# is it possible to save 250 pm



## ralphlauren (25 Jun 2011)

Age: 35
Spouse’s/Partner's age:33 

Annual gross income from employment or profession:32000 
Annual gross income of spouse:29000

Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed 
private
In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving?
need to save for a car
Rough estimate of value of home 230k
Amount outstanding on your mortgage:160k 
*What interest rate are you paying? *
*low tracker think its 1.5?*

Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc
none
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? yes
If not, what is the balance on your credit card? 

Savings and investments:
save 100 a month each, to cover tax insurance and xmas

Do you have a pension scheme? yes

Do you own any investment or other property? no

Ages of children: 3 yrs and 6 mths

Life insurance: 15.42 pm (life decreasing policy)


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

*airtricity - 61 pm*
*heating fuel - 65 pm*
*broadband - 19.99*
*sky - 31*
*phones 100 pm between us*
*life insurance - 15.42 p,m*
*creche 1240 - no food ( have looked for childminder in area but none available)#*
*bin 30pm*
*house insurance 51 pm*
*mortgage 605 pm*
*shopping 600 pm (bring work to lunch but spend 1-2 euro on sweets, crisps or drinks at work etc)*
*petrol - her 240 me 200*
*live in a rural area, work in different directions so have to drive*

trying to save incase one of our cars die!! so what could we realisticly expect to save


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## niceoneted (25 Jun 2011)

Rough calculation is that your outgoings are €2660 approx.
Phones of €100 between should be able to be cut shop around for the best deal that suits the way you use them. Lots of great offers out there. 

If you are all out of the house during the day ESB should be lower - try to switch to CFL's or LED lights. Switch off what you don't need etc even if your only knocking €10 a month off. 
You could lose sky (Saorview or the likes) or go to their very basic package which will save another few quid. 

House insurance seems high at €612, try to shop around when its next up for renewal. Recheck building costs as they have come down. 

What is your actual take home pay? then add in children's allowance. What have you left once the €2660 comes out? 

Cut out the sweets/drinks/crisps at work or buy them with the shopping where you will get better deals. Shopping could be cut from €600. 


Start a spending diary.


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## michaelm (27 Jun 2011)

I'd be looking to halve my house insurance costs (saving €25), end my Sky contract so just get FTA satellite channels (saving €31) and cut out the €2 per day on junk (saving €40) . . that the guts of €100. Given your pricey house insurance I'd suspect that your other car/health/mortgage insurances may be more expensive than necessary.

That said, if it were me and I felt that my job was secure and I was happy where I was living, I'd crunch the numbers and strongly consider becoming a single-income family . . you'd lose your other half's take home pay which is probably a shade over 2k however the creche fees and her petrol come to almost 1.5k.  If you're married then you could avail of her tax credits (1650 + 810 home carer) which would increase your take home by €205.  You might even be able to forgo the second car (although if you're very rural you'd still need it, but if second car is for local runs it should go forever).  You probably also qualify for a GP Visit Card and, it looks to me, around €125 in FIS.  If desired, or required, she could always become the only childminder in the area.   Anyway being a SATM(P ) isn't for everyone but it can improve the quality of life for families and is more doable than people think.


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## ralphlauren (4 Jul 2011)

thanks for all the replies will try and get a better house ins quote next yr.
will also start the spending diary

cheers


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## alexandra123 (4 Jul 2011)

You should knock the heating off , it is the summer time and at the moment their is no need for it. I use mine only for hot water and it costs me 20 euro per month

You should cancel the sky and use the Soarview - which is free once you buy the box
You should recycle, 30pm on bins is very expensive. Mahon's have yellow bags that are 3.50 a bag. With a family of 4 - you would realisticly use 1 per week - which is about 14 euro. They are about double the size of a black bag.

You could try bringing in an aupair and reduce the creche fee's.


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## onq (5 Jul 2011)

You should be able to get your shopping bill down to around €100 per week, shopping wisely in a Dunne's or Tescos, eating four square meals a day - breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper but no sweets biscuits or snacks. Bring a bottle of water to work. You'll look and feel healthier and be €400 better off. Your childcare sounds €250 high.

ONQ.


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## ralphlauren (15 Jul 2011)

*reply*

You should knock the heating off , it is the summer time and at the moment their is no need for it. I use mine only for hot water and it costs me 20 euro per month


no heating on thats just the price over a year which is cheap considering the price of oil, we have wood pellets


You should cancel the sky and use the Soarview - which is free once you buy the box


in the are we cant get rte1, 2 or tv3 with an arial so soarview wont work??


You should recycle, 30pm on bins is very expensive. Mahon's have yellow bags that are 3.50 a bag. With a family of 4 - you would realisticly use 1 per week - which is about 14 euro. They are about double the size of a black bag.


our recycle bin is full to the top every 2 wks, will c if we can get bags collected in our area though


You could try bringing in an aupair and reduce the creche fee's

no aupair is gonna work 45 hrs a wk for 250euro and we dont have public transport in our area so not an option
have done the shopping for 100 a wk the past 2 wks and so far its goin well so we'll c
thanks for all the replies


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## horusd (16 Jul 2011)

Consider using recycle centre if possible.
Phone costs are extremely high. €1200 a year on phones! Meteor offer €20 pm 200 mins/txts. Use www.callcosts.ie to search for best phone plan.
Food costs are high. Use Aldi/Lidl. Set Budget @100 pw. Buy treats in bulk.
Set up savings account, transfer 80 from phone bill and 100 from shopping. When you see what you can save, it will encourage you.
Home Insurance costs are high. 600 pa. You should easily be able to do better than this. Don't wait til renewal, shop around now. I suspect you could save at least 150 on this. Likewise start shopping for car insurance.
Using spending diary will help you see where money goes. A good spreadsheet for budgetting is here from AAM.
Free to air uses satellite dish so I imagine you could use Saorview. But check it out. You likely already own the SKY dish etc and this should be a once off payment.


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## niceoneted (16 Jul 2011)

Well done on getting the shopping down to €100 per week. Keep that up and try to reduce it further. 
Make sure you flatten everything going into the recycling bin and you may get an extra week or two out of it. 
How often do you watch RTE, check and see if the programmes you watch are all on iPlayer and watch them on that so you can switch to saorview. Alternatively cut to the most basic sky package - think it's €23 it's only €8 a month but its €96 for the year so a weeks shopping. 

Again look at household bills, heating and ESB they could be reduced. 
And phones need a serious over hall.


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## ralphlauren (19 Sep 2011)

hi a few posters have said we could get cheaper house ins, renewal not till jan but cheapest quote coming in at 622 on insure.ie and if we do it by DD like we normally do it will cost more? (we l live in a 2000 sq ft house in the country)

re phones im stuck in a contract with 02 till march so would cost me 300 to get out!! will defo go to pay as you go in march though


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## Bronte (19 Sep 2011)

You've a very low heating bill for such a large house?  Are the cost of wood pellets included in your figure?

Cut out the sweets at work, save on cost and it's a bad habit.  

What's really striking is the petro and creche costs.  Next car should be an extremely fuel efficient car.  A six month old in the creche, no getting around that, au pair not competent to deal with such a young baby.  I think au pairs 'work' for about 100 a week plus bed and board.  

You seem to be doing ok all told.  Other than saving for annual bills, do you have savings?


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## choccy (19 Sep 2011)

your child care is very expensive-  can your other half take the optional unpaid leave in addition to her maternity ? she appears to be going back after the bare 6 months- - it would make more financial sense for her to take extra leave if you take childcare, petrol and running second car into account.  - thats at least  1500 per month !!

then get an au pair- cons- you've another person living in your house- but if you've big house in rural area you can give her a bit of space , put telly in her room etc and she won't be under your feet all the time. 

pros- only costs about 150 week plus board- you also eliminate the morning rush getting every one out the door. if you want to get out the odd evening you've got the baby sitter there. if you get a good one they can become a valualbe part of the family. - plus your kids might pick up a bit of another language


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## ralphlauren (22 Sep 2011)

*You've a very low heating bill for such a large house? Are the cost of wood pellets included in your figure?
*yep tis way cheaper than oil and heats our water. havent turned heating on yet - no need to but do light the fire most evenings (helps dry the clothes) 

*your child care is very expensive- can your other half take the optional unpaid leave in addition to her maternity ? she appears to be going back after the bare 6 months- - it would make more financial sense for her to take extra leave if you take childcare, petrol and running second car into account. - thats at least 1500 per month !!
*

wife back at work just this week (took 3 mths unpaid)

*then get an au pair- cons- you've another person living in your house- but if you've big house in rural area you can give her a bit of space , put telly in her room etc and she won't be under your feet all the time. *
wife was an au pair so know what its like but as i said previously dunno would they work 5 days a wk from 8 - 6?? would need use of car in the evenings as not much to do in area etc

saving 100pm for the car and 100pm for other stuff like kids healthcare (work pay ours) but also save 100 a month from our own accounts to cover tax and insurance on the cars

thanks for all the tips though


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## kennyb3 (23 Sep 2011)

Is there absolutely no way you or your wife would give up a job? Better quality of life for around the same money.

Seems a shame to be killing yourself to pay for creche fees and petrol. As another poster said youd get a home carer credit too.

Is there no relative or close friend the kids could be left with even for a couple of days a week to get the creche costs down?


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## ANORAKPHOBIA (23 Sep 2011)

''Is there no relative or close friend the kids could be left with even for a couple of days a week to get the creche costs down? ''

Why would anyone expect that their children would be minded on the cheap so as they could save 250 euro a month.


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## kennyb3 (23 Sep 2011)

ANORAKPHOBIA said:


> ''Is there no relative or close friend the kids could be left with even for a couple of days a week to get the creche costs down? ''
> 
> Why would anyone expect that their children would be minded on the cheap so as they could save 250 euro a month.


 
They wouldnt expect anything.

But there are plenty of grand parents out there that are retired and happily take kids for a day or two a week so as to ease the stress on families given difficult circumstances.


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## ANORAKPHOBIA (23 Sep 2011)

On the contrary I think if grandparents are revisiting childminding it is because they feel obliged and there is often a little emotional blackmail employed by the parents. There are genuine cases of hardship but trying to save 250 euro a montht hardly ranks too high.


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## kennyb3 (23 Sep 2011)

No but the 70odd k of negative equity would have to be a serious concern going forward.

Besides i only asked if it was an option - not to go emotionally balckmailing anybody.

How exactly are your posts constructive to the OP's situation?


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## ralphlauren (23 Sep 2011)

anorakaphobia im sure if our parents were alive they might help out one day a wk but we have no family in the area so its not to be

going to try and revisit the childminder thing in the new year things change people may become available
no wife not willing to give up work as kids will be in school in a few years and she'll need a job then, no degree or 3rd level means she ll find it hard to get the wages shes on now, and my place are letting go people so we cant take the risk!!


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## ClubMan (23 Sep 2011)

ralphlauren said:


> hi a few posters have said we could get cheaper house ins, renewal not till jan but cheapest quote coming in at 622 on insure.ie and if we do it by DD like we normally do it will cost more? (we l live in a 2000 sq ft house in the country)


Small point but you don't have to wait to the annual renewal to shop around/switch. And when you get a quote always haggle for an extra discount. Shop around and don't assume that any specific site/provider will necessarily offer the best value. And maybe play with the figures a bit - e.g. last time I was doing this I found that I could get a lower premium for a slightly higher buildings cover figure with everything else left the same (presume it was due to a different underwriter being selected for the specific data or something).


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## odt (30 Sep 2011)

ralphlauren said:


> hi a few posters have said we could get cheaper house ins, renewal not till jan but cheapest quote coming in at 622 on insure.ie and if we do it by DD like we normally do it will cost more? (we l live in a 2000 sq ft house in the country)



Check your rebuild costs are in line with latest guide prices:

http://namawinelake.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/scsguide2011.jpg

You may be valuing your house on old rebuild costs.

I recently renewed house insurance with the cheapest being €370 with the highest close to €700. You really need to shop around yourself and as you don't necessarily get the cheapest quotes by going to brokers such as insure.ie. The way I approach renewal of insurances is to draft an email containing all the relevant house/car information and send it to multiple insurers and brokers - this avoids wasting time filling out the same information on online forms.


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## onq (1 Oct 2011)

We are getting significantly cheaper than that on a sub-2,000 sq.ft house in Dublin. Shop around and ask questions, but be careful not to under-price the rebuilding costs and to include for decommissioning, demolition, and taking away. I think the SCS still publish a guide and you should take professional advice on this.


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