Working, Working, Working 1

So our plan for this year is to pay off all our debts and then save up enough to be able to build ourselves a house next year. It’s quite an ambitious plan, but it’s worth setting our sights high. And it’s looking more likely now, as I’ve just myself a new job, which I start in a couple of weeks, and Naomi got her NI number this morning, so she’ll be able to work as well.

I’ve been reading various website about saving money, and realised that there are loads of things we can do to reduce how much we’re spending so that more money can go to paying off debts. Like eating vegetarian food two or three times a week, making sandwiches at home and taking them to work instead of going to Morrisons in my lunch break, eating smaller portions, getting rid of my RAC subscription, remembering to invoice people for their webhosting, walking to places instead of driving, buying things in the market instead of the supermarket, changing my bank, my credit cards, our gas and electricity suppliers – and the list goes on. And it’s worth doing – since if we only save a tenner a week, that adds up to £520 a year. Not to be sniffed at. I’m not sure why you’d want to sniff it anyway.

We’re also having fun designing our house. It’s way bigger than we’ll probably be able to build, but you never know, we might manage it. We’ve been getting samples of various flooring materials and lots of brochures and catalogues, and trying to find out just how much various things cost and what would be viable and what would be a pipe dream. Bamboo flooring looks like it’s the best way to floor a house, as it’s cheap but looks nice (it looks like wood). Amtico vinyl flooring looks nice too and is extremely strong (I whacked it with the edge of a cast iron frying pan to test it and it only left a little scratch) but it costs a fortune. Real slate tiles can be pretty cheap too.

If anyone has any good ideas about how to build a good quality house cheaply, let us know!