Selectra Budget Busters: Maeve, Secondary Teacher, Homeowner

By Cormac Breen

Content Manager

Selectra Budget Busters has a look at what Irish people are spending their money on and how they make ends meet. With prices increasing over the last 5 years on everything from electricity and gas to insurance and heating, managing our monthly budget is getting tighter and tighter. Today we are talking to Maeve, who has agreed to tell us how she manages her monthly budget and to get her opinion on rising prices in Ireland.

Profile:

• Name: Maeve
• Age: 40
• Profession: Secondary school teacher
• Monthly net income: €3,500
• Number of people at home: 1
• Place of residence: Newbridge, Co.Kildare

Maeve's Monthly Expenditure

Running a home along with a car sees Maeve budgeting for the following:

• 💶 Monthly Budget Breakdown
• Mortgage - €640
• Electricity - €60 - €70
• Home Heating - €110
• Internet and Mobile Services - €77
• Petrol - €120
• Insurance - €175
• Streaming Services - €20
• Others - €50

Mortgage

Maeve has been working as a secondary school teacher for the last 15 years and currently has a net income of roughly €3,500 per month.

She bought her own home about 5 years ago, and pays a monthly mortgage of €640.

New figures released by the Central Bank of Ireland showed that the average rate on new mortgages fell to 3.8% in December last year, down from 3.97% in the previous month and marking the lowest level since April 2023.

However, despite the decrease, Irish mortgage rates remain notably above the Euro area average which fell by eight basis points in December to 3.35% making it the 7th highest out of the 20-country Euro area.

It is my biggest monthly expense. I did have to recently renegotiate my mortgage and there was definitely an increase in it but at the moment it's manageable for me thanks to my present financial state, so hopefully that continues.

Electricity

Irish consumers continue to face some of the highest electricity bills across the EU, with the average bill in Ireland now €1,496.03 for homes with a 24hr urban meter.

The latest figures from Eurostat indicate that Ireland's electricity prices have increased by almost 43% since 2020 from €0.2616/kWh to €0.3736/kWh in 2024 making Ireland's electricity bills the second highest across the EU.

Source: Eurostat EU Electricity Prices
Figures quoted include relevant taxes and levies applied. Last updated, February 2025.

It varies between €100 and €130, and that's every two months,  but the government credits have covered a good bit of that recently. Definitely there has been an increase in my bills over the last few years. I noticed it a lot when I bought my house and started to cover the full cost of it. I need to kind of shop around and look at electricity providers now in the new year, or when my contract is up for renewal.

Home Heating

Despite living in an urban area, Maeve's house was built in the 1960s and does not have access to the gas network and therefore relies on oil to heat her home.

Heating oil prices per litre almost tripled between 2020 and 2022 rising from 48c per litre to 122c per litre. While prices have come down in the last two years, they are still almost double the 2020 price at 98.5c per litre.

It's an old house and when it was built, it wasn't connected to the gas network so I'm heating it with oil. It fluctuates then between summer and winter months. During the summer l rarely turn it on but then in the winter months is obviously when it costs most. So it might be roughly €1,300 across the year that goes in to it.

Broadband and Mobile Services

While monthly mobile services in Ireland are competitive, fixed line broadband is quite expensive when compared with other EU nations, costing on average about €42 per month.

I have a contract that includes both my mobile phone and my broadband and I'm paying about €77 a month. This year I got a deal for the first six months of the year contract at a cheaper rate and it has gone up then again to the standard rate for the remaining six months. When it comes to renewal, I will be looking for the best offer that they can give me and look around for other deals as it's quite high.
 

Petrol

Petrol, and diesel, have also experienced a significant increase in price over the last 5 years with a litre of petrol costing, on average, 183.02c per litre as of February 2025 while a litre of diesel costs 175.60c per litre.

Petrol? Roughly, I would say maybe €40 per week as I commute every day to work which is about 30 mins from where I live. Apart from that I'm not making any big weekly trips so it's quite manegable. There are a couple of petrol stations around where I live but maybe the difference between them is one cent at most. Maybe there are cheaper stations around the county but then any saving made would be lost by the drive to get there.

Insurance

Insurance remains a significant annual cost, with premiums for health, in particular, rising in recent years. Maeve has 4 types of insurance, health, home, mortgage and motor paid out either monthly, or annually in a single lump sum.

Health insurance and life insurance go out monthly, Health is about €119 a month and then life insurance or mortgage protection is about €18. Car insurance goes out yearly, and it is about €420. These will change this year as they are up for renewal so I'm hoping to try and save some money, particularly on health insurance given how expensive it is.

Streaming Services

Between streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime, along with music platforms like Spotify, an average Irish home can spend roughly €40 to €50 per month on streaming services.

Between my Spotify and Netflix account, it only comes to about €20 a month and in terms of value, with Spotify definitely as I use it every day but Netflix, to be honest I could probably cut back on it as I don't know if I really watch it as much as others might to get the value from it. I only have the basic package for around €10 a month so it's not the biggest expensive I have by any means but it's still over €100 a year.

Schemes

Since 2022, the Irish Government, has been paying out winter electricity credits to Irish homeowners to help with the rising cost of electricity. While the amount has been scaled back in successive budgets, for homeowners like Maeve, they went a long way towards helping with expensive winter energy bills.

The government credits have been a big bonus over the last few years and I've noticed that they've definitely helped with the cost of my electricity bills. Having said that, I read recently that they are unlikely to be given out this year and I know VAT on electricity is also going back up, so I think I will have to take a closer look at my bills and see if I can make some savings by switching.

Maeve's Budgeting Advice

Selectra's Budget Buster articles are all about helping you save money by giving you an insight into how other Irish homeowners are managing their monthly budgets.

For Maeve, she had this advice to offer:

I feel like a lot of people would say the same but shopping around is really the best advice I can give. I need to do it more myself as owning my own home these last 5 years and seeing the number of extra costs there are, along with covering them by myself, really makes you take a closer look at if you are getting value for your money. 

My dad is always on to me to look at what SEAI home upgrade grants I could get. Given that the house is old, although I spent a lot on bringing up to standard when I bought it, to cut down on costs I could look at getting the insulation improved, even thinking about solar panels although I'm not sure how much value I would get from them.