2018 Frugal Living Challenge

Hi everyone. I don't post much but trying to live as frugal as possible well we save for a house deposit and emergency fund.
Since December I've paid off 2k debt. And saved 3200 in our house fund. It's been very tough. But I'm determined too keep going. I've slipped up a few timea along the way and those slip ups need t stop. We originally gave ourselves 10 years to save. Then 5. We have 4 years 5 months left to meet our by the age of 30 aim but if we can I'd be thrilled to be buying in around 3 years from now. In Sept when middle son starts school I need to get a job with more hours. March is going to be our try our hardest month. I'm quite excited. Weather is awful here. No school or nursery for eldest or middle child today. I'm back in work tomorrow and dreading driving in it. It's too far to walk and no buses when I finish so my only options are to drive or a taxi and I dont want to spend out on a taxi

Yes we have eaten.
I've done alot of overtime. Sometimes working 6 days in a week.
And we have cut our spending right back to essential spends only. Apart from the odd slip up.
We didn't go over the top at Christmas and haven't so far for birthdays. it's been tough. Especially with 3 kids in tow. But I'm determined to get on the property ladder before we turn 30 with morgage payments no more than 500 a month. Depending on our budget (currently looking at the 200k mark) we will need a 35k deposit for payments of around 490 a month over 40 years on a 2 year fixed rate. This is based on today's calculations. This is more than affordable for us and would allow us to save to convert the loft or do an extension if needed and modernise I a property too how we would like it. I will not take on a morgage that we would struggle to afford. I'd rather save for longer and have a bigger deposit.
We have 4 years 5 months until we turn 30. To put down 35k and then moving costs etc we will be Saving for the next 4ish years. and I've finally realised that's okay because in the long run with that sort of deposit / budget we would be able to get more a less the perfect house for us in a good / nice area. Compared to if we moved the end of this year and Had a much smaller budget. /deposit .then again we could buy cheaper do it up save some more and still buy our perfect home in 5-7 years and work our way up the ladder. Which actually makes more sense. Basically we are saving hard to move weather it be next year or in 5 years time :rotfl:

It's been bloody tough at times. I used to be a shopaholic. If their is one thing this challenge and new life has taught me its that I could never go back to how things were.:money:

Oh well, having recently negotiated a deal for the next 12 months of my phone line and broadband, it looks like I'm going to be moving provider anyway. The deal I got wasn't as good as last year (1p/month more, but lost something worth £4/month), and was a little bit dearer than I could have got by moving. Then yesterday I got an email informing the price is going up £1.01/month from 1st April as part of a general price increase

That makes them £4.01/month dearer than an offer with another provider I've used before (who I didn't have any major problem with), and they promise no increase within the contract period which means I can budget for actual amounts rather than keeping fingers crossed it doesn't change !

Will be making a call to my current provider in the next few days (assuming their call centres are functioning again - the weather has apparently made it nigh on impossible to speak to anyone due to closures), and unless they match the price I can get elsewhere I'll be on the move..... No loyalty here to anything but my bank balance I'm afraid

Does anyone else see a load of exclamation marks and numbers where I assume others have put smiley face type icons, or even in the middle of words (I assume special characters)?

Only thing I can think of is that some people are posting from phones/tablets that aren't fully compatible with the forum? Or is it because I still use the old format forum (had a try with the new one but it didn't feel like "home" so I came back!) and the things being used show OK on the new format?

Hello Frugallists

well, thus far 2018 has been expensive.

2 lots of 437 for root canal (With more to come
150 for a guinea pig operation (plus 90 and 132 just before Christmas)
471 for rabbits dental (to be repeated in a bout a month)

I had about 700 pounds left of the emergency fund when my car went kaput.

I have borrowed the money. 5000. car, my next round of dental treatment and the rabbits' next dental.

Plus some stuff for the garden I want to get done when Mum is away. I know it isn't very frugal but I can't get to work without a car and I cannot screw up my teeth any more. The loan has the option to over pay and I will do that starting from May. I have a tax rebate coming as well so I should be ok. I had planned to use part of the tax rebate for a holiday in the Summer - this is a full confession! I haven't been anywhere since 2011 and it is getting me down. I know none of this is very frugal but I will be doing everything I can to do it as cheaply as possible.

Hope I am not too far out of the remit of the challenge.

Take Care all

Buffy