Learning to Live on Less!

White_Iris

We've decided to go for one of the houses that should be finished by the end of the year. We're just waiting to hear from the developer about when they are going to release the plot for sale and as soon as they do, we'll pay our deposit and be on our way to home ownership again! It's very exciting and a bit terrifying as we still have quite a way to go with saving our deposit!

White_Iris

Well, we've done it. Paid the reservation deposit, got a mortgage decision, just have to save an enormous amount by the end of the year!! Exciting but also very scary!

debtfreewannabe321

fantastic news WI! I hope it all goes through smoothly for you xx

sweetpea26

That is wonderful news. You will reach your goal for certain. Keep going, well done to you.

debtfreewannabe321

Happy 4th Birthday to your diary!

White_Iris

Well it's been a little while since I last posted and things have been busy. We've had the half term holiday and the children's birthday, I've been working lots of extra hours over the last few months and we've both been de-cluttering and eBaying as much as possible to top up our house deposit. I'm also getting another mini pay-rise at the start of July of 20p per hour, not a fortune but very welcome.

The builders have given a rough completion date of mid-December for the house to be built, so we need to have all our finances in place by the end of October. That gives us about 4 and a half months to save £3,000 :eek: . We've been looking at finishing touches to the new house but realistically, we can't afford to upgrade the kitchen or change the shower for a fancier one. We will need to find some money for flooring but we'll go with a local company as the quotes from the developers are ridiculous. We're also waiting on a quote for turfing the back garden but as we'll be moving in in winter, this probably wouldn't happen until the spring anyway, so we might wait and arrange that after we've moved in.

We've started thinking about what furniture we want to take to the new house and what we are either replacing or living without. I'm slowly eBaying it but I need to make sure we don't end up living in an empty house for the next few months! I've also purged the children's toys (partly to make way for the pile they got for their birthday) and have a few decent ones to sell on.

Even with all our money-saving strategies I'm concerned we're going to be about £1000 short by October and I'm currently racking my brains trying to figure out how to find that much money in a short space of time, without affecting our mortgage (we could just apply for an overdraft each but I'm not sure we'd get our mortgage offer if we took on new debt).

Off to give the piggy-banks a shake!

White_Iris

Phew, I'm clocking a lot of additional hours this month, so I should be able to save an extra £200 in July. I'm aiming for an ambitious £7.5k saved by the end of July and I'm planning to have a no-spend month and throw as much of my wages in to the ISA as possible. Ebay sales have slowed and I've run out of free-listings, so I'm putting some bits on a local Facebook selling group, so we'll see how that goes.

Fortunately, we've come to the end of our run of birthdays and events that need us to buy presents and it seems like the run of school birthday parties has ended too, thankfully. I need to make sure I have some money set aside for the next round of swimming lessons and also some cash for outings during the summer holidays, but hopefully the weather will be good and we can have lots of cheap days out at the beach. I've doubled up my club-card vouchers and bought next years school uniform already and as long as the school don't spring any expensive end-of-term trips on us, I should have enough in the school expenses pot to pay for new shoes and any odds-and-ends they may need.

White_Iris

Well one of the items I listed on Facebook has sold already which I'm please about as it had sat on eBay as a BIN for nearly 2 weeks with no interest. It was quite large, so it's freed up some space too. Still have one item listed, so we'll see if that goes soon. I've also posted some things on Freecycle, so hopefully they'll leave the house soon, and I've got two big bags for the charity shop and enough rubbish for a run to the recycling centre quite soon (it's the other side of town and a pain to get too, so we save things up until we have a car full).

I've paid another £30 in to the ISA (£10 from eBay and £20 saved from the grocery budget) and once I can get to the bank, I'll pay in the £10 the lady paid me yesterday. Although it's small amount, drip feeding the account has made a difference over the last month. I should get a quarterly interest payment at the end of the month, which will boost it a bit more. The £7.5k I'm aiming for by the end of July might not be as difficult as I think!

White_Iris

I've been very MSE this week and picked up some fantastic freebies. The office next to my work has relocated and they're selling on the building so they've been emptying it over the last few weeks and on Sunday I spotted what looked like Ercol dining chairs in the pile for the skip. First thing Monday morning I started making enquiries and was told I could take what I like, so I managed to fit 7 in my car, making a set of 8 with one we have already. They need sanding and either re-varnishing or painting but I'm so please with them (plus they are very popular on eBay at the moment with the shabby-chic retro furniture trend, so if I change my mind about the style of the kitchen I could possibly sell them on for a fairly hefty amount!). Then yesterday I spotted a small bookcase which would be perfect for one of the children's rooms and again was told I can have what I like, so with a bit of help from a friendly security guard I loaded in the car! It's 1960's style utility office furniture so not very pretty but very sturdy and I'm sure I can transform it with a bit of paint and some wallpaper samples. :-)

jwil

Wow, they are great freebies, nice one! :T

Good luck for getting to your savings target, I'm sure you'll do it