The Scariest Thing I Have Ever Done....

Thank you all for your support and tips so far! I'm really excited to be on the journey!

Thank you also Stuart! I had completely forgotten about Council Tax free months, and am now factoring them into the spreadsheet I have already created today to really kick off my budget planning - early win! Hurrah!!!! That's also money I save on my rented house while we wait to exchange that can go straight into savings for my first OP's!

From the legal perspective, I'm already exploring my options with my solicitor for a variety of scenarios. Given my husband has previously divorced and has maintenance commitments, one of the key things that I have been thinking about for quite some time is ensuring his ex has no right to use the money I'm putting into my property to increase her claims to his income - particularly as he has no funds to put towards a deposit on the house, and won't be able to help contribute significantly to the overpayments on the mortgage. Given the mortgage and the property will be in my sole name, I do need to discuss with my solicitor what legal things I need to put in place to ensure its captured that the property is mine, and mine alone. I'm already thinking that, should I die, that I need to explore how to put the property into trust (or something along those lines) until his maintenance commitments to his ex wife come to an end so she also can't try to grab anything from the property if that happens (yes, unfortunately she's that sort!). I also need to ensure I'm fully protected in the event of his death, so a proportion of the house can't be viewed as his estate even though he pays a contribution to the bills. Whatever I can get in place, I hope, will also cover off what would happen in the event of us not having a "happily ever after" ending!!!

If anyone has been through this before, and has any advice to lend, I would greatly appreciate it!!!

That aside, I also started really analysing my finances today, using my spend across different categories over the course of the last 6 months to work out where I can make cuts. I'm fully aware my last 12 months has been frivolous, to say the least, and even before I put the offer in on the house I had decided this year was going to be my own personal "year of austerity".

As a starting point, I looked at bills that I was paying on my current house - it's a very similar size to the new property I'll be buying so I've used that as a proxy but added 15% to ensure there's a little bit of flex in my "necessary" spending budget.

So far I have worked out my necessary expenditure based on my existing bills plus my new mortgage value (which is slightly higher than my current rent):

Mortgage: £2,600
Pet Insurance: £75
Life Insurance: £36
Council Tax: £260
Car Tax: £19.68
Mobile Phone: £50
Home Insurance: £100 (estimated, as currently I have to pay £250 a month for contents only because our rented house is on a flood plain and only one company would insure us!!!)
Debt Repayments: £800 (<1 year remaining, really good rate, and will be paid off soon, possibly in March if things go according to plan)
Sky TV: £91 ( TV, Internet & phone)
Car Insurance: £50
Petrol: £40
Groceries: £400
Work travel: £130
Prescriptions: £20

PHEW................

Shocked to also have discovered, when going through everything, that I have five direct debits going out that I have NO idea what they're for!!!! All of which total over £100 per month, which could clearly be better utilised! My report writing this afternoon will therefore be delayed until after I have found out, and cancelled them

Its quite clear from looking at the "necessary" spend, that actually there's a lot of savings I can make there already, which can contribute to my OP fund. As a starting point, that Sky bill could do with some serious shaving down, and I know the Grocery bill is only so high because it includes £200 a month on cigarettes. Any recommendations for e-cigarettes would be gladly welcomed, as my "year of austerity" has no space any more for setting fire to money when this could be added to my monthly OP fund - and naturally there are health benefits too!!!!

As for the rest of my "unnecessary" spending, my goodness what a surprise. I'm actually more than slightly ashamed of myself, if I'm completely honest. I'm not going to post the actual average number here, because I am already suitably humiliated and shocked at myself, and don't need to send the rest of you into early heart attacks at the figure.......

So, where does this leave me with my OP fund plan? I need to be realistic and recognise that there will be some spending beyond the "strictly necessary" spend, but I'll be setting myself a stern limit on what this is going to be each month and will be monitoring how I spend my money closely going forward (and will now be beating myself up if I exceed this limit!). I do need to recoup some of my savings so my emergency fund is replenished, so I think my initial starting target for my OP per annum will be £12,000 from the date the mortgage is taken out. After that, I may be able to increase the OP amount each month. Looking at the calculator though, if I can repay that extra each month, it would save me over £200K in interest :eek: , and cut my mortgage term by over 13 years.... That would mean paying off my mortgage in just 18 years, even without increasing my OP's after the first 12 months.

Now THERE is an incentive if I ever saw one! I'm going to print that number out and stick it on my fridge... and in my wallet when I get a temptation to buy something from the "unnecessary spend" budget!!!!

So, my initial plan is in place, now to create some more spreadsheets to keep track of everything and keep myself on target!!!!

Sue, thanks for the advice! I have actually just opened a new savings account called "Smoking Savings" I'm going to put the money in there, so I can visually see how much I save each week when I log into my bank account! I think having that there will help with the incentive! Off to research e-cigs now....! Let me know if you have any recommendations!


Thanks also freshcotton! Will certainly be reviewing the Sky package and seeing what we can trim out. I was half tempted to get rid of all the bolt ons with the exceptions of hubby's sports, but am thinking I need to test the water out with the kids before I do that - I don't want a riot on my hands too!!!!!!


The house is fine to move into as it currently stands. There's lots that we want to do, but we're planning to do that over time, rather than in the short term. Once the emergency fund is topped up, then we can start saving for things like replacing the kitchen etc. Nothing that needs to be done now, apart from repainting the kids bedrooms (which I'm hoping will occupy them enough that they won't notice which channels I have cancelled on Sky )

Insurance is one I'll definitely take another look at. I always get multiple quotes (based on the level of risk I'm happy to tolerate!) and also check price comparison websites when it comes to renewal. The car insurance also includes my breakdown cover, and we get a multi-buy discount - plus I always pay a year upfront to avoid paying any additional interest fees - so I'm relatively happy I am paying fair price given the car that's insured.


The pet insurance I would worry about downgrading having been stung in the past for not realising the difference between renewing cost coverage per condition versus lifetime condition cost coverage. Our chocolate lab had a ruptured cruciate ligament just before Christmas, and the vets fees are now rolling up in excess of 4K - Tesco Pet Insurance wouldn't have covered it. However, if I can get the same kind of cover, cheaper, then I will! I'll explore once the pre-Christmas claim has been paid back!


Life insurance is one I haven't looked at since I took it out, so will need to take a refresher on that. I would be loathe to cancel it completely though, as that would more than pay off the mortgage in the event of my death, and my death in service would then provide for my husband and family.


House insurance - I'm pretty sure this will be lower, but I haven't gotten quotes on the new house yet as I'm waiting for at least the valuation and survey to be done before I start exploring that in too much depth!


Phone - that's handset and contract costs. The actual cost of the contract itself is £25, so I just need to check how much handset balance is outstanding and see if I can pay that off in a lump sum to reduce the monthly outgoings.


Sky will definitely be going down - logging in now to find out what I can cancel now without anyone realising


Every little helps!!!!! As do any ideas for reducing the others above further!! Thanks all!