MFW Diary - Take 1!

Calfuray

How has a month passed already?

So, I have a new job! I don't know if there would have been a job after my internship or not, but for various reasons I decided that even if it was local and convenient, it wasn't the best choice for me.

This past month has been applications and interviews and tests and :eek:
I also got offered every job I had interviews for (I know, I know, first world problems) so I had a really hard time figuring out what I wanted to do, how to judge if a workplace was good for me, etc etc. It's been tough, and I'm still scared and unsure but hopefully I made the right choice?

I think in terms of pay (cause :eek::eek::eek: it's higher than I ever thought) and experience it will be invaluable. It's going to be a loooong commute though - Edinburgh!

And that's most of my news Just plodding along, now that I'm sorted the OH can have a look and see what he wants to do. We might even move house if we both have jobs in the capital. We shall see! 3 weeks left of my internship.

Hope you are all well.
Cal x

muddywhitechicken

Congratulations on the new job :T:T:T

Calfuray wrote: »

I also got offered every job I had interviews for (I know, I know, first world problems)

Mr MWC has had that problem too... very annoying for the rest of us mere mortals :rotfl:

gallygirl

Congratulations on having such a lovely first world problem :T.

SuperSecretSquirrel

Fantastic news well done Cal!

Fortune_Smiles

Well done Cal - that's amazing!


Fortune x

edinburgher

I like Edinburgh, bit 'spensive to live in tho

Congratulations on your first world problem. My first world problem from last night was being too lazy to open a new bottle of whisky because I'd have to move some boxes to get it out of the hall cupboard :rotfl:

Mrs E has just pointed out that my laziness is the only takeaway from that story!

Calfuray

Thank you everyone

Ed - yeah it is expensive but we'd only be looking for a wee 2-bed flat so hoping it wouldn't be too bad... have no idea how to go about picking an area and a house etc!

Calfuray

It's been a while! I see a lot of new faces about.

So a lot has changed but stayed the same here. I took the new job (with the looooooong commute (i.e. the equivalent of half my working day is spend commuting). The pay is good, the job is interesting and good so far. Have been there about 2-2.5 months. It turns out my internship was definitely not going to lead for a job for various reasons (none to do with me at least!) so it's a good thing I was looking elsewhere!

The upshot of this is that we need to move - soon. I can't deal with the commute. I spend around 20 hours a week commuting.

So in terms of money, this means that there are none of the big OPs that were planned with getting my first job, it's all going into savings right now so that we can move house.

The plans for the next few months are to save, and gut this place as much as possible, there are various pieces of tat we need to get rid of. Our current flat is going to sell for less than we bought it for, but thankfully more than the mortgage since we have been overpaying. What this means is that after various fees, I think we will be lucky to have any money from this flat, so I'm going to treat it as if we have no deposit, and save accordingly. Then there are moving fees, product fees, solicitors..... to be honest it's a wonder anyone wants to move house! The upshot of all of this is that if we are lucky, it will be about a year before we can move.

In the meantime I'm afraid this thread is not going to be very interesting. My main plan to save money is to start food prepping properly, reducing expensive lunch meals and quick supermarket grabs on the way home because I don't get home til after 7pm and can't be bothered cooking.

I also need to plan and find out what the costs are likely to be, as I have no idea how much to budget for all the other associated costs, plus the fact that me and the OH have never purchased a house from choice, not sure how to begin the house searching?! Do we wait until this place is sold, then scrabble? Or move into rented accommodation? I've been stalking the mortgage and house buying boards to find out.

Also unsure how much to do my current flat up, there is a very definite ceiling to how much this flat will sell for, therefore I'm not sure how much we should bother doing to it, or just see if it would sell in its current state.

Hope everyone is doing well

Cal

Calfuray

Well it's a start, made breakfast for the week and lunches Monday-Wednesday Good night all!

SuperSecretSquirrel

Hi Cal, good to see you again 20hrs a week commute, phew! Can't blame you for wanting to cut that right down :eek:

Let's play a little devil's advocate... What kind of security do you have at this job? How long are you likely to stay before moving on? I get the feeling you are to be a formidable earning machine, but generally this means switching employers every 2 or 3 years and getting a bump in salary with each hop. Sound likely? Is the area where you currently work likely to be where you would be doing said 'hopping'? Is it a big employment centre? What about your other half, does he work in that area too, or would reducing your 20hr weekly commute increase his? What are the work prospects like nearer where you live?

Buying and selling can be a long drawn out process, and it's not practical to do it too often, as evidenced by all those costs you listed. Have you considered renting near your workplace and letting your flat out to offset the cost? If you were to end up settling down in the new location you could always switch to buying there at a later date. The luxury of renting while buying and selling would no doubt help you avoid some stress too. Then again, you may decide not to sell at all, you're saving a deposit from scratch anyway, and with a sub 50k mortgage and two professional salaries coming in it's likely you could buy a new home and switch your current flat to BTL if you wanted to keep hold of it as an investment?

I have nightmares thinking about the logistics of buying and selling at the same time in a chain. A rented stepping stone would definitely be on the cards for us. Then again, you are fortunate enough to live in Scotland where the whole house buying and selling process seems so much more efficient, see ed's thread for proof of how smoothly things can go north of the border!

Good luck, and keep on posting, even if you're not actively OPing