Saving for your house

[Julie-Ann]

What are some ways you have used in the past to save up for something special in your house - be it the deposit to buy the house or for something new in the house?
I thought we could share some ideas here to encourage each other with saving.:)

When we were younger I would put a certain amount of money away each week for home improvements. I had a brilliant system of keeping it in a little container in the fridge (and no that is not a typo this time:D). My theory was the burglars wouldn't look in the fridge lol.
These days I tend to go without certain things like concerts and clothes shopping to give us more cash for decorating.

Do you have any tips?

[silkinteriors]

We buy everything on our credit card and pay it off in full each month (never pay interest) and collect the points which we can trade for store vouchers/gift cards (Bunnings, Myer, Target etc.) so as soon as we have ac***ulated enough points, we buy the gift cards.

When we were renovating our house, we bought as much as we could on our credit card, collected all the points ($100s of Bunnings vouchers worth) and did a balance transfer on the amount we couldn't repay, paid that out in less than the time required and cancelled the card so we weren't tempted to use it, so again didn't have to pay any interest on what was essentially a six month loan but came out $100s in front with the vouchers :D

I wouldn't advise this method unless you were absolutely on top of your banking, income etc. My husband manages this for us and is REALLY good at it.

[Elements]

I sell the piece I am replacing or something of equivelant value.....usually on ebay or garage sales.
This way I can justify the purchase and be out with the old and in with the new.

[rachel]

Every time my husband gets a pay rise or promotion we skim that off and don't spend it! We live on my husband's salary (as it was a few years ago) and the extra and my income goes into savings.

We pay for everything on a platinum credit card (which gives LOTS of frequent flyer points) and we use those points for our flights (can't stop travelling!) and pay the card off in full every month.

We monitor our accounts and watch our savings grow. There are some great web apps to help with budgeting and saving too.

Another key thing for me is to remember how far we've come and how I used to manage on so little. Putting things in perspective helps a lot.