Rawr_'s Saving Diary

rawr_ · 31 December 2017 at 5:50PM

Tomorrow is the start of a new year, and I'm looking to save a lot of money over 2018!

A bit about me... I live in a fairly rural area of Norfolk, currently living with my husband in his Mum & Dad's house (which they will be selling when we move out) whilst they are living in Scotland. This has been a big help for us while we save for our own house. We got married in October 2016, and have been saving for a house since then, and with a lot of scrimping and some extra help from family, we now have a deposit for our first home.

Initially, I though "Yes! The scrimping is over!". Oh how I am wrong. My husband will be going back to Uni (won't be going until Sep 2019) part-time for 4 years, which means there will be some parts of it where we may be living on just my wage, as he will have to do some placements. I'm also 25 (DH is 29) and would like to start a family. I'm the higher wage earner of us both, so would like some money behind me before we start having a family so that I could have some decent maternity leave and not have to worry about going back to work too soon.

I've started this thread to keep tracking of my spending, and hopefully make myself accountable for the things I do spend money on. I go through phases of splurging and having an "oh well you only live once" attitude, which I need to stop if I want to money proof for future plans!

I'd also welcome any tips from anyone that may be going through a similar thing, with more than one thing that they need to save for! :j

Happy saving! :rotfl:

rawr_ · 31 December 2017 at 5:59PM

So as of today, we have around 16k for a house deposit (which includes money and top up in H2B ISA's). We agreed that I would stop paying into this house fund as of after Christmas, and to put the savings into another account (baby fund maybe?

) and DH will still carry on paying into the house fund, as the bigger deposit we have, the smaller our mortgage payments will be.

As I have only been putting dribs and drabs away, I have £75.40 in my savings account, and have £90 left of Christmas money (got a few bits in the sales!) which I will be putting in the bank when I got back to work on Tuesday. So: £165.40 so far.

If I want 6 months off work for maternity and to have the same money as I do now, I'd need about £7000 :eek: which seems quite a lot, and I would probably maybe cut this down a bit as we can go without luxuries. I also feel like this will kind of also be an emergency fund. If something goes wrong with the car, we'd be pretty screwed as we both rely on it to get to work.

I'm aiming to have a lot of NSD (No spend days) and will keep track of how many I manage in a month. I get paid on the 25th of every month, so generally run my budgets to then.

Hope everyone has a lovely news years eve and doesn't get too drunk!! :rotfl:

george4064 · 31 December 2017 at 6:08PM

My biggest tip for saving in 2018: sign up to 'Save 12k in 2018' thread here http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5755819

Zoea · 31 December 2017 at 6:20PM

This thread just go to show how hard it is to get by and plan a small family in y2k17 in modern Britain. You seem to be doing most everything right yet your deposit is what 5%(?) and you're going to be banking on low interest rates and reasonable house price increases for a number of years. Quite a risk. Add to that you're going to actually have to spend literally 'nothing' for any number of days these coming months.

They talk about late stage capitalism on reddit. And boy are they right. We should have some form of universal basic income and some incentives for people to bank properly and get online and educate themselves as a bare minimum. There's a lot more that needs to be done in terms of collecting taxes and curbing corporate excess but that should come. Please someone take charge here? I can't be expected to care this much! not now.

rawr_ · 31 December 2017 at 7:45PM

Hello george4064

Thank you - I have already signed up that thread to save 6K, think 12K would be a bit unrealistic for us!

Hello Zoea - Actually a 10% deposit for us, as we are looking for purchase for 150 - 170K.

But yes I agree, it is hard! We wouldn't have been able to do it without the generous help we've received from DH family. I'm not sure I agree with 'educating yourself' I think this is a basic thing that should be taught in schools, everyone should know what to expect from 'adulthood'. I wish that there was a simple solution, but we'll be doing the best with what we have, as most family's do and will continue to do!

george4064 · 31 December 2017 at 8:08PM

Target doesn't have to 12k, you set your own target! I think it is called what it is because it has quite a nice ring to it!

rawr_ · 31 December 2017 at 8:15PM

george4064 Oh I know that don't worry! Was just saying I've signed up for the 6K :rotfl: I stumbled across last years thread yesterday and thought it was a great idea - could be really motivational!

Alexland · 31 December 2017 at 10:13PM

Zoea wrote: »

This thread just go to show how hard it is to get by and plan a small family in y2k17 in modern Britain. You seem to be doing most everything right yet your deposit is what 5%(?) and you're going to be banking on low interest rates and reasonable house price increases for a number of years. Quite a risk. Add to that you're going to actually have to spend literally 'nothing' for any number of days these coming months.

Agree it's really tough out there and we are only in a good position because we spent our 20s maximising our wealth and delayed becoming parents until our 30s. There is an increasing trend where ordinary people are expected to take risks they may not fully understand or accept in order to meet the living standards of the previous generation. That's fine if the risks go well but systematic pressures may push people to breaking point.

Alex.

Zoea · 1 January 2018 at 1:41PM

I only meant education of people in the general sense. You've got to remember a couple of things for example. A large large chunk of the population of the UK don't even have a bank account. We're talking well over a million people. I have no idea how they manage to get by without a bank but they apparently do. This is clearly nuts.

The other thing to remember is that a large proportion of the people who end up incarcerated had a troubled school life and end up excluded. They never get over this and end up in jail for wrongdoing. Not a big surprise perhaps but still a societal issue that needs to be addressed.

I am never going to be able to afford my own house and while my financial situation is reasonable and I can expect an ok inheritance in no way am I planning any kind of family. That might have been different had my financial situation been happier (though maybe nope). I'm notionally in my mid 30s already.

:0

rawr_ · 1 January 2018 at 2:50PM

Zoea It's a shame that not everyone is educated to the same level and understand financial things like bank accounts. I come into contact with these people on a daily basis, working in social housing.

I respect your opinion, but I however would like a family, hence the saving! And I also see owning a house as a good investment, as rent prices are continuing to soar (and I know this is the same for house prices), I believe getting onto the property ladder is a good thing for us. But not really an argument for here I think you'd agree.

rawr_ · 1 January 2018 at 2:59PM

Today is a NSD (cheating slightly by the fact it's New Year's Day!), although I could have bought online I guess! I've been spending some time sorting through a plan for the next few month's on how to make a bit of extra on the side of my full time job. I'm a graphic designer, so feel I can use my skills in other ways to earn a few extra ££. Before Christmas I designed some Christmas cards, and sold them on Etsy, and I sold a lot more than I thought I would. It was a little trial run for me to see how it went, so I could maybe do some more in the new year.

I guess the only thing that worried me about this was signing myself up to self assessment and sorting the tax side out. But I'm sure I can work this out. I've kept the 'profits' of this separate to the rest of my money so that I can work it out, and also purchase the next lot of stock without it affecting my own personal spending.

Our boiler stopped working again yesterday ... it's been playing up for the last 3 weeks now (with an engineer back and forth), and I still don't think he knows whats wrong with it. I've handed the reigns over to my father in law to speak to him and sort now, as it is there house and I think he can maybe get a bit further with him. He's coming again on Wednesday to fit another new part (maybe like the 4th one?!). Thankfully it won't come out of our pocket, but still a worry and not having heating or hot water this time of year is not fun!

Wishing everyone a happy new year :T back to work tomorrow for me and the DH.

Rawr_'s Saving Diary

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