Lodge House Fund!

VeronicaMars

I've moved over here from the DFW board (HERE). I'm basically a nomad, I'm not a Debt Free Wannabe and I'm don't have a Mortgage. But my savings are purely and solely for a deposit on a house.

My financial situation has changed and as of last year we are rid of our debt! We are not paying for a wedding or saving to go travelling or immigrate. We are now able to live, work and save. Like normal people

My big thing is that we live life but try to save as well. We are starting from scratch after a bad property investment and no other savings so our plan is to live off my salary (the lower salary) so we can save OH's salary. It took some adjusting but we work well as a team so we have both adapted and are on the same page. Like I said, we want to live so are pretty flexible so if anyone needs a purchase (iphone or new bike anyone?).

Trying to focus on the small things at the minute. :A Coffees :coffee:, food and heating (it's winter here! :snow_grin).

Coffee :coffee: - we just bought a milk frother for our expresso machine so this is the first weekend where we have not purchased any coffees. Our frother cost £80 but has already saved us about £16 in takeaway coffees :coffee: in one weekend so I think that is going to be a good purchase.

Food - trying to make sure every bit of food is not wasted. I've been making sure we either use leftover veg for soup or fruit into a smoothie.

Heating :snow_grin: - jumpers, thermals and leggings OH MY. Been wrapping up in an effort to avoid the heating being on all night. Hot water bottle to bed aswell. Hoping this will reduce the heat bill over winter (remember, other side of the world?).

Anyway that is it for this post. I've got a blog about me trying to DIY, up-cycle, freebies etc (HERE). Since we moved I've purged a lot of stuff so not so much up-cycling. When we get a new home I want to try and fill it with up-cycled stuff. That's the dream anyway. Just now though it seems to be about food. It's not supposed to be a food blog. It's not even good food... :rotfl:

VeronicaMars

Hi Folks,

So in Lodge House Deposit Land this week I have an upcoming car expense. Brakes are making funny noises and crunching. I think It needs new break pads as Its similar sound feeling to a car I had before. But obviously I am not an expert and I have no idea how much this will cost but I’m guessing a £100-£200? More? Less? How much do break pads cost?

On the plus side, it was freezing this morning and I sat in my car with my homemade latte feeling all smug! Another £2.50 saved.

Also brought in my lunch, but Mr Mars and I are getting a takeaway tonight with a 2-1 voucher so hopefully dinner will only cost £6!

Mr Mars got paid so that is his salary saved! I have a spreadsheet with bank recs so this is providing good motivation for saving seeing the balance go up!

To do list:
Pay credit card (I use this for points then transfer balance over – I won’t make that mistake again)
Put car in (booked for Thursday )
Do online shop & meal plan
Make batch of soup for lunches
Buy Iphone cover (going to get one of these indestructible ones!)

beanielou

Shiny new diary

VeronicaMars

Well we recently went on holiday and well...we just went MENTAL. :eek: Spent a fortune. Although There is some cc's that came out of the holiday, I have the cash to pay them so need to get that transferred over.

As a result Mr Mars and I have had a right good talking to ourselves. We lived a pretty good life before the holiday, we still tried to go out for dinner and enjoy ourselves, because as much as I want to be a MFW - you can't take it with you!!! But that has stopped for the moment. As we just lost the plot and are now nowhere near our savings target for the end of the year you can't take it with you but I do not want to be a slave to a mortgage.

So we have been very good this week of doing a big online food shop, we've not ate out once and actually using some of Jamie Olivers recipes that take like an hour but are worth it is we save £50 from a meal out!!! Veggie chilli tonight and ricotta and spinach cannelloni tomorrow night

I pondered getting new cushions etc for our living room but that is just ridiculous - It can wait a long long time. The goal now is to get the biggest house deposit possible, have a baby fund and go on holiday at xmas.

Listing the things to do as money saving reminders:
- Not eating out
- Lunches to work
- NO food waste at all (make soups or smoothies!)
- Charge phone etc in work

To do list:
- Post niece birthday present
- Make cards (as cards are EXPENSIVE where i live - no card factory for me)
- Tidy house post holiday
- Make soup? Possibly...

:money: Get back on track!

Luckyinlife

We all go a bit over the top at times as long as its not every week it should be a good balance

How are you getting on with saving ? i find if i put my figures on here keeps me on track

VeronicaMars

Hi luckyinlife,

We currently have £15k saved (not much in the grand world of house deposits) we would like to have a 20% minimum deposit or around £40k, we work in good jobs but in rather volatile industries and since 2008 I have not had 1 year where I have not been through rounds of redundancies - in 3 different jobs - sometimes twice in the same year!!!

On the bright side I was promoted after the latest round of redundancies! Not ideal but has meant a £5k pay rise (and on the bonus scheme) and the experience which is the main thing - as the payrise is pants compared to the jump in responsibility.

We are not touching my payrise and just going to save that along with Mr Mars salary and try and live off mine, Easier said than done! We are both committed to spending less and saving as much as possible (Mr Mars not AS much but he seems to be coming round) and then we will only get a mortgage that will allow overpayments. I'm just trying to convince Mr Mars that if we do things smart (frugal almost) we can still do all the things we were doing before. We fritter cash far too much and waste much on food.

Then at least we do not need to be worrying about redundancies all the time! One day...

Luckyinlife

Nice i know what you mean depends on how much the houses you are looking for i guess

Sounds like a great plan tho so you should do very well :]

VeronicaMars

Hello all!

Very successful low spend weekend! We had a family of 4 over for dinner so fed them and even managed to put two containers of chilli away in the freezer.

I've spent at work today - £3 on crisps, sweets and fizzy juice! All bad for the body and bank. But i am SOOOOO hungry today. Think it was all the exercise over the weekend that is fueling my appetite!!! I made my coffee this morning (instead of buying) as I usually allow myself to buy one on a Monday and a Friday so I am saying they cancel each other out! Coffee is my weakness in life.

My work has had a tea company come in with samples for the employees - so I have snaffled quite alot of those. Taking them home! Won't make up for my lunchtime spend but every tea bag helps I generally stay away from the free samples but any tea/coffee related ones I tend to make up for this!

Currently charging my phone in work.

Mr Mars gets paid on Wednesday so potentially our first savings batch being put away! FINGERS CROSSED.

Lastly, I am borrowing a book off my friend tonight for my book club so saving me £2! The local library charges you to order it in and I am 5th on the waitlist! Trying really hard not to fritter so NOT paying the £2 when I can get it for free if I just wait...

Repeat after me: Every penny makes a pound. Every penny makes a pound!

Bye x

VeronicaMars

Hello all!

We've had an eventful week at the Lodge House - all on a relatively low budget! An brilliant Friday evening show (all for the cost of a round of drinks) and a great day out on Saturday, at the cost of a long drive and some booze and some bars of chocolate and macaroons!

On our long drive I promised Mr Mars that if he gets with the programme (cuts down his coffees, lunches and spending etc) that I will have us Mortgage free by 40! :money:

He doesn't believe me, he responded that 40 is only 7 years away and that we do not even have a mortgage yet. But after reading lots of Mr Money Moustache I am now 150% in! My new goals now are to not only try and save 50% of our income but even more! Whilst continuing to also live. I truly believe we can do still do this. We might just need to find a compromise. I then intend to spend the next 10 years getting us set up to retire at 50! We've been late starters but I am sooo focused you would not believe! Mortgage free by 40! :money:

Small things I want to change and think will make a difference:

1) No more eating out - I'd rather we bought lovely ingredients and had a fancy night cooking in!
2) No clothes - AT ALL! Literally a new pair of running trainers are all I am going to allow!
3) No silly costs for things I can make - Cards and candles mostly! I think I learned to make these things as i hate that they cost so much money!!! We have no cheap card shops where we are and I managed to wangle a lot of free materials from work so we have NO NEED to be buying them. Except for the fact that I'm lazy and don't make them!
4) No food waste. At all. Any left over fruit and veg will be going in either a smoothie or a soup.
5) No paying for books or magazines. Either read in the library or buy the kindle free books.
6) No yoga or exercise classes - you can get everything on the internet. I do not need to be paying for them!!!
7) No coffees. Unless homemade.
8) Potentially swap massages for haircuts with my friend. I need to run this by her, we've kind of agreed it but I want to know that it is not talk and that she is as serious as I am!
9) No longer buy fresh flowers but take cuttings from our garden or the wild plants on our street! My mums friend used to do this and even make wedding bouquets out of them!

Hoping with all these small changes I can get our savings up to 60-70% level. Just need to reign in Mr Mars... hoping that if I keep sending him our savings figures he will really see the difference and start to be really motivated to join in!!

I feel we are transitioning this month after a recent holiday. Hopefully by the end of September we will be all settled and easy into our new Moustache ways! :money:

VeronicaMars

How is everyone doing?

I've been doing bank reconciliations - my own! Downloaded all my bank account details and started allocating them out. Surprisingly did not take that long.

What I've learned is...

My mobile phone PAYG is extortionate and SHAMEFULLY I am spending about double what I thought. That will hopefully be resolved as
A) I've changed providers (awaiting new sim card); and
I get a phone as part of my promotion in work

Will, of course, be getting the cheapest contract with my personal phone and just using my work phone for everything else (if I'm allowed).

Next week to look at our car costs the petrol and costs this month are extremely high. Our 3rd highest cost after rent and food. Not far off the cost of our food! That is insane.

My new goal this week is to seriously start looking into commuting on my bike. It is not that far!