K&L's 2016 FTB deposit & round the world travel savings diary

lessavyfav

woohoo, congrats on the engagement!!

our wedding was 2 weeks ago, it came and went so quickly but was SO much fun. I hated the planning and all that but the actual day was more than I could have dreamed of. I'm sure it'll be the same for you.

We generally got good deals for the day (with a few frivolities), however, getting married in London mean the costs were pretty astronomical. we just did the final totals

it is what it is (which was my catchphrase the whole week before the wedding, as so many things went wrong/costs crept in).

you're doing awesome with your other savings though, i think you'll do a lot better than me!! good luck x

Hutchch0920

Just declared my savings for this past month on the 'Save £12k in 2016' thread....are overall 2016 savings are now at 73% of our aim (£13k) I think we're going to be a couple of grand short, however we will reach our housing deposit figure by the end of the year (£18k)...we're currently at 90.7%!! We dropped in at a new build show room at the weekend and it gave me immense pleasure to be able to say, "we don't need 'help to buy' we have 10%."...not that we will be spending it anytime soon but I am glad we knuckled down now and got the cash together for when we need it.

In other news, OH got a new job today!! :T:T:T He'll be bringing home £350 extra plus all the travel costs will come down. I hope he likes it there. I am super excited for him and for us :-)

We looked again at our wedding budget and *at the moment* we actually only have £3.5k so we've revised our ideas and are now looking at a village hall style wedding do (only £100/day venue hire!) It's all going to very DIY but I am ok with that.

Hutchch0920

All change!

We've scrapped the whole wedding in the UK idea, lost about £300 in deposits. Not such a big deal. Rather that than spend £8k on a wedding day that would potentially get ruined by OH's nasty sister.

We're now focused on saving for a round the world trip departing next December. It's something I've dreamed of doing for the last 6 years and OH is happy to come along for the ride.

Our house deposit is almost complete, December total is set at £17,951!!! Can we find the extra £49 between now and NYE? Our original plan was to have £20/21k by now but after being kicked out, and then moving house earlier this month too, we're coming up a bit short. But that's ok. We've save just under £11k over the course of the year and I am super proud of us for that. It's been a super eventful year, what will 2017 hold?!

savingwannabe

OMG, OMG, this sounds really positive and rather exciting. Well done on the mortgage fund and also for changing your wedding plans both are to be congratulated. Go for what you want and have plenty of fun. Happy Christmas petal. hugs, swxxxxxxx:beer:

Hutchch0920

Happy New Year SavingWannabe :-)

Long time since I've posted. January has been a slow month all in all what with it being over 5 weeks between the two paydays and Christmas etc.

Finished the year just short of our house deposit aim at £17,951 / £18,000. I've made an effort to earn a few extra pennies in January to round it up which includes a couple of mystery shop balances that had been lurking and a number of items that I've ebayed. The plan is to sell off a big chunk of our belongings by October to limit the amount we either have to store and pay for or beg to store at my parents' house while we're away.

I've also just signed up for not one, but two credit cards for cashback rewards. I've not had a credit card for a long time after racking up £1k of debt while I was a student but I feel responsible enough to have one now make sure it gets paid off every month. We've got a few flights to buy in the next three months so it seems like a good time to get one to make sure we hit the required £2k spend.

I am umming and ahhing about putting more cash in a Ratesetter, I kind of want to limit my exposure but the £100 cashback deal they have at the moment looks very tempting...the return would be £130 instead of just £30.

savingwannabe

Fantastic news about your house deposit. Well done. I think cashback credit cards could be a good idea providing you do pay them off. I think you will be smart at that. Happy New Year and here's to more saving. :j

Hutchch0920

Wooo paaaaaaaydaaaaayyyyyy!

Been a long old slog getting by in January without obliterating December's savings but I've done it. Only went into the OD by £19. Treated myself by taking the tube to work instead of cycling and OH and I treated ourselves to a takeaway.

I've squirreled away £1077 to kickstart the new year. Our savings target up until October is £11,000 which also excludes all the cash we will need for Florida (or nearly all of it). The eBay clear out will continue.

OH found £20 on the tube a couple of days ago, funny how little things can make you happy!

Need to update my signature too!

Hutchch0920

I spent Friday looking through CVs at work and it really got me thinking about our travels next year. We will realistically only have enough cash to travel for around 5-6 months before we will need to stop to work to refuel the savings pot for the next leg. OH is quite keen to work abroad and I would be happy to too but having just researched visas and skills lists I am worried that the Australian visa situation (i.e. that I could only work for the same employer for 6 months if they weren't to sponsor me) might be quite limiting and potentially have a negative impact in the long run. Perhaps New Zealand is different so I will research there.

As it stands I earn about 50% more than my OH. This isn't a problem at the moment while there's just us but I worry about the future and particularly about finances when it comes to raising the family we want in a few years. It's going to be important (to me) that I am able to get a decent job with a reasonable maternity package (my current employer offers SMP only and I have voiced this as a reason I would leave previously)....I don't want us to be struggling or for me to have to go back to work shortly after giving birth because we can't afford not to. Maybe wanting more than just SMP is ambitious...I don't know. But anyway I guess I am just worried that travelling and working on short contracts which may not be in my 'specialism' may harm my future opportunities. Then again I might pick up a really interesting job for six months that opens my eyes to something new so....swings and roundabouts

Hutchch0920

Checking in to report the £48 interest we've received from OH's HTB ISA. Chuffed with that as it hadn't occurred to me that we'd get any! I've just been applying a hypothetical 25% bonus on the end total in my spreadsheets to see what it's "worth". Not entirely sure whether the 25% is applied to interest too?

This month we're buying OH's flights and accommodation for our holiday in Florida in April. I wasn't expecting to have to pay a damage deposit for the accommodation but all being well he will get that back.

I've applied for an Amex cashback card. I am hoping to get the decision ASAP as I'd like to book his flights on that. Followed by our flights to South East Asia.

savingwannabe

Well done on interest! Good luck with the hols. Sounds great.