My Saving's diary - operation get a house with my boyfriend ♥

HLR93

Hi,

I'm Helen! I'm 21, living with my parents but saving like mad to get a house with my boyfriend of 4 + a half years. I had a thread on here previously tried to edit it thinking i was all technical + somehow deleted my posts and ruined it so here goes, fresh thread for a fresh month as it's 1st October

We need a £5000 deposit for the house, then obviously there's fees to pay and money for furniture - so while i focus on the deposit money my OH is focusing on the rest. We currently stand at £3262.90 it's took us just over a year to get that which will be for the deposit so at least were half way with that.

We're both doing the 52 week challenge and selling a lot of old unused things on eBay to make extra money which so far is going well - I've also started using One Poll which is a success on £8.80 at the moment and I've referred the OH so he can earn some money too. I'm also doing the 50p + 20p challenges too! Lots of saving is happening

According to the MSE calculator, if we carry on saving our monthly amount each month we will hit our £5000 deposit by September 2015 which will be great, plus as were both saving we should have more than our deposit by that time - fingers crossed!

Every year at christmas i get so angry that i'm always dead last minute and end up getting stung for expensive presents that i could of got at bargain prices if i'd started christmas shopping earlier so this year i've got myself organised and i've budgeted.

My budget is £260 for 7 people - Here goes...

OH - £100 (one present so far for £8.99)

Mum - £40 (1 body/bath set £9, impulse set £6 - they were on a 2 for £8 offer though, so saved £7 + also got her a ghost perfume gift set for £24.50. So i was under budget by £7.50 for her)

Dad - £40 (know what i'm getting just need to order it online)

Nan R - £20 (umbrella/glove set £5.99 + slippers £2.99. So i was under budget again by £11.02 for her)

Grandad P - £20 (haven't seen anything for him yet, i'm sure i will though)

Nan E - £20 (when bottle of whiskey go on offer will get her one, as i know it's something she likes it)

Grandad A- £20 (will get him something garden orientated as he loves him gardening)

Total spent so far - £50.47 and two people are finished. (£18.52 saved so far)

I've also budgeted for my card's, wrapping paper, bags etc -

£3.47 for birthday cards (dad's, nan's, grandad's)
£5.96 for christmas cards (OH's, parents, 2 x nan + grandad's)
£2.00 for 8 gift bags (offer of 4 for £1)
£1.98 for 2 rolls of wrapping paper (8 metres long)
£0.99p for 3 rolls of cellotape + dispenser

Total spent - £14.40 so saved £5.60 altogether :T

Today's my dad's birthday too, i budgeted myself £35 for his present, was going to get him aftershave but it was £56/£57 :eek: so got him 4 bottles of wine for £24 instead and he was happy with them so that saved me £11

Got my Grandad's birthday at the end of the month (no idea what to get him but will think of something, got a budget of £15) and then my Nan's mid November but I've got her some slippers £2.99 and there lovely so that saved me £12.01! :j

I'm also hoping that me and my boyfriend can learn some money saving tips from here to use now as well as when we live together as he also has an account on here, seems I went on about it so much hehe :rotfl:

I'm mature for my age + know exactly what i want in life - i'm not under any illusions that it's going to be easy to get everything done and perfect. I know it's going to be a long journey but were willing to put 110% in to it as we want our own house to call home so we can start a family ♥

Think that's enough for my first post, as I've waffled on enough. But seeing all that I've wrote and how much I've saved so far makes me even more determined to keep at it to have our house deposit sooner than September 2015, so we can then start planning our wedding and then baby making!

If anyone has any tips or words of support etc feel free to leave them, good luck to everyone on there missions too!

whitesatin

Way back in the day (early 70s) I remember the desperate feeling of wanting to own our own home. We were lucky to get a low start mortgage from the GLC and "owned" our first house aged 21, quite normal in those days.

It is nice that you want to give presents at Christmas but, for me, that would be the first thing to go. I feel sure that your family would be more than happy not to receive any for a while if it meant you get on the housing ladder earlier. I know, as a parent and grandparent, there is very little that I actually need/want except, maybe, things doing for me. E.g. a lift to somewhere, the grass cut, small jobs around the house. All worth more to me than actual gifts. Might be worth discussing with them? You could be imaginative and design little gift cards with things written on them to hand over as gifts.

Just a thought.

You are doing well, keep it up and you will get there.

HLR93

Hi whitesatin,

I have thought about the no gifts thing but as i'm an only child and the only grandchild that visits my grandparents, i'd like to keep it up. I did overspend previously at Christmas by having silly amounts to spend on people but I've literally cut back and as you can see from my first post I've kept under budget so far

Thank you for your kind words of advice. We're hoping to have our deposit by next year.

HLR93

So late last night after my post on here i got really stuck in, i wrote all my cards (birthday/Christmas) out so there ready to be given, i also wrapped my mum's and Nan's presents up and put them in there gift bags (so organised ). Today I've also wrapped my Nan's birthday present so that's ready for her birthday next month.

I have 17 items currently selling on eBay - 2 definitely sold so far (£12.99) and another 6 being watched including the sold items (could have a bit of a bidding war ) all of these items are finishing within the next 2 to 4 days but as my allowance was renewed yesterday i'm going to put a lot more stuff on it today to help earn some more pennies + my OH is putting more of his stuff on his account too!

Also just done another survey on One Poll - balance is now £8.90, going up quite fast - hoping i'll be close to cashing out by the end of the month.

whitesatin

HLR93 wrote: »

Hi whitesatin,

I have thought about the no gifts thing but as i'm an only child and the only grandchild that visits my grandparents, i'd like to keep it up. I did overspend previously at Christmas by having silly amounts to spend on people but I've literally cut back and as you can see from my first post I've kept under budget so far

Thank you for your kind words of advice. We're hoping to have our deposit by next year.

I am sure it is appreciated by all concerned. You just carry on, you sound very much in control and I am sure you will get there soon. Keep us posted and good luck.

HLR93

Thank you! I will keep everyone posted who pops on to this page - just listing more things on eBay to hopefully help the funds go up a little bit

HLR93

Another present ticked off my list, £19.99 for a meerkat solar light for my grandad for christmas (saved £0.01p but at least it was a saving hehe )

Done a bit more eBaying today, few things finishing in the next couple of days so hopefully that'll get some money coming in - still need to put more things on it aswell.

I'm now up to £9.70 on One Poll so that's a bit more, only £30.30 to go till i can cash out - hopefully it'll be before the end of the month.

Also added £3.00 to my savings for the 52 week challenge so now it stands at £3265.90! Going to update my signature after this

Getting a bit competitive with the OH now as he's doing his own challenges and also eBaying a lot - hoping this will motivate us more

pickledonionspaceraider

Sounds like you are doing AMAZINGLY well - you know what you want, and are going to get it, I admire that

We were in your situation not so long back - and quite literally cut out all non essential spends - including Christmas & Birthday presents. We explained to family not to buy us anything also

Do you and OH really need to spend £100 each on each other for Christmas? That is £200 worth of savings you could make right there

HLR93

Hi, pickledonionspaceraider.

I'm proud of how far we've come so far, i think we've done good

We did think of not bothering but were carrying on at the moment + we've lowered are budgets to £100 for each other as we used to just spend all sorts. Once we have a house this will stop as we will have things to pay for etc.

Thank you for your kind words + comments

Some eBay items are finishing tonight + this weekend so anything that doesn't sell will be relisted as it's free + anything sold will be packaged up ready to be sent off on Monday as long as payments have been received.

Also going to be wrapping grandad's Christmas present tonight + bagging that so it's all done + ready.

81 days till Christmas!

HLR93

Managed to sell 3 things on eBay which made £7.99 - every little helps OH sold a few things too so that's spurred him on to sell more. I've also got a few things finishing tomorrow, so fingers crossed for them too + i've re-listed the items that didn't sell at lower prices. Feel free to search me on eBay for a bargain it's the same username as on here

Added my earnings to the savings so that's got it up to £3273.89 - hoping to hit the £4000 marker before Christmas, so that's only £726.11 - with 3 paydays to go that'll be £450 so i need to earn an extra £276.11 from eBay, One Poll and extra budgeting. Shouldn't be too hard as i'm in the zone!!

Managed to package everything up to send off tomorrow + also wrapped grandad's present so i'm on the ball.

Just in the middle of listing more things to eBay whilst watching/listening to Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (such a big kid ) + my mum's also on a mission to find me more stuff to sell

80 days till Christmas!

HLR93

Daily post time; getting good at this posting every day

Another few items sold on eBay so that's another £18.67 to the savings, re-listed the unsold items, going to post all items that have been paid for out this afternoon. Mum found me a lot of things to put on but as i have over 20 items on at the moment, i'll hold off on them until I've had more sales hehe

Savings now stand at £3292.56, getting closer to the next mini target (£3500).

Just a little update on my budgeting for Christmas - i budgeted £20 for cards, wrapping paper, bags etc + saved £5.60 and i also budgeted £260 for the 7 people i buy for at Christmas and so far I've spent £61.48 and saved £18.53 (i've also finished buying for 3 of the 7 people) Very proud of myself

Off to update my signature!

79 days till Christmas!