Nichelette wants her own house (and to be overdraft free)

Nichelette

I started a diary a couple of months ago, but my circumstances have changed somewhat, so I'm starting a new diary to track my saving for a house, and clearing my overdrafts.

To summarise the story so far, a couple of months ago I owed £3000 on my car which I was paying £155 a month for, but my dad came into a little bit of money and paid this off for me. He told me it was a gift which he didn't want me to repay, and when I tried to give him the £1300 I'd already saved towards paying off the car early he wouldn't take it. As things stand I'd like to pay him back still, but he has told me to sort myself out financially first if I really want to pay him back. For this reason, provided I have savings he can have his money if and when he decides he wants it back, so this isn't a huge issue.

I also have a student loan of £10,880 (that's without the interest, whatever that may be, I still haven't had this years statement). I've changed my attitude towards this somewhat. I did want rid of it as it is obviously technically debt, but having realised that when I do eventually get a permanent job I'd be lucky to reach the repayment threshold, I'd rather save the money and use it as house deposit. If by some miracle I end up in a decent paying job I might review my stance on this.

Finally, I have overdrafts totalling £3,400 (at 0%). I was also aiming to pay these off asap (and to a degree I still am), but having realised I only need to pay £1400 back by August 2009 I've decided to concentrate on using as much of my ISA allowence this tax year as is possible. For this reason any money I can find will be put into my ISA until early April, after which point I'll focus my attention on the overdrafts. It should be fairly easy to get the £1400 between April & August, but if the worst comes to the worst I can pay it off using money from my ISA.

I've become a bit of a savings addict recently, I used to be like this, but I think a few years ago I assumed debt was an inevitable part of being at uni and fell off of the cart completely. I'm trying to make up for it now, and hope that all of the money in my ISA will remain there until I have enough for a deposit on a house.

I'm also a bit of a survey site addict, so I'll add any money I make from today onwards to this post. I'll kick off with the voucher I received from consumer pulse this morning .

Wish me luck!

ISA Total - £1651.51

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Free money/vouchers from 21/10/08:

Consumer Pulse - £10

moneymabel

Good luck with your new mission nicki!!

Nichelette

Thanks mm

LilacPixie

Good luck.

Do you have a figure in mind for house deposit or are you just saving as much as possible??

Nichelette

Thanks LilacPixie, as things stand I think I would need at least £20,000 to afford a 10% deposit and fees (I live in the South East), though Ideally I'd like to save as much as I can to get a better deal.

CompletelyLost

Ooh a shiny new diary. Good luck to you Nichelette! xx

Nichelette

Thanks CL

stacy

Hey Nichelette,
I am also addicted to survey sites ect.
Are there any other good sites you'd recommend, im already with dooyoo, onepoll,yougov and ciao.
Good luck with the new diary and savings.
I will definately keep reading as my goals are pretty similar.

mariagti

Hi nicki,

Good luck, I cant remember are you saving by yourself for a house or with a partner?

Nichelette

Hi stacy, apart from the ones you've mentioned I tend to find lightspeed, valued opinions, IPSOS & global test market to be the best, along with consumer pulse and pinecone if you can find a sign up link for them. Also, homepage friends is pretty good, I've earnt about £46 since June for internet searches.

If you need links to any of them (apart from consumer pulse & pinecone) let me know. I found the IPSOS one quite hard to find. There are probably some I've forgotten but if you check this diary every now and again I'll add the names as I get payouts, so if I've forgotten some you'll soon see .

Nichelette

Thanks Maria , at the moment I'm saving by myself (I've only been with my boyfriend for coming up 2 years) but we're very well suited and I guess you never know what will happen in the future. I know he is getting a bit sick of living in a shared house, his contract ends in July. I have my suspicions (sp?) he might get sick of commuting and move to London, if he does that I might go with him as I have friends there and there isn't a lot keeping me where I am if I'm honest.