Here we go...a new MFW!

feelingfestive

Alchemilla wrote: »

What is this "only" three years?!

Feels like a lot longer most of the time!:D

Well didn't succeed with the walking on the moors as the mist was so awful that we went to the nearest town and walked up through the woods. Less chance of getting lost that way and seeing as the mortgage people were calling at 3.30pm we thought it best not to get lost. Spent time at MIL's sorting out her TV and other gadgets that she'd unplugged to move the furniture and couldn't put it back together again! She did feed us though so that saved money and we took a flask of tea and cake so a NSD for us! :T
Mortgage still NOT sorted though All the details to the new property have been updated and changed but now they need to call tomorrow at 9am to arrange the instruction to value the place. I'm not sure why she couldn't do it whilst I was on the phone to her this evening but nevermind. Hopefully I can report in tomorrow that its sorted and then I can begin to chase the conveyancers again! They're going to hate me by the time this is all finished! :rotfl:
I am so looking forward to moving and then I can use this diary to really begin tracking my savings etc. as we'll need to pay back family godmother's £5000 first and then hopefully make some OP's whilst saving for some work to be done on the property! That's the grand plan anyway so we'll see how we get on!

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Waiting to be contacted by the bank, again! I always seem to be waiting for the phone to ring! Oh well, hopefully I'll hvae more to update later on the house front.
In the meantime, today is going to be a NSD My mum is coming over for a walk later on but other than that just housework and baking planned for today. I shouldn't spend any money at all and hopefully the searches on the new house should be instructed later today! Fingers crossed!

brummiebabe

House buying is so exciting but stressful!! We had a nightmare when buying this house 3 years ago....but it happened eventually:rotfl:! Oh....and we have an avocado suite with floor to ceiling avocado tiles too!! Needless to say its one of the main reasons for the work we're going to do on the house!! However, it's our forever house (I love this term...) so we are also able to wait to get things done.

Good luck with your plans ff:)

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Was meant to be a NSD today, and technically i guess I haven't spent money that I didn't need to spend. The mortgage on the new house has finally been sorted but we had free valuation on the first property but this time we've had to pay for it and it's costing £290 :eek: This was a lot more than I was expecting but hey ho I suppose it has to be done. I've had a lovely walk, filled in a load of forms for the solicitors and now I have to tackle the housework and ironing ! Today could also end up costing me more as I'm waiting for the solicitors to contact me to instruct the searches. So that'll be another £270 odd! Turning out to be a very expensive day BUT so long as we get our forever home at the end of it I won't mind!
If I ever say on here that we are thinking of selling up will someone please remind me of all this trouble and tell me to stop being so blimmin' stupid! :rotfl:

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So I thought I'd do a quick update. At the moment I seem to be spending a lot of money I haven't been spending on frivalous things but had to spend a lot on getting the new property moving. The searches were submitted yesterday at 9am so we are hoping that within 2 weeks they will be finished and we can start thinking about completion dates. Valuation by bank was done and they were happy so that's one less thing to do!
We've been trying to spend as little money as possible by making things at home and trying to take flasks of tea out with us. Mr FF had a week off last week so we did a lot of walking and getting out and about (despite the rain!). We took Niece number 2 for a day out and ended up spending £15 by the time she wanted lunch etc. We hadn't really planned the day well but it served as a reminder that you can spend money without even realising it!
All in all, things are moving in the right direction and it's only 9 days til pay day!
ff

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So...I hadn't quite realised how long had passed since I had updated
The House: Still going good at the moment. The mortgage is all sorted but I'm trying to find the valuation report which never made it from the bank to the solicitors :mad: Quite annoying really as it's a bit of a hold up. All of the searches have been done and everything seems fine so that's all good. I'm optomistic that by the end of this week I should have an exchange date and hopefully a rough completion date too!
Saving: Going quite well. I've cut my grocery budget for me and OH to £100 per month in total and so far it's going well. I only spent £22.78 on Saturday and it does seem to be lasting. The freezer, fridge and cupboard audit have certainly helped as I seem to be using up things that I never realised I had and even better than that I haven't compromised on good food. :T I've just made sure that I've used it all. I may find that when I've eaten my stores down that I might have to adjust the budget slightly but I'm hoping that that won't be the case. The money that lovely family is lending for the move (£5000) is almost saved up so I think we'll be able to pay at least half of it back straight away. This would be great and the other half shouldn't take long. We didn't want to move with zero savings as sods law the boiler would go in the first week!
Been having lots of NSD and spending time walking which is great family time but also free! OH got a promotion from work so it means a bit more money a month but more importantly he has an all expenses paid company car which means I can try to reduce the milage on mine. Previously we only had the one car so all weekend trips out etc. were paid for by me but now we can use company car (it's part of the contract) and all fuel etc. is covered which is lovely! We have also sold our leather sofas for £350 so this will go into the saving spot as we've been given a far nicer set !
So really all is good in my world. Despite now updating much I have been lurking and its been great to pick up some tips.

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Just checked and I've got the valuation report emailed to me so have now forwarded it straight on to the solicitor's! Woohoo! one more thing done! :-)

SmlSave

Lots of luck exchanging on your house ff

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Thanks SmlSave! It is exciting times. I really hope that we can exchange soon. I'm desperate to get in and sorted so that we can think about our first ever over payment.

Was talking to OH last night and we seem to have changed our plans! Instead of jsut moving a few walls and updating the new bungalow I think we've decided we'd really like to build up and have the living upstairs as the view is spectacular! We'd like a huge apex window and a study area up there too! Clearly we are now looking at big bucks! Therefore the plan will be to overpay small amounts on the mortgage every month from extra money that we make (we do a lot of dog sitting/OH's bonus/bits from work for me) which won't be very regular but everything helps. I'm hoping then that we can save up for the renovations and we won't have to pay for them with a bigger mortgage. The plan is to save enough cash to be able to pay for the renovations in 2 years time! That's a lot of money so our belts have been well and truly tightened! £100 food budget per month, no spending unless necessary or out of the £50 pocket money account (this covers OH's golf and eating out/takeaway). I'm of the opinion that whilst we have a long term aim we do also have to live a bit now. Friends of ours recently died very young in an awful housefire and it makes you realise that you do have to live for the day. There is no point wishing away life to get to the mortgage free bit because if you did then you may not ever get there. Despite this, we have no intention of being flippant with money, we won't be going on expensive holidays or hugely expensive meals out. Just enjoying quality time with family members and friends.
ff x

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Things finally seem to be moving! Got a provisional completion date of Friday 24th May! This is actually perfect as it's OH's 30th birthday so it's quite a nice present after all of the stress! :jJust need to get confirmation from the sellers but I can't see this being a problem as the property is empty. So, hopefully moving soon and then we can really get going with the MFW journey. I'm quite loking forward to doing a signature and updating it as we progress. I also can't wait to do our first OP! :T
And on another note, it is Friday! Yay!
ff x