Ruby's Bought a House, Now I want to Own It!

savingholmes

Well done on the decluttering. Good you've had some positive thoughts on how you can improve the staging.

It's easy for us to laugh at mouse shenanigans but my own recent experiences with mice is my cat bringing them as gifts - usually but not always dead. I did help one escape out of the house last year as while I'm not keen either - the cat doesn't even eat them so it feels wasteful... (sorry). 

ruby_eskimo

I wouldn't have minded so much if we had a cat that had brought it in, but it was DH leaving the back door open like I keep telling him not to do 🙄  Think he's still behind the washing machine so leaving it to DH to sort out now.

Just popping in to say that I've just realised we have over £50k in savings now 🤯  Obviously most of that is the LISA and S&S ISA but still, it's money that I've managed to squirrel away for a future date that I never would have been able to do a few years ago.

South_coast

Ooh, that's wonderful news on the £50k (mouse not quite so exciting 😳). That's a great milestone!

savingholmes

What an amazing milestone. Huge congratulations!

LadyWithAPlan

£50k great milestone! 

I am also aiming to save the difference each month  of my possible  future mortgage payment each month vs my current rent to get myself in the mindset of dealing with my future bills when I finally buy  and to feel comfortable knowing I can do it. £900pm  - ouch.. If I cant manage it for 6 months by spending less and earning more then I know I will have to revise my house buying goals mortgage wise. 
So far this month it seems impossible with tax returns but three more week left in Jan so lets see! 

ruby_eskimo

Had a busy but productive weekend:

- Mickey the mouse finally left the house with a little help from DH on Friday

- Treated DH to a low key date night at the local brewery on Friday night as he's been working 12 hour days since Christmas and he needed an excuse to finish work "early".  One of my "things" for the year is to have an old school date night once a month as quality time together has been a bit lacking.  When we first got married we did something new every 29th of the month (the date we got married) and managed to keep that up for 2 years, so I want to go back to that but obviously without spending tons of money.  So Friday was the start and it was lots of fun - the tap room has been refurbished and was a lovely cosy space, food was very good and of course fresh beer was appreciated.  Plus it was only a 10 minute walk away so that's a bonus!

- Saturday morning we took up the old flooring in the bedroom ready for the carpet to be fitted tomorrow and took it all to the dump.  Tonight we need to take up the underlay and try and do something with the bed.  I really don't want to have to dismantle the whole thing but it might come to that.  We can sleep on the spare bed if necessary as I think one night on just a mattress on the floor will probably wreck both of our backs 🤣

- Decluttered stuff from the bedroom and still have more "stuff" to work through.  We're now up to 143 items out so far this year so well on the way to the 365 target I set which to be honest we'll probably go well above that.

- As we have no floor at the moment, DH decided it would be a really good time to repaint all the woodwork in the bedroom which yes I agree, but also the house stinks of paint and it's freezing because of having the windows open for ventilation.

- Payday is in a week and a) haven't had to touch the extra money I put aside for new mortgage / CT bill, b) have spent £54.10 on "extra" things like date night and some emergency snacks yesterday when I was in the office.  This has resulted in 13 NSD's already which I'm really proud of.

So my house is a mess with stuff from our bedroom everywhere, there's no space to put up our heated airer so I can't do any washing and dust is flying around so I'm sneezing constantly.  But it will all be worth it.  Just 24 hours and I can start moving things back to where they belong, do some washing and finish decluttering so we have 1 room that is "move ready" 🤞

savingholmes

Well done on the date night. Those things really matter and are easily neglected - and then regretted later.

Good luck with the home improvements. I hate the messy stage but it will be lovely for you once it's all done. I have to say painting in summer is much nicer as although you might be too hot it at least dries quicker.

ruby_eskimo

Well January kind of ran away from me there!  Back with a few updates on things:

- Carpet installation went well, and is an almost identical match for the rest of the house so that was a good choice 👍  Bedroom is noticeably warmer now too!

- Sold our old bathroom cabinet which has been hiding in the bedroom for the last 4 years.  Money added to the moving fund.

- House is clean and relatively tidy after having some friends over last weekend and then my parents over this weekend (long may it continue!)

- Decluttering has continued apace and we're now at 343 items out of the house 🤯  between a mixture of donations and tip runs, we're on a roll.  We even decluttered the cupboard of doom (aka the spare room wardrobe) and can comfortably fit in all of DH's clothes when we need to move things around for staging the house.

- I managed 24 NSD's in January and also kept up with the Yoga with Adrienne 30 day challenge for the first time ever.  Again hope these are both good habits I can carry forward into this month too.


So all in all January has been a very positive month.  Still a lot more decluttering to do, mainly my clothes and the kitchen, but just going to try and focus on one drawer or cupboard at a time.  Tonight it's the turn of the nail polish drawers as I need to paint my nails anyway ready for a swanky work event tomorrow so might as well sort through them while I'm at it.  Then I can get rid of the drawers and downsize into an old shoe box hopefully!

savingholmes

Well done on the selling and decluttering. Sounds like you are doing really well - including with NSDs and yoga. Fab result.

LadyWithAPlan

Well done! Some great habits in place there