some fluffy socks. He’s growing fast and seems to need new stuff often. I’m trying to ration the heating to an hour a day at the moment, so making him warm is a priority. The clothes for my son come to €19.30. I nip into a supermarket as I forgot to buy veg for tonight’s dinner, so I spend €3.79 there.

1.30pm: I eat chicken noodle soup and read a murder mystery book for the rest of my lunch break.

1.45pm: I have a few meetings and an online training course. I eat a few of my homemade biscuits around 3.30 pm when I need a sugar rush.

5.30pm: I go to the library near my work to borrow another book as I know I’ll finish the one I have out soon.

5.40pm: I drive home, listening to the No Such Thing as a Fish podcast. It’s cold, wet and miserable, and the podcast makes me laugh.

6.15pm: The house is freezing cold, so I put the heating on for an hour. I’m really hungry now. I have some chicken I need to cook, so I make chicken with a mushroom and peppercorn sauce, using some of my French onion soup as a base for the sauce. I have steamed veg with it. My son is still a bit sick, so he chooses to eat the chicken noodle soup again.

7.00pm: We have dinner together, and then I have another go at the gummy making. I’ve never used these ingredients before, so I follow what the woman in the health food shop said to do. Using the leftover ginger from the gummy mixture, I bake a ginger loaf cake. Then I clean the kitchen and the floors and put away the washing.

9.05pm: I contemplate starting a sewing project, and I go through my fabric stash to see if I have anything suitable to make what I’m thinking of. I realise I’m too tired to start anything, so I have a shower instead.

9.15pm: My son and I watch a (free) movie together on my laptop, then I read a fantasy novel on my Kindle in bed.

11.45pm: I fall asleep fast; I’m so tired.

Today’s total: €83.59

Wednesday

7.10am: I make my half sachet latte and some toast with honey for breakfast. I wake my son to see if he’s feeling ok for school. I check my gummies and discover they’re less set than the ones I made the night before!

7.30am: I decide to wear some trousers I made, but they need a belt. I can’t find my bag of belts anywhere; I still haven’t fully sorted all my stuff since the move. I eventually give up and decide to wear a skirt and tights, but when I pull out my bag of tights, I find a few belts in amongst the tights, so I go back to my original plan of wearing the trousers – but I have wasted a lot of time, and I’m going to be later for work than I’d planned!

8.45am: I drive to work, listening to another writing podcast.

9.25am: I make myself a herbal tea at work before going into a meeting, then I go to the exhibition venue to check on the work.

11.00am: I make another cuppa and eat a piece of my ginger cake. It’s yummy, but not as amazing as the last one I made. I might have to invest in a weighing scale as I’ve been eyeballing all my recipes since I got the house.

11.10am: I’m at my desk answering emails and organising projects.

12.45pm: I eat my lunch (leftover dinner from last night) and finish the murder mystery. I’ll be able to start the new one now. I look up ideas for dinners for the next few nights on the New York Times Cooking site. I make a shopping list during lunch and look up gummy recipes (I haven’t decided if I’ll give it another go or draw a line under my failures). My work colleague is going to a lovely bakery for her lunch, and I ask her to buy me a sourdough while she’s there. I Revolut her €5.50 for it.

1.15pm: Back to work. My son contacts me to ask for money because he wants to go to the town his girlfriend lives in, and he needs to buy some stuff for school. I send him €30 on Revolut.

4.25pm: I decide to leave work a bit early – I’m owed loads of time, so I can be a bit flexible with my work hours this week. I go to the service station to fill my car, stop the pump at €70. I then head to Aldi and spend €31.40 buying chicken, fish and frozen prawns for the next three nights’ dinner. I also buy some more veg and fruit. Drive home listening to another writing podcast. 

5.50pm: I come home, and my son hasn’t emptied the dishwasher, which annoys me, as the kitchen mess is on the bench. The kitchen is tiny, and there’s very little space; I even have to keep canned goods in bags on the floor as there’s nowhere else to put them. I clean the kitchen and notice my son didn’t eat the fajita leftovers. Despite not really wanting to eat fajitas, I eat the leftovers as they’ll need to be chucked if they’re not eaten today, and my son will have dinner at his girlfriend’s. I then make a turmeric fish curry and rice, which will do for our dinner tomorrow night. There are six apples going wrinkly, so I cut them up and boil them with some cane sugar; they’ll make a nice compote for my yoghurt for the next few days. While the food cooks, I blitz up the two remaining heel ends of the tiger bread to make breadcrumbs, then pop them into a bag in the freezer. They will do for a pasta bake topping or fish-cake coating at some point. I don’t like food waste, so I try and use everything I can. I contemplate making candied peel with the lime that I used the juice of in the dinner, but it’s only one lime, and my legs are sore from standing for ages, so I decide to compost it instead.

7.30pm: I sew a dress out of two tablecloths. My sewing machine has been set up on the kitchen table the last few weeks, and I’ve been using it every few days to make something. The dress doesn’t take long to make as all the sides are already hemmed. I use a dress I already own as a pattern. It turns out well, but I decide I’m going to add sleeves to it tomorrow. I’m getting tired, so I head up to shower. I’ve been putting off washing my hair for several days, but I’ll have to bite the bullet and do it tonight.

9.20pm: I shower, wash my hair, then make myself a herbal tea and read a fantasy novel on my Kindle in bed. I’m a voracious reader and have read over 60 books this year so far – I usually have two or three on the go at any one time. I snack on some macadamia nuts while I read. I also eat four After Eights, which I love, but ration out as they’re so expensive.

Today’s total: €136.90

Thursday

7.00am: I get up and make myself a sachet coffee and some sourdough toast. I scroll online a bit while I eat breakfast, then wake my son for school. I put on the Blindboy podcast as I cut out the sleeves for the dress, then quickly hem them and sew them on. It only takes 15 minutes, and I’m happy with the result. I put a load of washing on and put away the dry washing. Then I get ready for work.

8.20am: I drive to a different town for a meeting.

9.00am: I have a day of meetings in different locations, so I’m driving about the place meeting people. Sometimes I have to do a lot of travel for work, and I have to take the hit upfront financially for the diesel and public transport. Last month the extra expenditure totally wiped me out, and I was worried I was going to have to borrow money to get by. I have to wait a month then to get reimbursed. It’s not a great system when you’re in my financial situation.

12.30pm: I have lunch and eat the last of the pepper chicken dinner that I bought from home. I start reading my new crime novel I got from the library while I eat.

1.00pm: Back to work and more meetings. I try to schedule all the meetings in the one day where possible.

3.30pm: Every meeting seems to generate more work, and my to-do list grows. Around 4pm, I eat a piece of my ginger cake.

5.30pm: I drive home, listening to another writing podcast.

Related Reads

Money Diaries: A civil servant on €95K living in the Midlands

Money Diaries: A technical program manager on €85K living in Dublin

Money Diaries: A teacher on €68K living in the east of the country

6.00pm: I arrive home to find my son has emptied the dishwasher, cleaned his room and done the floors. We’re passing like ships in the night, though, as he’s off to his girlfriend’s again for the evening. He needs his Leap card topped up again, so I put €15 on it. I’m glad I don’t have to cook anything tonight as I’ll have extra time to be creative. I put a load of washing on, and I spent an hour working on my book. I’d been stuck in the middle, and now I’ve figured out a way to get to the end (I hope!). I hang out the washing. My face cream is running out, so I make a new batch up. I have dry skin, so I use a lot of moisturiser. It’s expensive to buy in the shops, so I learned how to make my own, which saves a good bit of money. It only takes about 10 minutes to heat all the ingredients up, so it’s not a big deal to make more when I need it.

7.30pm: I’m in a sewing mood again, so I go to my stash to look for inspiration. I probably should have kept hold of the practical stuff (like kitchenware!) when I lost the house, but instead I kept my fabric collection and my art supplies, as I’ve been collecting them since I was a teenager and they’re worth a lot more money than kitchenware. Not having a space to create in for a few years really messed with me, so I’m seizing the opportunity I have now to make sure I make as much stuff as I can. I make a tunic top using one I already have as a pattern.

9.00pm: I eat my turmeric fish curry with fresh naan bread and caramelised spiced nuts on top. It’s delicious.

9.20pm: I tidy up, have a shower, then go to bed. I spend 20 minutes on Instagram and Bluesky then I read my fantasy novel. I eat four more After Eights in bed.

Today’s total: €15.00

Friday

7.10am: I get up and wake my son. He tells me he needs a winter coat as his old one is now too small. I make my half a sachet latte and eat yoghurt with apple and pear compote, granola and seeds. I read the new crime novel while I eat, then Revolut my son €70 to buy himself a new coat online. These extra clothing costs are going to wipe me out for any additional money until my next payday, so I’ll need to be careful for the rest of the week.

8.30am: I drive to work listening to a new podcast I found called We’d Like a Word. It’s entertaining and enjoyable.

9.15am: I make myself a herbal tea which will be the first of many today. I have a panel I’m chairing this afternoon, so I spend the morning adding in all the other panellists’ scores and comments to the scoring sheet and contacting the panellists who haven’t sent me their scores yet. The panel is to decide what artists will get funded from an Open Call I’ve created.

1.00pm: I eat French onion soup for lunch, then I pop out to buy more fruit and crab meat. My daughter is coming to stay tomorrow, and she loves my crab pasta and my fruit salads. I also buy a microwavable soup container as I don’t have one, and I eat soup for lunch a lot. It all comes to €19.68.

1.45pm: My panel sits and agrees on the projects to fund. I’m excited to let the successful applicants know, but I have to wait to get approval from all the panellists for the agreed comments. I’m hoping they’ll come back to me this afternoon as I think it would be lovely for the artists to go into the weekend knowing they’re being funded.

4.30pm: I get word back from the panellists, so I’m able to share the good news with the artists before the weekend. A work colleague comes back from an event piled high with bowls of lovely salads left over from the event. I take two of them, thinking we can eat them for lunch tomorrow.

5.15pm: I drive home listening to Adventures in Nutopia, a new podcast I’ve found.

6.00pm: I eat leftover turmeric curry and naan for dinner, then I cut up the sourdough to freeze slices for breakfast next week and make rhubarb compote out of the rhubarb I got earlier. I tidy the kitchen, then strip the spare bed and change the sheets for my daughter, tidy the spare room and put a load of washing on. I put away all the dry washing that’s hanging in the house, spray the shower and screens with my homemade shower cleaner so that later, when I have a shower, I can give it a good scrub.

7.00pm: I iron a bunch of my clothes that have been washed, and some of the new stuff I’ve made that also needs an iron. While I iron, I catch up on all the WhatsApp messages I need to reply to. I listen to all my friends’ mini-podcast voicenotes, and then I send a load of replies back. My friends are all over the country, and my main methods of communication with them are long voicenotes and sending reels on Instagram. I don’t know many people locally yet, but I message one woman I know who lives not far. I ask her if she’s free to meet tomorrow, but she’s away for the weekend. I hang out the wash I just did and do a general tidy of the house.

9.00pm: I have a shower, clean the shower, then go to bed with my herbal tea. I eat a few macadamia nuts as well. I finish the book I’m reading, and I start another one. It’s much better written than the last one, and I find myself reading until I can’t keep my eyes open anymore, around 1.30 am. 

Today’s total: €88.68.

Saturday

10.30am: I wake up and spend half an hour on my phone looking at social media. I eat toast with rhubarb jam, and I have a herbal tea. I decide to try and make a long coat. It’s an ambitious project as I’ve never tried to make one before and I don’t really have anything I can use as a pattern.

11.00am: My day becomes consumed with sewing.

3.00pm: My energy is flagging a bit, so I make myself half a sachet latte. Do some more sewing then eat the salad from yesterday.

5.30pm: I drive to collect my daughter from the bus, listening to Gone Medieval, another podcast I like.

6.40pm: We pop into Aldi as I need linguine for the crab pasta. My daughter wants cereal, milk and orange juice as well, so it comes to €11.91.

7.00pm: We drive home listening to music and chatting.

7.40pm: I make the crab pasta for my daughter. I’m not hungry, as I had the salad a few hours ago so I just have a herbal tea. My son is staying at a friend’s house so it’s just us for the evening.

8.15pm: I try the coat on for my daughter, and I point out to her all the mistakes I made while sewing it (the pockets are too high!). We both agree it needs to be partially lined. I find some more fabric and sew on some lining. Then we decide it needs a big button to close it. I find one big enough among my button collection, but it’s the wrong colour so I paint it with nail polish.

10.00pm: I shower and go to bed. I message my other adult son to see how he’s getting on and have a quick chat with him. I read my gripping novel again and have another late night.

Today’s total: €11.91

Sunday

10.00am: I get up and make myself yoghurt with fruit compote for breakfast and a sachet latte. I make pancakes for my daughter as I know she loves them. While she’s eating, I put a few more coats of nail polish on the button. We decide to go out touring for a few hours; there’s a witchy/magic shop I know she’ll like about 45 minutes away so we decide to go there.

12.00pm: We get ready and drive to the shop. My daughter loves it, and we spend over an hour there. I buy my daughter some incense cones for €2.95.

3.00pm: We drive to another town nearby that’s very quaint. I’m hoping some shops might be open for us to browse in, but when we get there, there is only one shop open. Luckily, it’s a new and secondhand bookshop, so we spend nearly an hour there. I buy some books for my daughter; it comes to €16.

5.00pm: We drive home, and I stop on the way to buy cream for the dinner tonight. It costs €2.60.

6.15pm: I cook chicken and leek pasta in a creamy sauce (I made up the recipe and it’s delicious). I make a fruit salad, and then I bake a chocolate and coconut dessert as my daughter said she felt like chocolate. Since the oven is on, I put a small pumpkin in to roast whole – I’ll use it tomorrow to make pumpkin soup or to bake pumpkin scones.

8.30pm: I sew on the button and make a buttonhole to finish the coat. My daughter and I decide that we’ll make art together tomorrow, so we start to sort out art supplies that we’ll need for the project we have in mind.

9.45pm: We watch Atonement together, then I leave my son and daughter to watch another movie while I go to bed to read.

11.45pm: I have a quick shower, then go to bed and read. I read too long again.

Today’s total: €21.55

Weekly subtotal: €1,910.23

***

What I learned –

• The act of writing it all down and knowing that I was going to send it to someone else did influence my choices this week, I think. I’m contemplating continuing the money diary process for myself as a form of self-accountability.

• It was a slightly unusual spending week for me in that my son needed a lot of new clothes this week as the weather has turned.

• After looking back through my week’s spending, I don’t really know where I could cut down my expenditure. I feel like I live quite frugally as it is: I don’t drink or smoke, I go to the hairdresser’s once a year, and I almost never buy new clothes for myself. I have a policy of not skimping on buying good food for my children, that’s my non-negotiable. Money spent on good food and books is never money wasted in my opinion. I did realise that I’m going to have to have another go at the gummies though, as I don’t want to waste the carrageen moss and pectin I bought!