Second Time Lucky

amycool · 25 July 2014 at 4:43PM

Hi,

Having got very close to becoming mortgage-free (about £8000 remaining) on our first house, we will soon be moving into the house that we intend to live in for a very long time, which means taking on another mortgage.

I have really enjoyed reading everyone's diaries over the past few years and think it will be motivational to record our progress once we move in and start to overpay. I expect it will be incredibly dull to read for others so I hope nobody minds me taking up internet space.

Background - a little about me

My husband and I have been together since we were teenagers but we don't really share the same financial opinions. He is very laid-back with money and will spend it if it is there, but he's happy for me to budget how I see fit and trusts my financial decisions. I suspect I could remove £10,000 from the savings account and he wouldn't notice.

I grew up in a household where every penny counted and for a time we relied on government benefits, so since being very little I have been very debt-averse and have always saved.

We have both worked since we were 15 and during university we lived with OH's parents. Things didn't go quite to plan with my career due to illness so we stayed there rather longer than planned, but they very kindly allowed us to live rent-free as we were saving for a deposit.

In Spring 2011 we bought our first home with a large deposit from our savings. The plan was to stay here for 5 years and pay off the mortgage (OH was still training when we bought but is now qualified and employed) but we realised we didn't want to keep waiting to have children and we wanted to move somewhere bigger first.

The Mortgage

Our new mortgage will be £70000 on a 2 year fix at 2.64%.
Monthly payments are £500.

The short-term plan

The house needs work but we want to get into the habit of overpaying and knock a nice chunk off before we have children (hoping to adopt next year) so the initial plan is:

50% of anything left over to overpayments
50% to be split between various savings pots
Aim for a £10,000 emergency pot

Having been mega-frugal for a very long time I'm quite bad at spending money and if left to my own devices I would probably cut back on everything and overpay as much as I can. However, I'd quite like a nice house and the occasional holiday so by choosing 50% I can't go overboard.

Of course we might uncover all manner of things at the new house so I'm not setting a figure to aim for at the moment. Once we have moved in and worked out how much it will cost to run I will have a better idea.

The long-term plan

To be mortgage-free by the time we are 40 :j

amycool · 26 July 2014 at 2:02PM

I spent a lot of time yesterday thinking about vegetable growing. One of the plans for the new house is to take advantage of the south facing front garden and make a little plot. The neighbours have very tidy and neat gardens so ideally it will be a fairly pretty vegetable plot!

I started reading a book (free on the kindle) about square foot gardening and it sounds perfect! Instead of digging the whole thing over as planned, which would have taken weeks, the idea is to create a 4ftx4ft (or 4ftx8ft if we have enough room) raised bed, split it with string into 1ftx1ft squares, and then plant something different in each square. We'll never grow enough that we don't need to shop, but if we could grow the more expensive things we might eventually save a little money. It'll also be lovely to be able to pick it and cook it the same day.

Cost-wise, I've just been chatting to my MiL who has a number of raised beds, and she knows a man selling scaffolding planks for about £4 each. We want to make it double the depth and I'm not sure how long they are but even if they're very short, we're looking at less than £50 for a 4'x8'. The big cost will probably be the compost. It's suggested that you use a third perlite (just looked at the prices :eek:) a third peat/coir and a third top soil/compost. I'd rather not scrimp on this as obviously the better the soil, the better the veg!

Aside from that we'll need seeds/plants, but I'm hoping we can make the most of having parents in law who have an allotment and get their leftovers.

It's rather exciting learning something new! I'll need to become knowledgeable in companion planting and how to make the most of the plot without it sitting empty.

amycool · 26 July 2014 at 2:18PM

I thought I'd make a list of things we would like to save for over the coming years and hopefully we can tick them off one by one whilst still overpaying.

New boiler - replace the ancient emersion heater and boiler with a modern combi boiler £3000-£4000 (not had a quote yet but seems to be the consensus)
New bathroom - remove the champagne suite with broken taps and shower, the polystyrene ceiling tiles, and the 1970s wall tiles. Re-plaster, electric underfloor heating, tiled floor, half tiled walls and a new white suite £5000-£6500 (really hoping for the lower end but as it'll be with us for many years we want it to be just how we like it)
Double bed - we're leaving ours behind £500 (considered a £170 argos bed but we can save and sleep on the sofabed and get a beautiful antique one)
Bedside cabinets - Ideally something to match the bed £200
Garage roof - remove the asbestos roof, check the stability of the frame, use polycarbon for the less accessible side and have a sedum roof on the other £??? - I would imagine quite pricey if we get someone in to do it
Tumble drier - cannot wait! £200
Solar panels - This might take a while to save for! £7000

I'm sure there will be lots of other things. The boiler is necessary and I decided that as we need to replace the bathroom, we may as well spend a few thousand more to get something we love. I don't generally get excited by bathrooms but if I have to have strangers and mess in the house for a week or two, I need something to make me excited to get through it. :rotfl:

Now we know we're staying put, it's really nice to think about good quality things that will last 30-40 years. And I quite enjoy having to save for things as I enjoy them more when they arrive.

The boiler is already budgeted for and hopefully after all of the fees have been paid we'll be halfway to the bathroom refurbishment.

amycool · 26 July 2014 at 2:51PM

Just done a little research and may have saved a bundle of money in the process!

Instead of spending hundreds of pounds on compost and whatnot, we can build the raised beds and then gradually fill them with kitchen scraps, newspaper, dead leaves etc. This is probably very obvious but it hadn't crossed my mind.

Then a thin layer of compost in the spring and we can still grow a lot of veg that doesn't need a foot or more to grow into in the first year. As we go we can keep topping it up.

Must consider a compost bin and water butt too, but not sure where they would go at the moment.

Thrugelmir · 26 July 2014 at 6:50PM

amycool wrote: »

Now we know we're staying put, it's really nice to think about good quality things that will last 30-40 years. And I quite enjoy having to save for things as I enjoy them more when they arrive.

Few things on your list will last 40 years.

Good quality beds that are well looked after (i.e, regularly turned) are a wise investment. Appearance isn't everything in this regard.

To be mortgage-free by the time we are 40

An admirable objective.

kirstypark · 27 July 2014 at 7:49AM

hi amycool, we built some raised beds from cheap decking and filled them with some topsoil that was going spare at a building site. then just spread 3 bags of compost (3 for a tenner at asda) on top. enough this year to grow things on top. Used tesco vouchers for garden company clubcard deal and got a pile of seeds that way - meant i grew things i had not thought of before.

It's great going into the garden and picking tea.

amycool · 27 July 2014 at 8:47AM

Hi Thrugelmir! Believe it or not, my Mum's tumble drier was 31 years old when it finally died last year!

.

No, I'm not expecting everything to last that long, but I like being able to plan in the long term and invest in quality things knowing we won't be moving out in a few years. The garden particularly excites me as the last two gardens had to be left behind.

Hi kirstypark! It's good to know that it needn't cost a fortune to get going. I remember the excitement of our first corn grown in a pot and cooking it straight away.

Thank you both for posting. I must work out how to subscribe to the diaries I've been reading and get to know a few names.

Got a bit more packing done yesterday. Getting impatient for the house to exchange so I can organise everything. We were told end of July for exchange but that seems highly unlikely at the moment!

Oh well, I can still make some plans for after we have moved.

Thrugelmir · 27 July 2014 at 1:36PM

amycool wrote: »

Hi Thrugelmir! Believe it or not, my Mum's tumble drier was 31 years old when it finally died last year! .

If only things were built like that these days.

amycool · 27 July 2014 at 4:45PM

Thrugelmir wrote: »

If only things were built like that these days.

She hates the new one as it takes 3 times as long to dry things. Jacques Peretti recently made an interesting documentary about companies purposely designing things to break, or making things like iPods almost impossible to fix. I'd much rather have far less choice but know that things are well made.

in_need_of_direction · 27 July 2014 at 6:15PM

Hi Amy, I'm impressed by your plans. Our local council offers two free bags of compost per household that are created through green recycling. I also picked up 50p packets of seeds for mixed leaves from pound stretcher that have been supplementing bought salad for the past month or two.

amycool · 28 July 2014 at 9:23AM

Thanks INOD! I just looked up our local council's compost and sadly no free bags. They do 60 litres for £4 or 180 litres for £9.97 which is about 50% cheaper than our local DIY store. Aldi had loads of veg seeds yesterday but I'm refraining from buying anything until we've moved or I will no doubt lose them all!

Second Time Lucky

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