A journey to financial security

MissMoneyManager

Excellent work @Chiglepig I for one will not look back on my life and relish the car washing memories  a lunch out however is another story!

So more on the plan for the next house purchase. Myself and OH originally came up with the plan to have at least £25,000 each saved by June 2022 to allow ourselves to at least start looking for a property. This goal is achievable with current earnings/spending leaving not much spare. On payday which is Friday I will have around £10,500 set aside. Unfortunately since this very loose plan was formulated, I decided to leave daydream land and do more research. I have looked into stamp duty costs which as second home buyers made me feel quite sick! We are ideally looking for somewhere with a plot of at least one acre. As a vague idea we may be able to get somewhere of this size for about £500,000 in our area. At this price this will likely be somewhere that needs considerable renovation and not in as good location as I would like. Therefore the £50,000 deposit we wanted saved as a starting point would only be a 10% deposit (not enough) and stamp duty would be an eyewatering £30,000 which we had not really thought about. Hence the need for this diary, to get where we want to be we will need to save considerably more than the achievable £50,000 initially proposed, we also do not want to wait too much longer than next year to move due to the stage we are at in life. From the outside it may seem incredibly unlikely we will get what we want but I am so determined that I am certain that with sacrifices, compromises, creative thinking and hard work we can at least get close.

MissMoneyManager

Pay day today!  Like many others I use Whyn@b for budgeting. It helps me keep control of my finances, especially as for one job I am paid weekly and for the other monthly. I think it would be easy to fritter away the weekly pay if I did not allocate it in my budget. I now have £10575.00 In my house savings and I feel very happy to have passed the £10k milestone.

I am also working towards my long-term plans and last week I set up a S&S ISA account with V’ngrd. I have requested to transfer an old S&S account balance into this new account and have also set up a monthly £100.00 transfer. In my mind and budget I have never treated anything in a S&S account as savings instead I prefer to think of money I put into it as an expense as I am well aware that although unlikely it could all be lost. On the other hand all being well, and it does grow I do not plan to use this money until much later in life so I prefer to “forget” about it for now.

Bank holiday weekend coming up which will be relatively spendy as I have a hair appointment booked for tomorrow (yippee)! It’s a shame that the weather is not looking great but I will at least get some fresh air walking the dogs plus I can get jobs done around the house. I might try and look for some more things to sell. I have been successful with G’mtree for years but I have recently set up an Eb@y account and no luck there yet. I love decluttering but OH hates throwing anything away even if it is totally useless to him and he doesn't want them because he hates waste. However he doesn’t have a problem if these things are sold so I try my best, failing that some things may get "lost" when we move house!

MissMoneyManager

Well as anticipated the weather was not great but I managed to make the most of the dryer/ sunnier parts. The weekend started off expensive with £90.00 spent at the hairdressers not very MSE at all but worth it in my opinion. Saturday afternoon was a dog walk with my best friend through some local fields and countryside where all 3 of our dogs were able to roam off the lead. We then stopped at the pub for a glass of wine thankfully under cover as by this point the heavens had opened! Had a mini disaster when I got home and knocked a glass of water over which hit the oven’s temperature dial and tripped the power (and this was after only one drink!). This meant no oven use until it had dried which scuppered my plans for dinner, OH suggested takeaway and it’s true we only have a takeaway around once every two months but I didn’t fancy it plus it would have been unhealthy and more expensive, so I forced myself to come up with a dinner that only used the gas hob. Veggie sausages, mash and veg, not very exciting but prevented takeaway spends. Sunday morning was a trip with OH for a scenic river walk, this walk also ended in a stop at a pub for one drink and a light lunch.  Which probably cost around the same as the takeaway would have and it was the first time myself and OH had been out to eat/drink since December so money better spent. Spends like this always come from our joint account and I have a bad habit of treating this in my mind like it isn’t my money. We each put the same amount in each month to cover bills and joint excursions/socialising, but I need to remember that money saved in the joint account could be used towards new house expenses so it would be wise to work on this area.

I hope everyone else managed to enjoy the long weekend if they were not working

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary 

MissMoneyManager

Thank you @beanielou for stopping by

Nearly the weekend which is the penultimate weekend before I start back at my weekend job. It has been a good week on Pr0lific completing just under £35 worth of surveys which have been allocated to my house savings (can’t wait to swap house savings for OPs again). Hoping for a low/no spend weekend which shouldn’t be too difficult. Weather looks awful during the day tomorrow so will perhaps focus on inside home jobs.  Really would like to get some more things sold as I didn’t get time last weekend. Sunday is looking a bit more promising so I’m hopeful for a nice long dog walk and would like to get some work done in the garden. The front garden in particular looks terrible due to lots of garden work last year. We ended up with a pile of rubble in the front garden which was collected by a grabber lorry for the small price of a bottle of wine and some beers by a friend of a friend. This was followed by a huge mound of excess soil which I advertised on gumtree for free and people came with their buckets and collected loads, I couldn’t believe it! However there is now the remnants of the rubble/soil which need to be cleared and a lot of weeds before we decided what to do with it.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend whatever you’re doing 

powerspowers

MissM would you consider selling and buying and then getting a btl in future? My partner and I considered trying to keep our old property as a rental but then we’d have paid stamp duty on the more expensive house. 

Just a thought! You sound really driven so I’m sure you’ll work it out 

Sistergold

@MissMoneyManager
I can tell you are really determined in achieving your financial goals, keep it up! A trip to the pub here and there is not a bad idea as we still need to live some life while we are pressing towards financial freedom. X

MissMoneyManager

Hi @powerspowers thank you for stopping by It is a valid point we each have a house and if we sold both of these we would benefit from the reduced stamp duty and we would certainly have enough equity for a big deposit to buy a dream house.  However we are also trying to think of our future and build multiple income streams so we can be less reliant on working in our current professions and feel BTL will help. I am not sure if it is the best financial decision but given what I have been through in the past I have promised myself I will never lose the security of owning a house independently so there is an emotional way of thinking which overrides the practicalities.

I do however realise that it may not be possible to afford what we really want in the time frame we are working to so I am trying to think outside the box. I feel it could be an idea to buy what I like to think of as an intermediary home with more of the things that we are looking for e.g an additional bathroom, large driveway, bigger kitchen so we can be more comfortable.  This could be in need of modernisation, OH is a plasterer so this helps, and I am quite happy to do DIY.  If we sold within 3 years I believe we would then get the stamp duty back. Over say those 2 and a half years we would have OH’s current house rented out as well as mine we could build up a little equity in the intermediary joint mortage home, save more money and this could enable us to have greater financial resources to go for the dream home. Perhaps if we do the house up it will even increase a little in value. This is risky, house prices could fall but if we choose somewhere where we are happier than our current home if we have to stay longer perhaps it will not be so bad. OH does not seem as keen on this plan as I am so perhaps there are some glaring holes I am not considering??

Thank you @Sistergold I agree life needs to be enjoyed too I guess it is all about balance!

powerspowers

Oh I completely get the emotional side as well! I think there is always something more optimum to do with your finances but it’s a balance with risk and what you need to feel secure. Good luck with working out your next steps

MissMoneyManager

The weekend went largely as planned. Managed to get one thing listed on G’mtree and one on Eb@y. Sunday was gorgeous and we spent hours in the garden tidying it up and clearing out the greenhouse which was very neglected and full of rubbish left by previous owners.  Have sorted a pile of rubbish to go to the tip next weekend so I am feeling pleased with the progress. Also enjoying some better weather as it makes drying washing a lot easier! I managed the objective of a low spend weekend. Only spend was £4.50 from the joint account on a few bits for last minute roast and tin of half price coffee. I am often tempted by ready made cauli cheese when cooking just for us two but managed to resist and instead made 3 portions of my own so some in the freezer for use at a later date.

Main objective for this week is to get cracking with my first tax return. Friends and family all seem to use accountants for this but it seems relatively straight forward and I work in a finance based role so should be able to work it out. However if anyone has any tips of things not to miss etc they would be apprciated