Saving to move out - my savings diary

wannaberichbtch wrote: »

Hi Mandatory, Hope you had a good Christmas, I've reached my end of year for savings and am about £300 short of my ideal, but trying to focus on how well I've done than see it as a failure. This time of year is hard for my saving head as I love a bargain, I treated myself to a few bits in M&S sale, and have justified these as "needed".
I think my mantra for 2013 will be spend a little - save a lot

Thanks wannaberichbtch! I had a good Christmas, hope yours was good too. I had a bit of a splurge in the New Look sale but my biggest expense was my hair at £60! I won't be doing that again for a while but it was very nice to have it done.

My savings will take a bit of a hit as I've been naughty on my CC and instead of putting money into my CC fund I've been sticking it into my main savings, into accounts I don't intend on touching. So... whoops! I will clear the balance by February when the 0% deal ends, and taking out a second CC with Nationwide (although the account has now been closed) has made a dent on my credit rating and Experian lists me as a poor rating! So I'm unsure whether or not I should try for another 0% card. I'll be happy paying off my balance in full every month once it's clear, I quite like my Natwest card. It will also make it harder for me to spend on it. My sisters owe me quite a bit so once they pay me back it will go back into savings.

I think that I may need to up my savings goal as my youngest sister may be coming to Birmingham for university, and I have said that if she wanted she could live with me in her second and final year if she chooses not to go back on campus or live with friends. This means a two bedroom place and the area I want to move to is quite popular and known to be quite nice.

Another factor in this is my promotion in April, but I do not know how much my new salary will be as although my 'replacement' has his new contract he has yet to accept it. I am guessing that I will be earning at least an extra £400 a month though, that will help my savings massively! I should receive my new contract anytime in the next two months... two months until my new job! So excited!

I am also saving for an Amazon Kindle Fire HD to coincide with my new role and hopefully hitting my weight loss target of losing another stone. I have £50 of Amazon vouchers saved up from various sources (mostly Swagbucks and Valued Opinions) so these will go towards it. I just need to be patient with everything!

February starts tomorrow, my most social month yet. Hopefully not too expensive!

Finally bought myself a Kindle! Hopefully it will prove it's worth next week when I am stuck on several trains. Moved £350 into savings, my target was £550 but I won't be meeting target until perhaps May as I have to pay for my holiday activities (Centre Parcs) and my ticket to Download. Still, I'm feeling quite optimistic since my pay rise will kick in next payday! Hopefully I can stick to my strict budget this month and not have to take anything back out of savings.

Quite an exciting month! I got a cost of living increase and some backdated pay, so that's covered two music festival tickets and more to save. :beer: I anticipate saving around £900 this month but will work it out exactly when I get back home - spending the weekend with friends in London. I've also had to stop spending time browsing Rightmove since I do it too often, and I know I can't afford anything yet!