Cost of living in Dublin 2008

delija_sever029

I was reading a lot and i know some overall expences and prices,but i would like to hear your opinions what would be cost of living for 1 person in nice part of Dublin,that would include
Room in shared house or apartment,possibly with own bathroom
Electricity,gas and other utilities
Food
Transport
Cable,tv and mobile phone
Other expenses

Thanks

delija_sever029

Anyone?

Victor

It really depends on how you live.

Miserable. €1,000 per month
Cheap. €1,500 per month
Good. €2,000 per month
Wah-hey! €X,000 per month

delija_sever029

I know,i just wanted experience of some people by those lines i gave how much would cost me average for example each of these

johnnyskeleton

delija_sever029 wrote: »

I was reading a lot and i know some overall expences and prices,but i would like to hear your opinions what would be cost of living for 1 person in nice part of Dublin,that would include
Room in shared house or apartment,possibly with own bathroom
Electricity,gas and other utilities
Food
Transport
Cable,tv and mobile phone
Other expenses

Thanks

Just to break down Victor's figures:

Rent - alright room in alright outer suburb or small room in dublin 8 - 300-450pm. One bed flat €900pm minimum

Bills vary greatly on how much they are used and how many are in the house. Small house with lots of people and no cable or broadband €10/€20pm , flat on your own with cable and broadband, i suppose up to €200/300 every 2 months (higher in winter)

Food - all your means basic nutritous supermarket affairs less than €10 per day. Eating out and/or good quality food & lots of snacks €20-30per day.

Transport- depends on from where to where. live in town work in town - free. long bus/luas/dart journey c. €2. short journey €1.20. Nightlink €5. Taxi from town to town €10, taxi from town to suburbs €25-40.

Mobiles are the same price throughout the country.

Allow for 1 doctor & 1 dentist visit per year €50 each. Drink €5 a pint. Cinema guts of €15 including popcorn. visit to the hugh lane gallery, national gallery or chester beaty library - free. books €5.50 for secondhand novel in chapters.

So for a student:Rent in suburbs 350
Bills 20
Food 200
Drink 300
Transport 80
Misc 50
1k

Working:
Rent good room near town 500
Bills 50
Food 300
Drink 200
Non drink related entertainment 200
Transport 30
Gym, cable, broadband etc 100
Clothes 100
Misc 50

c/ 1.5k

Good job:
Rent fancy room in 2 bed flat in temple bar 650
Bills 120
Food 350
Drink 300
Non drink related entertainment 200
Transport none
Gym cable broadband etc 100
designer clothes 200
cocaine & hookers (once a month) 200
Misc 50

c/ 2200

Wahey
Coke, champaigne & high class escorts every night of the week: 15,000
Slick city centre pad, all bills etc 5,000
Being dead before you're 30: priceless

delija_sever029

Interesting post,waiting for others:D

ionapaul

delija_sever029 wrote: »

Interesting post,waiting for others:D

You can live very well (as long as you know how to manage money, a majority don't) for €1,500 a month in Dublin - live in a good area, all modern conveniences and enjoy a great social life. More if you own a car.

delija_sever029

Ok by all i saw so far am i right if i count on something like that
Room in shared house or apartment,possibly with own bathroom 500-700
Electricity,gas and other utilities Have no idea,thats why i am asking
Food 400-450
Transport 100
Cabletv net and mobile phone Sharing net and tv 30,own 60,mobile have no idea
Other expenses 200-300

Meathlass

I lived in Rathfarnham in 2006. All bills are based on 2 people sharing a 2 bed apt.

Paid 600pm for rent in a 2 bed apt in a gorgeous complex. Had my own bathroom.

About 50 a week for food (no restaurants but the odd takeout). Shopped mostly in Tesco.

Transport - 20 euros into city centre for work or other times 20 euros for M50plus about 40 euros for petrol when I was working in Meath.

Bills - Esb and Gas - my share was about 30 a month but we were very consciously about using either. Heat on for about an hour in mornings for hot water and about 2 hours in evening. That was it.
Internet and landline - about 40 euros a month
Cable - sky sports package - about 40 a month (can't remember the exact price) Also remember tv licence is 160 for the year so that's about 7 euros a month too.
Mobile - whatever you want - I had a pay as you go - about 30 a month, easy to cut your costs here.

Doctors, dentists, other medical costs about 200 a year so 20 euros a month.

That adds up to 1140 a month just for living expenses. I suppose you'd spend about 400 euros a month on going out, cinema etc. So you're looking at 1500 a month for a decent standard of lving.

ionapaul

delija_sever029 wrote: »

Food 400-450

I think most single people spend €50 a week at most on food (excluding going out) - I spend about €50 a week and would eat prime fillet steak at least twice at week! In fact, of the €50, almost half would go to the cost of the meat I eat, you can eat like a king for €50 a week if you cook your food yourself.

Meathlass

ionapaul wrote: »

I think most single people spend €50 a week at most on food (excluding going out) - I spend about €50 a week and would eat prime fillet steak at least twice at week! In fact, of the €50, almost half would go to the cost of the meat I eat, you can eat like a king for €50 a week if you cook your food yourself.

Agreed. I'd spend about 25 euros a week on butchers meat, about 10 euros on fruit and veg in the green grocer and then the rest on household stuff, the odd jar of sauce, rice etc. I tend to buy own brand stuff in bulk for things like rice, pasta. Lidl for toilet paper, juices and biscuits. What will cost you a fortune op is buying sandwiches or rolls in cafes or convenience stores. You could easily spend another 25 euros a week doing that.

Climate Expert

ionapaul wrote: »

I think most single people spend €50 a week at most on food (excluding going out) - I spend about €50 a week and would eat prime fillet steak at least twice at week! In fact, of the €50, almost half would go to the cost of the meat I eat, you can eat like a king for €50 a week if you cook your food yourself.

No you can't. A filet steak cost at least €7.
Most people I would reckon spend around e100 a week on food which is only e14 a day.

ionapaul

Climate Expert wrote: »

No you can't. A filet steak cost at least €7.
Most people I would reckon spend around e100 a week on food which is only e14 a day.

Yes, you can. If you can cook and manage money properly. Most people can't do either.

ionapaul

Meathlass wrote: »

What will cost you a fortune op is buying sandwiches or rolls in cafes or convenience stores. You could easily spend another 25 euros a week doing that.

I'm assuming that most people who care about money make their own lunches - tastes better and you avoid getting raped by your local, friendly sandwich provider. People who buy an over-priced mocha frothy frappachino and a sandwich in O'Brien's every day are the exception, rather than the rule, I hope!

delija_sever029

I saw price of food is least 50% more expensive in Dublin than Vienna and i noticed there one person spend 200-300 monthly for food,so i supose 400 is something real for Dublin,anyway i am dude who like a lot of candies,fast food and those things without cooking,thats why i wrote that number:D

Climate Expert

ionapaul wrote: »

Yes, you can. If you can cook and manage money properly. Most people can't do either.

Exactly, therefore most people spend way more than €50 on food.

Any body who actually enjoys good food and likes to eat out once or twice a week will never spend €50 a week on food. €7 a day to have all your meals, snacks and whatever 2500 calories you need. No chance no matter how well prepared you are.

ionapaul

Climate Expert wrote: »

Exactly, therefore most people spend way more than €50 on food.

Any body who actually enjoys good food and likes to eat out once or twice a week will never spend €50 a week on food. €7 a day to have all your meals, snacks and whatever 2500 calories you need. No chance no matter how well prepared you are.

To be fair, I did say 'excluding going out' in my OP - my point still stands, obviously, €50 is more than enough to spend each week to feed you...and feed you very, very well. I'm sure if we got an expert to draw up a weekly budget for us they could come up with a varied, healthy and tasty weekly culinary feast for €25 or less! Especially considering a non-expert like myself can shop for €50 a week on the fly. Most of my single friends wouldn't spend much more than €50 a week on non-going out food, honestly.

tibor

Break it down for us so, and give us your 7 day 50euro diet...

Meathlass

tibor wrote: »

Break it down for us so, and give us your 7 day 50euro diet...

Breakfast - frozen fruit smoothie 1.99 for 1kg of frozen fruit in lidl, usually lasts me for 2 weeks. one carton of kids lunchtime juice 1.69 for 10 in lidl. So that's 14c for fruit and 17c for juice so 31c for breakfast. Usually have a banana around 9am about 15c for a banana at 1.39kg.

11AM Yoghurt - 3.25 for 6 yoghurts so that's 54c each but I can usually get it at half price in supermarkets every few weeks so I stock up in advance but I'll leave it at the rrp for now.

1PM - Toasted cheese sandwich - 1.39 for tesco bread - about 20 slices in each pan. I use 4 slices a day so 35c for bread. 4 cheese slices works out at about 50c. Tea is free in work but milk costs me 50c in a kitty a week so say 2 cups a day at work is 5c a cup of tea. Museli type bar thing from Lidl - 1.20for 6 so thats 20c each. Total lunch cost 1.10.

3PM - Another cup of tea at work - 5c

6PM - Dinner, last night i'd steak (think it was sirlon but don't know, it was 6euros for a big piece which lasted me 2 days) with baked potatoe, corn on cob and peas. Steak was 3 euro, baked potatoes are 1.69 for 4 in Tesco so 42c each. Peas are 69c for the tin and corn on cob (small ones) is about 1.84 for 6 so 31c each. Glass of orange squash - 2lt is 1.99 in Lidl, usually lasts me about 3 weeks so that's 10c a glass. Total dinner costs 4.52

Evening - maybe glass of wine and biscuits. Bottle of wine about 8 euros, 4 glasses in each so 2 euros (wouldn't do this every night), Average pack of biscuits 1.50 - probably scoff a third in a session so evening snacks come to 2.50

Total costs are ... 9.17 but only 6.67 if I don't have wine and biccies.

Some evenings I might just have potatoes and veg or wouldn't bother with the wine or have a chicken based meal. Plus I buy all my meat from a local butchers so pay more than supermarket prices but even so with a baked potatoe for 42c, a chicken breast for 1.60 and some frozen veg for about 30c it's still cheap. Weekends I wouldn't usually bother with breakfast or any of the snacks, probably just have one big meal. As I said this doesn't include eating out or buying coffee and a sandwich every day. I wouldn't stick to the 50 euros every week but I think a single person spending 500 euro a month on food is ridiculous.

Climate Expert

Weekends I wouldn't usually bother with breakfast or any of the snacks, probably just have one big meal.

Well for those who don't want to eat terrible reccession food (cheese and toast for lunch) or have two meals at weekend its not realistic.

Meathlass

Climate Expert wrote: »

Well for those who don't want to eat terrible reccession food (cheese and toast for lunch) or have two meals at weekend its not realistic.

That was just an example, some days I might just have fruit instead of sandwiches or have chicken salad sandwiches. At weekends I might have a snack in middle of day - soup or something and then meal in evening. I work outside so don't have any facilities for cooking except hot water. I've survived perfectly well up till now. My bf would have a full cavary meal at lunch 10euros and a takeaway each night 10 euros. He can't understand how he is getting through 150 euros a week on food :rolleyes: The OP wanted to know how much it would cost to live in Dublin - I still think if you cook your own food and don't eat out you can do it on 50 euros a week. Of course you'll want to go out some weekends to a restaurant but in principal you can do it no problem. I could spend 250 a week on food if I wanted but I prefer to save my money and go out in Paris and London rather than expensive, fairly bad restaurants in Tipperary! BTW "Terrible recession food" will be what's facing us all soon.

How Strange

Climate Expert wrote: »

Exactly, therefore most people spend way more than €50 on food.

Any body who actually enjoys good food and likes to eat out once or twice a week will never spend €50 a week on food. €7 a day to have all your meals, snacks and whatever 2500 calories you need. No chance no matter how well prepared you are.

It's possible if you're very careful with your money, bring your lunch into work, don't get lattes or coffees during the day etc.

I think most of us forget the little things we buy during the week - that cappucino or latte every now and then, the bar of chocolate, the scone etc.

IMO €50 for everything is a very tight budget and would require discipline but it can be done and I've done it myself when funds were low. I'd say €80 is more realistic and that's not including dinners out. €50 for food shopping and €30 for those little extras that we treat our selves to during the week.

Meathlass

Yeah, 50 euros is tight, it doesn't leave much room for impulse buying. As the OP said he doesn't cook and likes sweets and takeaways then I think he is definately better off budgting for the higher end of the scale.

ntlbell

How Strange wrote: »

It's possible if you're very careful with your money, bring your lunch into work, don't get lattes or coffees during the day etc.

I think most of us forget the little things we buy during the week - that cappucino or latte every now and then, the bar of chocolate, the scone etc.

IMO €50 for everything is a very tight budget and would require discipline but it can be done and I've done it myself when funds were low. I'd say €80 is more realistic and that's not including dinners out. €50 for food shopping and €30 for those little extras that we treat our selves to during the week.

Yup I think most people forget how quickly the small things can add up.

just buying a coffee on the way to work can cost you anything up to 6-700 a year when you're in the higher tax bracket as more and more are this means you have to earn 1k just to pay for your morning coffee's

I think if you put your mind to it you could manage a 50e budget, two people with 100e is probably even easier again but as howstrange says I think 80-100e a week is a bit more realistic.

seahorse

Meathlass wrote: »

Yeah, 50 euros is tight, it doesn't leave much room for impulse buying.

It doesnt leave any room for impulse buying, in fairness.

ntlbell

seahorse wrote: »

It doesnt leave any room for impulse buying, in fairness.

when you remove the bottle of wine which shouldn't really be part of the "food" shop

it leaves a bit of room, you could go mad one day and buy a few rice cakes or something, maybe even get the ones with the yogurt on them!

Meathlass

seahorse wrote: »

It doesnt leave any room for impulse buying, in fairness.

See I prefer to impluse buy shoes and clothes and alcohol not food so i'd rather save my money and forego shop coffee, scones and sandwiches.

Meathlass

ntlbell wrote: »

when you remove the bottle of wine which shouldn't really be part of the "food" shop

it leaves a bit of room, you could go mad one day and buy a few rice cakes or something, maybe even get the ones with the yogurt on them!

I'd rather eat a cardboard box than rice cakes, with or without the yoghurt! Someone just disputed that you could eat well for 50 euros a week so I was showing that you can - I have meat every day and wine most nights. I suppose I just never got into the habit of eating out at lunch time or getting breakfast rolls before work.

bangersandmash

Meathlass wrote: »

Yeah, 50 euros is tight, it doesn't leave much room for impulse buying. As the OP said he doesn't cook and likes sweets and takeaways then I think he is definately better off budgting for the higher end of the scale.

To be honest, €50 is at the extreme end of the spectrum. You're essentially having no lunch. I would only eat a small meal for lunch, but honestly couldn't survive on toasted cheese slices indefinitely. I also wonder at the quality of the steak you're getting for €3 per portion. I would certainly advocate home cooking over take-aways or pre-prepared food any day, both from the point of view of saving money and healthy eating. However, I would not compromise on the latter simply to save a few euros, unless it was absolutely necessary. A varied diet is important.

On the other hand €600 per month is at the other extreme, unless that includes eating out - in which case you could comfortably spend 100-150 a week for two mediocre meals in a Dublin restaurant. Excluding eating out, the OP could try working on an initial budget of €75-80 per week and see how feasible this is. Obviously it depends on the OP's location in Dublin too, not everybody is near to a Lidl or Aldi store.

Also, when considering the figures for bills given here OP, you might need to factor in the confirmed 17.5% electricity rise from August and the likely 17-19% gas rise from October.

ntlbell

Meathlass wrote: »

I'd rather eat a cardboard box than rice cakes, with or without the yoghurt! Someone just disputed that you could eat well for 50 euros a week so I was showing that you can - I have meat every day and wine most nights. I suppose I just never got into the habit of eating out at lunch time or getting breakfast rolls before work.

I know what you were doing and I agree with you.

Meathlass

The steak was great, sirlon steak about the size of a scone in diameter from a very good butchers. Cheese sambos were only an eg as that's what I had just now, usually have salad or chicken and something. Sometimes homemade soup which I freeze in batches (God I sound like a proper little housewive) I'd have about 5 different meals per week (steak, roast chicken, bacon, fish and pork with combinations of veg, pasta, rice). Fruit about 3 times a day, don't know how that couldn't be varied. I also eat way too much rubbish. Do most people not just eat sandwiches for lunch, I think i'd be sick if I'd a full meal and then had to go back to work.

Energy costs are really going up, an extra 45 euros on each bill from Autumn according to ESB yesterday.

Gone West

Some really good friends of mine are living on €600 a month rent in the west (for a lovely 4 bed house, so €150 pm each), 5 of them share bills and food shopping costs etc. Afaik they would spend about 150 a week on shopping between all of them, and they eat really well. Theres always a huge, well balanced and delicious dinner cooked in turns, and someone else will make lunches for each day. Brekfast is lidl cereal and fruit/yoghurt. Internet, esb bills are negligible really when divided by 4. 2 of the 4 drive, and the other share cost of insurance/petrol as they only really drive to work or out on free leisure activities (surfing, swimming, hill walking, diving, camping, learning languages etc)
They're all saving up by working fulltime and getting themselves ready to leave the country. Its not in/near Dublin though, just thought I'd throw in the example.

Theres a whole house of people literally living on around 3 grand a year, all enough money to be in the higher end of the tax bracket, and all saving their asses off. In about 1 more year(3 years in total), they will be able to afford to buy a fantastic hotel in a stunning and up and coming part of the world. They live life really well, are active, enjoy being outdoors, and are having a ball while spending about 20% tops of what they each earn.

In 1 year they will have semi retired to all run and live in a big enough hotel, with a few local staff. They will be making plenty of money locally, have lots of savings invested from Ireland, own their own property (the hotel they want to buy has some small guest houses on the grounds), etc.

Its all how you play the hand you're dealt.
Take care

bangersandmash

Meathlass wrote: »

Do most people not just eat sandwiches for lunch, I think i'd be sick if I'd a full meal and then had to go back to work.

Sorry, I meant a sandwich as opposed to a hot meal. I wouldn't be interested in having a large meal for lunch either. But surely adding meat and fruit considerably pushes the price up? Unless you've found a butchers/grocers that's 50% cheaper than Tesco, which itself is hardly a luxury food store. I've found that veg and fruit are extremely expensive in their Dublin stores - they seem to charge a premium for anything that could be remotely construed as healthy. I suppose it could be worse, I know some people who still do their weekly shop in Supervalue :eek:

Meathlass

bangersandmash wrote: »

Sorry, I meant a sandwich as opposed to a hot meal. I wouldn't be interested in having a large meal for lunch either. But surely adding meat and fruit considerably pushes the price up? Unless you've found a butchers/grocers that's 50% cheaper than Tesco, which itself is hardly a luxury food store. I've found that veg and fruit are extremely expensive in their Dublin stores - they seem to charge a premium for anything that could be remotely construed as healthy. I suppose it could be worse, I know some people who still do their weekly shop in Supervalue :eek:

I buy all fruit and veg in a green grocer. I probably don't buy the really expensive fruit like grapes, usually have kiwi, melons, potatoes, carrots, oranges, pears etc. I can still get it all for a tenner. I never buy meat in tesco. I dont' eat much during the day as my job is very physical so don't like having a full stomach, some days for lunch i'd just have soup and brown bread. Plus we only have 30 mins for lunch so there's a limited amout of food you can eat in that time. I can't believe people do their weekly shop in Supervalue! I found that buying fruit and veg in Tesco meant that I was buying more than I could eat in a week and then throwing it all out due to their bogof and prepackaged deals so now I buy everything loose in a greengrocers and just buy what I need for that week.

ionapaul

bangersandmash wrote: »

Sorry, I meant a sandwich as opposed to a hot meal. I wouldn't be interested in having a large meal for lunch either. But surely adding meat and fruit considerably pushes the price up? Unless you've found a butchers/grocers that's 50% cheaper than Tesco, which itself is hardly a luxury food store. I've found that veg and fruit are extremely expensive in their Dublin stores - they seem to charge a premium for anything that could be remotely construed as healthy. I suppose it could be worse, I know some people who still do their weekly shop in Supervalue :eek:

I wonder do we all shop in different cities? In Dublin, you can enjoy a tasty, hearty lunch (if you make it yourself at home!!! much tastier and probably better for you than something from one of those sandwich places or the local Spar) every day at work as part of that €50 budget. I will admit that I don't drink coffee and have always done packed lunches at work so maybe I find it easier than others. Oh yeah, in addition to the fillet steak, I'm addicted to asparagus and it ain't particularly cheap compared to other veggies!

Is an ability to live well on a modest budget a cause or a symptom of Ireland's credit binge over the last decade? Life is no fun if you are always scrimping and saving but when you hear about people eating take away every night (I know one or two like that!), the opposite is even worse I think! I just hate to see people burn money like that...

deaddonkey

fruit and veg: don't plan what you're buying, buy what's cheap and available on moore street, you can save a lot that way.

tibor

ionapaul wrote: »

I wonder do we all shop in different cities? In Dublin, you can enjoy a tasty, hearty lunch (if you make it yourself at home!!! much tastier and probably better for you than something from one of those sandwich places or the local Spar) every day at work as part of that €50 budget. I will admit that I don't drink coffee and have always done packed lunches at work so maybe I find it easier than others. Oh yeah, in addition to the fillet steak, I'm addicted to asparagus and it ain't particularly cheap compared to other veggies!

Is an ability to live well on a modest budget a cause or a symptom of Ireland's credit binge over the last decade? Life is no fun if you are always scrimping and saving but when you hear about people eating take away every night (I know one or two like that!), the opposite is even worse I think! I just hate to see people burn money like that...

Still waiting on the details of your 50euro 7 day diet that constitues eating "very, very well" with fillet steaks aplenty, and "tasty, hearty" lunches that justify your condescension...


As most seem to agree, 70-80euro would be somewhat more realistic for a decent weeks food with a bit of variety.

delija_sever029

Sheesh it seems theres opened some big disscussion:D
So for me who like to buy candies and eating food out,like bakehouses,fast food and things is it 400 monthly enough?

ionapaul

Yep, €400 a month will be enough for that sort of thing It is also more than possible to spend €200 on a night out in Dublin, so sticking to a weekly food budget may be the least of your worries.

ionapaul

tibor wrote: »

Still waiting on the details of your 50euro 7 day diet that constitues eating "very, very well" with fillet steaks aplenty, and "tasty, hearty" lunches that justify your condescension...


As most seem to agree, 70-80euro would be somewhat more realistic for a decent weeks food with a bit of variety.

I'm not going to continue to derail the thread on this, but for anyone interested:

Three days fillet steak: €15
Four days chicken fillet: €8 (at most, if organic)
Staples (rice / pasta / potato): €5 (again, if you enjoy paying top price)
Bread: €2
Milk: €3
Cereal: €5 (at most)
Cheese: €2
Veg & salad: €5 (asparagus, lettuce, cucumber and prob sugar snap peas)
Sundries: €5 (God knows what you want here...soy sauce maybe?)

I'm not exactly sure what you're looking for here - I only buy for myself and have a very healthy diet, enough to fuel 3 days intense exercise a week in the gym - I will conceed it may be boring compared to other's diets I bet a 'professional' could deliver a perfectly nutritious and varied diet on €25 a week in Ireland...anyone willing to try? Bottom line is most people cannot budget, cannot cook, cannot manage money and this is why Irish people have one of the highest levels of private debt in the world...we'll reap what we've sown.

delija_sever029

Thanks for your answer:)

Raskolnikov

It's all well and good talking about doing a food budget of €50, but what about the other necessities of life? Bog roll, washing powder, toothpaste, soap, cleaning products, etc, do not come that cheap. If you smoke or have a few beers once a week, that's also going to make a dent.

ionapaul

Also, the cost of running a car can be prohibitive, most of us greatly underestimate the annual running costs. I only drive about 5k miles annually (mainly the 20 minute spin to and from work), but I'm sure I spend €1,500+ on the damn thing between petrol, insurance, tax and servicing. Plus it is a depreciating asset

Dublin probably compares unfavourably to other similar sized cities in Europe in terms of living costs.

How Strange

Raskolnikov wrote: »

It's all well and good talking about doing a food budget of €50, but what about the other necessities of life? Bog roll, washing powder, toothpaste, soap, cleaning products, etc, do not come that cheap.

IMO, these are the things that send your food shopping bill through the roof especially toiletries. Don't get me started on why a shower gel which is double the size costs half as much in Spain compared paying twice the price for half the volume here. Grrr.

I get all my household stuff in Lidl. Miles cheaper than other supermarkets. I also try to buy toiletries in boots on 3 for 2 offers.

How Strange

ionapaul wrote: »

Also, the cost of running a car can be prohibitive, most of us greatly underestimate the annual running costs. I only drive about 5k miles annually (mainly the 20 minute spin to and from work), but I'm sure I spend €1,500+ on the damn thing between petrol, insurance, tax and servicing. Plus it is a depreciating asset.

I recently gave up driving during the week to work. I take 4 buses everyday and have still saved over €30 a week, am half as stressed as I used to be and am reading a book a week. Highly recommend it.

tibor

ionapaul wrote: »

I'm not going to continue to derail the thread on this, but for anyone interested:

Three days fillet steak: €15
Four days chicken fillet: €8 (at most, if organic)
Staples (rice / pasta / potato): €5 (again, if you enjoy paying top price)
Bread: €2
Milk: €3
Cereal: €5 (at most)
Cheese: €2
Veg & salad: €5 (asparagus, lettuce, cucumber and prob sugar snap peas)
Sundries: €5 (God knows what you want here...soy sauce maybe?)

Don't like breakfast or lunch, no?

Bottom line is most people cannot budget, cannot cook, cannot manage money and this is why Irish people have one of the highest levels of private debt in the world...we'll reap what we've sown.

Irish people have one of the highest levels of private debt because we're just coming out of what was one of the largest asset bubbles in financial history.
I think you'll find that spending on food is pretty insignificant in that regard.

Meathlass

I presume he eats the cereal at breakfast time.

dizzydiesel

Victor wrote: »

It really depends on how you live.

Miserable. €1,000 per month
Cheap. €1,500 per month
Good. €2,000 per month
Wah-hey! €X,000 per month

I like your simple guide......accurate too!

mikemac

ionapaul wrote: »

Also, the cost of running a car can be prohibitive, most of us greatly underestimate the annual running costs. I only drive about 5k miles annually (mainly the 20 minute spin to and from work), but I'm sure I spend €1,500+ on the damn thing between petrol, insurance, tax and servicing. Plus it is a depreciating asset

Since the OP is looking for advice on how to live cheap, I’d strongly advise against getting a car. You don’t need one and every single day you own it you’ll be losing money.

Need to get around but public transport doesn’t suit?
Get a scooter, cheap as chips to run!
ionapaul, you'd be spending maybe €8 weekly on fuel and €50 annually on tax if you sold the car and got a scooter.

ntlbell

tibor wrote: »

Don't like breakfast or lunch, no?



Irish people have one of the highest levels of private debt because we're just coming out of what was one of the largest asset bubbles in financial history.
I think you'll find that spending on food is pretty insignificant in that regard.

He wasn't blaming the high levels of debt on food, he was stating because they simply can't manage their money.

Irish people are too quick to throw things on the credit card get loans to pay of loans..

I know someone who wait for it

re-mortgaged, so they could pay their mortgage...with the re-mortgage?

They're on very high wages but can't "manage" their money be it food, car's holidays etc....

it's the overall bad management that has people up **** creek and in for a bit of a shock

ionapaul

tibor wrote: »

Don't like breakfast or lunch, no?

What? Combine the milk and cereal in a bowl, add a spoon and that is breakfast I think It's also what I usually eat last thing in the evening too, I love cereal! Combine the bread, cheese and salad in sandwich format and that's my lunch!

I'm trying to think of other 'hidden' and not so hidden costs associated with living in Dublin - drinking out is very expensive, an increasing amount of people drink at home before going out, practically all my friends do so. There is a widening gap between things being 'affordable' and percieved as 'good value' - most of us can afford to pay €6 a pint, we could even afford €20 a pint if we had to, but see it as bad value.

Rent is something else that a lot of people are too hasty with - there are always 'bargains' out there if you look hard enough. I read with disbelief about people paying €700 / mo for a room outside the immediate city centre, as there are enough sub-€600 double rooms in D2 / D4 / D6 if you look hard enough. I think some of us are too quick to see a nice room and pay whatever is being asked, with a HUGE amount of rooms and properties available at the moment and with the graphs climbing ever skyward (and rents being pressured accordingly), it is easier to find value and even drive a bargain. What do you think?