The fight over the central heating dial has started again

A snap from this mornings rain filled walk. 

Like last year the fight over the thermostat dial has begun, with me turning it down a couple of degrees so it doesn't come on and turning down the radiator dials and them turning it up and leaving windows open. Grr! I can't wait to control my own temperature and bills.

In other news, payday came and went. I was thinking of buying a new autumn jacket in the price range of up to £50. However, I just dug out my old jacket which is proving fine, so some money saved there. Money from this months pay has been shifted to the ISA and the saving spreadsheet will be updated this week.

Last month I made it through saving an additional £200, so tucked that away in the ISA. I also managed to have a pretty cheap last weekend and saved the money I need to pay for the next six month water bill. Even though its good news I'm feeling quite frustrated and just want to get to my end target quicker.

Anyone else feel like this?

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We've (almost!) done it... I think

This month was quite a good one for myself, as I managed to earn about £400 approx extra for leaving my last job with holiday to spare. I spend a couple of hundred on new clothes and shoes as my wardrobe was looking quite empty and scruffy. However I did sell half of the vouchers I got from my last job to my sister so that covered the cost of one pair of shoes (a padded canvas shoe-ideal for walking/cycling as I had to throw my old trainers out).

Other than that though it was a good saving month, I managed to squeeze away an additional £200 into the savings account. And yesterday while browsing yet more property websites I popped onto a well known bank's mortgage advisor. I entered how much deposit we currently have (10%) and the monthly fee came out at £750, under a 5 year fixed term first time buyer exclusive. If we carry on saving we should have a little more, I entered this amount in and the monthly fee came out at £730- not too much difference but am aware that over 30 years this adds up...to roughly £7,000.

So I think (and hope!) we won't have to stay any longer than necessary in the house share (eight months to go!) as long as we get the mortgage approved (credit score hopefully improving- need to check soon) and find somewhere we want to buy. I think the plan is to carry on saving, then we can make a more informed decision nearer the time- we may use the extra saved money to buy the sofa, re-decorate etc instead.

The temptation now would be to think the hard work is done, but I guess no amount of savings will be too much. I do know I want to book a sunshine holiday (a bargain type one) in the new year and put my car back on the road too so I have a bit more independence. I can't wait for the new year.

September Sunday.

Evening all,

I can't seem to believe it's September already- though the recent chill in the air and it turning dark outside by 9pm are starting to make it more and more obvious. Soon it will be my one year blog-o-versary, Halloween, our five year anniversary, my birthday and Christmas! Whoa!

Anyhoo, I think I've fallen off the blogging bandwagon a little. I think my frugal-y habits have become ingrained in everyday life, but despite my own posts becoming few and far between I'm still an enthusiastic reader of those I follow.

On the finance front, the BF was paid all his overtime again, clearing more money than the previous month. With the extra cash he has finished paying off his credit card re-payments to me, its all gone about six months earlier than we anticipated so yay on that front.

The saving spreadsheet shows we have the grand total of £19,359 just a few hundred pounds away from the minimum we'd need to buy a £160,000 property- so if things carry on we should have more than a 10% deposit, hopefully reducing the monthly re-payments which I'm pretty pleased about. I was thinking of maybe booking an appointment with an advisor next month just to see what our options are and where we need to be etc.

Finally, after chatting to some new colleagues at after work drinks last week someone told me I can get an overground train straight into where I work. Not only has it made my commute much easier, it means I won't have to fork out for tubes and buses next year. In comparison a season ticket for rail only is approximately £500 less over the year than the price of a full travel card- so I can put this money towards getting my car on the road as I'm starting to miss the independence of having it.

x