No Christmas this year

Laptop1

We have to cancel Christmas this year. It is too expensive for us. We cannot afford gifts as some of us are on Social Welfare and that covers very little. SVP did come to our aid about three weeks ago but we are now alone again. We eat over the weekends and then we make sure the kids are fed from Sunday onwards and we go without food until Wednesday. Anyone else in this situation???? http://static.boards.ie/vbulletin/images/icons/icon9.gif

MagicMarker

Maybe food is more important than the internet?

You don't need gifts to have a good xmas.

Shockingly difficult to believe this story.

Don't suppose you'd care to tell us how many are in your household, what each person's income is, whether they're on welfare or otherwise and what your outgoings are monthly?


I'm on Welfare and as much as I'd love to say that it's impossible to live on, it's not.
I get by OK (thouh in saying that, Just OK! Not living like a god here). I'm in debt to the sweet tune of €6,000 and live week to week. Not ideal for a 21 year old, as I can't do really anything at all with my life at the moment, except repeat the same 24hours over and over and try not to become too mentally dulled, but I managed to sort out christmas presents for about 10 different people this year.

I didn't go over the top with the gifts, and no one getting anything amazing. The most i've spent is about €120, and thats on my dad because he looks out for me, but everyone else got a decent gift for little money.


Having to cancel Christmas? Sorry... I don't buy it. Not without much more info anyway.

argosy2006

whats your address, lets all send them a euro, i know i would if your for real!
isnt that what xmas is about helping others,

argosy2006

.

Absurdum

sell your laptop

ninty9er

If you think this Christmas is going to be tough, start saving now for next year.

freelancerTax

i find it hard to believe that you cannot feed yourselves on this countrys social welfare payments.

what are your outgoings?

Dr_Phil

Laptop1 wrote: »

We have to cancel Christmas this year. It is too expensive for us.

I always thought that to gather with your family in the atmosphere of love and Christmas costs nothing.

muboop1

Child Benefit Monthly rate
One child €166
Two children €332
Three children €535
Four children €738
Five children €941
Six children €1,144
Seven children €1,347
Eight children €1,550

Now i know this has to cover food and cloths to but still...
The dole for a single parent assuming worst case is approx 204?

rent allowance etc...

Unless your in some **** big debt, u cannot be that bad off!

But if you are in some big ass debt... keep the money that comes in for your kids... for your kids!!!

Do not spend it on clearing your debt... thats your prob, not your kids...

For 166 a month plus other benefits, i could keep a child fed and clothed. Medical supplies wud be covered by medical card... shelter by rent allowance. heat by bill subsiderys...

granted the child wont be wearing designer clothes or getting gourmet meals.

Shop in LIDL, ALDI wherever... make all meals yourselves... totally doable!

argosy2006

if u were in that situation wouldnt you want someone to help you,?
there are people in ireland who go with out food just so there kids can eat, its ****ed up in 2009 that this happens

ninty9er

argosy2006 wrote: »

if u were in that situation wouldnt you want someone to help you,?
there are people in ireland who go with out food just so there kids can eat, its ****ed up in 2009 that this happens

There are people who do this, but there is nobody that NEEDS to do this. Even after a 4% cut next week, our welfare payments will STILL be too generous.

Jarren

OP can you elaborate please?
I really find this hard to believe.....
Describe your situation and so we can give you proper advice

Mr.Micro

Lenny Scrooge will probably dish out more misery this coming week in his Christmas Carol budget. I would say to the OP, stuff Christmas its a load of Boll**ks and as long as you and your family have enough to eat and a roof over your heads that's the most important.

ParkRunner

Do you have Sky?? Just curious from your previous posts

mikemac

You'll have to forgive me for copying in your previous posts OP but people here want to help so it's done with the best of intentions.

In October you posted:

Laptop1 wrote: »

This is unbelievable. We are a family of 4 grown up teens and we live on €400 per week social welfare money.

Your first post here mentioned you feed the kids. Have children moved in since? What's your situation

Kensington

Cancel your internet.
Have you got pay tv?
A mobile phone?
What about tesco/dunnes own brand food?

They'd all be things I'd be seriously considering if I wasn't able to feed myself...

Flamed Diving

The OP's silence is deafening. Anyway, shouldn't this be in PI?

triple-M

Flamed Diving wrote: »

The OP's silence is deafening. Anyway, shouldn't this be in PI?

he must have taken absurdum's advice and sold his laptop :;)

krankykitty

You can get value bags of pasta (500g) in Tesco for 55c, tins of tomatoes and beans for 20c or less - and I'm sure you can get them for much less in Lidl/Aldi.

Unless you are spending your money stupidly, there is absolutely no reason why you need to go hungry for half the week, particularly with the very generous allowances you get from the state.

A Dub in Glasgo

Sounds like bull**** to me

In LIDL you can get those frozen dinner things for €2 a pop. Fcuking lovely they are, too.

No one's starving in 09, and if they are, they really need to rethink their money-handling strategy.

Duiske

krankykitty wrote: »

Unless you are spending your money stupidly, there is absolutely no reason why you need to go hungry for half the week, particularly with the very generous allowances you get from the state.

Thats what I was thinking.

Actually, there seem to be quite a few people with kids mentioning that they are struggling to make their benefits last for a week, although few as desperate as the op. Is there something wrong with the system ? You don't see as many single people having the same problem.

I dunno. Maybe the whole system needs to be overhauled to make it fairer.

Just a quick example. It was mentioned last night that the Social Welfare cut was going to be an across the board 4% cut in rates. A disabled friend, (who goes out for a few pints a couple of nights a week) laughed the cut off, saying if he had 1 pint less than usual when he goes out, he would actually be up a couple of quid after the cut. He thinks that if things are as bad as they say, rates should be cut by about double that.

By the way,this guy had his own contribution to rent raised from €13 to €24 a few weeks after the last budget, and in march it was raised by a further €5 because his invalidity pension was €5 more than the basic rate of SW.

This means a cut in the cash in his pocket after rent of €16pw this year already.

BlueLepreachaun

Actually having trouble buying food is not something I've heard of, though for all of you closed to the possibility, the richest country on earth, the USA, has 30 million people on food stamps at the moment, and 11.9million went hungry last year.

The only conclusion I can come to is that something else is squeezing their budget massivly, and my main guess would be debt. My sister's credit card debt is in 5 digits, added to credit union loans etc, many people are in the same situation.

MagicMarker wrote: »

Maybe food is more important than the internet?

You don't need gifts to have a good xmas.

Yeh giving up the internet could save a whopping...20quid a month...

Be realistic, of course you need gifts to have good christmas, we live in a totally consumer driven society, try telling kids they're not getting christmas presents, see how that goes down!

Unless your in some **** big debt, u cannot be that bad off!

You do remember the drunken debt orgy that was the celtic tiger right? LOADS of people are in **** big debt.

ninty9er wrote: »

There are people who do this, but there is nobody that NEEDS to do this. Even after a 4% cut next week, our welfare payments will STILL be too generous.

I've two questions for you:
1. Too generious compared to what? Most western european countries are far higher than ours, the only one I'm aware of thats lower is the UK
2. The average wage in Ireland is triple the basic rate of Social Welfare and even when you add in fuel allowance (20quid a week) and allowances for kids its still nothing compared to a wage.

Kensington wrote: »

Cancel your internet.
Have you got pay tv?
A mobile phone?
What about tesco/dunnes own brand food?

They'd all be things I'd be seriously considering if I wasn't able to feed myself...

:eek: Do any of you people actually live outside mammys house? How is saving 40euro a month from the phone and net going to help much if the situation really is that dire?
I'm always amazed in these sittuations people go right to the classic "deserving and undeserving poor" line and start assuming the person is poor because of their own stupidity, half of you would be bringing back workhouses!

In LIDL you can get those frozen dinner things for €2 a
pop

No doubt with the nutritional value of liquified plastic.

MagicMarker

BlueLepreachaun wrote: »

Yeh giving up the internet could save a whopping...20quid a month...

Well that's just silly, €20 is quite substantial when it comes to going without food!!

BlueLepreachaun wrote: »

I'm always amazed in these sittuations people go right to the classic "deserving and undeserving poor" line and start assuming the person is poor because of their own stupidity, half of you would be bringing back workhouses!

Indeed...

BlueLepreachaun wrote: »

My sister's credit card debt is in 5 digits, added to credit union loans etc, many people are in the same situation.

BlueLepreachaun

Well that's just silly, €20 is quite substantial when it comes to going without food!!

I spent just over double that on food every week as a single person, an extra 5euro a week issn't going to help much, it would barely buy you a single ready meal in tesco ffsake.

Indeed..

Yes credit card debt is a result of consumer stupidity, not the economic climate of the time, not marketing techniques appealing to peoples inner child and irrational sub conscious... people being "pre approved" , hidden clauses in credit card agreements..all stupidity..I hear poverty is caused by lazyness too, and that you can tell if someons going to be a criminal by examining the size of their cranium.

MagicMarker

BlueLepreachaun wrote: »

I spent just over double that on food every week as a single person, an extra 5euro a week issn't going to help much, it would barely buy you a single ready meal in tesco ffsake.

Well if you're buying ready meals then it most certainly will not last long.

BlueLepreachaun

I actually don't eat ready meals.
I was just giving an example of how little it would buy.

A Dub in Glasgo

BlueLepreachaun wrote: »

I've two questions for you:
1. Too generious compared to what? Most western european countries are far higher than ours, the only one I'm aware of thats lower is the UK
2. The average wage in Ireland is triple the basic rate of Social Welfare and even when you add in fuel allowance (20quid a week) and allowances for kids its still nothing compared to a wage.

I got made redundant about 5 years after 11 years working... Guess what the dole was?.... £59 per week. I could not believe how generous it was in Ireland. Admittly the cost of living was higher but

:eek: Do any of you people actually live outside mammys house? How is saving 40euro a month from the phone and net going to help much if the situation really is that dire?
I'm always amazed in these sittuations people go right to the classic "deserving and undeserving poor" line and start assuming the person is poor because of their own stupidity, half of you would be bringing back workhouses!


No doubt with the nutritional value of liquified plastic.

When I was on the dole, I drew up a budget and cut cut and even more cut all the unnecessary ****. Out went my Celtic season ticket, the internet, the Sky sub, the newspapers, the mobile, the drink, the branded food etc

I know folk who complain they have no money but still find the time and money for the bookies and that ole favourite - ciggies & drink!

Without further info from the OP, excuse my while I call it bull****

Dannyboy83

Deleted User wrote: »

Shockingly difficult to believe this story.

Not hard to believe at all.
I know a few people on minimum wage who will be doing similar, and I'm sure for a lot of people out there who will be going home for xmas, they would probably be doing the same.

Personally speaking, I make a fairly decent wage, but my partner is unemployed and doesn't qualify due to means so we can't afford to do anything really, will be going to my parents and skimping big time on presents (doing my bit for private sector reform I hope;)).

oh well

Quote:
Originally Posted by BlueLepreachaun
Yeh giving up the internet could save a whopping...20quid a month...

and


How is saving 40euro a month from the phone and net going to help much if the situation really is that dire?

saving 20 or 40euro can be a decent amount towards bags or rice, pasta, bag of flour (homemade bread), etc. Good nutritional food. Sorry, but I think the OP in this case isn't for real.

BlueLepreachaun

I got made redundant about 5 years after 11 years working... Guess what the dole was?.... £59 per week. I could not believe how generous it was in Ireland. Admittly the cost of living was higher but

Indeed, and you don't pay €100 for an Emergency room visit in the UK either, or €55 for a doctor.
You want to see ACTUAL STARVATION, try cuting the dole to €60 a week*.
With my budget when I was living outside of home that would have got me my food and 2/3 of one weekly bus ticket. Nothing for rent, utilites etc


*the IMF will be doing it for us soon enough..

nessie911

BlueLepreachaun wrote: »

I spent just over double that on food every week as a single person, an extra 5euro a week issn't going to help much, it would barely buy you a single ready meal in tesco ffsake.

Well 20 - 30 euro a month on internet each month over a year would save 240 - 360 in a year, so they could afford xmas presents...

People need to try live as a student i have 3750 to live off of for nine months, i pay 1855 on rent so have 52 to live off of a week... That has to pay bills, buy food etc... And i can still afford to spend a small amount on the people who matter to me...

BlueLepreachaun

Well 20 - 30 euro a month on internet each month over a year would save 240 - 360 in a year, so they could afford xmas presents...

Budgets dont work that way. If your in week 1 of January and stuck between paying for food today or saving for December your gonna buy the food today, evn if its only a tiny bit of extra food.
Well there you have it OP, if you are indeed not taking the piss, all you need to do is get a time machine, go back in time to January 2009, cancel your internet, save a fiver a week and you'll have money for christmas!

Why oh why didn't people save for the recession! Might be because we were told the property bubble bursting would be a soft landing and there was no reason to worry...no no its cos we were lazy!!...very lazy, and stupid.

People need to try live as a student i have 3750 to live off of for nine months, i pay 1855 on rent so have 52 to live off of a week... That has to pay bills, buy food etc... And i can still afford to spend a small amount on the people who matter to me...

You must be skinny as a rake or eating pot noodles with that kinda budget.
Why don't you get a job? I hear they're easy to come by these days, unless your lazy!:mad::rolleyes:

ntlbell

BlueLepreachaun wrote: »

Well there you have it OP, if you are indeed not taking the piss, all you need to do is get a time machine, go back in time to January 2009, cancel your internet, save a fiver a week and you'll have money for christmas!

They'll be sorted for next year then :rolleyes:

BlueLepreachaun wrote: »

You must be skinny as a rake or eating pot noodles with that kinda budget.
Why don't you get a job? I hear they're easy to come by these days, unless your lazy!:mad::rolleyes:

You would be suprised how well one can eat for very little with a bit of common sense, a srpinkle of creativity with one large helping of cop on.

old boy

ninty9er wrote: »

There are people who do this, but there is nobody that NEEDS to do this. Even after a 4% cut next week, our welfare payments will STILL be too generous.

hi lad, i did not realise that you were on welfare, what did you do to cross uncle tony and uncle pat, to say you are on the scrap heap (excuse the pun).

as you are an unofficial spokesman for f. failure you should get real.

after all you have changed your f failure sig twice, i do not mind people having a go, but you only shout from one side of the fence, you never bother to sit on it,

nessie911

BlueLepreachaun wrote: »

Budgets dont work that way. If your in week 1 of January and stuck between paying for food today or saving for December your gonna buy the food today, evn if its only a tiny bit of extra food.
Well there you have it OP, if you are indeed not taking the piss, all you need to do is get a time machine, go back in time to January 2009, cancel your internet, save a fiver a week and you'll have money for christmas!

Why oh why didn't people save for the recession! Might be because we were told the property bubble bursting would be a soft landing and there was no reason to worry...no no its cos we were lazy!!...very lazy, and stupid.


You must be skinny as a rake or eating pot noodles with that kinda budget.
Why don't you get a job? I hear they're easy to come by these days, unless your lazy!:mad::rolleyes:

No i spend 30 euro a week on food, and i budjet very well... people need to learn how to do it... and for your information i spend a few hours a week minding a child in order to help my family out, but i dont get paid for it, but i save my family money in the long run... Family is more important to me than earning money for unnecessary items...

I don't no why people cant survive, when we were younger we lived off our children's allowance, and my dads widows pension, so don't understand why people cant do so now.

And i never said he needed a time machine, but you said that 20 euro a month will not account for anything but it would so your point is not very valid...

Also never called anyone lazy, i don't belie it is people's fault that they are in the situ that they are in, but they need to learn how to budjet.

muboop1

Budgets dont work that way. If your in week 1 of January and stuck between paying for food today or saving for December your gonna buy the food today, evn if its only a tiny bit of extra food.
Well there you have it OP, if you are indeed not taking the piss, all you need to do is get a time machine, go back in time to January 2009, cancel your internet, save a fiver a week and you'll have money for christmas!

No need to act the ejeit here mate...
If someone set up an account to take 20 euro out of account each wee all year and couldnt touch it until say december... It's easily done!

If you want to do it you will...

People save every day... Just because YOU couldn't...

Why oh why didn't people save for the recession! Might be because we were told the property bubble bursting would be a soft landing and there was no reason to worry...no no its cos we were lazy!!...very lazy, and stupid.

Speak for yourself

You must be skinny as a rake or eating pot noodles with that kinda budget.
Why don't you get a job? I hear they're easy to come by these days, unless your lazy!:mad::rolleyes:

This is stupid... I'm assuming that is sarcasm yeh?
You cna get massive bag of spuds for less then a fiver.
Few big bags of pasta about a fiver.
frozen chicken pieces in lidl are like 2 euro for about 30,
drink = tap water
Raman noodles, like 4 packs for 2 euro
Lidl do pizza's 3 for 3.50(pepperoni and plain cheese)
Frozen meals in dunnes got some last week, 2 for a fiver...
Man it's so easy to live on 50 a week. And all of thats not including sandwichs which are cheap.
I could live on that in college away from home!!! sandwich of day in UCD is 2.50 in the bar. 3 a day is 7.50, by 7 days is 52.50...

And thats eating out.

jam_mac_jam

Am I the only person who feels sorry for the op? I have only been on welfare very briefly and sometimes I ran out of food, lived on cornflakes or noodles at the end of the week, its not pleasent.

DJDC

There is a strong chance the OP is telling the truth due to the demand for SVP help this year. Despite having one of the most generous welfare systems in the world, many Irish children are facing a bleak christmas due to the mistakes or their parents such as drug use, alcohol abuse or poor debt management. I can't see any other reasons why anyone could be in this situation when the govt. already give free medical cards, rent allowances, dole, fuel allowance, childrens allowance etc.

Therefore the key question being asked is: Should society be burdened with supporting households that show a complete lack of financial management and mis-use of taxpayers income? Its a very difficult and emotive topic and one which no country has found the answer to.

danjo-xx

Dannyboy83 wrote: »

Not hard to believe at all.
I know a few people on minimum wage who will be doing similar, and I'm sure for a lot of people out there who will be going home for xmas, they would probably be doing the same.

ah come on now let's get 'real' a computer and BB connection and they expect tea and sympathy..............and freebies........give me a break.:(

muboop1

jam_mac_jam wrote: »

Am I the only person who feels sorry for the op? I have only been on welfare very briefly and sometimes I ran out of food, lived on cornflakes or noodles at the end of the week, its not pleasent.

Here i think most people do feel sorry... If its true!

There is a big question validity!

BlueLepreachaun

They'll be sorted for next year then :rolleyes:

Unless cost of living increaces in utilities or welfare cuts wipe out the savings, which they almost certainly will.
With the endless talk of welfare cuts, education fee increaces, wage cuts and the OECD predictng a "permenantly lower standard of living" in Ireland do you honeslty think saving a fiver a week is going to be able to combat this massive assault on living standards?

If someone set up an account to take 20 euro out of account each wee all year and couldnt touch it until say december... It's easily done!

If you want to do it you will...

See are you going to put aside 20euro a week though for some distant point in the future when you have dire emergency needs right here and now? No, of course not. Most people in dire financial situations will live week to week or day to day. If your on €50, 000 a year you can afford to stash money away into savings, as you suggest, and it would be a very wise thing to do, in fact if people had done that more during the celtic tiger years instead of buying new deckin to impress Joanna down the road they'd have a lot less debt, but when your in a dire situation that kind of long term savings just isnst realistic.

People save every day... Just because YOU couldn't.

Actually I've just over €1000 in savings from the last year and within a few weeks will have zero debt, I'm one of the lucky ones, but I've been in dire situations myself and I know its not as simplistic as people here portray it, one day I had to cycle to the city centre because if I had spent the money on the bus to get there I'd not have had enough money left to buy food when I got there, granted I wasn't entitled to social welfare which is why I was in that situation, but I know where people are coming from becuase I've been in a similar situation.

Even when you strip expenses to the bone the basics can still be quite big, most of the bills in my house today I look at are quite large before any electricity is used, or phone call is made, just from basic charges alone.

I'm not saying the OP coudn't make more savings etc, I do't know the situation, I'm just saying people need to grow up a bit and realize the real world isn't as black and white as you seem to think it is.

You would be suprised how well one can eat for very little with a bit of common sense, a srpinkle of creativity with one large helping of cop on.

I knew thats what the poor were missing, if only they had cop on.
They should stop paying people at the welfare office and slap them in the face instead, might reset their outlook, cop um on good.

frozen chicken pieces in lidl are like 2 euro for about 30

Yeh..I've NEVER seen anything priced even close to that and I shopped in Lidil every week when I lived in my own apt, unless you mean them little packs of chicken that would barely fill 2 sandwitches, what I HAVE seen in supermarkets is close to a tenner for a few chicken breasts.

drink = tap water
Raman noodles, like 4 packs for 2 euro
Lidl do pizza's 3 for 3.50(pepperoni and plain cheese)

Listen mate, I hate to break it to you, but Pizzas and pasta..its a bit of a stretch to call either food, if you break down their ingrediants the nutritinal value of them is pretty pathetic.

Man it's so easy to live on 50 a week. And all of thats not including sandwichs which are cheap.

No, it's not.
I challenge you to draw me a realistic budget that would include food utilities transport rent etc that would be even close to 50 euro a week, it would be doublte that for rent in most places ffsake!

ntlbell

BlueLepreachaun wrote: »

Unless cost of living increaces in utilities or welfare cuts wipe out the savings, which they almost certainly will.
With the endless talk of welfare cuts, education fee increaces, wage cuts and the OECD predictng a "permenantly lower standard of living" in Ireland do you honeslty think saving a fiver a week is going to be able to combat this massive assault on living standards?

See are you going to put aside 20euro a week though for some distant point in the future when you have dire emergency needs right here and now? No, of course not. Most people in dire financial situations will live week to week or day to day. If your on €50, 000 a year you can afford to stash money away into savings, as you suggest, and it would be a very wise thing to do, in fact if people had done that more during the celtic tiger years instead of buying new deckin to impress Joanna down the road they'd have a lot less debt, but when your in a dire situation that kind of long term savings just isnst realistic.

Actually I've just over €1000 in savings from the last year and within a few weeks will have zero debt, I'm one of the lucky ones, but I've been in dire situations myself and I know its not as simplistic as people here portray it, one day I had to cycle to the city centre because if I had spent the money on the bus to get there I'd not have had enough money left to buy food when I got there, granted I wasn't entitled to social welfare which is why I was in that situation, but I know where people are coming from becuase I've been in a similar situation.

Even when you strip expenses to the bone the basics can still be quite big, most of the bills in my house today I look at are quite large before any electricity is used, or phone call is made, just from basic charges alone.

I'm not saying the OP coudn't make more savings etc, I do't know the situation, I'm just saying people need to grow up a bit and realize the real world isn't as black and white as you seem to think it is.

I knew thats what the poor were missing, if only they had cop on.
They should stop paying people at the welfare office and slap them in the face instead, might reset their outlook, cop um on good.

you can get all dramtical if you wish, but people were simply putting forward ideas. ideas i might add that a lot of people who are in financial difficulty fail to see sometimes.

When someone says cut your ntl, people bawk in horror, "but what will i do? tv is the one luxry i have"

ditching the tv alone will save you 120e or whatever the license is.

ntl/sky/digi packs can accucmalte vasts some's depending on the package you have where you could make considerable savings.

this is one small aspect that someone brought up but people who fail to see the savings in it or the "hassel" of not having a tv/ntl/sky tend to be people who refuse to let go of other "luxry" items as they seem small but when you add them all up can be very exspensive.

these times are not time for pride or ego's it's about doing the best with what you have.

if that means having to get a book from the local libary instead of watching cori to put an extra meal on the table then so be it.

maybe instead of knocking everyone elses suggestions of how not to do you could help the op with some ideas on how TO DO.

we all might learn something.

nessie911

BlueLepreachaun wrote: »

Yeh..I've NEVER seen anything priced even close to that and I shopped in Lidil every week when I lived in my own apt, unless you mean them little packs of chicken that would barely fill 2 sandwitches, what I HAVE seen in supermarkets is close to a tenner for a few chicken breasts.


Listen mate, I hate to break it to you, but Pizzas and pasta..its a bit of a stretch to call either food, if you break down their ingrediants the nutritinal value of them is pretty pathetic.


No, it's not.
I challenge you to draw me a realistic budget that would include food utilities transport rent etc that would be even close to 50 euro a week, it would be doublte that for rent in most places ffsake!

firstly local butchers in limerick city do 5 chicken fillets for 5, you can get a whole chicken in lidle for 4 euro... Pizza and pasta can become a fine meal once they are put with other ingreadents like salad etc...

seceondly, i think that that he was saying food wise you could live off 50 a week, so a family with two on social welfare is 400, more than likely get food allowance, flue allowance, etc. I know families that only have to pay 20 euro rent a week, and round 10 on heating, 10 on ESB, so have 360 to spend evry week...

ntlbell

BlueLepreachaun wrote: »

No, it's not.
I challenge you to draw me a realistic budget that would include food utilities transport rent etc that would be even close to 50 euro a week, it would be doublte that for rent in most places ffsake!

Someone all ready did it on another thread, I think the budget was 52e (i'm talking food only) and was able to come up with a very balanced diet for the money and that was about two years ago when food was a lot more exspensive.

social welfare payments are not designed to pay rent.

try it yourself, you be suprised what 50e a week can buy

BlueLepreachaun

There is a strong chance the OP is telling the truth due to the demand for SVP help this year. Despite having one of the most generous welfare systems in the world, many Irish children are facing a bleak christmas due to the mistakes or their parents such as drug use, alcohol abuse or poor debt management. I can't see any other reasons why anyone could be in this situation when the govt. already give free medical cards, rent allowances, dole, fuel allowance, childrens allowance etc.

I can.
Debt debt debt debt debt debt, we got drunk on it during the celtic tiger and now we are paying for that underfloor heating and deckin we got to impress Joanne down the road, and were paying dearly.

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/personal-debt-is-strangling-us-1428468.html

WE seem to have been walking around with blinkers for the last few years. By the end of this year, the average household will be borrowing way more than it is earning -- €158 for every €100 earned, according to Goodbody Stockbrokers. This is a far cry from the shrewd days of 1995, where we borrowed about €50 for every €100 earned.

THE average Irish household is in debt to the tune of almost €115,000, new figures from the Central Statistics Office reveal.

Therefore the key question being asked is: Should society be burdened with supporting households that show a complete lack of financial management and mis-use of taxpayers income? Its a very difficult and emotive topic and one which no country has found the answer to

We are burdened with the cost of suporting AIB, Anglo-Irish and Bank of Ireland after their drunken lending and speculating blew up in their face and nearly cause them to go bust were it not for our corproate welfare handouts (directly from our pension reserve fund I might add)..so if were bailing out irresponcible banks I don't see any moral qualms about bailing out the foolish people they lent too much money too.

As far as "taxpayers" go, keep in mind 3/4 of people currently on the dole are on it less than a year, they paid plenty of tax and prsi in the last decade, they are "the taxpayer". They paid their social insurance contributions for just this exact contingency.

you can get all dramtical if you wish, but people were simply putting forward ideas. ideas i might add that a lot of people who are in financial difficulty fail to see sometimes.

I know someone who was drowning in debt and woudn't sell their SUV cos they might have made a loss on it (which you'd make re-selling any car..), there is plenty of foolish financial management out there and I'd encourage anyone in the OPs situation to go to MABS wwho will be able to show them where there budget can be got under control with a fresh and objective pair of eyes.

When someone says cut your ntl, people bawk in horror, "but what will i do? tv is the one luxry i have" ditching the tv alone will save you 120e or whatever the license is.
ntl/sky/digi packs can accucmalte vasts some's depending on the package you have where you could make considerable savings.

Keep in mind as well many of these services, such as Eircom Broadband have a fixed term contract and they whack you with a charge of €100+ if you try to break it early.

maybe instead of knocking everyone elses suggestions of how not to do you could help the op with some ideas on how TO DO.

I can't without knowing more about the OPs personal situation, unlike everyone else here I'm not willing to leap to conclusions.
But I'll make some general suggesstions below.

Seceondly, i think that that he was saying food wise you could live off 50 a week, so a family with two on social welfare is 400, more than likely get food allowance, flue allowance, etc. I know families that only have to pay 20 euro rent a week, and round 10 on heating, 10 on ESB, so have 360 to spend evry week...

I am 100% confident no such family exists on social welfare that has that kinda money as disposable income.
€50 a week for food is plenty for an individual, I've never had kids so I cant say how much extra it would be for them but I'd imagine far more.
There is no such thing as a food allowance.
I paid my heat and ESB etc at €10 flat every week and it was a great way to keep everything under control, too many people wait until the giant bill comes as a block then piss themselves, better to put a little bit off each bill every week.

While I doubt it would save much I'd definitly dump NTL and probably TV entirely, I havn't sat down and watched a TV programme on a TV in years, I do it all through the net, and that licence is a rip off no matter what, so dumping NTL for me as a cost saver would be a complete no brainer.

I'd also have no qualms dumping the landline, again a totally unessicary xpense, I' got along fine with just the mobile for a year living in my place, I used Skype for longer convos (they have skype cordless phones now pretty cheap too so your not talking into a microphone beside the laptop, saves you an unholy fortune in the long run fort the sake of the iniatial €30)

The way I shopped for food was to have a fixed list every week and try to locate the chepest shop for each item on the list, rather than doing the entire shop in one place.
Check out Tesco at around 9:45 pm as well, SBO are probably reducing the reduced items once again around that time, I used to reduce items down to a few cents to get rid of them rather than have them as waste.

ntlbell

BlueLepreachaun wrote: »

While I doubt it would save much I'd definitly dump NTL and probably TV entirely, I havn't sat down and watched a TV programme on a TV in years, I do it all through the net, and that licence is a rip off no matter what, so dumping NTL for me as a cost saver would be a complete no brainer.

if you take the lowest digital pack from ntl i think it's 30e a month (i'm too lazy to check)

360e a year
tv license 120e

so 480e you have just added two weekly social payments to your anual income, not bad?

anaverage BB connection + line? 30-40e a month?

a possible 480e savings

so you just increased your anual income by 960e

we had a decrease in the cost of living by 6% or so from last year

lets say that's 3 % next year plus what you saved

you have increased your anual income by almost 20%

take away the possible 5% decrease in social, things aren't looking to bad after all

can't be too shabby?

BlueLepreachaun

Definitly worth doing (just subtract the severence charge of 100euro or so for each of those services from that saving) but my point is week by week that doen'st work out to be much of a change, still worth doing, but I'd suggest along with micky mouse stuff like that people look to improving the core reason for their budget being in that state.

That means a good strategy to attack debt, and trying as hard as possible to get a job, because social welfare is on a downward slope, the govts too stupid to do a stimulas package, so were in for an endless spiral of deflation and spending cuts for a long tme to come, relying on social welfare is gonna be pretty difficult.

Dannyboy83

DJDC wrote: »

There is a strong chance the OP is telling the truth due to the demand for SVP help this year. Despite having one of the most generous welfare systems in the world, many Irish children are facing a bleak christmas due to the mistakes or their parents such as drug use, alcohol abuse or poor debt management. I can't see any other reasons why anyone could be in this situation when the govt. already give free medical cards, rent allowances, dole, fuel allowance, childrens allowance etc.

Doesn't necessarily have to be any of the above tho.
We still have an unreformed private sector/rip off republic.
The cost of living here is still completely mental.
And I don't think the unemployed can avail of credit cards, can they?

My sister came home from Germany recently, where she has a very good job, and good quality of life, and said she felt poor just walking around looking at prices in shops and resteraunts.

ninty9er

BlueLepreachaun wrote: »

Indeed, and you don't pay €100 for an Emergency room visit in the UK either, or €55 for a doctor.
You want to see ACTUAL STARVATION, try cuting the dole to €60 a week*.
With my budget when I was living outside of home that would have got me my food and 2/3 of one weekly bus ticket. Nothing for rent, utilites etc

Unemployed = Medical Card = none of those costs

old boy wrote: »

hi lad, i did not realise that you were on welfare, what did you do to cross uncle tony and uncle pat, to say you are on the scrap heap (excuse the pun).

as you are an unofficial spokesman for f. failure you should get real.

after all you have changed your f failure sig twice, i do not mind people having a go, but you only shout from one side of the fence, you never bother to sit on it,

I don't have an uncle Tony, and my aul uncle Pat wouldn't be up to much providing apart from his own house.

I shout from whichever side of the fence makes sense.

I earn €425 a week for a 60-70 hour week, so I'm not going to apologise to anyone for it. I have €405 after PRSI and Levy, and can realistially afford to pay more.

I put €55 a week into savings, pay €85 off 2 loans including one for rent which is payable in lump twice a year and haven't cooked in God knows how long. I generally eat out because it's usually after 10 at least when I get home, so about €60 between lunch and something in the evening as well as tea/coffee and spend about €50 a fortnight on keeping the car going as well as paying tax etc.

I'll have a night out at least once a week, which could be dropped, and I'm leaving the country for new years.

At the end of a week I'll probably have €15/€20 left over, but if I really tried and got out of the office earlier to cook/packed a lunch, I could live on a lot less than that.

€204.30 is quite generous and if I didn't have rent of approx €400/month (which I could easily cut by moving home) then I'd have a loan repayment of €45 a week, wouldn't be using as much fuel in the car and wouldn't have any major outgoings at all.

It's not the state's job to operate a social welfare system
that allows for lifestyle choices, there should only be one choice, basics!