{"id":595397,"date":"2026-08-16T22:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T22:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/595397\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T22:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T22:14:10","slug":"money-diaries-a-marketing-manager-on-e90k-currently-on-unpaid-leave-after-having-a-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/595397\/","title":{"rendered":"Money Diaries: A marketing manager on \u20ac90k currently on unpaid leave after having a baby"},"content":{"rendered":"

WELCOME TO HOW I Spend My Money, a series on The Journal<\/a> that looks at how people in Ireland really handle their finances.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Are you a spender, a saver or a splurger? We\u2019re asking readers to keep a record of how much they earn, what they save if anything, and what they\u2019re spending their money on over the course of one week. If you\u2019re interested, send a mail to money@thejournal.ie. We would love to hear from you.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s be kind.<\/p>\n

Last time around, we heard from\u00a0a receptionist<\/a> on \u20ac30k saving to move to Australia. This week, a marketing manager on \u20ac90k who is currently on unpaid leave after having a baby.<\/p>\n

\"download\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019m living just outside Dublin with my husband and two kids. I have done two back-to-back maternity leaves (thanks to Irish twins!) and am currently on unpaid leave. As my second pregnancy was a bit of a surprise, I wasn\u2019t as prepared financially as I would have liked to have been, so I have cut out some luxuries (like saving or buying new clothes). I have always been a saver, so thankfully I had enough saved to allow me to take some unpaid maternity leave and cover monthly costs.<\/p>\n

I keep a household expenses spreadsheet each month to see where our money is going. It\u2019s been really eye-opening, especially with groceries \u2013 some months our bill is over \u20ac1,000. We do our shopping in Lidl and don\u2019t buy particularly extravagant foods, but our bill just always seems to be so high. We spend about \u20ac150 doing our weekly shop but then end up doing top up shops during the week, which all add up.<\/p>\n

Although I am not saving consistently right now, I use Revolut\u2019s investment account to invest my \u2018spare change\u2019. I like to think of it as money I may not have noticed spending otherwise (like the random 10c and 20c I find in old handbags). It\u2019s slowly building up and earning interest so maybe some day down the line I will use it to do something nice with our family.<\/p>\n

Occupation: Marketing manager<\/p>\n

Age: 35<\/p>\n

Salary: \u20ac90,000<\/p>\n

Monthly pay (net): \u20ac4,500 (but zero income at the moment)<\/p>\n

Monthly expenses<\/p>\n

Transport: Electric car which is charged at home, included in monthly electricity bill<\/p>\n

Mortgage: \u20ac1,450<\/p>\n

Household bills: Just over \u20ac1,500 per month \u2013 covering electricity\/gas, Wi-Fi, TV, bins, insurances and repayments on two small loans<\/p>\n

Cr\u00e8che fees: \u20ac590 (one child, part-time)<\/p>\n

Phone bill: \u20ac20<\/p>\n

Health insurance: Covered by work<\/p>\n

Groceries: Between \u20ac900 and \u20ac1,000 per month<\/p>\n

Subscriptions: \u20ac25 \u2013 Spotify and Google storage<\/p>\n

Eating out\/takeaways: \u20ac60 \u2013 try to keep this to a minimum. The price of a takeaway coffee has gone insane!!<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Monday<\/p>\n

7.30am: Get up and feed my youngest baby, and get dressed into my gym gear. I head downstairs where my husband and toddler are having breakfast. We get both kids dressed and ready for the day. I have my breakfast which I\u2019ve batch prepped from the other day.<\/p>\n

8.00am: Check bank accounts to be sure we\u2019re set for any bills going out this week. Cr\u00e8che fees come out as usual each Monday (\u20ac120). This will more than double soon when I go back to work and both kids are in full-time. But I\u2019m lucky to have a cr\u00e8che to send them to so I shouldn\u2019t complain about having to essentially pay a second mortgage, right?<\/p>\n

10.00am: Today is a no cr\u00e8che day, so I\u2019ve arranged for the teenage girl across the road to come over for a few hours to help out (I pay her \u20ac8 per hour). We make brownies and I do some cleaning.<\/p>\n

12.00pm: Head to the gym (i.e. our at home gym) while my toddler naps and the babysitter watches my youngest baby in the house. After this, I tidy up a bit, have a shower, have lunch, feed the baby and get a few bits prepped for dinner. Give the babysitter \u20ac16.<\/p>\n

2.00pm: Toddler gets up and then the afternoon entertainment starts (unpacking the presses, drawing on the walls \u2013 pretty much anything they shouldn\u2019t be doing!). I have a coffee and buy a pair of runners on Vinted (\u20ac35).<\/p>\n

5.30pm: The usual evening rush starts with our toddlers routine. Feed (while also cooking dinner for the adults), bath time, PJs and bedtime.<\/p>\n

7.30pm: Eat, then feed the baby and get them ready to head to bed. I\u2019m trying to get them into a routine but I know there will be at least five wakings before morning comes. I spent some time browsing Vinted again.<\/p>\n

10.00pm: Adult bedtime \u2013 but I will be up out of the bed a few times during the night so sometimes I feel I have three bedtimes each night!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s total: \u20ac171.00<\/p>\n

Tuesday<\/p>\n

7.30am: Another routine morning, but today my toddler is in cr\u00e8che. Tuesday\u2019s feel like my Saturday\u2019s with my toddler being in cr\u00e8che. Although I still have my baby at home, it is a lot easier to get housework done and get exercise in. I hang up washing (we try to do all our clothes washing overnight to benefit from the smart electricity rates) \u2013 with two young kids, we have a lot of washing to do.<\/p>\n

9.00am: Cr\u00e8che drop off and head home to tidy up. On Tuesday\u2019s, Boots do a \u20ac12 online special where they have a range of items discounted. I love looking through this while having my coffee \u2013 I rarely buy anything because having to pay for postage makes the deals not feel so great.<\/p>\n

10.30am: Exercise time. I\u2019m trying to work out at least four times per week. Having an at home gym makes this so much easier than trying to find the time to head out for a class. It\u2019s helped me immensely postpartum.<\/p>\n

12.00pm: Spend some time prepping some meals for my toddler. I always keep a batch of food in the freezer for them to help avoid any h-angry incidents.<\/p>\n

2.00pm: Have a coffee and spend (more) time browsing Vinted and other secondhand sites \u2013 it\u2019s become my maternity leave pastime. My husband is collecting our \u2018new\u2019 buggy today (\u20ac350) as our youngest is outgrowing our current one. I found one on Done Deal after weeks of searching.<\/p>\n

4.30pm: Get dinner ready to be reheated later and head for cr\u00e8che collection.<\/p>\n

5.30pm:\u00a0The regular evening military operation begins. I am on my own this evening as my husband won\u2019t be home until later tonight so it\u2019s a solo parenting survival mission.<\/p>\n

7.00pm: Bedtimes for the kids.<\/p>\n

7.30pm: Dinner and TV. A few minutes into dinner, I\u2019ve to head upstairs to settle the baby (one of three times this evening).<\/p>\n

10.00pm: Put the house to sleep and then take myself up to bed.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s total: \u20ac350.00<\/p>\n

Wednesday<\/p>\n

7.30am: Same routine, different day. Get myself ready, get the kids ready, hang up washing!<\/p>\n

9.00am: Do the cr\u00e8che drop off.<\/p>\n

9.30am: I\u2019m not working out today and have a mam and baby meet up later, so I treat myself to an everything shower! I even get to dry my hair.<\/p>\n

11.00am: Head to the mam meet up and enter into friendly competition about who is getting the least sleep (it has to be me). Get a coffee and mandatory avocado toast (\u20ac13.65).<\/p>\n

1.00pm: When I get home I need to do some life admin. Our electricity\/gas contract, home insurance and travel insurance are up soon, so I use ChatGPT to help me do some research on the best value.<\/p>\n

3.00pm: I get dinner ready for later to be reheated. It\u2019s rare these days to have dinner fresh from the pan or the oven \u2013 I have to cook ahead of time to ensure that we have something decent to eat. A slice of toast or bowl of cereal won\u2019t cut it as a dinner for me.<\/p>\n

4.30pm: Walk to cr\u00e8che today to collect my toddler. It\u2019s a lovely afternoon.<\/p>\n

5.30pm: Regular evening routine. Basically down to the minute at this point \u2013 if my toddler doesn\u2019t get dinner at exactly 5.30pm, then demon mode is activated, hence the batch cooking!<\/p>\n

7.00pm: Kiddos\u2019 bedtime.<\/p>\n

7.30pm: Adult dinner time and watch some TV while also doing some research for an upcoming long haul trip we are taking. I have a spreadsheet with our day-by-day schedule and budget breakdown for the trip, so I spend some time updating that. Is it a holiday if it has a spreadsheet involved? For me, yes!<\/p>\n

10.00pm: Do some stretching and wind down for the evening. Put the house to bed and head to bed myself.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s total: \u20ac13.65<\/p>\n

Thursday<\/p>\n

7.30am: Same routine. Get myself ready, get the kids ready. This morning is a special morning because the Aldi and Lidl weekly leaflets are released so I flick through them online while having my breakfast. Another maternity leave weekly highlight!<\/p>\n

9.00am: Do the cr\u00e8che drop off and head to the Post Office to pick up one of my Vinted purchases.<\/p>\n

10.00am: Today my youngest is getting vaccinations so we head to that appointment. To save the \u20ac2 parking fee at the clinic, I park at a supermarket nearby. After the vaccinations, I go into the supermarket to do a top-up shop. And it\u2019s my lucky day because they have a load of meat discounted \u2013 so I buy a batch of that to throw in the freezer, as well as the other bits I needed (\u20ac46.08). So glad I saved that \u20ac2\u2026<\/p>\n

12.00pm: I spend the afternoon around the house, keeping a closer eye on my baby to be sure they\u2019re OK after their vaccines. I put away the 6ft pile of laundry too.<\/p>\n

1.30pm: I get some exercise in while my baby watches me from her buggy.<\/p>\n

3.00pm: It\u2019s another solo parenting evening, so I get dinner ready ahead of time. I get a snack in myself to be fuelled for the afternoon \u2013 also having a snack before my toddler gets home means I don\u2019t have to share it.<\/p>\n

5.30pm: The evening routine starts. My mam has come around to give a hand with dinner and bedtimes for the kids.<\/p>\n

7.30pm: Eat dinner in front of the TV with my mam while watching a home improvement show. Why is it that with a budget of \u00a3100k in the UK, they seem to get SO MUCH more done than what we can get for our money here?<\/p>\n

10.00pm: Head up for another night of broken sleep.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s total: \u20ac46.08<\/p>\n

Friday<\/p>\n

7.30am: Get up and get ready for the day. No cr\u00e8che today so we can have a bit of a slower morning.<\/p>\n

10.00am: Pack up the bag with snacks and get ready to head out for a few hours this morning. We visit a local open farm that\u2019s free entry (rare these days). We walk around and then grab a coffee while the toddler eats her lunch (\u20ac8).<\/p>\n

12.00pm: Head home and attempt to get the toddler from the car to their bed without waking them. It\u2019s not so successful with the baby, who likes to have 10-minute disco naps these days!<\/p>\n

1.00pm: Get some lunch for myself and attempt to catch up on some garbage TV (i.e. reality series!) that I am falling behind on.<\/p>\n

3.00pm:\u00a0The afternoon is non-eventful (thankfully). My toddler potters around the house and we spend some time outside watering the flowers (with a watering can of course #housepipeban)<\/p>\n

5.30pm: We head to my mam\u2019s for dinner, but it\u2019s normally a speedy operation as we\u2019ve to be home for a reasonable toddler bedtime.<\/p>\n

8.00pm: Home for toddler bedtime. We put the baby to bed too and stick on a film \u2013 which we inevitably have to pause at least three times to go up and resettle the baby.<\/p>\n

10.30pm: We give up on the film and head for bed.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s total: \u20ac8.00<\/p>\n

Saturday<\/p>\n

7.00am: Wake up-time for everyone in the house. I have breakfast and a coffee and get some small bits of housework done.<\/p>\n

11.00am: My husband and I head to a gym class while my mam minds the kids (\u20ac24 for two of us). We try to get out to a class every Saturday as our \u2018treat\u2019 but it usually works out every second weekend.<\/p>\n

1.00pm: Home from the gym for a coffee and some lunch before heading to do the food shopping.<\/p>\n

3.00pm: I take the toddler with me and go to do food shopping for the week. They \u2018helps me\u2019 by trying to open everything that goes into the trolley. I use my Lidl plus to save a grand total of \u20ac4.74. Total this week comes in lower than normal at \u20ac124.75.<\/p>\n

5.30pm: Our same nightly routine begins for the kids. Toddler goes to bed for about 7pm and the baby goes at whatever time they like!<\/p>\n

7.30pm: With the weather being so nice, we throw some food on the BBQ and eat in the garden. We spent a lot of time this summer doing up our garden because with two small kids, we knew we would be spending a lot of evenings in it (I don\u2019t know the last time we were actually in a beer garden!).<\/p>\n

10.30pm: We head up to bed. Another quiet Saturday night!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s total: \u20ac148.75<\/p>\n

Sunday<\/p>\n

7.30am: We wake and do our usual morning routine.<\/p>\n

10.00am: Pack up the bags and head out for swimming lessons where our toddler inevitably wants \u2018out\u2019 15 minutes into the lesson.<\/p>\n

11.30am: After swimming, we treat ourselves to a coffee and pastry out (\u20ac18.35). Our toddler eats lunch that I prepared earlier.<\/p>\n

12.30pm: Home for nap times and rest time for mam and dad too. (For mam rest = scrolling on Vinted).<\/p>\n

2.00pm: My husband is doing some work in the garden and our toddler is outside \u2018helping\u2019 again \u2013 this time beheading the beautiful roses.<\/p>\n

3.00pm: My sister and her partner visit for a while to see the kids and have a catch-up (i.e. listen to me talk about how tired I am)<\/p>\n

4.00pm: Get dinner ready. I did a roast, which feels illegal given how warm it is, but my husband dropped a few hints that he would like one!<\/p>\n

5.30pm: We have dinner together at the kitchen table, which is very rare these days given the different schedules of each person (both little and big).<\/p>\n

7.00pm: Bedtime for the toddler.<\/p>\n

8.00pm: I try to put the baby to bed (a lot of rocking and pacing around the room). They finally fall asleep so I can head downstairs to relax for a while. We stick a series on and get a whole episode in uninterrupted (woohoo).<\/p>\n

10.00pm:\u00a0Bedtime again. Another week survived \u2013 everyone is healthy and happy. Another week closer to going back to work \ud83d\ude41
Another week closer to earning money again \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s total: \u20ac18.35<\/p>\n

Weekly subtotal: \u20ac755.83<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

What I learned \u2013<\/p>\n

Even with a limited social life, life is expensive! Any spend on socialising has just switched over to spending on supplies for our kids. I do try to buy secondhand where possible \u2013 clothes, buggies, toys \u2013 but even with that, it all adds up.
\nI think I might have a Vinted addiction (not always buying, just browsing to see what people are selling!).
\nEven though I try not to buy coffees \u2018out\u2019, I feel like I still end up getting one two or three times a week. Why does it feel so impossible to just not buy a coffee out?!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WELCOME TO HOW I Spend My Money, a series on The Journal that looks at how people in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,5028,35835,35836,61,60,35837,6896,4996,35838],"class_list":["post-595397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-finances","tag-hismm","tag-how-i-spend-my-money","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-money-diaries","tag-saving","tag-spending","tag-spending-and-saving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}