If I were you, I’d write to the university for advice -
Quite frankly, I find the numbers to live there a bit high (especially because they assume a “US” standard of living - this is sponsored by a real estate site, after all!). There are a large number of things that we take as “necessity” that are considered luxuries elsewhere.
Figure that as a student you’ll be renting a room, NOT an apartment. Figure that you’ll not be eating out as much (going to pubs - yes. But not “eating out” as a regular thing).. Figure you’ll be walking, riding busses, or or maybe bicycling rather than driving a car. Cut non-essentials to the bone, then budget a reasonable amount of your cash (10 percent, maybe?) for emergencies and a similar amount for “splurges” - then figure (with local advice!) how long you can live on the rest. You may be surprised how long you can stretch things out.
This is good advice too…remember that the salary calculator is only a ballpark. It still can be helpful, however, if you can figure out the bare minimum standard of living you’re willing to accept and what it would cost to live that way in your community.
One change I dislike about the salary calculator is that it no longer includes the “rent” or “own” option. Used to be you could indicate whether you planned to rent or buy a place to live (and, if the answer was “rent,” what kind of a place you were looking for) and it would calculate based on that.
Still, since I don’t know of anyplace in the U.S. where $25,000 a year is much above the poverty line, I figured it was a good place to start for a student’s living allowance
That just goes to show the disparity of different parts of the U.S. Recently there were statistics put out in our local newspaper that showed that in order for a family of 4 in Worcester, MA (the city of which my town is a suburb) to meet BASIC expenses, they had to make $42000 a year combined. That is, food, rent and clothing. No extras like pizza or takeout, extracurricular activities, hobbies, etc. Just the basics. With minimum wage translating to around $11000 a year (I think, $5.25 an hour), that leaves a lot of people in pretty desperate straits around here. But we digress from the original topic…
I’m going to mooch off your topic here. If I was planning a working holiday with the SWAP (Student Working Abroad Program) for a year in Ireland with 3 friends, after I finish my first degree here in Canada, where would you go? I don’t mean where you would like to go, I mean what would be the best choice. I love Dingle but I would think that it would be pretty hard to find a job considering my lack of any fishing skills, and I’m not too fond of Dublin. So where would be cheapest/easiest to find a job/place, keeping in mind that I’ll have a degree and at least 2 people to split rent with? Any thoughts or do I actually have to go do some research???
Second this, enthusiastically. Also it’s possible to
busk on the street in Cork. The people I saw doing
it were serious, neither bad nor good. I made
money in Killarney, didn’t try Cork, and I
was frightful. Best
Well, if Jim was frightful and still made money, there’s hope for me 'cause there would be an extra pity factor
Seriously, when we visited Ireland in 2000 we did a good deal of shopping at grocery stores. I would say that the prices, when converted to American dollars were what we would expect here in the States, except for beef. Oatmeal was very reasonable. One thing that shocked me was that in Ireland a box of Kellog’s corn flakes that was twice the size of our typical American box was the same price as that of our smaller box!If you aren’t a fancy eater, and have access to cook-it-yourself, the food factor won’t be a troublesome one, I think.
My daughters tell me that the most popular online resource for rented accommodation, certainly in Dublin but also featuring accommodation in other parts of the country, is here: www.daft.ie
I’m not suggesting that you try to rent on line without first inspecting the place (believe me, that would be a bad mistake!), but it will give you some idea of what’s on offer and what rents are like.
A lot of young people - students, but also young professionals - share a house or apartment. The newspapers will often carry advertisements where one of the tenants has left and the others are looking for a replacement co-tenant.
I haven’t been able to check these messages until now because I hurt my back on Saturday and just started sitting up again yesterday. I’ve been checking all these resources you’ve given me and some more besides. Now the only thing I need to wait on is my FAFSA report. I had to refile recently, and I don’t know how much they’ll give me. If it’s enough, I’m going.
