Financially getting worse and worse

ci1,

I think that you are doing fine and that you are worrying unnecessarily at the moment. Give yourself a break.

I don't think that you need to do this yet but; you tried the bank for a consolidation loan for the CU and car. Have you tried the CU for consolidation loan approval, just in case you need it?(Or have I missed it above?)
 
I understand if this is stressing you, but as suggested, I think things are not as bad as they seem...

Firstly, why go to the gym? Why would anyone pay to exercise when you can get up on a bike or go for a jog for free? It boggles me. Anyway, that's €40 saved per month.

Secondly, I know you explained your situation re putting by €20 per week each for Gas/ESB (which on the face of it sounds sensible) but you could easily reduce that to €10 each per week. I live in a 2-bed apartment and my Gas or ESB bills average out at €80 per bill. That's less than €10 per week. And I work from home so that's extra heating and electricity running computers and what not.

Those two alone will give you an extra €120 per month. You could use that to pay off your loans earlier so you can free up even more.

Have you asked your bank for a moratorium on your mortgage? A 6 month break would give you €7,800 which would go a long way to clearing your loans.

There is light at the end of the tunnel!
 
ButtermilkJa said:
Have you asked your bank for a moratorium on your mortgage? A 6 month break would give you €7,800 which would go a long way to clearing your loans.
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OP, make sure you assess/understand the long term impact of this before considering it.
 
Hi OP I think you are doing well for a single person paying a mortgage it isn't easy. I have recently quit my gym and am going for walks and bike rides, however I suck at going when it rains so I have bought a lateral stepper from lidls for 35 euro which is brill. You can also get exercise dvds and thats 40 quid more for drinking !! I find I feel better than I did going to the gym as you get fresh air.Also I have switched my phone from bill pay to ready to go, defo worth considering...
 
rmelly said:
OP, make sure you assess/understand the long term impact of this before considering it.
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Yes I agree, this will have implications when the 6 month period ends (i.e. the repayment amount may be recalculated upwards) so make sure you are aware of everything beforehand. You may also end up paying back more over the life of the mortgage by prolonging it by a few months.
 
Tink, can I ask which mobile user your with? How have you found you have benefited moving form bill to prepay? can you PM me with some figures. I know this is a bit off topic but it may help others.
 
Maybe the original poster could address the point made by several posters including myself - i.e. that the thread title does not seem to accurately reflect the actual situation here and paints a much graver picture than the reality would seem to be? Seems to me that the original poster is doing OK which is not to say that additional cost savings cannot be made to further improve the situation.
 
ClubMan said:
Maybe the original poster could address the point made by several posters including myself - i.e. that the thread title does not seem to accurately reflect the actual situation here and paints a much graver picture than the reality would seem to be? Seems to me that the original poster is doing OK which is not to say that additional cost savings cannot be made to further improve the situation.
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Are these things not subjective? Even thought she is holding her own as regards her finances maybe its getting worse in the sense that OP would have wanted to be in a better place and have had more saved etc so in a sense staying still is moving backwards?

I don't really see how the title is so terrible myself.
 
pennypitstop said:
Are these things not subjective?
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Of course. But more than one person has commented that the situation looks far from as grave as the original post and thread title might suggest and there's no harm in challenging people's assumptions in such circumstances.
I don't really see how the title is so terrible myself.
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I never said that it was "terrible". But I don't see how their financial situation is getting "worse and worse" myself. Maybe some information is missing that would explain how this is the case? Or maybe they are simply mistaken?
 
i always found it good to calculate all big expenses comin up like car insurance, tax and all others i could think of and add 10 pc extras just in case over the yr. then open a regular saver account and pay in the monthly amount into it.it will give u great peace of mind to know ur bills are covered.
 
ClubMan said:
Maybe the original poster could address the point made by several posters including myself - i.e. that the thread title does not seem to accurately reflect the actual situation here and paints a much graver picture than the reality would seem to be? Seems to me that the original poster is doing OK which is not to say that additional cost savings cannot be made to further improve the situation.
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Its getting worse and worse because I have just come off my yearly fixed rate mortgage with my provider and my rate is going up. Things in general are getting harder, I changed my car to diesel to save money because I'm doing extra travelling - diesel is gone up, my car tax is gone up, shopping and lifes neccesities are getting more expensive and my rise this year did not reflect any of this.

My management company fees came last week and they have gone up by €200 a year.

Thats why I feel its getting worse and worse...I'm finding it harder and harder to keep up. As are many of us these days I would say.

As for the suggestions....

I cancelled my gym yesterday evening & have taken dem_syhp's advice on tracking and seeing other areas that I can save on.

I appreciate everyones suggestions, and I'm feeling a bit more optimistic.
 
Nobody can try and tell you things aren't bad if you feel they are. Obviously you are in the best position to gauge your financial status. Most of us are just looking at the figures and not seeing it the same but that's a matter of opinion. Glad to see you are feeling a bit more optimistic though. Hopefully things will turnaround for you soon.

Going back to your original figures in your first post...

You felt you were only left with €84 per week after all bills/expenses were paid. Now, add another €10 (cancelled gym fees @ €40 p/m) and add another €20 from reduced Gas/ESB instalments and that gives you €114 per week, or €460 per month.

To be honest, if I had €460 per month leftover to socialise I'd be delighted :). Imagine how quickly your loans will be paid if you paid an extra €300 off per month. And that still leaves you with enough for a good night out once every two weeks! Things would turnaround a lot quicker for you.

Best of luck with it all!
 
Buttermilkja, Thanks for that, and yes you're right. The amount is substantial and will cover my extra management fee charge, and increasing mortgage.

Unless you're acutally in the position trying to manage monies its hard for others to gage how hard it is to juggle and spread money around.

Considering this is my first year on my own with mortgage I have just started to feel overwhelmed by it all, and feeling the pinch made me post my concerns and I have gotten great advice/suggestions from most people that have more experience & knowlege.

I plan to continously monitor and find out where I can make cuts. I've already started since I began the thread.
 
can understand how u feel, there is a hole for every penny but things will turn around very fast once you keep watching things and the loans are paid off. then you can concentrate on building up some savings

At the end of the day, you are paying off a mortgage and buying into the capital so it is not for nothing.

best of luck
 
ci1 said:
...and I have gotten great advice/suggestions from most people that have more experience & knowlege...
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That's it! I've been in the same position as you for over 3 and a half years and I've never had more than a few hundred Euro per month. Some months €0 ! But I've always looked at the bigger picture and managed to get by.

One bit of advice I would have (which I think has been mentioned already, and is similar to what you are doing with your BillPay savings) is to open a separate bank account for bills. This has worked great for me. Every month I calculate what bills I will have and then transfer a big chunk of my wages to cover these, +10%. That way every now and again you have a surplus that you can use to pay off any unexpected bills. Or just to use as extra cash on a given month.
 
ci1 said:
Its getting worse and worse because I have just come off my yearly fixed rate mortgage with my provider and my rate is going up. Things in general are getting harder, I changed my car to diesel to save money because I'm doing extra travelling - diesel is gone up, my car tax is gone up, shopping and lifes neccesities are getting more expensive and my rise this year did not reflect any of this.

My management company fees came last week and they have gone up by €200 a year.
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I don't think that you mentioned all of these issues/increasing costs earlier?
 
ClubMan said:
I don't think that you mentioned all of these issues/increasing costs earlier?
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The list of outgoings is not complete, for example the following (may) apply:

Management Fees
TV Licence
Car Tax
Contents Insurance (if any)
Car Breakdown cover (e.g. AA)
NCT/Car Service (maybe every 2 years)
Gas Boiler Service (maybe every 2 years)

etc.
 
ClubMan said:
I don't think that you mentioned all of these issues/increasing costs earlier?
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No, didn't mention them because they have not quite come into effect yet. Am not paying them out at the moment but will be soon.
 
ci1 said:
No, didn't mention them because they have not quite come into effect yet. Am not paying them out at the moment but will be soon.
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Well to understand and control your finances you really need to draw up budgets/plans that take account of all regular, sporadic and emergency outgoings as well as imminent cost increases which will take effect anon. The problem with "off the top of your head" budgets such as you previously outlined is that many people underestimate and omit certain costs giving them a warped view of reality. Better to keep a spending diary and carefully analyse previous household bills/expenses (working out a conservative average monthly cost from the total annual costs where necessary) before determining where potential savings may be made and drawing up a suitable budget and sticking to it.
 
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