Trying to save! but getting no where!

moneypuddle

partialycloudy wrote: »

we put in the bills and neccesaties etc, adn we would be left with about 1600 a month to go on anytghing else. Think we will give each other £100 a month to go one nights out etc and see how we get on with that.
Starting to think that moving is just a pipe dream, what with the lease and everything.
Finding it hard not to get seriously depressed about our future!

Well £1600/month seems pretty healthy. Even if you kept back £600 as spends, you could be saving £1000/month, which is £12,000/year, not an amount to be sniffed at!

You'll do it

Pee

And in two years could be looking at extending the lease.

partialycloudy

We are not going to extend the lease. Our flat is too small for us now and we want to start a family. Spending two years to save for the extenstion, then going through all the legal rubbish, we can't really wait.
Think we will just sell at a reduced price, possibly at auction. Move into rented or parents to save for a deposit.....something we should have done in the first place.....Oh well lesson learnt I suppose.

BitterAndTwisted

I really, really hope that you manage to sell that property for the same or more than the mortgage.

Meanwhile, get sorting your finances so you know where that two grand a month is going. Selling can be very expensive, so you're going to need a couple of grand as an absolute minimum and the agent's commission on top. Plus a couple of grand more to finance a rental

partialycloudy

Flat will go on the market at the earliest in August, we will leave it on for atleast 6months so we will save save in that time.
I think we are more then likely to move in with parents, then renting. All my brothers have done it now, so only fair I get my turn

pinkteapot

partialycloudy wrote: »

I really don't know where our money goes

That's your problem right there.

I used to be the same and 6-7 years ago was in some debt. I started keeping proper accounts - I have an Excel file that is quite geeky in its thoroughness. You need to be able to say "last month we spent x on clothes, y on food, z on going out", etc.

A spending diary is the easiest way to start - can just be a notepad rather than done on a computer. Write down everything you spend for a couple of months. £2 on a coffee is no big deal at all on your income. Get one daily and it adds up though.

The way hubby and I organise things is that we have a budget written down. So we have x in joint income, the bills (mortgage, utilities, etc) come to y and the difference is our disposable income. We have decided to spend some of that and save some of it. So, in my Excel file it says that our spending budget for the month is £x. This figure usually bears little relationship to the balance in our bank account, especially early in the month when bills haven't gone out. When we spend on credit cards or something goes out of the bank account, it gets logged and then Excel says we have £x left for the month.

The point is that the amount we have chosen to save each month is never included in our budget for the month, so it's almost like we don't see it. If you just think that you'll put anything left at month-end into savings then it's much harder as it's so easy to spend the money if it's there.

heartbreak_star

"Padding" nets me £40 or so of savings a month - every time I use my debit card, I pop onto my online banking and round it down to the nearest pound by transferring the pence to my savings account

Edit: Sorry if this seems unrelated but I guess £40 a month is not to be sniffed at and might help the OP!

HBS x

tea_lover

25k seems like a huge amount to extend the lease! We extended the lease on a flat last year for 5k. There were 71 years left on the lease and it had been on the market for a year before we bit the bullet and paid to extend. We had lots of viewings and offers, but every one of them fell through due to the short lease. One offer was from a cash buyer but his solicitor advised him to pull out of the sale as he would then have had to pay to extend the lease if he wanted to re-sell it.

Have you spoken to the freeholder about the possible costs? I looked online first and scared us silly as it was coming up with quotes like 15k ish.

onlyroz

I was also going to say that £25k seems like a lot to extend the lease. How did you come by this figure?

PuppyLove_2

Me and my partner earn £4K per month combined and our mortgage is £1200, car loan £250 and bills (sky, water, electic, council tax etc) are about £650. After that we have aound £1900 to do what we want with, we still save, go on nice holidays and certainly dont shop in Aldi!

You should be able to save loads a month on what you have left and are paying out