sufficient salary to live on??

Bobby_Kennedy

I've been offered a job in Ireland with a salary of 45,000 Euros. Will this be enough for me to live on in Dublin with my partner who is not working?

Planning to rent.. probably a 1 or 2 bed apartment, budgeting around 900 per month for that.

Salary probably about 37k net

No debts, no other outgoings, payments, etc.

Married, no kids, don't think partner is entitled to social welfare

Planning to buy car from savings

Planning to walk or cycle to work

Lavish lifestyle not expected, but not expected to be on the breadline either; I'm Irish but haven't lived in Ireland for some time.

jeckle

From what you say you are talking in terms of about €3,000 a month net income for two people to live on.

Anyway if you’re allowing for €900 a month rent, which seems realistic enough for a one bed apartment close to city centre, you are talking about €2,100 for everything else.

The good news is that rents have gone down, & the possibility is that you could get a two-bed for €1,000 or €1,100, which would give you the choice of subletting a room for maybe six months or a year, which would reduce your own rent, or maybe you don’t want to share. It is an option, especially if your partner isn't eligible to work straight away.

You’re main outlay after that would be car insurance, tax, petrol, service/repairs, but if you rented somewhere close to work, or close to Luas or a decent bus service :eek: you may not need one (unless you need one for work, but you did mention that you intend to cycle when possible). If you do need to use public transport you can allow for about €100 a month for a commuter ticket.

Food, travel, utilities (ESB/Gas, TV Licence, UPC/Sky etc, Phone/Internet) would be your next main considerations. Most apartments have storage heating, which even though they work on a cheaper night rate electricity charge, can be quite expensive during the real cold months. Your hot water heater would also work on this night rate, but you either basically have it on or off for four hours a night. As a rough guide you could be looking at €200 a month from October to March, depending on how high you have your heat set.

Basic Digital TV is now €20 a month with UPC (depending on your apartment you may be restricted to a particular company, or from erecting a satellite dish). You could get a phone plus broadband package for €40-€60 a month (basic phone is about €25 or so). You can check Tesco website for food prices.

Eating or drinking out & socialising are not cheap either, as you will probably know from family or friends living here. Of course if either of you are smokers you would be looking at about €8.50 for a pack of 20.

Other things such as medical insurance, emergencies, clothing, gifts, haircuts, mobile phone, holidays, gym membership etc would be things to factor in also.

So, to answer your question: yes, I would say that you would certainly have enough to live on, all things considered, but this is purely my opinion!

cosnochta

jeckle wrote: »

The good news is that rents have gone down, & the possibility is that you could get a two-bed for €1,000 or €1,100

I think if you search around you can get a two-bed for a better price than mentioned above. I just moved into a gorgeous two-bed cottage in the city centre and we're only paying 900 a month.

jeckle wrote: »

Basic Digital TV is now €20 a month with UPC (depending on your apartment you may be restricted to a particular company, or from erecting a satellite dish). You could get a phone plus broadband package for €40-€60 a month (basic phone is about €25 or so).

My basic phone is only a fiver! If you make a made-to-measure package with UPC you can save money. We just got digital tv, phone and 3mb broadband for 47 a month in total. And it's handy having the one company deal with all three.

In my opinion, as long as you are sensible with your spending choices, then you will be able to live very comfortably on the money you earn. A lot of people I know are living comfortable lives on a lot less than that.

Best of luck!

Bobby_Kennedy

Thanks for the replies folks... very informative.

Won't really need the car during the week,, just for weekends.

One more thing..regarding rents, is is reasonable to negotiate a lower rent than those quoted on sites like Daft?

jeckle

Bobby_Kennedy wrote: »

One more thing..regarding rents, is is reasonable to negotiate a lower rent than those quoted on sites like Daft?

I would so, in a lot of cases anyway.

Where I live I have seen an ad up on the noticeboard for a 2 bed for €1,075. Similar apartments were getting €1,400 two years ago. So, at the moment, in most cases I think landlords are glad to have tenants.

John Mason

yeah thats loads, as long as you dont expect to eat out every night of the week.

Sleepy

Depends on the landlord to be honest but you'd usually have some room for haggle room and even if they're not up for it, there's no harm in asking. It's definitely a renters market at the moment!

Jesus Wept

jeckle wrote: »

You can check Tesco website for food prices.

I'm imagine the Tesco website is more detailed as they deliver shopping etc, but Aldi/Lidl are considerably cheaper with no drop off (increase actually) in quality.

I prefer Aldi.