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Garda Sergeant can't afford food

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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 23,718 ✭✭✭✭JonathanAnon


    These people really should have kept their mouths shut instead of embarrassing themselves...

    Job for life, wouldnt be fired even if the walked in to the Superintendent's office and pissed in his coffee... Nice pension to follow.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 787 ✭✭✭Emeraldy Pebbles


    I have never known a Garda who did not do something on the side

    Well, then he should lose one kept woman from his life! :pac:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 787 ✭✭✭Emeraldy Pebbles


    K-9 wrote: »
    I'm getting 43k here, mortgage of 17k still leaves 26k or 500 a week. I suppose if they've high travel and bills €100 a week to live on is very possible.

    Would a sergeant not get reimbursed for fuel costs?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,897 ✭✭✭MagicSean


    Would a sergeant not get reimbursed for fuel costs?

    Why?


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,680 ✭✭✭✭padd b1975


    MagicSean wrote: »
    Actually the credit union has a scheme whereby the money is deducted from your pay and put into a household budget account from which bills come out of. So your net pay per week would be minus this deduction.
    :confused: As it would be if you had to pay them via the normal routes, bank, post office etc.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,897 ✭✭✭MagicSean


    padd b1975 wrote: »
    :confused: As it would be if you had to pay them via the normal routes, bank, post office etc.

    No your pay check would show your pay before this amount and then it would go into the bank and would be removed from there. The credit union scheme deducts it directly from your payslip so your net pay that goes into the bank would be minus this amount. Same financial position but it might explain the figure of €109 per week.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,202 ✭✭✭Rabidlamb


    Our income & outgoings would be close enough to this family.
    Similar, except for one big thing, our mortgage would be half theirs as we didn't overextend during the boom.

    Not to sound P Flynn like but those of you who are incredulous as to how a family could not survive off €65k should spend a month in their shoes.
    Huge mortgage, second family car, petrol, childcare, big weekly shop & utilities will leave you with very little change.
    I can only presume that most of you who scoff were still living with mammy during the boom in which case you're out of your depth here.


  • Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 10,549 Mod ✭✭✭✭Robbo


    Aside from the inconsistencies in the story (and a large part of it is plausible if we assume peak boom property prices and various Tiger acoutrements), we must remember that this is the time of the year that various special pleadings are made as pre-Budget submissions. It's just this one happened to be on behalf of the Association of Garda Sergeants, whether they authorised it or not.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 787 ✭✭✭Emeraldy Pebbles


    MagicSean wrote: »
    Why?

    I would have thought an official Garda car would be fueled by AGS.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,760 ✭✭✭summerskin


    I would have thought a Garda card would be fueled by AGS.

    They don't get to take the car home....


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  • Registered Users Posts: 13,149 ✭✭✭✭fits


    Rabidlamb wrote: »
    Our income & outgoings would be close enough to this family.
    Similar, except for one big thing, our mortgage would be half theirs as we didn't overextend during the boom.

    Not to sound P Flynn like but those of you who are incredulous as to how a family could not survive off €65k should spend a month in their shoes.
    Huge mortgage, second family car, petrol, childcare, big weekly shop & utilities will leave you with very little change.
    I can only presume that most of you who scoff were still living with mammy during the boom in which case you're out of your depth here.


    Everyone is busy dragging everyone else down and pointing the fingers at their neighbours while the people who caused this situation get off Scot free. The cheek of her wanting a dishwasher to work.. Honestly :(


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,455 ✭✭✭Where To


    Rabidlamb wrote: »
    Our income & outgoings would be close enough to this family.
    Similar, except for one big thing, our mortgage would be half theirs as we didn't overend during the boom.

    Not to sound P Flynn like but those of you who are incredulous as to how a family could not survive off €65k should spend a month in their shoes.
    Huge mortgage, second family car, petrol, childcare, big weekly shop & utilities will leave you with very little change.
    I can only presume that most of you who scoff were still living with mammy during the boom in which case you're out of your depth here.
    The people who stupidly mismanage themselves into debt when earning a decent wage are the ones 'out of their depth'


  • Registered Users Posts: 465 ✭✭Undercover Elephant


    Podgers wrote: »
    It shows how many people got badly stung during the "good times" everyone could afford the mortgages big cars etc a few years ago but no one foreseen the rainy day. i know people that got paperwork "adjusted" for a successful mortgage application and are up the creek now.
    Some of us did foresee it. Some of us were repeatedly told that we were idiots - complete idiots! - not to buy even one property. Some of us said that a crash was coming and half a million for a very ordinary house was insane. Some of us pointed out that government expenditure was ballooning for no very good reason, and that day to day costs were being funded out of stamp duty. Some of us pointed out that rental yields had fallen to their lowest since William of Orange was in short pants. Some of us were told that everything had changed and that our idiocy was a family embarrassment.

    Some of us are still waiting for an apology.


  • Registered Users Posts: 793 ✭✭✭jackal


    Rabidlamb wrote: »
    I can only presume that most of you who scoff were still living with mammy during the boom in which case you're out of your depth here.

    Maybe you should have lived with mammy for a few more years instead of spending a lotto size figure on a house you are struggling to afford. Sounds like you are the one who is out of your depth.

    There is also a concept of renting, which is a new and exciting alternative to living with mammy, but people who bought overpriced houses seem oblivious to that option. You either bought your overpriced shoebox or lived with mammy.

    The jumbo mortgage in this story is a side issue, and would be comparable to renting costs for a family anyway. The problem is they are spending €1100 per week, of which €340 comprises their mortgage. Where is the other €750 per week going? Does the dishwasher break every second day?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,298 ✭✭✭Duggys Housemate


    i despair of a family cannot live on 65K per year (not counting her income). And yet, and yet, we have people complaining that people cannot live on the dole. :roll eyes:

    They are obviously living way beyond their means- they bit off more than they could chew and now they are paying for it. Even with a 1,400 mortgage per month they should be able to survive especially if there are two incomes coming in. It could be that they can't survive HOW THEY WOULD WISH. But then again, nobody is surviving how they would WISH. We all have to muddle through, even people on 10 K per year.

    But a policeman should be paid considerably more than someone on the dole, after all transfers and taxes, because he is doing worthwhile stuff.

    We, not just Ireland but the West, now have a situation where after transfers ( i.e. tax from workers and dole to non-workers) we have communism for the bottom 60%, or so. Maybe even higher. A gini index of zero. And then the wealthy, and the super wealthy. Some paying nothing. Worst of both worlds.

    There was a time when middle class did mean not worrying about the finances, not about food; having a good car, affording decent travel, or sending kids to university.
    After the celtic tiger we are all working class now.

    ( well not me as I rent and am single but I honestly think 40K is the poverty line for people with kids).


  • Registered Users Posts: 548 ✭✭✭Nwm2


    fits wrote: »
    Everyone is busy dragging everyone else down and pointing the fingers at their neighbours while the people who caused this situation get off Scot free. The cheek of her wanting a dishwasher to work.. Honestly :(

    No, it's the cheek of her getting her retired parents to pay for it instead of doing the washing up with a brush.

    Which is what we did as a family when we were growing up.

    Also, the 'people who caused this situation' were surely herself and her husband who saddled themselves with a mortgage it looks like they can barely afford (ignoring the other questions about where the rest of the money might be going to).

    I have 3 kids (one in college), also bought my house in 2007, and am the only earner in the household. Granted I earn somewhat more than him, but the real problem is that they screwed up and put themselves in this position, plain and simple.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,380 ✭✭✭geeky


    Some of us did foresee it. Some of us were repeatedly told that we were idiots - complete idiots! - not to buy even one property. Some of us said that a crash was coming and half a million for a very ordinary house was insane. Some of us pointed out that government expenditure was ballooning for no very good reason, and that day to day costs were being funded out of stamp duty. Some of us pointed out that rental yields had fallen to their lowest since William of Orange was in short pants. Some of us were told that everything had changed and that our idiocy was a family embarrassment.

    Some of us are still waiting for an apology.

    You'll have to settle for schadenfreude.


  • Registered Users Posts: 28 Ken McCarthy


    I don't normally reply around here being a long time lurker but here goes....

    It is this sort of thing that actually give MABS a bad name, rather than getting the family to reign in their spending they seem to encourage it by saying that the weekly budget has a €300 deficit.

    I am making the assumption that this is a couple with one wage earner and three children. If the eldest was just offered a place in college then surely the younger two are still in school and the family receive child benefit for them. That is €280 per month or €64.61 per week, that would buy a lot of food in Aldi or Lidl.

    The monthly mortgage payment while high is not the real problem here as one other poster pointed out they should have over €500 (excluding child benefit) even after that is paid. Utilities on a semi-detached four bed including TV and broadband could hardly run more than €100 a week. Where is the rest going?

    I despair when I read stories like this and it reinforces the idea to me that budgeting should be a school subject.

    While I don't doubt that the families story is real, they need to look to themselves to find the solution and not expect that MABS, SVP or the Government is going to solve it for them.


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 19,219 Mod ✭✭✭✭Bannasidhe


    Rabidlamb wrote: »
    Our income & outgoings would be close enough to this family.
    Similar, except for one big thing, our mortgage would be half theirs as we didn't overextend during the boom.

    Not to sound P Flynn like but those of you who are incredulous as to how a family could not survive off €65k should spend a month in their shoes.
    Huge mortgage, second family car, petrol, childcare, big weekly shop & utilities will leave you with very little change.
    I can only presume that most of you who scoff were still living with mammy during the boom in which case you're out of your depth here.

    Bit harsh.

    I certainly was long gone from Mammy and Daddy when I was out of work - my income fell from over 65K p.a. to basic dole - no mortgage supplement, just 188 euro a week in total yet I still managed to pay my mortgage from my savings and all my bills and put food on the table. I may have been put to the pin of my collar but I have zero mortgage arrears (and yes, I bought during the boom) - it's called budgeting.

    My sister is seriously struggling - her husband is a Sergeant in the Army - now she didn't buy a large house, she remortgaged to remodel her house then lost her job and is in severe arrears. However they still have multi room sky HD with sports and movies, full health insurance, he's driving a gas guzzler and sulking because he want a new car, and they are paying for her 30 year old son's wedding and honeymoon. That's insane imho.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,298 ✭✭✭Duggys Housemate


    Bannasidhe wrote: »
    I thought that was strange too. Usually lenders won't allow a mortgage to run past statutory retirement age. At least that's what I was told when I got my mortgage from AIB 7 years ago - it had to be a max of 20 years as I was 40 at the time.

    it sounds like it should have been 25 years in your case. The statutory retirement is now 67 for people born past 1959. however banks will loan a long term second mortgage to people with "equity", obviously this is how you get all those aging BTL landlords. They assume that you pay back quicker, if you can. In 2007 he probably had equity.

    And lastly, with public sector pensions the drop in salary is not that big after retirement. They prob. took that into account. In non-inflation adjusted terms he will be earning what he is earning now when retired, but the repayments will not increase, bar interest rate increases.

    I've seen 60 year olds get mortgages, or re-mortgages, which is the same thing. Normally for 15 years.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 465 ✭✭Undercover Elephant


    geeky wrote: »
    You'll have to settle for schadenfreude.

    I did for a while.

    Eventually I realised that it ain't good when a big chunk of the middle class is paying 40%+ of its income to insolvent banks so that they can continue to live in a house which they can't afford to move out of. Even if it's their own stupid fault.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,897 ✭✭✭MagicSean


    Bannasidhe wrote: »
    Bit harsh.

    I certainly was long gone from Mammy and Daddy when I was out of work - my income fell from over 65K p.a. to basic dole - no mortgage supplement, just 188 euro a week in total yet I still managed to pay my mortgage from my savings and all my bills and put food on the table. I may have been put to the pin of my collar but I have zero mortgage arrears (and yes, I bought during the boom) - it's called budgeting.

    My sister is seriously struggling - her husband is a Sergeant in the Army - now she didn't buy a large house, she remortgaged to remodel her house then lost her job and is in severe arrears. However they still have multi room sky HD with sports and movies, full health insurance, he's driving a gas guzzler and sulking because he want a new car, and they are paying for her 30 year old son's wedding and honeymoon. That's insane imho.

    Actually it's not called budgeting. You obviously weren't able to balance the budget weekly if you were dipping into your savings.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,361 ✭✭✭Itsdacraic


    MagicSean wrote: »
    Actually it's not called budgeting. You obviously weren't able to balance the budget weekly if you were dipping into your savings.

    :rolleyes:

    FFS


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,571 ✭✭✭endofrainbow


    Cornflakes? with or without milk?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,089 ✭✭✭keelanj69


    MagicSean wrote: »

    Actually it's not called budgeting. You obviously weren't able to balance the budget weekly if you were dipping into your savings.

    Oi. Isnt that what savings are for? A rainy day? Or do you like to save and save and save and then die? You save..and then you use those savings. Budgeting!


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,846 ✭✭✭barbiegirl


    On that wage he is taking in roughly 3600 per month, so pays mortgage €1400, shopping €200 per week (€800 per month), so that still leaves €1400 for other bills.
    So there is definitely something wrong here. Are the kids in private school? Is there a big car or personal loan? Credit cards? This is their budgeting issue, they need to get better at it.
    Not saying it's easy, it's not but you cut your cloth to suit your size.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Politics Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 81,310 CMod ✭✭✭✭coffee_cake


    Sounds like that sh!te about yer man feeding his kids cardboard - except he actually published his name and address :rolleyes:


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,149 ✭✭✭✭fits


    Nwm2 wrote: »

    No, it's the cheek of her getting her retired parents to pay for it instead of doing the washing up with a brush.

    Which is what we did as a family when we were growing up.

    Also, the 'people who caused this situation' were surely herself and her husband who saddled themselves with a mortgage it looks like they can barely afford (ignoring the other questions about where the rest of the money might be going to).

    I have 3 kids (one in college), also bought my house in 2007, and am the only earner in the household. Granted I earn somewhat more than him, but the real problem is that they screwed up and put themselves in this position, plain and simple.

    I am sure they were able to afford that mortgage when they took it out. I started in public sector in 2008 and worked in it for four years. Despite increments, my take home pay was lower in 2012 than in 2008. people are being continuosly squeezed and standard of living is dropping sharply and all anyone can do is snipe at each other.

    For what its worth I am sure they could make some changes but am surprised at the complete lack of empathy in this thread. And I have no kids or mortgage. Many of my friends bought houses at the peak and I feel awful for them.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,541 ✭✭✭Smidge


    MagicSean wrote: »
    The 65k includes all allowances and I presume overtime too. After the pension levy that leaves 60k. After taxes that leaves about 36k, which is about 3000 per month. Less the mortgage that's 1600k per month. Electricity and gas for a family of four about 250 a month. That's 1150 he now takes in per month or just under 300 per week. Another factor to consider is that newly promoted sergeants are often sent to stations far away so travel costs would be high. He's probably looking at fuel costs of up to 80 a week. Which leaves 200 a week for all the other household bills and costs. Take away the cost of medical aid which is a necessity in his line of work and he is bringing in less money per week than he would be on the dole.

    It's not really hard to see where the money goes to be honest.



    You must surely know that if MABS did the accounts, within the 65k these other bills would come out before they were left with 200 per week(or else there is a serious hole in this story as if not where, after the mortgage comes out, is the rest of the 65k being spent if not on the bills, ie gas, electric, phone etc that MABS takes into account?:confused:)


    Very disingenuous article by the IT imo and a real slap in the face for people in this country who have lost their jobs and are genuinely struggling on SW.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 3,456 ✭✭✭fishy fishy


    summerskin wrote: »
    To feed a family of four healthily? You are kidding right? Costs us a minimum of €150 to ensure the kids aren't living off fish finger, chips, burgers and other processed crap. Food should be the one expense you never cut back on when it comes to your family, or even yourself.

    Sickens me when i read all the students, or anyone for that matter, on here talking about living off noodles and cheap crap so they can afford enough beer, designer clothes, smartphones etc to keep them going.

    try lidl - you can get baskets of fruit and veg and healthy foods for next to nothng.


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