Atrixa's Saving Diaries 25 September 2017 at 7:59PM edited 25 January at 6:20PM in How much have you saved? 406 replies 26.4K views

atrixa

Decision in Principle has been sorted. It's odd that two mortgage advisors have said that it wasn't worth doing, but I've ended up having to get one anyway. Oh well, it was what I would have done anyway if I had done it myself. I am now completely addicted to people on youtube buying/renovating houses. Might be a good thing as it's highlighted some costs of redecorating that I hadn't really thought about before.

savingwannabe

Well done atrixa, it is good to see what other people are doing to their houses. I hope you get some great ideas. 

Irenadler

Aw, well done, exciting news! You've worked very hard for it, and I hope you enjoy it.

atrixa

I haven't updated the numbers side on here in ages so here we are:

Sinking funds (shoes, holidays, days out etc)		£       682.09
Emergency Fund (£7000 goal)		£        934.64
Help to Buy ISA		£   4,701.28
Mortgage and Moving costs/ rest of deposit		£  5,892.87
I'm still paying 5% into my pension matched by my employer.

Once I've moved and filled my emergency fund I'll probably increase the contributions. I'll also create a sinking fund over 5 years for a new bathroom and work on another pot for any repairs that need to be done.
I had a chat with my mortgage advisor about insurance yesterday. Looks like I'm going for income protection insurance that will cover me until age 60 and I obviously need buildings insurance too. Overall my outgoings will be a bit higher than my rent, but it's affordable and i'll have paid off the mortgage in 15 years.

MovingForwards

It all looks good 🤗

Comparison sites for building / contents insurance, especially if you have a standard property, just read the assumptions / T&C's before taking the policy. I went with D.Line as they have set figures eg upto £1m for the building, upto £50k for the contents. 

Sinking fund and emergency fund are the priority when in your own home.
Where possible pay annually for things eg home / car insurance, car tax, boiler insurance (if you have it, I haven't bothered), then you can put the equivalent away each month for renewal.

You might find things still balance out financially when it's your home. Although my mortgage is more than my half of the rent was, the council tax is cheaper.

atrixa

Thanks MF, I'm on band A at the moment and so is the new house, so should be the same (same authority). I'm hoping the energy bill will be cheaper since I'll be rid of my horrible, inefficient storage heater!

MovingForwards

You will find a way to balance it out and having a better heating system will help.

atrixa

While I'm waiting for all the house buying bits to progress, I'm deep cleaning my rented flat. I keep it pretty clean day-to-day but I have always put a lot of the fiddly cleaning on the back burner as a 'I'll sort it when I move out' job, but I didn't expect to live here for 8 years. 
I've done most of the decluttering, but there's now a pile of old documents that need to go through my manual shredder at some point. Today's extra cleaning job is the light fittings. To be honest, they weren't all that clean when I moved in so I need to go in with a damp cloth and remove all the dust and what looks like the odd dead fly   
I've already cleaned all the windows and started on the bedroom, pulling out all of the furniture and getting the dust off the skirting boards. The shower needs a lot of attention every week - it's one of the old fashioned ones where black mould manages to make its way into every bit of grout, in the areas between the folding door. It's tiny as well so difficult to get in and spray mould remover around without getting it on myself. I can't wait to have a bathroom with a window I can open.

MovingForwards

It will all be worth it and the more you can scale down now, the easier it will be to settle in and unpack.
The good thing about renting is knowing what you definitely don't want in your own home.

riotlady

Good job clearing everything out! I should really deep clean our flat tbh but I'm so busy!
Is it just me that really quite enjoys shredding?