Selectra Budget Busters: John, Supply Planner, Renter
Selectra Budget Busters has a look at what Irish people are spending their money on and how they make ends meet. With prices increasing over the last 5 years on everything from electricity and gas to insurance and heating, managing our monthly budget is getting tighter and tighter. Today we are talking to John, who has agreed to tell us how he manages his monthly budget.
Profile:
- Name: John
- Age: 25
- Profession: Supply Planner
- Monthly net income: €3,000
- Number of people at home: 5 (sharing a 5-bedroom house)
- Place of residence: Dublin
John's Monthly Expenditure
Living in Dublin and sharing a 5-bedroom house sees John budgeting for the following:
- 💶 Monthly Budget Breakdown
- Rent - €750 (€3,600 in total between 5)
- Electricity - €25
- Home Heating - €25
- Food - €400-€500
- Internet and Mobile Services - €13
- Petrol- €150
- Insurance - €65
- Streaming Services - €20
Rent
John has been living and working in Dublin for the last 2 years and works as a supply planner for an engineering company on net income of roughly €3,000 per month.
He shares a five-bedroom flat in Sandymount, Dublin 4 and pays €765 per month:
Sharing a house with 4 others, my rent was €739 and that was between four of us and then one other person was paying around €550 as the room is much smaller. Individually, our rent went up €26 each so now I'm paying about €765. It's very expensive and makes it almost impossible to save when you factor in the other costs I have living in Dublin. It's not the worst either as I know people paying well over €800 for rooms in shared houses but then again, I'm sharing with five people and we have one bathroom so there is not much value for what you pay in rent here.
Rents Have Increased by 5.7% in One Year
According to the daft.ie, average rent prices across Ireland increased by 5.7% in just one year from 2023 to 2024 with the national average rent in Ireland now €1,965.
At the beginning of 2025, there were only 2,300 rental homes available in Ireland, with 1,200 of these located in Dublin.
This represents an almost 60% decrease on the late 2010s average, highlighting just how much of an issue the lack of rental property, and housing in general, has become in Ireland.
Home Heating and Electricity
Sharing a house with 4 others allows John to cut down on energy costs as bills are split between the housemates. However, with electricity and gas prices remaining very high in Ireland, it still represents a significant cost in his monthly budget:
We share the cost of electricity and gas between the five of us and the bills come every 2 months. In the winter months, it's a little bit more, especially the gas for heating. Often times, I've paid €80 for gas alone and that's just my part of the bill. Then the electricity is normally around €250 every 2 months but again it depends on the time of year. It could be around €25 or a month or €50 during winter when we have more lights on etc. It's definitely gotten more and more expensive.
Irish consumers continue to face some of the highest electricity bills across the EU, with the average bill in Ireland now €1,496.03 for homes with a 24hr urban meter.
The latest figures from Eurostat indicate that Ireland's electricity prices have increased by almost 43% since 2020 from €0.2616/kWh to €0.3736/kWh in 2024 making Ireland's electricity bills the second highest across the EU:
Source: Eurostat EU Electricity Prices
Figures quoted include relevant taxes and levies applied. Last updated, March 2025.
Food and Eating Out
According to the CSO, The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 1.8% between February 2024 and February 2025, down from an annual increase of 1.9% in the 12 months to January 2025.
Excluding energy and unprocessed food, the CPI grew by 2.2% in the 12 months to February 2025.
This is something John has noticed in particular:
Everything has just gone so expensive. I would easily spend €100 a week on food but that can change from week to week as some weekends, I'll go home to Tipperary where I wouldn't spend as much as I would in Dublin. The days I'm in the office here in Dublin, I'll often get lunch for about €5 but on top of that will be a coffee for about another €5 and with a few other purchases, before you know it, you are close to spending €15 to €20 in a day just on your meals.
According to Kantar, the global marketing and data analytics company, grocery inflation in Ireland rose by 0.3 percentage points and now stands at 3.7% compared to the same 12-week period last March 2024:
Obviously groceries too have gone very expensive. Literally everything seems to be getting more and more expensive. One thing that just comes out of my mind because we did the shopping yesterday is the greek yoghurt. It used to be about €2.20 about 6 or 7 months ago and now it's like €3.60. Madness.
Socialising and the price of alcohol is another area where John feels the need to budget given the increases in prices over the last year.
According to the Vintner's Association of Ireland, further increases to the prices of alcohol is having a significant impact on an industry already suffering from price increases in recent years:
In terms of going out, it has gone extremely expensive. I was out last weekend and it would definitely put you off going out given the cost of it. If you're looking for a pint of Guinness, it's over €7 and some places it's even more. We went into centre last weekend as it was sunny, and we got two bottles of cider in the pub and they were €8.20 each! To top it all off it cost me €28 for a 15 minute taxi home. If you went out for some food, two or three drinks and a taxi home, it would easily cost you €100 minimum. We only really go out every second or third weekend as it's just too expensive.
Petrol
Petrol, and diesel, have also experienced a significant increase in price over the last 5 years with a litre of petrol costing, on average, 1.80c per litre as of March 2025 while a litre of diesel costs 1.77c.
John is spending about €150 a month on petrol.
In a week I could easily spend about €150 on petrol between driving to and from work here in Dublin and trips back down the country. People talk about shopping around for a better price but threre very little difference in price between petrol stations. Running a car in general has become costly between the price of petrol on top of the cost of car insurance and tax.
Miscellaneous
I have some subscriptions to various streaming services life Spotify, Amazon etc and for the most part I feel like I'm getting value from them for the price. That's not to say I haven't noticed an increase in prices. The 42, an online sports newspaper, has tripled their annual subscription fee from €20 to €60. Wi-fi at home is quite cheap as we split the cost between 5 of us costing us each less than €15 a month.
John's Budgeting Advice
Selectra's Budget Buster articles are all about helping you save money by giving you an insight into how other Irish consumers are managing their monthly budgets.
For John, he had this advice to offer:
It's definitely getting harder and harder to manage your spending given how much prices are increasing but what I find helps me is to try and track your spending as much as possible Contactless payments, swipping your card three, four times a day, it adds up to more than you think and it can be a bit of a shock to look at your transactions and see how they are adding up. Revolut really helps a lot as I can kind of fence off a certain amount of my monthy income for spending on non-essentials and it can be easier to see how much I'm spending via the app. It also makes socialising easier when it comes to paying for things as you don't find yourself chasing up people to get what they owe you.
In terms of the essentials, getting back to basic money saving habits helps a lot. When sharing with others it can be a bit awkward sometimes as everyone has different habits when it comes to electricity usage, the heating etc so we try as much as we can to compromise to keep the bills as low as people. Making sure things are turned off, no lights left on, don't have the heating blazing all day. Small things but they help a lot with keeping costs down.
Looking for Advice on Lowering Your Monthly Bills in 2025?
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Looking for Advice on Lowering Your Monthly Bills in 2025?
Call Us Today for Trusted Advice on Switching Energy, Broadband and Other Utility Providers!