Kinnegad/Mullingar

Any thoughts on moving here with 2 small kids and hubbie commuting daily to Sandyford and me giving up work so I can stay at home with kids and maybe find a job there eventually. It seems to be the most affordable place to buy a house for us if we are a one income family.
Am I mad???. Giving up my job means we will be down €40k per annum, I work 4 days a week & childcare fees are manageable thankfully & my salary is essential where we live at the moment in Bray.Alot of things have happened lately in our lives which has made us think about this.
basically, would we like life down there and would hubbies commute be a disaster waiting to happen???. We are in the process of buying a new propery in Wicklow at the moment but two personal (non-financial) family shocks have occured so I could be forced to give up work at some stage so we have to get sensible!!.

We are in the process of buying a new propery in Wicklow at the moment but two personal (non-financial) family shocks have occured so I could be forced to give up work at some stage so we have to get sensible!!.

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Wikila house prices make my eyes water so they does. Frankly you should look at Arklow or Gorey if you feel you must go that far out to afford and that you must buy.

More frankly you should consider whether the market has now peaked and not buy at all but rent somewhere closer to Sandyford and where work may be easier to get than in Gorey or Arklow. Nothing worse than being stuck out there unable to move because you are in negative equity .

Mullingar to Sandyford 5 days a week sounds absolutely insane to me though There is nothing in Kinnegad, its a small commuter village thats all.

The commute depends heavily on your husbands work hours. If he can start and finish early then the commute can be done in an hour in the morning (leaving Mullingar at 06:00) and a little longer than that in the evening (leaving Dublin at 16:00). The later you start both commutes, the busier the traffic on the Lucan road and the M50 with horrible waits to get from one to the other. It's more than doable though. Best of luck!

Its doable like drinking Milton Fluid is doable

My father has been diagnosed with a serious illness and I know I will have to support & look after him and I cannot do that and work and be a mum to my kids, if I give up work it will benefit my kids noend and I will be able to help my father as I will have more time on my hands. I don't want work to get in the way of being there or end up having to quit due to alot of time off, you know yourself the scenario I could get into.
Personally I don't like Arklow or Gorey (not being bad, lots of people love it there, each to their own I say, but you know that dislike feeling of a certain place plus I've been told not to do it by people, please don't start posting that I'm a b*tch for saying it...not the reason I said it ok and I think the house prices there are very cheeky for the distance both places are and jobs are non existant down there. One particular estate agent down there seems to have all the bloody houses for sale and overprices everything.(then again in Ireland where does it not happen now!) I would be too far away from my own family living there anyway.
The house we are buying is a big mortgage but very affordable with both of us working, if one job goes it's a big problem, hence my issue. Hubbie works from 7.45-4.45 so he might be ok, but we both have serious doubts about the N4, it's a terrible route!!.
We have to decide what to do, since we put down our deposit on this house some really horrible things have happened to us...maybe it's an omen or something.

2Pack said:

Its doable like drinking Milton Fluid is doable

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excellent point 2pack!!

paying rent and being near elders and work is better than monster commutes and not being near anyone.

also consider you need to run 2 cars if miles away from everything and maybe only run one car if closer in....

I feel that NOW is not the time to start doing monster commutes.

I thought Maynooth and maybe Kilcock was reasonably priced by Pale and especially Wickla standards, have a look at daft.ie for prices . One car may do and there is a commute by train and luas option from there. Maynooth has shops and other walkable amenities.

I am not arguing about you staying at home but where the home should be, are the elders in westmeath or wickla anyway ???

Elders in Kildare, we were looking at Maynooth again too expensive on 1 salary. We have 2 fairly new cars owned outright anyway but we would have to get a tdi or something doing that mileage.
I only work 4 days which is brilliant, going to see if I can get 3 days but I had a warzone trying to get 4 so god only knows!. We can always just go ahead with our current house anyway and sell it if we have to go down the cheaper route, we discussed that last night. It's a bit too late to pull out now anyway tbhm we could end up with major egg on our faces. Going to battle on for the forseeable future and the way I look at there is always a solution to things so we are managing at the moment and will continue to do so!!. I could be mad chucking a good job on a good salary and working 4 days. Maybe we were shooting in the dark thinking of this but where we have bought is really beautiful and a good location, does not involve having to uproot kids from school or creche. I'll be 45 minutes on a good day to elders, on a bad day it's 1hr15mins....combination of N11/M50 & N7!!.Yippie!!
thanks for your input, you have made me see sence!!

It seems that you have made up your mind to stay put Mag2006. But for anyone else that will be reading this post and in the same position, another thing to consider about this senario would be the extra cost of the toll bridge on the N4. €2.50 each way (and I think that's due to rise next year). Not wanting to point out the obvious but that's €25 a week and €1300 per year for one car just to travel 5 days a week. Amazingly that's roughly 13K just in tolls for two cars over 5years.
As I said, I'm don't wanna point out the obvious but I'm just bring it to the attention of people who mightn't have tought of it!

This post will be deleted if not edited immediately Martina I never even considered that eventhough I've been thru in many times and been livid at the €2.50 charge, wouldn't mind if they bothred to get rid of the other 2 tolls they have been fleecing us on for years but that's for another debate!!. That's a big chunk out of your annual salary just to get to work!. Thanks for all the replies and hopefully this thread helped others as it always helps me!!.

Mags, also remember the ENTIRE M50 will be tolled by 2008 including Lucan to Sandyford using electronic tolling and that around the Galway Road / M50 junction which will make a complete mess of all time assumptions between Lucan and Tallaght (and Sandyford in phase 2) for the next 3 years.

No widening is proposed between Sandyford and Bray ... and no tolling from Shankill to Bray deffo and maybe even Shankill to Sandyford too but tolling beyond Sandyford is certain.

Its one thing expecting the poor eejit to earn yeer crusht for ye but he will not see his childers awake for the next 3 years I am warning you

I live in Mullingar and commute daily to Dublin, as does my partner. We initially drove up and down every day and it was hard, but at the same time you get into a routine and get used to it. We started taking the train in January of this year though, and its a lot better. There are two early morning trains from Mullingar in the morning and several home in the evenings. The journey from Mullingar to city centre is approx 1 hr 30 mins and thats if the train stops at each station along the way, some don't and it cuts the journey time back to an hour which is great. Getting the train takes a lot of the stress and hassle out of commuting and my partner even gets some work done on his laptop. And you can always catch up on your sleep! We currently pay €217 for a monthly ticket, thats unlimited travel for the whole month. Next year, we're going to get annual tickets as we can get the the tax saver ones through our employers. So commuting by rail might be an option for you to consider.

Anyway, we moved to Mullingar originally as we couldn't afford to buy in Dublin and my partner is from Mullingar himself anyway. I absolutely love it there now and would not live anywhere else, definately not back in Dublin!

Does anyone do this commute? I'm living in Mullingar and hoping to start a new job in Sandyford. I'd imagine its a lot better now that the M50 is barrier free

Lived in mullingar for few years, two of which I commuted to Blackrock. Started with train but cold and overcrowding soon put me to the bus which was much better, then got lift to Liffey valley and bus then DART to Blackrock. After two years the strain of it was starting to set in. Wouldn't recomend it with very early starts and very late home.

Does anyone do this commute? I'm living in Mullingar and hoping to start a new job in Sandyford. I'd imagine its a lot better now that the M50 is barrier free

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Just why?

Your travelling expenses will be huge. €30 tolls per week, fuel, car maintenance, high mileage depreciation. Not to mention the human cost on your health.