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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 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 family support worker on €26K living in Dublin. This week, an accounting manager on €60K living in Dublin.
I am currently living in Dublin with my Irish husband. I first came to Ireland when I was 20 to study and was able to snag an accounting traineeship after graduation. I also met my husband while at uni. I moved back to my birth country in 2018 because of the housing crisis, but my heart has always belonged to Ireland. The Covid-19 pandemic delayed me from returning, but I did in late 2022 and married my husband. We are trying hard to save for a deposit, although several health emergencies have had us start from scratch a few times.
We both cannot drive for medical reasons and I am lucky that I’m in a new job where I can work from home three days a week. My husband works for the civil service and cannot WFH, so our options of where to live have always been restricted to Dublin. We are extremely lucky to have snagged an apartment for €900 per month. Technically our landlord lives with us, but he lives down the country and only comes up to Dublin for a week every other month.
I am lucky that I am able to save €1,000 per month as we live quite frugally, despite both of us having quite expensive hobbies like gaming, Lego and trading card games. December is usually the time of the year we finally relax and treat ourselves for surviving another year. As I earn more, I pay the rent solely and split utilities, but he will make up for it when we finally have saved enough for a mortgage!
I also received a €1,500 gift card from work which I did not expect at all. I was raised in a culture that believes in tithing to ‘cleanse’ your income, so I decide to treat a few close friends as my way of doing it.
Occupation: Accounting manager
Age: 33
Location: Dublin
Salary: €60,000
Monthly pay (net): €4,190
Savings: €1,000
Transport: Circa €150 (I take taxis to work in winter mornings)
Rent: €900
Internet (my share): €35
Electricity (my share): Circa €50
Gas (my share): Circa €20
Phone bill: €27.99
Health insurance: €184.37
Groceries: Circa €250
Bank charges: €8
Uber One: €5
Student loan: Circa €75 depending on FX rates
Netflix: Circa €15 (birth country account)
Spotify Duo: Circa €5 (birth country account)
Illumicrate (book box subscription): £42.36
Medication: €50
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9.00 am: I wake up, even though I can lie in as I am now off for two whole weeks for Christmas. I don’t want to mess up my sleeping schedule. I shower and get ready as I am meeting a friend in town today for lunch and chats.
10.00 am: I have a Teams meeting with an Irish Life financial consultant to discuss starting my own pension ahead of auto-enrolment starting in 2026. As an accountant, I understand the jargon and options quickly. I’m not too happy about their charges so I will continue to shop around with other pension providers/investment managers.
11.00 am: I check my inbox to see if my GP has gotten back to me with the paperwork I need for my blood test at a public hospital tomorrow. He hasn’t gotten back to me, which means I have to swing by his practice before meeting up with my friend. The next bus is in 20 minutes and he only opens for 90 minutes in the morning, so I decide to get a taxi to catch him before he closes (€22.60).
12.00 pm: The receptionist says I can come back at 5.30pm to pick up the paperwork as he’s currently slammed with patients. I’m slightly annoyed but it is what it is. My friend texts me saying she’ll reach town around 1pm, so I head to the Lego store on Grafton Street. I can’t find the exact set I want to gift, but I did pick up a small Wicked Lego set for my former colleague as we used to spend our lunch hour browsing Lego online together. (€13.99)
12.30 pm: I cross the Liffey and head to Smyths to pick up a Star Wars Lego set for my husband as his initial Christmas present won’t arrive in time. (€59.99)
1.00 pm: My friend is stuck in traffic and I am famished, so I tell her I’ll grab a quick bite while waiting. I’m craving jambalaya, so I go to a restaurant that serves it and also treat myself to a cocktail. (€34)
2.00 pm: My friend finally arrives. I am eating kaya toast in a Malaysian restaurant as soakage as that cocktail was stronger than I thought. She orders coffee and dumplings. We chat and catch up as I sober up. I pay for our meal, despite her resisting, saying it’s my turn to treat. (€20.80)
4.00 pm: We decide to stop for coffee at the Marks & Spencer café after browsing through shops. She insists on paying. I still haven’t gotten her a present, so I am delighted when she says she’s thinking about getting a new air fryer in the new year. I surreptitiously order one from Amazon and send her a screenshot of it arriving on Saturday and seeing her lit up made me happy. Her and her husband are practically my Irish Mammy and Da, so this was the least I could do (€102.73).
5.00 pm: My friend and I part ways promising to catch up again before the New Year. I get the bus to my GP and pick up my paperwork. While there I realised I had left my new keffiyeh scarf behind at either of the two restaurants, so I frantically call them. One of them found it, so I now must turn back and head to the city centre to pick it up. I top up my Leap card for this. (€5)
7.00 pm: I am finally home. I shower and get into bed early as I’m fasting for bloods tomorrow morning. My husband is at his ma’s to feed his snake and I feel bad that his main present won’t arrive on time, so I look on Amazon to see if there is another Lego set I can get that will arrive at least by the end of the week. There is! (€61.59)
8.00 pm: I play Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) with an online friend group every fortnight through Discord. I met up with one of them in Glasgow earlier this summer for a girls’ holiday. As we are hanging out on Discord, I remember she did not have a phone holder in her car while we were driving around Scotland, so I get onto Amazon UK and get her one as well as a couple of other small gifts so I qualify for free shipping (€48.77). I also get a $25 Audible gift card for another D&D friend before I fall asleep (€21.66).
Today’s total: €391.13
10.00 am: I wake up feeling tired and hungry, but I can’t have breakfast yet. I shower, get dressed and head out the door for the three bus trips I need to take to get to the public hospital for my blood test.
12.30 pm: I am done with the blood test and can finally eat again. Halfway through the three bus trips back home, I stop by my former workplace to drop off the present for my former colleague. We ended up chatting for about 20 minutes before I continue to head home.
2.00 pm: I arrive home. My husband is home as he’s not feeling well, I hope he hasn’t caught a stomach bug. He doesn’t have any appetite to eat, but I ordered for him as well when I ordered Japanese while on my way home and made him at least have miso soup (€33.55).
5.00 pm: We don’t do much for the rest of the day, just cuddling in bed while watching telly and then playing Baldur’s Gate 3 together on the console.
8.00 pm: I make roast chicken for dinner. We continue to just enjoy each other’s company and we are both asleep by 10pm.
Today’s total: €33.55
10.00 am: I wake up. My husband has gone to work and I am meeting him in town for lunch as they finish up for the year by noon. I check my phone and see that the air fryer gift is getting delivered today instead and I update my friend saying Santy came early.
11.30 am: I am already on the bus when he texts me that security is already locking up the building. We meet up at Grafton Street and go to the Lego store to look longingly at the massively overpriced sets. I haven’t bought a present for his mother, so we go to Dubray to pick up Cynthia Arivo’s new book (€21.19).
12.30 pm: We part ways as he’s meeting up with an old friend. I decide to try out the new Palestinian restaurant Beitna on Dame Street for lunch as I don’t feel like cooking (€28.21). I also stop by EuroGiant for some chocolate and crisps to tide us over the week (€6).
2.00 pm: I get home. I wrap my husband’s present that I hid away in the hot press on Monday. We didn’t get a Christmas tree this year because we were both feeling Scrooge-like at the thought of decorating, so I place it in front of the fake fireplace.
3.00 pm: I am putting together a couple of Lego sets I had bought earlier this year when my friend texts me a photo of her husband with the first meal he made with the air fryer. I text back a string of heart emojis.
5.00 pm: My throat starts to feel funny. Oh no. I better not have picked up something. I text my husband to pick up some Lemsips if the shops are still open when he’s on his way home. I make myself scrambled eggs as an early dinner and get in bed to stay warm while watching telly.
8.00 pm: My ribs start to ache and I know I definitely am coming down with a cold. I haven’t had my flu and Covid vaccines yet this winter and I berate myself for forgetting. I warn my husband in advance that we might be having takeaway tomorrow on Christmas before I fall asleep.
Today’s total: €55.40
11.00 am: We both wake up sick, me with my cold, himself with his stomach bug. Not ideal! Christmas dinner is out of the question. I raid the fridge to make us some smoked salmon sandwiches for breakfast.
11.30 am: We exchange gifts. He is happy with his Lego set and that another set is coming as well as his delayed initial present of Magic The Gathering (MTG) cards. He’s gotten me an Instax camera, which I am very pleased as I got into analogue photography at the start of the year and wanted a new Instax camera to replace my old one from 2013.
2.00 pm: We both need some hot food to eat, so I check UberEats to see what restaurants are open. We settle on Chinese and order phad kra pow, tom yum soup (both ironically Thai) and a spice bag (€28.57).
8.00 pm: We both drift in and out of consciousness throughout the day, we put on Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix and let it play. We both don’t have much appetite anyway, and we write off this Christmas as the quiet one where we both were sick.
Today’s total: €28.57
9.30 am: I wake up feeling slightly better. In my 20s, I would have been up early to hit the shops by 8am for the Stephen’s Day sales, but I do it online now. I have my eye on four shops today and I will be sticking to just that.
10.00 am: I love Kuromi from Sanrio, so when PopMart announced a Skullpanda and Sanrio collab, I decided to get the two plushies. They drop at 10am, and I have bought both by 10.05am (€77).
12.00 pm: I have run out of film for my analogue cameras, so I go to the Lomography website to stock up. I was planning to just buy film reels, but I decided to also digitaliser so I can scan my film negatives that include the sprocket holes as the local camera shops in town don’t do it (€203.60).
12.30 pm: I check the Lego website to see what deals they have. Three sets on our shared wishlist are on sale so I purchase them (€116.88).
3.00 pm: I spend most of the day with my husband putting together our respective Lego sets. We still had leftovers from yesterday, so I heated that up for lunch. I look up an Animal Crossing set that’s on sale on Amazon. For some reason, it won’t deliver to my address so I ask my best friend if she can get it for me. She can have it delivered straight to me so I Revolut her the money (€13.63).
8.00 pm: I have a D&D game tonight at 11pm (our group live in five different time zones across Europe and North America) so I go to bed early so I can stay up later.
11.30 pm: I overshoot my alarm and wake up just in time to get into Discord before our Dungeon Master calls our session off. Usually I would order takeaway on D&D nights, but since we both don’t have much of an appetite, my husband makes me a fried egg sandwich.
4.00 am: Our session ends and I crawl back into bed.
Today’s total: €411.11
1.00 pm: I wake up feeling like Robin Williams in Jumanji asking what year is it. My cold symptoms have improved, and my husband has made me brunch before he heads to his ma’s. I don’t have much of a relationship with her, but that’s okay.
2.00 pm: We’ve run out of bread so I get on the bus to go to Tesco. I usually order Tesco delivery for groceries, but as I had already stocked up before Christmas, we only need a small shop today. I also need printer ink, so that makes up the majority of the cost (€52.91).
3.00 pm: I made a rookie mistake by stopping by Eason and seeing they had Lego sets on sale. I buy two sets and some baseplates, telling myself that I will be on a Lego buying ban for the first six months of 2026 (€74.36).
3.30 pm: I head home before I can do anymore damage!
8.00 pm: I make dinner of spaghetti bolognese. After dinner, my husband and I play a few rounds of MTG. We draw at the end, before settling in to watch The Legend of Zorro.
Today’s total: €127.27
12.00 pm: We have a lie-in. Time is soup, and we are in purgatory until the year ends. We finally get up and agree it’s chores day. We have some leftover bolognese and start cleaning up around the flat. He takes out the rubbish while I do a load of laundry. We hoover, mop, clean the bathroom and finally our flat looks habitable again.
4.00 pm: We sit down to play games on our respective consoles, my PlayStation and his Steam Deck. Technically I get paid today, but the money will not hit my account until tomorrow, so I put off my budgeting and just enjoy each other’s quiet company.
9.00 pm: We snack on fruits and biscuits for dinner. Afterwards, we put together a Lego set and then call it an early night.
Today’s total: €0.00
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What I learned –
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