How to get on the property ladder.

Purple Mountain

Buying a mobile/caravan will eat into your deposit too.

pwurple

For savings... I poured over the finances like a hawk for months, trimming everything off. I mean flippen everything. We dropped a car for a while and cycled. I don’t know if you have two cars and can do a carpool or public transport etc.

Remove all non essential monthly bills. Phones (go pay as you go and never make calls), tv, everything.

Limit buying. Get hands-on. Repairing / adjusting clothes rather than buying. If buying, go second hand. Cooking from scratch, growing as well where possible.

Sell anything of value not being used, nonessential. Playstation, books, dvds, old kids toys, everything and anything. I once sold a pack of vitamins. I swear my ebay and done deal profile absolutely soared while we were saving. And you would not believe the stuff people buy on etsy. I swear to god, any crafty notion you have at all... hawk it.

Bad habits. Identify Any. Swiftly ditch them. Gambling. Smoking. Drinking. Pyramid schemes.


It’s all temporary... support eachother.

trixychic

pwurple wrote: »

For savings... I poured over the finances like a hawk for months, trimming everything off. I mean flippen everything. We dropped a car for a while and cycled. I don’t know if you have two cars and can do a carpool or public transport etc.

Remove all non essential monthly bills. Phones (go pay as you go and never make calls), tv, everything.

Limit buying. Get hands-on. Repairing / adjusting clothes rather than buying. If buying, go second hand. Cooking from scratch, growing as well where possible.

Sell anything of value not being used, nonessential. Playstation, books, dvds, old kids toys, everything and anything. I once sold a pack of vitamins. I swear my ebay and done deal profile absolutely soared while we were saving. And you would not believe the stuff people buy on etsy. I swear to god, any crafty notion you have at all... hawk it.

Bad habits. Identify Any. Swiftly ditch them. Gambling. Smoking. Drinking. Pyramid schemes.


It’s all temporary... support eachother.

Thanks for this. We don't drink, smoke or gamble and I don't even know what pyramid schemes are. Ha. I'll start doing that though. Thanks

As for living in the mobile thanks for the input. I definitely see where everyone is coming from. Thanks .

Purple Mountain

You sound like a lovely mam and wife so I wish you sincere good luck.
Respect for parenting a child with special educational needs.
xx

catrionanic

pwurple wrote: »

For savings... I poured over the finances like a hawk for months, trimming everything off. I mean flippen everything. We dropped a car for a while and cycled. I don’t know if you have two cars and can do a carpool or public transport etc.

Remove all non essential monthly bills. Phones (go pay as you go and never make calls), tv, everything.

Limit buying. Get hands-on. Repairing / adjusting clothes rather than buying. If buying, go second hand. Cooking from scratch, growing as well where possible.

Sell anything of value not being used, nonessential. Playstation, books, dvds, old kids toys, everything and anything. I once sold a pack of vitamins. I swear my ebay and done deal profile absolutely soared while we were saving. And you would not believe the stuff people buy on etsy. I swear to god, any crafty notion you have at all... hawk it.

Bad habits. Identify Any. Swiftly ditch them. Gambling. Smoking. Drinking. Pyramid schemes.


It’s all temporary... support eachother.

Plenty of ideas here.

I also find it much easier to budget if we don’t use our debit cards. Withdraw your budget in cash at the start of each week and make it last. If you have any of it left over at the end of the week, put it in a money box. A tenner a week or whatever soon grows.

Heres Johnny

Have you gone in to your bank yet? They have financial planners which is the job I do myself. If you don't want to do this in a bank I do a financial review for people and set plans and make recommendations. You seem like a lovely lady trying her best to raise a child in a difficult situation I would be happy to take a call from you and go through everything to try help you if you don't want to go to banks yet. But the bank should be helpful really.

ABEasy

I know it has been mentioned a few times already but you should be entitled to the incapacitated child tax credit, if you have not applied for it yet do so straight away, it is worth 3.3k p.a. and can be back dated 4 years (you will lose a year if you don't apply before 31/12), that's 13.2k in potential tax refunds. That could be the deposit you need.

myshirt

ABEasy wrote: »

I know it has been mentioned a few times already but you should be entitled to the incapacitated child tax credit, if you have not applied for it yet do so straight away, it is worth 3.3k p.a. and can be back dated 4 years (you will lose a year if you don't apply before 31/12), that's 13.2k in potential tax refunds. That could be the deposit you need.

Yes.

Also ensure to claim back tax on medical expenses for the child. Look at home carers credit also, and if you have private health insurance ensure you are claiming back what you need to there. The deposit is the hardest part.

JMNolan

trixychic wrote: »

How are others doing it??

Others here have helped with your spending and stuff so I'll tell you how we did it. Like you we have a child with autism so my wife stays at home, we have 3 kids. I worked security for about 7 years (I arranged with my employer to only do weekend nights, so Thursday - Sunday night, about 50 hours a week) but I managed to go back to college for 4 of those years and retrained for software.
The software industry pays quite well and once I had a few years experience the wages went up a fair bit. We had to move alright to follow the jobs.

rightyabe

What’s people’s opinion on using 100% of my savings (90,000€) and borrowing about €30,000 more which I’d could easily pay back in 2 years?

I’d be mortgage free which would be great but it feels hard to hand over all I’ve saved over 5 years in one big hit. Would I be better of borrowing more, let’s say 60000 over 10 years and keep some savings for minor renovations to the house/holidays etc..

Wesser

I think people opinions would be start your own thread.

trixychic

Thank you so much for all of the replies. Believe me we are looking into all of them. I really appriciate the the help.

And hey we could win the lotto some day and not worry at all. Ha ha ha. We will keep pushing forward. I applies for a few part time jobs the last few days. Mainly evening times so hubby could be home for the kids.

Fingers crossed we get there eventually. Thank you.

Interested Observer

trixychic wrote: »

Thank you so much for all of the replies. Believe me we are looking into all of them. I really appriciate the the help.

And hey we could win the lotto some day and not worry at all. Ha ha ha. We will keep pushing forward. I applies for a few part time jobs the last few days. Mainly evening times so hubby could be home for the kids.

Fingers crossed we get there eventually. Thank you.

All the best, hope things work out for you.

riclad

https://www.independent.ie/life/home-garden/homes/architects-clinic-were-planning-a-selfbuild-how-much-should-we-expect-to-spend-35836161.html

https://www.fastcompany.com/3056129/this-house-costs-just-20000-but-its-nicer-than-yours


An irish architect has a website,
i looked at it in 2016.
he has full detailed plans free to download ,the cost of building is
20k for a 2 bed house.800sq ft
Using basic materials wood plasterboard .
he lists all the materials used .
eg 3 sinks cost 320 euro.
Its a catch 22 , you pay rent,
you cant save a large deposit.
house prices are predicted to go up by 20 per cent by 2020

20k does not include the cost of the site.
in my experience 80 per cent of council house,s were already sold to the tenant.the average age of the owner is 30-40 .
if i find the link i,ll post it here.
Or just buy a cottage a few miles from dublin and modernise it,
with new bathrooms, kitchen, windows.
i could build the house in the plans,
but i,d have to pay an electrician and a plumber to install water pipes

And have the wiring installed .

most of the materials are cheap and light which reduces build cost.
All the items and materials are new .
the plans are very detailed eg pvc window kitchen 5ft x 4ft .
kitchen door 198cm
x85cm

http://www.daft.ie/meath/houses-for-sale/kildalkey/kildalkey-village-kildalkey-meath-1573689/
https://selfbuild.ie/construction/build-cost-estimator/

LirW

OP is in Carlow.
The question is will you get planning for it and how energy efficient is that, because there are strict rules.
20k for a 2bed house is one thing, but getting the place wired and plumbed is another thing and that is expensive (I'm just rewiring and replumbing the place and hell, it's mad). Plumbing material is certainly not cheap.

I wouldn't recommend anyone who's caring for an autistic child recommend building a house, this is stressful beyond believe.

Cunning Stunt

riclad wrote: »

An irish architect has a website,
i looked at it in 2016.
he has full detailed plans free to download ,the cost of building is
20k for a 2 bed house.800sq ft
Using basic materials wood plasterboard .
he lists all the materials used .
eg 3 sinks cost 320 euro.

Was it this guy, Dominic Stevens?

http://www.irishvernacular.com/

Maz2016

trixychic wrote: »

Hi guys

Well myself and hubby have been scrimping and scraping every little bit we have to try and get on the property ladder but it just doesn't look like it will ever be a possibility!!!

How are others doing it??

Hi and what a very interesting thread. Im in a similar situation. Saving so so hard. Some tips I could offer - (some have already been mentioned)

-Keep a record of all spending for a month - On excel spreadsheet. You'd be very surprised how much non essential things you bought over the month. Sounds OTT doing this but if you do, I guarantee you will find savings.

-Change phone plan. Dont be loyal to any company. An Post phone currently have an offer 250mins+250texts+5GB of data for 10 euro a month!

-Same with electricity - shop around! I recently switched companies and got a good offer.

-Ditch the cable TV if you have it and go free to air. It has so many channels that you will find something to watch.

-Plan your weeks cooking in advance. I batch cook a lot of things now and freeze them. No waste and its cheaper to buy bigger batches.Take it out of the freezer the night before and put it in the fridge to defrost. (Curries, Sheppards pie etc)

-Cut out shopping in the local shop and stick to one big supermarket shop per week - as much as possible.

-Bring lunches to work .

-For your weekly take away, go online and see if there is offers. Just Eat and the likes often have discounts for your local take away.

-Dont be brand loyal in supermarkets either. Buy things when on offer.

-Good idea mentioned above about withdrawing cash at the start of the week and not using cards. Make do with what you have withdrawn.

-Claim all medical expenses at the end of the year with revenue - you'd be surprised how quick it mounts up.

I know what its like and its a horrible feeling to save so hard and feel your getting no where. But you are doing great. Don't feel disheartened. Things will come right for ye. The very best of luck

December2012

would it be possible for you to earn extra money doing childminding? Or could you look into becoming a Special Need assistant in a school? it would be a way for you to earn an income, without additional childcare costs, and its something that you are presumably very good at handling?

trixychic

Maz2016 wrote: »

Hi and what a very interesting thread. Im in a similar situation. Saving so so hard. Some tips I could offer - (some have already been mentioned)

-Keep a record of all spending for a month - On excel spreadsheet. You'd be very surprised how much non essential things you bought over the month. Sounds OTT doing this but if you do, I guarantee you will find savings.

-Change phone plan. Dont be loyal to any company. An Post phone currently have an offer 250mins+250texts+5GB of data for 10 euro a month!

-Same with electricity - shop around! I recently switched companies and got a good offer.

-Ditch the cable TV if you have it and go free to air. It has so many channels that you will find something to watch.

-Plan your weeks cooking in advance. I batch cook a lot of things now and freeze them. No waste and its cheaper to buy bigger batches.Take it out of the freezer the night before and put it in the fridge to defrost. (Curries, Sheppards pie etc)

-Cut out shopping in the local shop and stick to one big supermarket shop per week - as much as possible.

-Bring lunches to work .

-For your weekly take away, go online and see if there is offers. Just Eat and the likes often have discounts for your local take away.

-Dont be brand loyal in supermarkets either. Buy things when on offer.

-Good idea mentioned above about withdrawing cash at the start of the week and not using cards. Make do with what you have withdrawn.

-Claim all medical expenses at the end of the year with revenue - you'd be surprised how quick it mounts up.

I know what its like and its a horrible feeling to save so hard and feel your getting no where. But you are doing great. Don't feel disheartened. Things will come right for ye. The very best of luck

Thank you for this. It's encouraging to have the positive feedback. I hope its all turning right for you too. Xxx

riclad

as far as i know Anyone earning under at least 25k can apply for a council mortgage,
eg for dcc it must be in local authority area, the apartment or house must be in good structural condition.

http://www.dublincity.ie/housing-and-community-i-am-looking-home-section/mortgages

My friend got a council loan 12 years ago for 75k.used it to buy a 1bed
apartment.
you,ll still need to pay a lawyer ,
Try and save at least 15k,
legal fees will be 1200 euro approx.
You can buy any proprety in theory,
as long as its taken to be affordable,
eg in 3 years time you will be able to pay the mortgage while lwaving money over to pay esb,insurance,food bills