The Next Chapter: Our Dream House Fund

lessavyfav · 25 October 2016 at 7:42PM

I can't say it was an NSD today as I ended up taking up a food offer for one of these recipe boxes — £9.99 for 3 meals for 2 people (£25 off), so that was a good deal! I'm getting it delivered next week and have already opted out of the subscription, so that's a little bit off the grocery budget (joint account).

I must say, using my Monzo card has been really good to clearly see my food spends, it almost feels like a game avoiding getting close to my targets. Wish I could use it for everything but then I'd be missing out on current account interest (not that it's great these days).

I am so desperate for payday to come round, only 3 days!!

lessavyfav · 6 November 2016 at 12:56PM

Payday sure came and went fast — as soon as I was paid on the 28th, there was a lot of shifting money: paying into the joint account, keeping enough money for future direct debits, a bit for the CC debt. Phew! But still a healthy amount in my general spending account and I've already paid for my monthly Oyster and hair appointment..shouldn't need to update my gym/exercise memberships till next payday.

My monthly paycheck has just gone down almost £300 as I'm now contributing more into my pension. It hurts to take the hit now but I know it's all good in the longer term and free money. I probably should be contributing a bit more to be honest, but just want to work towards topping up the house deposit for the moment.

Of course, December will be an expensive month, but will have to get through November first!

Things I know that are coming up in November:
- dinner with friends this week (hopefully a cheapy one)
- going to visit MIL next weekend so usually inexpensive
- gig tomorrow night, paid for a while back but means grabbing food on the way
- dinner with friends on the 24th, one is pregnant which means i won't drink (much)
- work conference Wednesday — pretty sure lunch is covered

I thought we had a lot more on, but it doesn't look so bad. Let's hope we can lay low!!

Time to update my signature, happy Sunday everyone.

lessavyfav · 6 November 2016 at 1:04PM

Oh, and my grocery spends seem to be on track!

We still have a bit of meat from last month in the freezer (some mince beef and bacon), and I just did an online shop that was delivered this morning, including fish, a bit lamb shoulder joint, chicken, etc.

Also, we received the recipe kits yesterday and had one for dinner last night. It was pretty good, especially considering it works out to £1.67 per person and we were completely stuffed at the end. Looking forward to tonight's meal!

lessavyfav · 15 November 2016 at 1:18PM

Well the month has flown by, and so much quicker than last month!

Today means another £100 to the emergency fund, and in about a week another £200 added to the Help to Buy ISA.

This month I've got leftover money, it's looking as though I'll have around £340 extra when payday rolls around. So I'll add a little more pay off the CC, although it'll be useful for Christmas presents, too. It's nice to see things stabilising a bit with steady pays and no wedding to fork out for, I'm feeling a bit more focused, which is encouraging!

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I've decided along with my OH that we are going to cut right back on our meat consumption. It's not like we eat a lot, but I know we can reduce this fairly dramatically — it's both a money thing and environmental thing, and every little bit counts, right?

lessavyfav · 19 November 2016 at 6:15PM

Woohoo, it's the weekend!

That leftover figure I talked about last time I posted is not looking so realistic, mainly because I've already spent a bit on Christmas presents for OH, but nothing major planned within the next 9 days before payday, other than a cheap girlie dinner this week — so hopefully at the very least I'll have £250 leftover to go towards house deposit savings. We're having a friend round for dinner on Thursday, but I'll cook something cheap and cheerful - still loads of food in the fridge and freezer and I'm pretty happy with how the grocery budget is going. I have another £80 grocery fund to last the next couple of weeks. It's amazing how tracking and doing the online shopping can save.

The rest of this weekend looks very quiet, as does next weekend, which bodes well with me. I'm about 1/3 way through sorting Christmas presents out and hopefully tomorrow will get a few more things done. I'm very much enjoying being a hermit lately, it's getting me closer to the home ownership dream!

lessavyfav · 21 November 2016 at 8:05PM

Great, another £200 to the H2B ISA, updated in my signature.

I brought in lunch today but was a bit careless at the local shops, spending £10 on stationary I didn't need at all. Oh well, the office desk looks a bit cuter for it.

One week till payday, which has crept up fast compared to the last month, but can't complain about that. I thought I'd check out for flights back to the motherland, and they are coming up £200 cheaper than usual..I think it's a no-brainer to book them very soon!

lessavyfav · 27 November 2016 at 1:55PM

It's payday tomorrow, so I'm happy!

I'll have just under £300 leftover for deposit savings this month.

A few Christmas presents to get; KS and I have decided to put a limit of £100 to spend on each other which is sensible..usually we spend about double that.

We bought our tickets to visit home yesterday and got some bargains — I had air miles, which reduced the cost even further and we had spare funds in our joint account which mostly covered it. Feels like such a relief to not add it to the credit card.

Tomorrow when payday arrives I'll pay some more of the CC off to get me to just over 15% paid (£180). According to my projections, I should be able to save £750 this month (including my usual H2B and regular saver), then next month even more!

Right, off I go, time to start doing a bit of batch cooking for the week! Hope everyone's enjoying their weekend so far.

lessavyfav · 2 December 2016 at 7:57PM

Brrr, it's blooming cold.

It's been a full-on week with something on every night, meaning the spends have been more than I'd like. Tomorrow I'm hoping for a lazy day in, while Sunday we're lunching with some friends.

It's going to be tough, but I've got £266 to last me till the end of the year when it comes to social outings, bought lunches, treats for myself, etc. which averages out to £12.60 a day. So I am going to aim for at least two NSDs next week and another two the week after, plus be really good with bringing in my lunch. We have loads of food, so there shouldn't be any excuses!

savingwannabe · 3 December 2016 at 7:08PM

Well done in taking lunches in, I can't believe how much money it has saved me. :money: Also really good savings this month too. :beer:

lessavyfav · 6 December 2016 at 9:13PM

Thank you, savingwannabe! I've continued to bring in my lunches: yesterday, today and will do tomorrow..hopefully Thursday too!

Forgot I was owed £80 from our joint account, so that's back my sole bank account (which is good as I have a potentially expensive weekend ahead of me). I've sorted the rest of OH's present, so glad that's sorted. Now the dreaded Christmas wrapping...

A nice surprise, my H2B ISA matured, so that was an extra £86! Looks like the end of the year is ending on a really positive note financially. I cannot wait to just get rid of this credit card debt now, even if it is 0%!

The Next Chapter: Our Dream House Fund

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