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 junior doctor on €44K living in Co Cork. This week, a charity policy coordinator on €36K living in Dublin. 

I am living in the north inner city of Dublin and work in the charity sector. I’m one full year out of college but have five years of work experience behind me in similar roles. At the moment, I find myself living pay day to pay day. My rent is €1,000 a month for a tiny apartment which I share with two others – the total rent for the property is €3,000 a month. Bills are at a minimum which is helpful, only €50 a month for electricity, but I also am paying back a student loan at €250 a month, and my father gave me a loan to pay for the house deposit, another €100 a month.

I’m currently writing a book, so I put a different amount away every month to provide for publishing costs. There is no set amount I put away every month, I base it off what I can afford to do that month. If I know I have something like a birthday or a weekend trip coming up, I’ll put less into the book fund to allow me to do other activities comfortably, although usually I’m waiting impatiently for pay day at the end of the month. Additionally, I’m on the pension auto-enrolment scheme, which is currently at 1.5% of my yearly salary.

After immediate deductions, my approximate €2,500 becomes €900 to spend over 30 days. I’ve told myself that until I’m on a higher salary, it would be impossible to save for long-term goals such as a master’s degree, a car or a deposit for a house. These are all things that I would love to start investing in now, as my dad has told me to start young and start small, however when I have only €900 in spending for the entire month, it is almost impossible to do.

I do take good care of my money though. When I get paid, I sort my income into vaults on Revolut to cover all my expenses for the month, including rent, student loan repayment, electricity bill, phone plan, etc. Since all of my spending goes through Revolut, I am able to generate an income and expenditure account at the end of every month. I am a huge data nerd, my dad is an accountant and I did economics at college and accountancy in school, so I am well versed in how to organise my spending and notice trends and cut down when I begin to spend too much on any one expenditure category.

Occupation: Policy and advocacy coordinator

Age: 22

Location: Dublin 7

Salary: €36,000

Monthly pay (net): Approx. €2,500 after tax, auto-enrolment

Monthly expenses

Transport: €54

Rent: €1,000

Utilities: €70

Groceries: €409.90

Subscriptions: €25.97

Debt: €350 (student loan and personal debt to family member)

Savings: €250 to a fund to pay for a project I’m working on

***

Monday

7.30am: I get up for work, shower and leave the house by 8am. I live 15 minutes from the office, so I walk to work every day. It is great to get my steps in, especially when the weather is so nice. On the walk to work, I got a notification that my boyfriend’s brother Revoluted me for the Buzzball I bought him on Saturday. Result!

8.30am: I get a coffee from the same small independent café every morning on the way to work. They run a happy hour from 8am-9am, meaning my iced latte with oat milk that usually costs €5-€6 in Starbucks now costs €3, so I feel like that is a win every morning.

1.00pm: I had a hectic day at work, so I ran to Centra and got a sandwich for €6. It is quick and easy, especially when I am up the walls.

7.00pm: I stayed for an extra two hours at work to get ahead of tomorrow, so I arrive home around 7pm. I was away at the weekend, so the fridge is empty, and I didn’t have the time to do a food shop, so Deliveroo it is! I get a pizza from a small pizza van near my house, costing me €17.48 after all the fees. Well worth it, in my opinion.

Today’s total: €26.48

Tuesday

8.00am: Get up and repeat the same routine as yesterday. Today is going to be the worst day of the month, but I always knew it was coming. It’s the last day of the month, meaning it’s rent pay day. I live in a flat with two others, the monthly cost of which is €3,000. My two flatmates send me a grand each, and I add my own €1,000 to that before I send it to the letting agency. I thought paying it on my way to work was the best option, just to get it out of the way. I treat myself to my €3 coffee to cheer me up.

1.00pm: Time for lunch. I see my monthly subscription for additional phone storage came out. It’s only 99c, I barely notice when it is deducted. I walk to Centra and get the same sandwich again, another €6.

4.00pm: I finish work, and on the way home, I do a food shop in Tesco. I spend about €30 - it wasn’t a full shop, but it was enough to keep me going for a few days. I have definitely noticed the cost of a shop going up since I moved to Dublin four years ago. Unfortunately, it’s just something that has to be done.

5.00pm: I make chicken stir-fry for dinner when I get home and settle down in front of the telly for the rest of the evening. 

Today’s total: €1,039.99 (yikes)

Wednesday

7.30am: Same story as every other day: up, shower, out the door for 8am and €3 coffee on the way to work.

1.00pm: I had to go to Leinster House at lunchtime today, so on the way back, I grabbed a sandwich at Pret. It only cost me €5.20 compared to the usual €6. What a saving. I am putting that 80c towards a deposit for the house I will never own.

4.00pm: Get home from work. My flatmate sent me 50 quid for the monthly electricity bill I paid last week on behalf of the house, so it’s nice to see my account balance increase. Our flat is a first-time let after refurbishment, so we only have to put €50 per person every month on a heat pump.

6.00pm: For dinner, I made an authentic carbonara. It was unreal and it cost nothing, yippee. 

Today’s total: €9.20

Thursday

7.30am: You know the drill by now.

1.00pm: Lunchtime. I’m craving a sweet treat, so I go to Lidl and get a few doughnuts for the office for about a fiver. Have my €6 sandwich as usual. (€11)

5.00pm: Finish up at work. I hate having nothing to do, especially when the weather is so nice, so I’m always organising coffee or drinks or dinner with my friends. Tonight, there’s a drag show in The George that we had organised to go to. Since I was working all day and only had a sandwich at lunch, I organised to get a spice bag before we go out. (€10)

Related Reads

Money Diaries: A junior doctor on €44K living in Cork

Money Diaries: A clerical officer on €32K trying to save for a mortgage deposit

Money Diaries: An engineering director on €75K living in Co Wicklow

11.00pm: Arrive home after a great night. Looking back, it was an expensive enough day. Drinks in the George came to €19.30 by the end of the night. My online newspaper subscription came out as well, another €10. Oh, and I had to top up my Leap card (€5). I only put a fiver on it at any one time in case it gets stolen, or I lose it. That way, I’m never more than €5 poorer. You’d often see people tap off at the Luas with a balance of €50 or €60. They are crazy people. What a way to live life on the edge.

Today’s total: €55.30 (basically the ‘profit’ I made from yesterday)

Friday

12.00pm: Morning routine was the same as always. Had lunch and coffee as usual. (€11)

5.00pm: My brother has come down to Dublin, so we go for pizza and a pint after I finish work. Pizza is one of my favourite foods, but it can get quite pricey if it’s not an Apache. This bar has a pizza oven, which makes class pizza but sets me back €31 for two. My brother sent me the money for it, so I got €13.50 back, but I also bought a pint for €7.70 – which is not the worst in Dublin, I will say. (€25.20)

6.30pm: I arrive home. Had to pick up toilet paper on the way, another €8 for a 12-pack. In the flat, we don’t portion things out, and nobody has set aside things they need to buy every week or month. When we notice something getting low, we buy it. It makes its way back around eventually.

Today’s total: €44.20

Saturday

10.00am: Get up a bit later than usual and get ready to go out. Because I’m writing the book, my evenings and weekends are mostly taken up with that! I can get no work done at home, so I usually wake up on a Saturday and head to a Caffé Nero. I buy a coffee and a sandwich before I start working on the draft. I could be here for the best part of 7/8 hours of the day. I’m a loyal Caffé Nero customer, so I avail of a nice 20% discount. It really adds up when you get so much coffee. (€10.96)

1.00pm: I got a pastry for a fiver because I felt bad for taking up a seat for so long. Also, I was hungry again. (€5)

4.30pm: I call it a day. I enjoyed my carbonara so much on Wednesday night that I’ve decided to make it again, but I need to pick up a few bits in Tesco on the way home. Another €7.50 set back.

6.00pm: It was even better than before. My flatmate is home, and we talk for a bit, and he sends me a few hundred euro that he owed me from a few months back, which is a nice surprise. It’s all going into the book fund.

9.00pm: I have a quiet evening and decide to head to bed early enough for a Saturday night because I was staring at my screen for the entire day.

11.00pm: An unexpected cost happens when I’m woken up by my boyfriend. He was on a night out with some friends and was looking for money for a drink. He only works part-time, so I do try to send him a few bob when he asks. I send him €8, hoping it will cover him, but 12 minutes later, he calls again and asks for more money. Alcohol is a memory loss drug, but I think he knew what he was doing. So I send him another €8 and go back to sleep.

Today’s total: €39.46

Sunday

10.00am: Another book writing day! I choose a different coffee shop today to mix things up. I’m hoping to get just as much done today as I did yesterday.

3.00pm: All in all, a productive day was had. Money-wise, a coffee, a sandwich and a sweet treat later in the afternoon came to a collective €16.40. Not too bad. On the way home, I remember that my sweet treat cupboard at home is empty, so I spend a tenner in Dunnes to stock it up (€10). That will do me for a few weeks now.

4.00pm: Get home and notice that my Apple Music subscription was deducted. Another tenner gone. (€10)

Today’s total: €36.40

Weekly subtotal: €1,188.37

***

What I learned –

• This week was one of the nicer weeks financially. I didn’t meet as many friends as I usually do, or have too many drinks when I was out. Either way, living in Dublin on a salary of just under €36k a year is difficult. It can be done, but it leaves me breaking even at the end of every month, and some months, if I have an unexpected debt, I might be scraping by.
• Looking back on my week, I feel like I can still have fun with my friends and have stuff to be at in the evenings without going for dinner at a restaurant or committing to two/three rounds of drinks. Maybe a bottle of wine at my house or a few cans at Stephen’s Green can replace the tab at a bar or restaurant.
• I can definitely make some spending changes to live more comfortably. It doesn’t necessarily mean that I have to cut social or other aspects out of my life, but find a creative way to do them in a cost-saving measure. Saying that, not every 22-year-old is writing a book, so once that’s published and out of the way, hopefully a nice once-off income of a couple of grand will land in my bank account. It will also mean that I don’t have to set aside money every month to cover publishing costs.
• I would like to be on a higher salary. After a year in my job, it is clear that my role and responsibilities deserve a substantial pay increase, so I’m preparing to approach this topic with my boss in the coming weeks. A salary of €44k would be closer to my colleagues in similar positions in companies of similar sizes, which, after tax, would leave me with about €500 extra per month. This would make a huge difference in my monthly budget and would allow me to seriously consider long-term saving projects like a deposit or master’s degree.