KolaKubes Crazy Rags to Riches Mortgage Challenge! Part One - Saving a deposit!

Radish72

Velcro sofa's

It has just been reduced to £119K (near Stockport)

KolaKube

Radish72 wrote: »

Velcro sofa's

It has just been reduced to £119K (near Stockport)

Ah ha! I finally get it lol!

Oh dear, 119K is overbudget! As much as I do enjoy a jaunt round stockport hobbycraft, I'm not sure it's worth the extra 19K lol :money:

claire123c

KolaKube wrote: »

Hi Claire! Thanks for joining us :cool: and to museumworker for the link!

Isn't it funny how many of us are in the same position?

OH has mostly seen the error of his ways now with regards to lunch... it seems the trick is to make it interesting, otherwise he would put it in the bin and buy something anyway :eek: He went to aldis yesterday and came home with some smoked sausages and things that he likes to make his lunch a bit more exciting :rotfl:<still 10x cheaper than his usual sandwich, soup, crisps, chocolate and a fizzy drink...!> My next challenge is to make him like couscous...!

:rotfl:

:rotfl:You could be taking about my OH! I've done the same a few times and he looks amazed at the cost... cheaper than the sandwich shops he would go to for breakfast AND dinner.

Strangely, very money conscious about other things. If I needed a DVD or new laptop, he'd find the cheapest no problem, and go through quidco... strange.

CathT

Hi KolaKube,

Just caught up with your diary. Sorry to hear about the interview but congratulations on passing your driving test. Learning to drive is so expensive these days! When we moved into our first place absolutely nothing matched and we were surprised by how much we were given by kind family and friends. We took that stuff with us to our first property purchase and gradually bought new matching items.

Good luck with your savings for house deposit and of course your fast approaching wedding. I also prefer to give cash as a gift as I know how much appreciated it is and everyone's situation is different.

Hope you manage to sort out your car insurance! That quote is rather nasty!

loumac

Also saw this recommended on the 10K in 2010 thread! Have now caught up and have decided to comment as Kola sounds so lovely.

We celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary last week and at 29 and 32 would love to be saving for our house deposit. As per my signature we are however currently just clearing debts. (Mostly wedding associated).

We live in a 1 bed flat which I purchased nearly 7 years ago and can't quite seem to move out from. Since the market has dropped their is no equity in the flat (not quite negative yet though!) and until debts are cleared we can't save. Grrrr....

Love reading to see how other people are getting on as it remotivates me!

OH has just offered to go to the chip shop as I didn't like what he had cooked for dinner (I know I shouldn't moan, but pork belly! Eek) and as I was sitting reading this thread at the time I said no. Tee hee.

Good luck Kola in your challenge, I will continue to read with interest. Well done on the driving test too! xx

KolaKube

Hello all!

Thought I'd just put in a little update as I've not been around for a few days! Been absolutely hectic at work so I've just been coming in and collapsing in a heap most evenings unfortunately. Today was my day off this week but I was a good girl and went in to a few meetings and to sort out a bit of project work. (Hopefully my little bits of extra effort will come into use reapplying for my job!)

Just out of a *gorgeous* bubble bath so I'm all soft and chilled (green tea bubble bath mmmmm), and stretched out in front of the fire watching HFW making muffins - simple pleasures!

Poor OH is wasting away as I've not been cooking. It's funny though - he's starting to fend for himself! :T Came home from Aldi last night *not* with his traditional bag of goods - namely bacon, rolls and assorted biscuits... but with proper things like eggs.. pulses.. UHT milk for the cupboard.. and nice cheese...! Poor wee OH is learning from necessity lol :rotfl:He unfortunately has been told his job will definitely be going come March, so I think he's starting to think smart with money.

There's not been an awful lot of extra saving going on (in fact, quite a bit of spending, but ho hum..!) - my wedding dress now fits beautifully, and I've done my passplus for driving

CathT you are so right, I was just thinking about how much extra I can save per month without driving lessons - was spending approx £100 a month! Nothing further on the car insurance front as I've not had a chance, but I'm thinking buying myself a small car after the wedding if we can afford it might be the best plan of action. Re: nothing matching... to be honest I quite like it when nothing matches! I've got quite a good eye for interiors (if I do say so myself lol!! Somebody tell me if that sounds awfully pompous!) so our little flat is a jumble of old mis-matching things that sort of go together to give an overall shabby chic country cottage style look (think kirstys homemade home..!). I have no problem with skip diving, hand me downs and homemade chic

Loumac, lovely of you to pop in - always nice to see a new face! <well... sort of see, lol> Thank you for saying I sound lovely! I do try (but trust me... I also have my moments!). Congratulations on the one year anniversary!! :T Good luck on busting the debts - you seem very dedicated, and I have no doubt you'll be rid of them sooner than you think - excellent job on denying yourself the chips!!!! It doesn't matter if you're not at the saving stage just yet - you are still more than welcome to join us - lets face it, all of our aims are to make savings where possible, nomatter where we're throwing them!

I hope you are all well and making plenty of savings!

Kola

KolaKube

Hello all!

Signed onto my internet bank and everything had disappeared! :eek: Luckily a bit of signing in and out made it reappear, but talk about panic stations!

Savings wise today: £40 cheque for my birthday (Sunday)- will go straight into the house fund :j and also got a £30 debenhams voucher, which I will either keep until there's a 70% sale, or use on xmas presents between now and Dec 25th!

OH is getting me something amazing... a sewing machine! I am so happy Have wanted one for ages but couldn't justify buying it. He was going on and on about picking out a piece of jewellery - trust me to want something practical instead! I'm planning a patchwork quilted bed runner for mum and dad as part of their xmas present - have all my squares cut (It's blue and pink floral - some of the squares are little blue flowers on a white background, some little blue and pink, and some are pink with white flowers) and was going to hand stitch it... not any more! I'm working at 12 so I'm off for a nosy round the charity shops for things that can be recycled into pretty fabric to fall victim to my shiny new sewing machine! - It needs a nice soft pink backing facric so I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for that

xxxx

loumac

Thanks for the welcome... and Wow! The quilt sounds lovely. What a fab gift idea. I bet they'll love it. :T I love Kirstie's homemade home, maybe one day I'll stop buying from Ikea....grrr...

Enjoy the sewing machine! xx

KolaKube

Hello all!

I'm feeling rather chuffed today...

<bar 3 bottles of spirits which I will buy when I spot a good deal..!> I have finished our Christmas shopping! :j

:xmassmile:snow_laug:rudolf:

What's better is I used various vouchers recieved for my birthday to do it...! So my total spend since last update on the topic: £2.50!

I'm feeling pleased about it because we've got everybody gorgeous expensive <looking> gifts from debenhams, amazon etc for a fraction of the price by planning ahead, buying everything on sale and using some birthday vouchers to finish off <and I swear, I did actually look and couldn't see anything I wanted so I thought it would be a good use to save a bit of cash given OHs pending redundancy..!> - I don't know if thats because I've gotten out of the habit of 'wanting' things we don't need? I can just never justify it any more!

Have bought for mum, dad, 2x brothers, 1x sister, 1x SIL, aunt & uncle, OHs mum & dad, OHs niece, OHs 3x sisters and my granny... OHs 3x brothers in law are getting the bottles of spirits.

Will have to add up my total spend and gift value for a bit of MSE smugness..:rotfl:

Wooohooo!

Edit: Total spend... £52.50... Total value... £277!!!!!
<NB total spend would have been £80 more if not for the vouchers!>

KolaKube

P.s. the sewing is going well! It's 'sew' easy! <chortles at own awful joke>

I have so far revamped 6 cushions with lovely new covers (£2.99/m roll end fabric from dunelm mill - it's all gorgeous and thick and a bit of a bargain!) and created a matching bean-bag cube / pouffe thing for the sitting room (it's quite firmly packed with bean-bag beans so great for putting feet up on!)

The quilting has gone slightly on the back burner whilst a backing material is found

I'm looking into new curtains for the bedroom if I can find some suitable reduced fabric

Do any of you sew?

xx