SLLM (Single Lady Large Mortgage)

Sistergold

@HelloB
You are right we are going to have a lot of house warming parties I think! Welldone ladies for forging ahead to buy your own houses! We are keeping our fingers crossed for smooth transactions so that you Quickly complete! 

Sistergold

Hello ladies
How have you all been? I have been doing alright and just feeling a bit bored as there has not been much activity in the area of savings or OPs. I have £500 which I got as a payment for extra consultation done but I am just keeping it as I seem to be on some kind of spending spree. Have decided not to be too hard on myself so will keep it and see what is left next week sometime. Everything else money wise has been good. 

This Tuesday I managed to OP only £15 so not much to talk about. But the good thing is this month after the OPs and the monthly payment the balance has now gone encouragingly down and state of affairs is mortgage Balance 13/07/2020 was £469062 And 23 July 2020 balance £466554 with 21yrs11mths remaining.

Looks like there is so much hardship anticipated and we just need to be grateful for being able to carry on with all our financial plans. 

Well the pubs have been open for some time now I think but I have not yet been to one but I must say I am missing the Sunday pub roast! 

Yesterday I woke up early and transplanted the kale seedlings, sprinkled some slug and snail killer as I have a lot of snails in my garden. I checked on the kale this morning and they looked okay so fingers crossed there will be a harvest. I still need to transplant some asparagus and pumpkin at some point. 

This morning I trimmed down a big maple tree as my neighbor had mentioned that the branches were overhanging into her garden. The branches were a bit big and at some point I thought they might crash the fence down and into my neighbours but luckily all went well, used an electric oscillating saw. 

Hazelnutty

Evening, @Sistergold ! i'm feeling the itch for a bit of a spending spree too I have to admit. A minor purchase today on the clothes front but we're all popping into town tomorrow afternoon and suspect I'll end up buying a few bits for DD (she has mysteriously decided to grow what seems like 4" over lockdown and all her leggings are halfway up her calves!) and I'm hankering for a big, snuggly hoodie for myself.

I'm also starting to browse flooring, tiles, wallpaper etc for the renovation and order samples and eondering about getting a 0% credit card to cover these purchases... I did an eligibility check and am 95% likely to get the 20-month M&S card (and then, bizarrely, 0% likely to get a less good Barclaycard?!) so could be a good option. I know I can save a good few hundred each month from my salary to clear it before the 0% ends. The less I borrow from my mum the better.

Sounds like you've been going great guns in the garden!

Sistergold

@Hazelnutty
Yes “shopping itch” is a problem with most of us at the moment after being “deprived” by the lockdown! 🤦🏽‍♀️ It’s really going to take a lot of willpower not to spend unnecessarily! 

Children have truly been growing during this lockdown I guess it’s expected as all they did was sit around move a little and go to the fridge! 

My last child(son) went briefly to school(last two weeks just Thursdays and Fridays as they decided to open and his school trousers were like three quarters trousers now but he had to have it and go in them as I could not start to go uniform buying this side of summer holidays as I am sure whatever I buy now he will have grown talker when school restarts in September! 

How are you feeling about the renovations? Hope you are excited? Are you doing them yourself? If not hope you got someone good? Had a nightmare of a renovation when I did my house it left me emotionally scarred for life! 

0% credit card sounds good as you know how you will pay them! It will help also in keeping all your expenditures in one place and give you your total spend at the end of the renovations. 

X

Hazelnutty

We've been really lucky. I was selling some bits on FB in my last house and this guy turns up in paint-spattered clothes to collect - asked if he was in the trade as we needed some decorating doing and that was that! Turns out he's a lovely and totally trustworthy guy - and a real perfectionist. After we moved, we were chatting and I was saying I wouldn't be ready to redecorate until the necessary renovation work was done he was like - I can do that! He has friends and family in all the different trades and is project-managing the whole thing I don't know where I would have started trying to find builders in my new city, let alone choosing one I trust to work with and then having the worry of staying on top of the project myself. I definitely don't have the skills to do it myself but I probably will, ironically enough, do the decorating side of things as that's all I can contribute and it'll take a few hundred off the bill.

Sistergold

Wow @Hazelnutty talk about being lucky? You are the luckiest girl! Keep us updated about the renovations! I love hearing about renovation. 

🥂 here is to beautiful house! 

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello ladies, exciting news @Hazelnutty. What a lucky find. 

@Sistergold Sunday lunch sounds lush, yum! Enjoy. 

This weekend I'm staying in the property I'm hoping to buy very soon (fingers crossed). It's an unsexy bungalow that was owned by elderly relatives and is crying out life in it. It's strange as there is still some belongings and furniture in the property of my relatives. 

Yesterday an estate agent came and had a look at what improvements to focus on to get it ready to market. So this has been useful food for thought & provided me with some useful contacts for plumbing & electrics. So once I have the nod that probate has finished I can start the conveyancing process. Exciting times! 

Sistergold

@clarissa62
wow that is great news that you are nearer buying a place of your own! “Unsexy” bungalow? I am sure you can knock into it into “sexy” bungalow with time! Keep us updated! 

X

Whiterose23

Sistergold said:

Afternoon ladies 
@Whiterose23 just reminded me of one thing I have done which saved me LOADS of money! This is in keeping with “just not trying to impress as long as it’s mine”. Well after the renovations I did not have curtains. The renovations did not go as planned(big/long story for another day!) and anyway I moved in with all windows not ‘dressed’ so no blinds no curtains.  

I don’t know if it’s just me but I have always found curtains to be EXPENSIVE )and I have always loved beautiful curtains)? Or is it me who chooses expensive curtains? You know like how they say as a girl if you are attracted to bad boys you will tend to always choose a bad boy so maybe I am just attracted to expensive curtains which don’t go with this whole idea of me trying to OP the mortgage.  Well, I do have a big house I think? Well for a single woman I guess or is size again subjective? All that means lots of big windows! So laddies after going around the shops and seeing the expense I just decided to forget about curtains for sometime. The rails needed to be made especially as lounge windows are very wide in fact al the windows are on the big side. I just did not want to spend so much on windows. So for a few months we just lived in the house with open windows. I mean completely open! I had no privacy issues really but the only issue I had was that I am sensitive to light when I am trying to sleep and I will wake up at the crack of dawn. After some time I actually enjoyed waking up to the light and lying in bed looking outside at the trees and what not but my sleeping hours were short. After a few months enough was enough though and I installed the Venetian blinds which I had bought months ago. 

Well onto the issue of blinds. Laddies did anyone of you take up blinds as a way to cover up windows without going to the expense of curtains? For me my house has a South facing garden which was one of my requirements, as, well I can not have the beach 🏖 in London but at least I need the sun! But honestly the sun can become too much(look I am not complaining) so in my house I will always need blinds as that way I can adjust how much sun I let in which is tricky with just curtains if you see what I mean? 

I know curtains can really make the house so beautiful but mmmm well after having blinds for 10 months now I can not say I miss curtains except for their beauty. The only problem I have had with blinds is only in my bedroom as normally I would have had blackout curtains, blinds do work well in keeping out too much sun but they will not block out light. Well since I am just not wanting to buy curtains for now I bought some eye masks to block out light for sleeping and it’s working out well. 

I have also been wondering if I should get some Roman blinds instead of curtains for the sake of blocking out light from my bedroom? It can be a hustle to sleep with eye mask all the time. Roman blinds are coming in all sorts, velvet, linen etc and in different prints and fabrics just like curtains, and they tend to be cheaper than curtains but will block out light just like curtains will if you choose blackout ones also can choose thermal all at a fraction of cost to curtains. So it will mean Venetian blind plus roman blinds? 🤔 am I taking this too far I wonder this money saving idea? With Roman blinds I will not need curtain rails. Or is it better to cut down cost completely as I can also just live with the current Venetian blinds and use the eye mask for blacking out to sleep? 

Honestly I don’t really care about keeping up appearances and having almost not had curtains for the past 10 months I am finding the blinds such easy maintenance. Ladies do you know I only spent under £800 to do the whole house and by this I mean bathroom, kitchen, dining room, 4 bedrooms, lounge massive sliding glass doors, landing, 18 blinds in total! I don’t need to worry about washing or dry cleaning curtains? 🤔 look I think I could just put the money towards OP😉. 

I have also checked the Roman blinds and they are also cheaper than getting curtains. 

Well laddies it’s something to think about the next time you have to get curtains. All the blinds I ordered them as made to measure so they were not off the shelf and procedure was very straight forward! Customer service was brilliant! 

I really think I can just get over the idea of curtains and save money? In the lounge the blinds are mostly always open as even when we go to bed we never close off the lounge window but it does look plain with no curtain draping down. It’s like an office feel but for now I am really not bothered much for now although I get tempted to have curtains sometimes. 

1. Laddies does anyone have only Venetian blinds? 

2. Do you have Only roller/ Roman blinds? 

3. Do you have both blinds and curtains? 
4. Do you have only curtains? 

Also what your opinion of having only blinds in a house? 

I haven't logged on for some time but enjoyed reading this. I totally agree re curtains. The only curtains I have in my house (old Edwardian terrace with HUGE windows) are sheer ones, with a blind behind them but only if needed. My front window is an Edwardian style so I ordered three blinds and fitted them myself. This is the most i've spent but it was an online company (Blinds2go I think) and didn't cost too much. They look lovely. All my other windows have either sheers (cheap but look lovely and let in lots of light) or curtains I've been given or found on ebay.
I think we all spend far too much time worrying about keeping up with the Joneses, as I used to before I was poor! Now I enjoy just doing my own thing. The latest thing I did was pull up the front room carpet to find a scruffy wooden floor beneath. I started looking at having it sanded/sanding it myself, but in fact now it's been scrubbed down and there's a huge rug in the middle, it's kind of ok and quite authentic looking. So I haven't done anything yet. Result :-)

Sistergold

@Whiterose23
Oh hello. Blinds are cost effective right? For a 4 bedroomed house, total of 18 blinds at less than £700!  I have been contemplating getting voile curtains too but have not gotten that far yet! So much to do not enough money and so learning to be patient and content! 

Nice to hear from you
xx