Garda Sergeant can't afford food

RoverZT · 19-10-2012 06:04PM

Shenshen wrote: »

€50 for two people. And as I said before, before I heard this sob-story, I considered ourselves well off.

Can you give ous a shopping list of what you get for that 50 euro.

That's 7 euro a day for 2 people

I don't believe you.

Qualitymark · 19-10-2012 06:05PM

Some at least of the Golden Circle are living on a dole of €200,000 a year paid by NAMA.

kylith · 19-10-2012 06:14PM

RoverZT wrote: »

Can you give ous a shopping list of what you get for that 50 euro.

That's 7 euro a day for 2 people

I don't believe you.

I shop in Lidl:
1 bag potatoes
1 bag carrots
4 tins beans
Tins sweetcorn
2 tins tomatoes
1 whole chicken
800g mince
1 bag fozen scampi
2 pizzas
1 loaf bread
500g pasta
1 block cheese
1 litre milk

I might pick up a couple of odds and ends during the week, but that's my basic shop for two people. Other people might eat more than we do, I suppose. It usually comes out to around €50. I get my rice, noodles and fish in an Asian shop; it's much better value.

Spread · 19-10-2012 06:31PM

Instead of Corn Flakes could she not make Colcannon? Far cheaper and more nutritious ..........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADtxDC8Bq-A

Rebelkell · 19-10-2012 06:33PM

Don't forget the rising cost of Doughnuts. It is a garda after all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bannasidhe · 19-10-2012 06:33PM

pwurple wrote: »

I may have missed it in the thread, but how many kids are in this family?
If it's four people, with at least three of them being adults or at least teenager size... 200 euro is for food/household, which is everything in the grovery basket, right? So loo roll, toothpaste etc.

Between 6 people that is 33 euro each. 33 euro for a week of food per person I would have considered to be pretty tight. Especially for the amount teenage boys eat.

€4.72 per day for a teenage boy's food and loo roll.... It's possible of course, but it's not loaded by any stretch.

Just did my weekly shop - in Aldi - came to 83 euro. That's everything to feed 4 adults (and 2 dogs) - including lunches - for the week plus the firelighters, loo roll etc etc.
We will be having cornflakes - for breakfast. There's also rice crispies and porridge...

Last week my weekly shop came to 90 euro - that was for 4 adults, 2 children (and 2 dogs).

We eat well - even though I say so myself- home cooked meals, fresh veg, lots of fruit even 'treats' like fancy yoghurts.

19-10-2012 06:59PM

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Why is it rubbish? If they can't afford it he can't go to college. For all you know he could have got enough points for medicine, and will be prevented from becoming a doctor purely because of the registration fee (another stealth charge, when it was brought in it was 500 and it's gone up and up and up, even as the government insists education is free in this country AND discusses bringing back in tuition fees, on top of this rapidly rising "registration" cost)

It's the same for a "prestigious college" as it is for an IT.

Celticfire wrote: »

How is it rubbish? Perhaps that college is in a city the far side of the country and they can't afford to put him/her in rental accommodation along with other associated costs. Not everyone lives beside (insert college)you know.

Did you read the article?

The woman wrote that even though her eldest child got enough points to go to a prestigious college they couldn’t afford the fees: “Imagine how upsetting that is?”

And again I really do have to ask, what could've happened to leave them spending 300 a week more than they get while starving, on interest only payments and suddenly short the 5-6k to send a kid across the country for a year of college? Just think about the sums for a second ffs.

Ronin247 · 19-10-2012 07:02PM

Not a big fan of the public service but it is the desk jockeys and the useless quango loving b'stards that I despise.Sure there are some lazy gardai but I have to admit that there are a lot more good ones out there along with some underpaid nurses, some brilliant young enthusiastic teachers and a load of other frontline workers who are worth the money.
This story stinks of another attempt to set the public service and the rest of us at each others throats again.....in the run up to a budget where we the paying public will get royally fu***d again, all the figures are wrong and look like some media hack just made this sh1t up.

westendgirlie · 19-10-2012 07:37PM

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

That is the most massive leap of logic I have ever seen on Boards. "No fancy cars" does not signify whether the car(s) they actually do have are singular or plural. IF anything it's just an Irish way of phrasing something.

So I have taken a massive leap in logic reading the article in context? It may come as a shock to you that when a word is pluralised, it means what it should, more than one!

I noticed that the earlier part of her sentence states "no holiday home" By your reasoning, that should be plural too. You know, so that we would be clear that she was only talking about one.

Show me proof that they only have one car. Until then, I will take her words as they are written.

Shenshen · 19-10-2012 07:44PM

RoverZT wrote: »

Can you give ous a shopping list of what you get for that 50 euro.

That's 7 euro a day for 2 people

I don't believe you.

Eggs, milk, bread, vegetables (preferably on offer), fruit, soda, pasta, potatoes, frozen veg such as peas and sweetcorn, tinned tomatoes, baked beans, tea, sugar. Not all of them every week, obviously.
Usually we shop in Aldi or Lidl, plus we get rice and dried pulses from the Asia store (we buy in bulk).
I also grow some veg in the back garden, though those are all harvested now. Some of it is frozen for future consumption, though.

We don't go for ready-made meals much, I cook every evening. Lunches are the leftovers warmed up, or sandwiches or salads brought to work.

I'm not sure what's unvelievable about this?

Qualitymark · 19-10-2012 07:45PM

Aren't we all very thrifty and capable. Well done us!

westendgirlie · 19-10-2012 07:54PM

Qualitymark wrote: »

Aren't we all very thrifty and capable. Well done us!

Needs must

Shenshen · 19-10-2012 07:56PM

Qualitymark wrote: »

Aren't we all very thrifty and capable. Well done us!

Are we? I thought that was the norm, to tell you the truth.

19-10-2012 07:58PM

RoverZT wrote: »

Can you give ous a shopping list of what you get for that 50 euro.

That's 7 euro a day for 2 people

I don't believe you.

You don't believe 2 people can live off 50 euro for groceries?

That's more than doable once you don't eat out. I don't think myself and my OH have ever spent more than that and we eat very well. We'd usually get a bottle of two of wine, loo roll and other bits and pieces as well as a week's worth of groceries for under 50 quid. You just have to be careful, plan a few meals without meat (which we do for health reasons anyway), make sure not to waste anything and take a packed lunch to work.

My mother used to feed a family of five and never spent more than 120 a week in Tesco and she's quite extravagant. She never bought supermarket brand stuff and we wasted a lot, so I have absolutely no idea how on earth anyone could spend 200 a week. What are they eating, caviar?

Remmy · 19-10-2012 08:06PM

kylith wrote: »

I shop in Lidl:
1 bag potatoes
1 bag carrots
4 tins beans
Tins sweetcorn
2 tins tomatoes
1 whole chicken
800g mince
1 bag fozen scampi
2 pizzas
1 loaf bread
500g pasta
1 block cheese
1 litre milk

I might pick up a couple of odds and ends during the week, but that's my basic shop for two people. Other people might eat more than we do, I suppose. It usually comes out to around €50. I get my rice, noodles and fish in an Asian shop; it's much better value.

Fairplay! It annoys me when I see people give out about the cost of food shopping and 90% of their groceries are composed of processed ready meals. That stuff costs far more than base ingredients.

steph1 · 19-10-2012 08:06PM

Re the TV Licence costing 200 euros, they are probably buying a 4 euro TV licence stamp each week in the post office and sticking it into the TV Licence stamp book. Over 52 weeks that comes to 208 euros. The TV Licence is not costing them that. Its still 160 and thats what the post office will take off their stamp book when they go to purchase their licence.

Boombastic · 19-10-2012 08:17PM

steph1 wrote: »

Re the TV Licence costing 200 euros, they are probably buying a 4 euro TV licence stamp each week in the post office and sticking it into the TV Licence stamp book. Over 52 weeks that comes to 208 euros. The TV Licence is not costing them that. Its still 160 and thats what the post office will take off their stamp book when they go to purchase their licence.

Possibly a logical answer, but

the saving stamps are sole in €2 denominations everything else in the list is calculated per week, even though they are not weekly bills, heat, electricity etc paid monthly/bi monthly and broken down to per week amount. So even if they were buying a €2 stamp this week and 2x€2= €4 the next week, the average per week would be €3. Also why overpaid you TV licence when you are eating cornflakes for dinner??

Milk & Honey · 19-10-2012 08:53PM

westendgirlie wrote: »

Show me proof that they only have one car. Until then, I will take her words as they are written.

She said that she lived in terror of the washing machine or the car breaking down. By saying the car she is referring to car in the singular. If there were two cars she would say if a car breaks down.
I do not believe there is any such person however. this is a journalist trying to write an article describing what she thinks is a typical person of the allegedly squeezed middle class.

Rebelkell · 19-10-2012 09:06PM

Milk & Honey wrote: »

She said that she lived in terror of the washing machine or the car breaking down.

Indeed who hasn't had a sleepless night worrying about the washing machine breaking down.

westendgirlie · 19-10-2012 09:08PM

Milk & Honey wrote: »

She said that she lived in terror of the washing machine or the car breaking down. By saying the car she is referring to car in the singular. If there were two cars she would say if a car breaks down.
I do not believe there is any such person however. this is a journalist trying to write an article describing what she thinks is a typical person of the allegedly squeezed middle class.

Thank you. Clear and logical reasoning.

dvpower · 19-10-2012 09:36PM

Milk & Honey wrote: »

I do not believe there is any such person however. this is a journalist trying to write an article describing what she thinks is a typical person of the allegedly squeezed middle class.

I would very much doubt that Kathy Sheridan would make any of this up.

snubbleste · 19-10-2012 10:54PM

Leo Varadkar & Joan Burton both stated that they'd received letters from this sergeant's wife about their situation.
Tbh there's a budget coming up and the unions are agitating imo.

orl · 20-10-2012 02:24AM

My guess about the child missing out on the prestigious college is that the course was outside Dublin and they couldn't afford the accommodation costs. Probably didn't want to put it like that as it could identify the teenager who I think we will agree are notoriously self-conscious at that age. Just a guess like a lot of the other posts.

I think that the suggestion that the Garda Representative Association or the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors fed this story to Kathy Sheridan is daft. Both organisations were smart enough to negotiate very generous allowances for their members; they would be smart enough to pick someone who was willing to be identified and a situation where people would genuinely empathise e.g. living 50 miles away from the station, handsome widower, handicapped child, recently burgled, mortgage on variable rate.

RoverZT · 20-10-2012 05:23AM

kylith wrote: »

I shop in Lidl:
1 bag potatoes
1 bag carrots
4 tins beans
Tins sweetcorn
2 tins tomatoes
1 whole chicken
800g mince
1 bag fozen scampi
2 pizzas
1 loaf bread
500g pasta
1 block cheese
1 litre milk

I might pick up a couple of odds and ends during the week, but that's my basic shop for two people. Other people might eat more than we do, I suppose. It usually comes out to around €50. I get my rice, noodles and fish in an Asian shop; it's much better value.

mince, scampi, a chicken and two frozen pizza's.

rest is tinned food, carbs and a litre of milk.

Better menu's in prison, serious.

Wouldn't fancy Breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper and a snack from that list.

I am fairly cheap myself, but I couldn't deprive myself like that.

I have to eat some beef, chicken fillets, fresh fish, pork with my dinners.

Menu in our house.

Breakfast.

Usually cereal ( cornflakes, cheerios etc ) or rolls with ham, cheese, tomatoes etc.

Lunch

Have it a work, usually sandwhich ( ham, lettuce, grated cheese, tomato ) with capri sun, banana and snack bar.

Dinner.

Have it around 6 - 7.

Potatoes, meat, veg, gravy, always with some meat.Always have a dessert too, usually apple tart with ice cream, trifle, cheesecake, vienetta.

Supper

Don't eat much for supper, usually have a few biscuits with tea, yogurt, snack bar like nutrigrain etc.

I love coca cola as well and drink about 12 bottles of miller at the weekend, been drinking blossom hill rose last few weekends.

Show Time · 20-10-2012 08:50AM

65K a year they are on??

Not like they earn it the lazy b******s.

20-10-2012 09:00AM

orl wrote: »

My guess about the child missing out on the prestigious college is that the course was outside Dublin and they couldn't afford the accommodation costs. Probably didn't want to put it like that as it could identify the teenager who I think we will agree are notoriously self-conscious at that age. Just a guess like a lot of the other posts.

Then why mention the fee? And showing my true colours here but I would have thought there was 1, at a stretch 2 "prestigious" colleges in Ireland, both in Dublin. Also as I said, sending a kid halfway across the country for college is expensive and always has been. They're overspending by 15k per year and apparently she thought the 5-7k for sending them to college was going to be on hand. I strongly doubt they've been cut by 20k per year to put them in this situation.

Milk & Honey · 20-10-2012 09:08AM

dvpower wrote: »

I would very much doubt that Kathy Sheridan would make any of this up.

Kathy Sheridan said herself details were changed to protect the identity of the alleged sergeant's wife. So much for your doubts.

kevthegaff · 20-10-2012 09:09AM

Theo Shapely Thanksgiving wrote: »

You don't believe 2 people can live off 50 euro for groceries? That's more than doable once you don't eat out. I don't think myself and my OH have ever spent more than that and we eat very well. We'd usually get a bottle of two of wine, loo roll and other bits and pieces as well as a week's worth of groceries for under 50 quid. You just have to be careful, plan a few meals without meat (which we do for health reasons anyway), make sure not to waste anything and take a packed lunch to work.

My mother used to feed a family of five and never spent more than 120 a week in Tesco and she's quite extravagant. She never bought supermarket brand stuff and we wasted a lot, so I have absolutely no idea how on earth anyone could spend 200 a week. What are they eating, caviar?

i do my groceries in lidl, can come from anywhere between 25-30 euros, and i have a healthy appetite:pac:

fits · 20-10-2012 09:27AM

kevthegaff wrote: »

i do my groceries in lidl, can come from anywhere between 25-30 euros, and i have a healthy appetite:pac:

I know that you can live well from lidl but are people on here honestly saying they never go out for dinner, never buy a take away coffee, never go to the deli for a sandwich. Thats 'food' too. And yes it can be cut down and cut down but there has to be some lee way there.

I think MABS usually try to design realistic budgets, so that there should be a bit of wriggle room.

The system in Ireland is badly broken. The cost of living is enormous! I live in a different country (scandinavia) and while the tax is huge, the actual cost of living is way lower. The truth is, a family should be able to function decently on this 65 K salary, but because of that bubble and the ever rising costs, its getting tighter and tighter.

My former boss was on a similar salary (public sector) and had three young children under six. His wife just couldn't work. They had a big mortgage too. One car, hadn't a holiday in years, never went out. Genuinely struggling I think. Its all very well for those of us with less commitments to go around pointing fingers and telling them its all their own fault. but people are struggling and I just don't know where things are going!

Qualitymark · 20-10-2012 10:14AM

Thank you so much, fits.

I had left this thread behind, because there were so many Trevalyan-like deserving-poor comments, it was too deeply unpleasant, but came back in to say one thing: joking aside, those who have posted their weekly shop should take a serious look at what they're buying. Virtually no greens, and virtually no fruit. I can practically hear your gums receding and scurvy starting to produce the characteristic sores at the corners of your lips.

You need greens, every day if possible, and you need fresh fruit. You need to increase the amount of vegetables you're buying.

I also don't see you buying fish; you should really be eating fish once a week.

I'm sorry - I don't want to lecture anyone - but I'm really worried by the weekly shops posted here. (Incidentally, does no one use toilet paper? What is your secret?)

Garda Sergeant can't afford food

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