Buying a house without a mortgage

pavlovs_dog

as for these premium bonds... if you insist on buying them can you use a cashback credit card to buy them without incuring any fees from the PO or card issuer? Anything to milk out the free extra pennies

Frugaldom

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

as for these premium bonds... if you insist on buying them can you use a cashback credit card to buy them without incuring any fees from the PO or card issuer? Anything to milk out the free extra pennies

Hi Pavlovs, I had already thought of that for Premium Bonds and Council Tax, HOWEVER, that's scuppered by their only accepting debit cards for Premium Bonds and our council charging a fee for using a credit card. I think the TV license may even be the same. :rolleyes: My only saving grace is that we don't pay water or sewage costs in the countryside, on accounts of not being connected directly to mains. :rotfl: I read an excellent article in a magazine about this self-same topic. It said, "take a seat, have a cuppa, excuse me a second whilst I fish that tadpole out the kettle", or words to that effect. :rotfl:

Frugaldom

How slow is this savings lark now?! THANKFULLY, they introduced a new £25 win on the premium bonds and I've managed to win one of them this month, otherwise the interest on savings accounts is ridiculously low. Got the free intro £20 bonus from ING plus I have been paying in my daily £1.35 in lieu of quitting smoking last December and have also been saving all the little extras that I can but THINGS ARE SO SLOW! It's just as well that I'm now renting my ideal home and am in no hurry to move unless asked to do so by the landlords. Only 5 months until DD's wedding and then I can get back to concentrating on the savings. One thing is for sure, I won't have the £3,600 ready to drop into my 2009/10 ISA by next week as stoozing it just isn't worth it at the moment.

PS - Note to Pavlov - I'll be cashing in (most of) the premium bonds soon so I don't need to withdraw savings for paying off the stooze pot and wedding expenses. Then I'll concentrate on the ISA before buying any more bonds, I promise

Frugaldom

Dear all, I can now climb back onto my house-saving wagon as DD's wedding has been and gone. It was surprisingly painless (other than the usual stresses associated with helping organise a daughter's wedding) and joy of joys, I didn't need to dip into the magic ISA savings nor did I need to cash in those infernal premium bonds. Indeed, I won another £25 from them! If I can now manage to catch up with my 2009/10 ISA whilst leaving DS's 21st birthday money in Premium Bonds (just in case) then I'll be happy. It isn't much in the grand scale of things but it's a start. Meanwhile, DD and my newly acquired SIL have already had a house surveyed and submitted an offer. I guess we need to all sit back and await closing date with fingers crossed that it doesn't attract any further bids. Property asking prices are still relatively high about here but they aren't selling, so very open to negotiation. The one DD & SIL are interested in has dropped 10k in the past month, hence reason it came within their budget based on first time buyers. The best they were offered was 5.1% fixed for 3 years based on a 10% deposit, which I think is pretty good going for first timers into the credit market. What I have noticed are the increasing numbers of properties being auctioned with ludicrous estimated selling prices. I'm talking flats for £18k and such like and not all in bad areas, either. It's that sort of bargain I'd love to find close by, with the hope of renting it out for around £350/£400 a month and managing the tenancy myself. If the place wasn't in too bad an area and by the seaside, then it might even be suitable as a retirement home for me one day. Who knows what the future holds?

pavlovs_dog

glad to hear that the wedding went well nyk. it's lovely to see this thread back again :j

setmefree2

Great to hear all your news. with all your future plans.

Frugaldom

Thanks Pavlov & SMF. Just looking at Pavlov's signature and it is sooooooo true! I joined Faceb00k and now that I'm back in contact with a lot of the 'old gang', it's giving me itchy feet! I want my passport renewed, I want to go places, see things, do things... everyone seems to be doing stuff other than saving. They all cost money that I need to save in the hope of being able to put a roof over my own head one day. But then I need to ask myself how much they are truly and honestly enjoying life if they need to practically live online. I live online because it compensates for all the things I don't do - why are they there if they are really doing them? So now I have that out my system, I can get back to saving but hope to get myself a passport 'just in case'.

Scouring through all the accounts in search of something to pay into my ISA to start me off. If I can make another start on it then I'll feel like things are moving forward quicker.

Bone_Idle

I'll echo what Pavlov says - great to see this thread back again! :beer: for the wedding going well!

Frugaldom

I'm back again. I eventually got around to checking my accounts, totting up interest payments and skimming some cash from one place to filter it off into my ISA. It was more a case of rounding up, though, as the balance showing was an odd one. As you'll see by my signature, I need to find £2,500 to fill this year's ISA, so I started by making what was in there already into a nice round number. The saddest part of doing the full review of savings situation was seeing the monthly interest payments. I had been trying to make it to £50 per month in ISA interest and had reached as far as £46 before stopping paying into it whilst saving for DD's wedding. It hit an all time low in June, when that £46 per month had sunk to £5.48! It's gradually creeping back up and has now reached £27.24 but that's a long way short of £50!

Anyway, the balance in the account ended in a funny number, so I scraped together £162.34 to take it to the next £500. Only another £2,337.66 left to go for this tax year.

Back to you, now, how are your house savings going?

pavlovs_dog

I've just done the last of the banking sessions where we are not quite in a position to buy. As of the end of the month, when we want to start looking to buy, we will be able to. We have our deposit, and by the 28th we will have 3 months proof of my new income (which sure as hell beats what i was bringing in as a student)!

Our deposit official stands at £22500 and should clear £23k by the end of November. Furniture fund is at £8k, Fees fund at £2.5k and emergency fund at around £10k. I'm prepared to shuffle these figures around if need be (eg borrowing from the furniture fund or having a slightly smaller emergency fund if it would mean securing the house of our dreams).

We're still with the inlaws, who are about to move house. We're welcome to go with them, and will have the loft conversion if we do (office, bedrrom and en suite bathoom). Whilst part of me is desparate to fly the nest, for every month we stay at home we can save around £1k towards our nest egg. Whilst I'm keeping a very beady eye on rightmove, i'm having to reign in my excitment. I'm determined not to let myself rush for the sake of rushing. I know what i want in a house, and if it means waiting to get it then that's what we will have to do.