Future Proofing my life: Deposit saving then MFW journey in under 13 years

Merlin's_Beard

Not buying things is always a mind game.

I find that if I think I want something, if I go away and come back to it 48 hours later, most of the time the urge has gone.

beanielou

I am a sucker for cat stuff & Snoopy sweatshirts! 

Books for the Kindle. 

Karmacat

La Plan, frugalwoods is a great read when you're trying to save up to buy your own property.  They have a brilliant standard of living, but they really focussed on getting the wherewithal to get there, and they still help lots of others with the monthly planning scenarios.  Keep an eye out on how your saving accelerates and gives you more options and more freedom to buy a property - it will surprise you, I think.  You can do it 🌞

LeighofMar

I like how your US accommodations cemented what you want for your new home. That's brilliant. Now you can focus on the garden, light-filled rooms, the stuff that you know will make it your beautiful home. It's very exciting. 

LadyWithAPlan

CathT said:

Hello,

I've been catching up with your diary over the last couple of weeks - it's a great read. I hope you can find a great property in your budget. It really is an eye opener seeing the true cost of buying and living in London, I'm quite a bit further North than you.

Enjoy your last couple of days of sunshine - it's gone much cooler here lately. 

Hi Cath, glad you enjoying the diary and my wafflings  .. its getting long and wieldy so well done on getting through it!  London is not cheap but its my home, my network, I love the art, music, gigs, theatre and the many fabulous people from across the planet  or indeed Londoners all in one melting pot - I rarely go to the restaurants cos of the cost ..and I am v good at sniffing out cheaper tix for things...
Do you have a diary?? I have found mine useful for looking back and seeing where I am still saying I will do X (programme, find more work, get some more days)  but then not actually  doing what I  said I would.

LadyWithAPlan

Merlin's_Beard said:

Not buying things is always a mind game.

I find that if I think I want something, if I go away and come back to it 48 hours later, most of the time the urge has gone.

Indeed, the things I saw last week that I wanted - the consignement faux fur coat $170, the Lululem*n pants $140, the tall boots $170 ... oh yes the ipad $800, the new iphone $1099 .. I walked away from all of them . I still do need to upgrade my phone - nearly ran out of battery again yesterday and its stressful when You are abroad and waiting for your uber and need your phone.. However I will see what black friday deals come up.

beanielou said:

I am a sucker for cat stuff & Snoopy sweatshirts! 

Books for the Kindle. 

Liking your style ... my splurges are less fun (and more expensive I fear)

Karmacat said:

La Plan, frugalwoods is a great read when you're trying to save up to buy your own property.  They have a brilliant standard of living, but they really focussed on getting the wherewithal to get there, and they still help lots of others with the monthly planning scenarios.  Keep an eye out on how your saving accelerates and gives you more options and more freedom to buy a property - it will surprise you, I think.  You can do it 🌞

I dont know much about them - I just read a few blogs and the 'DONT BUY ANYTHING' popped out. I will find out more..
I think one way my saving accelerates is by getting a new client so thats next week job alongside caching up.

KajiKita said:

The ‘don’t buy stuff’ mantra is incredibly powerful. As a natural spendthrift, it is probably the thing that has made the biggest difference to me since starting here. Also, unpicking what the reasons are behind that urge to spend - it’s usually some kind of emotional sticking plaster ….

I also end up having a debate with myself about whether to buy things with my ‘monthly pocket money’ or not e.g. the paint we need for the living room wall behind the fireplace …. If I buy that in cash from my pocket money today, today would be an NSD which would be awesome for a Saturday …. But, that’s a whole chunk of my pocket money gone … 🤔😉😂

KK

I need to get that mantra firmly into my soul as I do need to up my % savings rate - I will start to track it.
I have this thing about clothes, shoes and handbags... luckily I have stopped with buying house stuff (until I get a new one which needs decorating ..)

LeighofMar said:

I like how your US accommodations cemented what you want for your new home. That's brilliant. Now you can focus on the garden, light-filled rooms, the stuff that you know will make it your beautiful home. It's very exciting. 

Indeed! I like how living in a $20m or whatever home in the US for a week has made me realise I  need a garden, or a large patio but a garden would be preferable - except then the ground floor rooms are often darker...

LadyWithAPlan

Ok fellow MFWs  - so this post is the good, the bad and the ugly... 

My diary is now 103 (pages) and  823 days old .. Aug 11 2021 to Nov 12 2023.. on a MFW blog and I still haven't bought .. I feel like the protaganist in a film who has finally decided enough is enough and starts to take massive action (often involving flashy martial arts high kicks) - I am however playing the Morricone titular soundtrack - poncho flying in the wind..and locking in on my target



THE UGLY - I apologise what I am about to type out - 
Put any hot drinks down and also your Sunday morning pancake forks - I don't want anyone to accidentally stab themselves in horror.

the cost of the 'thanks for letting me stay' meal.    £191 excluding the 20% service ...  for two of us....

It was made higher as my friend wanted lobster ...  $82 plus tax + service  - I dont eat it as I have an allergy  and honestly it turns my stomach to see it  - we had 3 glasses of wine , she had 2 I had only 1 but at $23 dollars a glass (cheapest was $19 and not good) not including 10% sales tax and of course 20% service... I wasnt having a second - not that I said that  
My friend kept offering to pay due to the cost of the lobster but I had said I would take her to a nice meal and she has covered the food in the house for the week beyond me picking up a few bits  so I was certainly not going to ask her to pay. I have picked up a few things for her over the week  as well but she has opened her home to me and it is the least I can do.
She did kindly pay the service charge $40 or else it would have been  another £35 on top..

However she enjoyed it, its her fav restaurant, and only meal we had out .. I will say the greens were not good, far too salty - we sent them back once but I have had much better same cuisine in London for far cheaper.  



THE BAD
Spending fun £936.32 so far  this month - ouch ouch ouch  - the dont buy anything rule is not happening so far this month but it is now fully in action for the next 19 days beyond essentails and a but of xmas shop
Admittedly £400 was a flight change ... my last hurrah before the hurrah of Xmas 
Spending £191  dinner plus £9 Xmas gifts.. today so £200..
Plus  I saw on Vint*d a pure silk nightie the same brand as the one I am wearing daily here so I have bought it £7.32 - Not wildly expensive as they retail for £250 but definitely not - dont buy stuff -
I am thinking of having my Viv Westwood bag as a xmas gift - so not use it and get the cash for it so they can wrap at xmas..

THE GOOD - LEAVING ON A JETPLANE tomorrow  - and committing to buy finally as an matter of importance in the  next few months.
I was reading a DFW diary  yesterday and the poster suddenly was given 2 months notice despite really winning in lots of areas - the landlord wanted to do it up  and she had to move with 2 cats and a dog ... she did find somewhere for more money that was lovely   but now she  has a  3hr each way drive to work she would have to do once a week, possibly leaving the dog in her car in the car park as too long to be away all day  and a lot of stress plus being away from her local friends.

This has given me the jolt I need - I am  too comfortable where I rent, I love it,  its full of light, space, - been there over 5 years and we probably have max 2 years left in the building - I am a guardia*  , have lots friends in the building, its v central london, BUT I am on a 30 day notice period (I have a lot of furniture) and as many on here have said despite my relatively low rent despite the recent £500 rise, the comfort of a huge deposit (for me) as an EF   and brilliant location I am at the whim  of others. They can at a send of an email cause me huge anxiety and stress and possibly financial worry. I have finally seen the  danger and possible pain of being at someones whim or someone else's plan.

This is my life  -  I want the next place I move to be my home where  I decide if I stay or go, I could also have a dog  
I also can have the joys of OPs...

So I need to be fully in charge of my own destiny - which means becoming an adult and buying a home now is the next and only true step - this trumps the maths of the interest on my deposit and my fear in getting into such a responsibility  of a £275-£350k mortgage on my own and my reluctance to get another job or contract..
I need to also get gazelle intense (Dave R*msey) on spending in this short period of my liife

Its time to step it up -   so this is what is happening on my return to London 
 - Go get another client to increase my income in a steady way - 
- Look at and action the serious side hustles more inc programme to get more income in in the next month.
- get daily gym in as I feel so much better and it clears my head
- Go get a mortgage in principal  thats in-line with my new income and allows me to buy somewhere I can happily and afford to live for the next 11yrs and get paid off whilst also saving for FIRE
- get seriously decluttering and stuff sold on
- Choose to keep current home decluttered and v clean and live now in a gorgeous, clean, place that reflects who I am as I look for the home to buy
- Look hard in various areas of london and find out where i am buying and find the home 
- Get serious about tracking my spending - I may have a play with notion and writing down every spend  - and squeeze every penny out of my budget. Even writing down the spending here this month £929 .. has horrified me..
- track my savings rate each month as a % of that months income.
- DONT BUY STUFF  - except Xmas is nearly here so I will have conversations about spending less - though for the kids is hard .. and of course the party season ... as a single La Plan it will be hard.. however I need to get going  and really look at my going out/entertainment budget - I dont want to be billy no mates but needs to be a middle ground. October was expensive, Nov more... oh yes heres Dec.. when do I choose to stop spending and increase my savings rate?

So actually this weeks accidental vacay has led me to have some mental space to see the woods, not just the trees.

South_coast

Wow, excellent plotting 😀😀😀 Looking forward to seeing the results - c'mon girl!

CathT

It sounds like you've had some time out to be able to reflect and plan. As I read through your diary I was wondering what property you might have bought as I got towards the end. (I used to have a diary but retired it a few years ago. Still read a few and post where I can).

We also need a 'cheap month' here but they're just getting more and more expensive. 

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, exciting plans you have there! 😃😃 Lovely to see the clarity of thinking after a holiday.

I keep thinking about you saving about thinking of your deposit as a massive emergency fund. We have a reasonably large house (paid within your range, but 5 years ago and up north), but not much in the way of emergency fund savings - but I often think if there was a really dire emergency, and I had to leave work, we could sell up and move somewhere smaller.

In your case, that money is still available to you - it would just have to be a pretty darn big emergency that would make you sell up and start renting again (or move somewhere a lot cheaper up north, I suppose - you could buy outright with just your current deposit if absolutely necessary!)

So I suppose I'm saying go for it! You'll be able to build a decent emergency fund back up quickly when you move, even while overpaying. And I bet there won't be ANYTHING that would tempt you to sell and start renting again so you could get that big 'emergency fund' bank balance back, however nice it looks now!