The Gibberish trek to a deposit!

Gibberish94 · 9 September 2016 at 4:57PM

Hi everyone, I've been lurking here for a few months but thought I'd set up my own thread to help me keep track of my savings and also to provide myself with motivation from other money savers!

So I'm 22, graduated from university a year ago and have since been in a full time job in my desired field woo! Anyhow myself and my OH are renting at the moment and saving for a deposit. We live in the South East so a realistic target for our deposit/savings I think will have to be about £50,000 :eek: taking into account extra fees and additional furniture etc that we will need!

Current savings stand at:

My HTB ISA: £1,150
OH HTB ISA: £2800
Total: £3,950 / £50,000

So currently we are a measly 7.9% there however its a start right?!
The initial target for savings would be to reach this target by June 2022 :eek:
This means saving over £350 a month EACH! This is certainly not achievable currently however I'm hoping as we both get pay rises in the future this should become more achievable! (My pay particularly should increase a lot over the next few years once I become fully qualified - only a gazillion exams to go :rotfl: !!)

I have a credit card with a balance of £1077 (interest free until Feb 17) so thats my priority first to get paid off before I really start to focus on my savings!

Anyhow, hope you all enjoy coming on this journey with me, I'll be here a while!!

Gibberish94 · 11 September 2016 at 10:50AM

So this week has been very expensive, myself and OH have both been off this week meaning we've been filling our time with fun activities to do which obviously is pricey - although we have mainly been going on nice walks so have only been having to buy lunch whilst out but nevertheless it all adds up. Additionally having time off has meant we have been spending more time in the flat and realising we have lots still to buy, we just bought a lovely chest of drawers that should be delivered on Friday and also some lovely bedsheets - these weren't the cheapest however we would both much rather spend a little more money on things we both really love and that will last us a longer time - that being said we did get a nice 25% discount off it all

!

Going to try and not spend too much more money for the rest of this month so I can put more into my credit card and get that paid off ASAP however I have a bill of £250 to pay at the end of this month :eek: so will have to see how far I can stretch the pounds!!

savingwannabe · 11 September 2016 at 11:27AM

:)Hello welcome. It's great that you are saving for a house and are so enthusiastic. Well done on getting bargain furniture. Everyone is really welcoming and we all inspire each other:beer:

Gibberish94 · 14 September 2016 at 9:17AM

Thank you savingwannabe

Yes, I love a good discount, its always a perk that my OH works for the company so lots of discounted homeware etc

!

Not much to report on the spending front other than lots of spending has been happening, myself and my other half are both off work this week too so we're doing lots of nice activities keeping ourselves busy however lots of money is being spent - however its cheaper than us having gone abroad for these past two weeks! Off to London today to have a walk around and then see the football this evening -OH is a massive football fan and he hasn't been to a match in years and last night some tickets got released at a reduced price so I told him we should take this opportunity and go while we're both off work too!

Car also went into the garage this morning - not looking forward to the call when they tell me how much all the repairs will cost me - thats an expense I think I'll have to put on my credit card

however I'm not too disheartened as I've been putting off taking it to the garage for months so the cost was inevitable!

savingwannabe · 14 September 2016 at 6:43PM

Hello Gibberish94, enjoy your time off! I always think money spent on your house and car is an investment as it benefits you in the long term. Well done on reduced price football tickets. Weather is gorgeous perfect for time off I am so jealous as it is far too hot to work. I might nip out and mow some more grass. Have a good evening.:j

Gibberish94 · 24 September 2016 at 8:55AM

So as expected those two weeks off were rather expensive but they were so nice and the weather was lovely too!! Part of all this savings I'm telling myself I still want to enjoy myself, not pass up on opportunities as I think the experiences you get to spend with family and friends are so important

.

Fixing my car wasn't awful however it did cost £222.22 which went onto the credit card

So credit card is up to £1300 however I was anticipating this cost and hopefully I now don't need to put anything else on it in the forceable future so can really focus on paying it off!

Anyway been back at work this week which was fairly busy as I had bits to catch up on following my two weeks off and we're also starting to enter busy season so its only going to get busier and busier now, however I enjoy it and love my job so I've got no complaints there - I enjoy the hustle and bustle of lots going on!
Also, in very exciting news I had an annual review yesterday and I've been told I'm getting a pay rise YAY from next month so thats going to really help me on the savings front and catch up with my OH :P! I'm really pleased as I've worked really hard this past year so its nice to be appreciated for the work you've put in!

Anyway I'll do another update after pay day and see how everything is looking, however due to a large £250 :eek: to pay to one of my sports club this month I doubt very much will be going towards the credit card or savings but we shall see! (I'm part of 3 clubs/groups all of which are not cheap hobbies so they are where most of my spare cash goes!!)

savingwannabe · 24 September 2016 at 6:27PM

Well done on your review.

Gosh that is a lot of money on sport. But if it makes you healthy and happy that is good. It sounds quite specialist see if you can save money by buying things second hand if you want to save more money?

I used to be in a gym a long time ago and have recently been buying up equipment from fleabay to save money.

Gibberish94 · 25 September 2016 at 8:36AM

Its for competition fees and entire team new uniforms - no second hand there unfortunately savingwannabee

however once I've paid that, thats it until March - it all just comes in one go which is quite a shock to the bank balance :eek:!!

Hutchch0920 · 26 September 2016 at 12:52PM

Sounds just like my team! Our new cheer uniforms are £150!

Gibberish94 · 16 October 2016 at 10:42AM

I know Hutch! Cheer is so expensive :eek:!!

So I haven't updated in a while, mainly because been so busy being back at work and doing various family things e.g. weddings, going to the theatre (late Christmas/birthday present - can't remember which as these things always get booked so far in advance and it ends up pretty much every birthday or christmas is a present to see a show/do something with my family (which I love as time spend is much more valuable than physical objects I think) so I can never keep track)!

Anyway a little payday update. I manage to pay a measly £70 into my credit card and nothing into my savings HOWEVER this is largely due to the massive £250 I had to pay to my club this month so once payday hits this month (which will reflect my pay rise too

) I'm hoping to whack a massive £250 into the CC AND maybe even manage £50 or so into my savings!

So as stand:

CC balance: -1230.00

My HTB ISA: £1,150
OH HTB ISA: £3200
Total: £4,350 / £50,000
Meaning we are 8.7% of the way there (no thanks to me unfortunately however I'm hoping that will soon change once I'm rid of this CC and I'll overtake my partners savings :P)

I also have an emergency fund of £300 which in time I'm going to start counting as savings however currently as it stands I'm constantly dipping into this amount so until I have enough money to not need to use this account I will then start treating that as my savings

.

In other news this month has been EXPENSIVE - as I said had a number of family events which always come at an extra cost - I have to drive half way up the country for a wedding so that was an extra tank of fuel I spent money on that I could have done without. Till the end of this month I'm going to have to be really careful and I'm going to really try my best not to dip into that emergency fund I have however we shall see! On a positive note I did get a text the other week from a local company offering me a free haircut so I took them up on that and got my hair cut last week for free - would have otherwise cost me £40 so I'm very pleased!

Anyhow, I'll update again after payday and see where we're at

Gibberish94 · 22 October 2016 at 9:19AM

Small update: I just had an email this morning from our gas & electricity provider telling us that we're getting a refund of £185 next week!!! We moved into our flat at the end of last year and we got put on the same usage tariff as the people before us - they have been adjusting it gradually making it lower and lower up until now however we've still managed to over pay by that amount so that will be a really nice amount going back into the joint account AND they are lowering our monthly payment by £10 too!

This money should go in savings however like I said we moved into our first flat together at the end of last year so we still have lots of homeware bits they we've been holding off buying as cash was getting tight having to buy so much when we first moved in but we generally use leftover money in the joint account to buy these bits so we will probably buy them using this money - On the upside it means less money from our personal accounts to pay for these bits meaning more money we can save in the long run

!

The Gibberish trek to a deposit!

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The Gibberish trek to a deposit!

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