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 apprentice mechanic on €22K living in the Midlands. This week, a software engineer on €100K living in Dublin.
I’m a 27-year-old guy currently living in Dublin. I live in a tiny rented apartment with my wife, and we’re currently saving for our first home. It’s an exciting time as, once she is out of probation at her new job, we should be able to buy. Until then, things are a little cramped.
I’m incredibly lucky to be making good money. While I don’t have any specific monthly savings targets, I’m saving around €1,800 a month – though I got a pay raise last month, so I’m trying to bump that to €2,500 ahead of the mortgage. I definitely try to stretch my money when I can, but I do splash out on certain things.
In my spare time, I collect vinyls and make music. I also like to run, and I have a few races coming up. I’m currently on a bit of a diet and fitness kick, which is definitely impacting my day-to-day habits.
Occupation: Software engineer
Age: 27
Location: Dublin
Salary: €100,000
Monthly pay (net): Roughly €5,000 after pension and BIK for health insurance
Monthly expenses
Transport: €20
Rent: We split the rent proportionally to our income, so I cover €1,000
Household bills: €140
Phone bill: €9.99
Health insurance: €0 (work covers it)
Groceries: €250
Subscriptions: Qobuz- €15, Xbox Game Pass – €15, New York Times – €12
***
Monday
7.45am: I wake up somewhat tired after the night before. I met up with some friends in town. It wasn’t a crazy night, and I actually got home well before midnight, but I couldn’t get to sleep until late enough, so not the best start to the week.
9.00am: I work from home Mondays and Fridays. I’ve a bunch of meetings today, and I’m also catching up on some tasks, so I’m kept busy.
12.30pm: I break for lunch; I have my usual bagel and egg.
1.30pm: It’s back to work for more meetings and tasks. Not the most stressful day, but I do have some stuff that I’m trying to get done today.
5.00pm: I finish up right on time and head straight over to the library to print something out. On my way back home, I grab some groceries (€34). I also try to do some tidying before my wife gets home from work since I’ve slacked on some of my chores.
6.30pm: We have dinner together. Chicken and potatoes for me, and my wife is a vegetarian, so she has a meat substitute instead.
8.00pm: After catching up and watching some shows with my wife, I grab a shower.
10.00pm: I head to bed very early compared to usual
Today’s total: €34.00
Tuesday
7.45am: I wake up and have a protein bar for breakfast.
9.15am: I grab a coffee on the way into the office. I’ve been walking into the office as the weather has been getting somewhat better recently. I do try to limit myself when it comes to takeaway coffee, in part because I’m watching my calories and a latte in the city can cost anywhere up to €4.50 nowadays, so it’s really a luxury, though I still buy them pretty often. Today’s one lands on the “cheaper” side at €3.90.
9.45am: My work provides lots of free drinks and snacks in the office. I grab an energy drink (it’s a sugar-free one if that makes my caffeine addiction sound any better) and then settle into a morning of work.
1.00pm: Lunch time rolls around, and I head to the canteen. Work provides free lunch every day. Today I grabbed chicken and rice with some veg. They have dessert options too, but I’m currently skipping fun things like that as I try to lose weight.
5.00pm: The afternoon was filled with meetings. It’s time to head home. I stop in at the shops on the way home to grab some groceries. My meals these days aren’t very exciting, lots of protein and calorie tracking, so I got some protein bars and protein milk as well as some other bits and pieces we need at home. (€10.25)
6.45pm: Having dinner-sized meals at work means I have a more lunch-type meal in the evening these days, just a simple egg and baguette. After that, I watch some Fair City with my wife and unwind a bit.
9.00pm: Time for a run. I only started running around four months ago, but I’m really enjoying it. However, investing in nice running shoes and eventually a smartwatch does mean I’ve made this more expensive than it needed to be. In general, I’d go running slightly earlier in the evening, but the day kinda got away from me.
11.00pm: I’m a night owl, so I often stay up late working on different projects, either making music, making videos on YouTube or working on programming passion projects. Tonight, it’s messing around with some coding.
Today’s total: €14.15
Wednesday
7.30am: I’m woken up by the postman, who has a package for my wife. I very slowly get ready for the day and have one of the protein bars I bought yesterday for breakfast. These things are great for helping me hit my goals, but the cheapest I’ve found this particular brand is €2.50, which is steep.
9.00am: I get walking into work again and somehow resist all the different coffee shops on my walk in. Once I reach the office, I get going on another morning of work. I worked retail for a while when I was around 18, and I’ve found that the higher my salary, the better my work has treated me in every way, so I try not to take the cushy office job for granted.
12.00pm: I go for lunch a little earlier today. My choice is shredded duck and noodles with some asparagus, which is pretty nice.
12.45pm: After lunch, I grab a latte in a nearby café – it’s €4. I also see I got an email with a discount code. There’s a place where I rent a drum kit by the hour, some weekends, to get practice in and have some fun. They sent me a flat €15 discount, so I’m able to book in two hours on Saturday morning for €9 total.
1.00pm: Back to work for the afternoon, and while I’m kept busy, it’s pretty uneventful.
4.45pm: I leave the office slightly early to walk home (though I’ll finish up some tasks when I get there). On the way, I stop by the shops and grab some bagels and eggs for the rest of the week, as well as yet more protein bars. (€9.14)
6.30pm: My wife gets home from work, and while she has a proper dinner, I have a bagel and eggs. We’re both pretty exhausted after work, but we spend some time together before she goes to bed.
7.30pm: No running today, but I’ve been doing remote fitness classes since February, and I’ve got to do some exercises today. I could probably do all the same exercises for free since it’s completely online, but I find having weekly check-ins with the trainer helps keep me honest and motivated.
9.00pm: After my exercises, I grab a shower and unwind for the night, playing some video games and watching YouTube.
12.00am: Off to bed.
Today’s total: €22.14
Thursday
8.00am: I woke up a little bit later this morning. It’s another protein bar to start the day.
9.15am: I’m a little bit late getting walking, so I hurry in. No coffee this morning as I think I’m likely to get one this afternoon.
9.45am: Make it into the office, grab something to drink, then get to work. I know I have to run an errand over lunch, so I wanna get some work done before then.
12.00pm: I run over to the barbershop to get a haircut. I wouldn’t normally get one over lunch, but they were booked up for months in advance on evenings and weekends, so I decided to skip the work lunch. I’ve been going to these guys for around three years, and they are amazing. They really get my hair and always give an excellent cut. €50 for haircut and beard trim. I also have time to grab a roll on the way back to the office. A place nearby is doing a deal this week, so I got a pretty substantial roll for €6.25.
12.45pm: Back at the office, some coworkers suggest grabbing a coffee. I know I used the word “luxury” earlier in the week, but here’s my third coffee of the week (€4).
2.30pm: I get a message to say a package I ordered has been stopped by customs, and after VAT and an admin fee to An Post, I’m somehow paying a €16 customs bill on a shirt that costs €25. I rarely shop online, and it’s my fault for ordering from a US website. After the initial annoyance, though, I don’t actually mind paying it. It’s a small enough charge for a once-off, and I’ll probably wear the shirt for the next five years anyway.
5.00pm: I walk home after work, beyond exhausted for some reason. At least the weather is nice.
6.30pm: We’re continuing the theme of an egg and a bagel for dinner. Since I only had a sandwich earlier, I’d probably prefer something more substantial, but I’m exhausted and don’t want to cook anything.
8.45pm: As much as I’d like to rest, I head out for a run. It’s an ‘easy’ pace 50-minute run. On the way home, I stop into the corner store and grab some treats ahead of the weekend. (€8.90)
10.00pm: Finally back home for the night. I settle in to watching some YouTube videos and playing some video games for a bit before heading off to bed.
Today’s total: €85.15
Friday
7.45am: I’m working from home today, so I don’t have to follow my usual routine, which means I have a pretty relaxed hour before work. I mentioned that I’ve been on a diet and fitness regimen for around nine weeks now – today’s weigh-in has me just about 6kg down from where I started. I’ve learned the numbers jump around a lot and feel today is particularly low, but the overall trend has been pretty steady.
9.00am: I start work earlier when I’m working from home, since I don’t have to worry about actually getting to the office.
12.15pm: Working from home should mean I save more today, but I actually go out for lunch. I try to do some small things to make my dieting less drab, so roughly once a month, I grab a nice sandwich and coffee from this particular café beside my house. (€14.60)
1.00pm: Back to work for the afternoon. Work is sometimes mentally draining, but I enjoy the process of writing code. It’s kinda like solving puzzles, though I have worked at companies before that find ways to drain the fun out of it.
5.00pm: I finish up work for the day and start catching up on some chores around the house. This week was particularly busy, so I definitely fell behind on my share of the housework.
7.00pm: My wife gets home, and I treat us to a takeaway. We haven’t actually eaten a proper dinner together all week since our schedules have been out of sync, but I get us a chipper dinner. (€34)
9.00pm: I have to do more of my exercises tonight. I’d prefer to get them done early in the day, but better now than never.
10.30pm: I have to be up and across the city somewhat early tomorrow, so I should get going to bed soon, but I watch some YouTube videos before bed.
Today’s total: €48.60
Saturday
8.00am: I’m awake early for a Saturday, but I’m going drumming at 10 am and have to get across the city. As I’m walking to the Luas, I top up my Leap card (€5) and grab an energy drink from a corner store. (€3.30(!))
10.00am: I reach the drum studio. This place is big enough, and they have DJ booths and all, to which I keep intending to try out. Today, it’s two hours of drums, hence the energy drink.
12.00pm: Drumming finished. It was a good session and pretty fun. I make my way back into town on the Luas and look around some record stores. I almost grab a copy of ‘On Avery Island’, but I might head back next week to grab that.
1.00pm: A friend texts to ask if I wanna meet for lunch, so I head over to Abbey Street, and we get some toasties and an Americano. It comes out to €14, which is pretty steep for the amount of food, though it was nice. If I’d planned ahead, I wouldn’t have got the sandwich yesterday.
2.00pm: I make my way back home and rest up for a bit. I’ve managed to walk 16,000 steps, and I’m meant to be going on a long run today, though I might reschedule that to tomorrow.
5.00pm: I take it easy for the afternoon and then have dinner with my wife. We watch some TV and YouTube videos for a bit.
9.30pm: I’ve left it super late again, but I gotta go on my long run. My plan is telling me to go for an ‘easy’ 75-minute jog, which to this point is my longest run, but I actually managed it decently enough.
12.00am: After the run, I unwind and work on a YouTube video a bit before heading to bed.
Today’s total: €22.30
Sunday
10.00am: I slept in a bit this morning. Take it very easy and eventually go out to run some errands with my wife. We have to pick up some lunch supplies for the week for her and some other bits and pieces for the house. The total comes in at €28 for everything, though we get a coffee on the way home, so that’s another €8.80. I tend to buy any little treats if it’s just the two of us, just because my salary allows it.
12.00pm: We make breakfast and settle into a very quiet day. Sometimes on Sundays, we head out to get a quiet pint and maybe meet some friends, but we’re both feeling exhausted today, so we just take it easy, relaxing and prepping for the week ahead.
5.00pm: We are actually celebrating a minor anniversary today, so I’ll get us a nice dinner. (€53)
6.00pm: The quiet theme of the day continues into the evening. With so much of the week spent working and all, it’s just nice to have nothing to do and spend time with each other
10.00pm: I’m incredibly glad I didn’t have any running or exercise today and could just stay close to the house all day. It was great being able to spend all of this quality time with my wife, too.
Today’s total: €89.80
Weekly subtotal: €316.14
***
What I learned –
- While writing the diary, I really noticed how my salary has allowed me to be insulated from the cost-of-living crisis. I earn enough money and have always been a saver, so while I do wince at seeing how much a coffee is or how much a litre of milk has jumped, I’ll always be able to afford it.
- I don’t understand how I’m probably ten times richer than my grandparents ever were, but they owned a house by my age, while it’s taken me years of obsessive saving to even get close to the same.
- I honestly think I should be taxed more to help those with less.