FIS or we entitled to anything?

Hi all,

I dont know where to start to so i will just start.

Im living with my partner we have one child (she is just one). My partner is recently unemployed. Im working. My income is monthly when i calculate weekly its around €550 a week.

At the moment all 3 of us are living on that (struggling). rent
Rent €400 a month
ESB this month €150
Oil €300 a month
Car €100 a week just for fuel
solid fuel €3.80 per day
Food is coming in at about €150 every week and thats with me cutting any luxuries.

AS we are not without even thinking ahead to what the budget is going to do to us there is a week before payday when we are just praying nothing goes wrong.

I know we are not the only families in this situation as this is the reality now we are the poor in society, somethimes i think of throwing in the towel we would be better off on benefits, at least we would have a definate income of sorts every week.

I'm struggling to understand how you can have an oil bill of €300 a month and a solid fuel bill of €120 a month? That seems hugely high to me.

Is your partner not getting any Jobseekers Benefit/Allowance? Why Not?

Can you take public transport instead of the car?

Your income seems to be a good bit above your outgoings from what you've posted - about €400.

I think you're earning too much for FIS but your partner should definitely examine what benefits s/he is entitled to.

For FIS, your weekly assessable income must be less than €506 for a family with one child.

Assessable income is calculated as:
Your assessable earnings and your spouse/civil partner/cohabitant's assessable earnings. (Assessible earnings are gross pay minus tax, employee PRSI, Universal Social Charge and superannuation.)

As Dereko said, if your partner is recently unemployed, he may have an entitlement to Jobseeker's Benefit, based on his PRSI contributions.

You say you are renting and yet paying high fuels costs both for car and house. Would it be a possibility to move closer to your work and get a more energy efficient house so as to bring down both house and car fuel costs.

150 euro a week for food shopping is a lot. You should examine this, I know you prob have nappies and baby stuff but it still seems very high.
ESB also seems high so make sure to switch stuff off you are not using and also switch to energy efficient bulbs.

Well I won't agree with you guys.
I don't know who is doing your shopping but I usually spent over 100 € every week, if I have to buy nappies for my daughter, or some extra products like washing powder etc., it's even more than 100(and I don't buy anything unnecessary)
Oil heating it's extremely expensive so if she wants to have warm in the house there isn't anything suprising that she spend 300 a month (especially if she has a little child).
When I rented a house (it was a corner house) during last winter we spent over 1200 € for oil. This winter will be colder than last one, so I fully understand her concerns.

I agree that your partner should get something from SW, but unfortunately you are not eligible for FIS (cause your weekly income must be less than €506 for a family with one child).

aerobubbles said:

Food is coming in at about 150 every week and thats with me cutting any luxuries.

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Extremely high, two parents and three kids (one in nappies) dont spend this much and I do buy luxuries!! Plan your meals healthily e.g. stew with vegetables works out cheaper than pizza etc.

sandals i take offence to that remark, i pride myself on eating healthly. i make all our food from scratch, we dont all have a choice as to where we shop we are living in a rural area and my shopping bill is cut to the absolute minimum. My child has never tasted a pizza, and i cannot remember the last time i had one. Please if thats the best you can do refrain from stupid simplistic comments

Thanks voilet, i was beginning to think i was the only one living in the real world. We dont really have a choice as to where we rent, as i mentioned its a rural area there are no houses for rent unless you get rent allowance (rent allowence landlords charge 800 a month in this area and it gets paid no questions asked)

You say you are living in rural area can you not move to closer to where you are working which might not be so rural. I would think you are doing 70/80miles round trip a day to work.
This would cut down on fuel may give more choice in renting.

At the end of the day it is all about choice. I cook everything from scratch myself - including pizza dough sauce the lot very cheaply). It can be done. Bulk buy especially when specials are on on non perishables and stuff you know you'll need - cleaning products.

I think your food bill is way too high, I spend about 20 more than that for a family of 6, one in nappies and a dog. Do you use a meal planner?

Why do you chose to rent so far from you place of work?

Does your OH not get JSB if recently unemployed?

Electricity seems high too for 3 people, as does your heating bill. Did you get a BER cert when you started renting this place? Have you tried moving to a cheaper electricity supplier? Have you reduced the temp for your oil heating? Has your LL serviced your boiler this year?

aerobubbles said:

sandals i take offence to that remark, i pride myself on eating healthly. i make all our food from scratch, we dont all have a choice as to where we shop we are living in a rural area and my shopping bill is cut to the absolute minimum. My child has never tasted a pizza, and i cannot remember the last time i had one. Please if thats the best you can do refrain from stupid simplistic comments

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sorry by no means was my comment meant nasty, only trying to help, my apologies.

Guys I lived in apt. and in a house.
I don't know why when u rent an apt. el. bill is very high (we paid about 230 €).
When we moved to house, our el. bill was about 90 or 115 (during the Winter) and we still used the same things like before, but we didn't have a night saver and still we paid less than when we lived in apt.
We moved to apt. again, near my husband's work, because it's cheaper (I mean rent it's cheaper, no oil heating etc.)
aerobubbles I think that move closer ur work won't be such a bad idea, if u have an opportunity to move
Plus u will save plenty of time to get to work

Your shopping bill seems very high.. family of three here with one dog and shopping budget is €70 a week.. we live in a rural area aswell.. but to be honest most big towns have the budget supermarkets. Take a look at Aldi this week the super six is great for working your weekly food planner on.

Understand babies can be expensive. I used to use the monthly child benefit money to stock up on nappies and formula for the month.

I have to agree with moving closer to work if possible.. might help you save more in petrol at least.

Best of luck

I think it is funny that the first thing most people attack about the OP's post was the cost of food - the most important thing. It's not cheap to feed yourself properly.
Regarding the other stuff.
You surely must be clocking up serious mileage to go through €100 a week of fuel - moving should be considered.
€3.80 a day for solid fuel and €300 a month is crazy. I would suggest wearing a jumper and looking into buying large bags of coal or even see about getting a plot of turf on a bog somewhere.
If you are paying €150 a month ESB then you are obviously wasting a huge amount of power. I have lived in a good few places and the largest bill I have ever received was about €105 for 2 months. That was once off and on average my bills are around €70-80 bi-monthly.
I know you are not in an easy situation but taking a look at why your bills are so high really should be your priority as your wages are decent.

ps- everybody has jumped on the Lidl/Aldi bandwagon in the last year or so. There are only certain items that they are cheaper than the like of SV,Dunnes, Tesco. Some items they are outrageously more expensive to buy from.
So a bit of advice for everyone : -) - don't pick a supermarket and decide "thats where I am going to shop from now on". Take time to suss them out and see that you can buy different items cheaper in any of them......and avoid Centras.