The rural (money pit) project

skyela

I bought an unusual house a few years ago that has a few issues to say the least! 

It's in a lovely position but the house has not been touched for 30+ years when I moved in. 

I've lived here with no heating for 7 years. It has only really been this year that I feel I might be in some sort of position to slowly start dealing with things and finally ticking jobs off the list rather than burying my head in the sand. 

My mortgage stands at £122,995 with a term of 19 years. I'd like to slowly overpay the mortgage and pick things to get done in the house as I go along. The mortgage payment is £622 a month but I try to pay £700. 

My boyfriend has moved in, so it's just us, a dog and two cats. I'm 32 and have recently started a new job earning £1262 a month after tax. My boyfriend contributes £650 towards the bills/house, so I don't have a huge amount of money to play with but I don't need much from life so I need to try to make this work. 

The first thing on my list is a leaky chimney which may have to be pulled down and replaced completely, looking at how bad condition it is in. I'm guessing this is not cheap but I do know a bricklayer so I will try to get some quotes next week. 

Having heating is my second and probably most expensive thing I am saving for.
I've come to terms with not having it done this year, so the hope is for next year. I'm hoping to save a little towards it over the next few months, although I have a little bit saved to get me started. We are going to attempt to install the heating ourselves so the labour should be low. Other than getting a plumber to plumb in the boiler at the end etc. There is also no gas to the house so we are looking at electric heating, probably. Oil seems to have risen a lot this year. 

I could go on and on with what needs doing to the house but I don't want this to get too long🤣

So...

Emergency fund: £1175

Emergency ISA: £1000

Heating fund: £1750

Chimney fund: £250 

I hope this helps keep me focused 🤞 Thanks to anyone who has read the ramblings in my head 🙂

Sistergold

Hello @skyela, just wanted to say well done for making a plan on how you can now get the house sorted! Living without heating shows a lot of patience and commitment to what you want to achieve! This will be a labour of love and it’s good that you are planing to do one thing at a time so that you don’t feel overwhelmed and it’s good you are saving for it and not getting into debt! 

Having a house in a nice location is good as you can sort out house but can not sort out location! 

Will be cheering you on! 

savingholmes

Wishing you good luck on your journey

skyela

@sistergold and @savingholmes
Thanks for your support. Yes, I'm determined to do it bit by bit and not get into debt as tempting as it sounds just putting everything on a credit card and having it now, I know that's not the right thing to do, it's just going to be a long road! 🥶

I'm currently in isolation as we got positive COVID tests and have been really poorly with it the first few days but feeling much better now so thought I would give a little update.

Put my car through its MOT mid December and it needed nearly £500 worth of work, plus my car insurance was due last month. That was another £225 gone! Plus Christmas presents, it's been a very unavoidably spendy month. 

I was paid last Friday, so I've sent a token overpayment to the mortgage of £70. Interest is added to the mortgage at £5.02 a day, but mortgage currently stands at £122,446.

Been a rubbish Christmas/new year, what with being ill and my poor, much loved 23 year old cat passed away NYE so I'm feeling very deflated but I'm determined that this year is the year I manage to get everything in my life moving. 

savingholmes

Let's hope it gets better from here on out. Sounds like you are on the mend. 

Sorry to hear about your cat. That's really hard.

skyela

Thanks @savingholmes

Overpaid the mortgage by £147 last month. It's something but I'd rather it be closer to the £200 mark but still slightly recovering from all of December's spends. 

First month ever that I've collected all grocery receipts to see how much I spend on food for both of us at home a month. £177!! I'm not sure if that's normal? We both love food and cook from scratch every meal but I'm definitely going to try to get that down this month. 
Got lots in the freezer and loads of vegetables so the plan is to use up what I have (bar mill/bread) and see how long I can make that last. 

savingholmes

Well done on the OP