£5000 by hook or by crook

ILGPink

Hi and thanks for popping in!

Ok so ive been reading well lurking on many other peolpes saving diarys adn debt free diarys and have finaly thought I better get round to doing one to help motivate me further.

So for strarters I have no debt as such just the mortgage which yes I do count as a debt but that is a whole other point to move onto once ive managed the £5000 savings!

I live in my (well mostly the banks!) lovely little home with my partner and 6month old baby. I am still off on ML at the moment but will be going back PT in Jan.

Partner works very long hours for very little pay as he is still training at the mo another 2years 2go b4 he qualifies and will be on more money :T

So I want us to save £5000 and we have already managed £1065 since june. Which has been mostly down to the fact I was still on fullpay, which has now ended and am on SMP only :eek:. I feel very lucky I have been on Fullpay for soooo long as i know a lot of women do not have the same level of benefit from work as I did; but boy is it scary to now be on SMP only . I dont have a set timescale for when I hope to have saved this amount as TBH money is going to be rather tight and once I go back PT its not really gona improve drastically due to Nursery fees ect (We decided that I should work 3.5 days over 3 so my daughter would have me home and we are happy to take less spending money and treats to enable this - sometimes it aint always about the money but just the spending time with the people you love x.

Why £5000? well keep hearing how its best to have 3months worth of wages saved as a backup if the worst happens. This is a fair bit more than 3months worth TBH but thought best budget more and its a nice round figure. Once we have the money saved we then want to concerntrate on OP the mortgage.

ok so now you know who I am and what I'm doing on this little thread I hope you stay and play whilst I update on 'Our' progress. And please feel free to give any help/tips advice ect

ps sorry for the really loooooooong first post xx

Just a little update I decided to bite the bullet and set a deadline of Jan 2012 :eek:.

Will we make it who knows but wish us luck and join in the fun and games if you wish xxx

sunil1234

good luck!:beer:

keelni

Good luck.
I am hoping to save a similar amount for various things but as you can see from my signature not doing so well at the moment.

ILGPink

Oh hello to you both; and thanks for posting!!!

Keelni any savings is better than none and like they say 'look after the pennies and pounds look after them self's' (OMG that was really cheesy...............)

I found that when I was starting to think where all the money was going we both wrote everything down (yes even the odd 50p here 20p there) we soon found where we needed to cut down. Still an ongoing progress but we find that actually looking and evaluating what we have spent over the month makes us think twice about what we buy.

Also any money for savings I put away as soon as we get paid so that we dont spend it through the month. Does mean that we really have to stick 2our budget but if we didnt do it this way we would never save our target (money burns in both our pockets im afraid).

I also find that having an account with a bank I don't do online banking and isn't close 2me again helps 2make sure that once the money is sent off we dont dip in here and there.

No saving updates so far im afraid as not due anymore wages ect till 2mz will then look at what we have and start updating you all.

oh forgot to mention that my updates saving wise will be done manly on a weekly basis.

I also forgot to say we also have a xmas savings target of £800 by nov (not all 4xmas - some is for car insurance due in dec also) so far we have £640 saved so we are well on track to reach our target :j

keelni

Well done with the savings so far. Good to see your xmas savings are on track.
I was hoping to save £500 by now so I could start shopping have 3 children and I usually work 60hrs a week during December so won't want to do my shopping then.
So far I have £46 so not looking good. I was hoping that if I had saved this money then I could of said no to the overtime in December and spend more time with the children.

On a more positive note I have openend a regular saver with santander for £50 a month which will mature in October 2011 so will have £600. So no overtime next year YIPEEEE

Primrose

Well done for being disciplined about your saving. I think if you check out the Old Style thread on here you'll find lots of tips for making your money stretch further, although you'll probably find it takes you from now until your return from maternity leave to plough through them all. But there are certainly lots of people on there sharing their hints for making their money stretch further from cheaper recipes to how to reduce your heating bills.
Yes, you will have to stick rigidly to your budget but meal planning, batch cooking and taking advantage of cheap food offers will help stretch your housekeeping money.

ILGPink

Oh another person to play!!! hiya and welcome

Thanks Primrose have been looking on the oldstyle thread and has been a massive help in reducing the food bills each month. Managed to get it down to £150 a month for food toiletries, cleaning prods and nappies/wipes for baby. Don’t think ill be able to get it much lower than this tbh (unless I cut how much we eat) but were comfy with this amount for now.
Haven’t got round to looking at the stuff on cutting leci yet will deffo have a look tho. Were lucky in one way with the heating as we have a coal fire and can burn wood which my dad gets from his work 4free (old pallets ect that he kindly cuts up and brings round for us). Really helps to stretch out the coal and cut the cost down.

Thanks Keelni we haven’t always been this disciplined and I kick my self that we didn’t start saving a lot sooner. Well we had saved a lot to get this place (25% deposit) and when we moved in we were just 2 so had a bit of a break from the saving and the rest as they say is history . Gosh 3little ones your brave how old are they if you dont mind me asking. Well done on opening the regular savers ready for next year. I give my to my mum to look after for me and again it makes sure I can't dip into it as I would have to ask 4it back (not that she would ever say anything; but its just more of the mental barrier of asking!! lol).

60hrs remember those days well use to have 2jobs; I however didn’t have 3kids so I take my hat off to you. I bet you find it heavy going.

Ok as promised update on the savings. Well as of today savings pot now has £1325 and Xmas savings pot has £690 . Feel v v happy about today’s payment as I thought we wouldn't manage to save as much but I know that we will be a lot more limited from here on in.

Anyhow enough of my ramblings for now speak soon

Doomcow

£5k is a good aim

go for it! save before you spend! count the pennies!

MaryMurphy

Hi ya,

Just popping in t say hi and best of luck, I'll be keeping an eye on your thread to see how you get on, as I have a similar aim It's always good to see other "savers" lol

MMx

keelni

Well done on putting more into the savings. Didn't manage to save anything from my pay last month but should be able to put away something when I get tax credits on tuesday. The children are 4, 5 and 14. I work nights so I'm fortunate that I don't have to pay for childcare.

ILGPink

I have been debating if I should find something in the evenings so we wouldn't have childcare 2pay 4then but am worried leaving my job and then being made redundant elsewhere ect so think I will just stay put. Good luck with the saving for this month Keelni x

Not much to report appart from awaiting a payment from Dial a Phone for auto redemption and recommend a friend payments they amount to £240 so am eagerly awaiting those payments to arrive and stick them in savings. Must admit once i start I find the whole savings thing rather addictive!! lol

Did have some crap bit of news today tho Child benefit sent a letter informing me they had overpaid us when we first started getting CHB :eek: (total their fault - some genius put the wrong DOB in for DD - how the hell god knows they had the birth cert!!). I did tell them as soon as they made the mistake way back in April; infact I phoned several times and was told each time they would forward details on to the relevant team who would ring me back within 5working days if the money was to be recovered if they didnt call then they said matter was closed as was their fault. Anyhow cut a long story short 6months on they now want the money back, well as you can imagine was NOT impressed. Phoned them right away and have now lodged an appeal on the basis they were at fault NOT me. Will NOT let this go without a fight I can tell you!!

6months ago when I raised this incident I would have happly paid this money back; but after being told that if I heard nothing in 5days the matter was closed I dont agree with them now chasing me for the money.......:mad:

Really do feel very deflated at the mo which is not like me im usualy glass half full kinda gal; just feel that no matter what we try and do summat comes along to knock us back off course again.

I doubt im on my own in this feeling!

Anyway enough of me feeling sorry for my self speak soon
TTFN