My motivating money saving diary

WSC

It’s so interesting to see my monthly payday logs to see who quick a month goes and how far I come in each month.

I got my payrise and I was pleased with it. It’s given me £128 extra in pocket each month so that will help me so much.

I’ve put another £2k in my savings so now have £27k! 

Flat has finally sold (although paperwork not gone through yet) and my partner has confirmed he wants to buy with me abs we have put an offer in for a house.

I hate telling people though as everyone I tell says oh don’t buy a house like this or should buy one you can extend or buy here etc etc. It really puts me off! I don’t know why people can’t just say really pleased for you, go for it, like I do when others tell me things. 

I still haven’t spent anything last month really at all but I am going on a little holiday in England soon so I will buy some summer clothes as a treat but I will try to put some old clothes on eBay to pay for it. 

Still working my socks off but I will look for another job once I have my house sorted I think as I work so so hard & really for the amount I do I should be paid more, but time will tell. 

Getting there... I’d love to be able to get in a position where I don’t need to work as much as I do. 

I have already said to my partner in our new house we could rent a room out to bring in some extra money as I really want to be financially secure.

I do worry we are buying a house we can only put a loft extension on & we aren’t buying a house we can add a full extension on to make more money on. But the house we are buying is in one of the best areas where I live. 

South_coast

You're doing brilliantly! If you don't need to add something to it, then why worry that you can't? Why add all that extra stress and expenditure to your life to do an extension if it's not in your plans? It's your home and you need to do what suits you, not what some future buyer/nosey relative thinks you should do!

WSC

Thank you so much for the lovely feedback. Why can’t everyone just be like you! I literally hate telling anything these days as no one just says ah that’s lovely. They say ohhh you should do this or that etc. I just think to myself why don’t you concentrate on your own life. It’s so bad I am seriously considering not telling anyone I have moved into the house until I have decorated it otherwise they will end up saying no don’t paint that colour do this! 

Thanks for the support. Nice to have a place to vent. 

WSC

Another pay day and I have paid off my £5k credit card out of my savings as the 0 percent was coming to an end this month. So I now only have £2k of credit card debt on a 0 percent which has the new windows for the flat on it & this I will pay off when the flat sale comes through.

Still waiting for that and the house purchase to go through. 

I am also after nearly 14 years going to pay off the final £2.5k of my student loan on Monday! This will be instead of me putting the £2K into my savings this month like I normally do. As I really just want to get rid of it. I could just pay £250 over 10 months for it but I just want to get rid of it finally. So that is a massive achievement & I am so proud of myself for finally paying it off. 

I have been away last week to a cottage and spent a lot of money on food & some clothes (probably about £500 in total) so I def haven’t had a no spend month like I normally try to do! I have also had my hair cut & eyebrows done etc as I return back to the office from after June, plus I bought some makeup & vitamin sprays like vitamin D etc. So not ideal but I can’t return to the office looking like I have in lockdown! This is going to be the hard bit now to keep the amount of saving up out of the pandemic. It was very easy in it! 

So overall progress now is;
Debt only £2k and will be paid off when flat sale happens. So technically debt free! 

No student loan! 
£22k in savings. 

Flat sale should pay for the new house deposit and and all the fees. 

Doing my best. 

Chiglepig

WSC said:

Another pay day and I have paid off my £5k credit card out of my savings as the 0 percent was coming to an end this month. So I now only have £2k of credit card debt on a 0 percent which has the new windows for the flat on it & this I will pay off when the flat sale comes through.

Still waiting for that and the house purchase to go through. 

I am also after nearly 14 years going to pay off the final £2.5k of my student loan on Monday! This will be instead of me putting the £2K into my savings this month like I normally do. As I really just want to get rid of it. I could just pay £250 over 10 months for it but I just want to get rid of it finally. So that is a massive achievement & I am so proud of myself for finally paying it off. 

I have been away last week to a cottage and spent a lot of money on food & some clothes (probably about £500 in total) so I def haven’t had a no spend month like I normally try to do! I have also had my hair cut & eyebrows done etc as I return back to the office from after June, plus I bought some makeup & vitamin sprays like vitamin D etc. So not ideal but I can’t return to the office looking like I have in lockdown! This is going to be the hard bit now to keep the amount of saving up out of the pandemic. It was very easy in it! 

So overall progress now is;
Debt only £2k and will be paid off when flat sale happens. So technically debt free! 

No student loan! 
£22k in savings. 

Flat sale should pay for the new house deposit and and all the fees. 

Doing my best. 

Well done, @WSC. Seeing the student loan gone will be a good feeling, and I hope the sale and purchase goes smoothly for you.

Be kind to yourself about the spending, we've all had an extraordinary year, one way or another. Like you, I've been able to save in a way I never would have thought possible and I'm finding it a little bit tough to ease myself into a bit more of a balanced way of being - but OMG the joy of getting my eyebrows done! Hair next.

South_coast

Excellent work on clearing the student loan 😀 It's such a good feeling not seeing a big chunk being deducted on your wage slip every month!

WSC

Chiglepig said:

WSC said:

Another pay day and I have paid off my £5k credit card out of my savings as the 0 percent was coming to an end this month. So I now only have £2k of credit card debt on a 0 percent which has the new windows for the flat on it & this I will pay off when the flat sale comes through.

Still waiting for that and the house purchase to go through. 

I am also after nearly 14 years going to pay off the final £2.5k of my student loan on Monday! This will be instead of me putting the £2K into my savings this month like I normally do. As I really just want to get rid of it. I could just pay £250 over 10 months for it but I just want to get rid of it finally. So that is a massive achievement & I am so proud of myself for finally paying it off. 

I have been away last week to a cottage and spent a lot of money on food & some clothes (probably about £500 in total) so I def haven’t had a no spend month like I normally try to do! I have also had my hair cut & eyebrows done etc as I return back to the office from after June, plus I bought some makeup & vitamin sprays like vitamin D etc. So not ideal but I can’t return to the office looking like I have in lockdown! This is going to be the hard bit now to keep the amount of saving up out of the pandemic. It was very easy in it! 

So overall progress now is;
Debt only £2k and will be paid off when flat sale happens. So technically debt free! 

No student loan! 
£22k in savings. 

Flat sale should pay for the new house deposit and and all the fees. 

Doing my best. 

Well done, @WSC. Seeing the student loan gone will be a good feeling, and I hope the sale and purchase goes smoothly for you.

Be kind to yourself about the spending, we've all had an extraordinary year, one way or another. Like you, I've been able to save in a way I never would have thought possible and I'm finding it a little bit tough to ease myself into a bit more of a balanced way of being - but OMG the joy of getting my eyebrows done! Hair next.

Thank you so much for your message. Yes so true. I knew I had to come out of a year at home with savings, as if I couldn’t do it then I never could. I have had a bit of crazy couple of weeks buying bits, but it’s all things I need & hopefully thats topped me up now for a while. I also used Quidco where possible to buy through if I didn’t buy from a shop. And I got myself a very sensible rain jacket, so most of it is investment stuff it’s not me just throwing it away I hope. I can do some eBaying & maybe a bootfair in the summer too to pay some of it back. 

I am very all or nothing! My hair and eyebrow shape has made me feel so much better! 

WSC

South_coast said:

Excellent work on clearing the student loan 😀 It's such a good feeling not seeing a big chunk being deducted on your wage slip every month!

Thanks so much. Yes not to have £250 a month coming out for it will be amazing! And I will need that now for my bigger mortgage. I can’t believe I have finally paid it off, I am sure I am the last of my friends to do so. Psychologically too paying it off is massive as at one point I never thought I would! 

South_coast

I thought the same - and all the people who say "Why are you paying it off, it'll just get written off anyway" drove me mad! My BF still thinks it was a bonkers decision as he thought it would get written off (even after I showed him my T&C's 😡), but sounds like you're a similar age to me and it would have run until age 64. I did not want that hanging over me for my whole working life!

hanb2

Having just read through your diary, I’m going to follow along as our situations sound fairly similar but I definitely need more of your self control! 

Good luck with the house and I too need to sort myself out before going back to the office. Lockdown has not been kind to my appearance!