what is you income vs expenditure in Ireland? How are you finding it?

[Statsquestion1]

Just realised I have never been on an Irish income vs outgoings thread. They are always uk based. It would be interesting to see how the Irish cohort are on this?
This is ours,
Me 3100
DP 4100
CB 280
Total 7480
Housing
Mortgage: 1900.
Insurances(life, house): 150
Property tax: 40
Total Housing: 2090
Utilities
Electricity 150
Waste collection: 30
Broadband & TV: 70
Mobile phones x3: 60
Total Utilities: 310
Food & Groceries
Groceries & household food: 500
Dining out / takeaways: 200
Total Food: 700
Transportation
Fuel: 250
Car insurance & tax: 150
Maintenance & NCT: 100
Public transport / Parking: 20
Total Transport: 520
Education & Kids
School books, uniforms, fees: 50
Activities, sports, clubs: 50
Pocket money/treats: 60
Total Kids & Education: 160
Entertainment & Lifestyle
Family outings, hobbies, gifts: 200
Subscriptions, books, etc.: 60
Miscellaneous expenses (haircuts,nails): 60
Personal spends: 200 x 2 = 400
Total Entertainment: 730
Savings & Miscellaneous
Emergency fund / Savings: 2,000
Holidays (monthly allocation): 500
Clothing: 200
Miscellaneous buffer: 260
Total Savings & Misc.: 2960
TOTAL MONTHLY SPENDING: 7,480

Our outgoings are higher - we pay €350 a month for health insurance and we also have a bank loan so pay that monthly too. Our groceries bill is huge! We pay about €1,000 a month (two adults and 2 teens) "Activities" for our DC (music lessons, grinds, sports etc) are about €250 a month. What sort of heating do you have? You mention electricity but no gas/oil. We have gas heating and pay monthly it's around 100 a month but will go up in the Winter months.

First thing that is noticeable from a UK point of view is the big difference in wages . Fortunately Irish salaries have always been higher . I think you are doing extremely well with your budget as you are managing to save and also to have a decent amount for entertainment , activities .

We have A2W heating in an A2 rated new build. Everything on electric, we are on a good rate with electric Ireland so it works out alright

I’m lucky my dc do sports that are not very expensive. My DD does camogie and Gaelic football. I think the membership or something like 120 for the year. My DS plays rugby again. I think that was €90 for the year. We are finished with swimming lessons, thank God as they were quite expensive

Wow yes that is a great rate to be on! At least you're in a lovely warm new home and you're saving a lot each month too which is excellent.

It is great, until the electrics go out 🤣🤣

I don't think I want to know. Once things for sure since our children left home and moved away we have money for ourselves.

We paid off our mortgage 16 years ago, got solar panels last year and only paid €83 for our electricity in the first 12 months and are heavy users.

I work from home term time and then only part-time hours after school so have a very low income and I'm gradually winding down towards retirement within the next 5 years.

I have a busy social life now and doing more travel. I also receive a very small pension from where I worked when I lived in the UK so I'm saving that to put towards trips to Australia to see our son.

We are very much toying with the idea of solar panels we are in such a good position for them! We must look into this soon! Oh I hope you have a great time in Australia @honeyrider 🙌❤️

We'll have the cost of the solar panels paid off quicker than estimated if they continue performing like they have been. We're in credit for the next bill and have been for some time. We don't have to worry much about the cost of electricity going up.

We were in Australia for the Christmas holidays to mid-January just gone to visit our son who's living there for the last 2 years. His 3rd year visa starts next week and he would like to stay longer than 3 years so needs to find someone to sponsor him by this time next year. If he's successful and can stay longer than 3 years then he'll come home for Christmas 2026 for a few weeks then we'll visit him the following year and visit New Zealand too while we're that side of the world. The flights are a killer though.

Our Total 8600 and Child benefit

Housing 2600 Mortg: 2500, Ins& tax: 95
Utilities & phones& TV licence 300
Food & takeout or treat 800
Transportation 500
Education & Kids 1000
Extra curricular &pocket 500
Entertainment & Lifestyle 300 Misc
Savings 0
Holiday & clothing (month): 700
TOTAL MONTHLY SPENDING: 6700
Buffer and Extra pay down 1900

If you can afford, absolutely do solar

@Orders76 my god that’s a huge mortgage. 😅 where are you based?

Hence the last line ' extra pay down with any disposable. It's Dublin of course.

I assumed so but didn’t want to guess. We are the same in terms of trying to pay extra as and when we can.