To over pay may rent so I don't have to pay as much Xmas next year?

[itsmeits]

I know its January but... I've been thinking about it.

I pay my rent by DD, however also have a rent card, so could pay a little extra each month on pay day to that and won't notice it (eg £15-20 as stopped treating myself to coffee/tea when out as bought a flask 😎)

This would mean I could ask for a rent refund from my housing association in December, meaning I only have to pay equivalent of 2 and a half weeks rent, instead of 5.

With 3 kids this would make a big difference and also mean I can afford Xmas treats like the panto. Which I love but haven't taken them to since before lock down due to cost.

I am also trying to save for half for a mortgage so the money could be going into that.
DP would want it going towards mortgage.
I'd be keeping quite and paying it off the rent, for extra family treats over Christmas.
Experiences and memories I had as a child that I don't want my kids to miss.

I have already increase mortgage savings by £35 a month by cutting out other useless spending 😀

YABU - save for the mortgage it's an extra £15-20 a month
YANBU - kids are only kids once save it within the rent account and make memories

You're assuming that they will refund the balance. They really, really don't like doing it.

It makes sense to give yourself a bit of a buffer in your rent account to allow for any issues with payments/benefits - but not to use it as a replacement for savings.

Forget about saving a little for Christmas. The issue here is that you’re planning on buying a house with someone who you can’t be honest with about a little bit of savings….

Hi OP things sound tight and you sound very sensible. Just checking. If you’re unmarried and saving towards a mortgage with a partner (father of the three DC?) is that savings account in joint names?
Do you both have equal money to spend at your discretion?
Just so fed up of hearing about women who spend every last penny on their families and have a partner who takes advantage of that and builds up their own money.

Some credit unions still offer Christmas saving accounts where it's a bit harder to dip in to the money. Eg https://justcreditunion.org/savings/christmas-savings-account/

Yours is a clever way of doing it cause you can't withdraw if you're struggling but savings mor sensible really!

I would put £25 a month in premium bonds. The odds are tiny on that amount but when I've been in a place where I could only put away a little a month I loved the chance of winning a bit and imagining winning £1million!

You won't get loads of interest on that amount so you're not missing much

Putting in your own savings is better than chasing your HA for a refund in December 🙂 I have a mondo account u use just for the pots to save for different things x

This is what I thought, you might be tempted to use it. Perhaps open a savings account in another bank and don’t get a cash card?

Thanks to all the replies some great suggestions. I have used Park for years for some Xmas bits, just wanted some extra cash to do things i did as a kid. To take 5 of us ice skating or to the panto isn't a cheap treat.
Apologies to all the housing officers that have commented saying its a headache

I think I'd open a new saving account and put what ever I was going to overpay on the rent into that instead.

Some banks have a ‘Save the Change’ option. Every time I spend on my debit card, the amount is rounded up to the nearest £ and put into a basic savings account. Example, I spend £4.49, 51p is saved, rounding up to £5. I’d never make the effort to save a few pence here and there, and I don’t miss it.

I also overpay the gas and electric, so we don’t have to worry about big bills in the winter months.

If you specifically want to take your DCs to the panto, our local theatre has released panto tickets for next year to buy on lay-by. So you reserve your tickets and pay for them over the year. Might be worth seeing if your theatre does the same.

Otherwise definitely open a savings account and earn some interest on your money.

That's a good idea by the theatre.

We tend to buy panto tickets at some point during the year so that the panto cost isn't coming at the same time as Christmas presents etc

I do the park christmas vouchers, i do enough to cover christmas present, food and drink. You can change the amount across the year so say you order £1000 of vouchers but then decide later in the year you only want £750 you can change your order. Vouchers are not delivered until November/December. I do half supermarket and half love to shop

Well...theye don't really, do they? They just charge the same amount over 10 payments in stead of 12.

So instead of 12 payments of £100 to a total of £1200, you're paying 10 payments if £120...

It's only because if the bank holidays and they don't want to pay staff...

I save money for Christmas with Park every month. I don't mind you only get back what you put in as it's out of temptations way to dip into.

Haven’t read all the thread but just wanted to say how much I admire your saving every penny to give your kids a nice Christmas- you sound like a lovely mum.

Only by £8.40!

I can see the appeal of prepaid things like Park, but a regular saver also locks your money away for a year and gains interest, which is nice for Christmas.

I used to work for a HA and only a month's credit was allowed, so this may work for you? But we didn't allow more than that to safeguard against money laundering/people hiding money.

They're not rent holidays, you've just paid your rent over the other 50 weeks. Not all tenancies are like this and it is tenancy specific, not housing association specific.

Sounds like you want a way of saving some money for your children so that your DP won't know about it. The same DP who doesn't contribute to the rent of the house he lives in. I don't think you should have to hide wanting to have some money to have nice experiences with your children. Are they his children too? Whose name are the mortgage savings in?

Not if the OP is saving it from her own personal ‘disposable’ money, as she says, from stopping coffees when out.

My HA charged rent 52 weeks year. I am now with the council, they charge rent over 48 weeks, so I ‘get a rent break’ for 2 weeks at Easter and 2 at Christmas.

If you are worried about dipping into it, our local credit union has a Christmas Savings club, you can get your child benefit paid straight to them and then allocate some (or all) to your Christmas club. You can’t access it and they send it back to you at the end of November.

If you choose to save only some of it, you can either have the remainder sent straight to you or you can keep it in their normal savings account that you can withdraw from when you want.