Family of 6 on €600 week net

Re: .

To be fair, I think that some people may have inferred from the following that Surviving OK was pining for some fun. Maybe they were mistaken and he and his wife are actually happy enough as things stand...

We have no morgtage and a very modest lifestyle. Never taken a foreign holiday for example. We generaly have a few days in Ireland every year thats it. Our social life is max 2 nights per month.

Click to expand...

6 on 600

I think you are doing bloody well. On the subject of college fees etc I would not over worry. With your income and with two in college at the same time the allowances are more generous. you wont have any fees and maybe should quality for maintainance of some sort. If I recall the income could be as high as €40000 with two in college. I cant recall where I came across this figure but some place in Offaly keeps coming into my head.
After 1 year in College if they find a part time job they will be better able to help the second year. and when the first two quality they might help with a little with the second two.
good luck

Re: 6 on 600

In relation to grants OASIS might be able to help:

6 on 600

To be honest SurvivingOk it sounds like you could do with going into managable debt to treat yourself a bit and that you actually want to be told to do this.
You've been working hard for years (and I don't just mean professionally, 4 kids is hard work). Even when you had the extra money (before the other kids came along) you were putting it towards paying off the mortgage.
Life and quality thereof isn't just about being money conscious, you and your family are your most important asset and spending some money to service this asset is as good an investment as paying off a mortgage early.
There is also such a thing as good debt, I'm extremely conscious of day to day money and long term financial planning. But I consider that enjoying my life and helping my family to also do so is my main priority and am prepared to borrow to spend to achieve this.
I'm not talking about spending for the sake of it or overstretching myself to have things to impress others. I'm talking about investments in life, little luxuries, a nice holiday each year (doesn't have to be abroad), nice Christmas or birthday presents (within reason), my wife going for a massage or beauty treatment now and then etc.
Importantly, the key to all these things is that you don't skimp when you do them, eat out if you're on holiday, get the proper toy not its cheaper equivalent.
Watch the pennies day to day as its here that you'll actually make a difference to your finances but don't skimp on yourself or your family.

Re: 6 on 600

I'm not sure I agree with the idea of borrowing to pamper yourself.

Let's take one example. The annual Holiday. Now, by definition if you borrow for a yearly holiday you should not be repaying that debt over more than 1 year. Otherwise each holiday is just adding to your debt.

But, if you can affort to repay the debt it one year, then all you need to do is put aside that much for one year and you have enough to pay cash for the holiday.

Given that you haven't been splurging on holidays etc, and yet still haven't managed to save, you need to check if you actually have the surplus income to repay the kind of "good debt" than was described above.

I suspect you have a cash surplus, but up until now it has always been ploughed into the mortgage.

Before I go down the road of borrowing for short term rewards like a holiday, I'd try to imagine I have a debt of say 2500, and make the repayments each month into a separate account.

If you genuinely don't have any spare cash then you won't have cash for debt repayments.

I would agree with one point though. If you know you can easily afford repayments, don't swear off debt for some idealogical reasons.

Feel free to use debt to give yourself a treat. E.g. You might like to take a really amazing holiday and pay it off over 3 years, as long as you know you won't have a holiday next year or the year after. You could save for 3 years, but feel free to borrow and do it now, if now is the right time.

-Rd

Re: 6 on 600

Rd would you not agree that the vast amount of ordinary people borrow to "pamper" themselves. In sofar that we all have mortgages and that by not putting every euro from any unnecessary expenditure into our mortgage as SurvivingOk appears to have done we are effectively "borrowing to pamper" ourselves.
To be honest what I'm meant was for SOk to realise some of the house value to spend on his family (not in one go).
As much as I wouldn't recommend one extreme of spending irresponsibly, because you could get hit by a bus tomorrow, I also wouldn't advocate the other extreme of not allowing yourself some "feelgood".
We only get one life and I want to look back on mine with as few regrets as possible (we'll always have some) rather than with a fully paid off house to leave to my children.

Im reading the latest posts with great interest. Im still not sure that I could convince myself to borrow for a "really good holiday".
I think of this as spending a year or more paying back for something which lasted one or two weeks. Also I guess my inner compass tells me that the "do every thing now" type family MAY bring up adults / young adults for whom very little remains to be achieved. ie They have been there and done that. What have they really have to look forward to doing in their own right.

I figure we owe our children a good education and a stable home environment with a bit of craic thrown in of course. As for fairly decent christmas presents I would say we probably also manage that although the latest phones and games are a NO NO NO despite protests from the teenage quarters.

I feel the marketing hype from Nokia and Sony is even worse than the hype from BOI or AIB. The former tryiny to convince you that you must have what you dont really need and the latter trying to convince you that you can easily afford it though in truth maybe you can't.

Nokia and AIB make an awful lot of money and I am convinced that they make a dissproportionate slice of that money from people who fall for the hype and regret it soon after.

I remember when I trembled in my shoes at the thought of having to see tha bank manager. Now days he regularly writes offering loans I do not want and I really must say I get pleasure in putting them in the fire.

That was my point above - i.e. if you are content without the big holiday (or whatever) and are as happy to spend smaller amounts within your disposable income budget on more modest treats for you and your family then that's all that matters. Don't worry about what others think. I can certainly empathise with the sentiments you express towards what some may see as blanket commercialisation and hype surrounding products that are ultimately unncessary luxuries that many people can happily do without.

I can never see the logic of borrow for a hol now and paying it off for the next year. I prefer to save for it over the year and then go (owing nothing when you come home and starting to save for the next one). Same amount each month, just not paying interest (so more money for beer).

Temptedd,

Yes that is exactly what I mean. I apply the same logic to everything except the house. Will probably have to borrow for college unfortunately but starting to save a little starting this week for impending college starting in 2007. Looking for a part time job right now to help with this issue.

"Looking for a part time job right now to help with this issue. "
Make sure the people going to college look for one too (+Summer work), when they are old enough. Take something off them every week for board, and stivk it in a savings account.

Think it was WB Yeats who said "too much sacrifice makes a stone of the heart".

But he was referring to the men of 1916 - not families who decide they can't afford to go to Lanzarote .

not families who decide they can't afford to go to Lanzarote

Click to expand...

Never mind a luxury cruise to Byzantium, Turkey to ogle some jugs! :lol

Hi O,

This is either a reference to Leaving Cert poetry or "I'm a Celebrity, get me out of here", which also features some jugs (I'm led to believe).

Each to his own but personally I would look again at changing the car every 5 years or so. If you have had the car from nearly new and havn't wrecked or put colossal mileage on it there is no reason that it won't last 10 years provided it has been looked after. It has already suffered most of its depreciation by the time you are getting rid of it and either taking out a loan for a new car or clearing out your savings. I'd prefer to spend the money on a foreign holiday

The little Irish holiday is the major expense that I hate.

Last year we went to Portugal (2 adults and 2 children under 10). Eating out each night came to between E40 and E50 for starters, main course, desert and either a bottle of the house wine or two beers. The children ate off a childrens menu and had a main course desert and a bottle of Coke or 7 up.

And just to show how pee'd off at being ripped off I was I hired a car for 3 days(E85) and found the local LIDL shop where I stocked up on water and wine and stuff. I reckon the savings I made meant that the car cost me virtually nothing. The shops on the Resort (Ali Super) are like Spar convenience shops and because they have a captive market they charge way in excess of what they would charge if they had competition. It also saved me from having to lump those big 5 litre bottles back to the apartment each day.

And the weather is almost guaranteed

Are you saying that you were ripped off in the restaurants in Portugal?

O.

No. But I shudder to think what a similar meal including a bottle of wine would cost in Iraland. I wouldn't hope for change from E80 - E90.


Murt

OK - I thought that you were saying that you were ripped off in the restaurants so decided to self cater with Lidl supplies instead!

0,
You included a link to oasis regarding the maintenance.
There page describes how much you pay in fees for a given income/number of dependents. I thought that college fees had been erradicated?
S

Yes - tuition fees were abolished a few years back but capitation fees are still there and increasing as far as I know. Anyway, college MAINTENANCE grants are paid in respect of general stuff like living expenses etc. and not specifically fees.