Money advice

So sorry to hear you are having a nightmare of a time

I really struggle to save and my money just ends up disappearing with having nothing to really show for it but I have found a few ways to save a few pence here and there.

Shop at Aldi or Lidl rather than Asda, look over your bills and see where you can cut costs; swap a contract for a PAYG sim, enquire about going onto meters for your gas and electric or change suppliers, put away any spare copper or change you have (it all mounts up over the months)

I would definitely put off trying to have a baby until after the wedding and college is finished

Thanks, kinda good to hear someone else struggles to save, i use to be so savvy but since taking this house it's been unexpected bill after unexpected bill, i apparently went over my tarrif by 40 pound... i tried cancel my contract but i cant until september or i have to pay, tried to reduce my tv package but again, signed a year long contract, had to pay my brothers debts because i stupidly let him take over our old sky package and he ran up a bill and it was affecting our credit ratings so we paid it so it wouldn't damage our ratings, my family take alot of money from me and i fidn it hard to say no, they ush and push until i give in, my sister whenever she wants 20 quid to go out she will nag non stop until i say yes, my brother guilts me and i feel bad for him because he works so much but is in debt so i have been paying some things to help, my mum is struggling so i give her when she asks .. and then add on all the bills i'm dipping into my savings every month just to pay things off.

I have been googling ideas and aldi came up, we already have a pay as you go gas and electric meter but we eat through the gas and we barely have it on, we turned off radiators in spare rooms to save, we do blankets instea dof heating recently, i could cut costs in some areas of the weddings (we were going to send save the dates but might not now, and might print invitations ourselves?) .. thats the only ideas we have had so far .. also limiting days out and spoiling my nieces and nephews.

Yeah i was always planning on waiting until honeymoon to try, but now i think we will need to wait until our finances recover, we have far too much to pay for and will need to wait until we get some more savings behind us once we eventually buy a house, pay off the wedding etc. It makes me so sad, we have wanted kids for a while and i hate that we need to push it back but we do need to if we want to make it all work out. Feel rubbish!

As hard as it maybe you have to stop giving in to other people and spending money on others, otherwise there will be no way you can save for the wedding

Ask your gas supplier to do a reading as you might be on an estimated bill and paying more than you shoudl

Hello :-)

Are any of your bills loans/credit cards/store cards? You could do what I did and get a consolidation loan, which saves you bags in interest. I saved 600 quid on car repayments doing that.

Shop at aldi or lidl, and do meal planners each week, that way you only buy what you need. Buy meat that is on offer and freeze it. Also, things like sausage casserole and tuna pasta bake are super filling, but very cheap meals and also come with leftovers.

Try not to give yourself too many savings goals at once, I know you want a wedding, house and car now, but you need to prioritise a little. Dont put too much pressure on yourselves. I say prioritise wedding and car.

As you are a student, you may be eligible for a 25% in your council tax bill.

Can your other half cycle to work? Lots of companies do cycle to work schemes, where they will pay for the bike.

Could you postpone your wedding for another year so you dont lose the money?

Wedding related decide what you can do without. We arent having a sit down meal, favours, cars, videographer, make up artist and stuff.

Best of luck!

You need to sit down and create a budget. There are several sites that help you do this: Money Advice Service. However, it doesn't stop with a budget - and Money Saving Expert has a good article here. There are apps that help you track your spending (and I mean, you should track every pound), but a good pen and paper will also do. Be honest with where your cash is going.

You can then figure out what you are spending your money on (tracking expenses) against what you want to spend your money on (budget), and adjust accordingly. If you NEED to give money to your family, this should be a hard and fast budget line. It is discretionary spending, so do not go outside of that budget figure.

You and your partner do not earn a lot of money. In fact, for a two person household, you are well below the national average. This seems to be because you're working part-time and studying part-time, which is a very hard slog. However, you cannot afford to bail out people. Tell your sister to stop asking for cash, stop assisting your brother, and let your mom struggle. The reality is, by helping them with 20 quid here and 20 quid there, you then have nothing left over for yourself to save for a house, car, baby, wedding, etc. I know how difficult it is as my family struggles and I earn about five times what your household income is. However, I have personal goals I need to meet, and it's not my fault they're in their situation and it's not my responsibility to fix it for them.

If I were you, I'd focus on finishing college, paying off your wedding/bills, and saving where I could. Once the wedding is done and you're in full-time employment, I would then look at buying a house, car and children.

A wedding is a discretionary spend. People do it for less than several hundred pounds. However, you've already committed to a venue - and if you can't get out of that then it's about cutting back in other areas. For example, do you need Save the Dates if all your guests are local? If they're far away, perhaps send them a letter or email to save the date. For a wedding dress, see what they have on PreLoved, ebay, etc. or buy a nice white dress in the sales.

Thats awful about your neighbours! To get onto the property ladder we did a government scheme called home buy. It has changed slightly since we did it but the terms are pretty good in that it has to be a new buy and your first home, Google it. It enables you to have a lower deposit and gets you on your first step. Secondly with the wedding is there anything you can do diy? Do you know anyone good at making cakes or handy with flowers? Cars are always a pain to get hold of as you don't want to be ripped off. I wouldn't Rush a decision on one and I'd take a mechanic friend or family if u have one with you as the last thing you want is to get a cheap car and end up with repair costs. We find we get more for our money from tesco or sainsburys than Asia and the cards are good too

I'm sorry to read about your predicament, it sounds far from ideal. I'm going against the grain a bit here, but I think a house should be a priority. If you wait until after your wedding then it's likely that you will have at least another 2 years of having to put up with these neighbours, and not having a great quality of life in the meantime by the sounds of it.

I would agree with what a previous poster has said about seeing if you can defer your date without losing your deposit. Otherwise perhaps a more low-key wedding?

In terms of practicalities, I would definitely recommend signing up to the weekly email from Money Saving Expert. Martin Lewis has lots of good advice especially regarding switching energy tariffs or phone/internet contracts.

I'm so sorry to hear that you're having a tough time. Other posters pretty much have it covered, but I would like to reiterate that you need to STOP giving your family money. You are also clearly struggling, would they help you out? I know it sounds harsh, but if they don't have the money to go out or have sky or whatever then they shouldn't go out or have sky. The wages you and your OH take home sound like they are below the Liveable Wage and I am so impressed that you still manage to save! I must guiltily confess I am rubbish at saving and I earn substantially more than you.

As for your neightbours, have you considered using your phone to film/record the noise they are making and taking that to the council? Also, would your other neighbours be preapred to go to the council with you and back you up? I think it's terrible that you are being forced out of your home by these people.

I'm not going to suggest wether you should buy a house first or get married first, because only you truly know the answer to that one.

I wish you well and I really hope it allg ets sorted for you.

Thanks for all the advice, it is really helpful. Yeah I googled help for first time buyers and some places accept a 5% deposit, we could save this once i'm back full time working which wont be until june next year, I'm really debating if I should continue with this course, the whole point of it was to give a more range of job opportunities (i'm qualified to work in childcare and experienced to work in all care jobs) but I wanted other options so decided to do social science as it is so range and can give jobs working with people, assistant in social work, police work, office work etc ... but put it this way the neighbours kept me up till midnight and because i was so nervous for the meeting today, ontop of being so angry that they have been complaining about me when i'm quiet, we don't party, we walk softly, don't shout, and my heart was racing and i didn't fall asleep until well after 3. I start work at half 1 and wont finish till 9, the meeting is anytime before half twelve.

It just kinda sucks because our rent is so low (300) for a 3 bed flat with a big garden with best schools etc and a decent house here is 100 000 and repayment would be about 500 a month so would probably mean i couldn't be a stay at home mum like we planned, but if i own my own place in a decent area... i could follow my dream of childminding which would be amazing because I would love to work for myself!

I'm still pretty young (just turning 22) so I can put baby on a back burner until we sort this mess out, we had planned on trying staright after wedding but if we do manage to get a mortgage before then, and a car we will need to rebuild our savings, enough so we can be okay on a rainy day. My only worry is as a previous poster said we are well below poverty line, the jobs i could get bring in about 12000 and then other halfs is 11000 before overtime is added, with overtime it's higher but not guarenteed. Also my OH has been laid off 2 times since he entered the work force, he is now in a permanant contract full time but it really worries me because when he got laid off 4 years ago it took him 11 months to get a new job, the second time he was laid off he got a job 3 months later but obviously this is a major concern.

Ideas we have so far to save on the wedding (well your guys ideas)

- Diy invitations

-we wont bother with wedding cars

-OH mum can make the cake

-we wont bother with a popcorn machine/chocolate fountain anymore

-tempted to give up the photobooth too but i had my heart set on this

-SIL could do my hair and i could do my make up

Ideas to save every day

-Aldi and Lidl

-limit takeaways to one a month

-save spare pennys in a jar

-put heating on even less

-see about that 25% off on council tax (they have said im exempt and alan has to pay it ALL instead, but i think they're bumping us, wouldn't be the first time the council here is basically crooked) We also pay full rent which I resent considering what we put up with here (constant stink of weed in the street, fights, screaming people, i love working but i don't like how we work so much yet we are worse off than the people on benefits on my street because we actually have to pay our own bills)

-shop on everything5pound or rimark for clothes

-try limit dental visits, i spent about 200 on dentist visits last year, for fillings being replaces, constant wisdom teeth xrays and check ups and it was all use less to be honest.

-going to stop decorating the house (what we wont need to do to prevent being fined) so we don't get fined when we leave and also saves us on decoration bills.

- when contracts are up be pay as you go sim and get smaller tv package

Any other ideas feel free to share, any more advice or words of wisdom would be great too!

I know you want to buy a house but you may need to wait until you've finished college and have a full time job first as depending on what house prices are like near you on your wages at the moment you're not going to be able to borrow very much. Also you need to make sure you work on getting your credit rating to a good score before you look at buying, you can sign up to Noodle for free to check what it's like at the moment. We did the help to buy scheme whcih was great as we only needed 5% deposit but remember there's fees involved on top of that and we have to pay quite a high interest rate for the first two years so our mortgage is a lot each month. It took us four years to save for our deposit and we were living at home on full time wages so I know it's hard but you will get there.

If you really hate where you are at the moment is there any way you could move into another council property or look at renting? In the short term you'll be happier and won't feel as much pressure to save up for everything now and rent will probably be cheaper than buying.

As for the wedding, you need to sit down and work out a budget for everything and work out how much each month you'll need to save to get there. There's loads of ways you can cut back, get a friend / family member to make the cake, do your own flowers, get invitations on vista print (I wouldn't worry about STD's just send the invitations out a bit earlier), look at preloved or sample sales for a wedding dress, don't have favors, don't have expensive cars etc. Is the £4000 just for the venue? Friends of ours recently got married at a registry office, had a sit down meal in a private area of a nice country pub with 20 guests then went on to a function room for the evening reception and it cost them less that £3000.

This has saved me bags of money...

Rather than using my card for every purchase, I take out 30 or 40 quid a week cash. This is used for top up stuff like milk and bread, lunch at work, shampoo if I run out, stamps and any other odds and sods purchaeses. This means I only spend a max of 160 a month on top of regular bills, and the rest of my disposable income is there to save.I dont even spend it all sometimes, any leftover goes towards the week after, so I take out even less. All of the 1p ,2p, 5p, 10p coins I get in change go straight into our money pot, which builds up suprisingly quickly!

Perhaps that might work for you? As when using a card you dont really see how much you are spending.

Perhaps you could switch to freeview? You can buy little boxes to attach to TV for a tenner that give you on demand TV apps, so you get even more TV for free. Unless you have a games console and the Internet then you already have it covered.

I also agree to sign up to Martin Lewis newsletters as they are fab and have helped me out loads (and taught me a lot).

We're not on huge wages ourselves (about £2200 a month for both of us). We manage perfectly fine though even with a high mortgage of £720, we still save £200 a month and have money left over to spend on ourselves. My Oh works in care and has just finished doing his nvq level 3 while working, is that something you can look at doing?

Sorry to hear you're having a rubbish time of it

I don't really have much advice to offer on the neighbours front I'm afraid.

I was going to suggest exactly what HeavyMetalMaiden said! Have been trying to hammer it into OH as well as he gets to the end of the month and doesn't know where any of his money has gone! Work out your budget on paper and take out a set amount of cash each week and try not to spend anything on your card except for set budget for food/household shopping. When you;re swiping the card it's easy to forget about a 5er here, 3 quid there, but when it's cash in your hand it's much easier to keep track of spending

I was in a really bad situation money-wise a few years ago and the forums on Money Saving Expert were invaluable in helping me to get things back on track, I can't recommend MSE enough!

I think it would be a shame to give up on your course as in the long run it could really help you out getting the career you want! Sorry if I missed anything but do you have long left? Maybe it be possible to defer it a year?

If you are a full time student your partner should receive the single person's discount on council tax so defo check with the council that you;re getting the discounts you're entitled to.

Sorry I can't offer any more advice I hope the meeting goes well!

I agree with bliss_balloons. Try to get moved to a different Council house and/or consider renting somewhere.

You are both still very young so I wouldn't put too much pressure on yourselves to own your first home straight away. I know it would be lovely and nice, but it might be more practical to rent for a short period of time until you've found your feet and have saved up your deposit. Bear in mind that it's now a little more difficult to get a mortgage and the criteria they apply are very stringent. They will consider if you would still be able to afford the mortgage if interest rates go up. If it's tight now you might struggle if interest rates go up so if you are offered a mortgage deal it may not be great.

Definitely continue with your studies! You'll have more job opportunities and might have a slightly higher salary. Don't give up on it. It's a great opportunity.

I would suggest that you prepare for the meeting with the council. Make a note of the noise you hear from next door and when it happens. Do you think your neighbours are trying to move and are using you as scapegoats? ask the other neighbours if they would be happy to write a note confirming that you are quiet and they have no issue with you. Explain about the fence and that they are trying to get out of their responsibilities. Try to find others who have problems with the complaining neighbours and get them to support you. A tough situation, but don't get stressed about it. You can leave and rent somewhere if it gets too much.

Maybe put the baby on hold for now. You've got lots of time for that.

For the wedding just try to cut out as much as you can. Can you DIY the photobooth? It's a nice touch but is it worth the anxiety of finding the money for it?

Oh and tell your sister to grow up! She can find a job if she wants to go out. She's not asking for money because she's run out of food. She's asking to go out. That's not something you need to support. THat's her problem. Don't allow her to bully you. She needs to grow up and she won't do it unless you cut the purse strings.

Thanks everyone, the lady from council just left... how awkward I use to look after her son at nursery!! She really reassured me though, said I'm not the problem and although they need to investigate every complaint, especially consistent ones i'm to not worry about them at all. She advised me not to confront my neighbours about it as the constant complaints correlated with the first time i addressed the complaint about my dog. I got the feeling that she knew it was them and not us. She said our other neighbours have said we are dream neighbours and to then have a single neighbour constantly complain is normally not the person being complained about fault. She said she will get the council to remove my fence because it should have been done before i took over (and apparently it was the council responsibility to removed all the rubbish in my garden and house etc, but now its been so long they will only do the fence removal. She said I can complain about their noise but she did say it might aggrivate them to try complain more and just add fuel to the fire.

I am quite relieved, i was so paranoid about the council believing them over me and i could get in trouble, but knowing they basically know they're the nightmare enighbours makes me feel like i can breathe again. See if i could trust other halfs job i wouldn't be as nervous to buy but he has pretty bad dyslexia and dyspraxia and although he shouldnt be discriminated against he does get it. He got laughed at in an interview once because they told him to read from a phone script and he explained he needs to be familiar with the text first due to his dyslexia but they pushed him and the laughed as he tried to sound out the words. I cried for him, i hate that in this day and age it still happens but because of employers like that he struggles to find work if he was to get laid off or anything.

An exchange is an option if it continues, i saw upstairs looking out their window as i showed the lady the fence and hopefully it will end here but if it continues i'm going to file harassment if they don't stop, it's getting beyond a joke. I have been feeling sic since it started, but the woman really put me at ease, reassured me ... i feel slightly better, i am not as irrational as i was yesterday and this morning .. everyones right i do need to prioritise and to be honest i shouldn't be pushed out of the house i have been a aprt of since childhood just because of these neighbours. The house is in a prime location, some neighbours are sketchy but some are lovely, i know everyone, it's cheap and it's a house, i'm lucky, i'm not homeless. So buying isn't a huge priority for now, upstairs did say they wanted a downstair house instead when i first introduced myself and im guessing this is all them trying to push us out so it opens a house for them downstairs? I dunno if i'm just paranoid but i don't know why someone would be so crazy.

A car is a priority for work, college is a priority, wedding/marriage is priority, a mortgage isn't really and i shouldn't let one neighbour decide such a big decision, before they mvoed in we were happy to live here until we retire and buy a little lodge somewhere!

Thank you to everyone for the advice, still going to use it to try save money, thanks for the support ... i am strongly considering an exchange .. right now their kids are SCREAMING ... like the screech screaming and the parent is like outscreaming the kid ... i suppose at least i have the option to exchange ... she jsut said "well go *** behave then" ... okay after the wedding is when we should see where we are at, if we still want to buy we can save.

Hi agree with most people advice but couldn't not reply.

Firstly in relation to your noise issue you need to start complaining about them, keep a diary of the noise they are making and once you have about 2-3 weeks give it to the council. Have the council suggested mediation with your neighbours ?. Unfortunately the council are properly just following their complaint because they keep moaning however it sounds like what they are complaining about is everyday noise which I'm sure they can't do anything about different if you are playing loud music, dog barking etc. Because you are really worried about this visit your local ciTizen advice bureau they can provide free information about stuff like this and also can assist with financial help.

Everyone has provided great money advice, the only thing I can suggest is plan your meals ie buy cheap mince then make spag Bol and something else out of it like chilli or shepards pie. And make food at home to take to work can save lots doing that. I shop at lidl and you can get some great stuff there. Also stop giving other people money as hard as it is to say no you clearly need the money yourself and as for spoiling your niece and nephew take them to the park for a couple of hours I'm sure that they will enjoy that and it's free

Google DIY photobooth and have a look at Pinterest have lots of ideas I there.

In relation to buying a house it's expensive by time you pay solicitors fees, survey and deposit. You can check your credit rating online free with certain ones as long as you cancel them may be with seeing to see what your credit is like as if you have bad credit it's likely your mortgage will either be more cause you will be considered more of a risk. But you can change that by paying things off when you can and not missing payments on stuff

I would def not try for a baby at the moment as I think this would only cause you more stress with your situation with your neighbours and I don't think you could afford it. Your only young and have plenty of time (from a 33 year old getting married next year with no children but would love them waiting till after get married)

Good luck and go to citizen advice x

Thansk for the reply about keeping a diary, i will do that as a back up if it continues. I want to speak to them about it, i'm not a complainer i go direct to the person if theres a problem, but i have been advised not too do that and she said i can complain but she did say it might aggrivate them to complain more but if the noise continues the way it is i will have to so thanks for that idea. I love the fiy photobooth idea, going to need to look into that, Yeah we didnt consider trying now, we were thinking after the wedding, in this house once all the unexpected bills are over and im back working we could afford it, but if we do that it's a def no for buying so will have to wait and see how we feel closer to the time. My mum and gran went through menopause mid 30s so pretty early so i don't want to risk leaving it too late but i don't mind waiting another 4-7 years if we do decide to buy.

I am starting to regret going back to college, i had a pretty good job and got offered a contract (24000 a year) but i didn't take it because it was a temp contract for 2 years before perm and it was with council and they bump staff a lot last minute here, keep you for a 2 years right before they have to give you a permanant contract and then say they don't need you anymore, thats partly why i went bac to college, give myself more opportunities. We never thought of citizens advice, will go for that too in regards to the discount in council tax, they are still saying OH has enough to pay it, not being funny but they bum us a lot, when i had my firt job which was only 800 a month, we had a private let, it was 350 a month, 180 council tax, tv license was 24, gas and electric about 100 a month, food 150, tv bill 50 .. it was a case of pay to pay and using savings to get by, and even with OH being unemployed he was told he wasn;t entitled to job seekers or anything because i earned enough to support him :/ Bullcrap, we didn't get hel with council tax because again i earned enough to pay it apparently. Honestly i think citizens advise will need to clear their calander because i need to address that too, they probably owe us loads because other people got help when they were better off than us at the time so that's one issue, the other is the noise ... i would love to stay here, financially it is good for us to have spare money and live comfortably, but i really hope the neighbours leave. Or at least stop complaining and keep it down a bit, maybe some anger management classes because the way they scream is unreal.

Only you can decide what is your biggest priority unfortunately.

However, ideas to save money:

Get rid of sky/virgin media/BT vision and switch back to freeview/freesat, absolutely not a necessity

If you are allowed to, get rid of your pay as you go energy meter, they are more expensive

Switch off everything you possibly can at the socket when not using it

See if you can change your broadband supplier (ours costs us £13.50 a month including line rental)

Speak to your mobile phone companies and see if they can reduce your bill. I know for a fact Orange will do this for you based on your usage.

Meal plan and try places like Aldi and Lidl. Write a list before you go and stick to it.

Walk/cycle where ever possible.

Look at all your insurances and shop around when they are due for renewal

Not sure by what you mean by this 'i notice a lot of our savings are eaten by bills from the council (their mistakes of not recording our payslips when we bring them in)' but if you think the council are at fault, fight it.

Finally, stop bailing out your family! Be strong, if you can't afford it, don't lend it!

Ooh join quidco if you haven't already, then if you do switch suppliers you could get cash back.

My honest feeling here is do you really need a bells and whistles wedding. is there anyway you could sell your package on/worst case scenario loose your deposit? end of the day it's about you and the man you love getting married which is beautiful could this not be done at a registrar office with word of mouth guests and treat everybody to a pub meal some may even section it you off perhaps flowers off eBay the dried ones I had those and people couldn't believe they wasn't real. my cousin had a similar wedding and it was just as fab as there was such a feeling of love. don't mean all that to sound mean X

Hello,

I have only skim read everyones reply's so sorry if I am repeating this.

My advice for budgeting come from experience, a couple of years ago me and my H2B left our well paying jobs to set up our own company and we HAD to learn to budget and live of virtually nothing to make ends meet for the first year or so.

The best way I have found to save money is using an envelope system, I know it sounds strange but I we use it for the things in life that we can get carried away with.

So we had an envelope for

* Food money - This would be split into four separate envelops one for each week

* Pet food

* Fun Money

* Christmas/Birthday money

* Home (for general repairs etc)

* Emergency money

* Wedding

* Petrol money

We would divide our remaining money from the month between those envelopes. Then when we went food shopping or pet food shopping I would take the designated envelope and leave my bank card at home. That way I knew exactly how much money I had to spend on that particular thing and I could not go over because I had no other money with me to pay for it.

We then bought all of our meat in bulk via Makro (you can use any type of multi buy store such as costco or even some online suppliers ) we would then portion that up into the freezer and we would then buy the rest of our food shopping via Lidl Aldi and the local green grocer. Doing this took our food shopping bill down to less then £30 a week for two people.

We still do something similar now just because I have grown used to it and we have saved a significant amount of money since we started it.

Hope this helps

Sorry to hear that you and your family are going through a tough time.

I also recommend tucking away money in envelope funds. ?

Also when it comes to trying to save money i would really recommend buying food and cleaning products in larger sizes. You will save a lot of money in the long run. Also if you have the space then buy in bulk. You might want to check out "Approved food."

Hope things start to look brighter soon.

When buying these larger packets I occasionally notice that two smaller ones works out more than one large also don't buy three for twos etc just for the bargain. don't let any food go to waste even the odd slice of bread that's a meal going to waste freeze and plan

Thanks for all the advice folks, it has really helped, we have started a spreadsheet of our incomings and outgoings, we have found we have 600-1000 spare a month which we have been spending on god knows what but by the looks of our bank statements it seems take aways, giving money to family, are massive money "wasters" for us, so if we obey our envelopes and spreadsheet we should be able to save at least 600 a month, my savings go to the wedding and OH goes tot he new car, if we are money savvy we should have a new car by october time... and then we focus on saving for a mrotgage, i go back to full time work in june 2016 so wil be easier to save, if we are really really good we should have the 5% deposit save by the june after the wedding, then we just need legal and moving fees

We also did our first Aldi shop

So things will be okay, OH job is 13000 contracted hours but he has made that in 6 months in overtime and i think banks take that into account? Any job i can get ranges between **** so i am confident it will work out it's only 2 and a half year before we should be out of this area, dont get me wrong i love my house and the fact i lived here from age 12 but i have to keep in mind growing up i saw someone beaten almost to death, saw at least 30 beatings, seen peple out of their face on drugs and alcohol, during summer its particularly dangerous when peopl are drinking outside, fighting, people openly doing drugs, the street stinks of weed most of the time, and people swear at their kids ... so i have to keep in mind we are going to be scrimping and saving so we can make sure our kids don't see that .. and we will still be young, ill be 24/25 by the time we should get the mortgage, give us a year to settle in the house and we will still be young enough to have kids

All good advice previously given the only thing I would add is lunches........when we examined our spending we worked out that between us we were spending nearly £150 a month just on lunch whilst working by going to Tesco's etc. I now make a big vat of soup at the weekend for the 2 of us portion it out and freeze it then just grab a portion each day. My soups cost less then £1 for about 8 portions and I generally make two different ones so we are not eating the same thing. Carrot and coriander this weekend cost 50p for all the ingredients!

Another way to cut shopping bills is to ignore best before dates on vegetables.........they are a guide for the supermarkets and nothing else, you can see if something has gone off or not. Don't ignore used by dates however that is when something is off - generally on meats, eggs etc.

Looks like you have got some good advice here and have a plan. Having a plan is one thing I find key - knowing that you will get through the mess! It's great you now know what you are working towards and the saving idea of you for the wedding and your partner for the car is a really good idea! Hope it all works out for you.