Okay My husband and I have officially gone through a budget.. and agreed how we would like to save.. We've been looking for houses lately and my husband was worried about having an islamic mortgage and if we could keep up with the payments. I don't blame him because it is extremely expensive to live here in england. After totally all of our expenditures the least amount we could get away with is £850 a month without buying any clothes for the children and ourselves. Unfortunately my husband needs proper clothes to go to work in.. after all his job is the place where we get our money from. And its important he's not wearing holes or the same thing twice in a week... People will definately notice.
Most people seem to be living off credit, credit and more credit.. How does one live who doesn't take interest, and still survive. what happens if the roof falls in.. ectr ectr.
Its a scary thought taking on a mortgage for a house and wiping our our savings in the downpayment.. But can it be done? Should it be done?
so we wrote down a list of our short term goals, intermediate goals, and long term goals. How does our short term lead us to our long term??

1.) we definately need a house
2.) definately need 2 cars
3.) schooling for the kids

We have the house we live in! That if we keep will give us a rental return of £340 a month. It needs a new kitchen and I need to change the boiler = £2,500. So the first year we will prob. not see any return on renting the house. However, with a new boiler and kitchen we will be able to sell the house faster.. if we feel the payments on our mortgage are too high..

I figured my husband should get rid of his gas guzzler and buy a diesel car that will give him at least 65mpg. That would save us a whopping £50-80 a month on gas. If he could sell his car for at least £2000 then maybe we can put in an extra 3k. And he can buy me a lil junker to get around it.. for about £1,000. Its sad because we only just paid off my hubbies car and it was bought brand new 7 years ago. Cars really are a waste of money.
My mother in law keeps giving things to charity because she thinks her son is a doctor so he's rich. We almost got in a fight when I told her that we are poor.. cuz my husband doesn't like to work overtime and is one of the lowest paid gps working for the pct. He takes home £3,100 a month after medical fees. And just to live without buying clothes is £850 at the moment. I've started busting my ass and have so far only spent £400 on gas, food, electrictiy and ectr.. Was really pissed when I found out we owed £140 more on gas and electricity this month because they miscalculated what we owe. Such is life.

We found a house which costs 190,000. the mortgage will be about £990.
I've been as tight as I can and tried to get my expenses, utilities and petrol, food, taxes, nappies, formula and things down to £700. We have decided not to have a telephone for the first year. My husband also needs to buy a more gas efficient car.. which will cost £5k but his car is breaking down anyway. I am going to deliver the newspaper... and babysit for xtra money for clothes and expenses. So far our expenses look like 1,700 a month. Which means a saving of 1,500 a month and 18,000 for a year.. - £4,000 for yrly expenses, medical fees, and the car (which we plan to put on a 0% apr for 12mo. car.)

So thats about 14k saved in the bank..-2,000 for my car. (always need to do something like change the tires.)

So in the first year we are praying we can save 12k. It is going to be very hard.. we will not have any furniture, pots and pans, or silverware for the the first year -year and half. But I am really praying and hoping that once we get passed this year everything will be fine.

Once we have 12k in the bank then we plan on saving another 15k and putting 1ok on the mortgage.. every year. Meaning we would have the house paid off in 13 years from buying. If that is no other expenses come up in the meantime..

Plus our mortgage will slowly decrease as we pay off the house.. which will be very nice.

I feel so stressed and worried that we will not be able to do this.. In fact I am crying as I write this blog hoping that God performs some miracle on our finances and doesn't give us any added expenses.

This week I have spent 12.50 on laundry
3.17 for groc.
9.97 for meat
£4.50 for groc.
Hoping to only spend £5 next week on groc. Until my hubbies has his next paycheck. And nothing else..

All I need now is some sugar, salad leaves, milk(£6) and .88 cents, bananas and oranges, frozen peas and cauliflower and we'll be fine until the 5th of next month.. 15 days from now.