A Diary of Reinventing Ourselves

getmore4less

The problem is from MY guess is you are in one of the most expensive areas around london because the access to london is good and there are loads of employers that pay well and I suspect a lot of corporate lets that take all the really good stuff off the market at high prices.

You may have to take the hit on size/desirability for a couple of years, thats all it should take, to get ahead of the game, income turns good with hubby rate rise and your business doing well and stable you could well have a deposit for your own place by then.

(easy enough to edit and stick some white space in if it looks wrong after posting)

thegreenone

Is the landlord selling up? Would they consider an offer?


You have done so incredibly well on this debt free quest in such a short time, please don't be defeated. Make an appointment with a mortgage broker and ask, just ask, what the likelihood is. If it's a no, so be it. Then hammer the agents day in, day out - that's what Kirsty and Phil do. Are there any new developments locally? Approach the builder and ask if you could rent one for a while to make development looked lived in. Or if a new build hasn't sold and needs to look lived in.


Ask the local EA if there is an empty property following a bereavement. I'm not sure on the rules but if a house is empty for six months I think CT is due but if the family were happy to rent it out until the estate is settled. It sounds a little callous but we did this. There wasn't anything but we did ask. Sorry just throwing out ideas/rambling!


I completely understand what you say about the children and schools. I think it's massively important for them to be able to walk to school, walk to friends houses, into town once old enough and if that's what you have now, fight for it!

Dolphin1

Forward_thinking wrote: »

Just been served notice on the house today - we have to be out in 8 weeks. We've been here several years so I didn't see that one coming. What a disaster!!

Sorry to hear this FT. It happened to us a couple of years ago. We had only been there just over a year and the landlord popped round to tell me he would be issuing notice as he was selling the house and I burst in to tears in front of him (poor bloke). It was just the initial panic but not the best reaction .

Anyway, it took a few weeks for the right property to come up (torturous when you are looking on the internet every 5 minutes of every day) but it worked out in the end and we ended reducing our monthly costs for rent, council tax and gas/electric as the house we are in now is slightly smaller (still the same amount of bedrooms though) and has a more efficient boiler. We recovered our removal costs in the first 4 months.

Hope you find somewhere just as nice or even better soon and don't worry too much about not getting your deposit back because if you have been there several years then it should be expected that there will be a fair amount of wear and tear so there shouldn't be many (if any) deductions as long as you leave it clean.

Scottish_Lassie

Hey


I'm a long time lurker around here but thought I'd pop up to say that you're doing an amazing job, and that whenever I feel like things are getting on top of me I think of something I read somewhere... "I'd rather climb a mountain than crawl into a hole". I think of it whenever I feel things are getting on top of me and think there's no-way I can get to the top of that "mountain"..... but the alternative is to crawl into a smelly, dark hole..... eh no thanks! Better take a step up that humungous mountain then!


Keep at it FT

Gettingtherequickly

Just checked in to see how things are in FTland and didn't see that coming :eek: However, my first thought was to wonder if notice is officially being served requiring you to move, or if it is the agent's system saying that you are at the end of the tenancy and therefore triggering up "what do you want to do? flag" With a bit of luck it will be the latter, but if the former, I believe that things happen for a reason and the work you have done recently will benefit the move.

Yes, you have had the stuffing knocked out of you, but this is short term. All of the recent achievements will help you focus on what you need as a family, you now know what necessary costs are involved, rather than guessing and spending more than is necessary. Slowly but surely, DH is edging towards your new way of thinking, maybe not as quickly as you would like, but if you are moving, this will be the way to get him a bit further on board. You will be starting with a clean slate as it were on housing costs, but you have made huge strides in recent weeks, so will know what is an acceptable amount to pay for utilities etc. And don't forget, if you hadn't already dealt with the cleaner issue, you would have to deal with it now!

You are concerned about the costs involved in moving. While it is not going to cost fresh air and gooseberries, it will be possible to do at a reasonable cost. Your main concern at the moment will be be the deposit required, would the in-laws be able to assist on this, in the short term? From what you have said about the house you are in, I see no reason why you shouldn't have the current deposit returned, so once you received that back you could pay in-laws back, but I assume that DH would have something to say about it. With regards the move itself, there is no reason why you shouldn't hire a van for a weekend and make it a "family move" event. Involve the children old enough to help pack (beware of fragile though!), have you relatives living reasonably close who could help with the physical move of furniture etc? See if you can get moving boxes from Freegle, pick up some from supermarket, use old newspaper to wrap fragile rather than buying bubble wrap. I imagine your OCD will be going into overdrive while packing is being done, but stop, take a breath and tell yourself," this is short term, I have achieved a lot recently, battled a lot and have come through it, I AM ABLE to to this"

You are probably on half term this week, so take the time to charge the batteries, enjoy your time with the littlies and if you think of things, make a note and deal with it next week.

Forward_thinking

Thanks everyone. Some great thoughts and some great words of kindness. Just got back from looking at a car - it wasn't right but at least we've started. The bodywork was fine but the engine had a background rumble and didn't sound right. Also, it was petrol and didn't have enough power for us all. So we have gained new knowledge to take us further. OH was not happy that we drove 3 hours to see it and wants to stay locally but it really limits the choice. There is one quite close but I was avoiding it as it's black and i really hate black cars. It brings back horrible memories of my childhood but perhaps we might have to compromise here.

We have ruled out the other side of the town which is really cheaper. I was really really keen although OH said no way. I was still determined to convince him but I asked a couple of friends who know people who live there and they reckon it usually takes 25 minutes to get to school but they allow an hour. That's ridiculous as it's only about 10 minutes during the day. So I have ruled that one out. OH says it would also ostracise the children from their peer group who all live around here. So at least I know what I am looking for. I have told OH we need to keep a really open mind and look at a wide range of houses at several price ranges. There wasn't much at all when I looked (tell a lie, there are hundreds more expensive than what we are paying!) but I will not be defeated. Scottish Lassie - love that and am definitely not crawling into a smelly, dark hole.

Children seem to have accepted that we need to move. I guess I now need to ring the gas companies and BT as we are due to change over in the next week. Need to check about exit fees although they did say there weren't any when I changed over. There's also going to be so many expenses involved in moving out - removal itself, carpets cleaned, chimney swept, garden done etc etc. Feel like banging my head against the brick wall but WON'T BE DEFEATED!! I do somehow feel this was meant to happen for a reason. Too much of a coincidence.

The other really bad thing that happened yesterday is that I found out that we have lost nearly all our BA flight points which I was hoping to use to get us to Majorca in the summer. We now have the equivalent of payment for 2 people instead of all of us; I checked on this last year and they told me they were safe. Turns out it was wrong information and our cards were not linked to OH's who flew and kept his card active! I was really worried about that happening and they assured me we were safe but I have no evidence of that chat. Silly me!

Not such a great couple of days but ONWARDS AND UPWARDS!!!!!!

angelaf_3

Can't you wait until you know where you are moving too and then contact utility supplier because surely you will be able to carry the deal over to the new property once final bills for this house have been paid. I know when I have taken on fixed deals it has said that in most cases this was possible.

Sorry you've had this horrible shock.

Kittencat

FT...... Hi there, I have been in awe over the last few weeks reading your dairy.

Can i just say you are doing really good. A few months ago you had no idea about your finances and now you know how much you owe and to who, thats a really good start.

Sadly you can't undo all the debt straight away but at least your starting and you still need to live. You have a good amount coming in and when your up and running it will help things. Keep positive, enjoy those lovely kiddies. Even if you move to a house that costs the same as your paying now in a years time it won't be as hard as it is now surely.

Your doing really well and fingers crossed for you FT.

Forward_thinking

Thanks everyone!!! Just rang about the possible house - it went today. Starting to think this is all kind of a surreal dream!!

Just rang a mortgage advisor - wanted to know if there really is no way we could ever buy a house. He has said we are not too old age-wise but need to get cracking in the next 3 years. He reckons we need to get a deposit of 50k to buy a £500k house with repayments of £2350 a month. He said there would be very little under this price for us and when you think about it, prices will be even more than that when we eventually get to that goal. I so want to buy a house!!! Getting a letter through the door as we did last night is just not the way I want to carry on.

You know, we are going to do this. It might seem impossible but nothing is impossible. We're going to get that house and I need to get started now. I'm determined to not let it pass us by - it would be the one thing I regretted at the end of my life. I don't want to move areas - I want to stay here. I really do mean business. So that's 70k in 2-3 years. Plus whatever OH is going to throw at us in the next couple of weeks! The Law of Attraction - The Secret - going to watch it again tonight. It just seems so strange that I watched that and thought about the house situation and less than 24 hours later we got the letter through the door. This universe is easier to dictate than we think. I truly believe that. There will be lots of people out there thinking I have now totally lost touch with reality but I need to; the alternative is maintaining the status quo. This is going to be a diary to remember!!!

asparagus1968

Oh No! completely missed the bit about giving you notice to leave the house, so sorry!