The Ultimate Incentive to get debt free… again. Dinah & NIM go head to head!

clearmydebts

Wow - epic post Dinah. It's brilliant that you had a lovely weekend, sounds very relaxing and great that the weather was so good too.

I hope NIM gets over his homesickness quickly. OH always feels a bit off when we come back but I wouldn't say he is homesick like me. Just a bit thrown for a few days. He is only moving back to Ireland because I want to.

My advice would be to stay put if you are hoping to have a family in the short-term future. You will need your Mum more than ever then and it wouldn't be good to be isolated in another country.

I am totally with you about having a nice house. The flat we rent is beautiful but I am having serious issues about wanting to nest but not being able to do up a nursery etc.

There is a house up for sale that belongs to a deceased relative of mine. It is very cheap but has potential. It needs to be totally done up though. The problem is that it is not in the town we want (although it is 10 mins away by car). Part of me would like to buy it, do it up and sell in 4 years.

Another part of me says just move to the town I want but to afford a house there would take another 3 years of saving and 3 years rental down the drain.

I know we couldn't afford the 1st house just yet either but we could probably buy it within a year of moving there. Decisions decisions - head or heart. Nesting or renting???

Dinah93

Tbh with a family I'd probably nest and move in a few years, in our position now I'd rent as without children I think its a little less important to own your own bricks and mortar. Not to say they can't be happy and comfortable in rented, just that there is that little bit of extra piece of mind usually. I left an 'Irish economy' type post on your thread - depending on your feelings on that would alter things I guess - for Limerick I'd say rent as the consensus everywhere is prices have still got a long way to fall, but Dublin may be in a different boat. I feel really, really guilty for hoping prices in Limerick do fall further, but I'd love to be able to buy a little repo in the country in a few years, have it as a holiday rental where we could go and stay a few weeks every summer and make us a few pennies the rest of the time.

clearmydebts

Dinah93 wrote: »

Tbh with a family I'd probably nest and move in a few years, in our position now I'd rent as without children I think its a little less important to own your own bricks and mortar. Not to say they can't be happy and comfortable in rented, just that there is that little bit of extra piece of mind usually. I left an 'Irish economy' type post on your thread - depending on your feelings on that would alter things I guess - for Limerick I'd say rent as the consensus everywhere is prices have still got a long way to fall, but Dublin may be in a different boat. I feel really, really guilty for hoping prices in Limerick do fall further, but I'd love to be able to buy a little repo in the country in a few years, have it as a holiday rental where we could go and stay a few weeks every summer and make us a few pennies the rest of the time.

I think the prices will fall another way yet. In the area of Dublin where we could buy the cheap house we would be better off buying than renting (by about €200 a month). The houses in the next town are about €150,000 more so quite a bit.

The repo idea sounds great! OH has land at his parents and I would like to build an eco/huff (way cheaper version) there in a few years and do the same thing!

wendz86

Glad that you enjoyed Ireland on the whole, sounds like it was a nice getaway.

I agree with CMD that when you start a family you will want to be near your family. Wish my Mum was nearer. She nearly came up this weekend as i was feeling a bit ill bless her.

Sounds a bit awkward about the holiday money. Do you think your Mum now can't afford to pay towards your travel etc? Would be better if you knew what the situation was.

CMD - we have the same with our flat. My sister has moved out now (although most her stuff is still here) and haven't done anything to spare room to make into a nursery as we rent. Would be lovely to have one.

Dinah93

Its a good thing they already own the land - apparently they've finally decided now is the time to stop everyone building their own house where they like. NIMs dad just got permission to build a house - in the field next to NIMs mum! He doesn't think he'll do it though as for a few reasons (he doesn't like the country and there is a condition that he must live there 3 years) it doesn't really suit him, he just wanted to keep his options open.

Birdie85

Dinah93 wrote: »

Why did you go to the tight 'friend''s house Birdie?! Stay strong life's too short to be bored on a Saturday night.

The friends who we went to see first had already said that they'd go and they're rubbish liars so couldn't get out of it! For us it was a case of going home or carrying onto the tight's house and hoping for the best. They did say after 30 minutes, 'Why the hell are we here?' though! Totally agree that life's too short, we only get 52 Saturday nights a year, I'm annoyed that I've wasted one!

Good to hear that you had a nice time in Ireland, when NIM said it was interesting I was expecting a shocking Mammy NIM story!

Sounds really weird about your mum not being upfront about the holiday, think you might need to squeeze a little more out of her, I know I wouldn't be too happy to find out that it's suddenly going to cost me more than I thought, the sooner you find out the better!

CMD, that house plan sounds like a good one, 10 minutes in the car is nothing (say's she who's used to driving 30 minutes every time I want to pop round to my parents' or brother's!) and at least you'll own somewhere so you can put your stamp on it. It all depends on how much it'll cost to do up though? I suppose that once you get over there you can check all options out and make the best choice for your family

Dinah93

wendz86 wrote: »

Sounds a bit awkward about the holiday money. Do you think your Mum now can't afford to pay towards your travel etc? Would be better if you knew what the situation was.

Maybe, although I said at the time I thought it was unfair that my brother and gf were expecting mum and dad to pay when my bf and I paid for our travel to the family holiday when we were younger than they are. End of the day we wouldn't have said yes to the holiday on these terms (or we'd have flown and left the brother and gf to make their own way) and I don't like the possibility we could be trapped and not able to pay and I don't get how clamming up about money helps anyone!

Made the decision - cheap carpet for the lounge it is. Need to pay off the debt and we're not looking to move atm now anyway. Dad has said there is only a days work left on the lounge and he'll do it this month if we want, so it would be fantastic to get it all done and stop living like squatters in our own home.

Going to have an ebay week this week, get lots of bits listed to raise some France/New York funds (and maybe carpet funds if we're lucky). Thanks to NIMs dads generosity our shortfall for New York/France spends and costs is down to about £1000 - I also sold a £50 piece of software yesterday, and we have about another £40 of bids on ebay on the 6 things up on there, so I'm quietly confident we'll get there.

Birdie85

The ebaying sounds like it's going well!

Glad that you'll have a decent living room soon too... please say you're going to see Frank at Frank's Factory Flooring?!

Cinny91

Dinah93 wrote: »

Pain is rarely a primary symptom though, it's more aches and itching rather than strong pain. Exhaustion, weakness and sleeping a lot more are all big factors. Hopefully it's a bug or something though that he can get shifted. Dr Google always diagnoses the worst.

See, he has all these. The pain in his hands is the worse, and the one he mentions most as he can't do anything. He's also complained of his joints aching 'all over' and said there's pain on his legs and back too. Said he tried sitting with some hot water bottles behind his back but couldn't get over the mental image of them popping so had to scrap that idea! Actually, now you mention itching I remember him saying yesterday his hands so feel better if he gives them a scratch? He's sleeping constantly - was snoozing when I got there and straight after dinner fell back to sleep and was still sleeping when I left. I hope it's some very weird bug too and it will just go away with the right treatment, but now I have this CFS in my head I'm going to be pinning it to that!

Glad Ireland was good on the whole, I was worried Mamma NIM was going to be a total nightmare! But it seems like even if she was, the good outweighed that this time

Good call on the cheap carpet. To be honest, we have the cheapest carpets in our house and they're not that bad at all. We don't have any underlay though (my Uncle is very tight!) So I can feel most lumps and bumps of the floor boards. IF we manage to get the money over the Mini I want to re-carpet the living room and our bedroom.

I hate to sound sexist but I think it's more important - maybe just emotionally wise - for the girl to have her family around. I love OH's family to bits and class them as my own but I know I wouldn't cope very well without my families support even if OH's gave me every ounce of support they could muster. I'd miss my Sister too much if I was to move far away - I don't know how I'm going to cope when she goes away for 3 months (another bonus of money over mini, I could go visit her! I'm really wavering now)

A little off topic for today, and I don't know if I've mentioned it but we're getting double glazing which means we won't freeze this Winter! Yay! I don't think I've ever been, or ever will be this excited over glass. Which means, if any of you ladies on here have single glazing windows I might have some double glazing film going wanting?

Dinah93

Birdie85 wrote: »

The ebaying sounds like it's going well!

Glad that you'll have a decent living room soon too... please say you're going to see Frank at Frank's Factory Flooring?!

Noooo Franks is expensive compared to where we're going - this place has cut overheads so low they only have every 3rd light switched on!

Birdie85 wrote: »

Good to hear that you had a nice time in Ireland, when NIM said it was interesting I was expecting a shocking Mammy NIM story!

Its for NIM to choose how much he shares about Mother NIM. All I will say is that as ever she engineered things her way, he wasn't going to see her so she showed up unannounced and then spoke to him alone after saying she wanted to speak to both of us. If I could opt out I would.

Cinny91 wrote: »

Glad Ireland was good on the whole, I was worried Mamma NIM was going to be a total nightmare! But it seems like even if she was, the good outweighed that this time

Good call on the cheap carpet. To be honest, we have the cheapest carpets in our house and they're not that bad at all. We don't have any underlay though (my Uncle is very tight!) So I can feel most lumps and bumps of the floor boards. IF we manage to get the money over the Mini I want to re-carpet the living room and our bedroom.

A little off topic for today, and I don't know if I've mentioned it but we're getting double glazing which means we won't freeze this Winter! Yay! I don't think I've ever been, or ever will be this excited over glass. Which means, if any of you ladies on here have single glazing windows I might have some double glazing film going wanting?

We've gone for cheap carpet but great underlay (very, very reduced though!) in the rooms we've already done. It makes it a lot warmer and more comfy too!

Hope you get the mini sorted soon, I'm sure Hovis will come through just might take a while.

I've always been pretty ambilalent to double glazing, but I'm now really anti-it (I know, odd thing to be anti!) Please turn away now if you are offended by double glazing rants! The u-values are not hugely increased, but on older buildings it reduces their breathability which they need and you get issues with moisture retention within the walls, damp, condensation on the walls etc. Also double glazing has only a 3% increase in thermal efficiency over well fitted and maintained single glazing - it is poor maintenance leading to gaps that cause drafts. Double glazing is not allowed to advertise on heat retention unless they use phrases like 'old badly fitted' or 'old badly maintained' because they don't actually increase the heat retention enough - what they do reduce is noise and thats why early double glazing advertised using that feather - there were no drafts and you can't hear buses on the main road, but it didn't nessisarily mean you were warmer than getting the traditional sash windows restored at 1/3 of the price. Okay, rant over. I apologise, but I have to spend a lot of my time writting guidance notes on replacement windows and the myths going around about them make me cry. Did you know the cost of installing upvc double glazing means it would take a whopping 120 years to recoup the cost of installation on a standard family home in heat savings? I know if existing windows are rotten and poorly maintained you need to do something, but it generally costs around £200-350 per window to get them completely renovated and people often aren't even aware of this option. Guess my rant in fact wasn't over. Really sorry!