No Christmas this year

ntlbell

iPink wrote: »

Are you serious?? you would actually begrudge someone a basic Christmas...?? No-one is talking about splurging but a few basics...

Yeah you can take away all the extras but would you really call it surviving??

What about the huge cost to the tax payer in terms of mental health, homelessness, broken families etc

I can't believe the begrudgery & hate, we are talking about families, children, OAPs etc here... anyone could be in this situation, ANYONE... all it takes it a flip of fate, one day you are in a good job with a mortgage, car loan etc which you can handle easy enough & the next you are unemployed with no hope of paying your debts....

xmas is about familiy's and speding quality time with your loved ones.

it's not about playstations and everything else.

If you have a roof, heat, food, you're doing a hell of a lot better than a lot of people.

there has been a huge transfer of wealth from young to old over the property boom, not every OAP is scraping the pennies together, in fact a lot of them have more disposable income than anyone else.

they're generally mortgage free, no child care fee's no kids to pay for, no school fee's.

A lot of them are very very wealthy.

hacked

I agree with iPink.

With that being said, it's not too hard to have a cheap and cheerful christmas! My family aren't in a great situation this year, so we're doing christmas small. Look around to try and find what your looking for at the lowest prices. Sure, expectations might have to be lowered a bit, but there's nothing wrong with that.

Budgeting is important too. Even if you can set aside 5 or 10 euro a week it could make a huge dent in the christmas splurge.

Ntlbell is right about one thing. Salary's in this country have been far too high for a long time with celtic tiger, and so business owners have been able to take advatange of us. Our expectations were always way too high to begin with! We're crashing back down now.

A Dub in Glasgo

hacked wrote: »

On my own with a baby, getting by with the little money I get how the hell am I going to be able to afford to work or go back to college? I can't afford day care. Bottom line...I can't afford to work.

Maybe the father will provide 'child maintenance'?

hacked

A Dub in Glasgo wrote: »

Maybe the father will provide 'child maintenance'?

Sadly, that is highly unlikely. But then again, sometimes your better off without the guilt money!

ninty9er

MaceFace wrote: »

Some things have changed since then: rental costs have gone through the roof & part time jobs are almost non-existent.
Even though there was college fees back in the 80s, many lower income families could avoid them through grants. Today that is not possible as the standard registration fee is 1500 and there is no avoiding that.

Rents are coming down, mortgages are even cheaper and part time jobs are there for the taking if only people would get off their high horses.

Newsflash: If you get a grant, you're exempt from the Student Service Charge.

iPink

ntlbell wrote: »

xmas is about familiy's and speding quality time with your loved ones.

it's not about playstations and everything else.

If you have a roof, heat, food, you're doing a hell of a lot better than a lot of people.

there has been a huge transfer of wealth from young to old over the property boom, not every OAP is scraping the pennies together, in fact a lot of them have more disposable income than anyone else.

they're generally mortgage free, no child care fee's no kids to pay for, no school fee's.

A lot of them are very very wealthy.

Who said anything about Playstations? I couldn't agree more... I've never thought Christmas was about that, it's not even a religious affair for me as I am Pagan & celebrate the Winter Solstice... Christmas for me IS spending time with family & loved ones...

Having said that; I still have to travel to get there, I DO want to get my (6 year old) daughter something & for Santa to come to her, even with a few small bits & pieces and put a few decorations up... hey I am vegitarian, I don't even want a turkey!!

Would you seriously begrudge that?? If you are barely scraping by as it is (by the way yes I do have a roof (all-be-it a moldy damp one) & food on the table (all-be-it bread & cheese most days) but I don't have heating most of the time... I don't complain, as you said there are people in worse off situations.

What I would like is to be able to have a little bit of a Christmas for my daughter, seriously how bad is that to ask for even though I am a welfare recipient... where will the extra come from when you are barely scraping by as it is???

We don't buy gifts in our family anymore, haven't for the last 2 years, we make something ourselves...

I am genuinely shocked by the lack of compassion shown by people on here, as for saying that some OAPs are very very wealthy.. I'm sure that is true but you are in serious denial of you don't think there will be thousands of sad & lonely, cold & hungry elderly people out there this Christmas... pray to whatever Gods you believe in that it won't be you one day

Blessings to all

ntlbell

iPink wrote: »

Who said anything about Playstations? I couldn't agree more... I've never thought Christmas was about that, it's not even a religious affair for me as I am Pagan & celebrate the Winter Solstice... Christmas for me IS spending time with family & loved ones...

No one mentioned them, I was just making a statment.

iPink wrote: »

Having said that; I still have to travel to get there, I DO want to get my (6 year old) daughter something & for Santa to come to her, even with a few small bits & pieces and put a few decorations up... hey I am vegitarian, I don't even want a turkey!!

Have you had a chat with your local st vincent depaul? they usually have a range of kids toys and it won't cost you a penny.

iPink wrote: »

Would you seriously begrudge that?? If you are barely scraping by as it is (by the way yes I do have a roof (all-be-it a moldy damp one) & food on the table (all-be-it bread & cheese most days) but I don't have heating most of the time... I don't complain, as you said there are people in worse off situations.

I don't begrudge you of anything. Unfortatley the goverment don't have the coffers to pay for half a milion peoples christmas toys regardless of how small they maybe. That's not me being begruding, or not having some empathy for your situation, they're cold, but they're the facts of the situation.

iPink wrote: »

What I would like is to be able to have a little bit of a Christmas for my daughter, seriously how bad is that to ask for even though I am a welfare recipient... where will the extra come from when you are barely scraping by as it is???

We don't buy gifts in our family anymore, haven't for the last 2 years, we make something ourselves...

It's tough, no one stated otherwise, But as I said above, it's not one persons little xmas, it's half a million and we don't have the money.

iPink wrote: »

I am genuinely shocked by the lack of compassion shown by people on here, as for saying that some OAPs are very very wealthy.. I'm sure that is true but you are in serious denial of you don't think there will be thousands of sad & lonely, cold & hungry elderly people out there this Christmas... pray to whatever Gods you believe in that it won't be you one day

Blessings to all

People have lots of compassion, they have empathy, but me showing you some compassion won't change what you can put on the table or under the tree on xmas day.

I'm not in denial, i'm sure there is, I just don't think it's as dire as you're making out.

I don't know your financial situation but people on solcial welfare have been providing relativley comofrtable xmas's for thier kids on it for years, when payments where a hell of a lot lower than they're now.

I don't know anyone on social welfare who are eating cheese and bread daily when you can purchase very good quality food in shops like aldi/lidl etc for little or nothing.

maybe there's areas of expenditiure you could save on?

I'm sure if you don't mind telling people here your financial circumstances they will come up with an abundance of ways to save money.

Sometimes when we're in situations like yours we can't see the woood through the tree's

BMurr

Laptop1 wrote: »

If any of you hypocrits are silly cervants I hope Brian Lenihan screws you all to the ground. You have been too well looked after up to now. Now, cough up. :mad:

And what exactly have you got to offer the taxpayer in return for 2400 euro per month?

mikemac

hacked wrote: »

With that being said, it's not too hard to have a cheap and cheerful christmas!

The happiest Christmas I had when young was when there were ESB cuts all over the country due to storms. When was that? Back in the 1990's sometime.
No TV, no Nintendo or cd players, just everyone in the one room

Ah bless

gcgirl

mikemac wrote: »

The happiest Christmas I had when young was when there were ESB cuts all over the country due to storms. When was that? Back in the 1990's sometime.
No TV, no Nintendo or cd players, just everyone in the one room

Ah bless

more like the 80's !! i had fecking nothing back then i got a 2nd hand bike for xmas and loved it never had a computer or could not even afford to go on school tours but had a blast with my family! People are far to materialistic they always have to be one up on their neighbor not exactly Christian at all since we live in a suppose Christian state!