The ultimate incentive proposed! Buying a house, a wedding, and staying debt free.

Dinah93

Welcome to my third diary. The first two installments are:

Diary 1: The ultimate incentive to get debt free
Diary 2: The ultimate incentive worked! Now onto phase two

My full story is at the start of diary two, so check it out for all the background. I started that one about 4 months ago when I finished clearing £16,543 of debt in 250 days. Which is significantly more than my take home wage over the same period! See diary 1 for how I did it.

My life has changed beyond all recognition over the last year, thanks to my amazing boyfriend, affectionately known as NIM (Naked Irish Man... don't ask me - the girlies on my thread named him! He is Irish, but not always naked). We've been together a year and two months and he makes me happier than I thought possible.

Yesterday NIM took me on a walk up a nearby hill, and on the way back down got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. To which I of course said an exstatic yes!

We're hoping to be able to get married next summer, or the summer after if we have to, but this means saving our house deposit, and paying for a wedding in a really short space of time, so might not be possible. However we're really determined, and this can be one last push until we settle down in our own home and don't have to spend every evening doing surveys and mystery shopping! We currently live with my parents, and while lovely, we don't want to be there forever.

We have no debts at the moment save for a very small overdraft (£400 ish) due to the cat being needy and poorly, but we should get this back from the insurance company soon. We save £1000 a month, and our existing savings are around £4800. As he is Irish and I'm English, we are likely to need a full wedding in England, and a Wedding party in Ireland, so its going to be pretty expensive.

We see the mortgage as an unavoidable debt, so we’re now being pre-emptive in clearing the debt by trying to get a decent deposit, as I don’t ever want to go back to worrying where bills are going to be paid from again. We have a good budget where I use savings ‘piggy banks’ to keep money for car expenses, holidays etc spread out over 12 months rather than having a scary moment when its all due at once. This has been working well for us although some budgets seem more generous than we need (petrol mainly), so we are considering swapping my 38mpg Alfa 147 for a 68 mpg diesel, as I do over 300 miles a week, so the savings in fuel alone would more than cover the cost of the new car.

The last 14 months have been the best of my life, and I've made some amazing friends on MSE, who I hope will quickly make themselves at home on the new thread.

Thanks for reading, x

Flower08

Yay another new thread.

Reading everything that you have done over the last year makes me all smiley and really pleased for you - you definatly deserve to be happy with NIM!!

Looking forward to hearing and gossiping about all your future plans!

x

ehallett

Hi Dinah

Just wanted to say congratulations to you and NIM. I think your story is lovely and have always followed your diaries.

Good luck with saving for the house and wedding. I'm sure you will achieve everything you want to.

Emily x

Birdie85

Hello yet another shiny new thread!

Cinny91

Hello new diary!

Dinah - it isn't until you write it all down I remember how sweet yours and NIMs story is. *awws*

Dinah93

Everyones story is sweet if you tell it right

Flower08

Dinah93 wrote: »

Everyones story is sweet if you tell it right

:rotfl::rotfl:You could write mine and OHs story anyway you like and it still wouldnt be sweet!

Birdie85

And you tell it very right! I think it helps that NIM is super romantic, not like our hearts and flowers challenged OHs!

Dinah93

Flower08 wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl:You could write mine and OHs story anyway you like and it still wouldnt be sweet!

Well now you have to tell it!

Aye you're right Birdie, I've found the last old fashioned romantic - don't quite know how to deal with him sometimes.

Just realised I forgot the pick n mix to take to the cinema tonight - what kind of scatterbrain has he commited to!?

Flower08

Dinah93 wrote: »

Well now you have to tell it!

:rotfl: OH was my rebound after my ex cheated on me. What i didnt know was that he already had a girlfriend. When i told him to choose he finished with me - 3 weeks later he finishes with her and we get back together. We lasted about a month before we split up, two months later after both getting drunk one night we're back together. ETA: oh and he bought me a chinese lol
I then move 200 miles away to uni, he follows me down a year later and we moved into together.

There is nothing sweet about that story :rotfl:

I will add though we are completely and utterly in love now though

Dinah93

Okay you win, I really can't spin that one into a fairytale!