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

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KolaKube wrote: »

Hello all!

Thank you for all the advice!

I have an ISA (where the money so far is!) but OH hasn't... I keep nagging him to open one but he just 'never gets round to it' - you're right though, it would make more sense to save in there :money:

Good tip on the budgeting quantic - so you think an extra £5K or so would be about right?

Great idea on the wedding presents - no we don't have a list! The invites are gone but my mum and OHs are quietly spreading the word that if people are planning to give a present we'd rather have the cash for a house deposit :rotfl:

In other news, we've been given a gift today from OHs very generous parents... 1K! In the pot it goes :T

I would say so, obviously this depends on what you need to buy for the specific house but for something around this price range I would estimate 5-7k to be comfortable

KolaKube

Hiya all, thanks for the comments!

We do own some stuff (note it's mostly not the more expensive stuff that we'd need e.g. beds etc!) - washing machine, TVs x 2 (one little portable one circa 1994, one fancy flatscreen one bought as a treat when I finished uni and started work last August :cool:), 4x ikea small coffee tables (2 of which are masquerading as bedside tables currently!), 1x gold and glass side table (dug out of a skip by beady eyed OH, it's lovely!), 3x ikea bookcases (between OH and I there are a LOT of books - when we moved in here they were the bulk of the boxes!), 2x 'chests' (one wooden, one wicker donated by a friend and starting to smell funny so needs a new liner making really), 3-4 tall lamps, 1x large ikea desk (I hope that screws apart because its really to big to move by itself). Own all our own kitchen stuff excluding fridge / freezer / cooker (but most people do anyway, don't they).

Things we would need to buy immediately: bed, fridge-freezer, oven (although we have a slow cooker, bread machine, microwave, sandwich toaster etc so could probably last a while before desperately needing that).

Clothes could live in the chests for a while if needs be (as long as they were re-lined).

We don't 'do' finance :cool:.. we don't feel comfortable with it. Aside from the actual mortgage we wouldn't dream of buying something we couldn't afford outright at the time. Hence our new car - we were under a lot of pressure to take finance and buy a spanking new car to keep up with friends - but I love my little OH - he's so down to earth and is more proud of the fact that yes it's slightly older but we saved up and own it outright and those same friends will still be paying for theirs in 5 years time! We moved to manchester 18 months ago and never make a secret of the fact that we couldn't afford certain things to our new pals and in truth it's led to a lot of them admitting they can't afford things either / are in serious debt I started a bit of a lunch-box revolution at work lol

He's a wee angel and knows the value of money which is one of the things I love him more and more for :A He's never had much, put himself through uni etc - took him 3 years of desperately wanting a games console before we could actually afford it and he never once complained - just looked longingly at it in the shops - bought him an xbox this time last year and I've never seen anyone more grateful for something and caring of it :T Long story short he's a wonderful catch!

Anyway, if you got to the end of that ramble, well done!

We shall be buying bits and pieces as we need them and will save up a bit of a moving slush fund for when the time comes :rotfl:

In other news - I have started buying xmas presents!

Set a ridiculous budget this year and am doing very well... £100 for everyone excluding OH!

So far have bought to mum, sister, granny, aunt & uncle, OHs 3 sisters, little niece... total of £50 <all lovely debenhams stuff / boots stuff bought in sale and with boots points!> Left to buy... 2x brothers, dad, OHs Dad, 3x OHs brothers in law... and then OH - but he's on a separate budget. We normally get brothers / brothers in law a bottle of spirit of some form so will keep eyes peeled for offers between now and xmas! If we see some nice toiletries on offer first will snap those up - planning to have a peek at the boots 3 for 2. Will probably go a bit over budget, but still that's not too bad considering OH in the past has been known to run around TKmaxx on xmas eve and spend literally hundreds on his family alone. (Of all the ways he's sensible with money, he needs a little push in the right direction with xmas etc!) Have all my 29p hallmark bottle bags in and ready from supersavers anyway as we often give wine as a gift (supersavers is great for gift bags!). Doesn't compare to those who started in January, but still, feeling proud! :rotfl:

Kola

SmlSave

Anyway, if you got to the end of that ramble, well done!

I did! I did! do I get a cookie?

Your OH sounds wonderful What a star.

Corr, good luck with your £100 Xmas present budget!

P.S. We lived with out any bedroom furinture for a year, just a mattress of the floor. Now I've got a huge bruise from walking into the bed as I forgot it was there! :rotfl:

KolaKube

SmlSave wrote: »

I did! I did! do I get a cookie?

Your OH sounds wonderful What a star.

Corr, good luck with your £100 Xmas present budget!

P.S. We lived with out any bedroom furinture for a year, just a mattress of the floor. Now I've got a huge bruise from walking into the bed as I forgot it was there! :rotfl:

One rolo cookie coming your way! <droooool>

I think the £100 budget may get broken but it's a nice wee target and on track so far (ish!) Had a peek in the very small boots near us yesterday and nothing jumped out at me, but there were very few of their 3 for 2 gifts on display.

Mattress on the floor would do us grand, would just need to buy one first!

Quite hung over from last nights halloween centred activities, but nowhere near as bad as poor OH who is suffering a lot today lol. I note £35 in small change left over (feeling a teensy bit guilty at how much was spent but we dont do a big night out very often so don't feel *too* bad) - will move it to the house fund pot to dissolve a bit of the guilt, lol :rotfl:

Kola

gratefulforhelp_2

Hi Kolacube, how exciting, saving for a house. I honestly am happy to give money when I'm going to a wedding, instead of a present, and I'm much happier if I know the money is going "towards" something.

When is the wedding?

KolaKube

gratefulforhelp wrote: »

Hi Kolacube, how exciting, saving for a house. I honestly am happy to give money when I'm going to a wedding, instead of a present, and I'm much happier if I know the money is going "towards" something.

When is the wedding?

Wedding is at the end of January... only 3 months away and we've loads left to sort argh!!!

Nothing exciting to update today, I'm off to work in a bit - was supposed to be off today but had to swap my shift so can make it to that interview day tomorrow!

I'm sorry to say I caved in and bought a 'new' outfit for it... a lovely grey tailored dress from wallis... or rather £6 from the charity shop! I had expanded beyond most of my normal tailored clothes and didn't want to go to interviews all squeezed into my outfit and awkward looking so the grey dress it is!

Have been examining the finances and after this weekends excesses ideally I'd like to spend no more than £200-250 for the rest of this month on day to day spends / groceries etc. I think it's quite do-able given theres just the 2 of us and we've a full storecupboard. I'm worried because my wage drops significantly in December new job or not, so would like to expand our little cushion If I'm really clever I might manage to get the rest of our xmas presents out of that cash too lol, though I don't hold out much hope of that!

Hope everyone is well!

Kola

mennie

you are doing so well, almost a quarter of the way to your target already.. That is FAB??

Have you ever thought about mystery shopping? There are loads of other little ways to make money on the up your income board. i.e survey sites, music magpie, ebay, greenmetropolis, amazon, cashback sites. These could all help when your wage decreases.

The old style board has some great ways to cut down on the groceries, heating bills etc.

KolaKube

mennie wrote: »

you are doing so well, almost a quarter of the way to your target already.. That is FAB??

Have you ever thought about mystery shopping? There are loads of other little ways to make money on the up your income board. i.e survey sites, music magpie, ebay, greenmetropolis, amazon, cashback sites. These could all help when your wage decreases.

The old style board has some great ways to cut down on the groceries, heating bills etc.

Thank you mennie, I am proud of what we achieved last month (but to be fair, without that gift we would only be half of where we are now!) :j

I really need to sit down and have a good think about the upping your income side of things. After this interview tomorrow I'll come home and have a wee look, some great sounding suggestions there.

I daren't tell you what our gas bill came to recently - it arrived the other day. For some reason they hadn't charged us the extra on top of our direct debit for 6 months..! We pay a regular £18 a month via DD... but £450 extra!!! Silly! I know I have my little gas fire on in the evenings but I really don't think it's worth £450 over 6 months! So that needs looking at really. There are other ways to stay warm and toasty!

Hope everyone is having a sccccaaarryyyy halloween! OH just saw our ghost again in the kitchen he's quite friendly though so I don't mind having him around <the ghost that is, not OH..!>

Kola

LilacPixie

I had a thought, i might give birth on your wedding day!!! thank god i'm not invited because you don't want someones waters bursting on the dancefloor

See when we go to a wedding of a couple who already live together i would rather give cash, easier plus when we married bare in mind i live here alone then oh moved in then we had DD1 so 4+years and people bought us towels and cutley and salt and pepper pots. the thought was very much appreciated but the blue towels and still bound in their ribbons in my airing cupboard.

ETA since the wedding we have had DD2 who is 2.5 and I most certainly wasn't pregnant when we married so gives you an idea how long they have sat there

LilacPixie

oo I quite like Ghosts, who is he?? is he linked to one of you or to the house??