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Ding! Ding! All change, please... (now replaced with new diary on MFW)
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Yay
If I ever move I know where to come for advice as you sound so organised. We have lived here over 20 years from moving out of our parents in together so I won't have a clue 😂4 -
lellybun said:Like others have said, Hoorah!! It's amazing how invested we all are in this. Very happy and relieved for you
Lelly xPennysIntoPounds said:Fackin get in 🍻🥂 (sorry, cockney lowering the tone here but I'm right chuffed for you!)
Haha - as a fellow East-Londoner that isn't tone lowering in the slightest!!
Morning all - and thanks again to ALL for the lovely tide of good wishes.
Lots more packing dealt with last night - it's far easier now we can just look at things and think "right, how to pack that" rather than "Hmmm...but SHOULD we pack that yet?!" Crockery has been separated into "stuff we want in the next few days" and "Stuff we don't need until we're in". Most glasses and mugs now packed - just enough for us for the next couple of days plus the removal men on Friday. We will use our insulated mugs on friday to make life easier and mean we don't have constant half drunk brews going cold!
The broadband move is now booked and we'll have an engineer visit the week after we are in. Need to sort the satellite TV still. The Octopods have been informed and I have opted for their home-move service which should mean they progress a switch for us once we are in and set up with Eon - I'd have approved more had they made sure to make clear that meter readings at the new house to the incumbent supplier are still needed though - I know that is the case but I also know an awful lot of folk don't! Water company are informed and that also gives them our details for the new house - I'll need to track down the meter on Friday so we can do a check reading and a photograph of that.
I think I have a taker for the Fridge Freezer on Freecycle - I suspect it's going to someone who is just interested in selling it on but there you go, can't be helped. Doors and windows man is booked to pop round once we are in, change the front door lock and quote us for a new door for the office. Need to get the boiler chap Mum uses booked in as well for a boiler service and central heating check.
Balance of funds for completion is all now in one place ready to send to Mr Boss - I may send half of it today I think, just in case of any issues tomorrow.
MSE Stuff:
- seem to be spending money like water right now but that, I think, goes with the territory!
- banks checked and OK. I'm abandoning much more balancing off of the CC for the time being - although I have just cleared last weekend's food spends off.
- Need to transfer £261 for home insurance and £63 (blooming Royal Fail thieving barstewards!) for postal redirection from "somewhere"...not worked that bit out yet...
- Food planning is working - last night's sausage & mushroom pasta was delicious. Spicy ragu chilli for this evening - left a tin of kidney beans unpacked too, how organised of me!
Spendiness:
- As above for insurance and post thingy.
- Amazon order placed for a steam mop and a few other odds and ends. Thanks to the £50 gift card sent to me by Mum last week though that's come in rather more budget-friendly than expected!
- I'm hoping those "Lake District Shop" vouchers might arrive in the next two days, as I have my doubts we will ever see them if they arrive after that.
- I might pop to the local-to-work picture framer this afternoon to get a price from him for framing the poster we are wanting to put up in the hallway...I suspect he may be cheaper than buying it framed from the transport museum - we'll see. Once I can make a call on that I will also be ordering the bench we're treating ourselves too from there - handily they currently have 20% off the price on that - it's still expensive, but less so than it was!
Priority jobs for this evening:
- Curtains down in front room and spare room
- clean fridge and sort the stuff we want to take round to the new house tomorrow evening into one drawer so it can just be grabbed.
- MrEH to sort out his rugby kit bags and get those straight into the boot of his car. (I've refused to have them in mine!)
- deep clean bathroom including floor - kitchen floor and hallway can be mopped at the same time.
- Cooker to be disconnected, gas meter read and gas turned off at the meter. Cooker will then quietly "disappear" out to the bin store...shhhh!
Then it will be more stuff into boxes. I do feel that we are moderately under control though - I don't think we are going to be in the position that MrEH's Mum & Dad were, of people still trying to frantically pack things even while the removal men were working around them!
Dishwasher will be run for the last time tonight - anything we make dirty tomorrow will get washed by hand. We've also called it quits on any more washing machine use now - remaining dirty clothes will travel dirty.🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her10 -
Crazycatlady2 said:Yay
If I ever move I know where to come for advice as you sound so organised. We have lived here over 20 years from moving out of our parents in together so I won't have a clue 😂
It was 20 years ago earlier in the summer since we moved in to the flat - seems amazing that we've been there so long! (Longest either of us have ever lived in one place, too!)
As much as anything else the organisational side of things has come from what we felt might easiest avoid confusion. Things like room numbering on boxes using an arrow to denote the floor plus a number - down "down arrow 1" is the front room, "up arrow 1" is our bedroom, that sort of thing. With the new house having three bedrooms and two receptions we were concerned that there could be a lot of ambiguity otherwise, and this way we're not leaving the removal men to second guess what they think "living room" or "Main bedroom" might be. The kitchen, bathroom, shed and hallway are all just the standard room descriptions as there is only one of each of those! I've got a copy of the floor plan for the removal team all marked up too, and as soon as we are in the door the first job is to blue-tac the relevant reference to each door frame. we also have a few boxes labeled up with "High priority" which we will ask the guys to please leave somewhere easily accessible - that is the stuff we know we may want the fastest - so the shed box that has the drills in, for example. Boxes are all labelled on all 4 sides plus the top, so locations can be seen from any angle - this makes life easier for us as well.
We do also have a degree of an advantage in that we've had since the very start of the year to think things through when we first put our flat on the market - so we've had lots of time to plan stuff, (well, that's mostly me doing the planning!) and make lists etc (also me!). We also did a massive declutter right back at the beginning of 2020 so have had far less "stuff" to get rid of than we might otherwise have done!
One thing I will say - everyone talks a lot about first time buyers, but no thought is ever really given to being a first time seller - that also comes with lots of unknowns to navigate. Of course having not done the whole process for 20 years huge amounts have changed too - change of addresses now are far more labour intensive for example as everything needs dealing with as a separate entity - when we did it before we just had a heap of pre printed change of address notifications and all we had to do was fill in the relevant reference numbers, address it to the company concerned and shove it in the post. Now every supplier of everything has their own procedure they want you to follow. On the flip side, without having to wait for documents to go through the post, that speeds up a lot of stuff to. From the date of accepting the officer on our sale, to the date of completion will be just a fraction over 3 months which is pretty much bang on the expected sort of timeframe, so that's decent.🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her10 -
Organised as ever! Sooo very excited for you!!
LTotal Debt Dec 07 £59875.83 Overdrafts £2900,New Debt Figure ZERO !!!!!!:j 08/06/2013
Lucielle's Daring Debt Free Journey
DFD Before we Die!!!! Long Haul Supporter #1244 -
Calling quits on washing at this point sounds very sensible! Such a lot to do in these last few days.
I remember we had so much stuff, and such a small lane at the other end, that they had to send 3 vans 🙄 and the biggest one came on the Saturday and was stored in the movers yard til we moved on Monday. Utter chaos trying to figure out what to get rid of on Saturday, without leaving too much to go into the smaller vans on the Monday 😱 Sofa etc all went on Saturday I think (although I might have remembered that wrong) so it was quite a sparse weekend 😂 Did make packing up the last bits easier, but we were still slinging stuff in boxes at the last minute and didn't get out til after lunchtime 🙄😂 you sound far more organised!4 -
I honestly dread to think how I would pack us up tbh 😱 5 of us including my youngest with special needs, dog, car, fish tank. We have 4 bedrooms, a full loft, 2 sheds a garage and garden 😱 I'm just not going to think about it tbh as I doubt we would move anytime soon and it wouldn't be while my FIL is alive anyway4
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Until our move 2 years ago, for 15 years, we had always moved every few years from rental to rental in different towns, with an occupancy cross-over of 2-4 weeks. As we were younger & stronger then, we did the moves ourselves with a rented van. Our latest move was a rented rural location to owning in a town and we decided to do most of the packing ourselves over the course of a few months, leaving the kitchen to the removals men. It cost a pretty penny but the day itself was effortless. We also had a labelled system, which was easy given that our house is smaller than the rental with a huge shed out back. Again with the luxury of a cross-over, we had time after our move to deep clean the rental which was part of our lease agreement & left the place in a state better than when we moved in (builders dust everywhere from new window installation!) In hindsite I'm very glad we packed the majority or our belongings ourselves, as our packing was more economical, less wasted space and fewer boxes for the whole house than they used for the kitchen!
All that to say, EH I'm in awe that you've managed to pack with the added pressure or the last week and am blown away that your move will happen in such a tight timeline!4 YEARS 10 MONTHS DEBT FREE!!! (24 OCT 2016)(With heartfelt thanks to those who have gone before us & their indubitable generosity.)...and now I have a mortgage! (23 AUG 2021)New projection - 15 YEARS 2 MONTHS LEFT OF 20 YEARS (reduced by 13 mths)Psst...I may have started a diary!4 -
Delurking to say - hooray to the exchange and wishing you all the best for Friday. Yours is one of the diaries I read on a regular basis (hello also Foxgloves) and I've been checking in every couple of days hoping each time that this would be the time that you had exchanged. So delighted to see it finally is!“the princess jumped from the tower & she learned that she could fly all along. she never needed those wings.”
Amanda Lovelace, The Princess Saves Herself in this One4 -
Well done on the exchange and good luck for a smooth move on Friday.
Doesn't seem that long ago you had your offer accepted.
Things must be freeing up on the conveyancing side. One of my work colleagues is in the process of buying their first house and they complete next week. Only 12 weeks since their offer was accepted and they had a chain to contend with.3 -
I have lived here 33 years.Will only leave in a box!Lucky DS 😂😎I am a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on Mortgage Free Wannabe & Local Money Saving Scotland & Disability Money Matters. If you need any help on those boards, do let me know.Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any post you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button , or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. All views are my own & not the official line of Money Saving Expert.
Lou~ Debt free Wanabe No 55 DF 03/14.**Credit card debt free 30/06/10~** MFW. Finally mortgage free O2/ 2021****
"A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of" Jane Austen in Mansfield Park.
***Fall down seven times,stand up eight*** ~~Japanese proverb. ***Keep plodding*** Out of debt, out of danger. ***Be the difference.***
One debt remaining. Home improvement loan.4
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