Saving for a smallholding

a_silver_lining

Hi all,

Up until late last week I had thought we would be joining the Mortgage Free Wannabe part of the forum, but unfortunately our house purchase has fallen through. We have reassessed our buying power and realised that we need to make some changes over the winter and start looking again in Spring.

Long back story: we sold my flat in England and moved to Ireland almost two years ago. The hope was to buy here last year, but my partner was unable to secure a permanent contract. Due to the year delay, and my poor employment options in Ireland I started a year long MSc. This summer my partner fortunately got her permanent work contract, and so based on this and my 8 hour permanent side job we started hunting for a home. We quickly realised that advertised prices here are not reflective of final sale values, and this along with many people now also wanting to be countryside based has meant our affordability does not meet our dream home. We did find one, lovely place, but after the bank approving our mortgage, survey done, valuation etc, they decided they could not lend due to an outstanding planning issue. 

This week we have been to see some….. questionable… properties in our current price range and realised that we need to search again with me in full time work and a larger mortgage. So, I have turned down a job I had set up near the place we had hoped to buy (gutting). As I am permanent in my company, the plan is to keep applying for full time hours in various departments. In the mean time I can up my hours and take as much over time as possible. This means we can keep hunting on our current mortgage approval, and then once I have signed to increase my hours they bank have said that they can increase our offer after two pay periods reflecting the new contract. Somewhat unrelated, we have also offered for my partners brother and his boyfriend to move in, as the original plan had been for them to take over our rented home (landlord is aware and happy about this). So, it will potentially be squished living for a year or so, but with the potential to save a little more cash.

 

We have a couple of grand in UK banks, and money put aside for our solicitors fees on the failed purchase as well as car insurance/tax due in October. The rest of our money is outlined here: 

 

Our current position is:

My savings: €118,500

Partners savings: €32,500

Total deposit: €151,000

Current mortgage approval: €173,000

Current affordability: €324,000

 

My next two pay checks will be more than 8 hours as I have done overtime, and then hopefully October will be near enough full time hours. Due to travel and other expenses I may only be able to save 400 odd a month. My partner on the other hand has a good wage, and has been comfortably saving over 850pm. With her brother here, should the rent be split we anticipate another 350pm between us. Hopefully we can rack up another 10k or so by the time we buy, on top of an increased mortgage. 

I previously used MSE to pay off £10k I had borrowed from family to buy my last flat. I was on a much smaller wage and doing it alone, and the accountability of my journal helped to motivate me. I am hoping to similarly use this journal as motivation to keep me going over winter. I aim to boost my savings by selling some items, racking in the overtime, reducing my phone contract, our communal living situation  and spending less on work food etc. I’m not sure how interesting it will be, but I hope to end it by us owning a home on many acres.

MovingForwards

Welcome to the first stage of your plan!

Try to find some higher interest rate accounts as that helps boost the kitty. Have a look at the likes of virgin and their coach builder account (1.75% for the year), their current account (2%) and have a look on the regular saver thread in the savings section for other ideas.

If it's only a year or 2 of hard saving, cut spending right back to free up money.  Again it all helps boost the pot.

Diaries don't have to be exciting. Provided they keep the motivation going, that's all that counts.

savingwannabe

Welcome this sounds like a great plan I'd offer advice but you are more switched on than me. I have about 3 years left then my house is paid for and I will be just saving for retirement. How wonderful to live in Ireland. I am so envious it always looks so beautiful. Wishing you fast savings and luck I hope you get your dream house. I will be watching with interest. 

longway2go

I just wanted to wish you luck with saving got your new home. 

a_silver_lining

MovingForwards said:

Welcome to the first stage of your plan!

Try to find some higher interest rate accounts as that helps boost the kitty. Have a look at the likes of virgin and their coach builder account (1.75% for the year), their current account (2%) and have a look on the regular saver thread in the savings section for other ideas.

If it's only a year or 2 of hard saving, cut spending right back to free up money.  Again it all helps boost the pot.

Diaries don't have to be exciting. Provided they keep the motivation going, that's all that counts.

Hi MovingForwards,

Thank you so much for your message I would love love love a high interest rate. I relied on these ten years ago to motivate me to keep seeing, as the impact of over 5% interest was so visible. Sadly, here in Ireland the rates are worse than in the UK. So I've got a regular saver on 0.2% which ends soon, and a an easy access of 0.01! I will have a double check this weekend though, as every penny counts

Totally agree on not needing to be too interesting. My old account I think has my debt free diary where I was paying odd pennys a day. It motivated me at least

a_silver_lining

Thank you also to savingwannabe and longway2go for the hellos Wannabe, when I started saving at 17 it felt miles away, but I made sure every month to put something away and watched it mount up. I've got this and an old account on here which probably tells that whole story if the threads are still alive. But I worked my min wage jobs and then did bank switches, carboot sales, ebay, just everything. Any time I made 'extra' it went into the saving pot. It soon adds up.

I've been quiet as I (as of yesterday) finished my MSc I'm thrilled! I have PhD funding to apply to now, supervisors to seek, and also the prospect of being paid to teach a class a guest lecturer this year, as well as the offer of a fully funded conference if I turn my thesis into an academic paper. I'm really thrilled to be here, and for my career change to be paying off.

House side has been a roller coaster. We were offered the house we thought had sold at auction again, this time with 30K off. For many reasons we declined.

So today I paid half the solicitors bill to put an end to that chapter. It came in at 431, so an extra €69 in the savings.

I was paid my overtime. It's still under €900 pay, but more then I've had all academic year!

My partner's brother moved in, so this month he will pay a third of the rent. Halved between my partner and I, we are €140 richer each. Mine will be used as cash on petrol and food in order to help our expenses look low to the bank. Next month his other half moves in, which will be.... busy... so we get half the rent, which makes my half about €210pm. Need to keep reminding ourselves it will be a couple of grand in the pot by the time we buy!

Double checked my savings and my total including current is 120,700 ish. I can only drip feed the money into a saver so it's hard to see. But I'm counting my house deposit as being 119,000, with 1000 held back for insurance in a few months, so 700 'current account' money, plus the 140 from the brother. I recon if I'm careful I can save a couple of hundred more by the end of the month.

Mini plans are to list some items for sale on a local site. Try and pick up more overtime whilst I negotiate fulltime hours. Keep careful with our spending. Assess our voucher situation, as we have odd one4all cards with money on.

Will check in with partner and update our end of month total.

MovingForwards

I would check virgin as even their normal savings accounts are 0.25 - 0.35, the coach account is a RS and accepts upto £250pm, the current account is £1k max balance for 2.02%. 

NatWest / their other banking group have a 3% RS, upto £50pm, but must have a current account with them. They have a current account where you pay £2, but they give you £5pm, provided there's 2+ direct debits each month.

Obviously I don't know what's available for you, but it's worth a look as both are in Ireland.

I'm managing £5pm interest across my accounts, big drop from what I was getting a few years ago, but it does help.

Moving pennies kept me motivated too, my broker didn't appreciate it so I had to tone it down on the run up to applying for my mortgage 🙈

You'll come up with imaginative ways to save money and achieve your smallholding.

Skint_yet_Again

@a_silver_lining hope your next purchase is successful but just in case it may be worth seeing if solicitors in Ireland offer insurance to cover solicitor costs in the circumstances where a sale falls through. Last time I was due to move it fell through on the day of exchange & I was thankful we had insurance with the solicitor to cover the costs of buying and selling 

savingwannabe

Hurrah for end of MSc. Good luck with Phd funding. It will be worth it in the end. Blooming hard work though. Glad someone is moving in helping with the costs. My lodger is a godsend and has really helped me to save. Good luck with house buying. It is just luck after all your hard work fingers crossed for you.