BritishBibliophile Wants A House

BritishBibliophile

Thank you savingwannabe

Mini note to say I've done a TT of £3.29, now at £10561.40

Was not as strict as I should have been last week, will be better this week.

BritishBibliophile

TT of £4.45 today, bringing me up to £10565.85

Got Friday off work so going to head over to Gentleman Caller after work tomorrow. We're going to go view a bungalow on Saturday. We're pretty certain we don't want it, but the market in the areas we're looking at has just gone completely silent in the past few weeks One of the areas has a high student population, so we were hoping there would be a few BTL landlords who would sell up ready for when their current student tenants !!!!!! off, but so far it's been really dead.

Estate agent seems pretty on the ball though, phoned me up during the week to ask how our house hunting was going and suggested this bungalow, so we're going along to show willing. Don't really want a bungalow, but we'll see how it looks.

Less than 3 weeks to Rome! Travel insurance is now sorted out, and went through Quidco so getting a bit back from that. Got cash set aside for my euros, just need to work out A) how much I can get and what my probable budget per day will be, and then I can see how much I need to take out when I get paid next week to make up the difference. On the plus side I generally remember Italian food to be fairly cheap, but museums aren't free to get in to and some of them seem VERY expensive, so that could take a chunk out.

Really need to read more of my guidebook as well so we have a good plan for where to go and what to see. Getting very excited now!

New total: £10565.85!

BritishBibliophile

Payday has been and gone, just moved £446.49 in to the savings accounts, bringing me up to £11012.34

Last weekends bungalow viewing was what I suspected, just couldn't see us living there. Can't put my finger on why specifically, but it didn't help that although we were told the seller doesn't live there any more (moved in with his partner who has her own house) it looks like the place is still being stayed in regularly as he hadn't bothered to tidy anything up! Difficult to see a blank canvas when there's a suitcase chucked on one bed and a pile of papers and other miscellaneous rubbish on another bed.

Went to see another house this weekend, former bungalow with the roof converted in to 2 bedrooms. It was over priced as it was, but we went to see it so that if the price comes down in a few weeks (when reality hits) then we could potentially make an offer. Very glad we went to see it because it's less of a project and more of a lifetime's work! Damp in one ground floor room, central heating only available in the upstairs bedrooms, kitchen would need to be gutted (scrubbing it with vinegar and lemon wouldn't even be the start of it), whole place probably needs to be rewired judging by the state of some of the plugs, and the garage is of an age and design that screamed "asbestos" to my MIL, and the estate agent agreed that that was probably the case. All this for the wonderful bargain of...£240k :eek: Afterwards Gentleman Caller commented that he should have asked the EA why they felt justified in listing it at that price, but I suspect it's the vendor being completely blind to reality. Once you'd got all the work done on it THEN it would be worth that much, but the seller clear doesn't want to do the work, but does want the increased value :rotfl:

Feeling a bit low now though as nothing new is coming up on the market at the moment. Popped in to another EA office on our way back and left our details and had a chat with the woman that was running it, she said she'd never known it to be this quiet at this time of year. She wasn't sure what was causing it though, she thought it might be the Referendum, although I'm not sure why.

So deposit is increasing, but furniture fund has stalled as I can't find the enthusiasm to save for something that's probably not going to be a reality for some time On the plus side me and Gentleman Caller are off on holiday next weekend, so I've got something different to look forward too!

New total: £11012.34

savingwannabe

Hi BB enjoy the holiday you need some sun and to de -stress to get away from the stress of looking for a house. The perfect house will appear in its own time you will see you cannot do any more than you have been so don't feel down.

I watch some great property programmes and cannot believe how cheap property is in some areas. Like you none of them are by me!!!! lol. At least we have good jobs that pay a decent salary continue to save and something will turn up and all will be worth it in the end.

BritishBibliophile

Back from Rome, we had a fabulous time, and it was made even more amazing when Gentleman Caller got down on one knee and proposed!! :j Of course I said yes :rotfl: I helped him choose the ring a few months ago, but since I had no real clue when he would pop the question (we had a few "significant" dates between buying the ring and the summer holiday, including his birthday) that I couldn't tell anyone about it.

In the end he chose the anniversary of the day he first asked me on a date. His original plan was to propose at a fountain that I like (not the Trevi fountain, although that would have been good too) but it was switched off for cleaning and the water left in it was stagnant and disgusting. So instead he proposed in the garden of a huge church we went to see, it was such a pretty spot, and he'd even Googled which knee he was supposed to get down on so he could get the whole thing right.

Afterwards we were wandering around the church and he said he realised it meant he was no longer my "Gentleman Caller" as the term was normally used for people who were courting. So I said I'd continue to call him that, until the day we get married, and then he becomes Darling Husband

So we spent the rest of the holiday walking around the ruins and churches and little streets with big dazed happy grins on our faces. Except for the points where I was getting a bit tired and grumpy because we walked SO MUCH. We covered nearly 10 miles on proposal day, and at least half that each day on the 2 days after.

This now means that along with saving for a house and furniture for it we've now also got to save for a wedding :eek: I've started a big Excel workbook with different spreadsheets for budget, a schedule of what needs doing (and when), food and drink prices, other suggestions of stuff we'll need, and a guest list. So far it'll easily be under 50 people, but even then all the prices I've looked at have been shocking. A draft budget (with some very pessimistic estimates) has come out at £4000, but my parents have said they'll pay for the food and the bridesmaid's gear, which will bring it down a bit, and I've got plans for corners to cut elsewhere, as long as I get things done in good time.

So TT of £6.88 in to the deposit fund gives me a new total of £11019.22, and I now need to go and work out how I can make my own centrepieces with woolly pompoms! _party_

savingwannabe

OMG. OMG. Congratulations.

I was just getting ready for another boring day at work and then I read this. Hurrah.:beer::rotfl::beer::beer::beer::beer::beer::rotfl::kisses3::kisses2::kisses2:

BritishBibliophile

Thank you savingwannabe! Went back to work today and got flooded with congratulations from my colleagues, still feeling a little bit dazed about it all really!

Book called "The High Street Bride's Guide" arrived from Amazon today, so I'm going to sit down with it and several cups of tea this weekend and see what they recommend for ways to save money on the Big Day.

BritishBibliophile

Gentleman Caller has kicked off the wedding fund by cashing in his euros and rounding up some other bits and pieces he'd got recently, we've now got £155 towards the wedding. I'm selling my euros to my parents for their holiday in July, so I can't add my leftover holiday money yet, but if I remember correctly I have at least £100 worth left, and that will also go towards the wedding.

I've been spending a lot of time on Pinterest this week looking up wedding stuff. There is a HUGE amount of rubbish out there. No wonder people end up spending the wrong side of £20k on weddings, they're mostly trying to keep up with Americans! I've also been cringing at all the dreadful poetry that's on there. If that's your taste then that's fine, but personally I'm going to steer well clear of it.

This week I need to phone a potential venue to see if we can view it over the bank holiday weekend, in theory it's affordable, but we need to find out what the cost actually covers in terms of rooms for the ceremony AND the reception, what decorations we'd be allowed (it's a listed building), what kind of catering we could have set up, and all of that other stuff. We've got a second possibility which is more expensive but has more things included (and is in a gorgeous but much more remote location), and a third is one that is 5 minutes down the road from my parent's place.

In other news I'm now getting used to my engagement ring being on the correct finger as the little plastic twisty thing I ordered from Amazon arrived! You twist it on to the band of the ring, and it fills up some of the space between the band and your finger, so it no longer slips round or feels like it's going to fall off

savingwannabe

Blimey the plastic twisty thing made me laugh. I didn't know they even existed. You have done really well saving for the house and now it sounds like you are going to have a SMART wedding too. I think you are going to be really well off in the long run as you plan so well. Well done BB.

BritishBibliophile

The plastic thing is brilliant, I love that someone sat down and thought about this and probably tested loads of variations to get it right :rotfl:

Pay day today but can't do a proper money shuffle until Wednesday, so did a little one today of £59.39 to keep my hand in.

I've also now got a saving plan in place for the wedding. £200 will go in to the HTB ISA. £300 then goes to the wedding (I'm going to put it in my regular saver, but reference it as such when I transfer the money so I'll remember to keep it to one side), and then anything else after that will go in to my other ISA for the house deposit.

Any TT money will also go in to the house fund, but any large rounded sums (i.e. £40) will go towards the wedding, as I'll be able to keep better track of it if I don't devolve in to pennies. Nice round numbers only for this! Don't ask about the furniture fund for the time being :rotfl:

Sounds a bit convoluted but it should mean I can strike a decent balance between the wedding and the house without getting myself in a muddle.

House Deposit Total: £11078.61