Welcome back to Part 2 of our House Buying Guide. Our first season of the Irish Home Show we are taking you through each step in the House Buying Journey. This week, go deeper into Savings and some practical steps for Saving for a Deposit. We take you through the steps of Evaluating your Finances, Setting Out A Savings Plan, and Tracking Your Savings towards your Deposit.
Our interview is with Caz Mooney, @IrishBudgeting who has developed an incredible following in less than a year by telling her story and her strategies for saving money and budgeting your expenses as a family.
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At the end we have our fun features – In, Out and Away & New Home vs Old Home – plus a round up of this week’s news you need to know.
Find out more about the house buying process at www.IrishHome.ie and Follow us on Instagram @IrishHomeMagazine
If you are starting your Home Buying Journey, order the Irish Home Buyer’s Journal here…
Transcript
For the Full Transcript of this Episode click “Read More” below.
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Hello and welcome back to the Irish home show. I’m your host, Ben, the friendliest estate agent. You’re joining us for part two of our Irish home buyers series. Each week, we are gonna be talking you through a different stage in the house buying journey from saving a deposit to getting your mortgage, to getting out their house hunting and hopefully going set agreed, and finally getting the keys to your new home.
Last episode, you would’ve heard us talk all about savings. Our savings one on one explainer took you through all the things you needed to prepare for in saving up for a deposit, your purchasing costs, et. We saw how our fictional couple Chris and Kira would need to save at least 41,000 euros, just to be able to buy a house of 350,000 euros we also talked through the various schemes that are available if you need some help with that deposit, but
now this week, we’re gonna be talking savings again, and I’m gonna jump into more detail of how you can first evaluate your income and work out what you can save, how, when and where you are going to save your money and keeping track of your progress so that you keep motivated all the way through what could be, uh, a long process.
Then in our interview, we are talking to the brilliant CAS Moony. You’ll known her on Instagram as at Irish budgeting. She has blown up in the last year and she’s got over a hundred thousand followers now in just a year, uh, just by posting brilliant tips for saving and budgeting as a family. She bought her own home, uh, only a couple years ago using her savings tips to save up their deposit in less than a.
Finally at the end 📍 of the 📍 show, we have our usual little fun features, uh, in, out and away and new home versus old home where we compare properties on the market at the moment and run you through the thought process of why you should buy in certain areas or a certain type of house. This week, we’re heading north out of Dublin, and we’re looking at a much tighter price bracket of houses for 250,000 euros.
That’s the national average, but it’s tricky to buy, uh, in, in county, Dublin and beyond in that price range. So let’s see what we can find. And then for our new build, we’ve got a much more expensive house and, uh, we get to see some fantastic properties there
that you could afford for the same price uh north of dub then at the end of the show, we wrap up with news that you can use.
Thanks for joining us on this second episode, I look forward to keep talking to you about your home buying journey. You can find us at Irish home, do E or on Instagram at Irish home magazine. And if you want DME or email me, if you have any questions, suggestions, interview, topics, or ideas, uh, I’d love to hear from you.
You can reach me at Ben Irish, home dot E or you can DME on social 📍 media. Now let’s get on with the show.
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📍 Welcome to part two of our savings. Explainer this episode, we’re gonna talk more about the practical steps and calculations you are gonna need to make. When you are thinking about saving towards buying a. In this episode, I’m actually gonna be going through some of the inside pages of our Irish home buyers journal.
Where in section one, we set out a plan for your savings. We start by evaluating your finances, and then we go through to setting out a savings plan.
So step one is to evaluate your finances Here. We’re just gonna help you calculate what money’s coming in and what money’s going out. So you can see where savings can be made, how much you could save and how long it’s gonna take you to get to your deposit amount.
First up income. This should be simple. Take all your combined income and list it out for most people. That will just be your take home salary. Or if you’re a couple, both of your salaries combined, and we wanna look at the net monthly income.
So that’s probably what you see in your bank account on the last day of the month, uh, the money that comes in from your employer, that is your net monthly salary. That’s your real disposable income that you have after taxes and everything like that. So let’s take, if you’re a couple, both your incomes, add them together.
Any other income, if you have them from investments or a, a side business or something like that, add them in there too. And we’ll get a total monthly net income.
Let’s take our example. Couple again, Chris and Kira let’s say Chris is a nurse and Kira is a Garda. They met in copies. I’m sure they both earn 40,000 a year. So their net monk income probably after taxes is around 2,600 euros combined. Then they have a salary of around five, 5,200 euros net every month.
The next step is to look at your outgoings this time. We’re gonna need your bank statements. Think of this as your little mortgage broker. Pre-check. When you do get down to the stage of applying for a mortgage, you are gonna have to give three or six month bank statements to your lender for them to look through, just to see what your outgoings are.
We might as well do a pre-check here now to see what they look.
The first thing to look for are your biggest bills. These are your essentials, those that probably can’t change month to month and are locked in their firm commitments. You have to stick to. These might include your rent, utility bills, electricity and gas, your TV, broadband, or phone contract that you’re on your car insurance, perhaps any health insurance, if you have it outside of work and any other loan payments, so credit union or a credit card.
once you’ve written those down, we make you total up that as your total essential spending figure next. We’re gonna ask you to look at the variable spending, what you spend on a monthly basis that may not be fixed now. They might not be avoidable, but they are variable. So you could perhaps change them.
That might be groceries. How much you spend on food, shopping, uh, commuting, perhaps, uh, entertainment and eating out takeaways or drink and, uh, coffees and snacks and things like that during the day. I’m sure there’s other expenses, subscriptions to various things. Uh, all those sort of things are variable. These are things that are important to us, but they’re not essentials. And perhaps the total amount could be changed.
So in the general, we ask you to put these expenses in two columns, your essentials and your variables, and then you can add up your total spend minus your total income at the beginning of the month. And hopefully we see a positive.
If that positive figure is less than you’d like, then perhaps it’s time to go through those essential spends and try and reduce some and go through those variable spends and try and cut some back. You may remember my chat from Cal Galvan last episode, she suggested a great idea. Highlighting your expenses in your bank statement in red, Amber and green highlighters
Greener your essentials that you can’t change, they might be your rent, your utility bills, or any other loan payments they’re fixed. And you can’t really affect them.
Amber are for those that are possible, you could reduce them. Perhaps you could go for a cheaper phone supplier or a, uh, cutback on your sky bill or something like that. And then finally, red, red are for the absolute WTF. S why am I spending that much on ice coffee? I don’t know, highlight those. And they may be only, you know, three Euro, four Euro every time, but see how quickly they add up. And you suddenly get an idea of those little habits. Now, I’m not gonna tell you, you need to cut back on all the joys in life, but you can quickly see where little bits of money slip away and all of a sudden it’s a couple hundred quit a month.
And that over the course of a year or. Could really, really add up when you’re saving fraud, something really important
Again, kale last week had a great way of thinking about your money. Is this worth something to me now? Or would the money being saved and worth a house later? Be much more valuable to me, it’s worth thinking about every time that you go to spend something,
maybe it’s not all the little coffees or snacks. Maybe it is the bigger things like online shopping for clothes or that holiday or weekend away that you can just think, look, is this worth it to me now? Or is it worth me saving that money? And the joy of having a house in a year or two’s time is greater than the sum of all those little things
now my tip is to start at the bottom of that list of essentials and work her way. Cut out some of the unnecessary little things that you’ve highlighted in read and work your way up to the Amber cutter items that you could perhaps go and renegotiate. I’ve cut my car insurance this year.
You can go and change utility providers. I know all the money experts and politicians and everyone is on TV at the moment telling us these little prety ways of saving money and cutting our expenses, but they do work. They can add up and there’s always bargains out there. There’s no loyalty for sticking with the providers you are with. You should always be looking to switch and change.
Finally, you’ll get near the top of that list and probably the most expensive line items of anyone is rent. If you’re out renting or childcare, if you already have kids, these two things very, very hard to. But I do know plenty of buyers who do decide. Look, I’m gonna go and leave at home with my parents again for a year, just to do that final sprint to get my home. I know, it sounds like a sacrifice and it feels like a step backwards, but I think if you keep your eyes on the prize, it will all be worth it in a year or two’s time where you have a house of your own and your future will change for the better.
So let’s go back to our couple Chris and Kira, they’ve got 5,200 euros coming in every month, but what are their outgoings? Let’s just say they are spending 1200 euros a month on rent. They’re lucky to rent a Womba flat from a family friend.
Uh, their utilities are 200 euros. Their broadband is a hundred euros car insurance and another hundred. Their grocery bill is 500 euros a month. Commuting another 200. Entertainment 400 a month and there’s bits and bobs there for say another 400 a month or so. So we are talking a total of 3000 euros a month going out of their accounts for essentials and living expenses.
So, yes, they’re fortunate not to have a huge 2000 Euro month rental bill and they don’t have kids yet. So they’re not spending 1200 a month on childcare fees. That’s fair enough. But we can definitively say, look, there’s 2000 euros there that we can put away. That is our next step to set a goal.
If Chris and Kira can consistently spend Chris’s money on all their expenses and save most of Kira’s pay packet, they could save to that target deposit and purchasing expenses. Total they need of 41,000 within just over 18 months, just under two years.
It may feel like a hard slog, but time flies. And it is all for the better. If you can get a house at the end of the day.
my final tip is what I call the five W’s of saving. These are when, where, who, how much and why. This is not a page that made it to the journal. So I’m gonna make this available on our Instagram page. This is a great way of setting out a savings plan and I’ll go through it each 📍 step by step.
Now, when. The most important thing. I think all the experts agree on is deciding when you’re gonna put your money into your savings. And almost everyone agrees. It has to be at the beginning of the month when you get paid, do not wait until you’ve got through the month and all your expenses are spent and save what is left over.
You have to put away your target amount at the beginning of the month, as soon as your paycheck’s clears and then live off the remainder after that. Where, where are we gonna put the saving? That’s a good question. Most financial experts agree if you’re gonna be saving for over about two years, you should be putting it away in a long term savings account for a saver on a, you know, one or two year sprint, you might decide something a little bit more easy to access.
Is better. So a credit union account is very good or even Revolute has vaults something that you’re not gonna dip into every day and is just a little bit harder to get into than something like that would be better. The other thing with Revolute is it’s not very clear and easy to print out statements from there, and the banks would like to see where your savings are going.
So, uh, the best suggestion is a credit union account or a, uh, specialist savings account with your. Thirdly, who who’s gonna make the savings. So our example of Kristen Kira, a couple like that might decide Chris’s money is gonna go all on expenses and Kira’s money is gonna go into savings and it’s just gonna.
At the beginning of each month, when her money comes in, she’s gonna put the 2000 Euro away. Others might decide, look, we’re gonna do it equally. You’re gonna put a thousand Euro in each that feels more equitable, uh, or you might decide, well, look, he’s paying for the rent at the moment. So I’ll pay, uh, 1500 and he’ll pay 500 decide at the start and stick to that.
Number four, how much, how much we’re gonna save. We’ve talked about this already set a plan in advance. We are gonna put away 2000 Euro a month, every month consistently. And my last w is. Always remember why you’re doing this. There will be tough times when you feel like you’re scrimping and saving.
You’re missing out on fun events or nights out. Uh, you have to keep focused on the why. Why do we want to save this money? We wanna buy a home. Why do we wanna buy a home? Cause we want a safe roof over our heads for ourselves, for our family, for our future. So stick it on a mood board or something and, uh, and keep focused on your why.
Finally, if you’re using the journal, we have, uh, a two page spread of the deposit tracker air. This is a great way to just physically with pin and ink, keep track of where your money is being saved and how much you’re accumulating as you go. there’s 18 lines on each page. So this means you could save monthly for, or up to three years, or if you were paid, say fortnightly, save fortnightly, and this could last you 18 months as well.
Hopefully by the end of this, you’ll have come to your target that you’ve set out at the beginning.
Finally, probably my most favorite page in the journal is the deposit builder. This is our little graphic of a house where there’s a hundred bricks in here and you can set at the. How much each brick is gonna be worth to you. So say you call a brick 500 euros. Every time you save 500 euros, you color in a brick.
So if Chris and Kira are saving their 2000 euros at the beginning of every month, they can color in four bricks and you can slowly see the target build up. It gives you a good visual physically on the page, not just numbers in a bank account of how far you’ve come and how far you’ve got to go, I get such great feedback from people who are filling this in. People send me photos of how they’ve colored it in shaded it in done all sorts of creative things with this page. And it’s love to see how this has really helped people work towards their goal.
So that’s part two of our savings explainer done. We’ve given you practical steps to evaluating your finance. Coming up with the savings plan and then tracking your deposits towards your final savings goal. Up next Smoy is gonna be giving us more great tips and her story of how she saved towards buying her home.
So I’m talking today to KA Moony. She has grown to fame, particularly on Instagram, with her account at, at Irish budgeting, uh, she has exploded and currently reached a hundred thousand followers, which show goes to show how, how interested people are with, budgeting and saving at the moment.
Kaz. How are. Graham. Ben, how are you? Good. Very well, thank you. Yeah. Pleasure to be talking to you today. Uh, yeah, I think you’re someone I need to speak to, even though I’m not a house buyer at the moment, you know, I think we’re all desperate at the moment to save,, money where we can, whether it’s fuel or, heating the house or particularly food has all gone up.
How are you finding your popular has grown so much this year? People are crying out for an expert like you to give him tips and. . Yeah, it’s been crazy. In the eight months I’ve been on Instagram, it’s just been crazy. Like when I started the prices were just starting to increase. Sure. Yeah. And there was a lot of talk about inflation, but we hadn’t really seen it, hit our own pockets as much yet.
And then I suppose with the war and everything that went on there, it just became such a important topic. The inflation just skyrocketed. So yeah, I think, I think it’s a very real situation for a lot of people to be struggling on their income. And I’d say that’s why a lot of the stuff I talk about a lot of the topics resonate with a lot of people.
Yeah. I think, you know, it’s something that hit. Is almost hitting all aspects of, of Irish, uh, families. Now, whether it’s, you know, young, young couples trying, trying to get on the ladder, whether it’s someone like ourselves who are already, you know, in a house and have a family that’s getting very expensive and even pension is in their old age, you know, if they’re stuck on a fixed income, um, yeah, everything is getting so tight at the moment.
So everyone is looking for ways to, to save and be frugal with their. Well, I, I wanna take it back to start with actually how you got into becoming the expert by doing it yourself. And I understand you were, you know, on the, on a house buying journey in 2019. Tell me, how did that start?
So I went back to work after my middle child went to school and we were suddenly on two incomes for the first time in years. And we were pretty good the first year, but the second year we really enjoyed that second income. so in 2018, we went on two holidays. , we went to Spain as a family, and then we went to America. And it was really the holiday to America. It just all went on the credit card. Yeah. So, um, Yeah, we came home to a crazy credit card bill at the time we had set up the credit card to, , be paying off.
I think it was 70%, , of, and now we landed right between two months. So we were lucky off that way, but no, it was a crazy amount we suddenly had to pay. , and so I suppose. December of 2018, we sat down and we said something had to change. , we had been renting our entire relationship over 10 years.
Right. And we wanted to one day buy a house. And with that crazy, we could see how it would become so easy to live with that debt. Um, so we decided we were going to clear. In the coming year and then hopefully be saving towards a house.
Yeah. I think I, a lot of , my followers and people looking at buying a house are all probably often in the same situation.
They’ve either been renting for a while. That’s been getting increasingly expensive or perhaps they probably are starting. You’re not even starting at zero. You’re starting cause you have a car loan or a credit union loan or a student loan or something like that. Yeah. Um, what’s your advice, you know, so when you, you start down, we’re gonna sit down, we’re gonna look at our debt.
Uh, and our goal is maybe in a year, year or two time in buy a house. What’s the first step. Is it paying down that debt? Our goal was to pay down that debt. Yeah. Because we could see that payment and we knew that it could go then towards saving. , and obviously we wouldn’t be paying that interest, plus it looks really good if you’ve paid a debt off quickly like that, when you’re going to go and buy a house Yeah. it looks really good for a mortgage broker. So, um, it, especially for a, a short term payoff like that, it does look really good. Um, so yeah, that was our, our goal for the first two months of that year. We just wanted to clear that debt and. Be able to start off from a clean slate and work then towards buying that house.
Um, it is difficult because you are thinking, I just want to get started saving immediately. Yeah. But I think it just gives you a win before you’ve started. It gives you, uh, a buzz cause you’ve cleared that debt. And you know, then if I’ve done that I can keep going. I can keep saving at that rate. That’s a really good point.
Yeah. I, I think, you know, both your points there. It’s, it’s a psychological. Um, but also you, as you said before, you’re paying interest on that money. I find a lot of people are, you know, always see on, oh, McGee’s show those sort of financial shows. They, they they’ve got a 30 grand saving. Yeah. But they’ve also got a 17 grand debt and look, why not just, you know, pay that off and okay.
You’ve only got 13 grand saving now, but look, you’re not paying interest. You’re back to back to the start. And, uh, you know, there’s no point carrying that debt when you’re also carrying cash, which isn’t doing anything for you sitting in a savings account, whereas debt is eating away. No, that’s a, that’s a very good point.
So you get into 2019 and, uh, you’ve paid off your, your credit card bills. Uh, and you’re setting out to start saving, uh, was a goal. Look we’ll we’ll we’ll what was the time horizon for you? Do you think you, in a year you would do it or couple years? Or what was the plan? We, we wanted to save, um, We want, we knew we had to save about 15,000, um, or more.
Um, and so we had a goal of saving a minimum of a thousand a month. Okay. Um, so we were thinking it would take us about two years, um, taking into account the Christmas would be there. Yeah. Um, There would be things popping up that we couldn’t foresee. So we decided we were gonna try and set a minimum of a thousand and if we beat.
Brilliant like that was, you know, I I’m can be a little bit competitive with yourself, so I like to have a minimum sure. The best way. Self competitive. Yeah. so I like to have a target there and, uh, yeah, I went for, um, a thousand a month and try to beat it. Um, and we nearly, always did and there was actually once we doubled it.
Oh, wow. So, um, Yeah, that are you well, how do you save your money? So do you save the first day of payday or is it whatever’s left over at the end of the month? Yeah, so I was doing side hustles, um, ex extra income was coming in, um, I was working in a gym at the time. So I was doing personal training as well as my full-time job there.
Um, so I was saving everything I could. So everything that was coming in, I was throwing it into the credit union. Um, so the way I did it is as it came in, I immediately got rid. Out of my hand and that that’s a great idea. Mm-hmm um, because yeah, I just knew I wouldn’t, couldn’t be trusted with it to be honest um, so that’s, that’s the way we did it.
Um, and then a certain amount of our wages as well, went in. So the way we did it is we put all of my wages in after C. So we took out the childcare and then put everything else into that account. And then if my husband could get a bit more, which I used to really, uh, heavily with him, , you know, persuade him.
um, we’d throw that in as well, but we, it wasn’t necessarily. Like needed, but it, you know, that was how we did it. We found it easier to live off the one wage. Yes. Yeah. I think a lot of people try and do that. Try and put that and everything you earn and if you can do extra training sessions or extra side hustles.
Yeah. Um, all that goes in and that is tucked away, uh, in the, in the credit union. But so your, your only extra income are you, were you cutting back on your spending? So, you know, very, very tightly. So you weren’t going out, you weren’t doing anything like that. How frugally were you living? Yeah. . we did a no spend year that year.
So Spain city, the audience for that. Yeah, it, it sounds terrifying, , to most people, , but it’s essentially, , not spending money on things that aren’t essential. So, , we had some, I think we had five things we were allowed to spend on. So we were allowed to spend on food utilities, you know, your bills.
Um, we were allowed to spend on. Our kids for clothing. So if they grew out of something, they always will, will you can’t avoid that chose for them. Yeah. And, um, we tried to, um, come up with better ways of spending our money. If we were say doing something like a family holiday, um, we tried to come up with a different way of spending that money instead of.
Paying to go abroad. Okay. So, um, we would still spend money, but we would just really cut down on how much it would be. um, and then we still bought plus day presents and things like that, but we just brought it right down, um, to the yeah. Yeah. Space. So you weren’t completely harsh, but what you, weren’t going out for meals, you weren’t buying lots of clothes or shoes, anything for yourselves, no meals, you know, and things like that.
No. And no sort of foreign trips. Uh, and this was all in 2019. So you don’t even have COVID as the excuse for no foreign trips. You actually were. You were doing it already. So it’s been a while, I guess, since you’ve been away, it’s been a while since we’ve been abroad. Yeah. Fair enough. That’s even more impressive.
Yeah. Right. Okay. So you see your, your only thing as much as you can and putting it away as quick as possible, your, your cutting back and saving on, uh, just bare, you know, so the bare bones essentials. Um, and so how quickly yeah, you were Amy sort of 15,000, how quickly did it take you to. Um, so we actually got there by November, um, which is the same month we got the keys for our house.
Fantastic. Um, I suppose we were fast forwarded because in April we lost, , our rental. Oh, right. So in April, our landlord approached us and said they would be selling the house and we would be out by September. Um, which really put, put fire on. Yeah, absolutely. So I’m sure a lot of people will resonate and just like, so people we looked around and we could see anywhere to rent. Yeah. , in our location at all. And we had children in the school. we didn’t exactly know where we wanted to buy. So we were just really worried about that situation. So, , now we were able to extend it the two months, , before we got into our house, we were quite lucky that way.
, we agreed to show people around the house, things like that. So he was literally selling it out from under you, even though you still. Yeah. . Yeah. Yeah. And, and so you managed the house in, uh, in November and, and the process because you’ve been saving. So where I presume you’d kept that up, um, for the whole year, was applying for the mortgage, uh, much easier with the mortgage brokers and the banks pleased with your sort of your, your, your spending.
Yeah. Yeah, we were so lucky. We met an amazing mortgage broker and he, we met him in may and he gave us, he told us what we had to achieve. And we met up with him. Then in June we had achieved his, um, milestone reach. Um, and then he was able to get us, um, pre-approval from. Bank for a mortgage. So we went on our Merry way and spent three weeks, um, looking for houses.
That’s not bad. That’s pretty, pretty, pretty fast with the grand scheme things. Yeah. We’re we’re pretty lucky though, in the Midlands. Yeah. I will give us that.
There is, less houses, but there’s less competition, less people necessarily buying them. Yeah. So we were pretty flexible though. we didn’t really mind where we moved within about three or four counties even. we just wanted to be about an hour from Dublin, um, because of work and things like that.
but apart from that, we were very flexible. We didn’t really mind where, well that’s good. Yeah. That again, that’s one of my main tips for house buyers is, is don’t be too stubborn. That’s sometimes you wanna be near family and things like that, but if you can be flexible, sometimes you’ll find a, you know, a bargain or a little village or something that you just didn’t know was there and get, you know, a real gem, if you can just be, have a little bit of, of breathing room.
Yeah. No, that’s the way we were. We were like, we were happy enough to, as well to get a doer upper. , we knew our budget was tight. So we wanted space around our house more so than the house being amazing. We’d be pretty handy ourselves. yeah, We, we had three offers, I think before we were accepted, we were a bit cheeky. , but we, we got our house approved then in June. So just at the end of June
and brilliant. So you’ve been in there since, uh, November, 2019. So when we come up to three years now and obviously, you know, yeah, three years of, of, of COVID, but I presume you’ve continued, obviously continued with what you’ve learned in that 12 months or so.
And you’ve, you’ve brought that out and now are teaching other people how to , how to save, you know, who do you find, who are watching your video?
Yeah, it’s. it’s all sorts of people. So some people are professionals, um, that are doing quite well in life and are suddenly struggling. And then, , there is young families, a lot of young families, and some of them are looking to buy as well. , and then some single people as well, , who are maybe living on their own.
And they could be in a small apartment in Dublin, um, or they could be still with family of a few who are still living with, um, their parents. So yeah, there’s all, all sorts following me. Yeah. I found some, which is surprising cuz they thought family. I found that some of the most sort of tenacious, uh, buyers or savers out there.
Uh, those maybe living at home with family, I think because they’re, they’re desperate to get out of there. They are putting every penny away. Obviously they, you know, rent and things like that. Isn’t, uh, isn’t taking a big chunk out of their earnings, but, you know, uh, working as hard as they can being very frugal, especially in the last couple of years, I’ve seen a lot of people come out after COVID having saved a huge amount, more money because they haven’t been going out.
They haven’t had a chance to go away. Yeah. And just stayed in and, uh, and saved and put their head down for a year. Or maybe. And then come out with a, you know, fantastic deposit ability to buy. Uh, and it’s really made, made a difference for a lot of people. Yeah, I’d say, I think personally I find the single people who have come out like that very inspiring.
and it, it’s amazing because I think it’s even more difficult than to be saving and getting a mortgage on your own. so it’s absolutely inspiring. I know, anytime I share a story there was a single Aire a few weeks ago who had just gotten her of her first home. And I got so many messages from people, what you push oh to inspiring.
Cause they first time as a first buyer or, you know, trying to get a mortgage, you’re only being able to get a multiple of your own income and not two of you combined as a couple. So I am agreed. Always very impressed with their single buyers, you know, do incredible jobs yeah. To how they do it. Absolutely.
Okay. So, um, you know, we’ve talked about, you know, rent and, uh, and people sort of saving, uh, and it’s very tough in renting. Obviously that’s not something that, uh, you probably can help a lot of people with bringing down. But two of the other main things, I guess, are probably food, uh, and fuel and expenses and things like that.
So on that one first, what, what sort of tips and stuff like that, do you have for people out there trying to save money on their, their car bill or their insurance and things like that? So definitely shop around with the insurance. , I personally found great deals when you, , shop around and then even come back to your insurer, , with the offers.
That’s a good tip, actually. Yes. Yeah. , yeah, with fuel, there’s not a massive amount you can do. , something we try to do ourselves. Try and take, , less short trips, , because that does use up a lot more fuel than even in the longer journey. , because you’re stopping and starting at traffic lights. Um, You know, so we try and do as many things as we can in that one trip.
That’s a good point. Yeah. , and that’s as much as you can do, , at the moment, unless you are, able to get an electric card. That’s great. That’s the aim. Yeah. I love that. I think you similar to us, uh, you know, I drive, you know, a hundred, 125 K a day. To work to dub and back for work. Yeah. You, it costs me a huge amount and I, you know, will be trying to electric car eventually. , it does add up, um, and absolutely your point of the insurance is a really good point as well.
I just got, um, our insurance renewals this year and they’ve crept up and they creep up every year. You know, by 20, 30% perhaps. And I think, you know, and for no, for no justifiable reason. Yeah. And I go on the switcher, some of the switcher websites today and realize I can get a, a rate which has gone down by 20%.
, and I think you’re right last year I did that. I went back to my, I quite happy with my insurer, , because they did roadside assistance as well. And I went back to them and , they cut their price. So yeah, , I think I probably will switch outta them this, , this year, because it’s, , they have just gone up so much and others have really, really come down.
So yeah, I think insurance is something that is coming. And the house insurance. Yeah. I’ve got look into that as well. House insurance has come up crazy, especially because, um, your rebuild cost is gonna be so much higher now than it ever was before. And that’s a really point important point to actually your insurance is based on what it costs.
Maybe not the house is, is worth on the open market, but is that what it be worth to rebuild? So this, yeah, some pretty, some areas in the country. The cost of me building it wouldn’t be what you could sell it for. You know, it might cost you 400,000 to rebuild, but if you’re in a, in a rural area, the house might only work worth 300,000.
Okay. Yeah. That’s insurance, home insurance, car insurance, and obviously fuel.
I think, uh, you like ourselves have come back on trips, uh, you know, trying to work from home. I think a lot of people have got into that habit in the last two years with COVID. I think that’s kind of sticking with a few people that you can work from home a couple days a week. Yeah. That can be a huge saving on costs.
Okay. Um, and finally food then. Yeah. I think some of you are most popular videos. Are your tips on food and saving and cooking for maybe perhaps a large family? yeah, it’s essential. I think right now to cut back on food. , yeah, the prices have gone up crazy.
, the likes of your essentials, the butter of milk bread have all, , really, you don’t really notice these things. Sometimes you sort of, you pick up the bus, you pick up the milk and, you know, essentials, you have to have, you don’t realize that, you know, that was, that was half the price a year. Yeah. Yeah, no, it’s, it’s crazy.
, I, I notice now there, all the shops are, , increasing together, so ALOP in one shop and before, you know, it’ll be in the mall. , yeah, it’s definitely the essentials that I’ve noticed in going up. Even like toilet roll cleaners, they’re all increasing. , so I think being prepared, , making a list, , check what you have at home.
Try not to buy too much of something you don’t need. , and then when you’re in the store, , try and watch out for offers that aren’t really as good as they, some, the two for ones are not working. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Those end. I kind of try and keep a tally going around. , something that really helps me is to go in with the cash for my food shop.
If I have a hundred Euro there in my purse and I’m going around doing my food shop, I’m gonna make sure it’s not over a hundred Euro because that’s all I have. Um, I was watching your video that you were there. I think I do the same as well. I mentally calculate. I’m pretty, pretty accurate as well within a couple of euros.
I can get to the till and go. I’ve got about, I think I’ve got 90 Euro there. I just, just about squeak by, Yeah.
have a little stick to it. Don’t be picking up sort of, uh, pester items with the kids and just stick to what you’ve gone in for and, and nothing more. Yeah. It’s, it’s difficult this time of year, because a lot of the time you do have the kids with you. I, I try to go to shop alone if I can.
But then I think it’s storing your food as well correctly. Using your freezer, , to try and stop that food going off because, , that’s a crazy amount of money.
That’s saying 700 or a year on food waste on average is wasted from food. That’s incredible. You imagine if you could put that in your savings account? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So your bulk, your bulk cooking things and freezing them, that would offset them place. You’re not over buying on vegetables that will go off before you eat them.
Things like that. Yeah. . And I think a lot of it, if you prepare it the day you buy it, , you are more likely to use it. Cause you’ve put a bit of time into, , putting them into containers and things like that. They’re easier to use, , convenience. That makes sense. Yeah. They’re not just lying in the Ely them until next week when they’ve gone.
Yeah. Yeah. Random bag at the fridge. we’ve all been there. , that’s what I do. I find that helps so much , that’s where the biggest savings are, is really in preparing and preparing before you shop and preparing after you shop and it gets quicker and quicker as you go along. , because you get used to it, you get used to the habit of it. , it can feel crazy in the beginning, but I say after three or four weeks, you’ll be in the swing of it. No. , and actually I see people now going around with just and calculators around yourself, you know, the part of your tribe. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
It’s coing on. So, um, as well as helping people on online with your sort of videos and your tips and stuff like that, you’ve also come out with your own budgeting book. Tell me about that. Yeah. I came out with, , my budgeting made easy book. Very good. It’s basically to try and make things a bit easier for people.
I have it done out so that you can budget by paycheck. So whether you get paid every week, if you get paid every month, , you can still budget that amount because I think it’s so important to give all of putting it job. so every single cent I recommend giving a job to that. Whether it is saving, paying off debt, , saving towards what I call sinking funds.
So that is, um, expenses you have coming up over the year. So the likes of Christmas now. Uh, a lot of people will be starting to really save for that now, , birthdays back to school, all of that. Um, you can start saving for them as well as your everyday expenses. So your fixed expenses like your utilities and also your variables, so your food, et cetera.
By looking at it that way you can really see where your money is going and you can start to change those things. So you can reduce your spending in some areas because you want to put more money in a different area. So, , that’s the way we budget and it really has helped us. And there’s a good few other people were, , also budgeting in this.
I’m certainly not the first one to, uh, talk about, but you know, your, your content’s cutting through and really has actually actually helping people out there, which I think is really appreciated. Is real made a difference. And, and a book like that, is absolutely if you, a lot of us, are losing money, we should be saving by inaction by not realizing where it goes, the first step is writing it down and, and making sure you’re tracking it, first of all, we do that as well.
You know, you’ve, you’ve got your bit there. We’ve, we’ve just come out with our new Irish home buyers journal. And the, the first section of that is all about saving the deposit.
Uh, and we start by again, like bit like you, not shorter than yours, yours would be much more of a comprehensive thing. Identifying where their money’s going and trying to set a plan, as you say, I like the way you say. For every cent there, it has a job. It has a meeting has somewhere to go.
So certainly you know, brilliant. If anyone is listen to this and is looking to be buying the next couple years, maybe, a lot of people will save a year, two years, maybe three years. Something like your book would be great, will get them through a long term saving plan. And even if they’re not saving for a house, it’d be something that would get their bills on track, whether they’re saving up, for the next home or saving up.
Jobs they need to do on the house or for college or whatever it is
um, so Kaz, thank you very much for, for talking to me today. Uh, you can find CAS on Instagram. Thank you so much budgeting. Um, that’s great. Thank you very much for coming.
All right. No brother. Thank thank you for chatting to me,
Now for our final features in our episode, we are gonna be going through in, out in a way where we compare properties in the center of town, a property on the edge of town and a property out of town.
This is a great exercise. All home buyers should be doing to think about where they want to live and why they wanna live there. Do you want to be in the city center, close to amenities, a short commute to work, or would you get something slightly bigger, bit more space that is slightly further out, maybe a quieter or a more low density environment to raise your kids finally, uh, a way option is something that’s really out there out in the sticks.
Perhaps if you don’t need to commute or you don’t mind the long commute, you want to get some more space, some land, uh, what can you do by getting out of town all for the same price range?
So 📍 this week we set ourselves a much tougher challenge than last week. We have set the price at 250,000 euros. This is just around the national average, but we’re gonna try and find properties in and around Dublin that we can afford for this good starter entry price.
Let’s go see what we pulled up this week.
This week, our in option is seven 📍 St. Bridgets cottages, north strand Dublin. This on the market for 245,000 it’s one bed, one bath and 41 square meters. This is a cute looking little cottage, only one room wide. And two deep has a very quirky style inside and an open stairs up to a good size bedroom upstairs in the attic space.
Uh, look, this is a 20 minute walk to the center of Dublin. It’s a great spot. If you wanted a little home for yourselves and you could get into town and enjoy all the, uh, exciting pursuits around the north side, you’re very. To CLTA and the Fairview park. It’s a lovely little area, uh, of these cute little workers cottages.
That’s our main option. If you wanna be in town
now for out, we’re heading further away, we’re heading out to fingers and this is 10 Plunketts drive in Dublin, 11 on the market for 2 📍 49. It is three beds in one bath. It’s a mid Terra. Uh, X corporation type house, essentially, but it’s nice inside. They’ve got a nice star with some period features in the living room and, uh, three decent size bedrooms upstairs and even a good size garden.
So for 250 Euro, now it’s fingers. You’re a little bit of a commute from the center of town. Uh, but you’re very well located in accessing anything else from there. This is a great little house. It needs a bit of attention, but could be a fabulous, family home. The back garden has a fabulous pagoda uh, it’s actually quite impressive what you can get for your money in this area.
Finally for our away option, we found this lovely bungalow in Delvin, west MEV. It’s called Heather Brook. It’s on 📍 the market for 250,000 and it’s three beds, two baths, and 110 square meters. It’s a really good size.
It has a kitchen and a conservatory extension with really high ceilings and a lovely garden with a patio area, uh, a lot of parking and garages for cars and then a grassy area for the kids as well. This is a bit of more than an hour of a commute from Dublin. Uh, it is a great option, perhaps if you could work from home or if you could work in the community up there, but fantastic value for money for 250,000 euros. So there’s our three for this week. The in option are one bed cottage in Dublin, three. The out option, , the three bed terrace in fingers or the away option.
The three bed, large bungalow in west. Me Good. Our Instagram, Irish home magazine and comment or vote on which one you would choose and tell us why.
Next up new home versus old home this week, we’ve got a bit more high end.
We’ve 📍 picked a new builder state in north county, Dublin in Maloy, called Brookfield where four bed semidetached houses are starting for 815. Then we are gonna compare it to a similarly price property.
This is a, uh, four bed, 1970s home, uh, also for 825,000 euros in nearby port maroch
📍 So Brookfield in Mahey are very smart looking red brick semidetached homes, over three floors.
They have been finished to a beautiful standard with a lovely open plan kitchen at the back and nice cozy living room at the front.
the Clain four bed for 815,000 has three bedrooms on the first floor. And another en suite bedroom upstairs.
Built by Carol estates. They’re a really high standard and has some great features built in voice activated lighting systems, Google home hub, heating systems, wifi enabled, light fittings and smart bulb.
Touch free toilet systems, including a sensor activated toilets and tap and light. Touch free being and a water filtration tap in every kitchen.
contemporary kitchen and utilities are provided by cube kitchens in a choice of colors and a wine cooler is included as standard.
Brookfield is on the back road, just outside Mahey castle. So it’s a short commute into Dublin city center and a short distance into Mahey itself.
For comparison. Our old home of the week is this 10 borough court in port Marek on the mark of 8 25. It’s a four 📍 bed detached house and it’s a similar size, 140 square meters, but it’s a D one. It needs a modernization inside, but I like about this older generation of houses that the ground floor, you do get an extra room.
So you get a living room, an open plan kitchen at the back, and then you often get another room which could be a downstairs bedroom, a study, a playroom. And that’s what I find I don’t get in the new build houses. Don’t get me wrong.
The new builds are fantastic upstairs. They have en suites and they have squeezed in a lot more space on the upper floors, but I find the ground floors often are just two rooms and they can be very small for a family.
But going with the 1970s house, you’re gonna probably need to spend another 75 to a hundred thousand just to upgrade this property, aesthetically and also for energy upgrades. So that’s your choice. Do you go with the, a rated new build or do you go with the derated 1970s house, which maybe has better proportions Good at Irish show magazine on Instagram and look for our post and vote or comment on which one you think is your choice.
📍 Finally our news section. Here’s three stories that we thought you should know about this week.
📍 My first article is from rte.ie. They’re announcing a new show called broke. It is a documentary going through the tough times. People are having one such couple are Andrew and effer from Dublin. Andrew’s an estate agent they’ve saved up 20,000 Euro.
But they still can’t find a house that they can afford. So they’re gonna immigrate, it’s a sad story that we’ve heard many times, and unfortunately it’s becoming all the more common, but definitely worth reading and worth watching the series as well. 📍
my second story is a bit more hopeful. It’s from the Longford leader and the headline is too long for couples buy out. Former rented home, and now are paying. In their mortgage payments. And it’s very true. A lot of people are paying extortion rent at the moment. Uh, but if they could only get a mortgage for the same property, their mortgage repayments would probably be much less even half of what their rental payments are that shows the importance of being able to save and being eligible for a mortgage.
If you can save up in the course of a year or two and get on the ladder, you can save yourself a fortune in 📍 the long run.
My final article of the week is from image magazine. How to give your home a wellness makeover without spending a fortune. They’ve interviewed Denise O’Connor from optimized home about how to prepare your home, to feel less stressed.
And a lot of it is about decluttering, but there’s an interesting point there about the old FHU system it’s not just a punchline. Uh, the principles of it are important and keeping your home clean, tidy, and organized.
Especially this week when kids are going back to school, does wonders for your mental health it’s definitely worth reading. I’ll include.
That’s it for this episode. Thanks so much for tuning in to episode two of the Irish home show, we’ve gone through savings. Next episode, we are gonna be talking about mortgages and the first steps of getting yourself mortgage ready. I’m gonna be interviewing Martina Hennessy.
The MD of do DOEE. They are leading and growing mortgage brokerage, and we have a fantastic chat about applying for mortgages and how to get yourself mortgage approved.
Please follow Irish home on Instagram, Irish home magazine. You can order our journal in the shop links below and remember the discount code show S H O w. If you wanna get free shipping in Ireland,
please subscribe and share the show. And I’d love some five star reviews to help us grow and reach more people.
Finally, I’m gonna let our theme music play out at the end here. This is from upcoming artists, pheno, harra. He’s kindly let us use it as our theme music. This is called cigarettes. You can find out on Spotify or YouTube. 📍 📍 📍
