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

Lina_T

Hi HLR93,

My boyfriend and I moved into our first house in June, one thing I'd recommend is having a bit of a buffer fund for anything that goes wrong (we had a gas leak the first week which cost us a few hundred quid to put right - and there's been a lot of unexpected little things/repairs which have mounted up). It's peace of mind to have a bit of money put aside for those emergencies.

Also just had a look at your ebay, have you thought of putting some of the bigger items (like the dinnerware set) on a local Facebook selling site? It bypasses ebay fees and postage fees, plus the hassle of going to the post office all the time. I've used them to sell a few bits recently, you get the odd time-waster...but no more so than on ebay.

Another thing that struck me was your nan buying you a kettle, toaster, microwave etc. It might be a better idea to have her put the money aside for it instead until you are much closer to moving in. Electronic goods have a 12 month warranty, and you want to make the most of this. I say this because my mum bought us a toaster to put away, and it was faulty when we came round to opening it about 8 months later. Thankfully we got a refund as we had 2 months left on the warranty, but it was a close call. Make sure when she buys these things that she keeps the receipts, or gives them to you for safekeeping.

Apart from that, good luck, sounds like you're on a roll!

HLR93

Hi Lina T,

My OH is saving for things like that as we've heard about quite a few problems that people have had when they move in - fingers crossed when our time comes it won't happen haha.

The dinnerware set has actually sold it has a few more days to go but i've offered local collection for it if people want to travel to me - luckily there's been a free listing thing last weekend so most of my items were in that so it'll only be small fees which i don't mind as they pay for themselves really

We've still not managed to even decide on the items my Nan said she'd get us as we've both been feeling a bit sick so that's on hold but we'll definitely be thinking about it.

Thank you for your advice - we can't wait to have our own home

Not been on here for 2 days as been feeling sick and run down - stupid winter Have been successful with eBay though got a lot of good feedback from recent sales and also made £2.75 last night - been paid for it so will send it off later today. Got quite a few things finishing over the weekend some with bids and some with watchers so lets hope we can make some pennies

Savings now stand at £3349.72

Also just done a few more surveys on One Poll and got to £14.00

HLR93

Little update on the savings

Added my 52 week challenge to the savings yesterday which was £5.00 and also earned another £3.75 on eBay - which took the savings to £3358.57 (updated my signature yesterday but forgot to add this to here as i'd already posted)

Earned another 25p on One Poll so that's £14.25 (don't think i'll be cashing out this month as there's only 13 days left and i still need £25.75 - hopefully i can get it the first week of November )

Got my Morrison's card in the post and earned 750 points today and didn't spend a penny as my Grandad let me swipe it for his shopping.

Got a few items finishing tonight so far i'll earn £3.85 but they have watchers so fingers crossed i'll earn a bit more.

Got quite a few items finishing tomorrow afternoon/evening - so far i'll be earning £43.97 could get an extra £29.00 if the person wants the dinner set posted (I've offered it as local collection also, not sure what the winner will want - fingers crossed for posting it though!) If they want this that'll mean i'll earn £72.97 - i'll inform everyone of the exact amounts once they've finished!

Time to relax and watch Strictly while my auctions count down

HLR93

Made £4.90 from sales on eBay last night so that's a little more than expected, also made £27.00 just now as sold another item - meeting with the buyer on Tuesday to get payment and pass item over. Savings now stand at £3390.47

I have a rule that once an item has been listed 3 times it goes into the charity shop/cash4clothes boxes - sorted through the items that didn't sell.

Parcelled one eBay item up, ready for posting tomorrow!

Still got quite a few items finishing this evening - so far the earnings will be £16.97 - but they do have watchers so could earn a little bit more and then hit the £3400 marker

Anyway off to update my signature

66 days till Christmas!!

HLR93

Made another £24.67 last night on eBay - parcelled the items that have been paid and will post them later on.

Bit !!!!ed off today as I've lost out on £2.20 via eBay as some idiot bid on two of my items and won them but didn't check if i posted to other countries - went to send them an invoice of the amount and they live in Brazil :mad: I know it's only a few quid but every little helps! I've put a request in with eBay to get my final value fee credited seems they've agreed to cancel the transaction - so that'll be something back at least.

Savings now stand at £3412.94 Hit the £3400 marker at least - relisted items that didn't sell and I've also got some more finishing this evening so hopefully can push it up a bit more.

Off to update my signature

pjcox2005

Hi, not sure if I'm meant to post this but have you tried using ratesetters to boost savings?

It's a peer to peer lender which effectively offers high rates on savings, and until end of Oct they offer £50 referral bonus (£50 to new joiner, and £50 to referrer).

It requires a £1,000 to be invested, but you can just do a one month investment, in order to receive the offer so should be low risk but you need to be comfortable with it.

You could then sign up boyfriend, family etc to help boost the savings pot so could potentially make a couple of hundred relatively quickly.

HLR93

Hi pjcox2005,

I've not heard of anything like that - at the moment me + OH just have basic current accounts and ISA's. We're going to look into different accounts when we have a house as it's all a bit confusing to me at the moment.

Thank you for your advice though!

Diary update -

Posted 4 eBay items off, waiting on payment for others and will be handing over the dinner set tomorrow (payment when handed over)

HLR93

Sold another item on eBay for £6.24 so that takes the savings up to £3419.18. Collector let me down for eBay collection yesterday - still not heard from them going to give them a few more days and if nothing i'll offer it to the other person who bid on it.

Just got to £14.45 on One Poll.

Relisted items that didn't sell so maybe they'll go second time round - coming down with some winter lergy so until i feel 100% listing more stuff on eBay is a no go as Helen's got no energy

Payday soon soon, so i'll try and finish my christmas presents off, if i'm lucky

Off to update my signature!

63 days till Christmas

HLR93

Silly eBayer finally replied to my message and will be collecting the item on Saturday so that means i'll have a little bit more space. Still feel like crap with this winter lergy so eBay items are still sitting in there box (will definitely motivate myself to list them in the next few days)

Just got to £14.85 on One Poll

Me + OH have signed up to Shopitize too so hoping we can earn a little bit through that too (I've already earned a pound hehe)

Still aiming to reach £4000 by the end of 2014 which means i need to save another £580.82 i'm doing the 52 week challenge so i'll be putting £105 in from that so it'll leave me with £475.82 which is doable

Once I've worked out which Christmas presents i'm picking up this month i'll transfer my monthly amount to savings so hopefully that'll bring it down a bit too!

The thought of being organised and stress free for Christmas makes me feel so excited! Bring it on

JulietteCarter

I have learned a lot of things on this thread. Thanks guys.