Mrs PG's Hopes & Dreams for a debt free future !

PinotGrigio41

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

Making the decision, I find, is always the hardest part. Once made things usually all come together so perhaps a good old think, list of pros and cons of moving, whatever usually helps you decide....and then make the decision and go from there. Since I've made my decision to move I feel much better and I just know everything will work out well now

Have a lovely day (do you have this crazy fog where you are?? We can hardly see out the window! )

We have sat down and spoken about this so many times before. The house has been up for sale 5 times but as soon as we get a buyer I get cold feet and change my mind !!

I am glad you are happier since making your decision.

Yes we have the crazy fog ! I read that wrong though and thought you were asking if I had the Crazy Frog !! :rotfl:It is clearing now though and the sun peeping through. I have DD2 home poorly again today, if work quietens down and she perks up I may take her for a stroll down tot he river for some fresh air.Think it will do her good xxx

PinotGrigio41

sweetpea26 wrote: »

Hi PG

Steps out of lurkdom

My advice is that a house is 4 walls....a home is something completely different.

What would my house be if something happened my husband...it would mean nothing to me without him or the kids. Being happy and content is paramount in life and believe me life goes very quickly. All but one of mine has left for college etc and it has happened in the blink of an eye. Live for today and if its your gut feeling that the house is sitting on your back stopping you living the life that you need to live .. move.

Love reading your diary and you work very very hard. You have a very stressful life and maybe if you downsized/cheaper area life might be less so.

Take care of yourself.

Thankyou for your sound advice sweetpea, and its so lovely to see you.:D Your advice was beautifully put.

The house costs us a fortune to run, its lovely but Im not that materialistic that I have to have it if that makes sense !! I could live in a shed as long as the girls and Mr PG were happy and we were all together. Its costs us £2100 for the mortgage, £340 a month for utilities and just under £300 for the council tax. Thats alot of money to find , without even thinking of eating ,clothing, fuel , insurance etc etc. And debt repayments !

The thing is although we do have equity, there isn't enough to clear the debt I don't think, although I haven't had the house valued in a long time so you never know. I'm not sure there would be enough to clear both the debt and put a deposit down on another house. Theres the catch I suppose. So we could move, downsize , reduce the mortgage, but still have the debt, or clear the debt and rent. After working this damn hard for so long, I am loathed to go down that route, but ask me another day and I would say "Yey lets rent " !! Im Not very decisive at the moment !!

I have had a five minute chat with Mr PG, he says he has had a good nights sleep and feels happier this morning. That was the extent of our conversation before everything went crazy mad his end and we got cut off !!

I am so glad that you like reading my ramblings, I could burble on forever sometimes !! xx

debtfreewannabe321

PinotGrigio41 wrote: »

We have sat down and spoken about this so many times before. The house has been up for sale 5 times but as soon as we get a buyer I get cold feet and change my mind !!

I am glad you are happier since making your decision.

Yes we have the crazy fog ! I read that wrong though and thought you were asking if I had the Crazy Frog !! :rotfl:It is clearing now though and the sun peeping through. I have DD2 home poorly again today, if work quietens down and she perks up I may take her for a stroll down tot he river for some fresh air.Think it will do her good xxx

:rotfl: to the fog!!!

So the house has been on the market? Recently? Do you know how much it is worth? If not it could be an idea to get an up to date valuation. I think a cold hard look at the numbers and whether or not you have enough equity in the house to clear all your debts (or at least a good chunk of it) would be reality check enough. I'm agreeing here with sweetpea. I've lived in so many houses I can't imagine that only one will make me happy. I've lived in many many nice houses (a few not so nice just recently though!) and each one had it's own merits. I think that pretty soon your DD's will be flying the nest (within 10 years or so?) and in that 10 years left you could be selling up, downsizing and enjoying the money/freedom you have or you could spend the next 10 years (potentially...i do hope not though if you decide to stay) paying debts, being stressed etc. I love reading your stories and you've become a friend in the box to me and I hate to see you stressed. We can't take a house with us when we die. We take/are left with memories and they (in my opinion) can be made anywhere. xxx

Piquant_2

As you know I sold my house. The stress of money worries was all consuming. Every month wondering if I would be able to pay the bills, having to send the Captain away because I couldn't afford to keep him. I thought I would miss my old house forever and regret the decision, but I don't. I can sleep at night, my outgoings are less than the money coming in, I can save for things I want [that's want, not necessarily need]

Sweetpea is right it's four walls. You've said you'd be happy in a shed if Mr PG and girls were happy. Find out how much your house is worth and think on it from there. There is no commitment in a valuation!

Baldybear

Hello, sorry to hear about stress, this is my opinion please feel free to ignore it. No matter what the debt situation I would avoid selling and renting. If you say you have equity in the house but selling would wipe that out and the debt would wipe out any profit and you could rent, seriously how long would it take to make up a deposit if you ever wanted to buy again?? Is renting secure, unless you could find somewhere long term there is always that possibility of having to move again hanging over your head. Downsizing is the best alternative if you do decide to sell up as you would still have the stability of having your own home and the stability of the girls not worrying about moving.

Just a few thoughts and hope you find them helpful

PinotGrigio41

Thankyou all for being so lovely and baldybear of course I wouldnt ignore your comments. To be honest your thoughts were pretty much on par with my own. Finding stability in renting could be a big problem. The house next door to us has recently been rented out and I was chatting to the occupiers yesterday and that house is on a one year rental. I have considered , renting out our own house and renting ourselves somewhere smaller, therefore basically someone else paying our mortgage but when I had a brief look into it we probably couldn't rent it out for quite enough to cover the mortgage so its not really an option

As it stands the last time the house was valued or put on the market , I cant remember which I think it was for £420,000, that must have been four years ago. Once upon a life it was valued at over £500K and we were offered £490 to sell, but we didnt !! We had a mortgage of £235K then as well ! How stupid were we ?

So if we assumed we could get £420K. Its hard to tell though, as although a few places close by have sold, the couples all had split up and just got shot of the houses in desperation, or a couple of doors up was repossessed. But, if we did sell for that, we would have equity of £90K. Estate agents fees would be roughly £1500 ish and solicitors say £500 ( I haven't moved in a while so not sure.) That would potentially leave us with £88K. To clear the debts which without looking at my signature I think are currently at £45K and then worst case scenario , on the assumption that the ones we think are UE arent and we need to pay those off , that would leave us £32K. We would need a 20% deposit on whatever we bought and thats assuming we would get a mortgage ( theres that problem as well !!) So we would need to buy for less than £200K to clear the debts and buy somewhere and still pay removal fees.

I think the only way it would work would be to either sell and only clear some of the debt or sell clear it all of the debt and rent and probably never buy again as lets face it getting a mortgage will be tough as well ! Hmmmm !!!

Sitting here right now on this sunny friday afternoon, my head tells me we stay put and fight the good fight till the bitter end !!! :rotfl:

Is it too early for a glass of wine ?!!! xx

PinotGrigio41

Oh bu££er !!

I put the wine in the freezer Tuesday evening to chill quickly and completely forgot about it !!

DD2 has just found it ! I am being mums Taxi tonight for DD1 so I cant have a glass yet sadly, so we have put it in the airing cupboard to defrost until I am ready to consume some !! Goodness knows what it will taste like ! xxx

in_need_of_direction

Hilarious. Though it was incidents like yours that cultivated my sister's switch to red wine.

grannyx2

Hope you finally got your wine and it didn't end up back in the fridge after warming too long in the airing cupboard.

Scary decision re moving but my gut instinct is stick it out for a bit longer. You've done so well so far, you will get there in the end..

When thinking about what needs clearing etc, don't factor in the UE debts, as they can be paid off at small amounts afterwards if they suddenly become payable. That potentially leaves you with £40k profit, so as you rightly say you'd be looking for a house at around £200k. How likely is that in the area you want to live in?

Honestly though I would stick it out while DDs in school at least, as before long they will be off to do their own thing and moving then may be exactly what you need

Granny x

PinotGrigio41

Well, I can confirm that I forgot about the wine defrosting in the airing cupboard last night, DD1 found it this morning. It has evaporated and we now only have 3/4 of a bottle !! :eek:

Bet it tastes disgusting as well !! :rotfl::rotfl:xx