Brilliant video Grace ! I think more like that are needed.I certainly do not understant why we are not taught in school how to managa a budget as it is such a valuable thing to know! when my kids were teens I gave one of them the risponsability of managing our family budget for 3 months , they all did it in time and learned valuable lessons from it. they are all very good with their money and I like to think that their education had something to do with it! ;-). Well done! you are on top of it! xxx

I have been budgeting since I first started work. My mum used to do it and taught my sister and myself. She made a lot of our clothes went to jumble sales and family passed clothes round for the children. The latest budget I came across is for my printer. Its a HP printer and I pay monthly for my ink. The cartridges are bigger than the ones in the shop and last longer. Any pages not printed roll over to the next month. Worth a look into . Good to see the difference between Ireland and England

This is great. In the States, I don’t know where you get six months of maternity leave. When I was that age, women were only allowed six weeks. Which is not enough. Your budget breakdown is amazing. I don’t drink anything other than water most of the time but that is expensive if you can’t drink tap water (or coffee) which has fluoride in it. I agree that food in the USA is terribly expensive right now. If there were any places that had gluten free wheat free options in this small town, it would probably be cheaper to eat takeout. I actually buy some things on Amazon because they are less in bulk quantities.

Really enjoyed this and I’m going to have to start budgeting in the new year once I’m in the house. I will have a look at what family/friend discounts we have on plans in Vodafone if that is any use to you. I’m not sure what the signal is like with them out your way. x

I’m scared to look at my budget. I know I’m doing ok and I have some savings but it’s not something I was tought and speaking about money is so taboo somehow. I would really need to speak to a financial advisor to better plan for my future. About food, do you do a meal plan? This really helps me. I don’t mind eating leftovers all week so that’s a bonus 😉 The day before I go food shopping I check what I have left that needs using up and what I have in stock and what is on offer that week and then plan for the week. I’ve also built a database for recipes so I can search by ingredients or number of servings or general inspiration.

This was so interesting. Brought me back to my grad school days when I had to budget down to the last penny and eat a lot of beans and pasta. Interesting to see the differences in what goes in an Irish budget vs an American budget. For example, we have to pay for personal liability, homeowners, and car insurance, don’t have a tv tax, might have a copay for the doctor if we have health insurance and the same for prescriptions, gas 🚗 prices are thru the roof, as are groceries, for some reason. I really enjoyed learning how you budget.

We had a 30 year mortgage at 8%. We paid extra by rounding up maybe $15. sometimes more. We paid it off by 7 years early. Which is a crazy amount of money.

Thanks a mill for making this video… Such a great insight into maternity leave finances in Ireland which is something that’s definitely not talked about enough! Tesco mobile might be a good shout for reducing the phone bill, I have the SIM only deal for €15 a month and as far as I know they use the 3 network.

Great video Grace!! Times are getting crazy so this will be helpful!! Dishwashers use less water than washing by hand, so saving on water would be helpful!

This was very interesting and appreciated. I was wondering though, how did you come up with what was left after you took out the first expenses (the set that include your mortgage). It seems like the figure would be closer to $2700 (4140-1415). No matter what the figure is, budgeting is hard and I need to get better at it!

Good for you Grace, hope it all works out according to plan.

I found this very interesting. I have never budgeted as I grew up comfortable, inherited money from a young age, and also hoard money like nobody's business as savings. Maternity pay for self-employed people is shocking in England so I'll have to look into budgeting in the future. Thank you for sharing x

Thanks for your transparency. It IS interesting. And I'm really struck by how much more expensive it is to live in the U.S., especially in an urban / semi-urban setting. Costs of things are at leasts 1.5-2x MORE than what you're paying. Mortgages, for example, could easily easily be double what you're paying. Many pay a lot more. And yes, we have health insurance payments-- I will be paying $600 per month in health insurance next year; and that's our "affordable care act" (aka "Obamacare")!! I don't know how most people afford it. AND that's really only "catastrophic" -- I still have to pay out of pocket for most of my regular stuff. And we are paying probably $750/month in groceries (includes booze). But I"m inspire by you doing this to revisit our budget in this way. Doubt I'll publish it on KZfaq, though. :-)

Great video. Is your budget for you only, or is it a total budget for both you and James? If it’s a total budget, everything is just very cheap compared to the costs here in Denmark.

US based viewer here, Can you explain why ppl need to buy oil in Ireland? Is like oil for your electricity? Or oil for your fireplace? Or oil for the car?