# How can we sort our finances out ?



## heretohelp (5 Jan 2009)

Age: 25
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 29

Annual gross income from employment or profession: 31290
Annual gross income of spouse:36400

Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, full time carer

In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving?no

Rough estimate of value of home renting
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: 
*What interest rate are you paying? *

Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc
c.u. loan 30k 400 monthly
aib loan  7k   200 monthly 
car loan 22k  483 monthly 
maintenance  400 monthly
c card  2200  pay minimum monthly
phone           80 monthly
esb              80 monthly 
rent             220 monthly
insurance     100 monthly
sky               65 monthly 
total out monthly 2148 euro

Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? no
If not, what is the balance on your credit card? 2200 euro

Savings and investments:8k secured in credit union loan
kids have 3 k saved under our names

Do you have a pension scheme? no

Do you own any investment or other property? 
no
Ages of children: 
2 and 6
Life insurance: no


*What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you? For some reason we seem to have no cash at the end of the week, i feel like we need to work our bills out on a monthly basis but cant pay some of the bills monthly like the mantenance as the courts require that weekly so im finding it hard to sit down and work the figures out monthly. we also want , well really need to buy our house as it was specifically allocated for our daughter who is disabled and i am  wondering when , if at all will we be in a position to do this. thanks in advance*
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## ClubMan (5 Jan 2009)

Why do you have savings (other than a short term emergency fund) when you have significant debts? You should at least consider clearing/reducing some of your debts (particularly the most expensive first) with the €11K (or is it €14K?) saved. Making minimum repayments on a _CC _for example is crazy unless you are on a low/0% rate for the moment.
What is the "maintenance" figure?
By my calculations (using www.taxcalc.eu and assuming that you are a married couple) your net monthly income should be about €4.7K (ignoring _Child Benefit _and _Early Childcare Supplement _payments) and according to your figures you are spending at least €2,148 p.m. (presumably excluding groceries and probably some other stuff?). Is that correct?


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## heretohelp (5 Jan 2009)

ClubMan said:


> Why do you have savings (other than a short term emergency fund) when you have significant debts? You should at least consider clearing/reducing some of your debts (particularly the most expensive first) with the €11K (or is it €14K?) saved. Making minimum repayments on a _CC _for example is crazy unless you are on a low/0% rate for the moment.
> What is the "maintenance" figure?
> By my calculations (using www.taxcalc.eu and assuming that you are a married couple) your net monthly income should be about €4.7K (ignoring _Child Benefit _and _Early Childcare Supplement _payments) and according to your figures you are spending at least €2,148 p.m. (presumably excluding groceries and probably some other stuff?). Is that correct?


 Thanks for the reply clubman,

the maintenace is 100 euro weekly, my income is all tax free its made up of allowances for my daughter and also includes child benefit and early chilcare supplement. these will increase in july as we are due another baby. 
my partners income is after tax, we arent married but will be in the next few months.
we cant tough the 8k as its collateral for the credit union loan


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## PaddyBloggit (5 Jan 2009)

Reduce your Sky package .... immediate savings.


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## dave2k (5 Jan 2009)

I think that the mere fact that you posted this here was an eye opener. In fact, most "debt consultants" suggest that the first step is to write it all down in some form or another.

I am not a financial adviser but it is clear you are living a little beyond your means and in quite a bit of debt.

There is a concept called a "debt snowball" where you pay off your debt from highest interest to lowest. I think this could really help you. Theres a book I believe by a fella called Dave Ramsey that can help you, his website has a "mini course" that is free. He's a really obnoxious guy but his concepts of debt management are solid. 

You say that "for some reason" you are left with no money each week. I think you need to accept the fact that the reason is because you are about €60k in debt. That's quite a lot.

Alternatively, you could arrange a meeting with mabs.

I personally would take every cent of the kids savings (how soon do they really need it?) and pay off your CC debt (usually highest interest). Also, it's already been said but get rid of sky. You wont miss it after a month.

There is a fantastic community of personal finance bloggers online. I suggest subscribing to them and cutting your spending. It really helped me when I was in debt.


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## Pope John 11 (5 Jan 2009)

PaddyBloggit said:


> Reduce your Sky package .... immediate savings.


 
Remove your sky package

Sell your car & buy a car for €5,000...€22,000 loan for a car is alot. Thats a hugh chunk off your debt.

Reduce your phone bill...€80/month is alot....avail of free texting when online....I know O2 offer 250 free texts per month.

Planning to get married...what will pay for this?

What is both your income after tax....perhaps another poster could check this for you?

Food costs....have you taken this into account....?


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## PaddyW (5 Jan 2009)

You say that maintenance is 100 weekly, so that makes it 433.33 monthly, just for your records ?(well on average, some months will be more than that, i.e. ones with 5 weeks). Sky has to go. Check out your phones too, you should be able to get a better deal. Make sure to avail of all the free web texts. Take money from the kids savings and pay off the credit card immediately, you can replace this for the kids when you are less in debt (or clear of debt, hopefully!)

Spending diary, get started on one asap. Write down your daily outgoings. Everything that is spent on a daily basis. I would imagine you would be able to make significant savings on your daily spending if you can see exactly where it's going. Can you downgrade the car to something cheaper and get rid of that big loan?


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## NorthDrum (5 Jan 2009)

Want to first say, please excuse the presumptions as I am only trying to work out exactly spending 2k a month on Sundries and groceries. Just looking at this from a differant angle.

Just a bit curios, Clubman has ascertained that you should have 2k+ a month free to spend on what you like. 

Your rent, Loans and maintenance make up about the average mortgage in Ireland so its not like you havent got "bills" disimilar to the average household.

Perhaps there is some other cost that we are missing here like child care, but it looks like its the bills you have not accounted for here that are the problem (perhaps nights out, holidays? etc).

You have alot of personal loans and a fairly hefty credit card bill which suggests you like to buy now, pay later.

With this in mind while Using the money saved to payoff your CC and parts of you loan would save you money short term, would you end up with another high credit card bill and a top up of your loan next year?

If you are trying to change your habits, then Keep saving and payoff your CC as soon as you can. Then work on the Loans. Again without knowing where the other 2k a month is being spent it can be difficult to give advice.

You have a far greater chance of getting a mortgage if you have savings (Perhaps you are on the books for affordable housing?).

I have mixed feelings on the cancelling of sky subscription in your case. If the problem is that you and your partner "go out" alot, perhaps it would be worth keeping the sky and staying in a little more.

As for getting married, was this paid for by one of the loans? If not then either get in laws to pay, registry office or delay it until a more affordable time. Your children and your partner are your priorities. Theres no need to put extra pressure on yourself.

_*Just reread your reply to clubman, so your partner gets 3k per month into her hand?_ 

Have you considered saving money into a long term demand deposit (just so you can not access the money), like a 3 month or 6 month demand deposit account? Good way of dampening down any urges you get to splurge on things you dont necessarily need.


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## heretohelp (5 Jan 2009)

NorthDrum said:


> Want to first say, please excuse the presumptions as I am only trying to work out exactly spending 2k a month on Sundries and groceries. Just looking at this from a differant angle.
> 
> Just a bit curios, Clubman has ascertained that you should have 2k+ a month free to spend on what you like.
> 
> ...


 hi there, 
im the mother, i get around 3k into my hand yes. we just sat down worked out our finances and we have 1606 euro a month left after all our outgoings. 
we are geting married in a few months in a registry office before our baby comes alon no reception , home afterwards. we have 400 a week to spend on household things , we spend 60 on diesel, 200 on food , (which can not be decreased due to specific foods and items for our daughters diet) 20 euro a week on one take out as a treat for the kids leaving us with 120 weekly. 
we decided to switch the credit card to 0% interest for 6 months and pay it off with 400 a month for six months so it should be clear by july.
And we are going to pay750 euro extra a month off the credit card loan bringing the total repayments to 1150 monthly.
we dont have childcare costs our 6 year old is in school which is 4 miles away, our two year old will never be minded by anyone other than me .
i love the idea of the 3 or 6 month demand account can you please tell me where i can get more information on this ?


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## NorthDrum (6 Jan 2009)

To be honest, if you can be disciplined, you are better off (financially) throwing as much money off your loans and credit cards. These will most probably cost you more than investing your money in deposit accounts.

My idea on Notice deposit was mainly geared towards disciplining yourself.

Most Banks have some sort of notice deposit account. An Post offer 30 Day notice Deposit accounts. 

The access timescales of notice deposits range from immediate, to weeks, months, or years. Its really a question of how much you want to limit withdrawals. 

Heres a few links which should hopefully help -

[broken link removed]

http://www.anpost.ie/AnPost/MainContent/Personal+Customers/Money+Matters/Savings+and+Investments/savings_invest.htm?P

[broken link removed]

[broken link removed]


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## micro (6 Jan 2009)

HI there,
You seem pretty clued up with regards to your benefits. I was wondering about the two cars- is one of these a modified car for your daughter? If it is, have you claimed the benefits owards this? I ask as a friend of mine who is wheelchair bound often complains that the full cost of her car is one of the few things she gets! 
If it isn't, can you sell one of the cars and trade for a smaller/older model? 
If you have a secured loan with the credit union they will usually let you take some money from the savings. Depending on your situation you may be able to have a 1:10 ratio for savings:loans. If your current loan is 20k (( forget the exact figure from your post), that could free up 6k for debts. Even keeping a 1:5 ratio would free 4k. Credit unions are usually fairly approachable so it might be worth having a word with them.
Regarding your phone expenses- there are some cheap operators out there. I top up by 20 a month and get free texts to any network for the month. I rarely go over the 20E as I'm a texter rather than caller  If you swapped,  you might even get a lovely new phone to play with 

Hope it all works out for you


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## heretohelp (6 Jan 2009)

micro,
hi there, the car cant be traded in , it is specially adapted so cant really downgrade. my hubby drives a company vehicle, but we do have his old van up for sale at the moment so please god that will sell soon.
i receive benefits that it took me sooo long and hard to fight for so im very grateful for these.


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## micro (6 Jan 2009)

Hi there- I thought it might be- can you get any funding towards the car which may help towards its upkeep/payment? Or re-reading your post maybe thats what you meant by the benefits. 
I'm sure you have this covered anyway, but apparently a lot of people don't get their full entitlement. 
Sorry I couldn't be of more help!


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## heretohelp (6 Jan 2009)

micro said:


> Hi there- I thought it might be- can you get any funding towards the car which may help towards its upkeep/payment? Or re-reading your post maybe thats what you meant by the benefits.
> I'm sure you have this covered anyway, but apparently a lot of people don't get their full entitlement.
> Sorry I couldn't be of more help!


 no problem at all , thanks for replying and taking the time to read the post, i received the full entitlement for it .
i jusr checked the links the above poster provided and found two products on the aib link that i think would benefit us, one is the child saver account as if weset this up i wouldnt feel too awful about using what we have already put away for them to clear another debt , and also thedemand account which would mean we could have a small nest egg if anything came up !
thanks for all the replies !


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