First-Time Buyer, Mortgage free desires

kingster2069

Welcome Phil, good luck with your journey. Just starting to save, is putting you in a much better position than a lot of people. I find the roll of honour very inspiring and I soooo want my name on that list, but I have another 10 years to go:mad:
I would recommend cash back websites, I use topcashback, but there are several. They give you cash back for things you'd buy anyway like insurances, breakdown cover etc.
I also try to pay half of any pay rise straight to OP'ing which has already helped reduce my mortgage term.:T
Keep posting

RosieTiger

Just keep making the sensible decisions and you will begin to progress nicely. Good luck !

philhews

Cheers guys, the most annoying thing is that having decided to try and OP and giving myself targets for savings etc it now all feels very slow and with my salary being my only income any changes only happening once a month make me impatient!

If I've decided to do something I want to be able to do it on my own timescales.

Right, back to the reconstructed food budget!

philhews

Right, having written a few things down I've come up with the following for food for a week so opinions on this are welcomed.

Breakfast
Milk (make yogurt) - £2, Jam - £1 Total £3

Lunch
Salad leaves - Free, peppers - £2, carrots - £1, Tomatoes - £3, Cucumber - £1, Radish - Free, Mayo - £1, Feature (Cheese/mackerel/that kind of thing) - £2, Apples - £1.50, Banana - £1 Total £12.50

Dinner
Meat (4 meals) - £5, Veg 1 - £2, Veg 2 - £1, Veg 3 - £1, Rice/Pasta/Potatos - £1 Total £10

Other
Bread - £1.50, Store Cupboard - £4 Total £5.50

Overall that's £31 for one person for a week. Even to me that sounds like a lot, but I do like to eat nice food and while if it was a matter of debt I could cut back, this is money I do have so I really don't want to take away the pleasure of cooking/eating.

I do currently have a stock of meat that could last me until the end of the month so for the next 3 weeks £26 would be the budget. Is this a crazy amount to be spending for just one person? I see so many people on here managing to feed whole families for not much more than that!

philhews

Shop came in at £22 :j and that included some hair stuff, so it wasn't even all food!

Washing in, bread rising on the windowsill and it's not even 9:30 yet. What to do next?

linz

Hi Phil,

Interesting diary! I'm trying to build up my emergency savings aswell, whilst trying to juggle OP'ing at the same time. Will follow your diary and see if I can learn anything

Good shop by the way. Just been out food shopping for myself for the week, got lots of fruit, veg and salad stuff from Aldi, far cheaper than the supermarkets. Also went to Poundland for 2 x tins of John West tuna for £1. Lots of places near me (Aldi, Poundshop & Farmfoods) sell the big 4 pint milks for £1 so I tend to buy one and split it into 3 bottles, using one and freezing 2. I don't drink much milk though, only in tea and the occasional bowl of cereal. Still a big saving compared to Morrissons £1.67

Anyway i'm rambling, have a good (MSE) day !

GeorgieFTB

Phil

A tip on the food front, batch cooking, you still get to eat good food but you also get to be lazy at times, and it saves money. The only other tip for saving money is to go over to the old style board, what they don't know about saving on groceries is not worth knowing!

Gx

philhews

I do tend to batch cook anything that can be, will normally have a few portions of chilli/bolognaise (sp?) and maybe some curry, sometimes some soup, but some things don't work as batch cooked, so it depends on what I eat.

I've finally got round to completing an SOA, it's done from memory as I'm at work, but I'm pretty sure it's got everything on there. Quite interesting to see the cost of irregular expenses when you average them out across each month, what it does mean is that I need to make more savings or hope that work offer some overtime soon if my idea of getting emergency savings by the end of the year is to happen.

Any opinions on this more than welcome.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1493
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1493

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 508
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 80
Electricity............................. 25
Gas..................................... 30
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 20
Telephone (land line)................... 14
Mobile phone............................ 36
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 21.5
Internet Services....................... 7.5
Groceries etc. ......................... 150
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 150
Road tax................................ 13
Car Insurance........................... 56
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 13
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 25
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 28
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 13
Other insurance......................... 48
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 15
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1325


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 123500
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 124500


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 95000....(508)......3.95
Total secured & HP debts...... 95000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,493
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,325
Available for debt repayments........... 168
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 168

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 124,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -95,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 29,500

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

philhews

There always seems to be something to pay for at the moment. Since the start of the year, each month I've looked at the money that isn't left and wonder why, and each month there's been something that would not be there the next month. So every time I think it's ok because the next month wouldn't have that expense.

So far that's been car insurance and tax, garden things to get my veg patch built and planted, tennis club yearly membership, weekend away with tennis people. Coming up in the next 4 months I have a friends wedding, car MOT, more car insurance, a holiday, a friends stag weekend and a second MOT. Will there ever be a month where I don't have an expense that wipes out what should be left for savings?!

Overtime at work is looking less likely this summer so I won't be generating any more above by basic salary. I'm thinking maybe I should change my savings target as £3k seems completely impossible currently, as at this rate I won't be in a position to OP for years!

SmlSave

Will there ever be a month where I don't have an expense that wipes out what should be left for savings?!

The main thing to remember hun is that this is a marathon not a sprint and even saving £10 here and there is better than nothing.

Regarding the MOT's and insurance, its generally a good idea to save for these for next year already. I have a regular saver that gets £100 on payday to cover insurances, MOT, tax and Christmas so that it doesn't catch me out.