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My husband and I made what I would consider as our only big mistake when we were 17 and 18. We moved in together and rented a flat. Now, generally that was not a mistake, it gave us the room we both needed to grow up and the space we needed to be carefree teenagers. We’d get paid at the end of the month and eat like kings. Well, kings that really enjoy beer and take aways. Then the end of the month munching 12p chicken noodles and supping tap water. It amazes me now how we ever found ourselves skint on two well paid full time jobs and cheap rent. Then I remember the nights out, the last minute weekends away and that incredible trip to Amsterdam. I don’t regret any of it and we had the time of our lives.
Reality struck in true form when we found out that our Girl child was on the way. Our cheap flat was swapped for a hike in rent for a house with a garden, full time wages were swapped for maternity pay and beer bottles swapped for sterilisers and nappies. It amazes me how far we stretch one wage between a family of 4 now. We don’t claim tax credits but the child benefit does help buffer us; and can be used for clothes/food rather than going into their savings if we’re having one of ‘those’ months (you know, where the washing machine decides it doesn’t want to be a part of your family any more, no matter how many times you talk sweetly to it, begging and saying you really do appreciate the contribution it makes to your day.)
So, back to our big mistake. Yes, we had an absolute blast and living together was amazing, especially at that tender age. Our mistake was renting. Once we were in that situation of renting (after being irresponsible with money for the first year) it became so difficult to get out. Monthly mortgage rates would save us nearly £200 a month if we were to buy the house we currently rent. But to buy we need to have an excess of £15,000 saved. But whilst we’re paying rental prices, we are struggling to save. We currently have debt which we are whittling down in order to start seriously saving.
And this is where you guys come in! I’m a firm believer in ‘look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves’, a little bit here and there can make a huge difference to those credit cards/savings accounts, and I want to find out if there is anything else I could be doing whilst simultaneously collating all the ideas into one place in the hopes it may help some others. I’m currently hunting for a part time job to fit around the kids school, but in the mean time I need to be finding little ways to help move this along a bit!
So, whilst I’m drafting all of my current techniques into a post, please send in your go to methods for penny pinching, what helped you to save for your house/car/holiday or clear those debts. You can pop it in a comment or send me an email as cheesypie92@gmail.com. Any ideas will be credited and I’m going to try out each and everyone for 4 weeks and see how much we save.
Cheesy Pie 