My Money Saving Challenge Summer 2016

As many of you are aware, my partner and I are planning to move into our first house together in the next 2 months. As hard as it is getting everything together, having to buy baby things and everything at the same time. I have decided to do a money saving challenge.

All the change that is left over from shopping? Into the jar. All the money I put aside from blogging milestones? In the jar. Basically all the money we can put aside will be put into the jar. 

The challenge will be starting on Friday 27th May. I will be emptying the jar often and taking it to the bank to put it into a savers account so I can better track the money online as it adds up with time. I will be announcing the final total on  Tuesday 19th July.

You can also do your own money saving challenge at the same time. Let's see who can gather the most. I can't wait to hear your journey and final results.

My One Year In College

If you live in the UK you will know that in recent years, a new law came out to say that after you leave high school at the age of 16, you have to be in education until you turn 18. This can be college, sixth form, apprenticeship, and so on. I was months from turning 17 when I left high school (long story short, I didn't know any English when I came to the UK and they thought it was best to make me re-do a whole year to give me time to learn, 3 months into that year, I was fluent in English so hooray), this meant I would be able to do just one year of college instead of 2 years so I was pretty happy with that.

In the last few months of high school, I applied for over 80 apprenticeship positions per month in my town and surrounding areas, I had a few interviews here and there but never stayed. The apprenticeships I was applying for were mainly for reception, front of house, administration, sales, hairdressing and hotel management. If you live in the UK you will know this, but if you don't then let me quickly explain, colleges usually require you to apply for courses before September which is when the courses start. So, I had until September of that year to find an apprenticeship or I would have to go to college.

August came along and I just couldn't get into an apprenticeship, I was getting notifications to my email every day with the first line being ''you are the ideal candidate for this position, however, the position has already been filled at this time. We wish you good luck for the future''. It was driving me crazy. So I ended up looking on all the college websites in my area. I quickly decided there was no way I was going to a sixth form college so I limited my options a little. I had a look, I applied for a few hairdresser and beauty courses as I love all of that, and I also applied for business admininstration courses. Why did I apply for business administration courses? I really wanted an apprenticeship, that's what I have wanted for myself once I got out of high school ever since apprenticeships became this huge thing in the UK. Since administration fit with most of the apprenticeships opportunities I had been previously applying for, I decided that I would try this as a college course.

By this point it was now September and I got into the business administration course. The first few months of the course weren't too bad, everything was pretty organised and the coursework was easy to keep up with. But the last few months were hectic for me. I wasn't in a very good place with myself, I was having anxiety attacks almost daily and I simply couldn't focus on my coursework properly. In the last few months of the course, I did consider quitting just because I felt like I couldn't do it and I would rather quit something than end up with a bad grade or a fail to carry on my CV for the rest of my working life.

Good news though, I struggled but I didn't quit and I passed the course so everything was okay in the end. But it was super stressful and everything did drive me crazy towards the end, there was so much to do and so much to rush and I also had a hard time dealing with anxiety attacks at that point.

If I could go back and do it all over again for that course? Not really, I would have rather gone through all the stress for a course I would love to do as a job, like hairdressing or maybe even beauty. I feel like that would have been more worth my stress and struggle than a course I wanted to do thinking more of the money I could make in the future. I thought I would enjoy the course but I really didn't enjoy it in the last few months.

Baby Essentials List Challenge

Getting things ready for your baby's arrival can be so expensive and stressful. I have decided to do a Baby Essentials Challenge until I get everything for my baby's arrival. It's a fun way to keep track of what you have bought, what you have left to buy and at the end you can calculate how much money you have saved or how much money you have gone over budget. 

I will now post a list of things I need to get and the prices of the things I have seen which I want to get. When we finish getting everything together for our baby from the starter list, I will post that list here with prices in order to compare both lists, and also calculate how much we spend.

My baby essentials list

• Pram/pushchair ------ £322.99
• Baby car seat ------ £34.99
• Pushchair rain cover ------ £9.99
• Cosytoes ------ £14.99
• Moses basket ------ £54.99
• Nappy changing mat ------ £9.99
• Room thermometer ------ £9.99
• Chest of drawers ------ £79.99
• Bottle sterilizer ------ £19.99
• Bottle brush ------ £3.99
• Bottle warmer ------ £19.99
• Dummy set ------ £4.79
• Highchair ------ £49.99
• Baby bathtub/seat ------ £14.99
• Bath thermometer ------ £9.99
• Baby hairbrush/comb ------ £1.99
• Baby nail scissors ------ £1.99
• Safety gate ------ £19.99
• Socket covers ------ £5.49
• Baby proofing set ------ £6.79
• Baby towels ------ £19.99
• Set of bottles ------ £14.99
• Moses basket mattress ------ £9.99
• Baby changing bag ------ £30.00
• Baby walker ------ £39.99
• Baby bouncer ------ £29.99
• Baby play mat gym ------ £39.99
• Moses basket sheets ------ £16.99
• Maternity bag ------ £29.99
• Nipple shields ------ £4.49
• Maternity bra ------ £10.00
• Baby blanket ------ £8.00
• Muslin squares ------ £7.99
• Warm baby socks ------ £3.00
• Coming home outfit ------ £14.99
• Babygrows/undergarments ------ £10.50

               Total = £988.79

How To Improve Your Money Saving

I seriously know how difficult money saving can be but there are a million different ways to make it easier. Maybe you want to save up for a holiday, maybe you want to treat yourself or even save up for your own house,wedding or family.

When it comes to saving money, a little goes a long way. What I mean is that you may be just saving your change into a pot every day and see such a result in a few months. You just need to remember that everything takes it's time and patience is really needed for this.

How do I save up money? As I have a baby on the way and me and my partner are needing to get a house by this summer, saving up has been a really difficult thing for us to do. Especially when you have car tax to pay for, monthly bus passes and a bunch of other things. Personally, I save up with a little thing I recently started which is ''£2 for every 50 blog views'', every time I get 50 more views on any of my blogs, I add £2 to a jar. I will be only opening the jar at the end of each month and depositing it into the bank. The final amount of money will be revealed on July 19th 2016, this money will be going full towards our baby and house. I find that doing it this way makes me do my hobby better and also motivates me to save up. I'm loving it so far.

No matter what anyone says, we hate to admit it but we always end up spending money on things we don't need. Whether it's those pairs of shorts you want to get from Primark and then end up never wearing them, or maybe it's a bunch of junk food you don't need but want to get anyway. Imagine how much all that would add up to each month...

So here are different ways to save up quite a bit of money within months:

1. Start a hobby and every time you achieve a milestone, put a certain amount of money into a pot and at the end of the month, take it to the bank and deposit it into a savers account. Even if you save £2 each time you reach a milestone, it makes a huge difference. Chances are you would have wasted your money on something else you don't need anyway. 
2. If money is short and is literally going to bills and essentials only, it can be super hard to save up. If you like music or fashion and don't mind writing short reviews on things, head over to Slice The Pie, that is how I used to get my money when I was in college. All the money you get from the website, transfer it straight from your PayPal to your savers account. You will see a difference within just a few months.
3. Just opening up a savers account in general can motivate you to save up. Transferring that money over from one account to the other and then seeing that amount rise every month can make you feel so much better and motivate you to save up even more.
4. A lot of people don't like doing this but it is also a good way to save up, makes you sort of compete with yourself a little. Instead of buying really expensive branded things when shopping, why not go for the store value products? At the end of each shopping spree you do for the fridge or house in general, put the remaining money you would usually spend into a pot or savers account. I think this is quite a fast way to save up.
5. If you are simply putting whatever money you have at the end of the month into a pot or savers account, the best thing to do is don't keep checking it. This can take all your motivation away, saving up can sometimes take too long and your impatience might impact how much you save. So, set yourself a goal like I did. Give yourself a date to check your final outcome on and this will make you feel so much better.