My budget:Aisling is in her 30s and lives in Kildare with her husband and child. She is due her second baby next month. In the last year, their income fell from €135,000 to €100,000
I don’t want my surname to be published, because I work for a very big multinational. I don’t want my employers to know we’re struggling, but I feel like we’re sinking.
The main thing that happened to us was that my husband lost his job last year. He worked in construction, and made between €65,000 and €70,000 a year. He has another job in retail, and it is the same hours, but half the money at €30,000.
Our combined income is €100,000 but not when I’m on maternity leave . . . We’re contributing to the economy all the time, but aren’t seeing any return for it.
My biggest frustration is having to pay my entire creche fees out of my income. There is no childcare supplement and our creche fees cost €710 a month for four days a week. It was five days, but we asked an aunt to help out one day a week to get the cost down. We give her gifts, but not money.
In my view, nobody is contributing to the economy like working parents with young children . . . Our lives are effectively on hold until we get them through creche and into school, and we hopefully don’t get into too much debt in the meantime. We currently have about €7,000 credit card debt.
I don’t consider that I made bad choices around money. Myself and a friend bought a house between us 10 years ago in Dublin city centre. It was €250,000. Now it’s worth about €100,000. We rent it out . . . it’s in negative equity. We rent our house.
Our biggest fear around the budget is that I don’t think we’ll ever be able to put down roots and afford our own family home.