Spending Diary Week 2: What Did I Spend?

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This week I managed to stay within budget aside from an unexpected onslaught of bills (they’re due every 3 months and I seem to conveniently forget about them each time).

My car also failed the NCT which is leaving me worried for another big bill to get the car up to scratch which I hadn’t accounted for… I bought my car for €600 4 years ago now so, if it’s going to cost a lot to get it to pass the NCT it may be time to give up on it. Hopefully not though. I hope you guys enjoy this little meander through my week with me xx

Spending Diary Week 2: What Did I Spend?

Monday:

8am Up, make coffee, clean the house, spend an hour replying to DMs on insta

10am Spinning class

10.45am Home, shower and wash my hair, have breakfast of porridge, honey, banana and oat milk, get talking to Sean about how I’m not surviving blogging and what I can do to be successful (or, to even just be failing less), I get upset

1pm Bring Stanley for a walk

1.45pm Put tan on and start working on next week’s events post, eat leftover curry for lunch

7pm Stop for dinner that Sean made which was a crusted salon filet with a baked potato and lots of lovely salad bits. I also have a mini Milky Bar

7.30pm Wash up then return to working on the events post

10.30pm Finish working on the events post for the evening, shower the tan off then sit down to read my new book (Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine) for an hour

12am Get in to bed then see an insta pic of a girl wearing the exact style of white boots I’ve been searching for for ages… I had a fab pair last year but literally wore them until they fell apart and as they weren’t real leather they couldn’t be repaired so I’ve been keeping an eye out for a new pair since. I saw she linked them to ASOS which didn’t have them left in my size but, as they were Miss Selfridge brand I thought I’d check their site and was delighted see them reduced from €64 to €45 on their site while they were still full price on ASOS.

I make the purchase (in a size 8, they also didn’t have a 7) which I really shouldn’t have as I really can’t afford to buy new clothes at the moment buuuut, I had the money in my PayPal from some recent Depop sales so I allow myself to spend Depop money on new clothes (money from old stuff to buy new stuff), they cost €49 inc delivery

Total: €49

Tuesday:

8am Coffee, let Stanley out, admin

9.15am Go to yoga

10.15am Home, shower, have breakfast of vegi sausages, brown bread and mushrooms

11.15am Get ready for the day

12.15pm Do chatty Tuesdays

1pm Sean gives me a lift to a meeting with the Laura Mercier and NARS team in The Marker, he kindly takes an outfit pic for me before I run in

2pm Meeting on the rooftop with the lovely team

3.15pm Walk in to town getting back to responses to my Chatty Tuesday’s, pop in to Penneys for earrings and lashes (€21) then end up sitting down in the shoe section ‘for a moment’ which turns in to an hour of admin… one of the e-mails is from a restaurant who are launching a new menu, I thought the launch was tonight but I actually realise it’s on Thursday so now my schedule is off kilter for today which I hate. I suddenly don’t know what to do with myself

4.30pm Grab some crispy seaweed (my weakness) and peach ice tea as a snack (€3.75) then pop my head in to the Capel St charity shops where I find a cute kimono for €3.50 then grab the bus home (€2.25)

5.45pm Arrive home and I’m suddenly ok with my evening plans changing as it means more cuddles with Stanley, a dog who likes to be held and snuggled at all times

7.30pm Sean makes a delicious bulgur salad for dinner and I settle down to get back to people on Insta for an hour

9pm Play with Stanley, wash my make up brushes, watch YouTube, eat some of the leftover bugler salad and then munch on a bag of microwave popcorn and a mini Milky Way… then Sean offers me some of his chips and I eat them too

1am Bed time

Total: €30.50

Wednesday:

8.30am Up, Coffee, clean the kitchen, do an hour of admin

10am Spinning class

10.40am Home, shower, make a breakfast wrap filled with vegi sausages, boiled egg, avocado, spring onion and tomato

12.15pm Leave to do a food shop (my half is €55) and post a Depop package (€5.80)

1.30pm Home, hang a wash out, do an impromptu clean of my make up storage (went to wipe the counter down and before I knew it I’d rearranged the whole thing)

2.30pm Bring Stanley for a walk

3.15pm Get started on writing out proposals for work, pay my share of the bills (gas, electricity, bins, alarm €175), which is gonna make this month’s budget extra-tight. Have an apple

5.30pm Have dinner of this frozen pasta thing which is surprisingly good then also have three chocolate digestive biscuits (Sean picked them up in the shop and they are my WEAKNESS!) with a cup of tea before also cracking in to a packet of cheese and onion Tayto

7pm Publish last week’s spending diary then sit down to read for the evening, pay to promote my Instagram to see if it’ll help get new eyes on my site; something I’m hesitant to do as I think it can negatively effect your posts for a while after because Insta know you’re willing to pay to promote thing but (clearly) decide to give it a go anyway (€15)

9pm Sean brings me up a cup of tea with some Dairy Milk which I feign reluctance at but, have it scoffed before he crossed back over the threshold. I also wander in to the kitchen at some stage and wolf two Dutch breads with cream cheese… not the most idealistic day of eating but sure look, it was right for me at the time

1am Bed time

Total: €250.80

Thursday:

8am The usual: coffee, let Stanley out, clean the kitchen, get back to DMs

9.30am Yoga

10.45am Pop to the shop to get glue for a loose nail… don’t judge! and, note cards for my Depop packages (€4.80), home, hang a wash out, have late breakfast of porridge, oat milk, honey, banana and porridge. A Payzone payment comes out of my account (best app ever! €20)

12pm Walk Stanley

1pm Get working on this week’s Five For Friday and promoting my recent posts. Have a lovely lunch of corn flower dusted cod with a mixed salad and a slice of brown bread

2.30pm Put on some makeup playing around with a pink eyeshadow and nip out to take an outfit pic (if I left it until I was going out for the evening it’d be dark… the joys of Irish weather!)

6pm Cycle to meet my friend Aideen in a new Stoneybatter called Grano, I have a starter of basically tomato on a brown scone ( t’wasnt great), a fresh pasta main with anchovies and tomato (very tasty), two glasses of red and we share a dessert of biscuit cake, it all comes to €36 including tip then, when I’m going to get my bike a man asks me for change and I give him what I have in my purse, I obviously don’t count it in front of him but I think it was €3

8.45pm Cycle home and sit listening to music and getting back to DMs, Sean kindly brings me a cup of tea on my request and adds an un-requested chocolate digestive… which I don’t refuse

11pm Read for a little bit then go to bed around 1am

Total: €63.80

Friday:

8.30am Sean makes coffee and I don’t go the gym so that’s a slightly different start! Spend an hour promoting my events posts then shower and bring Stanley for a walk

11.15am Late breakfast of two boiled eggs and brown bread

12pm Give the house a quick clean and get ready for the day

1.30pm Start recording for today’s blog then drive to drop my car into the garage as it failed the NCT next week (seriously hoping it’s gonna gonna cost a lot to bring it up to scratch), eat an apple on the way

3pm Arrive In to town to spend some time with Sean and record an A Day In Dublin vlog. Have lunch in Junitos, I order the walnut and bean burger, a pear, vanilla and cinnamon water and split sweet potato fries with Sean, I pay (€32.20) then, have a pint of cider (Sean pays).

When the day is over I pay for a bottle of wine and two packets of crisps to bring home (€10.50 for a wildly glamorous Friday night), Sean pays for our taxi which we have to get as we both forgot our wallets coming in to town. No joke. We pay on our phones for everything else throughout the day but reason that buying a Leap card and topping it up to get us home will amount to the same price as a taxi anyway

7.30pm Sean makes dinner of prawn noodles which we have with the bottle of red I purchased

8.30pm Spend an hour editing today’s video and an hour getting back to people on insta then watch a documentary called They Shall Not Grow Old (really good) eating crisps and a few jelly beans

1.30am Bed time

Total: €42.70

Saturday:

9.30am Up, coffee, spend time with Stanley, eat a banana, get ready for the day

12.30pm Go to the nurses and midwives march on O’Connell st then meet friend

2pm Bottomless brunch in Crow Street for my friend Sinead’s birthday, I have scampi and fries with cocktails (€49)

5pm The brunch ends and we move to IdleWild where I buy 4 drinks (€24) then we move to Pyg where I buy a round (€24) then I see a homeless man with an 18 year old dog who I of course chat to for a while giving him approx €5 while giving the gorgeous dog some pets

1am Get a vegi wrap and crisps in Centra (€5.50) before getting a taxi (€11)

Total: €118.50

Sunday:

9am Up, put the finishing touches to next week’s events post

11am Walk Stanley to a local cafe with Sean, eat an orange on the way. Have a coffee and scone with jam and cream (Sean pays)

1pm Home, start photographing today’s Depop stock and clean the house

4pm Have leftover prawn noodles for lunch, publish and promote next week’s events post

7pm Dinner of quorn chicken curry with rice, start packaging Depop sales

9pm Watch some YouTube, have a cup of tea with two chocolate digestives and an apple, read

11.30pm Go to bed

Total: 0

Week Total: €555.30

Recent Comments
  • Karen Sinclair says:

    How are you finding the book? I loved it! Don’t think of yourself as failing regarding blogging. If you consider the amount of bloggers/influencers there are not many do it solely as a full-time job and those who are, are not necessarily the most hard working and sometimes if anything just lucky! Not easy nonetheless for you, but does not mean you’re a failure!

  • Aoife says:

    Really enjoying this series!🥰

  • Melissa says:

    Goodness Sarah, yiuknow what, you really are an inspiration. ..I struggle with a lot of things in my life, money for one seems to burn a hole in my pocket 🙄. Reading your spending diary has made me rethink things ,and start my own spending Diary ,you never know it might just help me stop impulse buying .Thanks Sarah, 😘

    • Sarah says:

      Aw thank you Melissa, so glad you’re finding them interesting, let me know how you get on with your own version! I’ve been surprised at how much little spends can turn into one big spend over the course of a day! x

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