The 'We're saving for a deposit' thread

ClareyFairy

Svenena you sound like one of the most organised people, i wish i could be as organised as you with my money.

rictus123

Well managed an extra £50 in so now got £550(only started this month) at 2.75% of my goal...aim is to be at £2,000 by end of May which will be 10% of target. Getting rid of my car thats on finance in October so that will free up £250 a month...that will go straight into this fund. Got a homer building a double garage coming up soon...instead of getting a hand and getting it done quicker, might take a few weekends extra and build it myself so when i get the cash in the magic brown envelope its all mine and can go straight to my ISA. Looking to fill my ISA up next tax year(5th of April onwards)...allowance is now £5,340 for next year i believe so that plus whats allready in...should have about £6k in there by end of year.

So targets are 31/05/11 - £2,000
01/08/11 - £4,000
31/12/11 - £8,000(£6k ISA, £2k current)

3 very do able targets...just need to put the work in and work smart and il get there. Obviously £20k by my 22nd birthday ( june 2013) is the minimum....as thats enough for my share of deposit+furnishings+fees+moving costs+few months bills emergency money...so getting more will mean extra security or a fancy Porsche 911 to sit in the drive of my new house!

fungus_2

Hi All!
I love this thread! I hope you don't mind if I join you.

I'm 28 (f) and have been working for the last 3 and a half years but I'm embarrassed to say, for most of it, I pretty much spent everything I had coming in and then some, maxed out my £2000 overdraft and racked up £2500 worth of credit card debt. I also took out a professional studies loan for £5000 while I was studying which I started paying back when I started working.

Finally, a few months ago, I saw the light and have started to change my ways and correct my atittude to spending...

Currently:
I have cleared my overdraft and manage to stay out of it most of the time.
I have £3200 to go on my professional studies bank loan which I pay back at £71/month on a 10 year plan (done in September 2017).
I still have £1800 of credit card debt to go but I have moved it all to a 0% card and am planning to pay it all off at £150/month before I get charged.
I have saved £2,408.40 towards my £25,000 mortgage target which I hope to reach by Dec 2012!

I can definitely do plenty more to save more and really look forward to sharing tips with you all.

Two current problems:
My boyfriend wants to look into buying somewhere together at the end of this year and he has no idea how little savings I have. Really dreading having to tell him how useless I am with money. Eek!
Secondly, since I have joined this site, I have noticed the general advice is to clear your debts before you start saving. What do you all think? Should I put saving on hold? Or use current pitiful savings to clear some of the debt? Or just keep going the way I am? Were any of you in a similar position?

Thanks guys!

iwantahome

Hi fungus,

Are you able to clear your professional studies loan early? You will pay approximately £5500 for the £3200 you have left to pay if you let this run to full term. I know where I'd rather the extra £2300 went if it were my loan.

The extra £71 per month can then be put towards your deposit, boost your income a little for mortgage applications and be put towards bills when you own your home.

Try posting a SOA and people on this thread will try to help you maximise your savings each month.

For me it is a case of cutting out any unnecessary spends, buying less clothes. it is surprising how wearing the same thing 3/4/12 times does not bother me anymore. Good luck with your savings.

vl2588

Fungus don't worry about telling your bf as you are clearly not useless with money by the sound of it; you have a great plan already and your debt is relatively small so I am sure he won't think badly of you

Had unexpected monies this year and have just checked ISA again to find I have only £800 left to invest this FY in order to max out the ISA limit, which is a LOT more than I expected to be able to save so I am really happy

It's far too big a challenge to save a further £800 before April 1st but at least I am close

[Deleted User]

fungus wrote: »

Two current problems:
My boyfriend wants to look into buying somewhere together at the end of this year and he has no idea how little savings I have. Really dreading having to tell him how useless I am with money. Eek!
Secondly, since I have joined this site, I have noticed the general advice is to clear your debts before you start saving. What do you all think? Should I put saving on hold? Or use current pitiful savings to clear some of the debt? Or just keep going the way I am? Were any of you in a similar position?

Thanks guys!

That is the general idea, that there's little or no point in having savings accumulating little insterest if you are paying a higher interest on your debts.

As all (or most) of your debt is 0%, then saving is a good idea. I would ckeck out the APR on the loan you have though, and see if you are allowed to make penalty free overpayments.

D9

damsmi2002

My partner and I are 23 and 21 and have been together for almost 7 years now. We were debating either travelling or settling down towards the end of the year and have decided on the latter. We currently have 60k in our savings between us and it all matures in November, Whig by then our aim is to have 70k.
We were thinking of putting down 55k as a deposit and Abingdon the rest for legal fees etc, but as were ftb were not expecting to pay stamp duty so shouldn't be too much for this. Then using some for furnishing and the rest into savings again.
Since being on here though there seems to be a big debate over whether to buy now or wait and see how the Market goes. In all honesty though we still live at home and want our own space so are thinking we will begin looking towards October. Just using the time now to do as much research as possible really. Sound like a good plan?

themightysloth

I wouldn't worry about telling your boyfriend... you are at least going in the right direction and not accruing any more debt... which is the better way to go!

I too had a loan whilst I was at uni, and maxed overdraft and credit card, which all put me back when I was trying to save. took me a while to clear them all off.

I think you're probably thinking that if you used your current savings to clear your debt (or part of it) then you won't have anything saved up - psychologically you may feel you've gone backwards but in reality it makes most sense. maybe you could keep a small amount of it in savings and use the majority to clear the debts? it's all about getting out of debt first really.

maybe start by speaking to your boyfriend and explaining your thinking? the loan seems to be the biggest thing to clear first.

fungus wrote: »

Hi All!
I love this thread! I hope you don't mind if I join you.

I'm 28 (f) and have been working for the last 3 and a half years but I'm embarrassed to say, for most of it, I pretty much spent everything I had coming in and then some, maxed out my £2000 overdraft and racked up £2500 worth of credit card debt. I also took out a professional studies loan for £5000 while I was studying which I started paying back when I started working.

Finally, a few months ago, I saw the light and have started to change my ways and correct my atittude to spending...

Currently:
I have cleared my overdraft and manage to stay out of it most of the time.
I have £3200 to go on my professional studies bank loan which I pay back at £71/month on a 10 year plan (done in September 2017).
I still have £1800 of credit card debt to go but I have moved it all to a 0% card and am planning to pay it all off at £150/month before I get charged.
I have saved £2,408.40 towards my £25,000 mortgage target which I hope to reach by Dec 2012!

I can definitely do plenty more to save more and really look forward to sharing tips with you all.

Two current problems:
My boyfriend wants to look into buying somewhere together at the end of this year and he has no idea how little savings I have. Really dreading having to tell him how useless I am with money. Eek!
Secondly, since I have joined this site, I have noticed the general advice is to clear your debts before you start saving. What do you all think? Should I put saving on hold? Or use current pitiful savings to clear some of the debt? Or just keep going the way I am? Were any of you in a similar position?

Thanks guys!

iwantahome

£1000 from me today. Taking my total up to 16.21%. This road is a long long long road.

This month's aim is to not dip into any of my savings for any of the big bills I have coming up and to use my monthly spending allowance instead, although I feel like I am becoming too frugal, and too conscious of spending nothing at all.

MissEJ_2

Am I missing something here? Because surely if you are committed enough to your boyfriend to be talking about getting a mortgage together, you should know everything about each other by now? And not be hiding things that are obviously quite important considering the life changing step it seems you are both about to take?

Personally I think you should be totally honest with him about previous debts so you don't have to worry any longer. And if he's good with money then it's a dead cert that he can help you out

themightysloth wrote: »

I wouldn't worry about telling your boyfriend... you are at least going in the right direction and not accruing any more debt... which is the better way to go!

I too had a loan whilst I was at uni, and maxed overdraft and credit card, which all put me back when I was trying to save. took me a while to clear them all off.

I think you're probably thinking that if you used your current savings to clear your debt (or part of it) then you won't have anything saved up - psychologically you may feel you've gone backwards but in reality it makes most sense. maybe you could keep a small amount of it in savings and use the majority to clear the debts? it's all about getting out of debt first really.

maybe start by speaking to your boyfriend and explaining your thinking? the loan seems to be the biggest thing to clear first.