Edinburgher gets cracking!

Alchemilla

Great image!

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Goodness, you poor things. You need to sleep. Go and have a nap, please!

edinburgher

7 hours of work to go before any napping I'm afraid Squirrel!

Karmacat

Secret_Saving_Squirrel wrote: »

Goodness, you poor things. You need to sleep. Go and have a nap, please!

Definitely. We used to say, "I could sleep on a string" - at chucking out time at the pubs in Liverpool, there'd be a piece of rope strung between two posts, and the drunks would be hoisted over it, to sleep there. Not many people know that

Ed, I realise you can't actually do that so take care today, be alert while travelling, all that gumph. El, you need to lie down!

edinburgher

In other exciting news, I set myself up for a £7.50 MB while being sleep deprived this morning and celebrated the new tax year by moving 2% of my pension pot into index-linked gilts. It's a crazy crazy crazy crazy world :rotfl:

ljaneyr

Thanks Edinburgher,

I was thinking 6 months too but was really horrified at just how much that works out at :eek:

Guess I've just got to get on with it as we're only about 26% of the way there so far.

Janey

Oh and get some sleep - you're making me feel tired just reading about it!

edinburgher

I was thinking 6 months too but was really horrified at just how much that works out at

Yeah, it's about £12,000 for us, and that's counting essentials (i.e. things that we pay, or they send the bailiffs out!) :eek:

I'm trying to think of it as a gradual project. As it stands, it would be every penny of our spare money for a full year, that's a little rich for my blood.

Lois_E

edinburgher wrote: »

It is lovely and sunny today. Perhaps inspired by books on how money can become a massive PITA, Mrs E and I have been discussing the sorts of homes we've never considered before (i.e. smallish new builds in modern estates). I honestly don't think that we'd miss our gigantic rooms, but are the perks of more rooms, reduced energy bills, less DIY and a garden worth the fact that these homes are typically further away from services, with a bigger commute? Please excuse me, that sentence was never ending :eek:

Suffice to say, there are various new build developments within 5-10 miles of our current flat where we could have a 3 bedroom house and a garden for another £10k or so. Previously we'd always been hung up on the 'better' neighbourhoods, but I'm starting to feel a wee bit like we're thinking like middle aged parents with teenagers, and not a young couple with one baby on the way...

The two big questions are (a) how many kids do you want to have, and (b) how long do you want to stay in your next place before moving again?

If you only ever want the one child, you may be fine in the flat where you are now. If you're planning a brood of half a dozen, you'll need more rooms. If your next property purchase will be a step on the ladder where you only intend to stay 5 years or so, then you'll need to consider primary school catchment, but that's all. If you're looking for a forever home, you'd be foolish not to consider secondary catchment too. Or maybe you're thinking of private schools, in which case you can live anywhere because school catchment won't matter.

Having a garden is most useful when kids are approx primary school age. When they're really little, they can't play outside without you being there watching them, so a nearby park will do. When they're teenagers they don't play in the garden much anyway, and if they want to they can go to the park with their mates. With primary school age kids, though, being able to send them out into your own garden to play safely without you having to watch them is enormously easier than keeping them indoors or taking them out.

edinburgher

Thanks for dropping by Lois.

2-3 (2 more likely)
5-10 years (forever home -1)

Karmacat

Just a thought about areas while I'm at it ... an area that feels fine for you two, as adults, to live in, you may not want your kids to grow up in it - I know that sounds snobby, but its real-life feedback I've had from quite a few young families.