Best put on my big girl pants! my saving for a deposit diary

mumof3.12kindebt

I've filled 3 And a half bin bags of stuff to leave the house.
I've noticed that when I do ever go online window shopping especially for house related stuff I say to myself when we have moved. A good incentive to save as quick as possible.
I've tried to keep our spends as low as possible . I still have Xmas presents to buy.
My kids are done. They are only having one present each this year. Yes I'm Scrooge

They don't need anything and I don't see the point in wasting my money for the sake of It.

I'm in a lot of pain today.
We have attended a birthday party for middle child so I paid for eldest to play too was a rare treat for them.

I plan to use the national trust pass through our the Xmas holidays. I'm not working much so we need to be careful with what we spend. Will be nice to have some family time before I start my new job in January.

I've treated myself to a new book a few days ago. Already halfway through it :eek:

I'm going to spend sometime in the holidays seeing what outgoings we can cut .
I know I have a life insurance that I could get better cover elsewhere for the same price. There's a few other things we could probably get rid of. I'm also £100 In credit with my catalogue because I paid too much when I paid it off earlier in the year .

Off to eat and then it's film time.
Have a lovely weekend everyone

mumof3.12kindebt

Today's to do
Skip run
Get fuel for car
School runn
eBay listing.
Fill two bin bags to get rid of
Diploma
Get uniforms ready for tomorrow
Dinner
Baths / bedtime
Homework / read with ds2
Laundry away
Clean boys bedroom window

Done the kitchen and lounge this morning and washed and dried 1 load of laundry

Hopefully get everything done.

mumof3.12kindebt

Evening everyone
I hope you all have a lovely weekend

We took aload of games and DVDs to cex this week. Traded them in for money to spend there. So partner has some spends for next year for new games .
We have finally finished Xmas shopping just cards to get now.

Agency cancelled my shift at work today. I didn't mind thought I'd have a long weekend then I accepted a shift for tomorrow . Got to keep the pennies coming in :money:

I used some savings to pay off my credit card where we over spent last month

On the up side I have set up a life time ISA and I'm going to help my partner set one up too.
Once I have been paid from my new job I'll set up a regular payment to the accounts. This also will prevent us spending it as it is with a different bank.

Current totals
£5000 emergency fund
£500 in house fund
£246 bricklane
£150 help to save + £75 bonus
£1 Skipton

Total £ 5972

Between now and the last day of the year I should have another £300 in wages this will go streight to savings.

Money in the bills account ready for January

I also have a few items on eBay so if they sell the money from this will also go into savings (will update with this as and when)

Sold some old Xmas lights this week so that's £10 made

I have a few more items to list on eBay I'll do that Sunday. Also plan to see nan on Sunday and go to church.

mumof3.12kindebt

7 items on eBay so far . One is sold just got to wait for the bidding to finish

mumof3.12kindebt

Goals for 2019

• save £16,500 in house fund
• get emergency fund upto £10,000 (£5000 extra)
• take photos of all non essential spends
• have a no spend year - essentials only

• quit smoking
• set 3 mini challenges a week or to do which will help us to achive our goals
• have 24 free days out across the year
• dont buy any toiletries until we have used the ones we have
• dont buy any more cleaning products until we have used the ones we have
• use the libary instead of buying books

mumof3.12kindebt

Tonight's tea was a bit of a mix . Trying to use stuff up in the cupboard and freezer. Little ones had runner beans chips sausage and Yorkshire's. Eldest had spaghetti hoops on toast (what he asked for. ) I had chicken pie partner had sandwiches (he didn't want much as feeling under the weather) .

NSD today.

We plan to do another no spend in 2019 (essentials only) . We tried this year and tbh compared to what we use to waste money on we did well but there is also room for improvement.

The aim is too keep the kids entertained on a zero budget. (parks , walks , national trust pass, free activities at home , visit family , play days , sleep overs , movie nights at home . Etc) .

We cut ds2s hair today. No spend as we did it ourselves.

I'm going to have a pamper evening again using stuff I already have so another no spend.

We baked lemon Drizzle today using stuff we had in the cupboards so another no spend.

We visited nana and took her a little Xmas tree and mini baubles that I brought for her. She was over the moon . It has made my Xmas tbh.
No one has a tree in there room at the care home she's at but my thinking is it's her home and she would have one at home so why not there. It's only a table top one but she was over the moon. She even helped decorate it .which was lovely to witness.

We also made salt dough decs again using stuff we had in the cupboard just waiting for them to harden.

I've packed mine and ds lunch for tomorrow.

We also watched a film this morning with the kids. We were going to go to the park but theu are only just getting over coughs and colds and it was pouring it down

Tomorrow should be another no spend. I'm aiming to spend as little as possible between now and the new year.

Only if we stick to no spend will we achieve our 16k target. So I need to be as frugal as possible next year and when something is essential I need to think outside the box to keep spends to a minimum.

Eldest will need new school shoes after Xmas as his are on the way to heaven .

My work shoes are loosing there grip other than that they are okay . I've seen a video using a glue gun to replace grip but I don't have a glue gun. :rotfl:. But my trainers are black so I'm going to use them untill I can figure a way to restore grip onto my work ones.

I need to go into town and get some Xmas cards (half the price of my local shop). And one last Xmas present.

Tomorrow I'm at work all day. So will be a no spend day hopefully. :money:

inigma

I really like your idea of setting monthly and annual goals, that looks like a really smart way of going about your business. I really struggled to get my wife on board with the whole budgeting thing, I now have her sitting down with me once a month to go through expenditure and what we need to plan for. I think the monthly and yearly goals might keep us on track.

mumof3.12kindebt

I find monthly or weekly goals more achievable. But having a end of year goal of what we want to achieve by the end also helps motivate. I do loose motivation though and that's when the weekly or monthly goals help to keep me going

Maybe have a goal each week or month might help. A number of no spend days or no eating out or take aways for 7 days if you eat out regularly. Sometimes the little achievements help to give you the push to keep going :money:

mumof3.12kindebt

Hi everyone. Hope you are all well and looking forward to Christmas. This year has gone fast.

All presents brought and most wrapped. Didn't go over the top this year. And will be doing the same next year. I have eldests birthday present already for January hidden away.

Today is a no spend day.

Spent the morning pampering myself a little. Toe nails painted. Had a lovely relaxing bubble bath. Deep conditioned my hair and applied my face mask. All using things I already had in. So no extra expense there.

Update of accounts

19th Dec 2018
Debt 0
5k emergency fund
150 help to save +75 bonus
500 LISA Skipton
200 nationwide moving costs account
246 bricklane

Still have my wages for the rest of the month to add to this so about another 300 will be added before the end of the year. :money:

Im going to finish reading my book tonight.

When I next go to town with the eldest we are going to get him a library card so he can read as much as he likes next year without it costing anything . (I normally buy him books but it can get costly)

I sat last night researching free baby groups in my local city. I managed to find at least one group everyday Monday to Friday so me and or partner and little lady will be going to those in the new year which will be lovely and again won't cost anything.

Also the weekends I'm not working next year we will find free activities to take the children too. Weather it be a play park a walk or a free activity in our town. We are going to keep our national trust membership alpthough this costs us 120 a year it saves us a fortune in half terms and summer holidays keeping the kids busy and getting them out in the fresh air.

Next year I'm going to post daily even if it's just to say hi and record our spends. I'll do at least a monthly update on how the savings are doing etc.

I plan to keep next year as low or no spend as possible. To try and achieve our aim of having 16.5k saved by December 2019.

I'll post daily with what we have been up to and the costs.

I want to be able to look back when we achieve our goal and have more of an idea on how we achieved it . It will hopefully also give other readers inspiration that they can do it too.

I'm going to do a separate post now actually well I remember on how we plan to achieve our goal

mumof3.12kindebt

We have done our budget. And it confirms if we stick to budget we can achieve our goal.
How will this be possible.

1. Quit smoking
2. All days out will cost zero
3. Make use of stuff we already have
4. Meal plan every week and stick to the £70 a week food/household budget.
5. Switch to soap nuts when we have used up our washing powder
6. Don't be fooled that we need lots of cleaning products to keep the house clean.
7. Get library cards and use our library instead of buying books
8. Always buy used where possible to make the budget stretch further
9. Don't buy it if we don't NEED it .
10. Take a photo of everything we buy as a reminder of what we spent our money on
11. Cancel all unnecessary direct debits
12. Sell what we no longer use or love
13. Get creative . - repair clothes where possible. instead of buying new .
14. Accept second hand things being offered to us
15. Don't use the car if we can walk
16. Don't pay for parking unless absolutely necessary
17. Get school uniform second hand
18. No takeaways / no eating out unless we have a voucher to cover all the costs.
19. Take food / drinks when we go out
20. When needing to go somewhere try not to make a trip just for that try to plan things so we aren't wasting petrol
21. Buy cheap buy twice. Try to get better quality at a good price (this is where buying second hand is helpful) clothes and shoes etc
22. No holiday unless I can cover the cost with overtime
23. Turn off the lights and plugs when not in use.
24. Remember the one present rule for Xmas and birthdays
25. Get creative with using up food instead of wasting it .
26. Organise lots of play days and sleepovers
27. Make an effort to visit family more
28. Make an effort to attend church more
29. Make use of the free baby groups on offer locally.
30. Aim for as many no spend days as possible. And get creative for example do we really need to buy chips or do we have potatoes to make some


And remember this isn't forever . It's just a short term to save as much as possible as quick as possible :money: