Dairy of a FTB!

MrsWW

Hi all! I've decided to add my own diary to the thread as a method of self-motivation!

Me and my husband are about to complete on our first home.We are buying for £310,000 with an 11% deposit - our total mortgage is £276,899. This seems huge but we are close to central London and this is a ground floor, 2 bedroom property with shared front garden and private back garden.

For family reasons, we can't move out of our current property for at least a year (our new place is literally 30 seconds away from where we currently are) and so we plan on taking our time to get the place up to scratch. We are lucky that we barely pay any rent where we currently are. The place is our dream home and came on the market really unexpectedly and so we had to jump at it. This also meant that we didn't have as much of a deposit as we would have liked and couldn't get a very competitive rate! Our mortgage is a 2 year fixed-rate at 2.09%

Between us, we clear just over £5000 a month and have minimal debts (a small Next account and one 0% credit card payment) so we are hoping that we are able to start making over payments pretty quickly and regularly.

I am already trying to reign in our spending as much a possible: I'm doing surveys, changing where and how we shop and cutting some luxuries. I'm signed up to Topcashback and use receipt scanning apps - I'd be grateful if anybody has any other ideas to bring in a few pennies?!

I haven't even started paying the mortgage yet but, overall, my goal is to get the term down from the 32 years it currently stands at and have my mortgage paid off well before then!

Looking forward to following you all on your journeys - good luck!

MrsWW

Well, today has been a productive day!

I have started to get my book collection together to scan and send off for some pennies, have met my daily target on Swagbucks and paid £30 into my Christmas savings scheme. I've also had a successful day at work which all counts towards my mission for a pay rise next year!

I've had a quick check on the savings account and things are not looking too shabby (though could be much better). We will be left with a £5000 emergency fund after we have:
- paid the deposit (£34,100)
- Paid for the rewiring as advised by EICR
- have already bought tiles for the kitchen and bathroom
- have already bought wooden flooring and tiled flooring to cover the entire property
- have already bought coving
- have already bought paint for all walls and ceilings
- have already bought decorating supplies
- have already bought cupboard paint

I feel like we're in a pretty good position but have never done this before so would be grateful for any advice/comments!

LeighofMar

Welcome and congrats on your new home. It sounds like you're off to a great start.

MrsWW

So, we have set the exchange date as this coming Friday and are hoping to complete straight away!

Hubby just got a £300 bonus which has gone straight to the savings and £56 of my eBay sales have cleared and so they have joined the savings!

Things are getting real!

Yellow_mango

Hello! We're also due to complete on our house on Friday! Looking forward to following you in this journey!

MrsWW

Congratulations!
We actually managed to complete on Friday and are now homeowners!! Have spent all weekend pulling up carpets and flooring as the place is in a horrible state!

We have found an electrician to complete the required works and he starts on 22nd of this month, for now we're doing what we can.