Nora Owens comments gave me the impression that she wanted us all to spend less at Christmas on presents, clothes, etc in order to have money to pay Irish Water. She has a State Pension which is paid for by tax payers.
I work with many people on very low incomes and on the face of it it may look as if they spend a lot of money on Christmas for presents and clothing for their own children and presents for their families. In fact, many report that they no longer buy individual presents for their nieces and nephews and use Kris Kindle instead.
The money they spend is at a high cost to themselves as they report summer holidays are a day trip to Howth, Bray or Portmarnock and visits to the local park. Their children’s allowance are used for their children and July and August’s money is used for the back to school expenses. September and October’s children’s allowance is used for the Christmas presents and clothing for their children.
I have lost count of the number of very low income parents who confided in me that they have already purchased and paid for the clothes and presents for their children at the first week of November. They are such terrific money-managers and I can only admire them.