All the small things...

A question about : All the small things...

A pre-mortgage-free wannabe...

Hello there,
I'm FlacosFloozie and I have to confess to feeling like a little bit of a fraud posting here since I don't actually have a mortgage yet .
A few months ago, I became debt-free for the first time in ten years and entered the saving for a deposit stage of life.
Since I stopped keeping my debt-free diary, I've found it easy to drift and not bother doing the small things that help save money. I wanted to start another diary to try to keep me on track. I still post on DFW and participate in several challenges but starting a diary there just seemed insensitive. I looked at the savings board but they don't seem too fond of diaries. The MFW board felt friendlier and there seem to be a couple of other folk in my position, so here I am.
If it helps I do plan on overpaying to mortgage just as soon as I acquire one

Best answers:

• One of the big things that helped me get debt-free was relising why I'd got into debt in the first place. Once I recognised my behaviour patterns I could start to change them.
  Over the last couple of months, I've been reading up about ecconomics, saving, investing and money management and I've actually discovered I enjoy it. I've always been a bit of a maths geek and love numbers (I do calculations to help me relax if I'm stressed ) so this shouldn't surprise me, yet I buried my head for years. If I hadn't, I would be in a much better financial position now.
  So, I'll start with the things I did wrong. When I graduated I got accomodation with my job. All the experts told me this was more tax efficient. And it would have been, if I'd saved the extra money, but I didn't. I also stuck to this wisdom even when the tax laws changed and for years after. If I'd bought a place I would have been building some equity.
  One of the reasons I didn't buy was Mr F and I always seem to have the feeling that things are only for a year or two and then there will be a change. We said that about my last job and stayed there for eight years . I think we need to accept that things may change and have contingency plans but not procrastinate.
  Mr F was also seriously ill when we were younger and I think it left us with a bit of a 'life's too short' mentality. Nearly a decade and a half later, I think we're finally starting to accept that we may actually get to enjoy a long life together and need to think about the future.
  I did do some things right. I started a pension, which for years did very little but I'm now starting the see the magical effect of compounding. I never missed or was late for any payments on CCs or loans so actually have a very good, established credit history. I started a small share trading account around 3 years ago. With hindsight, I know that this was not the best way to invest but it did give me some practical experience of the stock market with small sums of money (Ј25 per month) that I could afford to lose. Hopefully, this knowledge will help prevent expensive mistakes in the future. Most importantly, I found MSE and all the wisdom it contains
• Hello again,
  I promise this post will contain less self indulgent twaddle . As the saying goes, "Failing to plan is planning to fail". So I need a plan if I want to acheive my goals. I'm splitting them up into short, medium and long term ones.
  I'll start with the short term:
  1) Save Ј30,000 for a house deposit
  2) Save Ј2,000 emergency fund
  3) Save Ј3,000 for two holidays
  The house deposit is the priority. I would like to buy a 2 or 3 bed house in the next two years. We live just on the edge of commuting distance for London so prices are expensive here. I'm aiming for a 10% deposit of Ј30,000 . Its possible we will move further north again and its possible my parents will contribute but I don't want to rely on these. As a minimum we need 5% or Ј15,000 to get a mortgage, more will get a better rate, and MF sooner.
  The emergency fund is there since one of the reasons we used the CCs was for unexpected expenses. It is relatively low as, during this time, we will have access to the house savings if we really need them.
  The holidays are there to motivate us. If life becomes all about working and having no money we get down and splurge. The occasional earned treat keeps us on track.
  So, that's Ј35,000 in 24 months. I currently have Ј4,500 saved so Ј30,500 to find. That's Ј1270.83 per month. Based on my calculations, its tough but doable.
• Well hopefully by this point in time we'll have bought a house so some new goals:
  1) Emergency fund of Ј6-8,000
  2) Replace both cars appx Ј14,000
  3) Have a luxury holiday Ј6,000
  4) Career break Ј10,000
  5) Move to a larger house Ј25,000
  The emergency fund represents 3-4 months of living expenses for us. It's also the figure of debt I hovered around for years. As long as I was in this bracket I was comfortable. I want to change this to being the level of cash savings I'm comfortable with.
  The cars will need replace at some point, nothing fancy but they are getting older and are essential for both jobs.
  The holiday is not essential but would be nice to do something spectacular for my 40th!
  The career break is by no means certain but Mr F has changed his several times over the years, we may start a family or I may swap roles as I'm not convinced my current profession is changing for the better.
  Changing house won't necessarily happen but it might. I'd like to have some funds in case it does.
  This gives me a total of Ј61-63,000! I'm not going to reach this by cash savings along so the plan is a mix of cash saving, overpay the mortgage to build equity and investments. I currently have around Ј2,000 in shares. I'm going to move this to low cost tracker funds in a NISA and drip feed slowly.
• Good luck with your plans. having small achievable goals is really important to keep you motivated.
  All the best!
• Hello there!
  I haven't got a mortgage either - but I'm at the other end of the scale - mine was paid off a few years ago.
  But it doesn't seem to matter on this board - MFW is also about achieving goals, whether it's saving to buy a house or saving for retirement.
  I also hesitated about starting a diary, but was inspired by Squirrel and a few other's in a similar position to me.
  Best thing I ever did.
  All are welcome here.
  Good luck on your quest
• Hello to Goldie and Squirrel and thanks for stopping by!
  The really long term plan is to save enough for a comfortable retirement but that's around 30 years away yet so there's a bit of a gap in the plan between years 7 and 30 but I'm sure I'll find more things to fill it with
  I'm hoping the diary will keep me on track. I think making myself accountable to someone (all you lovely virtual strangers) does help me meet the short term goals, and I need to meet them if I'm going to make the longer term ones.
• These are the things I've done this week to get closer to my target:
  Batch cooked- I have a full freezer for low cost again
  Meal planned- there is a list on the fridge
  Bank account skim- Ј1.43 to the savings
  Opened a TSB account- time to get some interest on savings
  Updated YNAB- lets see if I can stick to the budget in the run up to Christmas
  Started this diary
  Next week I plan to:
  Stick to the meal plan
  Open another TSB account with Mr F
  Have 5 spend free days
  Update my address with the taxman
  Start compiling an expenses claim to the taxman
  Read Mr F's pension documents
• Okay so we went a bit over budget at christmas but we did stick to the meal paln and had a few lovely quiet days watching filma and playing board games. As a result, we have managed to underspen on entertainment and eating out which will go some way to balancing to books.
  I've updated YNAB and got it working on my phone now.
  I need to do one more shop at Sainsbobs next week worth Ј70 (going to stock up on cleaning products and non perishables) and the will get an extra Ј35 of nectar points. This should cut the grocery bill a lot next month.
  The car was was broken today so my car s still filthy but I saved Ј5 Too cold to think of doing it by hand.
  I spent some christmas money on a new pair of winter running shoes- half price in the sale. Not strictly a need but I know I will get a lot of use out of them.
• Good luck with your journey FF
• Thanks pavlovs
  So this is my last post for 2014. Now being Scottish, tonight is usually a big night out, but this year MrF has flu and I'm a tad viral round the edges so its a quiet night on the sofa. The entertainment budget has gone to savings and I've splashed out Ј3 on microwave puddings and Ј12 on cold and flu meds... if I'm awake I may crack open a bottle of wine I got given at Christmas so a very MSE night.
  Also reasised that the DD for water hadn't gone out this month. When I checked the paperwork its actually been set to end in December so thats an extra Ј50 in the kitty for the next 3 months .
  I bagged up some change and took it to the bank so another extra Ј6.
  Also managed to do something nice for a friend. She'd posted on fbook asking if an item was good for kids as she's seen a 2nd hand one going cheap. We happen to have said item and haven't used it for ages. Was debating what to do but figured wouldn't get much for the hassle of selling it so have offered it to her as a freebie. Lots of folk were kind to us when times were tough and it feels good to be able to pass that on.
  Anyway, happy hogmanay to one and all. See you next year
• Hi, welcome and best of luck with your new diary, oh and happy new year too!
• Well I haven't been very good at posting but the money saving has been going a bit better.
  I spent a lot at the supermarket this weekend but have batch cooked and restocked the freezer- lots of stews which can be microwaved and should help counteract our takeaway habit.
• Glad to hear the money saving is going well.
• I've stuck to the grocery budget and everything is up to date on YNAB.
  Holiday savings is now up to Ј175 and there should be more to add to the house savings this time next week.
  I've used a special offer to sell all my shares at reduced commission. The total value ended at a little over 2k. My plan is to withdraw the cash next week, use 1k to start a S+S ISA, add Ј500 to the holiday fund and the rest to the house savings.
  I also had a call from the bank, they are now doing 95% mortgages. I still think its worth saving for 10% if we can but its tempting....
  The other thing to consider is if we do want to move north. Friends were selling their flat back home and I was stunned to find out how cheap it was so I looked on rightmove with our budget (bad plan I know) and instead of a 2/3 bed terrace in an okay area we could afford a 3/4 bed detached in a scarily posh area! I hadn't been expecting that much of a difference. We need to do some serious thinking for the long term...
• Good luck with saving for your deposit, don't forget to also save for all the other house buying costs like stamp duty, conveyancing, surveys, etc. I was quite surprised at how much they all added up to. Although my stamp duty was under the old slab system so might not be so bad now it's changed!
  I'm also a YNAB fan it's been quite eye-opening for me to see where I've been spending my money and I'm starting to notice I'm definitely doing better at not spending freely like I used to and pay a bit more attention to whether I really need to buy everything I want.