The 'We're saving for a deposit' thread

Watalie

Well, I didn't count postage as I keep that total separate - I make a point of not trying to exploit the postage so I'll probably have a few quid left over from that but less than £5 I'd say.

As regards packing, I tend to reuse as much packing as I can and sometimes, I'll get some brown paper off the roll in the office, which work are fine with. I'll put things in sandwich bags and then wrap them in brown paper. The majority of stuff is clothes so easy enough to do.

eBay and paypal fees aren't huge amounts and certainly not enough to put me off :T

tara747

Watalie wrote: »

Well half my listings ended today and I've netted £102 I'm really pleased!! And I've sold 17 of 31 items. Everything which didn't sell is being relisted.

Straight into the savings account it goes

Well done!!! I've made quite a bit on eBay too, totally love getting rid of clutter and making money at the same time! It is time consuming to list some items knowing that they may only sell for 99p, but most go for more than that. :beer:

Watalie

tara747 wrote: »

Well done!!! I've made quite a bit on eBay too, totally love getting rid of clutter and making money at the same time! It is time consuming to list some items knowing that they may only sell for 99p, but most go for more than that. :beer:

:T Me too makes me feel much happier about everything. Less Clutter is brilliant.

I do seem to accumulate more though :cool:

Even the 99p stuff, I don't mind. I'd rather that 99p in my savings account than a top or trousers, under the bed in a bag which I'll never wear again

billricardi

RoxieW wrote: »

Hi I'm Roxie and I'm saving for a house deposit (titter)

We currently have a 50% shared ownership 3 bed semi that has (at the minute!) 20K equity in our share.

We want a whole house (lol) with 4 beds, an ensuite, a garage and utility. Basically, more living space all round.

We currently have nearly £11K in saving and are aiming to save £700 a month

Well this is right up my alley, since I literally wrote the book on this subject. But here are a couple tips:

1) You talk about sprucing up your current home. that's wonderful, but restrict that sprucing to NON-COSMETIC changes! In other words, this isn't the time to wallpaper when the next owner or renter might not like that color.

Instead, look at making more usable space, clearing out the closets, adding shelving, sealing windows and woodwork. Changes that benefit you AND the next family that lives in your place.

2) Start getting your data together now in regards to your potential new home. You can be tracking home prices and trends, and over the course of months, you'll have a much more complete picture of what your expectations need to be set at. There's nothing worse than setting a goal, and then realizing that the goalposts have moved. Stay informed, and be ready to save an extra few percentage points if you need to!

Best of luck!

butterfly72

billricardi wrote: »

2) Start getting your data together now in regards to your potential new home. You can be tracking home prices and trends, and over the course of months, you'll have a much more complete picture of what your expectations need to be set at. There's nothing worse than setting a goal, and then realizing that the goalposts have moved. Stay informed, and be ready to save an extra few percentage points if you need to!

Is property bee still on the go or is there an alternative way to track rather than just browsing right move? thanks.

tara747

Watalie wrote: »

:T Me too makes me feel much happier about everything. Less Clutter is brilliant.

I do seem to accumulate more though :cool:

Even the 99p stuff, I don't mind. I'd rather that 99p in my savings account than a top or trousers, under the bed in a bag which I'll never wear again

Well, quite. :money:

quintwins

can i join you all? we've been saving for a deposit for ages now, but acually don't have any savings

i think our main problem is we save around £1000 then we make a big purchase and it's gone, however we've now replaced nearly all our furniture, and i just got a new laptop, and have sold the other one which will pay for a new one for hubby later in the year, so i think were set for big purchases for awhile, but at the same time with 3 kids little purchases soon add up aswell

anyway back on topic we only need £15,000 which seems small compared to some on here, we acually havent decided what were going to do, that will get us a small plot or a deposit on a ex coucil house, we always wanted to build, but i'm now of the thinking a house would be the better option for a few years then sell or remorgage and rent it out (would depend on the market at that time) and use that money to build instead of living in a mobile home for 5+ years - my hubby even tho he can see the logic in this, hated living in town but houses in the country are very expensive, so we've decided to see how things are when we have the £15,000

according to the budget on here we have £800 left a month after all our spends so if we aimed for £500 a month (like i said kids ect we don't want to over strech ourselves) we would have £15,000 in 30months so thats my aim

ultrawomble

butterfly72 wrote: »

Is property bee still on the go or is there an alternative way to track rather than just browsing right move? thanks.

Property bee seems to be still going.

billricardi

ultrawomble wrote: »

Property bee seems to be still going.

Yes indeed. Really, anything that uses the Google Maps API that can be used to track prices is good enough.

The important thing is to not get caught with your pants down, and get frustrated because you didn't save 'enough'. Be ready to re-evaluate how much you need, and you'll be ready instead of disappointed.

Svenena

Payday yesterday!

I had two payrises this month - one which everyone got - a measly 0.4% (effectively a paycut with inflation as it is), which was backdated to August, so that gave me a little extra (I guess £30-£40 in total).

And a second because I've been in my job for a year, so moved up a point up the salary scale. This will be giving me an extra £50pm gross from next month, but I didn't get it for the full month this time (my anniversary of employment was 7th March).

I ended up with an extra £62 in my pay packet, but I don't know which came from which raise, as I haven't had my payslip yet. But it's all going straight into my savings, either way! Next month I think I'll get slightly less. There wont be the backdated pay, but there will be a full month of my new salary, plus about a weeks worth of the raise created by the changes in NI and income tax. It'll be the end of May before I actually know how much I'll be getting regularly though.

I also banked £40 from OnePoll this month. It took me about 11 months to reach this, but I reckon I can hit it again in around 4 months, if I make the effort to keep checking throughout the day.

It's getting difficult keeping track of my savings, because I have them spread across 3 different accounts (soon to be 4), and they're mixed in with my spending money in one account, and with my inherited money in two accounts (which is money I'm not counting towards my target). I've been using GnuCash to keep track of where all my money is and is going - I now have a total of 13 current and savings accounts, because I use a piggybanking method to budget for things like car expenses and clothes, and I want to make the most from my savings. But I think I also need to set up a spreadsheet, to keep a separate total of savings.

So anyway, my new total is £3330, which is 8.235% of my target. I'd really like to hit 10% by next payday. I'll be a bit short if my only income is from my salary, so I may have a go at eBay (it still seems like a lot of hassle though!). I'll be getting a decent amount of interest this month, as with these savings, my inheritance, and my new, small, stoozepot, I'll be earning interest on around £12,000, so that will help. I'm looking forward to the beginning of April, so I can see this interest coming in! Oh, I've also got a cheque to pay in for some work I did helping out at a show. That should top me up to that 10% actually. Yay! I can't wait to hit that!

Well done everyone on your progress. There seem to be a lot of people on here at the moment who're at a similar stage with their savings, so hopefully we can all keep each other motivated.