My savings journey

MaryMurphy

Well I've updated my sig as I have been dipping into it for Xmas presents and gave my bro some money as he was a bit short and needed to buy some heating oil (not worried about this as he'll pay me back when he gets paid at the end of the month) but nonetheless that account now only has £75.00 in it, and I expect it'll probably decrease even more coming to Xmas!

My target for £500.00 still stands (for now) so I'll try to reach this by the end of June, though this will be tough, mainly because come the new year we'll be looking at our wedding budget

BUT I am thinking positive, I am pleased with the slow but steady progress of my eIsa (albeit slow - I would recommend to anyone to give the Virtual Sealed Pot challenge a go, as it's definitely helped).

I think I will reach the target I set myself for this, so fingers crossed.

Still worried about my wedding fund target but ah well, I knew I was being ambitious. Plus, that was going on the basis that we'd get married in 2012, we've decided it's going to me more than likely 2013 now (mainly because we still want to have a life and live relatively comfortably until the big day!)

Chances are I will change the target for this in the new year but I'll worry about that now.

MM

MaryMurphy

Well I’ve had some unexpected good news, I received a refund because I paid too much tax last year! Fair enough it was only for £48.12 but still! I will lodge it tomorrow, and probably put it towards my eIsa account.

I am still thinking about selling some books, though I am now confused as to what I should put the money towards. I spoke with a friend about it and she thought the most logical place is towards the wedding. Every little helps. But I’d really like to get my base savings sorted first.

Hate having to compromise. All I need is 2 k to fall from the sky and then that’ll be my Base Savings target pretty much reached (ish).

Anyhoo, I am going to keep focusing in the positive as this month things have been going well financially even though I’ve bought quite a few Xmas presents. I think I’ve budgeted well this month, so long may it last.

MMx

Angely

Good luck, Mary!!
I will keep an eye on your thread, cos this is what i am doing as well, but i didnt save anything for 2 months which makes me really upset. I would like to add you as friend, if you dont mind. MSN: [EMAIL="sinian113@hotmail.com"]sinian113@hotmail.com[/EMAIL]

Thx!! Keep on posting!

MaryMurphy

Hi Angely,

Thanks for stopping by Not on MSN sadly (otherwise I'd never be off the PC!) but thx for the invite.

I think I mentioned a while ago that I wanted to go visit my cousin in Germany this month, but that's obviously not happening now due to big fancy wedding (as we've now started calling it, seen as it's going be far from big and fancy lol) but I was chatting her today and I really want to go see her, she's moved to a new city now and changed jobs and I'd love to go visit.

The only way I can do it is if I find uber-cheap flights (i'll be staying with her so no ££ spent on accomodation) and it'll have be in April or after now anyway as it's way too close to Xmas now, and I have some important birthdays coming up between now and end of March, so they will be priority.

I really want to travel more and I simply can't see how I can do this if we're going to get married, and of course I realise that some things are more important than others.

I guess I am worrying about this as after the "big day" babies come next, and then I'll really not be able to go anywhere for years until they're a bit older. And the thing is I'd love to have children, and at the end of the day I feel a bit selfish for wanting to go off and travel. If I could I'd travel the world.

And if I do make any extra money (somehow) that should go towards the wedding and whatever else is important.

Another reason to make me feel selfish, there's people out there that barely manage to survive and here I am wingeing about not being able to away somewhere for a few days.

ugh.

MMx

MaryMurphy

Base savings today = 39% :j

<<edit>> well I've joined DooYoo, wrote two reviews. I love writing, I should've joined ages ago Off to do some studying now. I didn't realise you got 300 points for a "long" review, woop woop (ok it's equal to 30 pence, but every little helps - yes, you heard it here first).

fairtrade

:hello: Hello Mary, hello everyone else,
Still awaiting the report back from the Company about the equal pay for equal skills. Very nervous about the upcoming week - I am now on the National Negotiating Committee and we are meeting with the employer this week to discuss the pay rise for the upcoming year. Hope I don't let my colleagues down - but if you don't ask you don't get. Will keep you posted.

lippy1923

Hey

Have been reading your post and just want to say well done on your progress so far. I am sort of in the same boat as you in a few ways. My OH isnt as positive as I would like him to be on savings. He has the same outlook as yours. Put a set amount away from bills and spend the rest he earns. I know how you feel lol.
We also are engaged and I want to set up a wedding fund but not sure what sort of account to go for which gets me the best rate.
Would you mind sharing what account you have gone for? We havn't set a date yet but I would love to get a head start.
Hope things are going well

cloud_dog

Mary / Lippy

Re the OHs view.....have you considered changing the arrangment around?

Agree on an allowance for each of you, something you both are happy with (very important), then pay your salaries in to a joint account and pay yourselves the allowance. The remainder can be 'managed' as you see fit, i.e. bills / savings.

Just a thought.

EDIT: We did this but it was more meaningful when my OH gave up work to look after our child. Paying her (and myself) an allowance which was hers to do with as she pleased gave her that bit of independance and financial control, i.e. she wasn't having to worry about 'asking for money' or spending too much money from the joint account etc, etc.

MaryMurphy

Hi fairtrade hope you get some good news, would be lovely to hear just in time for Xmas

Hi lippy1923! Surprised at the amount of people who have similar goals as me, good to see, thanks for posting

We haven't started to save properly yet because of Xmas, but in the new year we'll open a savings account with our credit union, as they allow you to borrow up to three times the amount you've saved up (so closer to the time we can borrow quite a bit at very low interest rates).

We'll then also open separate savings account with a good interest rate to help pay for any of the interim stuff (such as deposit for venue and what have you, all the things we'll have to pay upfront for until we take the loan out).

The amount we borrow will depend on how much we can put away in the regular savings account, and you can sure I'll try my hardest to put away as much as I can. I don't like taking loans out but the credit union is best next option if we can't put away enough in time (we'll have about two years before the big fancy wedding).

Hope this helps, when we find a suitable savings account in the new year I'll post back.

@ cloud_dog your approach is something that I'd like to have, and OH has agreed to reassess finances (again, once Xmas is over us). At the moment the system we have is very unfair on him as he earns less and yet he pays the same amount towards bills/mortgage, and so far he's basically refused to make it a bit more balanced (which has probably something to do with the fact that guys are usually - broadly speaking - hardwired to be the breadwinner) and he finds it hard to have ne pay for more than him.

Even though his hours have been cut and I'm due a payrise in January.

I think he's realised this isn't sustainable for him as he's basically broke now. So I think having our finances in such a way that we have an equal amount of £ to spend, and the rest goes towards bills and savings is more sustainable.

Thanks for your advice & hope everyone's keeping well.

MMxx

MaryMurphy

Hello,

Hope everyone’s keeping well and the weather isn’t too crazy

We are running out of coal and heating oil because the weather’s been so bad (normally this would’ve lasted us until mid-February, and I really thought last year’s winter weather was a one-off but how wrong was I) so I’ll be putting on hold all of my savings targets until January when we’ll be using our money to buy more oil.

I know it would make sense to do this before the new year due to the VAT increase, and maybe we can stretch our budget to order one of these (can’t afford both just now, unless I raid my savings account) before January. I’ll chat to OH and see what he thinks.

I’ve applied for loads of overtime for the various bank holidays around Xmas time and as long as some of it gets approved we’ll be fine (we get paid extra during bank holiday work, which is a real boost).

Things going well so far, nothing major to report

MMx