Me and My Money: horticultural therapist Fiann Ó Nualláin

Are you a saver or a spender?

I am not a consistent saver or someone with ambitions to accumulate for the sake of it. I’d rather spend on friends and family and treat myself to books and music and the joys of life. What are you working for otherwise? That said, if there is something to be saved for – a holiday or the like – then I’ll save for it.

Do you shop around for better value?

Oh, God no, I am hopeless at that. If it’s a white goods purchase I might look in a few places, but in terms of swapping electricity and internet bundles on a bi-weekly basis and having an app to tell me which supermarket has the cheapest toilet rolls – life is too short. I guess it’s a bit like the old joke: when it comes to your children’s inheritance, always leave them wanting more.

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What has been your most extravagant purchase and how much did it cost?

I don’t do decadence in that sense but, in terms of unrestraint, I am a bit of a sucker for books on medicinal botany and Irish history. I have on more than one occasion paid several hundred euro for a book. Sometimes you can only get the info via antique or rare editions. I think the most expensive was £500 in old money. I lived off cornflakes for a month after, but I enjoyed the read more than once.

What purchase have you made that you consider the best value for money?

I don’t know if I am on that ‘value’ wavelength, but I appreciate every day my iPad, the record feature on my television package, the wall-mounted whiteboards in the office, the wireless printer, easy-iron shirts – the things that make my life easier and less stressed. That’s always money well spent.

How do you prefer to shop – online or local?

Where possible I always opt for local, and, even when I get asked where can people get my book, I always try to push the bookstore nearest the person asking. Yet I get why people opt for the convenience of online.

Do you haggle over prices?

Only if it’s for goats or flying carpets. Otherwise, if I think you are ripping me off, it stays on your stall.

Has the recession changed your spending habits?

I do miss the weekly helicopter trips to the supermarket. In truth, I am not in any line of business that benefited from the Celtic Tiger era or took a hit during the recession. I tick along, I guess. It’s always about being judicious and paying the bills first. If I have it then I can spend it, but if this is a flat month then not. Same as it ever was.

Do you invest in shares?

I’ll stick with Facebook likes for my dopamine hits.

Cash or card?

When I get to the till and they say “Cash or card?” I always want to say “Have you heard of barter?”, but that’s a joke I reserve for the inner dialogue. But, yeah, I’m mostly paid electronically and so, increasingly, it’s a tap-tap.

What was the last thing you bought and was it good value for money?

I bought a buggy for my daughter recently and I think it’s definitely Aldi cornflakes for the next year. At least when she is in her 70s she can still use it to bring the shopping on to a crowded Dublin bus.

Have you ever successfully saved up for a relatively big purchase?

In my 20s I saved for a house deposit, and that was as big a task as it gets. I had a steady-salary job and I gave up all the vices for a few years. Back then, a deposit wasn’t the GDP of Luxemburg.

Have you ever lost money?

In many ways, yes, but ‘nothing ventured nothing gained’ is how I would view it. I built show gardens around the themes that I now explore in my books for the first 10 years of Bloom and at RHS shows in Britain, and every garden I built cost me money. That period of my life was not about making money, however, but more about building a profile and helping an Irish language name get over the fear hurdle. It was perhaps a loss leader, but it eventually paid off with TV work and a book deal, etc.

Are you a gambler and, if so, have you ever had a big win?

I don’t think I am, but family and friends always say I am taking big risks: doing show gardens in England with no crew or sponsor, writing about mindfulness when I am known as a gardener, taking a year off to make a television show – I guess now that I am, pretty much, full-time writing that, yeah, to write for a living is very risky. That said, I’ve been lucky in love so that’s all that matters – and by that, I mean she’s loaded.

Is money important to you?

I would love to have loads to provide a great life for all my loved ones and a few random strangers but that’s the daydream stuff. I’m not greedy, but I am ambitious. I don’t know how to be the other way. I sometimes wish I was, but then maybe if the ambition is one day met I can be the rising tide that lifts a few boats.

How much money do you have on you now?

Just enough to disappoint a mugger, but I have a tap left on the card if you need me to get the coffees.

In conversation with Tony Clayton-Lea. Fiann Ó Nualláin (theholisticgardener.com) is the author of By Time is Everything Revealed (Gill Books)