Us + saving = house (my saving diary)

emmab2001

Hello all :beer:

Long time no posting just lurking!! But finally me and the DH have decided to make the brave step in to home ownership! :T

I have decided to use my favourite site to keep a savings diary!!

We already have some savings and started last week to REALLY pull our belts in and save save save

All and any advice would be greatly received

Few facts and figures to get started

Me and DH married with 3wonderful sons aged 6,5,2
Renting for past 11 years

Savings already for deposit £2100

Mortgage plan - house wanted up to stamp duty value £125000
1st mortgage promise £115000 + 15%deposit needed
Deposit goal £18000

I will be back later to add more!

emmab2001

So the big save started properly on Sunday 5th January!

I have started a note book which I am writing all our income and expenditure in as well as keeping each daily respites we have! Already this has proved VERY helpful in budgeting

I have set a grocery challenge of spending no more than £100 per week on groceries including all toiletries, nappies, wipes, laundry

January
week one £83.98/£100
Week two £64.24/100 so far

We have also cut back on any and all bill payments so we have said bye bye to sky tv saving £24 a month.

cancelled our mobile phone contract of £32 instead now we both have giff gaff pay as you go sims costing £12 saving £8 a month

Talked my DH in to cancelling his experian £9.95 and credit expert £14.99 accounts noting we will use them again only when needed!! Saving a total of £24.94 per month

All this adds up to an extra £56.24 we are able to put away each month!:T



School pick up time will add more soon!!

Archi_Bald

emmab2001 wrote: »

Talked my DH in to cancelling his experian £9.95 and credit expert £14.99 accounts

Well done, and don't ever let him do any such sub again. Horrible waste of money.

Do you know about the free noddle.co.uk service? That's perfectly sufficient to track your credit report(s). Don't sign up to their chargeable service though, it doesn't tell you anything you need to know, regardless of what they are saying.

emmab2001

Thank you for the advice archi I have given the site info to the Dh:beer:

So today has been very very good meaning a no spend day:T

And I feel more positive than ever about our goal!!

I thank you for any advice or encouragement!

mardiemare2008

I will follow your diary Emma! I too am saving for a house deposit I need about 10k for a 15% Deposit on a 2 bed flat/terraced house for just me

So far I have £660 lol.... I want to have 10k by the end of 2015. - so 5k each year target

emmab2001

Hi Mardie and welcome thank you for posting it will be great to have someone with me with the same goals!!

Your goals sound sensible and your already doing so well!!

we aim to have all our 15000 saved this year so I need tons of motivation!!!

So happy today with a NSD!!

emmab2001

I am in agony today! Slept funny and my back is killing me:(

Made the final move over to our new bank today! We have received £200 for switching 2 accounts over :money:

Also happy to report another no spend day :T

Jegersmart

Archi_Bald wrote: »

Well done, and don't ever let him do any such sub again. Horrible waste of money.

Do you know about the free noddle.co.uk service? That's perfectly sufficient to track your credit report(s). Don't sign up to their chargeable service though, it doesn't tell you anything you need to know, regardless of what they are saying.

Just to be aware, I just wasted 5 minutes on this site as they cannot identify me. I suspect that it is because I am not (and cannot be) on the electoral roll due to being a foreign national but with permanent residency status. I have lived in the UK since 1980 though......^^

Seems a pretty serious shortcoming imho.

J

mardiemare2008

emmab2001 wrote: »

I am in agony today! Slept funny and my back is killing me:(

Made the final move over to our new bank today! We have received £200 for switching 2 accounts over :money:
:T

Sorry to hear you didn't sleep too good (I hate it when that happens).
My account Switch to Halifax completed yesterday too! and that got me an extra £100 for the savings (they say it'll be in my account in 48 hrs)

I agree that Noddle is a really useful tool - I check it every month

emmab2001

:rotfl:afternoon

so after 2 days off i knew we were going to have a spend day today firstly as we needed fuel and secondly we needed to do a top up shop!

we always do our "big" shop on a Monday for the past 2 weeks i have been producing a meal plan for the week which is working well but due to been on a weight loss mission and having a fruit loving family i have had to do a top up shop with essentials like bread and milk and adding salad and fruit

i also had to buy some trainer pants as my youngest has just started potty training

i found a few yellow sticker items which i have frozen for next weeks menu which are turkey stir fry meat was £3 reduced to £1.82 which i have divided in to 2 portions and frozen, some onion bargis £1.50 reduced to 71p divided up 2 each will last 3 curry meal nights and finally bbq bean smiley bakes (for the kids) £2 reduced to 90p

in total shop came to £17.82 and then fuel £20.01 ( bloody DH cost that extra penny with his lack of filling skills!!)

so i am now at a grocery total of £165.95/400 for the month

more later.........

emmab2001

Happy to report a no spend day today!!!! That's 3 this week

The weekend will be hard again as it is finding things for the boys to do for free!! Any ideas would be great!!