Well it’s seven mornings a pint at two pence is at four pence is a shilling and two pence over and these three mornings a quart at four pence is three quarts is a shilling. That’s a shilling and one and two is two and two, sir. ” pg. 13

The first major mention of spending occurs during this transaction between Buck Mulligan and “the old woman”. The passage complicates the simplicity of a transaction through a combination of convoluted phrasing, lack of punctuation, and unrelated variables(mornings). During the following interaction, which ends when Buck shorts the woman two pence, the relatively straightforward 3rd person dialogue is interrupted with Italics.

-Ask nothing more of me, sweet.
All I can give you I give.

And

-Heart of my heart, were it more,
More would be laid at your feet

Mulligan’s responses to the old woman encapsulate his own comfortable familiarity with poverty as well an acceptance of incomprehensible finance. He buys the bread without skipping a beat, despite incurring a minor debt attached. This is the first example of similarly linked recurring themes throughout the first 3 chapters like mishandled money(25) and saving(25). There are also allusions to “moral spending”, whether that be by selling ones soul to the devil or being made a servant by the “Imperial British State”(17) moral bankruptcy(34).