It’s so easy to fall into the day to day mundayne routine – same waking time, same workday, same television programs, same food, same exercise, same websites. *YAWN*
My upcoming "Living Below the Line" challenge (living on less than $2 food a day) has got me thinking about what I eat, how much it costs, how much I eat, etc etc.
Humans are creatures of habit. My boy and I tend to eat the same handful of dishes over and over again. It’s good, we like it, we know how to cook it. Trouble is, it’s not going to help us on a quest for a smaller grocery budget, or even lowering our calorie intake (ok, that’s my thing, not his). I don’t like to deviate from my comfort zone very much. But when you do, it’s exciting and you do feel alive.

I’m psyched for this challenge. Yes, all money raised goes to a good cause, but it’s also pushing me out of my normal routines (in both grocery shopping, and preparing and eating food). No I can’t eat nachos every weeknight during the challenge. Instead I’ll scrape together something. Who knows what it’ll turn out like. But I’m challenging my mind and body – I’m getting out of my routine and experiencing something new.

Apparently I can’t just change my routine on a whim, or for no big reason. If I call it a "challenge", I find that I’m much more optimistic about it. Weird how the brain works! (I also think it’s a capricorn traight – to slowly but surely conquer the mountain (aka challenge).)

Instead of saying "I’m going to declutter my room today!" – say "I challenge myself to get rid of 50 things I don’t need in my life!". Instead of "I’m going to work out for 30mins everyday" – say "I challenge myself to exercise everyday this month!". I think you get the idea. Turn it into a game instead. Moral is, once you "win", you’ll love the feeling you’ll keep going anyway.

So what else am I going to start challenging myself to do?

• Challenge 1 – Read one book a fortnight till the end of the year. (This one will be easy. I love reading non-fiction books and am just getting in the habit of visiting my library often. Plus I’m starting 6 new subjects for my Naturopathy course, so I can count them
• Challenge 2 – $401 week for 4 weeks challenge. A personal offshoot of the Live Below the Line challenge – $401 is apprently the poverty line for an Australian in active employment. This has to cover everything – rent, food, electricity, fuel, rego, insurance, etc etc. I will be choosy as to what month I pick for this though!
• Challenge 3 – Earn $1000 (outside of work) by the end of the year. The idea behind this is, if you can earn it within 6 months, try to earn it once a month, then once a week… I’m going to have to think about this one a lot!
• Challenge 4 – Have a 15% deposit for a house by end of lease. End of *next* lease I should say. We have just over 2 months on our current lease, then our rent will go up by $10 a week, so I’m hoping we’ll be here for just another 6 months. So 8 months for a 15% deposit.

Yes, most of them are montory-related. I’m focusing on this area of my life right now.

One of my biggest goals in life is to own my own home. I want to have pets, paint walls, dig up gardens and not feel like I could be ousted every 6 months if the owner decides to move back in.
I’m also one of "those" people who think rent money = dead money. I’m paying off their mortgage for them. Etc etc etc.

I’ve read the mantras over and over again, on how to save money once you have a mortgage:

• Pay every fortnight instead of every month (there are 26 fortnights so this makes up 13 payments per year instead of 12)
• Make first repayment on the day of settlement (instead of waiting till the next month – so you’re a month and a LOT of saved interest ahead)
• Add any extra lump sum payments (bonuses, tax refunds, etc) to your loan – especially at the beginning to save on interest
• Make sure your loan has a redraw facility – so you can keep your living expenses in the account until you absolutely need them (reducing interest)

Etc etc etc. Basically just pay as much as you can, as early as you can, and as often as you can. It’s not rocket science.

My problem is the deposit. I want to stay in the area I’m in now – I like it, I’ve become somewhat familiar with it and it’s a convienent distance from the CBD (close to the CBD but no issues with street parking). (You can tell me I should start in outer & cheaper suburbs, but my band is getting more gigs, and I need to be this close
in order to be able to make it to work in the day, then to the gig in the night, without being late to either. Also practice and lessons are close by. Any cheaper housing would be offset by time & money spent on fuel and travel.)

Looking at the houses around us, the lower end of the scale are around $500,000. This isn’t actually too bad (and I’m only including houses, not town houses or apartments etc).
I’m told banks are only allowing loans with at least 10% deposit, so we’d need around $50,000. Ideally, we should have a 20% deposit, so we don’t have to get mortgage insurance, but $100,000 is out of the question for now.

I’m over halfway to the $50,000 – but I can’t get there quick enough! So what am I doing to get there as quickly as possible? Being rediculously frugal, tight with my money, and watching where every cent goes.

• We’ve almost quit fast food. We eat fairly healthy but we were having Subway usually twice a week ($7 each, $14 each time, so around $28 a week!) We very occasionally got pizza, but now I’m making my own version (honestly, it’s self raising flour, oil & boiling water – couldn’t be easier!), which has heaps more toppings and is cheaper
• I don’t go browsing the shops anymore. If my boy was away for a day on the weekend, I’d usually take that time to go shopping. As a girl, I know much our boyfriends detest being dragged along, so when he was busy, this was my little "me" time. I now spend this time gardening, playing wii, or surfing the internet – just staying home basically
• Cut down on drinking! Yes, I’m a typical 25yr old australian girl. I’m a binge drinker. I used to think nothing of 8 or 9 vodka & diet cokes at a club for a night out. Basic spirits are around $6 or $7 each. So that’s around $60 for a night out. Then include the transport costs (train is $2.80 each way, or if I miss the last train, a taxi is $20), the post drinking food binge (New York Pizza anyone?). And don’t forget that time of the night where people start doing shots. Then it’s your round! Those nights could easily go over $100. I’ve been really busy lately, so haven’t had a chance to go out much. When I do get a night off, I’m wanting to stay at home and relax rather than party. Being in a band, I’m going to get a lot of chances to party, so just taking it easy while I can
• Trying to cut down our power bill – turning off power points when we’re not using them. Washing up instead of using dishwasher. (I’ve only ever used cold water for clothes washing, so this is already done – I also own a clothes dryer, but haven’t used it once in the past year).
• Reducing grocery costs – I’m trying to shampoo less and less, there’s a lot of chemicals in most shampoo’s anyway, (the organic ones with no chemicals are very expensive), also growing a few vegetables (nothing major, but is making a slight difference), shopping once every 2 weeks instead of 1 (with a topup for milk once during that fortnight).
• I’ve always taken my lunch to work everyday, but my boy is starting to do this too. He was also buyinig a can of V everyday ($3?) just because. I told him to cut down or buy a 4 pack from the supermarket instead, which he has done

I’ll probably elaborate on some of those areas above in future posts, but just giving you an overall picture. I know my car costs a lot, but I desperately need it (try transporting musical equipment without a car!) so it comes under my "needs" category.
Anybody got any other ideas for saving up for a home deposit?