Claire's OS house deposit quest!

kboss2010

nursemaggie wrote: »

Kboss congratulations on the new job so pleased to hear that.:T

I wish DS could get a job. He is planning on doing an OU degree full time in April. He decided two weeks to late to do it in October. My emergency operation for cancer rather messed up his chance to go to uni but as he has ME I think he will be better with the OU.

For those of you who want to diet I think it would still be good to read the OS diet thread they seem to achieve very good results.

I once went on a fish and salad diet. Fish is high in protein and low calories. I cut the carbs right down, fats often go with carbs (cakes, biscuits, chocolate etc.) The variety of different fish especially if you include shell fish means you can eat fish twice a day and not repeat one in three weeks. It's surprising how many vegetables you can eat raw. I just used to cut up a lot of raw veg, put them in a plastic box and take out with you. I put the fish, meat or cottage cheese I ate quite a lot too, in a little plastic box or dish and take a fork. Maybe not the fish for work if you eat in the office but have it in the spring and summer to eat outdoors.

This should save you some money too. You need treats so another suggestion is the bite sized chocolate bars and freeze the rest of the bag so you can't just go get another one. You can break a tooth on a frozen chocolate bar. Remember the cost of a crown and you won't do it.

In case I don't get back Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all. :xmastree:

Thank you Nursemaggie! I hope things are improving for you

I agree that OU will be better for your son, a good friend of mine has ongoing struggles with ME, he started a degree at uni and struggled on and off for years with it. After finally giving up due to his illness, he took a break and finished his degree through the OU. He said it's the best decision he ever made.

Merry Xmas!

Miss_Purple_Hat

Hi all! :hello: I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas.

Hi brownsauce, congrats on the promotion! :T

I had a nice Christmas spending time with my parents, brothers, sister-in-law, nan and nephew. Got some nice presents including some DVDs, a scented candle, some cute placemats and £95 to spend as I like. I'm a bit of a geek so I may spend some of it on a photo with the star of my favourite TV show - I'm going to a convention in May that I already bought the tickets for a while back.

None of us are that keen on turkey so we had some lovely roast duck and beef. :drool: Ate chocolates, biscuits, crisps and cheese as well, including today! Diet starts in a few days. :rotfl: Stopped by to see my aunt, my cousins and their kids this morning.

I may end up having some SlimF@st and powdered milk to start my dieting, but only because it's going for free. My parents have some and are getting rid of it. I do actually like the taste of it but have no plan to buy any. Though meal replacements, it's basically breakfast and lunch for free for 2 weeks. I'll supplement it with some fruit and snacks.

Got a spreadsheet set up ready to track my meal plans and spending.

Oh, also, attempted to save money by getting a stash of treats but the reductions were really poor in T£sco. Got 5 bars of Dairy Milk xmas chocolate (100g) for 60p each. I have a chocolate mould of shell shapes and the chocolate is both milk and white so I think it could be really good for that for a gift of hm chocolates. Plus I bought 2 small joints of beef for under £3.50 which was half price. They're brilliant for me as they're nice and small - they'll live in my freezer until needed.

skintmum2012

Hi everyone can I join you please? I am almost 30 mum of 3 little ones and 1 Furbaby. My kids are 6 4 and 1 and my Furbaby is a Cavalier King Charles. We live in a 3 bed house which would not be the end of the world but as both my children have special needs they cant share meaning we have still got the baby in with us not ideal. So we really need to move and after trying for years I have decided that this WILL be the year we make it happen. I have first of all got to climb out of the overdraft hole and then I am going to be straight on with the saving. I don't know how much I can safe a month yet I am going to use every penny to get out of the overdraft and then I am going to look at making a budget but this WILL be the year and I am very much looking forward to both getting support and giving support on here.

lushlifesaver

Can I join too? I'm a mum of one beautiful little girl who is 9 months and went back to work 3 months ago on slightly reduced hours; also increased outgoings now as I have passed my driving test and bought a car (did it whilst on maternity) as otherwise we'd never survive as bf is away a lot (GB athlete).

I save £100 per month in to one account with bf (he matches this) (we used to call this the 'baby fund' but now shes here its like our general/emergency fund which we use for bits we need for the house/the little one) and as of this month £150 per month in to an account which is just my savings; I've bumped this account up with an extra £800 from a policy that my parents had for me which matured ages ago and I finally withdrew (although should have left it until the hedgefund was in a better place! I guess)

I'm also doing a challenge I found on Pinterest; save £70 in 31 days. Basically its saving a little each day (some times as little as 20p other times it may be £4/5) and its only what would be spent on lunch/other 'stuff' and by the end of the month you have £70! I'm a real !!!!!! for spending whats in my purse just because its there so this challenge is helping stop that!

Anyway I'm blabbering sorry! We need to move out of our rented bungalow and in to somewhere thats a more appropriate size so we are looking at new builds. Currently we have a few thousand saved up but we bought a caravan this summer (went halves with bfs parents on a second hand one mostly so baby and I can still have breaks away when bf is off jet setting!) and I have a loan I took out to study for my MSc (wish I never had sometimes!) and my loan alone knocks £40k off what we can borrow for a mortgage so I'm saving like crazy and will gradually make little extra payments to cut down the life of the loan (as the interest is calculated daily and if i call any day other than the 1st of the month I have extra to pay off for a settlement balance!)

For the new year I've implemented the following:
additional savings account mentioned above @£150 per month
will for the £70 in 31 days challenge every month (pay day to pay day)
cracking down on the grocery budget even more - can't wait until baby is fully weaned and off formula!
high proportion of gifts to be homemade; also going to have a craft stall a couple of times in the year with bf's mum and split profits
changing to only buying clothes/make up that are really good quality and i love once every three months or so when we take a trip to the outlets/Trafford centre etc (if I need foundation etc in between theres a very cheap brand I can use without my skin protesting)
bf's mum does my highlights and cut usually but have found a hairdresser at the caravan that does both for £40 (amazing when I was quoted £120+ at Supercuts!) and that is a treat often given by bf or saved for
I am saving 20 per month toward car maintenance (mot due February, bfs brother will service it for me) and will move to paying for insurance monthly once its due for renewal as bf paid for the year in july
I am saving 30 per month towards birthdays and Christmas - both are big in our house. It's bf's 30th in November and I have plans already forming that I want to get booked in and we both go mental at Christmas as we are total elves - not so much on gifts but just with the spirit if it all

I also plan to undertake a wellbeing challenge:
lose the 1.5stone I'm carrying in 'baby weight'
use the zumba workout 'game' bf got me for Christmas at least 3 times a week
do 1 thing each week that is a treat for me (relaxing bubble bath/gel manicure at home/work on a craft project etc)

sorry that turned in to a bit of an essay

CRANKY40

You're not a million miles away from me then lushlifesaver. Do you go to Cheshire Oaks outlet? Me and the boy sometimes have a trip to the Trafford Centre in the school hols. You only have three months until you can put the little person on ordinary milk. For us though, that was the point that I discovered that a cow in the garden would have been handy. He still goes through pints of milk a week and he's 10 but as he only drinks that or water I don't mind.

Skintmum the best way out of the overdraft is to write down your income each month, deduct all your direct debits, budget an amount each week for food and what I call "pocket money" which is just a small fund available for newspapers, stamps, snacks for whinging child when you are out and have run out of food, that kind of thing. If you don't use all of your pocket money then you have a potential saving, but I always allow some money for daily expenses.I am square so I have a cash book that I use for this each month, but a computer spread sheet would work just as well if you are so inclined.

Miss P-H do not buy the photo, save the money for a bit in case there is something you want more a few months down the line. Oh yes, and slimfast is yuk. If you are going to use it I'd have it as brekky on the run but not lunch as well. That way it will last longer and you won't end up so hungry by the evening.

We're doing fine here. Tree put away (I know, we started putting it away this early when the purry monsters were small, fast moving and loved tree climbing - it's just habit now),, house cleaned and still working our way through the food stockpile.

lushlifesaver

Hi Cranky40 we are actually over in West Yorkshire but Trafford centre is our chosen shopping centre or we try any outlet we find though haven't been to Cheshire Oaks yet. Bf is a bit of a clothes snob so Trafford centre used to be the only place he'd shop! Though Meadowhall in Sheffield now has an Armani Exchange we both hate the centre so avoid it!

Is Cheshire Oaks any good? I have family over in St Helens/Rainford and we often head over that way or go to Chester Zoo may save up and make a weekend of it sometime the zoo and the outlet. As bf is a wheelchair user we get bogof entry

pollyanna24

CRANKY40 wrote: »

You're not a million miles away from me then lushlifesaver. Do you go to Cheshire Oaks outlet? Me and the boy sometimes have a trip to the Trafford Centre in the school hols. You only have three months until you can put the little person on ordinary milk. For us though, that was the point that I discovered that a cow in the garden would have been handy. He still goes through pints of milk a week and he's but as he only drinks that or water I don't mind.

Skintmum the best way out of the overdraft is to write down your income each month, deduct all your direct debits, budget an amount each week for food and what I call "pocket money" which is just a small fund available for newspapers, stamps, snacks for whinging child when you are out an have run out of food, that kind of thing. If you don't use alll of your packet money then you have a potential saving, but I always allow some money for daily expenses.I am square so I have a cash book that I use for this each month, but a computer spread sheet would work just as well if you are so inclined.

Miss P-H do not buy the photo, save the money for a bit in case there is something you want more a few months down the line. Oh yes, and slimfast is yuk. If you are going to use it I'd have it as brekky on the run but not lunch as well. That way it will last longer and you won't end up so hungry by the evening.

We're doing fine here. Tree put away (I know, we started putting it away this early when the purry monsters were small, fast moving and loved tree climbing - it's just habit now),, house cleaned and still working our way through the food stockpile.

My 4 yr old is like ur little one. She can drink two pints a day and would happily eat cheese rather than choc. Good in some ways, but she's getting a bit of a tum on her herself, never mind me!

I'm off to a good start with my saving, my boss gave me an xmas card stuffed with tenners. It was only when I got home that I realised it was to the tune of £500(!), so gave £100 to my mum as xmas bonus and it means I can actually start the new year not in my overdraft, yay!

Toonie

I'm going to do my best to keep an eye on this as I'm trying to save as well. This year I've managed to save over £2000 which I'm quite happy with as I live in London. I'm hoping I can bump my savings up to £300 per month in the coming year (so £3600 by the end of the year) as quite often at the end of the month I would still have money in my account and so transfer that over too which means I live within my wages every month.

I'm also aiming to lose more weight, in 2013 I lost 4 stone and in this last year I've lost another stone. I still have a couple of stone to lose which I have been doing by walking to work at least three times a week (3 miles and saves on bus fair) and eating a lot more veggies. I also try and notch up five miles walking over the weekend (I have a FitBit which is great for keeping track of my steps and distance).

I like the idea of saving for a house deposit but I think that's out of the question in London, so I'm looking at improving my employability and potentially moving out of London.

CRANKY40

lushlifesaver My friend who lives in Yorkshire calls Meadowhall "Meadowhell", lol. I meet her at the Trafford Centre as it is mid way between where we both live. Cheshire Oaks can be good some times and then other times it won't have anything. On the plus side, just round the corner is a small retail park - http://www.coliseumshoppingpark.com/home/stores.html It also has restaurants http://www.coliseum-leisure.co.uk/eat-out-at-coliseum-leisure-park and a Travelodge.

Pollyanna24 Woohoooo, how lovely of your boss. We have the cheese rather than chocolate thing too. Now he's 10 I have cut down to skimmed milk and reduced fat cheese. He does karate twice a week, swimming once a week and doesn't eat sweets so hopefully that will help.

Toonie is commuting an option? When I was younger my then boyfriend and I realised we'd never be able to afford to buy in London so we looked at new housing developments within reasonable travelling distance. We ended up with a studio flat neat the Isle of Sheppey but train services were good and it was a tiring journey but doable. I suppose even the house prices there are stupid now.....

brownsauce

Hi All


Pollyanna: that is amazing! 500 quid! wish the nhs gave that sort of bonus!


Toonie: I really don't envy you. London is so expensive, even if I doubled my wage I think I would still struggle to save in London. there are too many temptations and transport is so expensive too.


I just started a budget so looked through my last three months of statements. I am spending on average £450 quid on just food and drink!!!!!!


I joined the January grocery challenge to curb my spending for the month.
So on the agenda today: buy a good coffee mug and tubaware for work, meal plan this next weeks food and study.

I am getting a new kitchen put in January and there is a whole load of building work going on so I probably wont have much use of the kitchen. I think its going to be slow cooker meals and microwave mash!