Help with your Household Budget Survey

The average weekly household expenditure on food in 2016 was €123. How do we know this? Because you told us.

The information you give us means we can create a very accurate picture of Ireland, our lives, our economy, our health and our happiness.

Keeping your notebook

The notebook must be kept for 14 days. Please ensure the receipts submitted fall within these 14 days.

To support you in your two-week spending challenge, here are three helpful steps:

1. Your receipts. Request and keep itemised receipts for every purchase you make during the two-week period. Have a look at your receipts and if what you purchased is not clearly described, please write in the extra details on your receipt. Please put all of these into the pouch in the spending notebook folder.
2. Your most recent spending on utilities such as electricity, car insurance and regular payments. Please enter the last payment you made on these in sections 1-6. You could use your bank statements or online banking to find accurate details of these payments to help you.
3. Spending that you don’t have a receipt for. If you don’t have a receipt for an item, just write it into sections 10-15 and explain what you bought following the instructions for that section. If you get a receipt, it will save you doing this.