Surviving on the Dole

This is not letting off steam. Excellent comment after an independent.ie article - please add your own tips.

How to survive living on 188 euro a week.

I have been uneployed for the past 18 months and this is how I have adjusted to my new life (Its not that bad once you get a proper plan in place)

1. Give up smoking - extremely difficult but it has to be done - if you don't do this you might as well forget about even attempting the rest, in fact stop reading now.

2. Shop in Aldi - I never realised just how cheap this shop is, meat veg, and all essential healthy eating and toiletries for the week for approx 40 euro (this includes making a bologonaise for 4 once a week)

3. Clothes shopping in Pennys - their clothes are pretty fashionable, and dirt cheap - a pair of jeans for 5 euro? I rest my case

4. Drink - I love a few drinks with friends - so have them around or get invited to theirs - 6 cans of Prajski for 6 euro (Tesco/Londis) and its nicer than budweiser or heineken or any of those. Also, Aldi has some gorgeous wines for 6 euro a bottle or less. We also play texas holdem poker once a week for the huge buy in of 2.50 each, a great nights entertainment and its extremely competitive, the occasional extra 10 euro for the week is great for the occasional win

5. Sell the car and buy a bicycle on done deal, there are very cheap nice bikes on there

6. Plug out any appliance you are not using, and turn off all lights that are not needed, its a total waste otherwise - ask the landlord to put in energy saving light bulbs, the old ones are acutally illegal now so they will.

7. I sold my fancy pants laptop when I was made redundant and bough a cheap, second hand one, all i need it is for browsing online

8. If you can piggy back on a neighbours broadband, I asked my neighbours next door and they gave me thier password as long as I use it just for browsing (nice neighbours) If not meteor have a good data allowance for 20 euro top up per month and use your phone as a wifi hot spot.

9. Sign up for irish opinions - I get a 10 euro voucher for tesco/boots about once every 6 weeks from doing online surveys

10. You have approximately 250 free txts online per month - use them, not your phone!

11. There are lots of museums and exhibitions with free entry on a day or two every month, get out of the flat and take in a bit of culture.

12. The Nos - no cake, chocolate, fanta, pets, gambling, bill phone, gym, credit card, take aways, pizza - you can survive without them.

13. If you are single, get your social skills working without the beer goggles! There are lots of nice people in the same situation.

For a lifestyle point of view I have never felt healthier than I am today. Still applying for jobs, but until I get one I will not go hungry or get depressed on the dole.

Library card
Free in many councils or a nominal fiver.
And away you go, many allow six books at a time, keep ya going. Some have DVD's

Cinema,
Some places let you go unlimited for twenty euro a month. Ok money is tight but it's doable and you'll get hours and hours out of it. So good value
Just don't get robbed eating popcorn, realy I've never bought anything in a cinema, the prices are criminal
If you must have goodies, bring them with you

Best of all, as you go during the day you avoid the loud mouth tracksuit brigade

Exercise
Invest in a decent pair of runners. Like a proper running store and not getting advice from the teenager in the Champion Sports. They will last you a long time and you can run and run and walk to your hearts content. Might cost over one hundred euro but worth it

Being on the dole is a time for getting into top shape.
When I had a stressful office job I got into bad habits, skipping lunch, eating junk and falling home too tired to exercise and drinking beer to relax. The weight piles on

DerKaiser said:

8. If you can piggy back on a neighbours broadband, I asked my neighbours next door and they gave me thier password as long as I use it just for browsing (nice neighbours) If not meteor have a good data allowance for 20 euro top up per month and use your phone as a wifi hot spot.

9. Sign up for irish opinions - I get a 10 euro voucher for tesco/boots about once every 6 weeks from doing online surveys

10. You have approximately 250 free txts online per month - use them, not your phone!

Click to expand...

Library card
Free in many councils or a nominal fiver.
And away you go, many allow six books at a time, keep ya going. Some have DVD's

Click to expand...

Use the library for web browsing too. It's free and gets rid of another monthy bill.

I would add the obvious (to me):

Make it PRIORITY NUMBER 1 to get a job. Do everything in your power. Spend hours at this every day. Growing revenue is a lot nicer than cutting costs. The costs proposed above are sensible ones for sure, but living like that for any length of time would IMO affect a lot of people's self-esteem.