XSpender Speeds it Up - £0 to £60k in 27 months

XSpender

It is nice to be home after my week away but DH left for a stag do at 8am this morning:( and when he gets back I am of again :eek:

DH and I have booked a cheapy Christmas weekend away after buying some tickets off a relative for a band we like and getting a deal on a hotel using a free night I earned booking all my work accommodation. I got cashback on it too DM will also get to have DS for a couple of days and overnight which will be lovely for both of them. Will ring her and check she is free as she has a very busy social calendar!

The Christmas market is on that weekend and I will no doubt do a bit of shopping for my presents if I ever decide what I would like I could do with a handbag for work and some work clothes as I have lost a bit of weight and non of my trousers fit but DH will put his foot down to getting those for Christmas:rotfl:

YNAB has been checked and updated and is all present and correct.

Dual fuel and broadband swap should go through next week. I must remember to submit the meter readings today.

I am only going to do a very small food shop this weekend (£15-£20 hopefully) to last us until next weekend as we don't need much and I have time to batch cook a chilli to avoid buying DH SW RM. If I can manage it without buying any extras in the week I will be chuffed to bits and might just make an OP with the money I would have spent.:D

Having looked at YNAB this morning I think we will struggle to make up the £600 OP we didn't make this month by the end of the year as we have so much going on at the minute. We will be able to find a good chunk of it as DH gets a bonus in December and I get a big bonus at the end of Jan. I will set this as my next (not so) mini OP target on top of the £600 OP I make by SO each month and aim to achieve this before the end of Feb to get us back on track.

XSpender

Lovely weather for ducks today! DS and I did manage a 40 minute walk/scooter with the dog in lovely sunshine between grey clouds and heavy rain in the early afternoon. We spent some time admiring the colours of the leaves while DS decided what each one looked like (mainly hedgehogs and Christmas trees ).

DS may have a natural frugal lean as I had planned to take him out for a hot chocolate as a treat after his swimming lesson and he decided he would rather get the stuff from Mr S to make it at home and watch a film on n3tflicks. Money saved and lots of hot choc and marshmallows left over for future treats

Ordered my charity cards and a Christmas gift for DS last night. Apart from DFIL and DMIL I have at least decided on what I want to buy everyone. I have £39 Mr T vouchers to double up and about £30 of Mr S points to double up too so this should save some cash.:):money:

I normally go to bed about half ten but when DH is away I always end up staying up late. Last night I went to bed at nearly 1am after binge-watching Vampire Diaries of all things!:eek:

I am planning a little more tidying, washing and vacuuming today while DS is playing and doing some colouring. I have some reading to do for work which I will attempt tonight after DS is in bed.

DH is due back sometime tomorrow evening so DS and I will either go swimming with DS or if the weather has cleared up visit our local NT place for a walk and a go on their big play area. At some point I need to make a big batch of SW chilli and a SW chicken curry to put in the freezer for DH to eat next week.

YNAB has been updated and £3.43 TT.

No running done today but I have eaten better if not clean today SW chips and HM pizza for tea tonight, DS choice

Pearla*Merle

Great thinking on the frugal hot chocs, what a clever chap your DS is. :T

I always stay up late while my OH is away too. Usually with similar fare. :rotfl:

XSpender

It is blowing a hooligan here this morning and I have a flight to catch this afternoon :eek

Our friends showed us the house they were buying on line this weekend and it got my thinking about the house we want/need. I found a 3 bed semi in the area (if not the estate) I want that we both really like. We have been looking at 4 bed detached but in reality I think we don't need as much space. The house I have seen needs a couple of walls knocking down, a new kitchen and completely redecorating but it is certainly liveable now and has a newish shower room that could be converted into a big bathroom (1 of the walls to be knocked down and doors repositioned). It also has a good sized garden that is not overlooked (we have this at the moment and it puts me off when looking at other houses) that would need some work at some point in the future but is neat and tidy now.

The house is on at £30k less than one exactly the same size/design with this work done. I would offer quite a bit less than the asking price TBH.

The big difference between the houses we were looking at and this house is the £100,000 difference in the asking price. This would put the mortgage over 20 years at the same monthly payment as what I am paying with OP now as we would go from IO to repayment. Plus we wouldn't have the secured loan so would be £430 better off a month. We wouldn't have a lump of cash to start the work immediately but would be able to save up pretty quickly for the big jobs and the bedrooms and living room are just cosmetic. Except the wood burner I want

I am going to ring the EA and ask for our house to be valued today and to arrange a viewing of this property. I did my sums last night and we are probably 6 months away still from having enough saved to move (unless someone does 5% deposits:rotfl:) but it will give us a better idea of where we are and also if this style of house (of which there are hundreds in our preferred location) would work for us.


DH is back from the stag do bearing an enormous bar of chocolate which is not good as I have put on a pound this week:mad

£13.89 received form TCB and paid straight over to the mortgage.

Best get on with some work as I am WFH until I drive to the airport.

XSpender

Bad news - the house we liked is under offer

Good news - the secured loan settlement figure is £2000 less than I thought:j:j:j:j:j

Budget tweaking now to pay this off before the end of the year:D

Luckyinlife

Be good to get a valuation anyway wont it :]

Shame its under offer

But 2k is amazing wooooo :]

pennystretcher

XSpender wrote: »

We wouldn't have a lump of cash to start the work immediately but would be able to save up pretty quickly for the big jobs and the bedrooms and living room are just cosmetic. Except the wood burner I want

:rotfl: I was looking at the CityAgas today, just window shopping. Won't suit the house I'm in now though, so will save that thought. - for the retirement cottage I want - There are a lot of Agas in ebay though...

XSpender

Valuation done and is exactly what I thought it would be. The plan is to list it on Christmas Day. This gives us this month to paint the kitchen and living room/stairs/landing, a couple of small jobs and tidy the garden. We will have Christmas out of the way when people want to view though the tree may need to come down a little early.

We have applied to our existing mortgage provider for a decision in principle and due to our old IVA it has been referred and we need to provide lots of paperwork which I will gather together this weekend.

We will also apply through the broker recommend on this site as we have spoken to them before when we were looking at a new build but haven't made an application.

Our financial plans have chopped and changed backwards and forwards all week as we try and work out what to do with our money to be in the best position to buy when a house comes up.

Secured loan to be SIF on sale - £5,000
Maximum deposit required - £22,500
EA fees and stamp Duty. legal fees and other costs - £5,000
TOTAL = £32,500

Savings and equity at 30.11.15 - £18,500

TO SAVE - £14,000

We also have the balance of our summer holiday to pay for but depending on when we move this will either be full or part paid from savings or a portion of it on a CC until after we move.

We have decided to save in 2 places; the mortgage overpayment pot linked to the mortgage for the deposit and secured loan and the regular saver and ISA for the rest. £400 of our monthly payment comes off the balance of the secured each month which will also help meet the target.

Taking into consideration the bonuses we will receive between now and March we need to save £2000 a month which is do-able if we are careful. I am going to re-do the budget on YNAB today and see where we can cut back.

Plans for the weekend:

Food shop (look at spending Mr T vouchers on double up for Christmas)
Lunch at Mum's tomorrow and hopefully see DB and DSIL
Run 7 miles
Bit of washing and ironing
Meal plan and start listing cupboards/freezer
Sort out mortgage application paperwork
Agree revised budget with DH
Hide the Christmas gifts we got for DS last night

XSpender

Phew we have had a jam packed weekend!

Pizza and Bond on Friday, pretty chilled out day on Saturday with a little Christmas shopping, swimming lesson for DS and lots of number crunching for me (still need to sort out the budget). We had a lovely lunch at Mum's today where we caught up with some family we haven't seen since Christmas. Oh and I ran 7 miles this morning at 7.30am!

I am tired now but have a couple of loads of washing to do and a simple tea to make. DH is going to do some ironing and I am going to prep lunches for tomorrow and dinner for tomorrow if I can work out what DH and I are having

£21.21 requested from TCB and YNAB all up to date:)

smallholdingsister

Hello.
As a devoted aga owner (oil fired, I pay the iron price!!) I am planning on a reconditioned 13 amp one off ebay and solar cells to run it when I move.