Living on minimum wage in Dublin

Niall1992

I'm planning on moving to Dublin City soon. Have a job lined up but will be on Minimum wage. Is it possible live in or near the city on 300-400 a week?

BeerFear

Niall1992 wrote: »

I'm planning on moving to Dublin City soon. Have a job lined up but will be on Minimum wage. Is it possible live in or near the city on 300-400 a week?

Easily as long as you have no loans and willing to house share or get a studio apartment. You'll have to budget well though. Don't know if you like to go out drinking etc. Say 1400 a month, 450 rent leaves you around 250 a week. It will be tough enough

elfy4eva

Niall1992 wrote: »

I'm planning on moving to Dublin City soon. Have a job lined up but will be on Minimum wage. Is it possible live in or near the city on 300-400 a week?

It could be done i'd say, CC accom is expensive though so you'll probably have to settle for a place less than pretty on that budget.

Good luck with the move.

Niall1992

BeerFear wrote: »

Easily as long as you have no loans and willing to house share or get a studio apartment. You'll have to budget well though

Yeah have no problem with house sharing, just want to see if I can still have a life and not barely make it from one week to the next.

BeerFear

Niall1992 wrote: »

Yeah have no problem with house sharing, just want to see if I can still have a life and not barely make it from one week to the next.

If you can survive on 200 a week after rent you would be okay, be tight enough. Decent room is round 400 to 450 or studio apartment is round 4
500 600 a month. Min wage is 1400 a month after tax

hfallada

BeerFear wrote: »

If you can survive on 200 a week after rent you would be okay, be tight enough. Decent room is round 400 to 450 or studio apartment is round 4
500 600 a month. Min wage is 1400 a month after tax

There is little or no tax on minimum wage. But OP you will struggle. I work retail with minimum wage (I work part-time and live at home), but my coworkers working full time, live from week to week. It will be very difficult to have a decent lifestyle. These people stretch their Euros and struggle.

However you can find apartment shares for €200 a month on daft( 6 sharing a 2 bed). But you will be in the city (the buses are expensive and living in the suburbs using buses is false economy). However Dublin can be fairly cheap for nightouts if you are smart and eating out can be cheap( alot of places are only €4/5)

Greenmachine

hfallada wrote: »

There is little or no tax on minimum wage. But OP you will struggle. I work retail with minimum wage (I work part-time and live at home), but my coworkers working full time, live from week to week. It will be very difficult to have a decent lifestyle. These people stretch their Euros and struggle.

However you can find apartment shares for €200 a month on daft( 6 sharing a 2 bed). But you will be in the city (the buses are expensive and living in the suburbs using buses is false economy). However Dublin can be fairly cheap for nightouts if you are smart and eating out can be cheap( alot of places are only €4/5)

You would want to have you head examine if you were willing to share a 2 bed with 5 other people. :eek:

Greenmachine

BeerFear wrote: »

If you can survive on 200 a week after rent you would be okay, be tight enough. Decent room is round 400 to 450 or studio apartment is round 4
500 600 a month. Min wage is 1400 a month after tax

400, 500 and in most cases 600 will only get you a bedsit as opposed to a studio.

Tusky

It's easy peasy. I know plenty of people who do it and they are out socialising regularly.

The key is rent. Find a houseshare somewhere where rent is €350-€400 max and you'll be grand.

IsMiseMyself

I was on the JSA when I first moved to Dublin, before I got a job. Was on 143 a week. Not ideal, but manageable. €350 a month for rent. €19 a week for the Luas. Put €20 aside every week--bills, and then on the last week of the month I went home. Left me with about €20 a week for everything else, e.g. food. Had to budget carefully and couldn't really *do* anything or go anywhere, but yeah: you'd live on minimum wage perfectly fine.

Aard

20 euro a week on food doesnt sound "perfectly fine" to me!

Try to live near work OP and walk/cycle everywhere. Do not get cheap accommodation only to have to buy a bus ticket. If you can find restaurant work with enough hours the tips can be generous.

hardCopy

You should be able to get a decent size room on the Northside within walking distance of town for around 350. Somewhere like Marino, drumcondra, Phibsboro, Cabra. Pick a location according to whatever side of town you'll be working, this would mean no need for transport money.

Stick to Lidl and Aldi for cheap food and learn to cook cheap cuts of meat, beans and pulses, stews are great and cheap.

carlmango11

Few of my friends are on minimum wage full time and they seem to survive/have decent social lives. They live about 25 mins from the city centre in a decent enough area and share bedrooms with their girl/boyfriends.

Gavin "shels"

All about budgeting simple as, all going to plan (aka getting my permanent contract in January in my new job) I'm going to take the plunge soon of moving out. Big boy job, graduation and moving out, all within a year, don't know if my head will handle it.

dia squish

I live in Dublin 2 and earn around 1350 a month and it's grand. Make my own lunch and dinner most of the time, go out drinking once or twice a week. Have the odd tough month if there's a lot on but it's definitely doable.

adamski8

Tusky wrote: »

It's easy peasy. I know plenty of people who do it and they are out socialising regularly.

The key is rent. Find a houseshare somewhere where rent is €350-€400 max and you'll be grand.

Agreed lived the last 10years on minimum wage money (most of the time on less). If you cant live well enough on that money you dont know how to budget or have big expectations in life.

Of course you wont be able to save much/buy a new car/ house etc but you should be able to afford decent accom, food, nights out.

Gavin "shels"

dia squish wrote: »

I live in Dublin 2 and earn around 1350 a month and it's grand. Make my own lunch and dinner most of the time, go out drinking once or twice a week. Have the odd tough month if there's a lot on but it's definitely doable.

How much are you spending on rent as a matter of interest?

adamski8

Tusky wrote: »

It's easy peasy. I know plenty of people who do it and they are out socialising regularly.

The key is rent. Find a houseshare somewhere where rent is €350-€400 max and you'll be grand.

Agreed lived the last 10years on minimum wage money (most of the time on less). If you cant live well enough on that money you dont know how to budget or have big expectations in life.

Of course you wont be able to save much/buy a new car/ house etc but you should be able to afford decent accom, food, nights out.

JuliusCaesar

I'd have to second being able to walk or cycle. Transport costs even with a Leap card is expensive. Make your own lunch, learn to cook well and cheaply (http://agirlcalledjack.com/), and save your money for the important things in life!

dia squish

Gavin shels wrote: »

How much are you spending on rent as a matter of interest?

I pay less than 500 for a 2 bed, sharing with 1 other. Probably got lucky there. But I did see a good few places for around that price when I was looking during the summer, most around Christchurch/Portobello/Smithfield which would all be good places to live too.

Ole Rodrigo

+1 on cycling and cooking for yourself.

Transport and eating out are 2 money sappers. With a bit of thought you can plan most journeys in the city by bicycle ( with an initial outlay, so you need to keep at it to reap the benefits) and with some organisation you can prepare most of your own meals. Ok maybe a fair bit of organisation initially but you soon get the hang of it

Also, parts of Dublin 1 are cheap. Lots of folks looking to live in the city centre avoid certain areas because of preconceived ideas about how dangerous they are, and they are simply not true. Occasionally miserable maybe, dangerous, no.

BeerFear

Phibsboro is a good place to live, cheap enough and close to the city

aligator_am

If it's of any use to you OP I can send you on a spreadsheet I did up for monthly spending, basically a cash flow chart.

I'm not exactly earning mega bucks so it's come in very handy, gives you a general idea of what you're left with assuming that certain spends will be constant (bus fares, rent, phone / internet bill etc.) it's not perfect but will give you hopefully an inkling of what to expect.

And although I'll no doubt sound like an old fuddy duddy, if at all possible, throw even a tenner a month in to the credit union, it does add up and as things pick up for ya the few quid can be of great help.

Piriz

for those of you looking to cut costs, sign up to 48mobile.ie 10euro per month for all calls and texts.

fi314

Don't move in somewhere with storage heaters. Made that mistake!