Q&A: What is the cost of living in Ireland?
Today's post should be very useful to new movers to Ireland. I'm responding to a question I received a couple of weeks ago from a website reader who asked:
Now that you've had time to settle into your new home, can you tell us a little about the cost of living in Ireland.
In my view a person's 'cost of living' is totally dependent on their own personal situation. I can't really answer the question with 'high' or 'low', or with any sort of number. If you move to Ireland, or if you live here, your perception of the cost of living will depend on many factors, e.g. where you move from, how much you earn, whether you eat out or in a lot, the types of activities you do, if you have kids or not, etc.
However, to attempt to answer the question, I have been busy creating a list of items and associated costs. I've itemized costs for a long list of items, including utility bills, a few every day food items, petrol/gas, etc. I guess you can use the information however you like, but it's meant to be used as a comparison against prices in your own city/country.
Keep in mind that the costs noted below are what I have paid or would pay locally for the items/services. If you live in another area/city, then these might vary, and of course they will vary a little by provider/shop also. If you'd like me to add anything specific to the list, please ask.
Also note: all costs/prices are in local currency (the Euro). As of Oct 31st 2014 1 Euro = 1.26 USD/ 0.79GBP/1.42 AUD, 1.41 CAD. (exchange rates taken from xe.com)
- Rent
- €900/month (3-bedroom house in Cork city suburbs)
- Utility bills
- Garbage collection (includes domestic waste and recycling) €160/6 months
- Electricity €45/month (approx)
- Kerosene home heating oil - €0.67c per litre (as of January 2015 - see my receipt here)
- TV/internet - my TV and internet service are provided by the same company. I pay €40/month for the combined service, which includes approx 50 TV channels and high speed (broadband) internet.
- Cell phone bills - I use a pay-as-you-go service at an average cost of 10/month (very little phone usage). My wife has an unlimited everything plan (data, texts, calls) tied to our TV/Internet service costing €24/month. A typical 'everything' plan will cost you in the region of €40-50/month.
- Skype - I maintain a Skype account for overseas calls at a cost of approx €2/month.
- Water - paying a separate utility bill for water will start in January 2015. This is probably Ireland's most contentious political issue at present, receives daily news coverage, and is under constant protest. I'll update this when I have an accurate bill amount to share. However if you want more details visit www.water.ie
- Car
- Car insurance - €59/month. Note: the cost of car insurance in Ireland very heavily depends on many factors e.g. your age, the type of car, how long you've been driving etc.
- Car loan payment - €150/month. Maybe of more use to you, the APR, with a local credit union, is 9.9%.
- Gas Prices (as of October 2014)
- Petrol - €1.49/litre
- Diesel - €1.39/litre
- Groceries
- Milk 1 litre - €.80
- Bread (wheat loaf) - €1.89
- Soda Bread - €1.95
- Dubliner Cheese - €15/kg
- Half dozen medium eggs - €1.69
- Fresh Chicken breasts - €10.60/kg
- Potatoes - €1.50/kg
- Apples - €0.60 each
- Bananas - €0.25 each
- Box of cereal - €2.90
- Guinness (8X500ml) - €13
- Eating out
- 3 course dinner for 2 - €60
- Lunch - under €10
- Cup of coffee - €2
- Pint of beer €4.40
- Transportation
- Round trip train travel to Dublin - €30 if booked in advance (up to €75 otherwise)
- Local public bus - €1.90 per journey.
- Activities
- Leisure center membership - €500/year
- Kids soccer - €10/lesson
- Kids gymnastics €10/lesson
- Miscellaneous
- New cell phones - very dependent on your taste and needs. The low to high price for a smartphone is approx €100 to €600.
- Local B&B - €35-45/night/pps
Remember these are guide prices only. What you may end up paying could be different, so don't come back and bark at me later 🙂 If you'd like information on other expenses, or would like to offer a list of your own, please add a comment below.
Useful resources
Here are some websites that can help you find the prices of other goods/services you might be looking for
- MyHome.ie (House prices and rent)
- Tesco.ie (groceries)
- Pumps.ie (petrol prices nationally)
- Groupon.ie (local deals)
- IrishRail.ie (train tickets)
- ConsumerHelp.ie (banking comparison tool)
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Property Tax on domestic property http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/lpt/
Road tax for cars pre 2008 works on engine size, post 2008 on emissions, not cheap whichever option,, http://www.vrt.ie/roadtax.php
(That car Insurance looks a little high?)
Good additions, Tony, and good to see you back 🙂
I thought my car insurance was low (was paying 2.5 times that in the states), but might be a little higher due to driving with a foreign license. Also, that covers both myself and my wife.
Just to touch back on the water charges… nobody is paying anything yet, but there was an update this week on the subject (although, there seems to be an update almost daily, and it’s becoming quite tiresome just hearing about it all the time).
From what I can see now households that register with Irish Water will get a €100 Water Conservation Grant each year resulting in net charges of €60 for a single adult household and €160 for every other type of household. These charges will remain in affect until at least 1 January 2019.
Don’t know where I stand on Water Charges.. Almost everywhere I know outside Ireland pay for water supply and waste water treatment. Payment for water is actually taken from Taxes already paid.. so is wrong to be charged twice (But we already do!)
Personally.. We live in Rural Ireland and are members of a “Group Water” scheme. We Pay €140 per year for our water as do all members, members with “Land” were also paying €20 per supply point (for animal water)as an addition. The meters fitted will help locate leaks although Irish water are refusing to honour the agreement (made before IW existed) for funds to improve the groups system and repair age old pipes. Group schemes set their own costs each year
There was also a “Septic Tank” registration charge for waste water.
I’m used to the system in the US now. I paid for how much water I used, as well as waste water services. It typically hit $150 every 2 months, which makes the proposed amount by Irish Water seem small. But…I agree, if we’re already paying for it in our taxes (of which I don’t know any of the details) then we shouldn’t pay again. However, I prefer a system where I know what I’m paying for (i.e. a bill per utility) and I only pay for what I use. I have a relatively large household (5), and believe it is unfair that a household of just 2 (or 10 for that matter), will pay the same.
Depends on what part of the US. Some of the US are on flat rates as well. Some mid-sized towns in Northern California (50,000 or so people) only got meters about 4 years ago.
Megan (@mcrose) over at Desert To Dublin (one of my favourite expat-in-Ireland blogs) wrote a helpful article on this topic yesterday. Check out the post on her blog here. Megan breaks down her monthly costs for many of the Irish household utility bills, including electicity, gas, water and insurance.
Hope some find it helpful! I’m sure I’ve missed some details but tried to highlight the basic information that would have been useful to us as an expat family relocating to Dublin. Thanks for the shout out!
I found some of the comparisons interesting…
mine vs yours
Garbage: 26.66 vs 35
Cable: 40 vs 90
Electricity 45 vs 125
Could Dublin really be that more expensive than the rest of Ireland?!