St. Aidan's CBS | Archive | 2001 | Comenius

Income and Expenditure of a Typical Family

Monthly family budget

For this project we have taken a sample average Slovak family. This family lives in a 3 bedroom flat. The flat is in the city, but not right in the center, because the rent in the center is too high. They have two children aged between 10- 18 years, who are visiting a high school in the city center. Their parents work in companies, where they have fixed work time from about 8:00 to 16:30. Their monthly income is together 22,000 Slovak Crowns (about 503 Euro). In Slovakia the average income for one person is from 10,000 (approx. 228.3Euro) - 12,000 Sk (approx. 279 Euro), but it depends on the industry in which they work.

Important to say is that the number of this "average people" is not known. Rate of unemployment goes up to 20% in some areas and also some people get much less money than 10,000 Sk. There are also many people who get more than 5 times more money a month than these ~average people" do. Sure there are also people who earn millions a year. The number of unemployed people is so high because of some ethnic groups unwilling to work (e.g. the Slovak gypsies) and because of the past government of Vladimir Meciar.

Many of the gypsies don't want to work even if they have the possibility to work Of course, it isn’t only the Gypsies who don’t want to work and there are some Gypsies who do work. Although many companies went bankrupt, there is still work available. It isn't easy to find an employment (especially in smaller cities and rural areas). In the past many companies were mismanaged by politicians and their relatives (or were privatized without effect) and stripped of their assets by dishonest management. But there are still a few good prosperous companies and people who are interested in work. Sometimes the companies just need a foreign investor to improve their prosperity.

Table 1:

Unemployment in %

	1999	2000
January	16.33	19.53
February	16.52	19.51
March	16.72	19.30
April	16.43	18.77
May	16.52	18.59
June	17.68	19.07
July	18.31	19.41
August	18.21	17.39
September	17.77	16.58
October	17.73	16.13
November	18.31	16. 15
December	19.18	16.18

Our sample family has parents with a stable work with a total income of 22,000Sk (approx. 503 Euro). From this income the family has to pay the rent for the flat what is about 2,860 Sk (approx. 65.3 Euro). Then they also have to pay electricity ‑ 870 Sk (approx. 19.9Euro) and rates 155 Sk (approx. 3.5 Euro). Plus a household insurance 150 Sk (approx. 3.4 Euro). The father has a life insurance policy, with premium about 1,000 Sk (approx. 22.8 Euro). They also have to pay the telephone bill. On average the family (if they don't have a mobile phone or Intemet) pays about 600 (approx. 13.7Euro) ‑ 800 Sk(approx. 18.3 Euro) a month. But this is very individual. It also depends on whether the children are girls or boys.

Table 2:

Price /list

Cost of one impulse	Price in Euro	Price in Sk
Impulse from home station	0.06	2.50

Automatically connected local calls

Billed at the following rates 1 ~mpulse

Day (7:00-19:00)	120 seconds
Night (19:00-7:00)	240 seconds
Weekend (24 hours)	360 seconds

Because they live outside the city center and they chose a school for their children, which is in the center, the child need a bus pass. This bus pass costs 725 Sk approx. 16.6 Euro) every three months for one of the children. So the parents pay 483.4 Sk (approx. 11 Euro each month for both of them. Than the children certainly get pocket money, which can be between 100 - 500 Sk (2.3 - 11.4 Euro) for each of them. But this is very individual and also depends on the age of the children. The children eat in the school canteen. That means that the parents pay 2 x 350 Sk (approx. 2 x 7.95 Euro) for lunches.

The parents have a car so they also have to pay for the petrol. The cost of the petrol is now about 32Sk/liter (approx. 0.7 Euro), but it is still rising. If they use up about 60 liters a month, they pay about 1,980 Sk

(Approx. 46.2 Euro). Plus the compulsory car insurance 285 Sk (approx. 6.5 Euro and the full car insurance 500 Sk (approx. 11.4 Euro).

The grocery prices can also vary a lot. It depends on the kind of stuff they buy and also where they buy it. These are some examples of the grocery prices.

Table 3:

Bread	10-20Sk
Cheese	13-20Sk
Cream	10 Sk
Yogurt	10-15Sk
Chicken	175Sk
Ham	156 Sk
Salami	80‑105Sk
Mineral water	10-15Sk
Pepsi	31 Sk
Coca	36Sk
Chewing gum	12-16Sk
Potatoes	14 Sk
Apples	20Sk
Tomatoes	45Sk
Beer	6-15 Sk
Beer	20-50 Sk
Tequila	50-90 Sk
Oranges	45Sk (approx.)
Orange	17-30Sk
Chocolate bar	10Sk (approx.)

An average family spends about 1,500-2,000 Sk (approx. 34.3-45.7 Euro) a week on groceries. It is 6,000-8,000 Sk (approx. 137-182.6 Euro) per month.

Income	22,000 Sk (503 Euro)
Rent	4,035 Sk (92.1 Euro)
Telephone	700 Sk (15.9 Euro)
Bus passes	483 Sk (11 Euro)
Lunches for the children	700 Sk (15.9 Euro)
Car (petrol + insurance)	2,765 Sk (63.1 Euro)
Food	7,000 Sk (159.8 Euro)
Insurance	1,000 Sk (22.8 Euro)
Total	5,3 17 Sk (121 .4 Euro)

Our sample family still has 5,317 Sk (121.4 Euro) left for some other things. This money is for savings for the future and holidays and also for some school trips for the children. Than they still need some money for the drugstore and for clothing. They certainly buy also some presents for the relatives and friends.

As you can see the living expenses are relatively high and in the near future cost of living will rise again (e.g. the cost of heating, electricity). So it is really hard to save some money.

Economical situation in a Slovak family (average)

In last period, the Slovak economical situation has had an depresive character, and that means that prices of every product has grown up heavily. In Slovakia, there are about 22% unemployed people, and the incomes of people are very low. In this situation it is very hard to take care of family. Some people have also big problems to buy only one bread a day. So we made a table to show you, how hard is to buy something and live in our ‑ country.

An average Slovak family has income on average about 22.000 SK. It isn t very easy for them, when they must pay for example:

Food = 5,500 SK,

Telephone + Rent + Water + Electricity + Bus passes + Car (petrol + insurance) = 7,500 SK.

These items take together about 13,000 SK per month. But it isn t all, because there are other extra items like:

Flat or house furniture (kitchen, bedroom, and so on....) - 100,000-1,000,000 (it depends on many factors: type or size of the flat and of the economical situation of the family, and it s paid once during a long time),

Clothes = 1,000 (there are also many factors like: type men or women, it depends on trademark and on your claim),

Medical supplies when you have some problems with your health, you have to buy some drugs and medicaments and it takes about 500 SK,

Holidays every people must make decision, where he/she wants to go and everybody has also to slope down his economical situation = 20,000 SK,

Drugstore;for example: shampoo, tooth brush, body soap, body milk, towel, sprays and many other things... = 1,500 SK; Cars = 300,000; 1,500,000 SK; every person must have

Enough care around the car (like washing,)

At the end we have to say, that life in some families in our country is very hard. When somebody wants to have a luxurious life, he/she really must have a lot of money. Not everyone is lucky, but it s true.

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