My motivating money saving diary

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Thanks Caler. I tried to look at your diary today but I am finding the site a bit hard to use (not hard I am not great IT wise). I’ll work it out eventually. Well done to you too for a having a spend free week ahead. Yes no way I could be saving what I am if it hadn’t even for lockdown (I am normally have a 5k train fair to london!). Thanks re the premium bond win, first ever one (had money in the account a few months only). I hope you have a great weekend. I am currently reading a free mag I get delivered via my bank (if I was out spending money I would never have time to just sit and read a mag so always a benefit to saving & staying in) then will clean my flat....

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Payday yesterday. £1k added to my NS&I plus the £25 I won on the account last month which they paid into my bank. So I now have £17,040 in my NS&I. I wanted to pay £1k into it this month but just couldn’t make it as we had the windows replaced, (after four years of not being able to open them), and I’ve put the whole lot on a 0 percent credit card but £150 of it I couldn’t so I’ve paid that off straight away. 

Next month if I have a no spend month this month as I plan to I’ll be able to put £2k in again, so I’ll have £19,040 in there by Xmas.
My 14 year ish student loan will come to an end in 11 month payments they tell me thank goodness starting in feb by direct debit, so I am hoping next month they stop taking it from my salary which they said should happen next month or Jan. I get a bonus in feb and it will be the first time since I left uni I will get a bonus and not have most of it wiped out by a student loan payment! So that’s really good news for me.

I went for a run today and again found free parking near the park I ran in & took my own flask of tea afterwards. No spending I am getting good at. 

I’ll be putting some bits I have on ebay next weekend so hopefully will see some items. 

I have three main people to buy for at Xmas so I will try and keep the present budget to £50 each & then three others I will spend £25 each on. So my overall Xmas present budget needs to be £225 max (although I will try and get it under £200 if possible). 

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Payday came this month & £2k added that my NS&I account so now at £19,040. Really pleased with that. Plan is by Feb payday (bonus month) I’ll have hopefully £25k. I have worked really, really hard in the last 6 months for my company (finishing most nights at 9pm & starting at 8am) so I hope my bonus reflects that. 

I didn’t spend any money last month again except on Xmas presents & I have gone over my budget on that & I think spent more like £300 than £200. However I feel my family deserve some nice things this Christmas as like most people at the moment they aren’t having the best time. 

Now I’ve spent all I will on Christmas I need to knuckle back down again & not spend anything for the next two months so I reach my £25k February target.
I want to be ready with a deposit if a house comes up. 

I think I am just going to try & keep focusing on buying a property as I can’t see anyway else really to increase my financial security. I keep working hard ar my job & hopefully can get another promotion in the next year or two too but I need to have a house incase that dies by happen. We can’t have an Xmas tree up this year as my flat is too small with all our working from home set up in our front room. 

I’ll just keep work hard, being frugal,saving & focus on trying to buy a house. I want to make sure I’m in a secure position. 

I’ve made sure all my bills are as low as can get again & been shopping at Aldi so that’s helping with my food budget & outgoings. 

I did sell some items on eBay too but I been to put on some more general items like clothes I don’t wear etc too.I am off for ten days now so no excuse not to list some bits especially as I treated my myself to some hair oil yesterday that was expensive (£24) but it’s a special one that hopefully won’t harm my skin, as I haven’t been using one but my hair is now so dry. So I need to sell some things on eBay to pay for it otherwise I won’t hit my February savings target. 

powerspowers

Good luck with the flea baying WSC, every little helps for your goal. 

You mentioned that you will miss the stamp duty holiday, I don’t think you would benefit from it anyway due to keeping the flat. We were similar and toying with renting out current property and buying another to live in, we decided to sell this one and reconsider a BtL in a few years- that way you pay stamp duty on the less expensive property. 

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Thanks so much for your reply. Oh really I hadn’t thought of that. I do have a mortgage advisor is really good but I quite forceful about certain things & I said to him that I didn’t want to sell my flat as I am so attached to it (it has taken so much to get it). He did advise me just to sell it & take the money out of it to buy a house but I’ve been pushing back as people are telling me I can’t afford to keep it & buy a house - I want to prove them wrong, as I’m believer that if you work hard enough & focus on something you can achieve it. However now reading that maybe I am doing the wrong thing. 

I wish you so much luck with your saving & new house you are buying. 

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Payday yesterday woo hoo. I also paid off a loan I had to my dad, which I had taken out to help with the deposit for my flat. So pleased that’s gone now. Only my student loan now, which I will finish paying off this year finally.

Paid another £2K into my savings account so now on £19,040 (would of been more if I hadn’t of paid my loan off but I wanted to get that gone). 

Putting my flat up for sale next week so I hope I can sell it & get a good price for it. Lots of work to be done this weekend to clear as much as I can for the photos. 

I may have to move back in with my nan for a while to save some more to get a house but I think that will be worth it & will keep her company too in lockdown (we are bubbled anyway as can both fully isolate as I work from home now).

As I use this diary to check in with myself,  I am proud that I did sell things on eBay and facebay this month & have earnt over £200 which is great. Facebay has such bargains on it too, I got some bits so cheaply for the flat so I’ll continue to check on their first & try to buy things where I can second hand in future to save. 

I did buy some clothes this month as they were so cheap in the sale, which have cost about £200 but that’s what motivated me to sell my other stuff on eBay to make sure I paid that back as I felt so guilty. I haven’t spent on anything else though.

Still going to aldi & batch cooking to save on food.

I should get a bonus at work next month so that will all go into my savings towards deposit for a house.

Working so hard at work & sorting flat out & painting. I am also using an online estate agent so fee is only £500 to try and save, as well as fact I have no choice as all local estate agents told me they were too busy atm! Think it’s because my flat low value too them too & they are so busy with stamp duty offer, so I thought right online one it is then. So hopefully that will go well.

Aim this month is to get my flat up for sale, keep saving hard, not spending & selling on eBay. 

Go for it girl 💪. Proud of myself. 

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Pay day, bonus pay day!
I have just put another £4K into my savings account and now have £23K!
Next month I will add another 2K and I will finally be at 25K. It feels like it’s taken forever, but paying off the loan to my dad & the £500 estate agent fee has meant it’s taken a month longer than I hoped.

Really proud of myself as I didn’t buy any clothes this month or anything really apart from spending £10 on a valentines gift. 

My flat sadly has had no interest at all in it, I can’t believe it as we worked so hard clearing it & getting it ready. It’s annoying too as I paid £500 to list it & I stupidly didn’t check beforehand if they did rentals, and they don’t, as I think if we can’t sell it for the price I want (as I refuse to see it without making some profit on it). Then we will rent it out for 6 months at least instead. 

I still can’t decide what’s best whether to sell it for lower than and I want and not make any profit from when I bought it or rent it, leaving my equity/deposit in it & then just buy a house with what I can save as the deposit? As I can save enough, it will take me another hard no spend 6 months but I am prepared to do it to get a house & keep my flat too as it will set me up in long term I think better but it just means the house we get may be a bit smaller than if I had sold the flat & took the money back out. 

I think what I am doing is sensible long term, but all my friends and family give me advice thinking they know best when actually I am not sure they do. I got myself this far & I think you have to be careful of advice from others as I am not sure people always have the best interests. I know a lot of people have told me not to rent the flat out as it’s expensive & stressful to rent it out but both those people rent out a flat themselves so why haven’t they sold it and why do they continue to rent out a flat. I wouldn’t want to do it if I could sell my flat at £15k more than I paid for it a four years ago to cover my costs on it but it doesn’t look like that will happen so I may have no choice but to rent it which i had always imagined I would do anyway as I always wanted the security of having a flat, somewhere to live if I really needed it. Plus my mortgage is only £600 and I could rent it for £800 so it would pay for itself I am sure. I could also cover the £600 if I really had to and my tentants didn’t pay etc or we couldn’t rent for a few months. So to me it’s a no brainer it’s just the fact my equity of roughly £35k is stuck in it which I could do with to put towards house but the more I think of it the more the costs add up to sell it & I think I will be better saving up for another 6 months & renting it out. Any advice appreciated. 

I have put some bits on eBay this month too and sold some things which is great, I need to put more on though, especially as I am off this week from work so no excuses. 

I will allow myself to buy a couple of clothes but only if I sell some old clothes on eBay to pay for it. 

Continuing to shop at Aldi & not spend on anything else. That should be easy with lockdown still. I need to maximise this saving time as if I can’t save this year I will never be able to. I have no excuse this year whilst working from home. 

Anyway proud of myself for being at 23k savings- most I have ever had in savings in my life. Still a long way to go but I need to make this a lifestyle and not just short term, to ensure I am secure. 

Bargainhunter30

Well done on the savings, that's amazing. We rented our house out for 4 years before moving back. We were luckily in an area with not enough rentals and had the same tenants the entire time. They didn't wreck the property and moved out £1.5k in arrears. But over the 4 years the house value went up by 30k so I take it as a win. 

Every landlord will have a very different story, there are risks, but only you can decide if the risk is worth taking for you. Good luck.

juliejim

Brilliant savings - you are going great guns!

WSC

Thank you so much for the savings encouragement!  I haven’t really thought about that I am doing well with that.

As of last week I have been working from home for 1 year & I have been paid yesterday putting another £2K into my savings. So I now have hit £25k! 

I have also saved £250 in a savings account (they didn’t take it automatically like they told me they would from last month)  towards 10 payments to pay off the last £2.5K of my student loan (after 15 years of paying it). If I can buy a house though soon to use stamp duty & 5% deposit offer then that that money will go towards a house before the student loan. 

I also put lots on eBay on a £1 listing day and have sold a few things on there which is great. 

I hopefully get a payrise too this month but it might not be much but I have my fingers crossed as that will help with buying a house. 

Still not a single bit of interest on selling my flat so I think I have no choice but to rent it & try to still buy a house with what I have saved & a loan if I need to (which is only way I could afford my flat before).

This month I need to get a decision from my partner on whether he is buying with with me as if he isn’t then I don’t see much future for us. Save another £2K. Sell some things on facebay & most importantly buy a house to get in for the offers. 

Continuing to work my socks off at work as standard.