Saving for college/tightening the purse strings

Remember you will have CGT liability for profit made on you Shares of 25%, if the profit is over €1270 (I think)
 

Hi Danielle there seems to be a great gaping hole in your pocket as I am not reconciling how you are €665 in the red on your current account (your overdraft) with your outgoings and your income. My calculations are as follows
Notes
- I have taken the largest figure if you gave more than one
- For the expenses given weekly I have calculated a monthly expenditure using 52x/12)
- I have rounded up to the next whole Euro in each case.

Income per month:
€2115


Outgoings per month:
Rent: €400
AIB Loan: €134
CU Loan: €200
R&S Loan: €50
Car Loan: €180
ESB: €50
Bins: €24
Internet: €30
Petrol: €260
Food: €174
Parking: €18
Tax: €27
Dental Insurance: €10

Giving you a grand total of €1557 pm

So I guess Protocol's question needs to be answered. Is your income of €2115pm before or after tax?

If it is before tax then you need to look at how you view your money - you are not counting income tax and PRSI as valid expenses.
If it is after tax (which is what I am assuming!) then there is a sizeable chunk of money there unaccounted for. If you have been constantly dipping into your overdraft to the tune of €665 then it is more than €1200!

I think you need to start monitoring your spend - clearly you are spending money unawares (also probably check all your pockets and purses for gaping holes in the bottom - money well spent on replacing those ). Until you get a full idea of what it is you are spending you really cannot know how to proceed. Start there.

Also I noted that you have

Car Insurance - Paid until July
July is not all that far away - you should be averaging out the cost of insurance over the year rather than waiting for it to jump out at you.
 
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It's a different current account with the OD. I pay my car insurance monthly it's just finished now unitl July. It was €52 per month, so will be less in July.

I didn't see Protocols question? My income is after tax and i've just got a small payrise
 
It's a different current account with the OD.
So in essence this is an account that is always overdrawn to the tune of €665? That is a very expensive small loan you have there.

I pay my car insurance monthly it's just finished now unitl July. It was €52 per month, so will be less in July.
It is immaterial whether it is finished until July - if you have to pay it over the year you should include it in your expenses. It all adds up.

I didn't see Protocols question? My income is after tax and i've just got a small payrise

Well if your income is after tax then that means that you ought to have €558 left over each month!! So in two months you should have cleared your overdraft. You are spending money somewhere and not recording or reporting it here. Where is the hole in your budget?
 


There's no interest on the OD as it's a student account. Yeah I was only thinking about that the other day €558 is a lot of money to be blowing each month, I think i'm gonna withdraw my wages at the start of the month and seperate each expense into envelopes, lazer card is a killer.
 
People have an innate bias when it comes to cash. You are simply more conscious of the expenditure as it is physically in front of you - it is more immediate, tangible and palpable. Using debit and worst of all credit cards hides your expenditure from you. Both allow you to spend without seeing actual cash being handed over but a credit card allows you to spend next month's money without seeing it being handed over. Also, people are more inclined to spend if the cash is in smaller denominations - no-one likes to break a fifty but they don't bat an eyelid with five tenners.

Got to play the psychology of money with yourself.

It is good that the overdraft is interest-free - but it is unlikely to always be interest-free and I assume like all overdrafts you have to have it cleared. Best off not using the facility if you can at all avoid it - by the sounds of your budget that should be possible.
 
I'm not sure what you are saying?

I was being serious. The best thing anybody with budgeting problems can do is to switch back to using cash for everything.


I know you were, just not used to hearing the words, excellent idea and money in the same sentence when It comes to my financial ideas
 


Cool thanks for that. I don't use it I just haven't got my act together to pay it off.