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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.
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 retail supervisor on €30K who deferred her PhD for a year after struggling to find funding while paying off student loans. This week, a banker on €92K living in Dublin.
I live in Dublin with my husband and daughter. We were lucky to buy our first home at the bottom of the market and made a nice profit when we sold up a couple of years ago and bought our forever home. We’ve done a lot of renovations which drained our savings, so we’ve been working on building them back up. Between us, we save about €3,000 per month, although we love to travel and about a third of that goes into our holiday fund for holidays throughout the year.
My husband earns more than I do (€150k p.a. plus bonus) and we split all of our expenses accordingly. We have a joint account for all of the typical expenses that we budget for each month (groceries, utility bills, car loans, childcare, etc) and he pays more into that account than I do so those costs are split roughly 60/40. We have a separate account we use to put money aside for activities for our daughter and bills which arise annually (health/car insurance, property tax, etc.). We have joint savings accounts for the long-term and for holidays and my husband saves more than I do into these accounts. We also both have our own current and savings accounts.
Occupation: Banking
Age: 40
Location: Dublin
Salary: €92,000
Monthly pay (net): €4,500 approx. (after pension, excl. overtime)
Personal Expenses:
Transport: Approx. €32 on Leap card for the Luas
Nails: €80
Hair: €80 every six weeks
Prescriptions: €80
Credit card maintenance fee: €6.50 (includes annual travel insurance for the family and a couple of other travel perks so it’s worth the monthly cost)
iCloud Storage: €2.99
Joint Expenses (paid from joint account):
Mortgage: €1,680
Car PCP x 2: €1,010
Childcare: €300 approx. depending on NCS hours
Household bills: Virgin Broadband (€80), Bins (€26), Electricity (~€150), Home Alarm (€39)
Phone bill: €10 (mine, husband’s employer pays for his)
Health insurance: €146 for husband and daughter (paid annually), my employer pays mine
Mortgage protection: €127
Life/Illness cover and income protection: €183 for husband, my employer pays mine
Groceries: €700-ish
Petrol: €60-ish (for one car, the other is an EV)
Milkman: €50
Cleaner: €140
Lotto syndicate: €24
Subscriptions: Netflix (€23 – we pay for a plan to include my parents and they pay for Spotify), Disney+ (€140 p.a.), Amazon Prime (€12), Kindle Unlimited (€11.50)
Nespresso Subscription: €50 (but often pause this for 2-3 months at a time when credit has built up)
***
6.45 am: We’re all up to get ready for the day. Husband heads to the office early and I walk my daughter to school.
9.00 am: I’m working from home today so I log on and check the diary, and it’s a busy day of calls ahead.
11.00 am: Have a break between calls so I throw on a wash while the kettle boils.
1.00 pm: Break for lunch so I head for a quick walk and pop into the chemist to collect prescriptions, which are free as I have already hit the €80 spend under the Drugs Payment Scheme this month. I also pick up a couple of skincare products (€29).
5.30 pm: My parents picked my daughter up from school and will be dropping her home shortly, so I log off and start dinner. It’s chicken curry this evening.
6.30 pm: Everyone is home and my parents stay for dinner. I made a big pot so there is plenty to go around and still enough to have leftovers tomorrow.
8.00 pm: My daughter and I do a jigsaw and read a story before she goes to bed. I have a shower and watch some Netflix with my husband before heading to bed at around 10.30pm.
Today’s total: €29.00
6.45 am: Alarm goes off and I get up and head out for a walk while my husband gets my daughter up and out to breakfast club before school. I pick up a coffee on my way back (€3.80).
8.00 am: I log on and plan out my day. I also check my bank account and see that a VHI claim for a consultant visit last week has hit my account and I transfer the money straight to my credit card.
11.30 am: My cleaner arrives so we have a quick coffee and chat for a bit before she gets started and I get back to work. I transfer money to her before she leaves (€70).
1.00 pm: I break for lunch and have homemade soup I made at the weekend while browsing online for new rain gear for my daughter.
5.00 pm: I pick my daughter up from her after-school club (same place as breakfast club) and when we get home, my husband is already home so we bring my daughter out on her bike for a while as we’re having leftovers for dinner so no cooking this evening.
8.00 pm: My husband does the bedtime routine while I call around to a friend for an hour for a cuppa and a chat. When I get home I do a few car insurance quotes online while we watch TV as mine is due for renewal. No one beats my renewal price so I go with that (€331). I pay it on my credit card and transfer money from our ‘bills’ account to cover it. We head to bed around 10.30pm.
Today’s total: €404.80
6.45 am: Same as yesterday – we get up, I go for a walk and my husband gets my daughter out the door to breakfast club. I buy coffee for my husband and I on the way home as he’s also working from home this morning. (€7.60)
8.00 am: Log on to work for an hour before I head to my GP for routine blood tests for one of my consultants (€75, but I’ll get 50% back from VHI later). Thankfully I’m in and out so I’m home within about 20 minutes.
1.00 pm: Lunchtime and more homemade soup. My daughter’s school calendar for the year has finally been sent out so February midterm dates have been confirmed. I’ve already booked a hotel for a few days that week but was holding off on booking flights until I knew how many days the school would be closed. I’ll have a look at flights this weekend.
5.30 pm: I don’t have to do the pickup today as my husband is bringing my daughter to her swimming lessons. I log off and get started on a cottage pie for dinner – which is demolished when they get home!
8.00 pm: Husband does bedtime with our daughter while I do some ironing and get organised as I’m in the office for the next two days. Then we sit and watch Netflix with a cuppa before heading up to bed at 10pm.
Today’s total: €82.60
6.20 am: I’m in the office today so I’m up early and out the door at 7.10am and my husband gets my daughter up and out. My Leap card is running low so I top it up on the app (€20). I pop into a coffee shop to pick up a coffee and overnight oats (€8.35) and get to the office at 8am.
10.45 am: Take advantage of a break between meetings to grab another coffee. (€4.30)
1.00 pm: Get out for a walk at lunchtime and stop in Boots to pick up vitamins and moisturiser (€62). I grab a sandwich to eat back at the desk (€7).
4.30 pm: I log off and hop on the Luas home and pick my daughter up. My husband is working late so we eat without him (leftover cottage pie for me and a snack for her as she had dinner at her after-school club and isn’t really hungry) and then do some Lego together.
8.00 pm: Bedtime routine done and I have a shower and lay my clothes out for tomorrow. Husband gets home and I sit with him and have a cuppa while he eats his dinner and we chat about a couple of trips we have coming up. We head to bed at around 10pm.
Today’s total: €101.65
6.20 am: In the office again today so up early again. I grab a coffee on the way to work (€4.10) but I’m more organised today and have brought breakfast and lunch from home.
11.00 am: More coffee needed. (€4.30)
1.00 pm: Break for lunch and I sit in the kitchen and chat to colleagues for a while.
4.30 pm: Log off and head home. While on the Luas, I book a nail appointment for next week and pay a small deposit (€0.50).
5.30 pm: Arrive home and my husband has already picked my daughter up as he had a meeting close to home this afternoon. We decide to go for a swim (he pays) and we take my car as I need petrol, which we get on the way home (€87.40). We also pop into Aldi to grab some fruit and a few bits to make a quick dinner. (€28.30)
8.30 pm: Daughter goes to bed a bit later than usual. We watch some TV and I browse some sales online. End up ordering a pair of runners for myself (€49) as the bargain was too good to pass up! I also order some clothes for my daughter (€72).
Today’s total: €245.60
7.45 am: Daughter woke us at 7am but we let her have her tablet for a while so we could snooze a bit longer. Then it’s up to get ready for a day of ferrying her to activities. Well, my husband will be ferrying her – I have a hair appointment!
12.00 pm: Hair is all done (€80) and we all have a quick lunch together when I get home before it’s out the door again for more activities. We go for coffee (husband pays) and a stroll before we head back to pick her up.
5.00 pm: I pack an overnight bag for my daughter as she’s going to my parents for a sleepover tonight while we go to our friends’ house for dinner. My husband drops her while I get ready.
7.30 pm: We head to our friends’ house bringing two nice bottles of wine from our stash and have a lovely evening. We’re very well fed. Bedtime is late!
Today’s total: €80.00
8.30 am: Even when we can have a lie in, I find it hard to sleep late now as I’m so used to getting up early. Silently thank myself for going easy on the wine last night!
11.00 am: We pick my daughter up and bring her and my parents out for breakfast (husband pays). Afterwards, we head to the playground for a while. The weather isn’t great, but we put the raincoats on and it’s grand.
2.00 pm: Back at home, we do the prep for a roast dinner together and then I do the weekly food shop online and manage to get a €2 delivery slot tomorrow. There are good offers on wine so I include a few bottles as we are having people over next weekend. The total comes to €223.50, but my card won’t be charged until tomorrow.
3.00 pm: The in-laws call over for a couple of hours and we catch up over tea and biscuits and I get the dinner on.
6.00 pm: We’re all full from dinner and snuggle up on the couch to watch a movie together.
8.00 pm: My daughter goes to bed and we chill on the couch for a while, mostly doomscrolling while the TV is on in the background. I see another appeal from a foodbank local to us looking for people to buy gifts for children for Christmas. I’ve already agreed to buy gifts for two kids but it looks like they need more support, so I send a message to say I’ll buy for another child and they come straight back with details. I realise I’ve forgotten to look at flights for our trip in February, but our late night last night is catching up on us so we head to bed at 9.30pm.
Today’s total: €0.00 (excl. the food shop)
***
What I learned –
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