Reducing Debt - being accountable and taking responsibility

DrSpendLittle

12 days until payday! Cant believe how quickly June has gone. But at the same time, its draaaaaaging so much as we haven't moved yet!

It's definitely going to be July before we move now. Ugh. But, at least my savings will be up in the region of £4K by then. Plus we'll have paid off more of our current mortgage too - there should now be c. £800 leftover from selling / paying the deposit as I didn't include June or July's equity accrual in my mortgage deposit calculations. The solicitor will probably deduct it from our bill rather than transferring it back to me. Not sure how these things work really.

Anyway, that all means there's more ££s to spend on Stuff when we get to the new house! I've spent the afternoon writing a list of things we will need (not just want) for the new house and putting them into an order of priority, spread over the first three months. It all adds up. I can't quite believe it really. Need to sit down and chat with DF about it. Might change the ordering of some stuff.

Being very good with other spends. Limited my personal spends to £50 for the month (I bought two t-shirts). Trying to be good with groceries and work lunches. The only other budget items left to spend from for June are fuel, phone bill, union subs and dentist. Everything else has been paid for and the remaining money has gone into savings. My YNAB looks so boring!

Hoping we'll find out this week whether we are any closer to signing contracts and exchanging. We will only have 1 week between exchange and completion if I get my way, so we could do with as much indication as is possible so I can get on with important stuff like getting rid of unwanted furniture etc. I'm super nervous and too superstitious to start doing it all before we exchange!

DSL

enthusiasticsaver

Sorry it is taking so long, House buying/selling can take time especially if any of the properties in the chain are leasehold or if there is a long chain. The plus side is as you say your savings will be higher and mortgage lower so on completion you should have more cash available for immediate expenses. Sounds like a sensible approach to prioritise needs over wants initially at least.

DrSpendLittle

Some positive steps forward on the house sale / purchase in the past few days. Our searches are back with no significant issues arising. Just waiting on our seller's solicitor to respond to some queries (I chased them via their EA). Our buyers might come back with some additional queries (they seem anxious about a couple of the idiosyncrasies of our house and might request an additional search; ugh). Anyway, lets see.

Hoping for the first full week of July for moving. Who knows! Solicitor said we can start talking dates very soon. We want to complete asap after exchange - our mortgage lender stipulates a 5 day gap to transfer funds. I hope the solicitor has already drawn up the contract and is waiting to amend from final queries. If so, we might get it send next week, sign the week after, move the week after that. That would be w/c 8th July. Works for me!

DF and I had a quick chat about finances last night - he has done brilliantly on saving (he's so proud of himself!) and we now have a good chunk to take with us and spend on immediate needs and also to cash flow the fees, expenses and stamp duty. The Big Savings will remain untouched. We will probably go and see a finical advisor when its all done to get some advice on where to store the savings.

Roll on pay day (next Friday for me) and exchange!

DSL

PositiveBalance

Things are going well. Dr SL! :j


You'll be inviting us round for a virtual housewarming before you know it! :beer:

DrSpendLittle

Chance would be a fine thing, PositiveBalance :rotfl:

Our conveyancer seems mobilised to get this all over the line now. after a few weeks doing God Knows What. How can it take soooooo long to sell and buy houses. I know where are lots of steps and details and things that go wrong and need negotiating, but surely they can just employ more people to speed up the process..?!?! I'd happily pay twice as much money if it took half as long.

Anyway, we're hoping for completion in the next couple of weeks, but famous last words and all that...:o

Moving on to more positive topics, it's payday tomorrow at midnight :T

Don't you just love 30 day months

Looking forward to updating my figures. I need to put some savings aside for my MOT and new tyres in August. Apart from that, July should turn into a joint account budget and a joint income budget - I'm not sure DF has the first clue what to expect :rotfl:

DSL

enthusiasticsaver

Hopefully you will get a moving date soon.

Just my thoughts on financial advisors. It is only worth seeing one if you are considering investing (5 years or more) or to discuss sipps/inheritance tax/ stocks and shares isas. If it is purely savings in a high street bank/building society they probably won't be interested. Most do free initial consultations though so you would lose nothing. I would look to build up emergency savings to 6 months to a years expenses first after moving and all initial moving fees/expenses paid.

DrSpendLittle

Thanks for the thoughts on financial advisors, Enthusiastic - I don't think we'll be investing any of it as we want reasonably ready access to it. We already have a 6 month emergency fund plus a further 4 months but we are assigning the latter to house maintenance savings as we're buying an old house and need to be smart about damp, roofs, dry stone walls etc etc. Day to day savings will go in another pot. I suspect we'll just have multiple joint / savings accounts. No need for a financial advisor.

In other news, its payday!!

I've updated my signature. Sadly, these savings will probably be wiped out in the next 10 or so days as I will need to pay various people for various aspects of the house move. However, it's sweet seeing a pretty healthy bank balance

Nearly the weekend - lots of pre-move sorting to do!

DSL

PositiveBalance

It's exciting and frustrating at the same time, DrSL!


I hope it all comes to an end for you soon.


P.S. I meant it about the virtual housewarming party!

enthusiasticsaver

DrSpendLittle wrote: »

Thanks for the thoughts on financial advisors, Enthusiastic - I don't think we'll be investing any of it as we want reasonably ready access to it. We already have a 6 month emergency fund plus a further 4 months but we are assigning the latter to house maintenance savings as we're buying an old house and need to be smart about damp, roofs, dry stone walls etc etc. Day to day savings will go in another pot. I suspect we'll just have multiple joint / savings accounts. No need for a financial advisor.

In other news, its payday!!

I've updated my signature. Sadly, these savings will probably be wiped out in the next 10 or so days as I will need to pay various people for various aspects of the house move. However, it's sweet seeing a pretty healthy bank balance

Nearly the weekend - lots of pre-move sorting to do!

DSL

I agree that maybe focusing on saving rather than investing is better for you being on the cusp of moving and having all the cost of improvements to contend with. Just make sure that you maximise your pension contributions when you are in a position to do so. That would be my first port of call if considering investing at some point in the future.

DrSpendLittle

Quick check in - we still haven't moved house, let alone exchanged contracts :mad::mad:

Various reasons are to blame, mainly to do with leases, and we expect the delay to be ongoing until the end of August at the very least. All very frustrating and annoying but c'est la vie I suppose.

The good news is we get to save even more ££s from our July and possibly August salaries. It sort of makes up for having to live in a pigsty surrounded by half dismantled furniture and packing boxes.

Will update more fully when we know where we stand.

I am sick and tired of speaking to conveyancers. I cannot believe the state of conveyancing practice in England. I am shocked at how inefficient it really is. How on earth do issues relating to leases and legal documents only surface when conveyancers are "ready to exchange" ?!?!?!?! Surely the conveyancer should have spotted these issues months ago?!?! :mad::mad:

Ugh, rant over!

DSL