Struggling With Your Finances? The Irish Government Has Some Ridiculous Guidelines For You

We’re in the middle of a recession. Yes, it sucks and we’re still a bit miserable about it all but luckily we have those “great” minds in Dail Eireann giving us guidelines on how we can cope with the crunch.

If you’re currently having a bit of financial strife, why not check out these helpful hints from the government on how much money you should be spending every month.

Image via @SarahAMcInerney

We couldn’t help but laugh (mainly because we found them so utterly ridiculous). You have to give it to Enda and co, even in these hard times they still have a sense of humour...

So what’s a reasonable standard of living for “a single adult of working age living alone” per month?

Image via @SarahAMcInerney

Image via @SarahAMcInerney

The above images are a little blurry, so we’ll fill you in on the details here. According to the government, a single Irish adult of working age who lives alone should only spend €247.04 per month on food. €35.73 a month should provide us with “clothing and footwear for all seasons, including accessories.”

You can kiss your extensive beauty product collection goodbye because according to Enda and the lads, we should only be spending €33.40 on “personal hygiene and grooming items” per month. So that means a haircut and the very odd spray tan or manicure are totally out the window.

We should only spend €31.09 on our health per month, this includes visits to the doctor, dentist and every other type of healthcare professional you can imagine.

The booklet also states that for communications like “telephone, postage and basic internet” we should only be spending €43.45 a month. (See ya later broadband, it was nice knowing you!)

While the government can’t issue any guidelines on the cost of childcare, they do say that we should aim to save €5 a week, just in case some unexpected emergencies crop up. 

Could you live according to these guidelines? We think it's time Enda and co got back in touch with reality.