Just Barely Getting By - Need Budgeting Advice!

tempnam

OK – so I’ve done out a monthly budget for myself and my wife. We both have a standing order to our joint account which is where most of our monthly expenditure comes from (mortgage, household utility bills, grocery shopping, diesel etc.)

So the day after payday – my S/O goes to the current account and I take note of what I need to hold onto in my own account for my mobile phone bill & commuting, I’m then left with about €170 for the rest of the month.
This is to cover everything other than normal day-to-day things like bills & food shopping etc. For example, if I don’t bring lunch to work one day, or if I fancy a coffee etc. But it also has to cover other things like repair works to the car (which happened recently) and repairs to the gas boiler (which also happened recently), dressing our daughter, dentist/doctor visits etc. – all of a sudden I’m paying for essentials with the credit card…

Just to break down and give an idea – here is how my account looks at the start of each month (having being paid at the end of the previous month):

Salary in: €X
Standing Order to Joint Account: €Y
Mobile Phone Bill: €50
Parking Space for work : €80
Toll Charges (average): €10
Standing Order to Savings: €200
Remaining: €170

Then there are the annual expenses (car tax, insurance, LPT, TV Licence) – which it’s almost impossible to budget for since we never have enough money to put aside

My wife is in a very similar situation. We have a child, but can’t afford for one of us not to work – so she is with a minder during the working day. It just feels like we’re busting our a**es working hard every week only to have no life. It’s now WORK>HOME>SLEEP>WORK>HOME>SLEEP>REPEAT….. we have no social life as we can barely afford anything. We already have a very modest lifestyle, and it’s actually getting depressing now how difficult things are getting.

I do realise we are luckier than some in that we have jobs and a roof over our heads etc… but there has to be more to life than this!!!

Any helpful advice/comments would be greatly appreciated!

OU812

You haven't put the figures of your income or outgoings so it's impossible to tell how well or badly you're doing.

One thing that did jump out at me is your phone bill. That's huge. I just switched to a business account with eircom & pre tax it's €25 a month for both of us. For that we get all calls, all texts, 15gb data each, 2500 minutes roaming in UK/Europe/USA which is charges as if at home & also calls to the UK.

You're paying way too much there.

Also as a tip, I set up all our payees on online banking & found what the average monthly expenditure was last year. I rounded that up and pay it weekly as soon as money hits the account. I over pay everything & have a credit balance at the end of the year which I request back from them for Xmas. I was able to pay off an additional €2,500 off my mortgage principle last year by doing that which saved me four months payments over the term of the mortgage. Gonna be doing that every year from here on out.

draiochtanois

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Jasper79

Yes it's impossible to tell without incoming /outgoing figures.

Also 200 a month into savings when you're struggling to get through the month is crazy IMO.

Fishyfreak

€200 to savings is ridiculous.

If you can afford to save, it's a great thing but you simply can't afford it!

Use your savings for those expensive repairs/maintenance etc. You are needlessly making life too difficult for yourself IMO.

tempnam

OU812 wrote: »

You haven't put the figures of your income or outgoings so it's impossible to tell how well or badly you're doing.

One thing that did jump out at me is your phone bill. That's huge. I just switched to a business account with eircom & pre tax it's €25 a month for both of us. For that we get all calls, all texts, 15gb data each, 2500 minutes roaming in UK/Europe/USA which is charges as if at home & also calls to the UK.

You're paying way too much there.

Also as a tip, I set up all our payees on online banking & found what the average monthly expenditure was last year. I rounded that up and pay it weekly as soon as money hits the account. I over pay everything & have a credit balance at the end of the year which I request back from them for Xmas. I was able to pay off an additional €2,500 off my mortgage principle last year by doing that which saved me four months payments over the term of the mortgage. Gonna be doing that every year from here on out.

I didn't think that my exact income & outgoings are especially relevant since all of the outgoings are essential and at as low a rate as we can get at the moment.... so what's relevant is the remaining money I have after outgoings...?

I'm in a contract with my phone until the end of this year, so don't know if I can get out of that yet?

We have all bills set up on Direct Debit. Why pay them off weekly when we're billed monthly and we're paid monthly? Do you use them as a mini-savings-club type thing? It's a good idea!

draiochtanois wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Thanks. I already do some of what you have mentioned.

Shop in Lidl / Aldi.

Driving is the most efficient and also cheapest way for me to get to work at the moment.

We have a basic UPC TV & Broadband package. In my mind, broadband is now a utility and not a non-essential item.

I take lunch to work 99% of the time.

I have a review in work coming up soon and will be asking for a rise!

Thanks.

OU812

tempnam wrote: »

I didn't think that my exact income & outgoings are especially relevant since all of the outgoings are essential and at as low a rate as we can get at the moment.... so what's relevant is the remaining money I have after outgoings...?

It's relevant because there's no baseline to pitch against, you could be earning €100k a year & only have €170 a month left over (really bad), or you could be earning €30k and have €170 a month left over plus savings (really good)

tempnam wrote: »

I'm in a contract with my phone until the end of this year, so don't know if I can get out of that yet?

Probably not, but it's worth talking to them to see if they'll do anything

tempnam wrote: »

We have all bills set up on Direct Debit. Why pay them off weekly when we're billed monthly and we're paid monthly? Do you use them as a mini-savings-club type thing? It's a good idea!

Well we're paid weekly so it makes sense from our POV, utilities are usually billed every two months so budgeting if you're not used to it is a little more difficult. We find paying them weekly works for us, we generally end up in a credit situation very quickly with them and although it wasn't intended to be that way, they do function as a mini savings club. There's no lump sums to try to scale for either.

Mrs OBumble

How much are you spending on food and groceries? That's one of the most obvious ways that lots of people can cut down. As a benchmark, I would say that any more than E100 per week is excessive, given what the rest of your budget is like.

Any chance of getting a parking space a little further way from work more cheaply?

Also, what happens to your Child Allowance? Is your income low enough to qualify for FIS?

CiniO

OU812 wrote: »

It's relevant because there's no baseline to pitch against, you could be earning €100k a year & only have €170 a month left over (really bad), or you could be earning €30k and have €170 a month left over plus savings (really good)

Is it really "really good" ?
30k per annum gives about €2200 per monthly disposable income.

€200 savings + €170 left after paying essentials means that essentials would be €1830.
Assuming both spouses work, so each one contributes €1830 this gives €3660 per month.
Is it not excessive €3600 just to cover mortgage, bills, food and fuel?

To Elland Back

Are you claiming all your tax allowances and credits and are they allocated efficiently between you and your wife?

I use this budget calculator. It highlights where the money goes

http://www.zurichlife.ie/popups/budget_spreadsheet.jsp

sillysocks

We do a few things to spread out the yearly/bi monthly costs. Just helps not to have big bills coming in.

Tv license can be paid direct debit every month instead of once a year - doesn't cost any extra.

Both our gas and electricity are on the monthly setup where the company will take an amount each month (which is based on your prior years usage at the start), so they take the same amount each month to save you getting hit with big bills in the winter and every two months. So eg in July when we don't use half as much gas and electricity we pay the same as in Decemeber. Going into the winter we have a credit built up and then that gets used over the winter.

It might cost a small bit more but we usually pay insurances etc monthly rather than once a year-just find it easier to manage for us rather than needing the lump sum sitting there.

None of that saves you money but just might help spread costs a bit.