Saving for our first house!

lilgnome3

I've been a long time lurker of the MSE forums on and off, but have recently come back more motivated to get my finances under control than ever! And this time, I have the OH on board which is going to make this all so much easier.

For background, I was a student for 5 years completing a BSc and then an MA, and started my first real full time job in September 2016 - earning is still something I am getting used to. I love my job but it does have long hours and is hugely stressful, which sometimes makes me turn to chocolate or takeaways to make me feel better. Both my waistline and my wallet would appreciate if that didn't happen.

In order to complete my MA (which I needed for my dream job) I took out a career development loan of £4400, which I pay £202.70 a month back over a 24 month period - 2 payments down, 22 to go. This has 9.9% interest which isn't ideal however taking out a lower interest loan to pay it off quicker scares me as I don't believe my credit rating is ideal and I don't want any unsuccessful applications knocking it back given we are trying to buy a house this year!

I also live in my 0% overdraft which doesn't concern me too much at this point, but this will gradually be lowered and I obviously don't want to live in it forever, I want to actually have money and not need to borrow it!

My partner and I have been together 4 years and live together. We moved to a new area for my job which meant he left his. He's recently got a minimum wage agency job but we are still hopeful it will turn permanent after 3 months so that it helps our mortgage application. He gets paid weekly so we are adjusting to that. He was out of work for around 3 months which burnt up some of our house savings and built up our credit card balances. Again, a bit of a worry but we're working on it.

We're putting money away in help-to-buy ISAs to fund the house deposit as well, so not everything is going on debts that could be but given the 25% bonus on the ISAs, it seemed worth it to us.

So here's where we currently stand:

Debts:
- CC1 2649.32
- CC2 1003.92
- Career Development Loan ~4000 (not sure on the exact due to interest) with 22 payments to go.
- My overdraft 1427.48
and my student loans but we don't count them.

We're hoping to build our savings from around £6k to £20k by the end of the year, which might seem impossible but we are certainly feeling determined at the moment to get the house we desperately want. We've already put down a refundable £250 on a new build that will be built in 1-1.5 years so we have a time limit. But if we find something we like better or don't have enough money in time, it isn't the end of the world and we can get that money back.

I earn around £25k per year and get mileage paid (which is quite generous). OH earns around £14k per year I believe. We're hoping my wages will cover all household expenses and spending and his wages will mostly go to savings - we'll see.

I'm trialling YNAB to see if I find it helps us, it's a bit of a learning curve I'll admit but I may as well keep going for the free trial.
OH has adjusted the thermostat settings to turn the heating down and off completely in the day when we're not in. We've also got some of our plugs on timers so nothing sits on standby costing electric overnight. Really trying to reduce the gas and electric costs.
We're also both on the packed lunch bandwagon at the moment, which definitely saves a lot of money!

Right now, the priority is to get to payday on Wednesday and then sort the budget out again with more of a plan of what we can save each month. Hoping to clear both credit cards ASAP.

lilgnome3

Today's DFW steps:
- Washed hair with free samples from previous clothes order and used some Christmas gift toiletries
- Washing done at 30 degrees and put on the heated airer (gift from MIL) which we're trialling out - it's supposed to be much cheaper than a tumble drier but since we don't have one of those, that doesn't really help! However it will help when I've accidentally let the washing pile up and we need clothes quicker than a normal airer dry time.
- NSD on my part - OH popped to the shops and spent more than I'd have hoped but I won't let that happen again, looks like I'll be coming with him from now on!
- Moved £180 from OH bank account to savings, with a hope to pay a lump off one of the cards by then end of Feb. Left him £50 to get to next payday (next Friday for him) which is more than enough since he has stopped drinking in the week!
- Uploaded barcodes and receipt for ShopAndScan to build them points up
- Checked postcodelotto, numberplatelotto, doblotto and luckyphone with zero luck on any of them.

Still to do:
- Make lunches for the next few days
- Check on washing and see if airer can be turned off to save some electric
- Mentally prepare self for work tomorrow!

lilgnome3

Happy Monday. Long one for me, didn't finish work until 7pm which isn't that unusual for me at the moment, seems our team is just going through crisis after crisis. Hoping it's only temporary. Pity I work flexi so won't get the extra as overtime - I'd make a bomb if I did! Must be owed at least a fortnight of flexi at the moment and not a chance of taking it all.

After a long day I definitely felt like caving and getting fish and chips from the chippie, but reeled myself in and decided to just make something from the freezer instead. Cheap freezer pizza instead but it satisfied!

Today has been a NSD! First in a while I think. Almost went for the vending machine at work for a fizzy drink to get some caffeine (don't like tea or coffee) but by the time I remembered that's what I wanted, I was on my way out the door to my next visit, blessing in disguise.

Today I have done a quick onepoll survey and checked lucky phone, postcode lotto, numberplate lotto and dob lotto with zero luck on any of those.

I have also checked and updated YNAB, still getting used to it all. Also checked my payslip at work ready for payday on Wednesday, definitely getting the £500 mileage I'm owed! Having been a student for so long, it's still a bit of a shocker seeing how much tax gets taken off :O I don't mind that much, just a bit of an adjustment!

Hutchch0920

Hello and welcome!

I climbed out of the student debt hole about 5 years ago :-)

I see no one has commented on this yet so I wanted to ask whether your credit card debt isn't interest free or not. If not then you'd be better off paying off your debt first before saving as in the longer term you'll have more cash overall. Good work on taking a short repayment for your CDL - you can also make overpayments on this so you pay less interest.

SmithfieldPartDeux

I'd be tempted to get the £1000 card done and then the £2000 one for a couple of quick wins, to keep you motivated if nothing else.

If there's interest on these, it will eat up any help to buy bonus cash. At worst you always have the cards should you need them.in an emergency.

Leaves you CDL just to pay then. You can take the payments for the cards then and put it towards the ISA.

Good luck!

lilgnome3

Hi Hutch and Smithfield, thanks for your comments! My OH came home and had just been thinking the same thing, which is definitely unusual, last time I suggested this he was not keen at all and since most of it is his money, I didn't feel I could persuade him! Thankfully he appears to have come round to the idea so we're definitely going to wipe the £1000 card and work on the bigger one as quick as possible, or look at getting a 0% balance transfer at the very least.

Today has not been a NSD as needed to top up the gas and electric meters. We've definitely noticed a difference on the amount we're getting through since lowering the thermostat and putting our appliances to time off overnight. Hopefully this will only go down as the weather starts to warm up and it gets lighter in the mornings and evenings.

Otherwise though, no money spent despite a desire for caffeine partway through the day! We haven't quite decided what to have for dinner tonight but hoping to avoid the takeaway craving and just make something easy. We have a few bits in the fridge so no excuses.

Finished work early to go to physio (work pays for this) and feel like I've been tortured! The physio said my back may bruise and I honestly wouldn't be surprised with the amount of pain I was in. Unfortunately though, I am working at home as I have a reflective essay to write about my development in the first three months of my role. 384 words down, 1750 to go and zero energy to do it with. It needs to be done tonight though so I will continue to plough onwards. Thought I was done with essays after two degrees but alas, still got a few to go!

Checked banking, managed to make it to payday tomorrow without going over my overdraft so more money to plough into those nasty CCs.

One onepoll survey done and as usual, no luck on any of the free lotto things I check daily. There's always tomorrow though! Not sure I will continue with onepoll after I hit payout, as it is slow going and I don't get a lot of free time with my job as it is so questioning whether it is worth it!

Anyway, I should stop procrastinating and get on with that essay!

lilgnome3

Payday! Thank goodness, January was feeling like a very long month. Moved money around and updated YNAB to try and put some plans in place, definitely still getting used to it and will be interesting to see what happens when the month turns over.

Bigger pay than usual due to mileage claims, so hoping to stick some of that on CC to get that balance gone. Will have to wait till the end of the month though just to ensure that I don't go over my overdraft. I know that's what YNAB is for but I will just worry about not having enough if I transfer now. Guess I definitely need to work on ageing my money as is the YNAB mantra!

Painful day today after yesterday's physio. Treated myself to a bought lunch as it is payday, back to packed lunches tomorrow. Also treated the team to some custard creams (an excuse to buy them for myself!).

Managed 2 onepoll surveys today! Getting very close to payout now. No luck on any other lottos I check, but will just keep going.

Picked up a free magazine from Te$co today which has a money-saving challenge in, will explore this later and see if it is actually interesting. Either way, a free time filler.

On the to-do list is to sort the washing on the airer and get it put away. Not MSing in anyway but I do need to catch up on the cleaning after letting it slip a few days. Let's see if my back is up to moving.

lilgnome3

i'm so proud of myself for not spending anything today until we went to the SM for some food shopping! Resisted the draw of the cafe at the training I went to this morning. In previous times, I would have gone just for a look around to waste some time in the break as I didn't know anybody and, to be quite honest, could not be bothered to talk to anyone. But instead I just caught up on the news (Trump :mad:).

Me and OH popped to the superM after I finished work (on time for once!) and grabbed some bits for dinner. We're not in the habit of both working full time and managing shopping and cleaning around this yet to be honest, this might take some time! Also got myself some treats :doh: as I just couldn't resist! Will need to reel it all in a bit now to make sure we're paying off as much debt as possible this month.

Yesterday I got £100 out in cash as my spending money for the month, which is something I wanted to try. Not sure about it to be honest as at the moment, it just makes me feel a bit antsy that I'm carrying so much cash around! This is money for any lunches that I want to treat myself to, and any fun things I want to do. Got some friends coming to visit the week before next payday and I expect we'll be spending some money, which is fine as long as I still have money left that late in the pay month.

Going to have to spend some money on a new handbag as my everyday one (not my massive work one) has finally given up on me after about a year of constant use - not bad for a cheap on from sainsbugs! Will have a look around for a good deal or some good cashback. Away this weekend at the sister-in-law's so there's no hurry, not likely to need a handbag there!

Done a little bit of work from home today to make up for basically doing nothing for the final hour of the day today, I just was not in the right frame of mind! Good job my job is super flexible and as long as I keep on top of my caseload, my manager doesn't mind too much where the work is done. Expecting a long difficult day tomorrow so I will be taking a nice filling lunch and plenty of snacks!

Bobarella

Hiya

You could split the £100 into envelopes for each area of spending you want it to cover. That would help you not be carrying so much around etc.

Good luck

Bob