SLLM (Single Lady Large Mortgage)

Sistergold

Hello @berries and Wellcome to SLLMs 💋. It is never too late to join him and welldone that you managed to get a mortgage by yourself! Imagine one whole house all to yourself? I am really sorry to hear the loss of your horse and dog, am glad that you are now getting your finances sorted out. EF is so important especially to us on a single income as it really gives us peace of mind and something to fall back on. No overpayment no matter how small is negligible? So pay whatever you can after you have put what you need to in the right places like your pension, EF etc. Infact it’s just a good feeling to be able to pay something in as it means you are getting into the habit of doing that! £100 for OP is not small at all and if you do it regularly it soon adds up! 

After owning a house it is so satisfying to be able to do some jobs around the house yourself and at the end of the day the more you do the more skills you get! 

Oh I love gardens but I am a terrible gardener! 

Sistergold

caeler said:

Great news on the fund @Sistergold Happy New Year to you too! 
I’ve always wanted a freezer in the garage but never got around to it as I’d need to create space and extend electrics to the back wall. Maybe one day! 

Happy new year to you too @caeler. Yes a freezer in the garage is really useful. Yes space don’t we all need it?! X

Sistergold

HelloB said:

@Sistergold I just realised you're over a third of the way in saving for your building fund!  Keep it up!!! At this rate, you'll have it all sorted by YE 2022!  

@HelloB , yes third way to building fund! It has been an uphill task though and I do hope by 2022 I might achieve the goal! 

berries

Sistergold said:

Hello @berries and Wellcome to SLLMs 💋. It is never too late to join him and welldone that you managed to get a mortgage by yourself! Imagine one whole house all to yourself? I am really sorry to hear the loss of your horse and dog, am glad that you are now getting your finances sorted out. EF is so important especially to us on a single income as it really gives us peace of mind and something to fall back on. No overpayment no matter how small is negligible? So pay whatever you can after you have put what you need to in the right places like your pension, EF etc. Infact it’s just a good feeling to be able to pay something in as it means you are getting into the habit of doing that! £100 for OP is not small at all and if you do it regularly it soon adds up! 

After owning a house it is so satisfying to be able to do some jobs around the house yourself and at the end of the day the more you do the more skills you get! 

Oh I love gardens but I am a terrible gardener! 

Thanks sistergood its stil hard!! My horse was a huge part of my life. Now I'm still finding it hard to motivate in the mornings. Maybe a job list might help me?? I've been off work this week pottering around the house and garden. 
There's two projects that I'm working on. I'm not great at finishing off one job at a time! 
There was a part of the lawn that kept flooding ...I had a dugged around only to find that there was more slabs underneath the current ones!! Plus loads of rumble! Now that area is currently a mess! Opps!!

I used my inheritance from my parents and grandparents  for my house. I'm learning loads now as there is plenty of jobs to be done in my garden.  Plants I'm good with etc. I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty. 

I have built quite a few bits in my garden and they're still standing!!!! 
I have been doing the tidy up funds trick and that seems to be making a big difference. As a few pence or pounds been moved to EF all helps.
Next pay day I'm going to do another bill list and see how else I can save. Will need to call my mortgage up about overpayments?? I should be able to clear one of my cc next pay day too!! Plus 2 months free of council tax.. thinking of putting that into the EF ???
Hope you had a good weekend too

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hi Ladies, 

Well done @Sistergold for reaching a significant milestone in extension funds and congratulations on the extension plans being approved. I remember seeing your posts about the plans and they look really exciting. 

Its been lovely to catch up on everyone else too - your all doing so well. I've had my own bit of success to share. I bought my little investment property on the 15th January and now getting the place ready to market, need to do a bit of decorating and carpet replacement but most work has already been complete - definite advantages of buying through close family. So currently awaiting a quote for some external work to be carried out. Need to book carpet fitters and sort out the bills in my name this week. I'm also back to work too! Been out of work for 8 months and its great to be back.   

On a different note, I was reading through the threads yesterday and thinking what is 'EF'? and for the life of me couldn't work it out. Until it came to be last night out of nowhere! Emergency Fund!! I don't specifically have a pot ring fenced as emergency fund. For the past few months this has been proceeds from divorce but now I'm back into work I should consider this. I have various savings pots which I'd like to use for a deposit on a property to live in. The investment one is a stepping stone / fall back plan. 

Sistergold

Queen_of_the_Hive said:

Hi Ladies, 
The investment one is a stepping stone / fall back plan. 

Good morning @Queen_of_the_Hive
Thank you for the encouragement, yes the building fund is coming up and the wait is not feeling so bad as I wouldn’t have wanted to start any works during this pandemic! So I am just sitting it out and trying to save as much as I can! 

I was really excited to learn of the fact that you bought an investment property as a stepping stone/fallback! I really like it when single ladies take control of their life and plan ahead! We really can do more than we think we can! Talk about girl power keep it up! 

It is interesting how you go through threads on here and there are abbreviations and you are scratching your head as to what it means, but after sometime you figure them all out! 

I guess for us the most important abbreviations to know are 
SLLM - Single Lady Large Mortgage 💸 💃🏾
EF - Emergency Fund
OP - OverPayments
LTV - Loan to Value
DIR - Daily Interest Rate
MFW - Mortgage Free Wannabe 

please feel free to add any other good to know abbreviations! 

Sistergold

Good morning ladies
I hope you have all been doing well? My week has been alright and I have been going to work as usual. Yesterday I was not feeling well, did a self test of covid as I had general muscular pain but test was negative. End of day I went home and slept early and am feeling better.

Writing this I am still having a lie in but will soon wake up and get ready for work as I told them I will come in late as I will be trying to rest. 

Have been reading >

The 'We're saving for a deposit' thread

It has been such an interesting read so far as some people there have saved such impressive amounts like @tara747 has saved £200k over like 10years🥳. Can you imagine doing all the things life needs you to do but building up such savings? Before stumbling on that saving deposit thread I had been toying with the idea of buying a bungalow or a detached house outside London as a Plan B for retirement and/or investment? I just felt that if when I am old there is no special reason I would want to carry on living in London I can just stay in another town in the said property. The house I will buy will be smaller than the one I live in now. Well that’s the general plan for now. I have been looking at different towns for now and just looking at general house prices. 

Initially I was going to buy a house outright, then I thought I should maybe put in a deposit and get a mortgage which will be buy to let? Well the house will be let for years until I need it? The thing is my savings are not earning much at the moment maybe just chuck in some into a property? As far as savings go if I look at building fund, other savings and even Emergency Funds I can raise a big deposit for a property now I could also possible wait a bit and pay for the property outright. My EF is way above what I will need as EF and I can take some money from there then build it back up. 

So many questions? 

Then you look at @tara747 and wonder whether I should just save from year to year and not worry about interests for now? I guess you will put the money where you find confidence to put the money? 

I guess for now I will just continue saving and after I buy second property I will start a new wave of saving. 

I received children’s reports and they are doing well considering they are learning from home. I am really grateful for that as I do worry about the children being at home without my help while I am away everyday at work. 

Weather has been so dull but today a bit of sun has been coming through. I am looking to rest this weekend and I hope it will be nice weather.

Direct debit went out 14th and mortgage balance is now at £455425. In 3 months if I don’t OP I should still be able to get to the  £444###. I am wishing I get to £399###.
I am on the save £12k in 2121 and through this I hope to be able to save £20k which I will be able to pay towards mortgage. So far I have put £2k towards the planned £20k. 

So now I have 3 things I am trying to achieve 
1. Get a second property, already started investigations as to best way to do it, buy it outright or get mortgage?
2. Save £20k to OP by £20k end of this year 
3. carry on saving towards building fund. 

I have read a lot of horror stories about rentals. For me the above said property will be a place to possibly downsize to. I have also had rental properties before and I had some bad experiences with that, tenants not paying for months and needing to go through the whole process of evicting someone while being left thousands out of pocket and said property being trashed. For me all the horror stories I think do come with being a landlord. Sometimes it’s works out with some tenants and sometimes it doesn’t. The trick is not to have a rental property which you could not pay for if a tenant goes bad. Having a tenant can be like having a tick which just wants to suck you dry but you really needs to accept the good and the bad and it’s not all bad! 

I will keep an emergency fund for the second property too and see how that goes. 

Laddies I hope to hear from you and please tell me what you are upto. 

slm6002

Your plans sound great.  I have always thought property is a good investment.  It will give you the income to help with the mortgage if you go down that route and then a home to downsize to as and when you need to.
I had the builder come to see me the other evening to talk through how to make my current house better as it looks like i have to stay for now.  Downstairs toilet is a good possibility, but the creation of an extra bedroom, either going into the loft or splitting the large bedroom into 2 just isn't worth it.  With all the unknowns at the moment i think i will say yes to the extra toilet, because even if it turns out i can move for a few thousand pounds it will make my house a little better than others in the area without one and hopefully sell quicker.  My gardens are also the wrong way round (big at front and small at back).  I am thinking of fencing the back garden/driveway off and making it into a proper back garden as this was also commented on last time i tried to sell the house.  I will still have parking for at least 1 car.  It will also stop unwanted visits from neighbours and ex family who think they can just walk in my back door!

Sistergold

@slm6002 - a downstairs toilet is a must for any house if you can squeeze it in! I had a very specious toilet downstairs when I moved in and I managed to rearrange and I squeezed in a shower and it has made a huge difference to our bath time as now two people can bath at the same time. Fencing the back garden is a definite good way forward to stop “intruders” in the form of ex-family members. 

You could also close off with lockable  gates which you can open if you need the extra parking maybe? The big front garden can it not be partly converted to more parking so that you can park more than one car? Just a thought? It’s annoying when the front garden is bigger but you could just decide to treat it as a usable garden/sitting aswell? Create seating and all at the front? Daring I know but I am kind of social.

 I remember when my children were young I used to prepare a picnic and we will eat it in the front garden! We did have a reasonable back garden but I do love seeing people passing by! 👁
My front garden at present is big too although the back is bigger. Funds permitting I am planning to create a seating area at the front where I will sit and read my book in summer and watch people pass by! The children can then play ball, skate, or whatever while I watch too. If the ice cream man should be In the Neighborhood we can also go for that! 
I can not wait to hear how your back garden and downstairs toilet plans go! 💋

slm6002

Hi there.  Yes the fence and gate at the back will be on hinges so they can go flat against the garage wall and side fence hopefully if parking does become an issue (should be fine unless builder does eventually gets planning permission for out the back and then it will be an issue - current plans were withdrawn after so many objections including the council - yay).  We did also look at parking on the front garden.  We are on a slope but i think we could level it a bit a the top and would get at least one car out there.  There is however a street light right in the middle which would cause some issues but it would give us another option.  It would just adjust the way buyers see the house as it is all a little back to front.  The kids still play out in the front garden but buyers couldn't see it.  I wish there was enough room for a shower as well, but think that would be pushing it a little under the stairs lol.  However i would be happy now with just the toilet   I know i cant move at the moment, but there is nothing wrong with making it nice so when i can move it will stand a better chance of selling.