A little home to call my own

indigowarrior

Hi @Jamiedodger,
Read your blog with interest. I am hoping to be in your position in 2 years time. I have no desire for a mortgage and just want to buy my home with cash. However I have 12K of debt to deal with first. I will be following and cheering you on.

JAMIEDODGER

Hey indigowarrior (great name btw).

Thanks for the support:) I shall be cheering you on too! Where will you be looking to buy when you have saved enough to buy in cash? Do you have a particular area in mind?

JAMIEDODGER

Quite a productive day so far. I took everything out of the freezers in preparation for Monday's delivery and managed to get it all packed back in to one freezer. I have a very small chest freezer plus an upright, and now all the food is in the chest freezer. Once I had done that, I turned off the upright and it is currently in a state of unfreeze:) It should be finished by tonight, but I shall leave unplugged until Monday morning and save some electricity.

I took out the whole chicken and small gammon for Sunday's dinner, so the chest freezer is not quite full, but by the time the delivery arrives it should have even more space. I will have enough leftovers from the roast to make a chicken and ham pie for Monday's dinner:)

We have now run out of treats so I have just made a couple of sultana cakes which are cooling on the rack. These will do for tonight after dinner. I still have enough ingredients to make another couple so might make them on Sunday.

I also cleared out my work bag as I am now on holiday for a few weeks...found £2.10 in the bottom:D Plus lots of rubbish. All tidied now and has been put away until I return to work.

Nothing else planned for today. If the weather clears up and it stops raining I will take the dog out for a nice walk after dinner.

JAMIEDODGER

£1 TT'd this morning taking my travel fund total to exactly £150.00 which is 6% of the total needed for my backpacking trip of the Balkans with the kids next summer:):T Hoping to add another £50 ish during April. I really need to be increasing the monthly amount so I will hit my target, but I am not too worried at this point, it is still quite early in the year to be stressing about it and I have fifteen months in which to save the rest. I have some cash back coming in June which will boost the figure a little.

So, last day of March and the final savings pot figures are in.

Retirement Fund - £10196.24 - 4.08% of £250000
House Fund - £2662.37 - 5.32% of £50000
Travel Fund - £150.00 - 6.00% of £2500

I will be posting final grocery figure tomorrow just in case I need to buy anything today, and also my 12k in 2018 and March savings totals.

Targets for April:

- save £50 into travel fund
- keep food budget within £350
- save what I can into house fund

I expect April will be a low saving month as MOT/Service and new tyres needed for van, plus my trip to London and a few birthdays. I don't think I will be able to save the £650 into my house fund, but will make that up over the following months. May looks like it will be a low spend month so hopefully I can make up any shortfall then.

Pottering day today, lots to get done around the house:) Have a great day everyone!

newgirly

Great figures JD, I'm going to have a tight month in April too

indigowarrior

JAMIEDODGER wrote: »

Hey indigowarrior (great name btw).

Thanks for the support:) I shall be cheering you on too! Where will you be looking to buy when you have saved enough to buy in cash? Do you have a particular area in mind?

Yes I do. Either Burnley or South Wales. I have nothing preventing me from moving but need to be debt free and in work first. However, at the moment to unwell to work.

JAMIEDODGER

indigowarrior wrote: »

Yes I do. Either Burnley or South Wales.

Same as me! I have a Zoopla search for all houses in Burnley under £50k:D

indigowarrior

JAMIEDODGER wrote: »

Same as me! I have a Zoopla search for all houses in Burnley under £50k:D

Me to! Unbelievable how cheap my birth town is. (I was born in Burnley general hospital)

JAMIEDODGER

I know it is so cheap!! It's going to be a while before I can either afford to buy or can move (have to wait until kids have left home) so I like to just see what's about in my price range, plus I really like those little 2 up 2 down's:D

indigowarrior

JAMIEDODGER wrote: »

I know it is so cheap!! It's going to be a while before I can either afford to buy or can move (have to wait until kids have left home) so I like to just see what's about in my price range, plus I really like those little 2 up 2 down's:D

I think it will take me 7 years. I am going to clear my debts and then start work. Hopefully by the time I am debt free I will be better then I am now. I have no other people to consider so there is just me. I will say Burnley is quite rough but I think if you kept yourself to yourself then it wont be a problem. Yes those 2 by 2s look ideal.