Moving to Portlaois.... hopefully

alyuciao

Greetings all,

the wife, the kids and I are seriously thinking about moving back home after
15 years out of the country.

We did not make it rich, but we did have a bloody good time.

The only problem is, we have no idea of how much it cost to actually live in Ireland anymore.

If someone has a few minutes to break down the monthly costs for me it would be very much a hugh piece of peace of mind for us.

Little things like.... gas. electricity, water, bins, tv, insurance, schools, a visit to the doctor with the kids. How much a monthly shopping bill would likely cost if there was a family of four, with a six and a two year old.

Any samaritan out there that can give us this info would earn a great amount of karma by helping us out with this info.

Cheers in advance.

Alyuciao

kikel

Hey,
Glad to hear ya had a good time.
Going to presume your renting rather than buying.

3-4 bedroom house €700 per month. Check out www.daft.ie for more details. There is a rent allowance available also. Not sure but think it works out at 1 months rent.

Bins, I currently pay €26 per month for a 140litre bin. You probably need a bigger one for family of 4. check out www.AES.ie for more details

Water is currently free.

Gas & Electricity. Bills come bi monthly. Recon for your situation 130 each for gas and electricity every two months.

TV, Ya need a licence €160ish a year. For that ya get 4 channels with a set of rabbit ears on your TV, most people then get chorus or Sky. Packages start from around €20.

Visit to doctor €50

Insurance? for car? This is total guesswork. You'll have no NCB (no claims bonus) which will push you premium up in the early stages. So for the first year i recon 1200 per annum. Check out www.insure.ie for your own details.

Schools, haven't a clue.

alyuciao

Kikel

thanks for the infor, it's a start.

WIth the aid of the internet, I amy be able to get a good idea of how
much it costs / if we can live there.

Again, cheers

Alyuciao

Danno

Petrol is now relatively cheap compared to a few months ago, though the "crowd" in Portlaoise seem to be charging 10c more than elsewhere.

A litre of Petrol is €0.89 and Diesel is €0.86, so driving around won't be fierce bad.

Broadband services are poor to moderate and rather expensive on fortunately. A phone line and 3mb broadband will cost over €50 per month from most suppliers, though Digiweb have a reasonable Metro service in Portlaoise for a few bob cheaper.

Grocery prices are starting to slowly come down, and there are rumblings of a supermarket price war coming, so the weekly shop should become cheaper. With Dunnes, Tesco, Lidl, Superquinn and a planned Aldi in Portlaoise a reasonable amount of competition for business exists.

jack of all

Danno, where are you buying your diesel/ petrol? It seems very cheap! Cheapest I've seen it recently (this week) was in Carlow and Wexford, at around 90 cent per litre.

For the OP, I'd suggest a quick search on www.askaboutmoney.com where this type of question often appears.

As for utility bills- I watch the electricty and heating oil usage and I think you'd need to be allowing more for these bills. Our 4 person household rarely sees a bimonthly ESB bill for less than €100 these days; if using heating oil expect to spend €1500 or more heating an average home (based on 2x 1000 lite fills per year).

professore

Don't think anyone mentioned the weekly shop. Ireland is fierce expensive for that. For a family of 4 if you go to Dunnes or Tescos you're looking at at least € 200 p.w. if you want to eat half decent .... if you've got Aldi or Lidl in Portlaoise you can reduce that somewhat. Hopefully this price war kicks in soon ....

alyuciao

Greetings to you all

so far it seems that a family of 4 would need to pay in the portlaoise area.
Remember, we wont have a lot of cash, so we will rent out in the sticks if we have to.

Rent....... can it be cheaper? 5 to 600 a month
Electricity, gas and bins 250 every 2 months, so lets say 125 pm.
Tv licence 15 pm
Shopping 450 pm
Petrol 50 pm
Broadband bundle 50pm

That works out at about 1290.00pm

Anything else that I should know or think about?
Mobile phones will not come into it until I get a job, and I'm only a barman.

Can it be done? the target for coming home is June, cause then we have to get the 6 year old into school ( that is another thread... "which school is good enough for my little girl" ).

alyuciao

Danno

Rents are slowly becoming cheaper as there is a glut of vacant property in Portlaoise.

http://www.daft.ie/searchrental.daft?s%5Bcc_id%5D=c8&search=1&x=8&y=6 will give you an idea of whats what and how much.

alyuciao

Ok, so the choice has been made, we are moving home.

We will not be getting any benefits and will be looking for work the moment I get off the plane.

Portlaoise has been chosen, the schools have been contacted and now we are just waiting for their replies.

Renting is the only option until (hopefully) I get a job.......

the next big question is........

Where would you rent if you where new to the town?

Dont pull any punches, as this is an honest request.

Fr. Murphy place Vs Triogue Manor.
St. Brigids Vs Kilminchy.

?????????????

rosepetal

hi, personally i would prefer kilminchy to the others however the only downside is its the furthest from the town so u would have to use car for school run etc whereas u could walk into town/school from the other 3 places u mentioned. also have to say the esb and gas bill estimates are a bit off imo. my gas bill came in this week at 274 euro for a family of 5. i know it s been very cold so we have had heat on a good bit but my esb is normally 180 or so and gas is from say 50 (in summer) to 300 (in winter). good luck with the job hunting and hope u settle into portlaoise

alyuciao

Thanks RP

A car as I remember, is one of the most important things that you can have in Ireland.

Just checking out rte and the bus situation, seems set to get only worse.

So far kilminchy has 1 vote.

rosepetal

have u managed to get ur dd a place in one of the schools?

alyuciao

A friend is enrolling them for us, hopefully, in the same school that his kids go to.

Sorry but I have to know..... what does dd stand for?

rosepetal

sorry!! it means dear or darling daughter, its used on some of the parenting forums, and its just automatic for me to use the various sorthand terms now:)

Ms K Sir A

Ray Whelan bins are far cheaper than AES.... 20 a month for small bin collected every week.. versus (can't rem but MORE) for small bin collected once a fortnight with AES.

Broadband... Smart telecom are about 20ish per month. & u get the phone line. Works fine for me.

niceirishfella

Hi OP,

Can I air a word of caution here. Employment prospects in Portlaoise and in all towns all over Ireland are poor now. Dole q's are swelling and unless your skills are in great demand - I'd think twice about arriving in portlaoise and hoping to get work.
Also, if you arrive and sign on for benefit, you may have to be means tested and it can take 15 weeks to be processed.
I've heard of 22 weeks in some cases.
Just so you know - it's not good here workwise.

alyuciao

Niceirishfella

nice one for the words of caution. the queues where hugh when I left a long time ago too.

seems like i missed the good times.

ah well...... hope springs eternal,
and the only skills that I have is as a bar manager / barman.

I heard htat pubs are also in decline in Laois / Dublin too.