What happens if I can't afford any more tax increases ?

coffee_cake

Under A Funeral Moon wrote: »

Some other (possible) expenses:

Car tax, insurance and maintenance for two cars.
Mobile phone bills. (I'm assuming you both have mobiles.)
Clothes etc. for the children.
Cigarettes?
Hobbies?
Do you buy lunch at work?

There's loads you're leaving out, OP.

I can't imagine all that adds up to 2200 :eek:

I'm honestly curious though

Rabidlamb

bluewolf wrote: »

Tax calc shows total income 5k a month?
minus above costs you have just under 3 grand? minus food of 600 is around 22-2400

I'm confused now
What else is there?

pickarooney wrote:

My extremely rough calculation leaves 2200 odd quid per month for food and clothes. I'm assuming I'm way off or you've forgotten some major expenses.

gurramok wrote:

Income about 5,113 after tax http://www.taxcalc.eu/
Expenses:
Mortgage - 744
Childcare - 1000
Petrol - 350
Utilities - 100
Aldi & Dunnes comes to €130 per week = 520 pm
€30 p/m Sky €65 p/m Eircom Bundle

Expense total = 2809

That leaves 2,300 left over per month, where does it go to?

You're all about right.
I do pay 6% into a pension & there's the Aviva health insurance of about €2k for the year.
Then there's the months with car tax & insurance, running 2 cars.
I forgot the missus has a small credit union loan but that's covered by the €300 a month child benefit.
I'm at a loss to explain where it's all going.
We wouldn't spend >€100 a week on entertainment cause we don't have it to spend.
Who is taking all my money ?.

seamus

Rabidlamb wrote: »

Salaries of €36k & €42k before tax.
Mortgage of €744 p/m including TRS.
Childcare €250 p/w.
Petrol €350 p/m.
Normal ESB & Gas bills, say €150-€200 every 2 months.

Here you go.

I had to improvise with the expenses somewhat, but you get the idea. Plug your own figures in to see where you can save money.

thebigbiffo

RobbieTheRobber wrote: »

I dont commune much with dogs in the street, can you tell me the date which this increased taxation came in?

you've heard of this thing i presume?

http://www.taxation.ie/2010/09/budget-2011/

its where the government try to figure out how to pay all the uselss gits in the public service who dont deserve it. i do include overpaid bureaucrats in that statement but do exclude people who actually work for a living: nurses, ambulance drivers etc etc

RobbieTheRobber

Echospace wrote: »

If you are taking a jab at private sector workers not "paying" for this recession, ask the 300,000 or so private sector workers who have not taken a paycut, but actually LOST their jobs in the last 2 years. How many forced public sector redundancies have there been in the last 2 years?

Im not taking a stab at anyone, perhaps unlike yourself.

You stated something about private sector workers being burdened with this extra tax, I dont remember this happeneing so I smply asked you what date this tax was increased so I can check out the department of finance site to verify your claims.

coffee_cake

Rabidlamb wrote: »

You're all about right.
I do pay 6% into a pension & there's the Aviva health insurance of about €2k for the year.
Then there's the months with car tax & insurance, running 2 cars.
I forgot the missus has a small credit union loan but that's covered by the €300 a month child benefit.
I'm at a loss to explain where it's all going.
We wouldn't spend >€100 a week on entertainment cause we don't have it to spend.
Who is taking all my money ?.

OP you can't say you can't take any more cuts if you don't know where it is going :eek:
Absolutely vital you sit down together with her asap and document everything you have been spending. Keep a record for a few months - if not always - of absolutely everything you are buying.

starbelgrade

gurramok wrote: »

That leaves 2,300 left over per month, where does it go to?

Duh. That's obvious... coke & hookers.

Under A Funeral Moon

bluewolf wrote: »

I can't imagine all that adds up to 2200 :eek:

I'm honestly curious though

That's just off the top of my head. All the little expenses add up though.
Just as a quick example, supposing they both spend €5 per day on lunch. (Mon - Fri). That would be almost €220 per month!

Echospace

Rabidlamb wrote: »

You're all about right.
I do pay 6% into a pension & there's the Aviva health insurance of about €2k for the year.
Then there's the months with car tax & insurance, running 2 cars.
I forgot the missus has a small credit union loan but that's covered by the €300 a month child benefit.
I'm at a loss to explain where it's all going.
We wouldn't spend >€100 a week on entertainment cause we don't have it to spend.
Who is taking all my money ?.

Get a pen and paper and track every cent of income and outgoings for the next month to find out what's wrong.

Have you considered switching to airtricity or one of the other gas/esb suppliers?

Have you shopped around for your health insurance renewal? This can save hundreds.

Likewise with car insurance, personally saved almost €500 on my renewal last year by switching companies.

Do you donate to charities?

coffee_cake

Under A Funeral Moon wrote: »

That's just off the top of my head. All the little expenses add up though.
Just as a quick example, supposing they both spend €5 per day on lunch. (Mon - Fri). That would be almost €220 per month!

lol I was thinking that but didn't put it in. Lunch was the first thing I thought of as an extra, it really adds up.

Under A Funeral Moon

bluewolf wrote: »

lol I was thinking that but didn't put it in. Lunch was the first thing I thought of as an extra, it really adds up.

It's a serious waste of money when you think about it. I used to buy my lunch every day in a shop down the road. It was averaging at €5 per day, which is €110. I just make my own lunch now most days. Every little helps. :P

RobbieTheRobber

thebigbiffo wrote: »

you've heard of this thing i presume?

http://www.taxation.ie/2010/09/budget-2011/

its where the government try to figure out how to pay all the uselss gits in the public service who dont deserve it. i do include overpaid bureaucrats in that statement but do exclude people who actually work for a living: nurses, ambulance drivers etc etc

And eh you have a copy of the budget for 2011 do you?

The measures included have already been applied to your wage have they?

Rabidlamb

OP you can't say you can't take any more cuts if you don't know where it is going :eek:
Absolutely vital you sit down together with her asap and document everything you have been spending. Keep a record for a few months - if not always - of absolutely everything you are buying.

Get a pen and paper and track every cent of income and outgoings for the next month to find out what's wrong.

Have you considered switching to airtricity or one of the other gas/esb suppliers?

Have you shopped around for your health insurance renewal? This can save hundreds.

Likewise with car insurance, personally saved almost €500 on my renewal last year by switching companies.

Do you donate to charities?

We've switched over to the cheapest utility providers already.
I always shop around for house/car insurance.
Aviva were the cheapest health insurers by far.

I need to examine the outgoings further as there must be something big I'm missing.

coffee_cake

Under A Funeral Moon wrote: »

It's a serious waste of money when you think about it. I used to buy my lunch every day in a shop down the road. It was averaging at €5 per day, which is €110. I just make my own lunch now most days. Every little helps. :P

I couldn't be bothered
But I'm doing ok. A sandwich here is 1.70 or a big bowl of stew 1.50 and 40c for coffee... so that's ok!

starbelgrade

Rabidlamb wrote: »

You're all about right.
I do pay 6% into a pension & there's the Aviva health insurance of about €2k for the year.
Then there's the months with car tax & insurance, running 2 cars.
I forgot the missus has a small credit union loan but that's covered by the €300 a month child benefit.
I'm at a loss to explain where it's all going.
We wouldn't spend >€100 a week on entertainment cause we don't have it to spend.
Who is taking all my money ?.

At a guess... your missus.

Ask her how much money she spends a month on;

- clothes
- hair
- make-up
- salon visits
- toiletries
- coffee / lunches with the girls
- chocolate / treats for herself
- magazines
- presents for yours & other people's children
- other stuff

And prepare to be shocked.

conorhal

Under A Funeral Moon wrote: »

That's just off the top of my head. All the little expenses add up though.
Just as a quick example, supposing they both spend €5 per day on lunch. (Mon - Fri). That would be almost €220 per month!

The little expenses add up, but in fairness they have a disposable income of over 26 thousand pounds, that's a disposable income alone equal to the national average wage. I think the whinger needs to come clean about his coke habit......

Under A Funeral Moon

bluewolf wrote: »

I couldn't be bothered
But I'm doing ok. A sandwich here is 1.70 or a big bowl of stew 1.50 and 40c for coffee... so that's ok!

Let me guess, FAS??

Mena

Get a Debit card (note the D! ) and use that for everything.

I found I was throwing away a fortune by using ATM's. Need to get milk or whatever? ATM only has €50.00 notes... that's €50.00 blown really, ends up as small change in the nether regions of your car or spent on some crap like 43 bars of chocolate etc.

Rabidlamb

starbelgrade wrote: »

At a guess... your missus.

Ask her how much money she spends a month on;

- clothes
- hair
- make-up
- salon visits
- toiletries
- coffee / lunches with the girls
- chocolate / treats for herself
- magazines
- presents for yours & other people's children
- other stuff

And prepare to be shocked.

Great, now I don't trust the wife.
My money grabbing thieving wife.
She wears clothes, yes she does...
Her hair smells clean & even perfumed.
She's putting on weight so I reckon she's eating food aswell.
I'm going to get to the bottom of this.

Saila

Rabidlamb wrote: »

I need to examine the outgoings further as there must be something big I'm missing.

Broadband, Digital TV, Smokes?

Greentopia

starbelgrade wrote: »

At a guess... your missus.

Ask her how much money she spends a month on;

- clothes
- hair
- make-up
- salon visits
- toiletries
- coffee / lunches with the girls
- chocolate / treats for herself
- magazines
- presents for yours & other people's children
- other stuff

And prepare to be shocked.

I hate to agree being female myself...but yeah. Your answer for where the hole lies in your finances may lay at the feet of your missus.
Specially if she's trying to keep up with the Jones-friends, sisters.

coffee_cake

Under A Funeral Moon wrote: »

Let me guess, FAS??

No :D

Qualitymark

Arithmetic isn't my strongest point, but are you earning over €1,300 a week between you, before tax?

It is amazing to me how my money just glugs away - a little side trip into Tesco's just cost me €20 after I thought I'd bought the week's food for two for €150 (we eat well).

You know, I used to hate trying to keep track of my spending - it made me feel guilty and foolish and miserable. But now that I'm getting a handle on it, it's actually kind of fun - when I get one of those leaflets with 'special offers' through the door, I really know how much things normally cost, and whether these are good deals are not.

OP, not counting any mortgage, a fairly standard list of standing orders and direct debits work out at around €500 a month, including car tax and insurance, drug scheme payment of €120, health, home and pet insurance, phone and broadband, and Airtricity gas and electricity, and a mobile phone.

Yours are probably not un-similar. I'd sit down and track it all, if I were you - but for goodness sake avoid making this a cause for rows and finger-pointing; the most important thing you have is each other.

If you do want to cut back, is there any way you can get by with one car rather than two? Do you smoke? If so, this is a good time to quit, because you'll save a fortune now, and avoid health costs later. Same with alcohol - if you can cut it back and have alcohol only at weekends, it'll save you money and be good for your health.

With the kids, same thing - try to make the Big Mac visits a monthly rather than twice-weekly treat, don't feed them fizzy drinks and crisps (expensive empty calories)...

I honestly don't think you have a lot to worry about. On your income you should be well able to pay more tax.

HarryPotter41

Rabidlamb wrote: »

We've switched over to the cheapest utility providers already.
I always shop around for house/car insurance.
Aviva were the cheapest health insurers by far.

I need to examine the outgoings further as there must be something big I'm missing.

As far as I can figure out you have serious minor spends that you don't realise as some previous posters have said and €5 here €5 there adds up every week. Your disposable income is more than the total take home pay for some of my married colleages and they cope.

Look at your phone and tv bills again, when I did I was able to make serious savings by finally biting the bullet on what I needed in comparison to what I would like/thought I needed and manage quite happily without them.

And for health insurance try http://www.hsf.eu.com/ireland/ , some of my colleagues swear by them.

liquoriceall

Contary to popular belief not all women spend lots of money on going to hairdressers, getting new clothes etc Id be more interested to see how much he spends on a night out? For some reason men seem to think they should get into rounds with people something I hate as it works out so much more expensive with people buying drink for people that they dont even want

ascanbe

Echospace wrote: »

I think it's crazy and completely backwards that the people actually contributing money into the country's finances through PAYE (I presume you are both private sector workers), are struggling. And yet the social welfare class who contribute nothing, but extract money from the country, are fine. The political/developer class who contribute nothing, and also extract money from the country are fine. The public/civil service, who are still being paid 28% higher than the average private industrial wage, and who also contribute nothing towards the country's finances (and the concept of public sector "tax" is laughable) are protected by union agreements.

This situation can't continue for much longer anyway. A young married couple, BOTH working, shouldn't have to worry about being able to afford television/broadband bills. These are the type of people who will actually get the country OUT of recession.

How do you think the country's finances would be if the vast majority of people didn't have any education, access to basic healthcare etc?
I'd imagine they'd be possibly even worse than they are now; a catastrophic situation largely due to our buccaneering heroes in the private sector being given free reign.

Kasabian

The OP is taking the piss.

OctavarIan

Rabidlamb wrote: »

I need to examine the outgoings further as there must be something big I'm missing.

Common sense?

Seriously, you're making over €5k a month and from the sounds of it you don't budget at all, what do you expect?

Start tracking every expense, use some financial tracking tools like the excellent Mint.com. By every expense I mean every expense, every bar of chocolate, every newspaper, everything no matter how small. You really have no idea how fast the little things (which are in 99% of cases totally not needed) add up.

By looking at every purchase and thinking 'do I really need this' you'll start saving instantly. I guarantee if you say those five words to yourself before buying something you'll be amazed in a few months at the amount of useless ****e you used to buy.

knird evol

Mena wrote: »

Get a Debit card (note the D! ) and use that for everything.

I found I was throwing away a fortune by using ATM's. Need to get milk or whatever? ATM only has €50.00 notes... that's €50.00 blown really, ends up as small change in the nether regions of your car or spent on some crap like 43 bars of chocolate etc.

cut the crap you knew you were getting those 43 chocolate bars when you got a fifty from atm

starbelgrade

Rabidlamb wrote: »

Great, now I don't trust the wife.
My money grabbing thieving wife.
She wears clothes, yes she does...
Her hair smells clean & even perfumed.
She's putting on weight so I reckon she's eating food aswell.
I'm going to get to the bottom of this.

Whatever you do, don't mention the fact that she's putting on weight or her bottom.

Otherwise, that's at least another €100 gone on comfort spending by her and another €100 on a "f*ck him" purchase or two.