Wife wants to buy now, I want to wait 5 years+. Advice?

Glen0000

damanpunk wrote: »

Take some pride in the fact your providing for your family.

Why? No one is going to thank me for it! Gordon is all take, take, take. The more you work in this country the harder you are shafted. Me and the wife have talked about emigrating today. The benefit culture is bad enough, but the knives and chavs too. I am really beginning to hate the UK. I am not surprised the Poles are going home.

mvengemvenge

Glen0000 wrote: »

We would like some advice about where to go from here. We are renting at the moment, council house so very cheap rent. Due to an inheritance we have £15k for a deposit/fees. However, we also have £10k of credit card debt. Wife wants to buy within the next year, me not so sure. I would like to wait 5 years or so, pay off the credit cards with the inheritance and save another £15k for a deposit. We are also pretty bad with money, so need to get that under control. Wife thinks that by then house prices will have risen further and a home that is priced £100k now will be out of our reach.

We have £15k saved up, £10k of credit card debt and are looking to buy a home worth around £100k. I earn £35k, wife earns £7k, 1 dependant child. Would we even get a mortgage on these figures?

How can I convince the wife to wait or is waiting a silly idea? In 5 years time what is a £100k house likey to be worth?

As someone else said, I would wait about 2-3 years and get your money under control in the meantime. At least then you can see how the market stands. Some economists have said it might be 10 years before house prices recover.

jm28cardiff

42k and a council house, my heart bleeds for you. This really is a !!!!!! country for allowing the terrible situation you are in to happen.

You wont emigrate. Get yourself on the debt free wannabe section, cut your costs. Im sure people would say 400 on groceries could be cut down for starters.

Bromley86

Glen0000 wrote: »

Why? No one is going to thank me for it! Gordon is all take, take, take. The more you work in this country the harder you are shafted. Me and the wife have talked about emigrating today. The benefit culture is bad enough, but the knives and chavs too. I am really beginning to hate the UK. I am not surprised the Poles are going home.

All fair points, although you're benefiting from those high taxes. Stay where you are.

Without going through your budget, I can see that you could spend a lot less on Sky/BB/phone. No sports though .

itzmee

Glen0000 wrote: »

Not really? Wish I had the secret to have you all live so cheaply! We are paying about £500 off towards the £10k, £200 for our car, £350 rent, £100 CT, £400 groceries, £130 gas/ electric/ water, £50 sky/BB/telephone. That is my wage pretty much gone. Wife takes home about £500 a month and that has to pay for clothes/entertainment/xmans/birthdays/school trips. £500 is not a lot left to manage on. Child benefit is saved for our daughters future and not part of the pot.

£10k has been run up over about 4 years. We overspend about £400 a month, soon adds up.

I know. It has to stop, but all very depressing. The thought of scrimping and saving forever makes me want to pack in working.

I'm sorry but I have to post on this as your figures seem to be way off. You say that you earn £35k and your wife earns £7k - exactly the same as me and OH. We have around £2600 net coming in each month (not including child benefits or tax credits which, like you, I also put aside in a savings account). Your monthly outgoings listed above total £1730, so excluding your wife's salary you should have an extra £300 - £400 that you are not accounting for (OH comes out with around £2100 per month on £35k salary). Our total monthly outgoings are pretty much the same as yours but we pay a mortgage of £600 (so yes it is possible to get a mortgage on your salary as OH earned a lot less when we first took out our mortgage 3 years ago - but your debts will probably go against you getting the mortgage). We manage extremely well on £42k per year and have a comfortable (but not extravagant) lifestyle, run a car, have two kids and a mortgage and even have money left over each month to buy a few little luxuries and takeaways. I really don't understand why you are struggling and overspending. I also live in the West Mids and our house is worth around £110k so if we can do it why can't you?

We were in the same housing situation as yourselves before we took on this mortgage where we had an assured housing association house at £300 per month, and tbh if we knew then what we know now we'd have stayed put and not bought. We have poured so much money into this house and are now almost into negative equity. We are just lucky that we have a low fixed rate for 5 years. You have the opportunity to pay off your debts so in theory your lifestyle could be the same as ours. You are both lucky enough to be in work and earning good money jointly. If you do decide to buy a property think it though carefully as it's not all fun and games - and at least you can call the council to do repairs whereas I either have to put up with OH doing his bodge-it impressions or pay a fortune to call in a professional.

damanpunk

Glen0000 wrote: »

Why? No one is going to thank me for it! Gordon is all take, take, take. The more you work in this country the harder you are shafted. Me and the wife have talked about emigrating today. The benefit culture is bad enough, but the knives and chavs too. I am really beginning to hate the UK. I am not surprised the Poles are going home.

The benefits culture is bad yet your living in a council house at £350 a month on a joint income of £42k?

I've never heard so much !!!!!!!!!

TotallyBroke

I suggested earlier about doing a soa. I even gave you the link.
Without doing that you will never know if you can afford the mortgage. SO for your own sanity and your families well being do the soa before commiting to anything.


[/QUOTE]
Not really? Wish I had the secret to have you all live so cheaply! We are paying about £500 off towards the £10k, £200 for our car, £350 rent, £100 CT, £400 groceries, £130 gas/ electric/ water, £50 sky/BB/telephone. That is my wage pretty much gone. Wife takes home about £500 a month and that has to pay for clothes/entertainment/xmans/birthdays/school trips. £500 is not a lot left to manage on. Child benefit is saved for our daughters future and not part of the pot.

£10k has been run up over about 4 years. We overspend about £400 a month, soon adds up.

I know. It has to stop, but all very depressing. The thought of scrimping and saving forever makes me want to pack in working.[/QUOTE]

You are paying double what you need to on groceries. 2 adults 1 child should be able to eat well and healthily for £200 per month. (I personally spend less than that and I am a family of 2 adults and have a child that is still in nappies).
Your gas and electric again is way too high. What council property is it that you have? I live in a 3 bedroom ex council house and I pay £95 per month. I am already 2months in credit. I leave everything on standby and have terrible draughty windows. So if I were you I would consider checking the amounts and changing supplier via a cashback site.

Again I will say please do your soa even if it is just for your family to see. Look at bank statements for the past year and write in columns how much you spent on rent, car (insurance, servicing, mot etc), presents (christmas and birthday) then divide this by 12 and that is what you should be saving each month ready for when you need it.

whathavewedone

Okay I'm starting to lose sympathy now.

What a terrible country we live in that you get to live in a house at a subsidised rent on a joint income of 42k.

I am no fan of GB but the only person to blame for living beyond your means is you.

Our joint income is 50k. We have a mortgage of 311k (interest only). Works out at £1400 per month. We have no debts, no loans, no credit cards and manage to heat our house etc, pay all our other bills and feed ourselves and our two children (still in nappies) without going overdrawn. In fact we have enough saved to pay our mortgage for 18 months if we had to.

I am worried about the future. I had planned to stay at home until the kids were at school but now have interviews lined up for the new year. I will be working to pay childcare initially but reckon that if I go back now I will be in a better position than I would be if I was looking for work in 3 years time after 5 years out of the job market.

Don't just sit there moaning. Do something. Accept that you are spending way too much and take the advice people have given you and bother to find out if you could cut down on groceries/get your gas and electricity cheaper/see if the missus can get a better paid job/see if you can get a second job - the possibilities are endless.

Alternatively you can just carry on saying woe is us, make excuses and stay where you are and get deeper into debt. After all thanks to this terrible country if you do just that what's the worst that can happen?

I think it's a bit rich that you're moaning about benefit scum without a shred of awareness of the fact that there are people earning a lot less than you two, with more children who have to rent privately because they're not entitled to a council house. How do they manage?

Stop being such a spoilt baby. Either poo in the potty or get off.

Glen0000

itzmee wrote: »

. Your monthly outgoings listed above total £1730, so excluding your wife's salary you should have an extra £300 - £400 that you are not accounting for

I have £350ish that goes into my pension.

itzmee wrote: »

We were in the same housing situation as yourselves before we took on this mortgage where we had an assured housing association house at £300 per month, and tbh if we knew then what we know now we'd have stayed put and not bought.

Best advive I have read on here. From the horses mouth so to speak.

shaven-monkey

[quote=Glen0000]£400 groceries.[/quote]

Wife takes home about £500 a month and that has to pay for clothes/entertainment/xmans/birthdays/school trips. £500 is not a lot left to manage on. Child benefit is saved for our daughters future and not part of the pot.

We overspend about £400 a month

Stop eating;
Alternatively, cut down on new clothes, xmans, entertainment, luxuries.

a Luxury is anything that you don't need to live. What the heck, emigrate, if you can't cope with basic maths on an income of £42k then you're going to go bankrupt whatever country you live in.

This message brought you you by bitterness and sleep deprivation.