23, and trying to clear off debts and wipe the slate clean.

L

Lilee

Registered User
Messages
16
Age:
23

Annual gross income from employment or profession:
€25000

Type of employment:
Full-time admin

Expenditure pattern:
Not bad...try not to go near shops too much as i'm awful at compulsive buying! If I want something, I find it impossible to wait.

Rough estimate of value of home
Renting

Mortgage on home
€550 a month, rent.

Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc
Personal loan of €1800 with €1290 left to pay - I pay €90 per month Direct Debit.
Credit card with €500 on - I pay 30% a month but usually end up spending it again.
Credit card with €700 on - I pay minimum payment each month.
UK overdraft of £1200 (left over from Uni in UK) - I transfer over €50 a month. This account it a graduate account with 2 years left at 0% interest.

[EDIT: I have applied for a new 0% intrest credit card and plan to transfer the balances of both cards across to this - making it easier to pay off]

Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month?
No - pay off 30% of balance each month

Savings and investments:
None

Do you have a pension scheme?
No

Do you own any investment or other property?
No

Ages of children:
None

Life insurance:
No

What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
I really would like to get my debts all cleared off this year. I constantly have problems with money running out at the end of the month and I usually spend the last week or so with pittance to live off. I know it's bad budgetting but I just want to get my finances in order so I can afford to pay more for rent so I can afford a 1 bed place of my own to rent, rather than living in a house share.

Monthly spending is usually something similar to this:
Income: 1800
Rent: 550
UK bank account: 50
Loan: 90
Credit Card 1: 80
Credit Card 2: 100
ESB: 110
Bord Gais: 60
Mobile Phone Credit: 20
Eircom: 30
NTL: 10
Bin Charges: 10
Gym: 75
Dart Pass: 80
Bus: 20

The rest usually goes on food, 3-4 nights out a month (includes cinema/pubs etc), clothes (i'm currently trying to lose weight and keep having to buy new clothes every month as my size decreases. I try to stick to basic, cheap penneys/dunnes clothes as pointless spending money on anything good if it's only going to last me a month or two), and a haircut every 2 months.

Thanks.
 
Ok, harsh reality. Nights out have to go. Are you renting the place yourself? If so, 110 euro per month on ESB is madness. Are you sure that's not every two months? You are paying out more than you earn. Nights out I'm sure are costing you at least 50 euro a pop? Cut those out and that's 200 euro. Gym is high, can you not switch to a lower cost gym? 900 euro a year for a gym is way too high. NTL I take it is for broadband? You should get rid of either Eircom or your mobile, having both just doesn't make sense.
 
Sorry, just checked. You're in a house share and paying 550? You can do way better on rental prices than that. Shop around and you could reduce that by 150+ per month at least.
 
One thing that jumped out at me is how much you're paying per month for ESB - that seems far too high for someone living in a shared house. It might be worth seeing what you can do about that - making sure TVs aren't left on standby, unplugging anything that doesn't need to be permanently plugged in, switching off lights, etc.

Another thing you could do to save money is avail of the taxsaver commuter tickets through your employer. The way it works is that your employer buys your annual ticket, and you then sacrifice part of our salary each week/fortnight/month to pay for it. The deduction is made before tax, meaning you don't pay tax on your ticket. More information here: [broken link removed]

Make sure you have the lowest possible rate on your credit cards. Transfer to a card that offers a lower rate if needs be (in most cases, you will also get an introductory interest-free period). Also, you may find it easier to make a weekly payment on your card, rather than struggling to make just the minimum payment. You may find that you manage to pay a little more than the minimum that way.

Best of luck!
 
Thanks for the quick reply - yes, i'm renting but sharing a house with 3 others. I am looking to move to a cheaper place while I pay all the debts off - but need the initial money there to be able to pay the deposit and 1st months rent on new place. Found the ideal one last month which would have saved me €150 a month in rent, but needed an initial outlay of €800 to do that, which I didn't/don't have.

ESB bills for the last few months have come out at around €160 per person (due to one housemate working from home and so leaving heat on all day long. I HAVE had words...but seems to go in one ear and out the other!) but I anticipate those coming down now the coldest part is hopefully over!

Eircom etc i'm afraid can't go...i've gone through it with the landlord and the phone line has to stay. None of us use it though so it's just the line rental we pay each month, which does help to keep costs down a bit.

Gym, i'm tied into until November...I agree it's a lot, but the way I see it, it's worth it for the results i'm seeing.
 
Lilee said:
ESB bills for the last few months have come out at around €160 per person (due to one housemate working from home and so leaving heat on all day long. I HAVE had words...but seems to go in one ear and out the other!) but I anticipate those coming down now the coldest part is hopefully over!
Click to expand...

Are you living with friends? If you're not, you need to tell them you'll refuse to pay an equal share of the ESB bill if they abuse it. I share a house with two other adults, one of whole runs the boiler unnecessarily for hours every evening and our ESB bills are between €15 and €35 per person per month. €160 per person is nuts!
 
Celtwytch said:
Another thing you could do to save money is avail of the taxsaver commuter tickets through your employer. The way it works is that your employer buys your annual ticket, and you then sacrifice part of our salary each week/fortnight/month to pay for it. The deduction is made before tax, meaning you don't pay tax on your ticket. More information here: [broken link removed]
Click to expand...

I had this last year but the ticket only ever lasted a month or so before it stopped working in the machines. I ended up having to buy a single ticket on top of paying for the annual one just so I could get out of the Dart station if I worked late and missed the rush! Figured i'd save money by just paying for weekly tickets.
 
markpb said:
Are you living with friends? If you're not, you need to tell them you'll refuse to pay an equal share of the ESB bill if they abuse it. I share a house with two other adults, one of whole runs the boiler unnecessarily for hours every evening and our ESB bills are between €15 and €35 per person per month. €160 per person is nuts!
Click to expand...

No - i'm living with 3 randoms. I did refuse to pay last months bill because it was pushing €190 each. But nobody was willing to pay more to cover my share so I ended up paying it this month so we didn't get more charges put on for late payments.

I do plan to move out on my own as soon as I can afford to. That way i'll be able to regulate bills etc myself. I hate having to pay for other people's habits/annoyances!
 
Lilee said:
I had this last year but the ticket only ever lasted a month or so before it stopped working in the machines. I ended up having to buy a single ticket on top of paying for the annual one just so I could get out of the Dart station if I worked late and missed the rush! Figured i'd save money by just paying for weekly tickets.
Click to expand...

It sounds like you're keeping the ticket beside your phone (the magnetic field can destroy the ticket) or with something like keys that are scratching them. Try keeping it in a wallet or the pouch they (sometimes) give out.

If it's a shared bus/train ticket, the old bus readers can damage them. Order your next ticket from DB and you can hold it in front of the reader instead of having to insert it.
 
I agree with Mark. €160 is nuts. €640 every two months is just not on, I would pay approximately €360 total per year and that's in a house with 4 sharing too! If that person alone is using all that electricity then they must pay for it themselves. Why should you pay for it when you are not using it. Same goes for the other two in the house, have they not disputed this with the house mate in question?. I would, as Mark said, refuse to pay an equal amount when it is quite clear that they are abusing it. €30 euro per person for line rental seems way too high also. I thought the cost of line rental was less that €30 euro total for a month. I would enquire into that.

In regards to moving to a new place, surely you would be due back a deposit of €550? That would only leave you needing 250 to make up your €800, maybe you could ask the parents for this, short term? Definitely try switch your balance to a 0% balance transfer offer and work on this weekly to reduce it.
 
Hi,
Just as a quick overview of your expenses - the ESB is crazy. Something you may want to check on that - are you being stung for someone elses arrears? Ask to see the most recent bill and check that.

Gym - 75. I understand that you may use the gym and its a great outlet for stress relief, losing weight etc... But for 75 quid a month its too expensive. There is no exercise that you cant do for free with a bit of imagination. You can make weights with bags of sand, you can run outdoors instead of using a treadmill, similiar for cycling. In fact, you could probably join a free hillwalking group or similiar for all over workout once a week anyway.
Think like Rocky in Rocky 4 - run up and down hills outdoors with tins of beans in your hands. Gym is a luxury - you dont need it, you can stay fit and exercise for free.

On that subject - could you get a second hand bike (probably for the cost of one months gym) and cycle to work and some social events? That way you get the cardio in, and you dont pay on the DART, bus, taxis etc....?

3/4 nights out a month - way too much. 1 night out a month - and other than that cheap socialising, go out and dont drink, go to a friends house and watch a dvd.

Food - shop as cheap as you can in Aldi, Lidl, and special offers, cook batches of stuff and freeze portions.

Haircuts - ask a friend to give you trims for free - if youre a man find a friend with a blade machine, if your a woman just get a pal with a steady hand to trim the split ends.

Im a woman and I get my OH to trim my split ends with his blade machine, works a treat, saves a fortune.
 
PaddyW said:
In regards to moving to a new place, surely you would be due back a deposit of €550? That would only leave you needing 250 to make up your €800, maybe you could ask the parents for this, short term? Definitely try switch your balance to a 0% balance transfer offer and work on this weekly to reduce it.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't get the deposit back until after i've moved out, though...so fair enough i'm not out of pocket at all in the long run. Initially, though, i'd still need to pay my 550 rent on the current place, the 400 deposit on the new place and the 400 1st months rent on the new place. Then i'd get the 550 back. But I'd still need to find that 800 to start with! Do you see what I mean?

Parents - unfortunately are a no-no. They can't afford to give me a dig out.
 
truthseeker said:
Hi,
Just as a quick overview of your expenses - the ESB is crazy. Something you may want to check on that - are you being stung for someone elses arrears? Ask to see the most recent bill and check that.

Gym - 75. I understand that you may use the gym and its a great outlet for stress relief, losing weight etc... But for 75 quid a month its too expensive. There is no exercise that you cant do for free with a bit of imagination. You can make weights with bags of sand, you can run outdoors instead of using a treadmill, similiar for cycling. In fact, you could probably join a free hillwalking group or similiar for all over workout once a week anyway.
Think like Rocky in Rocky 4 - run up and down hills outdoors with tins of beans in your hands. Gym is a luxury - you dont need it, you can stay fit and exercise for free.

On that subject - could you get a second hand bike (probably for the cost of one months gym) and cycle to work and some social events? That way you get the cardio in, and you dont pay on the DART, bus, taxis etc....?

3/4 nights out a month - way too much. 1 night out a month - and other than that cheap socialising, go out and dont drink, go to a friends house and watch a dvd.

Food - shop as cheap as you can in Aldi, Lidl, and special offers, cook batches of stuff and freeze portions.

Haircuts - ask a friend to give you trims for free - if youre a man find a friend with a blade machine, if your a woman just get a pal with a steady hand to trim the split ends.

Im a woman and I get my OH to trim my split ends with his blade machine, works a treat, saves a fortune.
Click to expand...

I'm tied into the gym until November...so unfortunately that isn't an option to get rid of. But I personally feel, since I go 4-5 times a week, that it's a worthwhile expense. But I do see what you mean about the free exercise. And come November, that's exactly what i'll be doing.

3/4 nights out a month include cinema/dvd's/meeting a friend down the pub and usually one proper night out. But I could probs get rid of a few of the nights out a month - every little helps, right?!

All good suggestions :D Thanks.
 
Lilee said:
I wouldn't get the deposit back until after i've moved out, though...so fair enough i'm not out of pocket at all in the long run. Initially, though, i'd still need to pay my 550 rent on the current place, the 400 deposit on the new place and the 400 1st months rent on the new place. Then i'd get the 550 back. But I'd still need to find that 800 to start with! Do you see what I mean?

Parents - unfortunately are a no-no. They can't afford to give me a dig out.
Click to expand...

Did you pay a month's rent in advance?
 
esb is mad. dont pay anymore of this. if they have a problem then bring in the landlord. i have a big house and its about 120 per two months in total, and that includes having an electric fire on most evenings.
 
PaddyW said:
Did you pay a month's rent in advance?
Click to expand...

I paid my deposit of 550 and then the first months rent of 550. So won't get the 550 deposit back until the new person moves in, which won't be until i've moved out!
 
limerick123 said:
esb is mad. dont pay anymore of this. if they have a problem then bring in the landlord. i have a big house and its about 120 per two months in total, and that includes having an electric fire on most evenings.
Click to expand...

I'll definately look into this ESB stuff so. I didn't realise it was any more expensive than it should have been. We've an electrician and plumber coming in sometime this week to sort out radiators and hot water for us so will have a word then.
 
Lilee said:
I'll definately look into this ESB stuff so. I didn't realise it was any more expensive than it should have been. We've an electrician and plumber coming in sometime this week to sort out radiators and hot water for us so will have a word then.
Click to expand...

Ask to physically see the paper copy of the electricity bill. I strongly suspect you are paying someones elses arrears. ESB should only be costing you 50 or 60 quid a month.
 
Lilee said:
I paid my deposit of 550 and then the first months rent of 550. So won't get the 550 deposit back until the new person moves in, which won't be until i've moved out!
Click to expand...

Ok, put it like this then. Say you decide to move out March 1st. So you pay your last rent on February 1st. You now have until March 1st, without anymore rent. Save your 550 though, as if you were getting ready to pay rent March 1st. So you have the 550 in hand. The day you are moving out, is the day the new person is moving in so as you're heading out the door, you get the 550 in your hand, you now have 1100 in hand. Your new deposit and month's rent is covered. Does that make sense to you?
 
should only be 60 euro every two months in all honesty, truthseeker. I share with three others and our last bill was 249 for two months.
 
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