Want to travel, need to clear debts/save



I don't have a credit card.
 
Get cheaper medication from Spain.....ignored this suggestion completly.

My medication changes frequently it wouldn't pay me to do this.
 
Danielle24 said:
Flights to Australia - €943. Going for 3 weeks could live off my wages and maybe bring a few hundred extra.

Flights to New York - €465. Not sure how long for.

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So two far flung destinations for 1.5K. Holiday of a lifetime and all that and two in the one year. You have the money saved already so have a great time. Many moons ago I flew to New York to work and it cost me more than €465 and had to get working immediately. Didn't realise how cheap Oz and NY were. Fair play to you if you can do New York on less than 500 Euro, never mind Oz on less than 1.K but as you said yourself you want to live a little.
 

I'm confused. Can you clarify how much you actually owe as it is very unclear from your posts. In this post you say your debts were 16.5k, but now you owe €11905. Then you say you have paid back 7k. Then in a later post you have paid back 11k? Are you saying you've paid debt back and then taken it out again, if so then its not debt repaid.

Also you are asking advice on how to budget to afford these trips, yet you are refusing to give details like interest rates. Its really hard to see what you want people to say to you, and you do come accross as pretty rude to people who are freely giving advice. I say to you again I spent like a mad fool in my twenties, when I finally wised up it took me several years to get myself sorted, and man did I kick myself at getting into debt. And I had a very well paid job too! Still, it was a lesson well learnt, I enjoy having savings and no debt, it was worth the hard work. I pay cash for everything now. People here are trying to give you the benefit of their hard won experience, but maybe its something you need to learn for yourself.

Incidentally if you are interested in strategies to pay down your debt moneysavingexpert has some great tools and advice fora. I recommed the snowball debt calculator, its a real eye opener. Good luck.
 
Danielle24 said:
Thanks for that.

Just on the ESB we don't have Gas/Oil etc so this is for all our heating, cooking, water, TV etc. Everything is plugged out religiously when we're out, going to bed etc.
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When you say "we" I assume that a number of you are renting together? Why is your cable TV so expensive?

My basic package with UPC is coming in at just over €30 per month. Are you paying the full bill?
 
Op from what I can see you list costs for the month and then the difference between these and your income is 971 approx. I assume some of this is going on the likes of petrol and food, phone perhaps and entertainment as you don't list those expenses. Are you saving 500 per month? Can you please clarify?

My advice having been to both Oz and NY (4 times) is you will need to have more than just the cost of your flight and bare essentials. I had accommodation in both Oz and NY but it still costs a lot of money. You don't want to go all that way and not to get to see anything. Example possibly - friend living in Sydney but you want to go up the west coast to the barrier reef - you will need travel expenses, accommodation, food, expenses etc. Go on a dive on the reef of white water rafting or sky dive. While in Sydney Climb the Bridge, head on a trip to the blue mountains, wine district other. You might want to go to Alice Springs to experience the outback or head down to Melbourne or over to Perth. There will also be expenses to heading out be it for food or drink.
Like wise in NY although it is more expensive to do things there. Even going for a drink you have to tip them. You'll want to do the Liberty Island ferry or empire state or r
Rockefeller centre or some of the museums. Travel in from the airports is a few bob and then getting around the city - not to mention that one can not go to NY without going shopping and given the seeming bargains one can spend a lot.

I had big debt years ago ran up from spending on things I didn't want to wait to do, but which I should have waited to do.
I am now debt free (mortgage excepted but it's small). Despite taking several pay cuts in the last few years and spending 10k on further ed I am still taking as many holidays as I love them and live for them but I save and money is never a problem when away.
There is no point going so far away and not doing all there is to do thus having to go back to do the them again when you can afford them - as this is waste.
My tuppence worth from experience.

Money savers - cut cable, phone, eat basically on about 25 euro a week. Good luck with it. If you do decide to do the two look into getting a round the world ticket with a number of stops built in and stop in NY on the way to or back form OZ. I did this on my trip out there.
 
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This is only the cost of my flights. I was only seeing what my options were or if anyone had any suggestions I never said i'm definitely going to these 2 places this year.
 


Thanks for taking the time to write this, much appreciated. As for expenses, petrol etc is about €160 a month and food about €120 (not including eating out). I have decided to sit in until my birthday and then until the summer so this should save a good bit and I have study to do.
 
WaterWater said:
When you say "we" I assume that a number of you are renting together? Why is your cable TV so expensive?

My basic package with UPC is coming in at just over €30 per month. Are you paying the full bill?
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I have been looking at changing supplier as it is vey expensive and I don't watch much TV. There is 2 of us renting together. It's €30 each a month. We are also looking to move to cheaper accommodation/get the rent reduced.
 


I don't spend like a fool I shop in Penneys, rare occassion these days, my nights our are about my only luxury at the moment and even they are being knocked on the head. I have 3 spreadsheets to calculate my debt, one with snowball built in. I shop in Tescos.
 
Danielle24 said:
This is only the cost of my flights. I was only seeing what my options were or if anyone had any suggestions I never said i'm definitely going to these 2 places this year.
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All my requests for how much you propose to spend have fallen on deaf ears so I was not being serious, like yourself really. If you were serious you would have costed out and declared on here how much you really planned to spend and how you planned to save for it. Instead you've only provided the figure for the cheapest flight you can find, not necessarily the flight you will get. Which I find evasive. Compounded by your attack at anyone on here whom you've asked for financial advice that you don't want to listen to. Basically you want to go, you feel you're entitled to go and why on earth you asked any of us on here if it makes financial sense eludes me.

Anyone who wanted to live a little and see Oz would need 3-5K to do it right. Younger people who are prepared to live on friend's couches can do it cheaper obviously. Other than relations or very good friends people don't like free loaders but young people don't mind so much. You're of the opinion the cost will be little or nothing. That you can live on your current wages as you do now while out there. With all your debt that surely means you'll not be able to afford to eat out while in Oz never mind take a trip anywhere. If you consider that living fair play to you. But you have in this thread and the other one said you want to live a little and are constantly looking for praise for having paid down debt that your yourself alone incurred on frivolity. You'd need to spend a minimum of 3 weeks there to justify the long haul. Flights and taxes to there plus a stopover, plus flights within the country will come to 1.5/2K alone at a guess. In the other thread you also stated that one of the things that go you into financial trouble was a holiday. You should think about that.
 
Danielle24 said:
There is 2 of us renting together. It's €30 each a month.
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That's over €700 a year on cable. Have you been serious when you said that you have cut everything back. In your other thread you said that you couldn't even afford to visit the dentist, yet you spend this amount of money on cable television. (Only the best for Danielle). Why have you not moved to a cheaper provider before this?
 

I didn't say you spent like a fool, I said I spent like a fool, and that it took me quite a while to get over the resulting debt. I was trying to point out that you don't want to be making the same mistakes I made as you will regret it. And actually, as others have pointed out, taking such expensive trips would be foolish in your situation, especially as you don't know how you are going to fund these trips and also another 3k in tuition fees. So, how much do you owe, and how much did you pay off, you bolded the question in my post but didn't answer it?
 
Bronte said:
Basically you want to go, you feel you're entitled to go and why on earth you asked any of us on here if it makes financial sense eludes me.
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If you look at the list of outgoings that was provided there really was nothing left to "cut". Yet there was no mention of other outgoings on this list where cuts could have been made. Why?

Because this was done on purpose. She didn't want to list those areas where cuts could have been made. Danielle is going on this trip but feels guilty about it. It's as if she is looking for some sort of approval.

She needed to be "given out" to for even contemplating these holidays. Well that's happened and now feeling sorry for herself she is going to treat herself for all of the aggro. To what? A holiday of course.
 


I don't appreciate your sarcastic tone, seriously whats your problem? The cable is in my landladys name so it's not as simple as just changing, she's really hard to get hold of and she has to cancel it I can't.
 

What the hell are you going on about. Your post makes no sense. I don't need anyones approval. You get this from me seeking advice about going on a holiday how is it other poster can offer constructive and practical advice yet others have to resort to sniping like this. I never said I was going on a holiday did you not read my post.
 


Yes, and I spent like a fool but I have learned the hardway and I have a handle on my debts I got rid of all my credit cards, etc. I appreciate you think it may be foolish and I simply was looking for advice opinions, practical advice etc. I owe just over 11k and have paid off over 10k I had a lot of debt.
 
Thread re-opened and a number of OT posts deleted. Please bear in mind the , particularly:
 
Danielle - keep it old style. Get an empty biscuit tin, seal it with tape and cut a hole in it. Put in every NOTE you can, do not bother with coins unless they are 1e and 2e.
Put EVERY spare bit of money you have in it, even the last fiver at the end of the week or month AFTER you have paid all your existing committments. Put the change from your purse in it when you can. Seriously, everytime. Don't carry anything larger than a tenner on you if going into town.

Save, save, save. Open nearer the time, say 6 weeks before trip which is plenty of time to book flights. See what you have. If its there, you go - if its not, you dont.

Its up to you to do the hardwork and knuckle down if you want to do everything you hope.

Best of luck - let us know how you get on!
 
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