£50,000 in 3 years diary. Can I do it???

pavlovs_dog

RoxieW wrote: »

pavlovs - just noticing your sig - your savings look great and for the same goal as us - how long has it taken to get to that stage? any tips? do you have a diary/thread I can look through?

no diary or thread as such because there is no real story to tell. im in my last year of a 4 year degree, and have taken and saved my student loan to put towards a house deposit upon graduation or there after. earn enough from my part time job to live on comfortably. it does help that we are living very cheaply with OHs parents and paying a nominal amount of rent. (if we were to move out we could afford to pay the bills etc but there would be virtually no money left over for fun without digging into the loan/savings, which defies the point of taking the loan in the first place!)


OH also has savings, which arent mentioned in my sig. they are for a new car (mid term plan) and then longer term in line with my savings, the money he has saved will form the emergency fund (equivilent to around 6 months income, in case disaster strikes or the roof collapses or something), and surplus will then go towards paying fees, extra deposit, furniture and decorating, depending on what is needed.

sources of income: student loan and grant are the number one source, i also used to tax myself on my pay (i had a payrise, so anything i earnt above my previous basic rate of pay normally went straight in the savings). now i save what i can, as i have other outgoings now that i didnt have before. still manage to save around £200 a month on average to the furniture fund. the deposit fund is more of an annual thing, because it is saved in various ISA accounts.

to keep track of it all i have a spreadsheet. all the money bar the deposit goes into one high interest savings account. on the spreadsheet i keep track of the various things i am saving for, so i know exactly how much money is in each 'pot'.

to be honest the only reason i added the info into my sig was to remind me to do my banking and pay myself at the end of each month! it doesnt paint an entirely true picture, because there are other things im saving for as well, and OH has his savings, but it is nice to see it all add up.

once i graduate, ive got my pgce to do, so its going to be another 18 months at least before we can even contemplate buying. which means we should overshoot my targets somewhat, which is no bad thing as every penny helps!

RoxieW

sounds like a plan! v good you're being sensible with your student loan and not spending it on converse trainers and cherry lamrini like I did! ps, its not a psychology degree by any chance??

pavlovs_dog

RoxieW wrote: »

sounds like a plan! v good you're being sensible with your student loan and not spending it on converse trainers and cherry lamrini like I did! ps, its not a psychology degree by any chance??

im not doing too badly. its four years worth of loan (deposit) and then whatever i could eek out what was left of my wages (furniture and decorating). considering i have more savings than are listed in my sig, and ive had two really good holidays in that 4 year period, im doing very well indeed by student standards. i think growing up in a family where no one ever had two pennies to rub together is whats made me so sensible.

it doesnt hurt that we're extremely cheap to entertain. we dont go out all that often, and when we do its never expensive nights out. we drive a car that is cheap to run and maintain, also cheap to insure. really not a typical student lifestyle at all (studying welsh, not psychology btw )

none of it would have been possible were it not for the generousity of OH's parents, so we are very fortunate in that respect.

if you havent already done it, i recommend the spreadsheet idea. i downloaded Easylearner's one off of the site for inspiration and then made my own. its great to see what your savings amount is as a percentage of your overall target. sounds really anal, but you will find yourself scraping together a few extra pennies to get onto a whole percent, instead of 34.7% or something random like that. it really spurs you on to see yourself getting closer to your end goal.

NickiM

Oh, didn't realise you were going to Bath - it's such a nice place. Has the best chocolate shop there, mm. How has today been?

RoxieW

Evening :j

Bath was great - got back today at about 4pm - had a really nice time. Stayed in the Bath travellodge which I can defo recommend - our double room cost £29 was right in the centre of bath and was absolutely fine. It was large with a sofa, big mirror, kettle, plenty of hanging space and a view!! Basic, of course - wouldn't go there for a romantic weekend away - but brilliant for the money and fine for me and my mate to sleep in. The bed was super comfy too! We went to the thermae spa for their 'taster' package - I'd definitely recommend it. The spa was beautiful with spa pool, aromatherapy steam rooms and a gorgeous rooftop hot spa pool overlooking bath. it was raining too so definitely an experience! Then we had massage and facial included which were totally lush - the best massage I've ever had! my friend fell to sleep 3 times and woke herself up snoring!! But I didn't want to miss a second - it was really lovely. I'd recommend it for a lovely girly day out.
Then we finished off with dinner at a really nice restaurant. The original plan had been to go pubbing and clubbing after but we were both so chilled out that we just went back to the hotel and had a cup of tea and a gossip in bed!! You wouldn't think we were only in our twenties eh?

The best bit - well, kind off - you wont believe - even though I'd put aside £200 and given myself permission to spend it - I only actually spent (drum roll please - £35!). Plus £20 petrol so £55 in all. I did so well! The meal was really reasonable (had a starter, main, 2 glasses of vino and a latte) came to £26 - the we had a brunch this morn and a coffee and cake yesterday. We did have a mooch around the shops but I just didn't fancy buying anything. Whats wrong with me? I would really like some new clothes/boots/jacket but nothing caught my eye - plus I was thinking that hopefully I'm going to lose a stone over next couple of months and drop a dress size so no point buying anything new yet?

Dale just asked for a healthy food kick as he had the boys round in my absence last night and I think the beer/kebab/lazing around combo made him feel rubbish. So when i get to the end of next weeks menu plan its onto healthier meals with lots of veg and less red meat.

RoxieW

menu plan:

sun - chicken sunday lunch
mon - chicken pie (with leftover chicken) and veg
tues - chicken (with leftover) and bacon salad with new potatoes
weds - jacket potatoes with beans and cheese
thurs - bangers, mash and veg
fri - pasta arrabiata

sorted - and all I need to buy is a tin of beans - we have everything else 'in stock'. should be able to get through next week with just £10 to top up bread and milk. why not? then it'll be onto a 'healthy' eating regime for us!

RoxieW

oh, forgot to mention that we bought todd a new chest of drawers as his others broke - £69 down. I've put it under 'family fun' as not quite sure where else to put it?

RoxieW

ooh - also forgot to mention - I never realised that I dont pay council tax in jan/feb - so that free's up an extra £100 so should be able to save £800 this month yey!

RoxieW

morning all!

hoping for a no spend day today as planning to just mooch around with the kids and do loads of ironing - boooo! Get them ready for back to school tomo. Dales off out at 3pm to watch a football match and wont be back till late so I'll be mooching all by myself tonight. I quite like not having to share the tele though lol

smartcat04

Sounds like you had a really good time in Bath and didn't spend too much either.