Living pay cheque to pay cheque any advice?

Maynooth said:
When your husband loses his dole in the next few months then you can control his spending. One way of giving up.
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That is a wonderful piece of advice. You might need to budget for the cost of a divorce if you go down that route.
 
Hi,
Thanks again for all the replies. Selling our home is not an option. We bought it three years ago. We are gradually renovating it and I would not like to go back to renting.
I cancelled our broadband which has saved me €20 per month.
I asked the credit union to extend the loan, this saves us €65.55 per month.
Also we have an appointment with BOI next week about either extending our loan or trying to change our credit card into a top up loan.
What will we say? Do you think that they will give it to us?
Also spending diary is a serious eye opener, money is seriously being wasted and have only been doing the diary for a week.

Plan is to use the money saved from extending our loans to clear the 2k and 3k credit cards over the next 6 months. Then save enough so that we are not constantly in overdraft and have the next months direct debits and mortgage saved. Once this is done can use all extra money to clear term loans faster.

Any more advice welcome.
 
Well done Lucy for taking the steps that you have. Just remember that once the CC's are cleared its possible to reduce the length of the loans.

Personally, I would ask BOI to extend the loan. Adding the CC to this will not help the problem - talk to them about freezing the interest for you first. If they refuse this then ask to add the CC to the loan. You have to think what is in your best interest and sometimes adding the CC to the loan repayments means you have a lovely clear CC to start using again... hence the circle However you seem to have definitely learned your lesson and have already cut up 2 cards so I reckon you'll do fine from now on. If the CC you want to merge with the loan is NOT one of the cut up cards, DO NOT MERGE!

How is Hubby getting on with the cigs? Has he cut down at all? This really is an area that can save big money quickly. I understand the addiction (believe me I do!!!) but you are not asking him to quit - you are asking him to cut back and limit himself.

what about your own car? Is there any value there? If perhaps ye could downgrade it might free up some money - keep in mind you will get back to a nice car someday but its hard work for now. Thats what kept me going and I have a nice little nest egg building at the moment
 
I gave up smoking using nicorette things you place under your tongue and they dissolve in your mouth, not sure now what they're called.
 
Thanks for the reply. Yes my husband has cut down on the cigs alot. Yes we are going to talk to BOI on Thurs, and yes the BOI cc is cut up so would feel better if that was put into term loan. My car isnt worth much either so not an option.

Ya I just feel if we could free up some money by extending the loans and cop on and budget , we will be fine.
For example this month we have had four family members birthdays and a family engagement and while we gave presents to all of these and pay all our bills we end up with like €7 left to last us three days until we get paid. It's an awful feeling that if one of us needed the doctor we could not afford it until we get paid.

My husband has got a few days work this week and I'm hoping that I can pick up some childminding after school. Will let you know how I get on with BOI.
Thanks again.
 
lucy09 said:
Any more advice welcome.
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If you are paid monthly and any of your mortgage, BOI loan or CU loan are paid before your wages, you could have the loan payment date pushed back (with in the same month) until the day you get paid, or later. This would improve your cash flow and if it happened that you could move all three payments it would free up almost enough cash to clear your overdraft.
 
Hi,
Went to cancel my broadband but turns out we are in a contract until march 2011. So can't get out of that until next year.
Went to BOI today they have tried to extend the term of our loan and add the credit card debt and 1k overdraft.(this is on our joint ac, i also have 600 euro of an o/d on my personal ac) We will find out next week if they will approve this. The girl wasn't sure as she said having the other 2 credit cards might go against us. She said that while we are stretched , they will base it on our monthly disposable income and we are paying all our debts at the moment and we are not in arrears with anything. Just hope that they approve us as it would give us a great chance to clear our other 2 credit cards.

Do you think they will approve the re-structuring? I was so dreading going in, i was expecting her to give out to us for all the debt but she didnt even flinch when I called out everything we owe.

We are still keeping the spending diary, it is proving very interesting, alot more money than I had budgeted for is being spent on food.

Will post again when we find out outcome from BOI
 
hey boi agreed to put 2 overdrafts and credit card onto BOI term loan. We signed it today and it is saving us 130euro per month .At least credit card is gone. Also extended term of my credit union loan and this has saved us 66 per month. So plan now is to use the extra 196 euro to clear off our other credit cards. My original budget seems very unrealistic when i look at my spending diary, am spending alot more money on petrol than I had budgeted and also on food. Biggest waste of money is gettin takeaway food etc and going to the local shop for milk with 20 euro and next thing there is nothing left ( cigs still a problem).

Thanks for all the advice, woudn't have gone to the bank without the advice here, am only sorry we didnt go sooner instead of paying all that interest on the CC and getting no where.
 


Stop thinking "shoulda woulda coulda" and give yourself a big massive pat on the back!! Well done you I'm just delighted you took the advice and put it in to practice and I hope you feel relieved. Concentrate on the other CC debt for now, and once they're gone on the CU loan. You are 100% on the right road and should be very proud of yourself. Keep up the spending diary and that will pay off.

Delighted for you
 
Hi Lucy, one more tip for you. You mentioned going to the shop for milk with 20 euros and coming out with nothing - theres a good trick I use to stop this happening

Take a small jar (jam, pasta, etc.), once used clean it out and cut a money slot into the top. Everyday when you both get in, throw all your change into it (coins). Each time you need to run to the shop for a certain item, take only the EXACT change from the jar with you. Count it out before you go. For me, it was the only way to stop me buying magazines and other crap I didnt need.

Any luck with afterschool childminding?
 
Hey,
That is a good idea with the change jar. will try that. No luck with the after school minding, there was one job but one of the children needed to be picked up at 2 o clock after school and that is too early for me. Am thinking of putting an add in the local paper , even if it was for two days a week it would be great.
 
As your husband works in the construction industry, the likelihood is that any work he gets in that industry will be irregular for the forseable future. However, there are a couple of things that your husband should consider doing:

1. Can your husband get some part time work in evenings/weekends - stacking shelves in supermarket, fast foot restaurant, delivering takeaways/pizzas, cleaning, security etc. If you look around, it is still possible to get these types of jobs. They may not be well paid, they may not be glamourous, but they do pay the bills. If your husband works a few hours in the evenings or at weekends it will give you additional regular guaranteed income. And doing these types of jobs will not prevent him from taking whatever construction work he can get as the hours of work do not clash.

2. Has your husband considered retraining to another profession? Something he should seriously consider and, as he's unemployed, he may have access to courses etc. that he doesnt have to pay for. Doing a course will also keep him active and help is self esteem.
 
Hi,

Some good news for a change, my husband has got a job for the next few months. Even if it got us to Xmas we would be delighted. Hopefully the next time I post it will be to say that we have paid off one of those credit cards. Thanks again for all the advice.
 

Great news. Hope all goes well for you.
 
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