Doing it on my own: bobobski's house deposit diary

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  • bobobski
    bobobski Posts: 771
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    Hi SYA! Please do feel at home, we're all in it together trying to muddle our way through... Sorry to hear about your health concerns - I hope things have perked up since last weekend. My cold has cleared up now - I spent the week not doing a lot at work and also not doing a lot in the evenings, which I think has helped. It's also meant that I haven't spent a lot of money this week!

    My weekly shop today (remember: target £60, budget £70) came to just over £30 - woohoo! Fair enough I used £11 worth of vouchers but still, I'm pleased with that. The target of £1,250 saved this month is looking do-able and based on current numbers I may even be able to beat that. So much of it is about the mindset and I really think spending time on the forums before I go to Tesco is helping as it stops me buying things I don't really need. My shopping this week was pretty basic (meat, veg, milk, bread, eggs and - fair enough - some nail varnish) but it's enough to see me through until next weekend when combined with stuff in the freezer and stock cupboard and I shouldn't throw anything away either. That balance is so difficult but I think the frugal and "aware" mindset really helps.

    Tomorrow I'm visiting my friend's wedding venue with her, which will be lovely. She wants to go out for a late lunch which is making my inner alarm bells go off but I'm not going to say no when it's "her" day. I budget £150 for meals out/takeaways/drinks in the pub which sadly is based on actual spending (often I go over this) but this month I've spent only £35 so far and we're over 1/3 the way through. If I can keep it under £100 that's another £50 into the savings.

    I've got two regular savers maturing in the next few days and I'm excited to see the interest materialise. I intend to open new ones immediately to keep this momentum going.

    I've decided I need to do more free things. It's too cold and miserable to go out today so I'm going to be the little old woman I am in my mind and crack out the jigsaw puzzle, which should keep me out of trouble :) Heating on, blanket on, candles lit and a jigsaw puzzle, perhaps with a nice hot cup of tea - you really wouldn't think I'm 27 would you?? But you might be able to guess that I am single :rotfl:
  • Skint_yet_Again
    Skint_yet_Again Posts: 7,507
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    edited 11 February 2017 at 6:40PM
    Wow that's a really good saving on your weekly shop, well done !


    I have loads of jigsaws. Keeps your brain active in the winter months :p:D


    I did sell some last time we did a car boot to make some space for new ones which you can pick up fairly cheap in the charity shops but be careful that they have all the pieces - nothing worse than getting to the end and one or two pieces missing.
    0% credit card £1360 & 0% Car Loan £7500 ~ paid in full JAN 2020 = NOW DEBT FREE 🤗
    House sale OCT 2022 = NOW MORTGAGE FREE 🤗
    House purchase completed FEB 2023 🥳🍾 Left work. 🤗

    Retired at 55 & now living off the equity £10k a year (until pensions start at 60 & 67).

    Previous Savings diary https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5597938/get-a-grip/p1

    Living off savings diary
    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6429003/escape-to-the-country-living-off-savings/p1
  • savingwannabe
    savingwannabe Posts: 16,610
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    You two make me laugh. It is blooming freezing I hope you are all warm and toasty.
    Aiming for a minimal spend 2022
  • bobobski
    bobobski Posts: 771
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    edited 23 February 2017 at 10:15PM
    Happy Saturday everyone :hello:

    So this week has been pretty good financially - I had one meal out, one takeaway and one sandwich from Tesco in lieu of packed lunch (long story involving a dog), all out of budgeted money. I also did the free Subway thing - £2.10 for a sub, packet of crisps and drink was too good to pass up! That's all I've spent this week, although I am about to go out for my weekly shop. I need a lot of "top up" stuff this week as well as the usual fresh stuff so I expect it'll be a lot more expensive than last week, but fingers crossed under my £70 budget!

    Income-wise, I received dividends of £1.71 and my friend's Nationwide refer-a-friend thing came through too which I'd forgotten about, so that's another £100 straight into my savings. The dividends are interesting - a few years ago I decided to buy some shares as Hargreaves Lansdown was doing a £1-per-transaction thing, so it was almost free to buy them except the share price. So I bought around £140 worth of GSK shares. It's really silly, as it's not exactly a portfolio by itself, it's not balanced and it's so little money it's hardly worth it. But I've consistently been getting proportionately good returns. If every quarterly dividend is the same as this one, that's £6.84 per year on a £140-ish investment, which is 4.8%-ish. Given that most of my accounts are now down to 3%, and the share price hasn't increased much since I bought the shares, and I'd have to pay to sell them, I've decided to keep them for now. Every three months it's a nice little present :)

    Anyway, with all of this good finance stuff my savings for February are now up to £653 and some pennies (plus £112 in my emergency fund), and I haven't even been paid yet! I know this month is a huge anomaly but I'm still loving it :) The better I'm being with money, the better I want to be. I'm being super tight at the moment but I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. The Domino's delivery guy might think I'm missing a life though :rotfl:

    Food-wise I've been pretty terrible this week. Really need a big kick up the bum. I think it's supposed to be dry today so I'm going to force myself out for a walk and maybe another one or a cycle ride tomorrow if I can get my friend involved. The diet starts again tomorrow too ;) just kidding, I'll try to get back on track today following my fry up - oops!

    So yesterday I ended up having a long conversation with someone who I don't know very well. She wasn't giving a lot away, which is completely fair, but it sounds like she's dealing with some historic debt. Good for her for dealing with it, but the long and the short of the conversation was that we were having a rant about people who seem to poop money and talk about it freely when they don't understand others' circumstances. So pretty much all of the juniors, except me, at my work now either have a house or are about to buy one. Not a single one of them saved the deposit. One had money from her boyfriend's dad, another had money from the sale of her boyfriend's flat which his dad had bought for him, one has an inheritance, one has a rich mummy and daddy who are either gifting or loaning the deposit to their child. Whereas this person and I have no family money for different reasons, and neither of us would want it if it were offered. Indeed, my family did offer me a chunky gift, but I turned it down for all sorts of reasons.

    Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about the injustice of the position. It's not that I don't want my friends to own houses of course, and it's not that I don't believe in the free market. There's nothing I would actually change if I could - but it still hurts me that no one I know seems to have worked for what they've got. They all think I'm mad with my millions of bank accounts, holes in all my clothes because I refuse to spend money on new ones, no holidays since 2015 etc. But that's because none of them ever had the pain of trying to save for a deposit. They don't understand money, they don't know how to save money, they don't know how to make money grow, they don't understand the difficulty of asking your boss for a pay rise beyond what's offered simply because you need a higher salary to save more. They have it easy, and they have everything I want. I'm scrimping and saving and it feels like I'm getting nowhere. Even in this super bumper month, say I save £1,400 (which would be my best ever month), that's not even 2% of the total I need to save to buy a house (£80,000).

    I don't have a point really, I just wanted to rant and since this is my "diary" I thought it'd be the best place to do it. The devil inside me wants my friends to fail. Obviously I don't really - I'm not actually horrible. But there is this little part of me that thinks, *if* they fail, "good". Ugh I feel horrible saying that.

    Does this make any sense? Am I being a horrible person? Oh I don't know :(
  • bobobski
    bobobski Posts: 771
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    Oh I forgot to mention the maturing regular savers. £117 from First Direct and £127 from Nationwide. One of the reasons for the bumper month :)
  • savingwannabe
    savingwannabe Posts: 16,610
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    edited 18 February 2017 at 9:52AM
    This is your diary Bobobski and you can write whatever you want. I am so pleased you bonded with this boss person that's useful. A wise person learns from the experience of others (George Bernard Shaw- from my distant past I think). All your dividends and extra money is great.

    I too compare myself to my school friends who had fantastic parental circumstances and think about how unfair it is. Whilst it gives me some perspective to compare myself to others we must remember you don't know where they are in their journey.

    Although they are rich they may not be money savvy at all. I have so many anecdotes about people with who were rich and lost it all for whatever reason. Stay focussed on your strengths you are gaining not only savings for a house but financial tools which are with you for life. This is a far greater gift than being given cash and not being able to plan for the long term.

    We think you are fab. We are all going to get there in the end. Stay happy petal. :kisses3: Surround yourself with positive energy.
    Aiming for a minimal spend 2022
  • Thank you SW, I needed to hear that. And yes you're right, it was really good to bond with her, especially as she hasn't really made any friends at work yet and clearly she's secretly not in a great place. I will try to make more effort with her.
  • I think sometimes it gets you down and you just need to get it off your chest bobobski. Here is probably the best place as people understand what you mean.


    Sometimes I look at myself scrimping and saving ....washing recycling tins in cold water so as not to use gas on combi boiler, making sure I only turn on half the grill where possible, using half the recommended washing powder, using only half a tin of sardines for breakfast so I can have the rest tomorrow & making a meal out of bits of leftovers (a slice of cooked beef, half a nan & some frozen peas in freezer will make curry sauce) which many people may have just thrown away...


    .... but we all try to be happy with what we have. It just gets too much and we all feel low at times x


    I have no idea how my DS will ever afford his own place as 1 bed flats here start around £90,000 and cheapest area houses around £165,000 :eek:
    0% credit card £1360 & 0% Car Loan £7500 ~ paid in full JAN 2020 = NOW DEBT FREE 🤗
    House sale OCT 2022 = NOW MORTGAGE FREE 🤗
    House purchase completed FEB 2023 🥳🍾 Left work. 🤗

    Retired at 55 & now living off the equity £10k a year (until pensions start at 60 & 67).

    Previous Savings diary https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5597938/get-a-grip/p1

    Living off savings diary
    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6429003/escape-to-the-country-living-off-savings/p1
  • The cost of houses is scary I don't know how the young are going to cope in the future. It's like everything is going backwards. I wish salaries were increasing. But there are more job opportunities in the south.

    I think the best thing is for him to set up a business to become rich. Apart from dr's and lawyers they are the richest people I know. I do like the comfort of working for someone else though. Less risk but less rewards.

    Sometimes I get desperate and think should I do the lottery but my post office doesn't sell health lottery scratchcards and that is supposed to be the best one for chances of winning!
    Aiming for a minimal spend 2022
  • bobobski
    bobobski Posts: 771
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    You two are so lovely. It is tough, but I'm sure your DS will be able to buy SYA, especially with you raising him so well! The difficulty largely depends on income vs house price, and I'm in one of the worst regions for that ratio (average house is worth well over 10x average salary). If your son is more sensible than me in his choice of town, which I'm sure he will be, he'll be fine :) I agree with SW though, the way to make megabucks is to own your own business; you'll never do it working for someone else.

    So my weekly shop was £85. Oops. But I did stock up on alcohol and plenty of pop socks as my toes *and* heels were coming through all of mine. I've also been out for a 90 minute walk, so I'm knackered now. Cosy evening with a cuppa tea and some Good Wife I think :)
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