M
Mrs Cornflakes
Guest
Age: 50
Husband age: 52
Husband is a Garda Sergeant : €65k this year. (€50k basic + €15k in overtime and allowances) (€75k last year) He gets €77.06 weekly
rent allowance for living away from home, but he lives with me.
Total net pay per month
Salary €3,600
unsocial hours allowance: €500 (not taxed)
4 children x child benefit: €588 per month (I get nothing for the eldest, and he eats the most)
Total net pay: €4,688 per month
I don't have any earned income
Mortgage: We are paying €1,400 a month - 18 years left
In 2005 we traded up to a modest 4 bedroomed semi-d to get an extra bedroom and to be near better schools.
No other borrowings We pay €528 a week into the Credit Union Bill pay scheme which pays all our bills.
Savings and investments: None
Do you have a pension scheme? - Yes Garda pension scheme
Do you own any investment or other property? - No
Ages of children: 18, 16,14,12,10
Life insurance: Just mortgage protection
Here are my monthly numbers
Net Pay: €4,700
Expenditure monthly
Mortgage: €1,400
Mortgage protection: 60
House insurance: €30
Phone: €170
Education: €300 ( registration fees, uniforms etc)
Garda health insurance: €300
Pensions avc : €350
Total before food etc: €2,600
Left for food, transport, clothing, footwear( my husband's a garda don't forget) other: €2,100
How can we be expected to survive on that with 5 children?
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
I am scared for our children’s future and ours. There are weeks when I can’t put food on the table . . . To the outsider, we look like we have it all . . . Inside we are having a nightmare.
Whilst we pay our mortgage every month we have absolutely no extra cash at all after all the bills are paid. We live in constant terror of the dishwasher breaking down or the car
If it wasn’t for my mother bailing us out all the time, we would be right under
We have “cornflakes days”, when we eat nothing else. There is the pain of seeing our eldest child make it to a prestigious third-level course, but unable to register because we can’t assemble the fees: Imagine how upsetting that is?
The younger children are resigned to the fact that they can’t attend birthday parties because the standard €20 gift is way beyond us.
Piano or swimming lessons, are unthinkable. We pay the TV licence in dribs and drabs to keep out of the courts. As I write this, the dishwasher has groudn to a halt. A repair man arrives and gives an estimate of €100 to fix the dishwasher. Hopefully, my parents, a couple on “ordinary pensions”, will probably pay for the dishwasher and the college fees.
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Husband age: 52
Husband is a Garda Sergeant : €65k this year. (€50k basic + €15k in overtime and allowances) (€75k last year) He gets €77.06 weekly
rent allowance for living away from home, but he lives with me.
Total net pay per month
Salary €3,600
unsocial hours allowance: €500 (not taxed)
4 children x child benefit: €588 per month (I get nothing for the eldest, and he eats the most)
Total net pay: €4,688 per month
I don't have any earned income
Mortgage: We are paying €1,400 a month - 18 years left
In 2005 we traded up to a modest 4 bedroomed semi-d to get an extra bedroom and to be near better schools.
No other borrowings We pay €528 a week into the Credit Union Bill pay scheme which pays all our bills.
Savings and investments: None
Do you have a pension scheme? - Yes Garda pension scheme
Do you own any investment or other property? - No
Ages of children: 18, 16,14,12,10
Life insurance: Just mortgage protection
Here are my monthly numbers
Net Pay: €4,700
Expenditure monthly
Mortgage: €1,400
Mortgage protection: 60
House insurance: €30
Phone: €170
Education: €300 ( registration fees, uniforms etc)
Garda health insurance: €300
Pensions avc : €350
Total before food etc: €2,600
Left for food, transport, clothing, footwear( my husband's a garda don't forget) other: €2,100
How can we be expected to survive on that with 5 children?
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
I am scared for our children’s future and ours. There are weeks when I can’t put food on the table . . . To the outsider, we look like we have it all . . . Inside we are having a nightmare.
Whilst we pay our mortgage every month we have absolutely no extra cash at all after all the bills are paid. We live in constant terror of the dishwasher breaking down or the car
If it wasn’t for my mother bailing us out all the time, we would be right under
We have “cornflakes days”, when we eat nothing else. There is the pain of seeing our eldest child make it to a prestigious third-level course, but unable to register because we can’t assemble the fees: Imagine how upsetting that is?
The younger children are resigned to the fact that they can’t attend birthday parties because the standard €20 gift is way beyond us.
Piano or swimming lessons, are unthinkable. We pay the TV licence in dribs and drabs to keep out of the courts. As I write this, the dishwasher has groudn to a halt. A repair man arrives and gives an estimate of €100 to fix the dishwasher. Hopefully, my parents, a couple on “ordinary pensions”, will probably pay for the dishwasher and the college fees.
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