Any advice how I can cut costs

D

doubledeb

Registered User
Messages
224
Age: 34
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 35

Annual gross income from employment or profession: 34k
Annual gross income of spouse: 16k

Type of employment: Public sector
Self Employed


In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or - spending everything we earn
(b) saving? - saving €160 per month (xmas and rainy days but keep having to dip into it)

Rough estimate of value of home -210k
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: -274k
What interest rate are you paying? ECB + 1.25 (tracker) €889p.m

Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc - 2 cars one owned outright the other has 19 months left. fixed bank loan 7% - €238 p.m
Joint Credit union loan over 10 years of 26k, 1500 in savings. paying 300p.m
Personal CU loan of 14k 4.4k in savings. paying €364 p.m
Groceries cost about €600 per month
Diesel about 160 per month
Both smokers ( I know I Know)
Creche fees €300 per month
Home phone and broadband €46 per month
2 mobiles €56 per month
Sky €31.50 p.m

Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? no
If not, what is the balance on your credit card? €1300 interest free till dec 2010. paying €25 p/m

Savings and investments: Just the CUs but held against the loans

Do you have a pension scheme? Yes Public sector

Do you own any investment or other property? no

Ages of children: 14 and 2

Life insurance: dual life mortgage protection €150 p.m


What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?

Ok on paper we seem to be well able to afford to live comfortably. But every week all the cash seems to just disappear.
Is it obvious to anyone where we could cut back (obv the smoking bit). Have already tried the mort protection but I have a few ailments and partner has discovered some (non life threatning) since taking out the mort in 2006.
Sick to death of having nothing left every week
any advice appreciated
Please don't go on about the smoking we don't drink so we have to have some vices.
I know its not a very serious situation to be in and there are a lot worse off out there
but every little helps
Thanks
 
won't mention the fags. you know yourself. ;)

But your grocery bill seems VERY high for your family. We're a family of three, two adults and a 13 year old. Our bill is in or around €300 or €350.
 
Check what mobile plans you are on. I know with O2 there is a plan for 20 euro per month that gives you unlimited calls to O2 mobiles and Irish Landlines.
 
Can you clarify if the savings against the first joint credit union loan is 1,500 or 15,000. If the latter is there any way you could talk with the CU in relation to lumping all the savings together against the 2 loans, ie you would have 19.4K saving and 40K loan - they may take shave some of the savings off the loan.
The sky package could be brought down to the basic package ie cancel all the 2euro add ons. It's small saving but one none the less.
Appreciate you don't drink but you could still cut back on smokes or give up - how much do you spend a day on them - it also will benefit your health and that of your children.
Start a spending diary, write down every last cent you spend and see where you are losing money.
Grocery shopping could be cut significantly. Lots of specials on at the moment, make use of the freezr if you have to stock up on fresh stuff on special such as breads/meats/fish etc.
Also I would aim to have all of the cc balance paid off by Dec so you'll need to up the payments perhaps saving from grocery, sky and if you get to alter CU loans will help with this. then cut it up.

ALso if you can say what the take hime pay is it helps re calculations.
 
Thanks for the replies
Fags are the bain of our lives, but just not ready yet to take the plunge!
the savings in the joint cu is €1,500. we already used some of the savings that were there to cut back on the loan thats why its only €1,500. We spend about €60 p.w on smokes. Its horrible when you see it like that.
I always look for offers when i shop, we never go to a convenience store for food that is all the meat and milk etc for the week. some weeks it might be only 125. We don't buy frozen foods and everything is cooked from scratch. I don't use the CC at all. I did a transfer back in feb to get the interest only and have never used the card, and am planning to transfer again in Dec to another provider offering interest free. We don't smoke in the house ever. one mobile is €20 per month the other is €15 per month with an add on of €16.50 including vat then its €36 p.m. take home in total is 42k.
 
I didnt realise it was so expensive to smoke, thats over €3,100 per year. It would pay for 3.5 months of your mortgage repayments.

Maybe you can seriously cut back rather than go cold turkey.
 
I know isn't it disgusting.
I have cut back from 20 a day to about 10 a day if not less.
OH however different matter, think I am the sensible one! He would smoke about 20 a day alright.
 
We are both insured for €280k. If I die OH gets €280k less whats outstanding on the mortgage. At the moment that would be about 6k!. The surviving person is insured for 280k for next of kin in the event of their death. I have tried to get this down but its more form filling and it would probably go up even for less cover because of conditions that have been diagnosed since the policy was taken out. We had so much hassle getting it in the first place it took over 2 months and we had both passed a birthday by the time it came into effect (convenient or what) so it increased by €30 from the initial offer (originally €116 pm)
 
Op when I asked about take home pay I mean how much actually is brought into the household each month, after tax, prsi etc.
I appreciate some weeks on grocery shopping is more expensive, I usually do one monthly big shop usually in and around 80 and then a weekly shop of around 20/25. That includes all household stuff too.
Are you buying fruit and veg in lidl/aldi great value especially on the weekly deals super 6 is it?
 
42k per year. thats 3500 per month. Tried aldi for a while but dont have time to go to 2 shops every week certain things can't be got in aldi for smallie.
 
Are you being paid in cash and therefore avoiding any tax inplications so.If not then this is where your problem lies, you do not realise how much money is coming into the household.
 
That gives you 2,166 per month. What about the 16K is this taken in cash so, allowing 1,333 or are there deductions there too?
I'm wondering how many posts it will take to get the answer!

Seems y ou only have 250 to play around with at the end of the month.

You really need to cut the grocery bill and the smokes.
You also have no provision for bills such as ESB, Heating, car tax, ins, tv licence. what do you do when these arise.
 
You asked was i paid in cash the answer is no I thought that would be obvious when the gross is 34k and the take home was 26k?
If you ask the question properly i will give you the answer. Self employed gets approx 16k per year, not liable for tax till oct 2011.
So at the moment we bring home 42k per year or €3,230 per month
Outgoings are €3,160 per month, esb and gas usually paid from savings.
What else do you need to know niceoneted?
 
Sorry meant to add that the childrens allowance is 300 per month too. This usually goes on anything the kids might need or bills tv licence car ins tax etc.
 
I was trying to work out what the take home was so I could minus the outgoings and see what is left. That way people can help better. If it is clear you will get a better response.
 
doubledeb said:
You asked was i paid in cash the answer is no I thought that would be obvious when the gross is 34k and the take home was 26k?
If you ask the question properly i will give you the answer. Self employed gets approx 16k per year, not liable for tax till oct 2011.
So at the moment we bring home 42k per year or €3,230 per month
Outgoings are €3,160 per month, esb and gas usually paid from savings.
What else do you need to know niceoneted?
Click to expand...

Doubledeb this seems a bit smart of you towards niceoneted, who what what I could see gave some helpful posts back to you and only asked for clarification since your post wasn't fully clear. Anyway I won't give my own opinion or post on it since I don't fancy getting something like the above back at me.
 
Ok on paper we seem to be well able to afford to live comfortably. But every week all the cash seems to just disappear.
[/QUOTE]

Have you been keeping a detailed spending diary with literally everything put on it each day. The cash can't just disappear and a spending diary would help you to see exactly where it went.
 
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