Cost of Life

mmalaka

Firends;

It seems to me the cost of life is so high here; this would affect my idea of staying here; I know that cost of life can be changed from one to another so let us do this small study about it..

I am looking for the family cost of life coz I am planning to bring my family here soon so this is for the family people:

How many people in ur family??
How many people is working??
How much monthly cost of life including rent, bill, ...etc??

My answers:
1- 3 members in my family (me, wife, 10 months old child)
2- I am the only one who is working
3- I think the monthly cost is 2000 Euro +

Thanks

Hobbes

Moved from Islam forum to a better suited forum (redirect left).

To put some context on this mmalaka has recently moved to Ireland and is finding the cost of living exceptionally high.

lomb

cost of living is high in any western country. health care saps 10-15% of gdp and so makes up alot of the tax we pay.on top many pay for vhi which is subsidised private care at reasonable rates , medications etc. theres infrastructure,education, law enforcement, legal, and social welfare, state pensions, free housing etc etc to pay for. bottom line is 50%_ of our money at least goes on tax. this is no different give or take to any western semi socialist country. then theres housing, the economy is reliant on property construction and borrowing. someone has to 'pay' for this. at least 1000-1500 goes on rent or mortgage repayments on basic accomodation. food is cheap enough relatively but at least 250 per month per person i reakon. energy from electric to gas for housing is 200 a month. phone/mobile/internet is 25-100 a month depending. cars are 900 a month for a basic new car all inclusive or probably 300 for used car all inclusive. cloathes, holidays, discretionary expenditure are all more
all in all at least 2000 per month id say living miserley pretax in reasonable accomodation. each extra person doesnt add a huge amount i reakon. i dont think ireland is much different to anywhere. im in the backwards of beyond in wales and pay 600 rent euro a month on substandard accomodation and another 130 a month in 'council tax' and water charges so 730 all in on accomodation. not alot of difference to ireland imho.
is ireland any dearer than anywhere else? i doubt it personally considering the opportunities.

Hobbes

Go to the tax office and see what you can rake back.

Being married it may be possible to get your wifes tax credits (if she is legally allowed to work here if I recall). This can make a huge difference to the money you get back.

Your child is entitled to childrens allowance which is around 150 a month, and as the child is under the age of 6 you get 1,000 a year as well (you have to be working and living in the country though, child has to be here too afair, not sure).

Again you would nearly need to check up on this as well but if you are not earning enough to live it may be possible to be means tested (if you are paying PRSI, you should be entitled). Depending on that you may be allowed rent allowance or other benifits.

Although as your a non-national getting these benifits may be closed to you. I am not sure and it something you should investigate yourself.

Rent is going to be expensive anywhere in Dublin, regardless.

Food. If you are buying food similar to your culture you may find it more expensive but if you shop around you can sometimes find cheaper places.

Car, don't know where he gets 900 a month. If you shop around you can get something cheap. I'm paying 225 a month (Thats factoring in gas/insurance/tax/overall cost of car).

electricity and gas are expensive and you have to pay to have your rubbish removed as well. I believe they said something like 150 electricity is average for normal household.

You will also have to pay 158 or there abouts a year for TV license (if you have anything that can play TV programs).

Internet depending what you want can range from 20 euros a month to 50 euros a month. If you want to go 56k (does that still exist?) that was last time I checked free.

Phones are pretty cheap but line rental isn't.

DublinWriter

lomb wrote:

is ireland any dearer than anywhere else? i doubt it personally considering the opportunities.

You're kidding? Did Eddie Hobbes die in vain?

A recent study by Mercer places Dublin as the 18th most expensive city to live in out of a survey of 144 cities.

The same study shows a few surprises - Moscow has knocked Tokyo out of the #1 slot and NYC ranks 10th.

I think you skew the argument when you just examine cost of living - it needs to be examined in conjuction with the quality of living too, but that's quite a subjective and controversial metric.

Hotblack Desiato

DublinWriter wrote:

The same study shows a few surprises - Moscow has knocked Tokyo out of the #1 slot and NYC ranks 10th.

IIRC that's because the survey was looking at the cost of relocating a top business exec. (penthouse apartments etc.) Not the average living costs of Joe Soap.

lomb

DublinWriter wrote:

I think you skew the argument when you just examine cost of living - it needs to be examined in conjuction with the quality of living too, but that's quite a subjective and controversial metric.

fair point, but i think that basic cost of life at a reasonable quality costs at least 2 grand a month without a car taking public transport pretax. i dont think this is any different to any civilised country.
as regards things being cheaper elsewhere i dont buy it.in my profession for example dentistry is cheap in the uk, but it is for a reason, it all decays and falls out if you take the average practice. so is it really cheaper? my brother attended an elective in new delhi recently, and discovered a molar root canal is 12 euro versus 800 euro to do it right, done over 6-8 visits at 2 euro a visit, but it was of a laughable quality and ALL fails. hell a set of one use files is 40 euro alone! they havent even got basic tools for the job no suction to remove saliva etc. Is this cheap or is it robbery. i think the 12 euro job is the true robbery. to do it properly prices have to rise to the same as what dentistry is stateside or in ireland. anyone who thinks things are cheaper elsewhere is in dreamland. of course restaurants and nightclubs charge alot in ireland, but its all discretionary, you can buy food in lidls or aldi and cook it yourself. no one is forcing anyone to eat out..
the main costs are accomodation, transport including energy and tax and imho these are the same everywhere certainly in any first world country.

mmalaka

Friends;

What do u think about this list of expenses for a Family:

1- Car 250 euro/month (Including Petrol; Insurance; Taxes;...etc)
2- Moblies, Phone, & Internet 200 euro/month (Line rental; call charges; using Moblies ..etc)
3- Utilities bills 150 euro/month
4- Food and others 500 euro/month

Thanks

galah

you can cut the phone bills by a large amount (I assume you will be making long-distance calls) by using 13434 (for example).
So phone bills shouldn't be more than 100 Euros/month (that's line rental + dial-up + mobile phone + international calls).

Utilities bills depend on what kind of heating system you use (oil, electricity/gas) - my ESB bills level out at around 75 Euros/month for a two bedroom apartment with storage heating.

A large factor is doctor's bills, prepare for that (and the **** health system, but that's an entirely different discussion). Don't forget regular health insurance with Bupa/vhi/vivas.

My car (old VW) costs me less than 100 Euros a months (including insurance/tax/fuel) - depends on the person I suppose.

you can claim rent relief of the government, you can also claim certain medical and dental expenses - that might help. Not sure about welfare/child benefit etc - I think you must have been here for at least 2 years or so...(not an expert on that).

I find prices for food and basically anything else but fuel very very expensive in Ireland (and that's before you're being ripped-off) - then again, the after-tax income is pretty good compared to other countries, so I guess we can't complain all that much...

Good luck, anyway!

BendiBus

DublinWriter wrote:

I think you skew the argument when you just examine cost of living - it needs to be examined in conjuction with the quality of living too, but that's quite a subjective and controversial metric.

Incomes need to be taken into account too. Irish incomes are above average and compensate for higher prices. Fact is that one drives the other. People earn more then prices go up. Not (just) due to greed, simply because it costs more to pay people who work in your supermarket, do your hair, serve your pints etc. And you do want these people to earn more too don't you?

mel123

Have u heard of Skype? If you used this you could cut the phone bill. U can make calls to any landline, worldwide, for only 1 cent a minute. If they have Skype its free to talk. I love it and dont bother with a landline at all, just that and the mobile

DublinWriter

mel123 wrote:

Have u heard of Skype? If you used this you could cut the phone bill. U can make calls to any landline, worldwide, for only 1 cent a minute.

1 cent a minute?!?! What a rip-off! Try this lot instead and call landlines for free from your PC...

http://www.voipcheap.com/en/index.html

Hotblack Desiato

lomb wrote:

no one is forcing anyone to eat out..

Funnily enough eating out is, I think, far better value now than it was 5 or 10 years ago.

Hobbes

DublinWriter wrote:

1 cent a minute?!?! What a rip-off! Try this lot instead and call landlines for free from your PC...

http://www.voipcheap.com/en/index.html

or you can use www.telestunt.ie as well. Local call prices anywhere in the world on a normal phone. Think phone cards would be cheaper again.

lomb

there is indeed a large difference on phone calls. to ring ireland from a uk landline costs about 25 cent a minute, versus 1 cent a minute on telestunt or skype for the same apparant quality.
i dont think though that it would make a huge difference to annual budgets unless you make alot of calls.
as regards doctors bills being alot. how many times does the average youngish healthy person need to see a doctor. i havent seen one in 3 years.
the reality is the biggest cost is housing followed by cars and neither can be reduced by much without standard of life dwindling(unless you live in town and dont need a car)

Danno

€2000 to live per month - NO WAY!!!

Mortgage 300
Car payments 140
petrol 160
car insurance 60
car tax 30
food 200
beer 200
phone line 10
phone calls inc mobile 40
broadband 35
esb 30
heating 50

Thats €1255 per month

mmalaka

Danno;

do u have a famely??

will i think the difference is the rent value; my rent value is 1150 !!!

fobs

You could live on 2000 a month provided you make sure you are availing of all the available tax reliefs that apply to your situation. also there is family income supplement that you may be entitled to on one income with a child.
500 euro per week roughly would mean very little luxuries for a family paying rent so would definately calculate all the reliefs you would be entitled to to see if this would boost your income.
Our situation :
Married couple both working with 2 kids (one in school ,one in creche)
costs:
Mortgage: 1000 - per month
Creche fees - 800-900 per month.
Loan Repayments - 300 per month.
Cars - 400-500 per month (including the tax,insurance,fuel,maintenance)
Phone - 100 per month (broadband,mobiles,line rental)
Gas - 150 per month average
Electricity - 100 per month
VHI (health insurance) - 120 per month
Medicine - 85 per month (max paid each month)
Doctors visits - 50 every 2nd month on average.
Multi-channel - 65 (luxury)
SSIA - (254 - luxury)
Cleaner (135 - luxury)
concern donation (20 per month luxury)
Savings (300 per month luxury)
food - 600 - (Food)
Kids Spending - 150
Socialising (300 - luxury)
Cothes (300 )

galah

lomb wrote:

as regards doctors bills being alot. how many times does the average youngish healthy person need to see a doctor. i havent seen one in 3 years.

well, my simple RSI problem (which turned out to be a couple of herniated disks), that basically cropped up out of nowwhere, has so far costs me 1500 Euros in doctors bills, specialists bills, etc etc this year. And I am a young-ish otherwise healthy person...With a 10-months old child, expect a few bills...Just as a warning...

professore

galah wrote:

well, my simple RSI problem (which turned out to be a couple of herniated disks), that basically cropped up out of nowwhere, has so far costs me 1500 Euros in doctors bills, specialists bills, etc etc this year. And I am a young-ish otherwise healthy person...With a 10-months old child, expect a few bills...Just as a warning...

The year my third child was born we had over €5000 of medical bills - both our other kids were sick that year and my wife was as well all requiring expensive medication. Now she did go to a private hospital and there were some complications, but we have health insurance which pays for f**k all IMHO. And they all had nothing out of the ordinary.

I know because we fill out the MED-1 form each year to claim the money back. There is also the Drugs Refund Scheme - you only pay a max of 78 per month on prescription drugs. People forget it's not just the doctor visit it's the medicines aftterward as well.

fobs

professore wrote:

There is also the Drugs Refund Scheme - you only pay a max of 78 per month on prescription drugs. People forget it's not just the doctor visit it's the medicines aftterward as well.

This goes up teach year and the max is now at least 85 (not sure if increased again) so it all adds up. My husband has asthma and his drups always reach the limit and so also needs to visit the doctor once a month with one of the family plus our VHi so health costs us an average of 250-300 a month all in which is another cost associated with living in Ireland.
however on a 2000 a month income for a family would you be entitled to a medical card?

Kivun Sotilas

DublinWriter wrote:

You're kidding? Did Eddie Hobbes die in vain?

A recent study by Mercer places Dublin as the 18th most expensive city to live in out of a survey of 144 cities.

The same study shows a few surprises - Moscow has knocked Tokyo out of the #1 slot and NYC ranks 10th.

I think you skew the argument when you just examine cost of living - it needs to be examined in conjuction with the quality of living too, but that's quite a subjective and controversial metric.

I would believe that. I have lived in several European cities (and Australian) and in comparison it is very expensive here. I get paid more here though so it evens out I guess.

mmalaka

fobs wrote:

on a 2000 a month income for a family would you be entitled to a medical card?

I have a health Insurance with BUPA; it is provided by the company that I am working with