I guess the yearly ticket works out to be about the same as you currently spend but do you think you'd save money by not breaking notes to buy tickets etc. My partner gets the annual ticket through his employer and they deduct the cost of it from his monthly wages. He is definitely saving by not breaking notes all the time.
Few things on this. Firstly the annual ticket is the same cost as ten monthy tickets so there is a considerable reduction on monthly tickets there. Secondly, and most importantly, if you do get these tickets through the taxsaver scheme (which I suspect Newbie's partner is), this is deducted before tax and PRSI which means that you effectively spend about €31 of your post tax income instead of €60 on a monthly ticket. I would suggest you look into
Taxsaver tickets promptly and start using your commuter ticket for journeys other than just work to gain even more value for money from it.
I work in a formal environment "occassionally" as you put it, and I too have to have clothing and dry cleaning to match but when I needed to limit it, I certainly didn't spend €100pm on clothing.
In general:
1) Save yourself the cost of an accountant or a financial advisor and do the following two things: Research the best deposit accounts to save your money and set up your budget so that
savings come out first not last (otherwise you just fritter and frankly your spending seems to show that). Set the bar high, have at least €1000 euro coming out first thing your wages come in (twice what you have managed to accumulate in 4 months!) - in a year you will have €12000 in savings. You will notice it the first month but you will adjust your spending pretty rapidly to suit your diminished current account. That also gives you a clue as to what sort of savings you need to be thinking in terms of to actually build up the money you need to have to put down the deposit. As you haven't exactly excelled in saving up to this point you have a long way to go and if you want to get there quickly you need to start looking at "trimming" more than your expensive coffee habit.
2) You aren't forswearing socialising, holidaying and treats forever and joining an enclosed order in a convent or something! Just for a short period of time in order to build up a good amount of money you need to curtail your social and indulgent spending. Stop viewing it as a trial and look at it as a short term challenge. Oh and find ways to socialise without spending money (go for a walk in the evening with your partner instead of eating out).
I really do think that you want, in the common phrase, to have your cake and eat it. You want to build up your savings from, frankly, scratch without making any sort of sacrifice. The fact that you have no savings to speak of given you are both earning a good income is quite honestly surprising and foolish on your part - it presupposes a continuance of income, you'd be in trouble if one of you didn't earn anything for a month. And it isn't even as if the sacrifices you would need to make are all that onerous. You have a good (some would say excellent) combined income, more than sufficient for your needs and definitely more than sufficient to allow you to live comfortably and save reasonably or even save extravagantly to build up that deposit (and don't forget, savings for furnishings are better than an additional loan at the point when your spending will be stretching your income for benefit rather than indulgence).
