Married couple with children
Alexis and Annita, 48 and 41, have been married for twenty-five years and have three children – a 22-year-old daughter studying abroad in London, a 20-year-old son studying in a private college in Nicosia and a 12-year-old daughter in a private school.
Alexis is a government official in a high position and Annita doesn’t work, although recently she has considered going back to work because she has sacrificed some luxuries from her lifestyle to pay for the children’s education.
“I stopped working 12 years ago when I had my youngest, it was my husband’s idea and I went along with it as I wanted to stay home and take care of my kids. Recently I have been considering working again just so I can help my husband with the expenses and so we don’t have to make many cutbacks such as eating out,” Annita told the Sunday Mail.
“I have cut down on my weekly trips to the hairdresser and beautician and coffee with my friends. This was my choice, I was spending a lot of money on all that so now I do my hair on my own and I have friends over for coffee.”
Alexis was cagey about his income. “My income is satisfactory but when you have three children no matter how much money you get there are always some cutbacks you have to make to be able to afford to give them the best life.”
Their children’s education is a major expense. “My daughter’s accommodation in London is extremely expensive, the tuition is not as expensive as it was before EU accession but now my son will also be going to London to study in September so I will have to be paying twice as much. I am really not looking forward to that. And on top of that, my 12 year old is in a private school because it was only fair to offer all my children the same opportunities, but her school tuition is almost three times more expensive as university tuition in London”.
Alexis and Annita are feeling the pinch with electricity bills and basic food items increasing all the time.
“And let’s not forget the clothing – every month it’s a new trend with kids. One month they are gothic, next month they are punk, then they are emo, so we have to keep up with the trends, not a good thing for a parent’s pocket,” Alexis said, smiling. “Fuel prices are the most obvious expense, at least with the electricity you wait two months before the bill arrives. I spend around €280 a month on gas for my car and my wife’s!”
Single person living alone
Maria Ioannou is a 26-year-old bank officer who lives alone in an apartment she rents. Her monthly salary is €1424 gross.
Groceries: Maria spends €170 -€200 a month for basic food products and toiletries and cleaning products such as detergents, shampoos, toiletries
Petrol: Maria spends €70 a month in the winter on petrol and €120 max in the summer because she drives out of Nicosia to get to the beach and back.
Electricity and other bills: €30-€45 in the winter, €50-€70 in the summer because of the air conditioning
Entertainment: “I go clubbing twice a month and I spend €20 each time, I go to a café twice a week and this costs me approximately €20- €30 a month. Also at restaurants the minimum I pay for is €12 and €20 if I go to a posh one.”
Clothing: “You can find cheap clothes but it is a matter of taste, and I, unfortunately, have expensive taste. I could spend approximately €100 to €320 depending on my monthly expenses. I am addicted to expensive shoes.”
Other monthly expenses
Mortgage €450 on an apartment she hasn’t yet moved into
Car loan €260
€380 Rent for a studio apartment
Cutbacks
“I avoid clubbing frequently and I deprive myself of many clothes because they are a luxury. At the end of the month I try to leave at least €100 so I can put it in a saving account so when the time comes I have some money to furnish my new apartment. But I find it very difficult even to save that.”
“I try to save money by avoiding eating out; I spend a lot of money at lunchtime at work so I try to cook something at night and take it with me to work. I either cut off eating out to buy clothes or vice versa. It’s either one or the other. It’s a tough choice to make”.
Young couple with no children
Demetris and Ioanna have been married for eight years they are both 30 and are struggling to get by even with their decent jobs. They both have car loans and are paying their house mortgage. Demetris’ salary is €1,650 and Ioanna gets €950.
Food/groceries: They spend around €450 on groceries at the supermarket every month and €200 a month on daily trips to the kiosk and bakery for bread, milk, newspapers, cigarettes, dog food.
Petrol: With two cars, the couple spends around €100-€130 each on fuel a month. “This is inevitable, I mean, we have to drive to work everyday and it is not as if we have the best public transportation to take the bus, and our jobs are far from each other so we can’t take just one car.”
Electricity: “The surprise is yet to come. We are expecting the bill any time soon. I can just imagine how much it will come now that we use the air-condition so much because of the heat! We also have the water bill, the land-line bill, our mobile’s bill, our internet bill, uff, it’s crazy I tell you!”
Entertainment: “Well, we don’t really go out clubbing, we feel we are too old for that, but we do go once or twice a month to bars and pubs and once every two weeks to a restaurant. I wish we could go more often but we have to save money because we want to have a baby and we want to be financially organised before that happens. Even having a child depends on money nowadays!”
Elderly couple
Stassis and his wife are an elderly couple in their eighties living on their pensions, a total of €1300 for both. Stassis is happy that he also gets a pension from London “I worked there for ten years so I get an extra 350 pounds sterling a month and a further 400 pounds extra once a year.” The couple own their house and have no mortage.
Food and groceries: “We spend €500 a month on food including fruits and vegetables, fish, basically healthy food because of our age. Bear in mind that we only eat once a day and at night we just have fruit.”
Fuel: €32 every two weeks. “Even at my age I still try to avoid driving somewhere if I can walk there.”
Electricity: €140-€170
“I calculated the daily expenses for the central heating from the months of November until March and it was three pounds a day!”
Other expenses: “Medical expenses are the most important expense at our age. It’s a good thing that the government’s medical expense fund for the elderly covers about 75-80 per cent of our medical expenses.
“We also spend money on repairs around the house because at my age I am not as handy around the house as I used to be like with plumbing and electrical stuff.”
“On clothing and shoes and my wife’s hairdresser we spend a total of €520 a year which is not that bad.”
