newbie on here starting to tackle massive debt

pittel

I have tried to make this as accurate as possible filling gaps from previous version...

water rates dont apply here in my location..


I have another loan with ptsb balance 18600 approx..this is deducted from my wages before I get my salary..it costs 380/month..I have taken it out before I filled in my income...

The mortgage on my own residence is 1200/month until dec 1st..it reverts to 1500/month on dec 1st and I have shown it as 1500..

pittel

one important item

current account overdraft..5800..apr 14%

they want it back to 2000 by sept 15th...I have some about 2500 coming in in extra income but that leaves me still 1300 short approx..

chevalier

First of all can I say well done on getting the shopping down! I can understand that prices in Eire are higher than in the UK, but I think there maybe still some room for improvment.

From where you started you are relatively close to breaking even ie 'only' £500 short a month lol. So how much of this could be plugged from oldest sone contributing? Seriously people who are nurses, checkout persons, clerical staff all probably earn less than 16k a year in any currency, and yet if they are living at home I bet that most of them are paying something to the family pot. His 16k is 1333 a month (does he pay tax on it?). Unless he has a merc or something, lets say his car loan and car expenses are £333( don't have a euro sign). That leaves him £1000 a month ( or £600 if he pays tax on it). So there should be no sweat on him giving you 200 a month AT LEAST.

Can the youngest one get a Saturday job? Even if it covered his phone top ups that would be a help to you.

And the other thing is the partner. Can they get any job? Even if there is a reason for them not working full time, what about mystery shopping, decluttering the house and putting unused stuff on ebay etc?

good luck going forward. I think the biggest plus now is getting the rental mortgages on interst only that should help alot
chev

GeorgeUK

Have you been able to find any other price comparison sites?
If not i still think you should have a look at what's being offerred and try to do your own comparisons.

Groceries is still a huge amount but i guess if prices are too high, there's not much you can do about that. Do you buy shops own brands? But in bulk and cook large amounts, freezing the extra for meals later on?

Are you keeping a spending diary?

pittel

I just plug each days spending as it happens into a spreadsheet..I can filter by each title..say food,petrol etc to get totals for week,month etc.

I will be better off by 60/week = 240/month from Sept as the 23 year old is away in Scotland during college time.

I should be able to get some of the ramaining deficit off the 24 year old...
And I have eyed up some savings on house insurance..

My wife can only work a very limited amount for health reasons..she wants to herself but I dont want her too..some things are more important
than money..

Thank all you kind people on this thread..some times i get depressed but
reading your posts lifts me up..

sites:valueireland.com
itsyourmoney.ie

pittel

Last 2 weeks my food bill is down at 220 euros..this is under half my original..so I am delighted..I did not think this figure was possible..thank you all for the encouragement..

Volcano

pittel wrote: »

Entertainment........................... 0

I remember some advice I heard once: Even if money is very tight, you need just a little something to keep your sanity. It may be one drink a week, a monthly trip to the cinema, whatever it is you enjoy, but you need a little 'release' to help you along. Doesn't have to be much, but some kind of a treat now and again.

Oh, and you're not allowed to feel guilty for having it or that just ruins the point of it!

Keep up the good work

cocalls

hello pittle well done on getting the groceries bill down but i still think there's room for improvement-I second the comments about your sones paying their way but i think both should be, whenever i came back from uni id get a job and contribute & when i was on the dole i was still contributing-im sure your sons wouldn't want to see you in massive debt because they're not paying their fair share.

pittel

grocery down now to 120/week..but rental income is now zero,down from 1100/month...in early july

I am on interest only but now cant pay this at all(800/month)

i would prefer just to sell the rental properties but the market is so bad..have an offer of 55k on the smaller house and trying to clean up
larger house for sale but 75k is all it might make..owe 173k ..so that 43k below target..

will keep trying to let them but unsure what to do..i have no attachment to these 2 houses and wish i could lose them or hand them over to building society as they are messing me trying to
pay back my short term loans and credit cards..

savingholmes

hi pittel - well done for posting and starting the diary... at least you are making progress on your controllable costs like groceries. I agree with the other posters that your adult children need to contribute - my DS is 12 and I have shown him our budgets. often when he asks for something that is not budgeted I show him on my spreadsheet why I can't just let him have it - I also explain it is not for ever - it is just until around this time next year by which time we hope to be CC debt free after over a decade of being in debt! I make my son work for any "extra" money he wants.....

Is there an equivallent of the debt charities in Ireland or an Irish version of national debtline so you can get some free impartial advice... At the end of the day it sounds like you a) are still overspending and b) have a cash flow problem... It is not a forever problem.... In your situation I would be careful of rushing into drastic solutions like selling the houses at a loss if that isn't really going to resolve the problem...

We were repeat debtors - I think though we have finally learned our lesson about budgeting etc.... Selling a house and using equity to pay off debt didn't stop me restarting the cycle... Taking voluntary redundancy and having a small inheritance didn't stop us restarting the cycle a third time... It has taken over 2 years but we have more than halved our debt... despite me spending at least 6 months of last year unemployed.... If I stay in work I hope to be CC debt free this time next year...

I appreciate you have tried to be honest about what you actually spend.... Could you do a reverse budget and say look my income for the next month is x - how can I make my spend fit that and challenge absolutely everything. We halved our home insurance by shopping around, we made a conscious effort to cut our utility bills, we halved our phone and broadband costs by changing supplier and using a cashback site for the new one... I used cash back sites for car insurance etc so not only did I get one of the lowest prices but I also got say £70 cashback... I had childcare... I found alternative ways to cut my childcare costs.... Challenge each cost don't let anything be sacred and hopefully - even if it doesn't bridge the whole of your short fall it will bring you closer....