Total Mess - can anyone out there advise pls ?

I would second everything Bronte has said - especially regarding MABs.

Just to add that my husband negotiated his way out of a year contract for mobile phone. I think he paid a fine of around 70 euros but a fine of this scale would be much better then spending 200 euros a month on mobile phones! Shop around for the best value pay as you go phone - e.g. No affiliation but Tesco have a good deal on credit for their phones at the minute. I'm sure you could quarter your mobile phone bill with very effort.

DMO has some very good suggestions to reduce your food bill.

That plus cancelling AA, Health insurance (if young and healthy), sky or broadband should free up a few hundred euros for those rainy days.
 
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Hi Bronte,

Thanks for the reply.
God - I didnt think I was quite at a last resort yet. But maybe its time I need to listen to someone else rather than thinking I know best. You are right, I need to get over it - free advise as you say. So MABs it is then.

The phones - we are on price plans that cost 100 each a month - taken out last April on a one year contract. If we try to come out of them early, we have to pay the minimum monthly repayment for the rest of the contract term - ie til April 2011. This would cost me upfront 800 quid (now with 4 months left on each) - I dont have this money. I have contacted them, told them Im broke etc and all they will do for me is put me on a cheaper price plan. But by starting on a cheaper price plan I am automatically tied into another one year contract with them. I want to go Pay as you go as then if I dont have it - I cant spend it.

Cars
I guess I will look at this too. But can I ask do you really think this is advisable to sell my car when the van is on its last legs, or wheels as the case may be, and if we have no car or van then I cant get to work ?

As for the the cash jobs. Maybe I should have mentioned in my post that over the last three years anytime my partner got even a weeks work we notified the dole office and he came off benefit or had it reduced accordingly. This at times was a real pain (particular where he only got a couple of days work) but my belief is that the dole has been our life line in extremley difficult circumstances. And that that is exactly what it is there for - extremley difficult circumstances. Therefore, I would never dream of abusing it as it has kept us afloat and God knows when or if we will ever need to depend on it again in the future. We have been completley honest in this and will continue to do so should he even obtain as much as a days work. When I got the second job last year, I paid the higher tax rate on every penny I earned working a Friday night shift and a Saturday night shift every week on top of my full time job. I came out with an extra 100 quid a fortnight for working four twelve hour night shifts. Some poeple would say it wasnt worth it. But it was the difference between keeping up my mortgage payments or going under. So I did it. And rather then contributing to the total state this country is in by looking for a cash in hand job - I paid my taxes as is expected of me as a working Irish citizen. I wouldnt dream of doing anything underhanded and I want to be very clear about that.
 
Sell the van, or take it off the road at least, just cancel the insurance. That means you only have the expence of 1 vehicle...
P..
 
Flo Jo - You debt is 7.4 times your yearly income after tax, you are in very serious debt and you would really need to engage with Mabs.
 
Thanks so much dmos87. I do my shopping in Aldi/Lidl and a little bit in Tesco. But if you are really doing it for that cheap for 2 people there is no reason why I cant. I'll have to try plan a bit better. Ive been doing a bit of the lasagne freezing and that and bringing dinner leftovers to work with me the next day for lunch in a lunchbox. I will have to try harder here. That is really after setting me a challenge 150-200 quid a month for food for two people - wow im so impressed !!

Im really interested as to how I get out of these phone contracts ? Ive rang them twice now explaining the situation and they are telling me I cant - I have to pay whats left 100quid per month for four months for two phones.
I thought about that - just literally getting two new SIMS and unlocking our phones and to hell with the phone company but that means we loose our numbers as there is money owing. Now I couldnt give a sh*te about the numbers normally, except for the fact that the amount of people that have our numbers (his in partcular) that he has met on building sites etc over the years that have his number and ring from time to time about jobs coming up etc. Also, he has business cards done up in September & dropped around locally with his current number on them.

Health Insurance
This is for my partner. I cancelled my VHI months ago for exactly those reasons (young healthy - now a non smoker etc!!). My partner plays Gaelic. Four years ago he was badly injured twice in the year - he was a bricklayer at the time so this was really worrying. he had to have an operation. We had no insurance. Gaa were refusing to pay. I fought like mad and eventually got them to cough up for the op he required. But nothing for the loss of earnings. We were advised to take out an insurance policy in case of future incidents. Ive gotten rid of the 'loss of earnings' loading on this but Im not sure is it advisable to get rid of the poilcy altogether. Like if he gets injured and has to go to hospital we havent a bean to pay for it ??

Marietta
I feel like crying after reading your post. I just didnt think I was that bad. Ive got so used to this. I thought I could sort it out. But thanks for the dose of reality anyway.

In answer to someone elses question there - both credit cards are well gone. They were cut up in 2008. But Ive never managed to be able to pay anything more off them than the interest. (and even the minimum repayments have now not been met for the last three months).
 
FloJo said:
Thanks so much dmos87. I do my shopping in Aldi/Lidl and a little bit in Tesco. But if you are really doing it for that cheap for 2 people there is no reason why I cant. I'll have to try plan a bit better. Ive been doing a bit of the lasagne freezing and that and bringing dinner leftovers to work with me the next day for lunch in a lunchbox. I will have to try harder here. That is really after setting me a challenge 150-200 quid a month for food for two people - wow im so impressed !!
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Why dont you put this challenge to your partner? He will have more time to do the shopping, research good deals and prepare meals from scratch. Set him a task of getting the food costs down to less then 50 euro a week. Anything that is left over at the end in the kitty at the end of the month gets put towards a treat like a takeaway/cinema to celebrate.

I'm afraid I cant tell you about the legallity of breaking your contract on your phones. My husband just rang them up and told them he would be stopping his direct debit and luckily they agreed to release him from the contract by agreeing on a fee. It might be worth posting the question as a seperate post to see if anyone has some more advice?
 
dmos87 said:
lunch should be Sandwiches, Sandwiches, Sandwiches!
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I buy an 'oyster' of ham from my butcher for a fiver, boil it on sunday night, and its used for lunches and sandwiches/snacks til the following friday. Better taste than plasticy packet ham and a much better price too.

Between that and a sliced pan youd have work lunches sorted for the week for well under a tenner.

Alternatively I get him to bone and roll a chicken and slice that - he does that for a fiver too. Just for variety - although the ham keeps better.

You can also use bits of either of the above to add to cheap pasta meals.

Fruit - Lidl bananas - I find they go brown very quickly - I have found the solution though - put them into a freezer bag and wrap the bag around so the air isnt getting in - I put 2 bananas per bag and re-use the bags - the bananas look the same 7 days later as brand new ones. Saves on wastage.

Fill out pasta meals with cheap end of day veg from the supermarket - many places sell off 'about to go' fruit and veg just before they close - cooked and frozen the veg is perfect.

Use a butchers for meat - get deals, cheaper than prepackaged meat in many cases. My local butcher does lots of cheap deals.
 
Do a clear out - take your junk to a car boot sale and sell it, books, dvds, cds, clothes etc...

A friend did it before and made over 300 euro just on her unwanted stuff.

I know its not much, but itd help you psychologically to have a few extra bob.
 
FloJo said:
Marietta
I feel like crying after reading your post. I just didnt think I was that bad. Ive got so used to this. I thought I could sort it out. But thanks for the dose of reality anyway.
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Flojo, I had no intention of making you cry but sometimes we need a reality check. I looked at your figures and my heart sank for you. No amount of shopping at lidl or car boot sales will get you out of this mess.

You cannot pay back this level of debt on your combined income it's as simple as that. You will need to start thinking outside of the box, you have no children would your partner consider emigrating say to Britain or Holland to find work, avail of cheap RyanaAir flights and fly back every weekend??

You could avail of the monatoriums and special concessions that are currenty being put in place for mortgage holders should you go into arrears.

I think MABS will be best able to advise you.
 
***UPDATE***
EBS have just agreed to allow me go interest only - to be reviewed in 6 months. If we stick to this arrangement they will park the arrears for now and look at spreading them out over the reamining term of the loan 30 odd years. I am really happy with this (I know its not ideal paying nothing off the capital) but it will seriously help me get sorted in the immediate future. I have to say - I probably should have done this earlier and they were extremley pleasant to deal with. this will lower my payments from 1050 per month to 690 per month.

Truthseeker - thanyou for your very inventive and creative ideas - I'll certainely try them out !

Why didnt I think of the car boot sale. Im raging with myself. Just gave three black sacks of stuff to VdeP about two weeks ago. But I suppose there are people who really need stuff, especially coming up to Christmas. Bad as my situation mught be, there are some really unfortunate people who are way worse off.

So my next step is tackling the BOI loan.
I am not feeling as confident about this one. Its at 17k + 1k arrears. It was 32 K when I took it out 2.5 years ago. If I could spread out whats left + the arrears over 5 years from now it would cost me 400 a month. 270euro less then what I currently pay. Im dreading asking them if they will do this for some reason.
 
Marietta,

No you are absolutely right - definitley need a reality check and a good kick up the backside ! I appreciate your comments. We looked at Britain but there is very little in his line of work that would pay enough when you consider he would have to be able to be earning considerably in the UK in order to continue to pay a mortgage here and also to pay lodgings there.
I had never considered Holland, mainly because of the language barrier i suppose - is that silly ?
I have put serious thought into Canada. He is eligible to work there and has a brother, two aunts and two other sets of relations out there and the money in his line of work is good. He would not have to pay rent. I guess I just need to think long and hard about it. I would miss him terribly but this isnt the time for being emotional - we just have to get on with it. I suppose a year or two of him out in Canada and me here would be a small sacrifice to pay for financial freedom and the prospect of a decent future. It is something for us to look at but I would prefer to get him retrained here and explore all possible avenues before him having to emigrate. Why should we be bullied out of here ??
 
Truthseeker - Ive rang them, just waiting on a call back now from the lending department. Im sure they will want to meet with me anyway and go through all the evidence but Ive everything at the ready so will go see them tomorrow if needs be. Have you ever heard of a bank doing this for someone though ? Do you think I should go in with the approach of 'I cant pay at current amount' full stop, end of, non negotiable, but here is what I can pay. Or should I just ask & beg really really nicely :)
 
Flojo - It was done in the 80's, fathers, husband's, partners left the country while the wife and kids stayed behind. It was tough going although in those days the personal debt just wasn't there. Go on the internet, see what's available in mainland Europe, there are loads of builders emigrating and some of them are getting jobs.

Maybe somebody reading here might point you in the direction of a company who may be recruiting abroad. Don't worry too much about the language, the Irish can make out where ever they go.
 
I too have mbna card if you can borrow the balance off a freind for two weeks clear it and reborrow it you can get back to into rate fro 6 months which should help your cash flow if you keep paying what you are paying it will be smaller in 6 months
 
Hi Flojo,

Would you think of renting out a spare room if at all possible? You could get €300 - €400 a month that way. You could put that money against the credit cards.
 
Renting a room sounds easy, but trust me we have had good and bad renting rooms from us. When it was good it was brilliant, and when it was bad it was a nightmare, and I would never wish it on anyone! Between coke heads and alcoholics we vowed never again.. Also OP appears to live in a rural location so they may not get a tennent that easy...
 
hi all,

thanks again for replies. Scotsgirl - thought about renting a room out. Again, need to generate some money to do this as we have no furniture in our spare room and when we first moved into the house we dug out the bathroom (thinking we were rolling in money !) and then sure the sh*t hit the fan and it has been left like that. My partner can do it himself - we just need funds to pay for a bathroom suite, tiles, install shower etc. At the moment its not in rentable state. If I get any few bob over the next few months its on the list of plans as I could get cheap second hand furniture on buy and sell and cheap white tiles and that for the bathroom - nothing fancy.
Im hoping to have this done before the summer as Im on a list to take in some spanish students for a few quid !!
 
Marietta said:
Flojo - It was done in the 80's, fathers, husband's, partners left the country while the wife and kids stayed behind. It was tough going although in those days the personal debt just wasn't there. Go on the internet, see what's available in mainland Europe, there are loads of builders emigrating and some of them are getting jobs.
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It was done well before the 80's too - my husband's grandfather had to go to England to find work, as there was none for him in Ireland. My father-in-law never went to Britain, but he worked in Northern Ireland for weeks at a time when my husband was growing up, so my husband rarely saw his father for several years. But it provided financial security for my parents-in-law and education for all their children!

Working in Canada for a year or two seems very much better than for OP to have to work extra shifts killing herself and still struggling terribly with debt. I know it's tough to live apart but life is tough in general and it won't be permanent:)
 
Sorry to read about the mess your in OP but you seem to have your head on your shoulders and are well able to dig yourselves out of this mess imo.

The only advise I can offer is cancel your sky, you might be only saving €25 per month but that is €300 over a year! You will still get all the BBC & Ch4 channels (E4 & More 4) and ITV (by adding under additional channels) for Coronation Street and X-Factor. You can watch RTE with rabbit ears or online, not that you will want to with all the depressing sh1t they show!!

Personally I dont think you need to ask your oh to emigrate, strength in numbers and all that!! 10 years from now this will be a memory, a bad one but a memory none the less! If your oh goes away who will keep you company in Glendalough!!
 
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