Struggling to make ends meet!

Captin Sobel said:

Can you elaborate on the Spending Diary?

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Just to note Captain, that there has been quite a discussion on the hows and whys of spending diaries previously, most recently in this thread

SMR123 said:

3. Have already thought about CU, and am going to put all money in from room rental plus a little extra, to obtain loan to clear credit cards by end of summer. Any idea how much credit union will lend...is it two or three times your savings? Also, will they look at other outstanding debts - do they check with ICB for amounts?

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Check the ICB homepage for the list of institutions that are signed up. Some credit unions now use the services of the ICB but that doesn't preclude you from getting a loan from them and your local CU may not be on the list anyway. Like MichaelM said, tell them what you are planning on using the loan for, it is not an unreasonable purpose.

SMR123 said:

4. Don't want to go interest only on mortgage.

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SMR123 said:

Don't know about interest only. That seems to be mostly what I'm paying anyway. Will be going to bank next month, for a review on mortgage as fixed rate ending July. Will discuss it with them then? Would I actually be paying much less though? Is there a possibility bank will say no to going interest only?

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This early in repaying your mortgage, yes it is mostly (but not all) interest. But every small additional amount of money you can use to clear expensive debt will make the mortgage easier to manage in the future and then you may be in a position to overpay and claw back some of the time/money you have added on by going interest only.
As for the other, there is a possibility the bank may say no, they are entitled to treat each case on merit, that shouldn't stop you asking though and trying for it. Just don't plan to depend on it until you know what they say!

SMR123 said:

Michael M, think you're right about paying it off the hard way. Can't believe I'm in the situation I'm in, although from reading other posts, I don't think I'm the worst off. Have never missed a loan or mortgage payment. It's just those damn credit cards!!

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Just look at all the positive steps you have taken or are about to, it will take time, there is no gainsaying that, but it is do-able for you.

so-crates said:

Just to note Captain, that there has been quite a discussion on the hows and whys of spending diaries previously, most recently in this thread

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Thanks so-crates, yes I have used something like that in the past, it was a chore to keep it updated and keeping the other half onboard ( taking reciepts out of deep handbags... ) ( it did make me go to Aldi and Lidl more I must admit )

But will try it again now, as it has its merits in highlighting those trends that you just don't see month to month. And simply stopping spending on all put the absolute essentials.

On another note, but still in the vein of cutting expenditure, anyone find the online monitoring facility offered by Airtricity a help in seeing more clearly their power usage month to month?