CyclistDreams - House deposit diary

Radsi

What you said in your initial post struck a cord about not being in the right position for that property you saw. Just wanted to say sometimes you have to believe everything happens for a reason. October 2019 I fell in love with a house that was perfect for me in terms of location, size, etc etc. It had 6 offers went to full and final and I didn't get it. I just couldnt offer any more money at that point as I didnt have it/couldnt get it with mortgage.
Found out through land registry I missed out by £5000 sulked and was heartbroken as no other house compared to it. 

Covid hit and working for the NHS was more overtime than I ever wanted. So i just kept going and my average earnings grew as did my savings. 

The house over the road went up for sale.  Had a better layout than the other one and was literally perfect. Had 6 offers after one day of viewings. No full and final. Sellers went with me as I had the highest deposit and was in the best position. When I move in I might introduce myself to my new over the road neighbours who I hated for a year for stealing my house 🤣 

savingwannabe

Brilliant news on job and savings front. Stay safe and let's wish for a good 2021.

doingitanyway

Radsi said:

What you said in your initial post struck a cord about not being in the right position for that property you saw. Just wanted to say sometimes you have to believe everything happens for a reason. October 2019 I fell in love with a house that was perfect for me in terms of location, size, etc etc. It had 6 offers went to full and final and I didn't get it. I just couldnt offer any more money at that point as I didnt have it/couldnt get it with mortgage.
Found out through land registry I missed out by £5000 sulked and was heartbroken as no other house compared to it. 

Covid hit and working for the NHS was more overtime than I ever wanted. So i just kept going and my average earnings grew as did my savings. 

The house over the road went up for sale.  Had a better layout than the other one and was literally perfect. Had 6 offers after one day of viewings. No full and final. Sellers went with me as I had the highest deposit and was in the best position. When I move in I might introduce myself to my new over the road neighbours who I hated for a year for stealing my house 🤣 

This post really spoke to me. I also lost a house and could not bid any higher after increasing my offer by £10,000. I'd like to think I will emerge with something even better too. Thank you for posting

MovingForwards

@Cyclistdreams appears to be partway through buying a house, but he hasn't updated his diary in a while.

savingwannabe

It's brilliant. He has made some amazing sacrifices it shows that it all pays off in the end. 

Cyclistdreams

Whoops... Knew I'd forgotten to do something, and that was updating this thread - my bad!

So yes, I managed to get my first home in Feb 2021. Didn't actually get moved in until April 2021 as i was decorating it top to bottom around working any hours i could at work to pay for it all. Ended up massively overspending on the house furnishings, so the extra hours at work went to very good use!

Ended up paying £155,000 for the house. The deposit was £45000 and mortgage was £110,999 (there was a product fee on the mortgage I think, my memory is failing me!). Mortgage is 1.75% fixed for 5 years. 

I must admit, I have been a bit lax with saving money since i moved into this house. I'm sure i read something somewhere where when you're dealing with big figures like mortgages, £50 or so seems to lose it's value slightly... Kind of just think of it's only £50, that's nothing... So I'm trying to get out of that mindset... It's proving difficult! 

The secondment that i went for didn't work out too well. Toxic environment, lack of training provided to myself and an unfriendly new manager saw me cut the secondment short 3 months in to move back to my previous position. Ended up dropping back down to top of Band 4, but i valued my mental health more than the extra pay. Waking up on a morning and dreading getting up and going to work was horrific, i feel for anybody in that current position - I do NOT want to ever be back in a position like that. 

Speaking of money, since I've been WFH for the last couple years now i've managed to work a shed load of Overtime and we also got some backpayments in the NHS. All in all, 2021-2022 tax year I earnt an extra £20k or so. Bought myself a new car for 14k to replace my 14 year old car (Nothing was wrong with it, but refer back to money losing it's value mentally to me), bought a new gravel bike for my cycling hobby and then some bits and bobs for the house. 

I will be cutting back on the Overtime though, having 1 day a week off work for the last year has taken it's toll - i need a bit more time off work as I'm close to burning out and our lass wants to see me more as i spend my life upstairs in the office lol. 

Current goals at the moment are - 

- Get my emergency fund back to 5k. This is currently at £2730 as of today. 

- Keep up current investments. Currently £300 a month is going into Vanguard

- Overpay mortgage as much as possible - Currently overpaying £43.92 a month. I understand investing will get better returns, but I'm happy with the £300 a month and it's 'projected' value come 30 years down the line

- Build a buffer in my savings pots for the car, birthdays etc

- Keep this thread up to date lol

Below is a copy of my current networth - you can see where i bought a house and the money that poured out and then the stagnation as my spending got a bit silly... Hopefully get some more green savings on there in the coming months! +/- is the money saved. Green good, red bad lol 

MovingForwards

Work out an annual budget of all your fixed bills each month, add in food, petrol, insurances, vehicle repairs, presents and a fun fund etc.
See what's potentially left each month.
For now, set a target of ¹/3 of this 'spare' money to be saved and treat it as another bill, payday transfer that money into a savings account.
Originally I found it easier to have a savings account with a different bank, it meant I couldn't see that money when checking my normal balance and I knew I wasn't to use it. If I don't spend all my food budget for the week, I transfer the surplus to savings.

Well done for stepping back, health takes priority over work and being able to give your best most of the time is more beneficial than giving your best some of the time.

Give it time, keep posting and you'll stay on track.

Skint_yet_Again

Well done on buying your first home. 🍾🥂I think it’s easy to get carried away with buying new furnishings especially when it’s your first home but at least you have realised and reigned in your spending. 

Sorry to hear about the secondment going badly and glad to hear you could get out. Nothing worse than a toxic workplace as a few of us on here are aware of. 

Good luck with your savings and overpayments. Is your girlfriend living with you and contributing towards the bills / food etc ? If not then maybe she should and this will compensate towards the reduction in overtime. 

Cyclistdreams

Skint_yet_Again said:

Well done on buying your first home. 🍾🥂I think it’s easy to get carried away with buying new furnishings especially when it’s your first home but at least you have realised and reigned in your spending. 

Sorry to hear about the secondment going badly and glad to hear you could get out. Nothing worse than a toxic workplace as a few of us on here are aware of. 

Good luck with your savings and overpayments. Is your girlfriend living with you and contributing towards the bills / food etc ? If not then maybe she should and this will compensate towards the reduction in overtime. 

Thank you Yes, my girlfriend is living with me and splitting everything apart from the mortgage and any house upkeep so that's certainly helping. 

Trying to get myself out the mindset of wanting to work as much overtime as possible for the money and actually living my life a bit and having some downtime... It's taking me some adjustment! 

MovingForwards said:

Work out an annual budget of all your fixed bills each month, add in food, petrol, insurances, vehicle repairs, presents and a fun fund etc.
See what's potentially left each month.
For now, set a target of ¹/3 of this 'spare' money to be saved and treat it as another bill, payday transfer that money into a savings account.
Originally I found it easier to have a savings account with a different bank, it meant I couldn't see that money when checking my normal balance and I knew I wasn't to use it. If I don't spend all my food budget for the week, I transfer the surplus to savings.

Well done for stepping back, health takes priority over work and being able to give your best most of the time is more beneficial than giving your best some of the time.

Give it time, keep posting and you'll stay on track.

Thank you Yes, i need to get back into having a fun specific account to stop me from overspending. I had intended to do that this month actually, but i worked out if i changed from a monthly subscription for my cycling training software to an annual sub, i could save myself £40 over the year so i spent this months fun money on that. Least i can now budget monthly for the annual payment now  

MovingForwards

That's worth paying annually and if you saved the cover cost each month, on renewal you'd have surplus for a nice meal or something else.

You'll start picking up new ways of budgeting or shifting money around to make it go further.