I've just bought a house... time to tighten the purse strings!

littlebylittle26

Hello everyone,

I will kick things off by admitting that this is not my first attempt at a diary - I have already tried and failed at this once already but my circumstances have changed significantly since then...

I've bought a house!

... and so it is now obviously time to tighten the purse strings and try and save as much as I can.

I do have some debts:

Family loan - £10k (don't need to start repaying this until January and even then there's no pressure on this)
Credit card - £1160 (this is on 0% until next year, currently paying off the minimum to allow me to save as much as possible in the meantime).

Savings as follows:

HTB ISA - £4089.34
Tesco Bank - £6156.82
TSB Regular Saver - £1900
TSB eSavings account - £29.09 (been doing some matched betting and putting all of my profits in here)

...which totals £12175.25 :j

Outgoing costs over the next few months will be as follows:

Flat deposit - £11920 remaining (£10720 will be coming from the above plus £1200 help to buy bonus - solicitor has said we can put this towards my deposit)
Solicitor fees - £427 (after cashback from mortgage)
Extras - £832.50 (my property is a new build)

...which totals £13179.50 :eek:

I'm currently renting and am due back my safety deposit (£483.34) in June when my tenancy ends. We have someone to replace me so I'm pretty much guaranteed to get the full amount back.

Taking all of the above into account I have the following "pots" if you will:

Deposit: £10720
Solicitor fees: £427
Extras: £832.50

Leaving me with £195.75. If you add on my flat deposit I currently have £679.09 remaining with which to furnish the property. I am due to move in around June/July time so I have time on my side to save some more. I am currently managing to save around £700 a month so this shouldn't be much of an issue.

....phew! Glad to have that all off of my chest. Going to try and record EVERY penny spent/saved from now on. Tried YNAB but it wasn't for me.

Hope you can join me on this journey!
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littlebylittle26

First "proper" post... 11 days to payday!

I currently have £99.82 to last me the rest of the month, it's been a bit of a spendy one! I have all my food in for this week and most of next so I think this is do-able. I don't have much planned this weekend bar spending time with my mum so going to challenge myself to do this!

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Cherryfudge

Ooh, shiny new diary! Congrats on the new house and on Having A Plan.

May I suggest you do a bit of batch cooking over the weekend to help you through the rest of the time till payday? It's easier to stay in budget if you have food that you can just pull out of the freezer at the end of the day, and maybe your Mum will help.

littlebylittle26

Cherryfudge wrote: »

Ooh, shiny new diary! Congrats on the new house and on Having A Plan.

May I suggest you do a bit of batch cooking over the weekend to help you through the rest of the time till payday? It's easier to stay in budget if you have food that you can just pull out of the freezer at the end of the day, and maybe your Mum will help.

Thanks - great to have a bit of support!

Ooh that might not be too bad an idea... I tend to make stuff when I get home from work, I find it rather theraputic and I usually cook in batches so not sure whether to just stick to that. We will see

On track for a NSD today - brought leftovers in for lunch and walked in to work, will be walking home also.

Thanks for reading!

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Cherryfudge

Sounds as though you're there already regarding cooking! I'm worn out after work which is what made me think that way but I enjoy cooking too. Just made a double batch of macaroni cheese with ham & peas...mmm! That's today's lunch and tomorrow's tea.

It's freezing and blowing a gale here, I hope the weather is a bit nicer to you for your walks to & from work. Do you have far to go?

Hillwalker17

Contrats on the purchase and good Luck with moving in :j

I moved into my current house about 2 years ago and I found the following to be the most expensive:

Broadband set up (paid line rental in advance)
Local authority fees (Greenbelt etc)
Painter and decorator
First shop was about £300 - included all kitchen stuff and the essentials like cleaning material.

Well done on being able to save £700, that's a good amount of money for furniture etc.

All the best.

littlebylittle26

Cherry, we had disgusting wind and rain it was horrible! But I persevered worth saving the cash and it was only a mile there and back.

Thanks Hillwalker! Appreciate you providing those figures.

So yesterday was planned to be a NSD but I had a bit of a domestic situation with my flatmates (don't ask) so ended up going for a coffee to psych myself up for going home. Picked up some garlic bread from the supermarket too. Total spend £5.05

On track for a NSD today, I have a work event tonight but there will be a tab so I just need to behave!

littlebylittle26

Checking in to report some spends from yesterday - around £20 (don't know exactly yet as contactless takes a while to show up on my account). Didn't manage to behave on my work night like I planned..

I've spent £2.30 this morning on a bacon roll and a large bottle of water from Gregg's. Going out for dinner with the bf tonight which I'm really looking forward to

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[Deleted User]

Happy new diary and congrats on the new house, we've just exchanged today

Will be following your journey x

Biollante21

New diary to follow and cheer on
Good luck with it all and congrats on the new house

littlebylittle26

Thanks all.

Checking in after a fairly busy weekend. Bf treated me to dinner on Friday which was a lovely surprise:o he is a good egg.

Yesterday I got my nails done (£28) plus ended up getting a taxi to the place (£10) because I slept in:mad::mad::mad: so annoyed at myself! Spent £4.35 on some breakfast rolls for me and the bf as a treat seeing as he was so good to me on Friday.

Spent £14 return coming home for the weekend to see my mum and £35 (:eek:) on the cinema and snacks. £35 for 2 people to go to the cinema... absolutely ludicrous!

Laying low today, will be a NSD. I have £35ish to last me until payday on Friday, I can do this!

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