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

jungli_jim

Glen0000 wrote: »

It is really hard to get this over to the wife. Take her sister. Single mum,3 kids. Earns £5k. Lives in a lovely 3 bed new house, private rent. Like a show home. Sister is out every weekend, 2 hoildays a year as well as the Radley bags and designer gear. Also had her boobs done on the tick 8 months ago. Yes, she has £20k of debt, but she is not the one in the council house with a 10 yr old sofa and no social life. Wife see this and think, why can we not live that way? Sister does not appear to be suffering. I see many, many examples of this and despite the crys of recession, the 3 friends of DD who got iphones for Christmas make me feel like crap as she got a £30 game as her main gift. The party is still not over for a lot of people and until it is I will have a hard time convincing the wife.

Sound like my ex, she had over £500 a month going into her bank account with no bills other than her own spending to cover. She managed to accrue debts of over £7500 in 2 years, with nothing to show for it.....that's why she's now the ex.
As for my kids they have everyhting they could wish for WII, Nintendo DS each, but never get taken out for a day in the country or a holiday.........always on the maybe.

leveller2911

Hey guys, just my penneth worth, seems to be a general gripe on this thread regarding cheap rents with HA and Councils..Yes rents are cheaper, we have been renting a HA house for 15yrs, in that time we have paid more than double the "build cost" of the houses and so I believe every penny we now pay is (should)be going towards building more cheap housing..

Would also like to point out I have 1st hand experience of a lot of "home owners" getting council grants to renovate there houses, even know of people who own houses,inherit another house,put it in daughters names,apply for grants and get renovated ...re-roofed,all re-plastered,new bathrooms,kitchen,new floors and Joinery made Hardwood windows,all for nothing ..so please guys lay off the "LOW rent " gibe......many thanks :beer:

leveller2911

Glen0000 wrote: »

. There is not even the evidence of a crash where we live, prices are very slowly coming down, but not much. As for the credit crunch, I have just been to Asda and the place was heaving. If people have less money to spend they are cetianly not showing it.

Same here, prices not dropped off,in fact houses up for £198,000 9 months ago now up for £215,000 .....(some idiot will buy it too,lol)..

Glenn, seems we have a bit in common, think the BUZZ word is frustration,,other people have so much debt,live for today ,bankrupt tomorrow and they dont seem to care,lie,cheat etc.....It is hard when you slug ur guts out ,like we all do and you just cant see any progress.

We have £27k saved up for a deposit,, £0 debts , cheapest houses still £195k within a 30 mile radius(and no cant move out of area,own business)......:beer: HAPPY NEW YEAR ,:beer:

gt94sss2

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've just read this thread and if I'm right, you earn 42k and pay only £350/month rent.

Even then, you manage to overspend about £400 a month - though thats partly explained by paying £500 towards your £10,000 on cards @ an expensive 17.9% APR!

As such, I would use 10k of your inheritance to pay off your credit cards. This would immediately save you the £500/month and bring your monthly spending (just!) within your monthly salary - and leave you with £5,000 in savings you can eventually use towards a deposit.

I would then complete a SoA and see where else you can save money in your budget without affecting your lifestyle (energy bills etc).

I think house prices are going to go down for the next year or so - but regardless of what happens.. have you considered that if you get a mortgage now and it costs more than £350.month that you currently pay in rent then you will be 'overspending' again each month if you don't make savings elsewhere in your monthly spending.. -n and if you don't pay off the 10k the overspend will be even larger!

After paying off the cards, I would use the next year or two to build up your deposit..

Regards
Sunil

buckethead_2

Pay off you card and live within your means...I manage to get by on a 30k salary with one child and a wife who doesnt work or receive benefits and our mortgage is 200k...cut down shopping to £200 a month that shd be easy, cut out buying lunch at work take it with you, cut out the sky you dont need it, sell the cars and buy 2nd hand ones and the finance is gone..its not hard if you budget properly, there is NO EXCUSE why you should be struggling and its an abomination how you are in a council house when there are people out there who really need it

Shazwellyn

Kez100 wrote: »

No idea what houses will be worth in 5 years, things are moving daily at the moment.

What you do need to do though is get your spending under control. Paying off credit cards is brilliant but because you have come into money it hasn't actually taught you anything - if you know what I mean.

So, pay them off (check their rates versus savings rates less any tax first), put rest into savings somewhere and do a budget. Learn to live witin your means and save towards a deposit. Before you own a home you need to get finances under control IMO.

Kez is right... but what about buying your council house? Is this a possibility? Check out how much better off you might be with a mortgage vs rent? Just a thought....

Glen0000

buckethead wrote: »

Pay off you card and live within your means...I manage to get by on a 30k salary with one child and a wife who doesnt work or receive benefits and our mortgage is 200k...cut down shopping to £200 a month that shd be easy, cut out buying lunch at work take it with you, cut out the sky you dont need it, sell the cars and buy 2nd hand ones and the finance is gone..its not hard if you budget properly, there is NO EXCUSE why you should be struggling and its an abomination how you are in a council house when there are people out there who really need it

Sounds like you are managing!!!! http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=17126701#post17126701 Pot..kettle?

whathavewedone

Council grants for people with their own properties? Really? Can you provide a link to support this? If that's really the case then why doesn't everyone do it?

Gazella77

whathavewedone vbmenu_register("postmenu_17192009", true); yes there are some grants around but it very much depends on your area, I live on the border of two counties, in the neighbouring one it does happen as they have money to spend in mine nothing happens so I think it really depends where you live.

I tried to do sth about the damp and black stuff growing on my walls but they have no grants on offer and they recon there won't be any for a long time and the waiting list would be enough for about 8 years!
And I enquired as my financial situation changed v much and I've got a small baby who's having problems (seems like begining of asthma :-( )

Many of you referred to SoA, may sound naive but what's that? I go most of the time to mortgage links as this is what worries me so didn't spend much time on other boards. Thanks

Gazella77

Oh, just followed the link Glen posted buckethead's situation (wow that was surpising) and found out what SoA is and the link to it so no need to bother you guys;-)