The Next Chapter: Our Dream House Fund

lessavyfav

:wave:

Going to see a few properties this weekend, which is exciting. Not sure if any of them are quite right - the cheaper ones are a bit too small if we plan on staying longer term, the bigger ones would mean we're stretching ourselves to get a bigger mortgage. I have a feeling it's going to be hard slog, this house-hunting :rotfl:

I'm still determined to stick to my ambitious budget this month, but there's a lot of the month still to go..21 days till payday and just 15 work days till I finish up. Not long now!

savingwannabe

It sounds like it is v exciting looking at lots of places and getting ideas and choosing the best one for you. I hope you see some nice places.

lessavyfav

Ah thanks savingwannabe, it was great property hunting, despite the snow/sleet most of the day.

There was one place at the top end of what we're looking for. we have been told we can borrow over £500,000 but for the place we're looking at, it would be less a little less. However, we're shy about £15,000 when it comes to the stamp duty/moving costs (unless we get a 5% deposit instead, but I'm not keen on that). My parents have offered to chip in the extra money for us, which is super generous of them and something we're considering. It's a bit of a change from where we looking at first (it's in London, we had been looking at commuter towns before). However, I feel better about staying in London — connected, and there are still parts that have that village feel. Working out the costs it wouldn't be a massive amount of difference (due to season train ticket being extortionate, and having to pay higher council tax and service charge where we were looking). A lot to think about, feeling a little more confused though

It was a cheapie weekend and we managed to get lots done off the to-do list, so feeling accomplished. Just sad I have to go to work tomorrow!

16 days till payday, 12 days of work.

savingwannabe

Well done in looking and thinking about it. Sorry about the snow. Buying in London. Gosh. That's amazing. I watch lots of telly programmes about buying in London and it is very exciting.

lessavyfav

savingwannabe, yes exciting to buy in London, but terribly expensive! We are fortunate that we earn good money, don't have crazy outgoings and no kids right now..so plenty of time to be saving and dare I say, the right moment to stretch ourselves (even though it's not much more than what we pay in rent).

Going to put an offer on a house tomorrow, we're nervous and excited — I hope it's accepted! It feels right, and like we could make it a proper home. Wish me luck!

I've hit my £1000 EF target, but just realised it's in a regular saver so I still have two months before it matures. The EF will most likely end up going towards our moving costs so I'll have to build it up again soon! Quite skint till payday but it's all doable as I have no social things on during the week, and will definitely bring lunch to work tomorrow. My final week at the job, I can't wait! I'm allowed to leave two days earlier so that's just 5 working days and 9 till payday.

Happy Sunday all x

savingwannabe

Well done. It's all fallen into place. :beer: I watch 'Location, Location, Location' all the time. You are one of those people. You DID IT. Happy Sunday indeed:beer::j:money::D:T:beer::j:money::beer::j:money::D:rotfl::T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T

lessavyfav

yay savingwannabe, so many celebration emojis! you seem to be doing very well with your savings.

More money in the H2B fund, so Ive updated my signature. Very little in my fun personal funds but I don't have much coming up this weekend so I can just about scrape by till payday.

Final day at work tomorrow, and so much to tidy up before I leave! I think I'll collapse on Saturday and mooch as much as possible. Just 5 days till payday, phew.

Right, time to pinterest more house decor blogs

lessavyfav

Doing well with the squirrelling away since my last entry. New job is good but insanely intense. Am hoping I'll get used to it, at least the work is interesting and the people are nice.

In exciting news, I'm hoping soon I will join the Mortgage Free Wannabe board. Offer accepted, mortgage offer approved, chain complete..we have a bit to go (survey later this week and 4 buyers in the chain), so I'm not counting on it being a swift process till exchange and completion — at least it gives us more time to keep saving and getting ahead. I already have plans for overpayments, renovation fund and staring over another emergency fund. How nerdy.

Our place is more than the H2B ISA threshold, which means no bonus from the government, booo. So I closed the account yesterday. Bank accounts are looking so healthy but that is all about to change soon :rotfl:

Very much looking forward to a little break at Easter then a longer holiday towards the end of the month. New job has got me wiped out!

savingwannabe

Well done on mortgage process and I hope you have a lovely holiday. You can join lots of nice people on the MFW thread but you must say goodbye before we let you go. Or ElSE we will eat all your chocolate. lol.

lessavyfav

My diary is about to drop off on to page 2 because it's been so long since I last updated. Oops!

I've been lucky to go on some holidays the past couple of months, but have generally been good with money, soon most of it will be wiped out when we move house. It's bittersweet really! We are hoping to exchange in the next couple of weeks and complete by the end of the month but I have quickly learned to not believe much of what the estate agents and solicitors say (other than our own, who's been pretty brilliant so far). We're so excited to get our own place, to be able to put our own mark on it is just AWESOME.

I've been doing a little investing, just sweeping cash over to Moneybox app and putting it in a S&S ISA. I realised that the few pounds every week is not enough to do much so have been topping up — so far I'm averaging about £20ish per week but aiming to do closer to £100-120 per month. And once my 0% balance CC is up in May next year, I'll top it up further so it'll be closer to £250 a month. One thing I really want to do is get ahead with the mortgage repayments - just found out some family members of ours who are a few years older than us are about to buy their next family house mortgage free. Their situation is quite different to ours (started younger, different part of the UK NOT LONDON), however, I see they've been making good decisions about money even though they don't earn that much. They aren't even the type to be tight, they're always on holiday and very generous, so they aren't missing out. I aspire for us to be like that