Live on low income - A skill?

[TarfHead]

2) What kind of TV is he paying €50 a week on?

3) What kind of car has he that's costing €400pm in loan repayments?

Maybe they borrowed from a moneylender ?

 

[Firefly]

I made dinner for 6 last night for under €10. Very tasty and healthy and all fresh ingredients (except for the dried herbs).
I agree with CMCR; it is not just possible but easy to prepare healthy nutritious meals for a very small amount of money.
Thinks like vegetable curries with lentils, chick-peas etc for protein cost very little and are dead easy to make.

I was in a supermarket about 6 months ago and happened to notice a family of 3 next to me buying some pizza. It was clear to me they were on a budget as they were closely comparing prices trying to decide which one to buy. It was hard not to notice that their trolley was full of the cheapest,nastiest looking processed food you could think of. Around the corner were all the vegetables in the world where with some imagination (soup anyone) could have provided a much cheaper and much healthier alternative. I couldn't see any vegetables or anything "real" in the trolley. As well as wasting money constantly putting this junk into your body can't be good.

 

[Ceist Beag]

You can get a large chicken for a fiver these days. We (family of 5) can get two days dinner out of this with some veg. Likewise you can buy ham (to boil) for around 6-7 euro that can last two dinners, or whatever roast is on a special at the time. Certainly it's possible for us to get by on under €50 for dinner for the week for a family of 5 (admittedly our children are young so this may be stretched a bit as they get older). Add in porridge each morning (a bag costing < €2 can last about two weeks) and pasta, beans, eggs, or the like for tea and it's not hard to do the groceries on €100 per week for the 5 of us (with some treats thrown in!).

 

[Delboy]

totally agree.....a 10kg bag of spuds can be got for as little as a fiver and will last for how many dinners....but it's much easier to hand over €10 to the young fella and send him to the chipper. then plead poverty and have Vincent Browne shouting out stats about how inequality! leads to lower life expectancy...is it any wonder!

I cook a full dinner 5/6 times a week after getting home from work in the evening/weekends....spuds, 2 veg and meat/fish. Takes less than an hour and if you cook enough, it's ready to heat the following evening, saving time.
No Masterchef style dinners, just basic cooking which anyone could do if they were'nt too busy watching TV all day

 

[STEINER]

I read the Irish Times article.

some points:

regarding the child benefit figure, do they have 6 or 8 kids? article states 8 kids but child benefit should be more.

TV at €50 per week is extravagant, depends on how many weeks the payment goes on I suppose.

Car is expensive to run and pay off especially when have to borrow for groceries, do they have any options, do they need a presumably largish car for the 10 or 8 of them. Neither in employment and spending €30pw on petrol. Maybe abandon the capacity to carry all the family, get a small car if necessary for shopping, doing stuff.

Rent is very cheap at €60pw but I guess its a pretty crowded 3 bed there. My mortgage is about €300 a week.

Out of work two years and only holidayed once ever in friend's place. So, even when working before they didn't holiday. His problem is his income was never going to be enough for raising a large family, so no family planning.

They have a nice cinema complex beside them in Liffey Valley, kids under 12 sat/sun mornings and school holiday mornings only €2.50 per kid with the adult €2.50 also.

Decorations up already even if it is a tad early!

 

[DerKaiser]

Rent is very cheap at €60pw but I guess its a pretty crowded 3 bed there. My mortgage is about €300 a week.

It's a council house

His problem is his income was never going to be enough for raising a large family, so no family planning.

Well here's one to think about.

If himself and the wife were each out working €50k jobs, they'd be taking home €70k after tax.

Of that €70k it's hard to see them getting away with rent less than €15k (5 bedroom house in the area they're from) reducing disposable income to €55k. Health insurance would surely reduce that by another €5k to €50k. With a couple of children under 5, the working couple would do well to keep creche costs to €15k p.a. reducing their disposable income further to €35k.

With the out of work couple getting the social welfare, fuel allowance, back to school allowance, etc to compare to that €35k (having benefited from medical card, heavily subsidised rent and not having any child minding needs), there would be little to separate the two families in terms of living standards.

In summary, if your family is that big and you're on social welfare you are already in a scenario that only someone on massive wages could support. Do you really think the state should provide you with more than you could provide yourself with off a €100k p.a. wage???

 

[Firefly]

I made meatballs last night. I bought 3 packets of Irish steak mince from Aldi for 5.97 euro. In all I made enough for 7 decent adult portions. The spagetti was 59c a packet and there were other ingredients I added that someone may or may not have (red wine, anchovies, herbs, bread crumbs(which I made myself) passata (which I made myself) etc ), but in any case, these 7 portions came in at about a tenner. They were delish. Feeding the little ones these tonight (1 portion) and have 4 portions left which I'm freezing until Fri night for when 2 of our friends are visiting.

Just to add. I did a roast chicken on Sunday (can't remember the price but we always buy free range so it was about 7 or 8 euro). With spuds and veg it fed the 4 of us. last night I fried up the chicken left overs for the small ones and made some lovely chicken stock from the carcass. All I need now is a few root vegetables with a chicken breast and we have delishious homemade chicken/veg soup.

I'm on a roll.....

Another dish I like doing at the weekend (this is more expensive but still cheaper than 2 chinese') is to quick fry cod in butter then pop into the oven. I sit that on sauteed leeks with wilted spinach and serve with boiled baby potatoes (halved). I then dab a melted butter & lemon (with chopped parsley) sauce around the plate. I can buy 2 large, fresh cod fillets in the English Market for about 8 euro, so again for a tenner we can eat very well. I've done this dish quite a bit and can get in onto the plate in about 30 minutes.

 

[STEINER]

I got a breakfast pack in Superquinn for a fiver, 10 sausages, 6 rashers, mini ring of black or white pudding.

Theres just the 2 of us here, so thats bangers and mash, carbonara using rashers and a breakfast!

At college it was hard financially. I rented beside the college. Sometimes ate in canteen, some lunchtimes back to house for lunch, beans on toast, sardines, banana sandwich etc.

there were 7 of us in the large house and every week we gave a tenner into a kitty for milk, bread, butter etc and also out of this, food for dinners monday -thursday. you would cook a dinner once a week and it worked great and we had bolognese, fish, pork chops, gammon steaks etc

I have been ill for a while, and my income has dropped by 80% being unable to work, it hasn't been too bad financially, able to pay mortgage, bills. It is essential to eliminate wasteful spending on a low income and also stick to a reasonable budget. I always remember a quote from a college classmate who said that whatever your income is, your expenditure matches it anyway.