Diary of a 30-something idiot

foxandflowers

The trouble with having buyers that live abroad is that when the Estate Agents require paper copies of things for money laundering blah blah, and they are currently in FRANCE, it does slow things down a bit. They are back in the UK next week, which is fine because it gives my seller some time to find somewhere to live. But this process may well give me a heart attack.

I'm not suggesting that I'm going to leave equal shares among the children etc. A couple of thousand each for the stepkids and then the rest split between my daughter and husband. But after almost a decade, I don't want to not leave them anything. We have such a good relationship and I'm so lucky with them that I feel like it is the right thing to do. 

I could probably fit a double in, but we are both short / shortish, and we sleep just fine in the back of the van etc which is definitely smaller than a double and I'd rather have the space for bedside tables. 

I've made £49 on Vinted in the last week. Woo. 
They're also doing the shortlisting today for the other job, so please keep your fingers crossed, as I am going slowly stir crazy here. 

xo,

Fox

Purplelady65

I hope the house move goes well for you. Re your impending house move have you worked out what all your monthly outgoings will be in relation to your income? Looking at your last SOA your debt repayments were £200 per month so assuming you pay all your debts off from the house sale that only gives you an additional £200 a month to play with. Will the council tax be cheaper or any other utilities?

 I think there’s a potential risk of lifting and shifting your current spending habits to your new home unless you are really clear what your budget is going to be and you stick to it. Ideally implementing it from now so you can all get used to the budget before you move. I also think some of the amounts budgeted in your last SOA need reviewing. Given the van seems to have something going wrong with it on a regular basis £70 a month may not be sufficient. I appreciate you’re wanting to clear all the debts, start afresh e.t.c. But given you have already downsized once to repay debt and the size of the debt hasn’t reduced I think you just need to be really mindful that this will only be the silver bullet you’re looking for if you’ve got a realistic and achievable budget in place and stick to it. I wish you luck. 

foxandflowers

Buyers have booked in for a second viewing next Tuesday ostensibly to measure up but have also requested access to my garage which is absolutely stuffed full of crap. So I guess that's going to be me spending the weekend trying to box stuff up and organise things in a vague manner so it looks vaguely presentable. 

I'm having the kind of day where I hate how I look and I'm uncomfortable in what I'm wearing and I just want to burn down my entire wardrobe and start again. I've favourited a load of things on Vinted, but I won't actually buy any of them. I mean, I can't, I'm broke. 

@Purplelady65 this is an actual downsize, rather than swapping a similarly sized house for a different location. We are going from a 3 or 4 bed detached to a 2 bed terrace with a loft conversion, so bills will be significantly cheaper. Once we have moved I will be doing a new SOA. I've done one for me, based off council tax, and estimated gas and electric usage for the property by postcode (so sort of a guesstimate but still an indication) and I am reckoning on basic bills being around £450 a month, where as currently we are on a solid £700, before accounting for all the extras. So between not paying back debt, and being approximately £250 better off on bills (this is down to council tax being halved, lower running costs etc) I ought to have closer to £400 a month spare, of which at least half will be going towards building the Emergency Fund to a healthy amount.

I'm hoping I can still come and post to keep me accountable even when all the debts are paid. 

WinterWarrior

I don’t have debt fox and I still keep a diary. People are very patient with my attempts at money management 😁. You will be welcome for as long as you please. 

Does the terrace already have double glazing, decent heating and a good roof? Just so nothing horrible crops up once you are in. 

stymied

Just because I like talking new houses 😊 Who's getting the loft room? Stepson or you & Mr Fox? Will stepson's new furniture all come with you?

Do you think you would prefer a capsule wardrobe or do you like loads of choice? I have a few charity shop dresses and jackets that I almost never wear but like to imagine that one day I'll be a dresses and jackets type person (comfortable shoes are the biggest problem) but instead just wear my jeans, t-shirts & hoodies all the time 😂

SecondStar

stymied said:

Just because I like talking new houses 😊 Who's getting the loft room? Stepson or you & Mr Fox? Will stepson's new furniture all come with you?

Do you think you would prefer a capsule wardrobe or do you like loads of choice? I have a few charity shop dresses and jackets that I almost never where but like to imagine that one day I'll be a dresses and jackets type person (comfortable shoes are the biggest problem) but instead just wear my jeans, t-shirts & hoodies all the time 😂

Are you me? 🤣

I would love to be a dresses person all the time, but I can’t cope with the feeling and restriction of tights, and so it falls back to comfy jeans and soft T-shirts.

foxandflowers

@WinterWarriorI'm glad to hear I won't get kicked off as soon as the debt is gone! Terrace has recently (in the last couple of years) undergone a renovation that cost approximately 45k. New windows and doors throughout, new kitchen and bathroom put in, new floors downstairs, new boiler, roof was refreshed when the attic conversion was done. 

@stymied I love talking houses too (: The attic will be for the boys - there's 3 of them including Stepson when they are all down, so it makes sense. It also means I can put the desks with FIFA in there, and not have to listen to them all shouting at their games consoles. I'm not 100% if Stepson will be coming with us - part of me hopes not because the whole teenage boy hygiene issue is real. His new bed is now Mini Fox's new bed, so that's coming with, although the bookshelf may well not survive the journey as its held together with hopes and dreams. 
Mr Fox & I will have one of the small double bedrooms, and Mini Fox will have the other. 
Clothes wise: I don't like jeans, they stress me out and I feel claustraphobic in them. Ideally I am in dresses, but whilst I purchased some lovely summer dresses, it is now cold and wet, and I don't have any winter clothes that I love, I'm starting to feel my dungaree era is over and I want to be a bit more feminine in my outward presentation. Which is a disgustingly first world problem to have, because realistically I have plenty of clothes and I should not be bothered about any of this. I'd be quite happy with a capsule wardrobe, I regularly design them or write lists of "my ideal clothes" but then I go home and put on an old tshirt and pj bottoms and return to my feral goblin state. 

@SecondStar have you tried bamboo tights? I can't wear the normal opaque ones because they make my sensory issues go absolutely whack, but bamboo ones are brilliant (for me at least). 

WinterWarrior

That sounds great, how lovely to have a house all done, with nothing needing fixing.
Could you wear leggings and boots under summer weight dresses…or is it the colour and pattern that’s wrong for the season?

Sarahwithlove

Do you have any clothes you could sell on vinted to buy new ones? Maybe when you sort the garage have stuff to take, stuff to sell and stuff to donate/take to tip. If you are downsizing you need to downsize before you move so declutter as much as possible. 

Bluegreen143

I’m a dresses girl and hate jeans too. I’ve just had to buy one as realistically you can’t wear a strappy maxi dress in the winter. But luckily I had a couple of long sleeve dresses in storage from last winter too. Can you buy yourself one a month (on Vinted if possible!) as a treat/reward if you stay within your budgets? 

Oh and I prefer the look of tights but the feel of leggings so in the winter I have both in to wear under dresses with boots and just see how I feel each day.