A little home to call my own

JAMIEDODGER · 28 January 2018 at 3:02PM

Hi all, I hope no-one minds me starting a new thread on MFW:)

A bit about me: I am a full-time working mum just approaching her 45th birthday :eek: (how did that happen?) I currently live in a housing association house with my four kids ages 13-21. One is moving out this year and another is planning to move out in 2020 (I am sure the rest will be following suit a few years later).

I have no debt at all

I am currently saving a fair whack per month, a big percentage of which goes straight in my pension. I have just started saving towards a house. I will never be able to afford to buy a house where I currently live (south coast - a tiny one bed flat here is 130k minimum) and so I am looking to move to a low cost of living area somewhere in the UK:D

I am quite fortunate that I work in care and there are jobs everywhere so I am not forced to look in one particular area, so will be setting my sights on somewhere up north or perhaps Wales, not really sure as yet. I will be looking for a small 2 bed terraced house, not fussed about a garden as such, quite happy with a yard.

Travel features pretty heavily in my future plans, so the potential to rent it out maybe while I do some slow travel could be on the cards too.

My goal is pretty huge, for me anyway. I am going to aim to save £50000 within the next 6 years :eek: (£45k, plus £5k fees/costs etc). This is to buy a house outright in cash, so effectively by-passing the mortgage completely :eek: (so instead of saving to get a mortgage, I will be saving to be mortgage free):j I am not adverse to buying a fixer-upper as I have plenty of skills in that area, there is also the potential to buy at auction. This is my starting target, which I will adjust as necessary as time goes on (house price increases etc)

The aim is to put away £625 (minimum) each month for the next 6 years by savvy spending and doing all the usual stuff (cashback, ebay, coupons, stoozing, grocery challenge and many more...) while still paying a decent amount into my pension.

Once I have bought a place, then I will be chucking everything into my pension so I can retire as early as possible.

The kids are all behind me on this, and those that are working have their own healthy pots of savings and dreams of their own:) Those that are not yet working still have savings too, and none of my kids has any debt, or any intention to get any:D (proud mum moment).

So anyhoo, feel free to comment and follow my journey to a little home of my own as a mortgage free wanabee (just not in the conventional sense:D)

JD x

JAMIEDODGER · 28 January 2018 at 3:35PM

Ok so straight off the starting block, I have looked over my budget for the next month on YNAB and am just waiting for the last few transaction to clear my account for this month, so I can update my save 12k in 2018 total and my house fund total for January.

Back to work tomorrow, and just waiting to see if the contract at my current placement will be renewed for another two months. It's not a problem if it isn't as there is always plenty of work around with my agency, however, I like the hours where I currently am, so it would suit me to stay put for another few months:)

List of jobs to get done before the end of the day:

Book grooming for the dog
Tackle ironing pile
Cook roast
Check anniversary date for switching bank account
Prep lunchboxes for tomorrow
Complete pension transfer form
Plan stuff to do during half term (have a week off:))
Menu plan for weds - tues using up as much as I can from cupboards

Not too bad a list:)

JD x

Indebted2U · 28 January 2018 at 4:15PM

Wow Jamiedodger that is what I call a plan & an interesting way of going about it. Just wondered would it be possible to buy somewhere when you have say 50% of your total, rent it out and get someone else to effectively pay the mortgage to allow you to get back to increasing the pension pot? I don't know if this is an option with your location or current housing association status? Oh & well done on instilling money saving in the kids from an early age.

JAMIEDODGER · 28 January 2018 at 4:47PM

Hey Indebted, thanks for replying:)

As the place I will be looking to buy will most likely be 5+ hours drive from where I currently live, I would be reluctant to be that far away from a BTL.

However, I would not rule out anything at this point:) I am not in any hurry to move yet because of the ages of my kids, but would certainly be thinking that once my youngest reaches about 20 in 6 years time, I would be able to make the jump and move away.

Contributing to my pension is high on my list of priorities, which is why I am trying to strike the balance between saving for a house and paying as much as I can into my SIPP:)

Six years is a long time and lots could happen to change my plans in that time, so I will be doing a six monthly review to make sure I am in step with any changes and going in the right direction - small paid off house and early retirement:)

JD x

Indebted2U · 28 January 2018 at 6:36PM

Hi JD

I love the idea of having the house paid off and an early retirement. My better half and I are considering just how we can achieve the same

We're also looking at our first BTL. Like you, we have the skills to do it up ourselves but are also a bit nervous, as we'll never afford anything in our area and our work means we're stuck in the SE for now. I'm hopefully going to be semi retired in the next year so would have a lot more time to do the landlord bit

We also really need to try and pay off our current house as quickly as we can but we've got 4 years of a good fix left that has horrendous overpayment clauses, so I like your idea of just saving everything we can then paying off a good chunk when we switch mortgage :T I need to look into where's best to stash the cash we save. What are you considering using?

JAMIEDODGER · 28 January 2018 at 7:42PM

Indebted,

At the moment my house fund money is in Funding Circle, I am just waiting for my invitation to open the new IF ISA, then I will transfer the money into that. When the amount gets bigger, I may consider a second S&S Isa, but for now I am happy where it is and the interest rate:)

My pension money is in a mixture of SIPP, S&S Isa, work pension and Foresters Friendly Tax Free savings account.
List of jobs to get done before the end of the day:

[STRIKE]Book grooming for the dog[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Tackle ironing pile[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Cook roast[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Check anniversary date for switching bank account[/STRIKE] June

Have recorded it in my diary:)
[STRIKE]Prep lunchboxes for tomorrow[/STRIKE] - delegated to DS1
Complete pension transfer form
Plan stuff to do during half term (have a week off)
Menu plan for weds - tues using up as much as I can from cupboards

Not doing too badly so far. Currently watching Deadpool and letting my dinner go down:)

newgirly · 28 January 2018 at 9:49PM

Hi and welcome to the mfw board

It a great plan you have and I'm sure you are not the only one on here that has saved instead of getting a mortgage to buy outright. I forget the name of the poster but there was a diary about a lady who bought in Scotland.

Congrataultions raising the kids to be sensible, it's a task in itself nowadays! I've tried to grind my three down with print outs of martins money guides etc. over the years, I hope it has some impact long term :rotfl:

Anyway all the best!

JAMIEDODGER · 29 January 2018 at 6:41AM

Hi newgirly and thanks for visiting my diary:)

I will have to have a look around and see if I can find that diary to give me some motivation:)

It's not easy with todays pressures to raise kids to be money savvy, but I started them very young:D I've been on MSE for a long time and I guess it must have rubbed off on them :rotfl:

Back to work this morning, hope to hear about that contract today:D

To do this week:

Complete pension transfer form
Plan stuff to do during half term (have a week off) - in progress
Menu plan for thurs - weds using up as much as I can from cupboards
Order keyboard for DD
Fill in holiday form for work (thurs)
Find some stuff to ebay

All bar one of my direct debits have now left the account. Why do the last few days of the month drag so much? I also have two small payments due in from Funding Circle on wednesday and then I can update. Finalising my spreadsheets is my favourite time of the month:T

23p Tilly Tidied to house savings this morning:D

Onwards and upwards chums:)

JD x

A_Frayed_Knot · 29 January 2018 at 7:55AM

:hello: Hello Shiny New Diary

Sounds a good plan, very do-able.

I have/had very similar targets to yours - auction/doer upper/time scale.

Coming up to 6 years (next month) since I bought and had I been MSE from the start have no doubt I would be MF by now, however now in my final countdown - 24 months to target date = MF date:j

It's amazing what you can do with focus.

Good Luck.

ps - if you find that diary please let me know as I bought in Scotland too

Greying_Pilgrim · 29 January 2018 at 9:36AM

Hi JAMIEDODGER - the MSE'r who bought a house in Scotland without a mortgage is Frugaldom. Her MFW thread is HERE and if you want more inspiration regarding frugal living, (she's lived on £4k a year for something like 10yrs+), then her blog is HERE.

She pops in occasionally to MFW, but is slightly more active on her thread on the DFW Challenges board HERE

Good luck on your journey.

Greying X

newgirly · 29 January 2018 at 9:50AM

Fantastic, thank you

A little home to call my own

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