Thanks all for your input and i know i need to get a daily budget going, started yesterday on that. Heres a basic breakdown of expenditure more or less, im sure theres more that i cant think of. there are always once offs like tyres for the car, something to fix in the house etc etc that are difficult to build into the picture but this is more or less how it works.....
thanks again for your advice
Home Ins -600pa
Car ins - 900 pa
Car tax - 2100 pa (i know this is substantial, but the cars are old and have no market value, still cheaper than the depreciation on a new vechicle, intend to run into the ground rather than take a loan or use deposits)
Waste mgmt 400 pa
Golf Mem - 900 pa
Electricity - 90 pm
Petrol - 50 pm (company pays for mine)
Oil - 120 pm (about 3 fills per year, 600-800 each)
Clothes(kids and adults) - 250 pm
Meals out, coffees, snacks - 100pm
Going out/entertainment - 400 pm (2 nights out per month, taxis, babysitting dinner and drinks)
Home Drinks - 120 pm (10 per bottle of wine - 10 per month maybe more, home guests)
Food - 600 pm (shop in aldi regularly, but theres always the regular trip to the local shop for milk/bread etc) i think i need to monitor this more closely
Kids activities (Music/sports) - 250 pm
Hobbies, golf, GAA games, rugby games etc - 50pm
Holidays - 5000 pa (one big holiday per year and maybe a weekend away during the year, i know this is a lot of money but its worth it)
Sky - 50 pm
phones - 110 pm
Medicine - 150 pm (spouse on daily medicine plus other regular vits and childrens medicine)- already on the medicine scheme, think it kicks in around 100E now)
miscellaneous ~200-300 pm
Regarding my wifes stamps, can you advise me how i check into that? i think her pension might be more valuable than mine when the time comes and i was thinking as it would be a state pension that maybe thats where i should be investing rather than into my private one. Dont knoiw how to go about that either.
I also have a fund with Generali - 12K invested, worth 9K now, so while i believe in a long term investment and would naturally bbe a risk taker, i seem to be getting burned everywhere (pension, funds, Stocks) and hence ive put everything on deposit recenetly, but i do think there will be an improvement in the global market in the over the next 5 years and i do think its a good time to consier reinvesting....but into what?
So overall, i very much appreciate any advice and recommendations you can offer. as i stated ive started the daily spending and sold the idea to my wife...
im sure that wioll be an eye opener in itself, but i still need to figure out the bigger picture in terms of my overall financial position and again i appreciate your invauable advice.
Thank you.