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 an administrative officer on €55K living in Dublin. This week, an IT consultant on €76.5K living in the southeast of the country.

I am 61 years old and currently living in the southeast of Ireland in a rural bungalow in a managed development with a mix of radiation and air-to-air heat exchange electric heating. I work in Dublin, but have the option of working from home some of the time. I try to commute by train where possible to keep my carbon footprint down, but the train service is not very frequent and the quality of the trains on the Rosslare-Dublin line has dropped from older intercity standards to bone shaker self-propelled’s in the last 18 months.

I moved out of Dublin over 15 years ago and enjoy the countryside, especially the seaside, and do not want to go back to living in the capital. I never smoked and gave up drinking as a bad habit about 30 years ago, which is a big budget saving.

I enjoy outback holidaying and have travelled to all continents except Antarctica for work and holidays. I enjoy life and am grateful that I live in a relatively safe, temperate and prosperous country, being very cognisant of the deprivation caused by climate change, aggressive expansionism and wasteful consumerism in other less fortunate jurisdictions. I try to balance living life with cutting back on excesses.

I take family life and social justice seriously, adapting as we learn more about our impact on others and our planet. I have always worked more than the minimum and tried to work at things that benefit society rather than destroy our environment.

Occupation: Consulting and information technology

Age: 61

Location: Live in the southeast and work mostly in Dublin

Salary: €76,500

Monthly pay (net): €3,030 (note: pension contributions are set to max allowable level for tax and best way to save with no temptation to splurge)

Monthly expenses

Train tickets and station parking: €260

Luas and Dublin bus: €40

Petrol: €80

Car loan: €313 (less than one year left)

Car insurance, road tax, servicing and maintenance: €100 averaged monthly over the year

Household bills: Electricity – €140 (averaged), broadband – €50, phone bill – €20, alarm monitoring – €25

Management fee: €116 per month, but paid annually in January

Property tax: €22

Mortgage: €708

Maintenance work: €50 (average)

Health insurance: €135 per month, but paid annually in June

Groceries: €245

Subscriptions: €300 (charitable donations – €260, news & science – €40)

Doctors, dentists, medication bills: €100 (I’m able to claim some back from insurance and tax)

Pocket money for takeaways, gifts, holidays, etc: €325

Surplus each month goes in a Revolut instant access saving account, which acts as a buffer should any really unexpected bills come in.

***

Monday

4.50am: Get up, shower, dress and have a quick cup of tea. Out the door and drive to the train station, which takes 20 mins. Parking is €3.50. The train to Dublin takes around two hours, which I use to do work on the laptop. A return tickets costs €23. After a 20-minute walk to the office, I’m at my desk for 8am. Head down, working before people arrive.

9.30am: Make porridge for breakfast in the office and have coffee with it (all brought from home). Back to the desk for an online call and then some more computer work.

1.45pm: Eat the sandwiches I brought with me and have a cuppa tea and head out of the office. A short walk and Luas trip (€4) to a medical consultant appointment at 2.30pm. It comes to €300 – ouch! But I will be able to claim some of it back.

4.00pm: Back in the office.

6.00pm: Short break for another round of sandwiches and tea.

7.45pm: Leave the office and walk to the train station for the reverse commute while working on the laptop. I get home just after 10.15pm. Potter around for an hour looking at the news and personal emails. I notice the alarm monitoring direct debit went out (€25). I go to bed around midnight.  

Today’s total: €355.50

Tuesday

6.00am: This is a work-from-home day, so I get up slightly later. Start up the laptop around 6.30am and check a few dashboards before starting to do some investigations and cross-referencing things on dashboards (they always run faster early in the morning and later in the evening). Pull down what I need from the servers, make some porridge and prepare for a meeting later in the week.

12.00pm: Break for lunch and drive to the local Dunnes. Meet a friend for coffee and chat (€3.50) before doing the weekly shop of veg, chicken, bread, milk, cheese, etc (€22.17 after €5 off voucher).

1.45pm: Get home. After putting the shopping away, have some lunch and set back into the work from 2pm.

6.15pm: Clock off. Get a 30-minute walk in before logging on for some online training for two hours.

10.00pm: Get everything ready for the morning, do some house cleaning and head to bed around 11.30pm.

Today’s total: €25.67

Wednesday

4.50am: I’m up. Need to drive to Dublin today as I am off-site for work.

5.30am: Get on the road and park up at the Luas park and ride for the day. €4 on the parking app and €2 on the Leap card gets me into the city. Grab a coffee at the client’s canteen (€2.50) and eat the sandwich I brought with me. Prep for the meetings which start at 7.30am.

12.00pm: Short break for lunch in their canteen (€7) after a long morning of face-to-face meetings and questions.

3.00pm: We are finished, so I head for the Luas (€2) and beat the worst of the traffic home for 5pm. Write up some notes and answer a few questions from the meeting.

7.00pm: Make some pasta and chicken, saving half for tomorrow. I log on to a Zoom training session for work at 7.30pm for a couple of hours.

10.00pm: Prep for the morning and head to bed at 11.15pm.

Today’s total: €17.50

Thursday

4.50am: Another train day. Get up, shower, dress and quick cup of tea. Out the door and drive to train station, pay for parking (€3.50), catch the commuter train to Dublin and work on the laptop. (€23 return ticket)

Related Reads

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

Money Diaries: A marketing manager on €90k currently on unpaid leave after having a baby

Money Diaries: A receptionist on €30K living in Dublin and planning to move to Australia

8.00am: I’m at my desk. Have a sandwich with a coffee before starting face-to-face meetings at 8.30am.

2.00pm: Grab some lunch of pasta and chicken at my desk and write up several things that need to be answered after the meetings.

5.00pm: Head off from the office, catch the earlier commute train home while working.

7.45pm: Scramble some eggs with dried onions and peppers with toast and a cup of tea before logging on to a Zoom call with some friends for an hour and a half.

9.30pm: Check my personal emails and note the power bill is in and will be taken from my account before pay day. Check the balance on the account, which is fine, and note the direct debit car loan went out today (€313.10). Head to bed.

Today’s total: €339.60

Friday

6.00am: This is another work-from-home day. Start up the laptop around 6.30am and check a few dashboards and start some scenario modelling I need to do. Pull down the data I will need.

9.00am: Take a break for breakfast then go back to modelling different scenarios. 

12.30pm: I head out to meet a friend for lunch (€17.65) and then take a walk in town before heading back home to the desk at 2.15pm. A €75 donation direct debit went out of the bank account and €6.15 donation from my Revolut account.

7.00pm: Call it quits after an afternoon of mathematics and scenario modelling. Cook some potatoes, carrots and parsnips in the microwave and air fry some chicken for dinner. Watch a movie while WhatsApp-ing my middle-aged son. Put some washing on at night saver rate.

11.30pm: Head to bed. 

Today’s total: €98.80

Saturday

6.00am: Wake up and get up slowly. Get dressed and go for a walk on the beach nearby. Always nice to get there before anyone else and walk to the rhythm of the waves for an hour.

7.45am: I get home and have a shower before making porridge for breakfast. I have a community meeting in town at 11am, and so I prep for an hour or so before heading into the meeting.

12.30pm: We are all finished, so I go for lunch with my sister who lives in town (€14.25) and then get some fresh fruit, veggies, bread, milk, yoghurts and pastries from the Lidl (€19.33) before heading home.

2.00pm: Take the washing and hang it out for a few hours, there is a good breeze. Get another load of washing ready in the machine but won’t turn it on until after 11pm. One of my brothers rings and I agree to meet him for coffee at the Costa halfway between our two houses at 4.30pm (€8.95).

6.00pm: Bring the washing in and make some dinner using the leftover spuds, veggies and chicken, topped off with an apple turnover from Lidl. Watch a movie and WhatsApp a few people, organising various catch-ups with people for the last quarter. One of these will be with relatives, so I book some theatre tickets (€106) which will be gifts as their two birthdays fall around then. Read for a while, put the clothes washer on again and then head to bed around 11.30pm.

Today’s total: €148.53

Sunday

6.00am: Wake up and read for a while. Get up and have some breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast. Have a shower then and get ready to head out to church (€12 in donations) before returning home and putting the washing out (it is still dry and breezy).

1.30pm: Make some lunch using some haddock and chips from the freezer in the air fryer and microwaved some peas. Do a bit of tidying in the garden but notice the sky is getting dark, so take the clothes in and head back indoors.

3.00pm: Once the rain has passed, I head for a walk and chat with one of the neighbours about solving the world’s problems. I have some tea and turn on the laptop to get ready for next week and write up this article. Cook chicken for tomorrow and prep packed lunch for an early start Monday.

Today’s total: €12.00

Weekly subtotal: €997.60

***

What I learned –

• I have been keeping a money diary for years and am not afraid to ask for a discount, so my expenditure, while high, was inside budget expectations. Luckily for me, my mortgage and car loans will come to an end soon, so I will have more flexibility later next year.
• Two tips: do up a budget and try to stick to it. The default contributory pension monthly deductions are woefully inadequate. Start doing AVC’s as soon as you can. You are going to live for 20+ years after you retire and while the state pension will prevent you from starving, it is not enough to maintain a vehicle on the road, keep your health insurance or allow you go on a holiday or two.
• Lastly, try to be grateful for what you have and give back a little. I am very conscious of the privileged position most people in Ireland are in when I think of the abject suffering of other nations due to global warming and expansionism of aggressive governments and corporations. All my problems are minor in comparison.