Just how do you do it?

Brallaqueen

I have taken mrs_deadline's advice and tried to prioritise things, please feel free to comment

Essential-
- save £3k (just under 3 ms wages). Calculations tell me this will take 15 months (based on saving £181 a month) but I'm pretty sure I'm over estimating costs here, next month should give me a clearer picture
- change pig (thanks poppyoscar) for getting at least something paid off the mortgage while I get my feet under me.

Ok, sillier question time - how exactly do you over pay? Can you walk into the building society, change bags in hand and make payments over the counter? By cheque and letter?


Important
- include redecoration costs in my shopping budget - cheap stuff like paint, curtains etc. No flocked wallpaper at £50 a roll :eek: even if it is beautiful but I want to enjoy my first home (thanks gratefulforhelp )

- get a lodger in to the second bedroom. I'm not in a student area but maybe mature students would be interested. Will need to factor furniture costs into this too.

hermum There is already someone in my department who does !!!!!!!! catalogues so I think that niche is occupied. I'll investigate cashback sites etc thanks for the idea. I spend a lot of time on the internet, time I made use of it.

Rich1976 I do have a pension, taken out of my pay every month along with my student loan thankfully.

Thank you so much everyone, you have all been really helpful and supportive.

getmore4less

include redecoration costs in my shopping budget - cheap stuff like paint, curtains etc.

The trick here is to have an idea of what you want and just keep an eye on the places that stock the stuff for when it is cheap.

Places like B&Q usualy have a shelf with reduced paint so you pop in every so often till you color is there.

Good quality curtains can be found in the posh area charity shops.

cha97michelle

I find it helps to earn some vouchers for doing surveys and the like. I used to get vouchers from my credit card and we got loads of mothercare vouchers when i was pregnant. Nowadays my vouchers are more likely to be next for clothes, or homebase for some of the DIY needs. I also got a lot of Boots vouchers a couple of years ago from pigsback and these went on nappies and toiletries.

It was also suggested to me that freecycle might be an option for some decorating materials. Maybe not for your living room but if you have a smaller room then you might be surprised.

golfiematt

on the subject of wallpaper we got ours from b&q last year for £18 a roll, i went in B&M bargains and saw the exact same roll for £6!!! shop around! i wish i did!

poppyoscar_3

Brallaqueen wrote: »

Ok, sillier question time - how exactly do you over pay? Can you walk into the building society, change bags in hand and make payments over the counter?

That's how I do it! :rotfl:

skaps

To overpay i have increased my dd amount that goes out to pay the mortgage each month.

Baby_steps_2

We moved into our house nearly two years ago and although our mortgage is joint it's nearly double yours. It took a good year fir everything to settle down for us as we needed quite a few bits and pieces which cost us different amounts each month. Now that everything has settled down we are just starting to tackle it. Just take baby steps toward your goal!

I look forward to seeing how you get on, best of luck with it.

joedenise

I make small OPs online using my Nationwide FlexAccount to transfer to mortgage. I usually make small daily overpayments. I also save small change and bag up from time to time and pay into my FlexAccount and that gets transferred on line as well. The daily OPs are only for a couple of pounds up to about ten pounds each time but it all adds up and I have to make sure my OPs don't add up to £500 in any month otherwise I'll end up with early repayment charges!

uzubairu

We moved in 2006 and took on a lot larger mortgage (3x the previous one). It took us nearly a year to get into a position where we could regularly overpay.

We used that year to stabilise our outgoings (utilities, food etc) and then we were able to work out what we could save.
Being on a fixed rate helped us because we knew that the largest outgoing was a constant amount, so we were able to budget more easily each month.

Moneysaving tips and using cash back sites etc, are great ways of making the money you have go further, as I've found that savings made go straight to the overpayment pot (without you having to earn loads more).

Although, payrises over the last 3 years have gone straight into the mortgage overpayment pot because we haven't needed to rely on the increases to get by since we have a sensible budget for everything (which was set up 3 years ago and still suits our needs).

The OH is still finishing decorating DIY jobs now. :rotfl:

The good thing about your situation is that you are thinking about these things right at the start of your home ownership.

Don't worry about it, just take your time and think about what you need to do, and set them out in prioirty order.

Good luck.

Brallaqueen

Right, that's the first 'proper' month under my belt, and I managed to run out of money! Not very money-saving is it? :rotfl:

Thankfully Mother B (who is amazing and can live for a month on £5 and Irish stew) rode to the rescue and gave me some food to tide me over rather than have to dip into my savings. I felt appropriately appreciative, not to mention sheepish, and promised myself I will manage better.

Then the washing machine couldn't be fitted due to some DIY thingy-wotsit, so that will have to wait until I can afford to get a plumber in - hopefully soon.


Saying all that, I survived my first month mortgage and all, even if I can't make an OP this month it is still onwards and upwards :j