Buying a little piece of Middle England; Manifesting my way to mortgage free.

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all! Pay day for us! And I still have some money in my account. How did that happen? Especially with the food budget going over and lack of my wages!

Anyway, will have a shuffle about of money later I think and get the bills money set aside.

My water bill has annoyingly gone back up. It is really disheartening because we got rid of our dishwasher, and I got rid of a waterfall from the pond that was splashing water everywhere meaning we were always topping it back up and a few other water wasting things like less washes on the washing machine and less showers (well less time).... and it is up by £12  

Everything else should be the same though hopefully. I saw on the MSE letter that energy prices are coming down? I didn't read it though so not sure by how much?

Hate to say this but kinda hoping the kids both go to their dads for the week's half term as the food budget might actually come in on budget then. I don't get any more money in my maintenance even though on the CSA it says he has them every two weeks for two nights. He hasn't had DD for months. And DS  rarely goes too. CSA refused to change it said it wasn't a big enough change? They don't stop eating at the moment and DD needs all sorts of things for school at the moment nevermind all the new uniforms and suits and shoes I have had to buy. Ex thinks his maintenance covers everything from my mortgage to their food and their clothes. He is always telling the kids this house is half his. He tells them that he paid for their clothes through maintenance and that the food we eat is bought by him ...Hmmm. Irritating as hell to be honest.

DP thinks his maintenance may be coming to an end, his DD turns 18 this June. I said he will probably have to pay until she's out of college though? He's not sure if she is carrying on with college into next year as she won't talk to him about it. So not sure what we do there? 

I am feeling so much calmer these last few days. Meditating regularly, switching off social media for the most part and just focusing on people around me that I love and myself and the home. (and the home we are trying to manifest). I feel excited by a move and am ready to go from here. 

I think today will be a NSD I don't need anything so I have actually got 17 NSD's this month! That's fantastic considering most of them came this last week I think Tomorrow will be the first of my new month so I will update some figures once I have finalised the budget. DP got more money than I was expecting too so we are on par with when I had my wages coming in now. He had extras in his pay for car allowance which we are assuming will be every month now so that's great. I have £600 set aside still from his bonus money, £300 will be used for this month and I will hold back the other £300 for next month. 

I have had conveyancing quotes in. We compared them to what we paid when we moved here........and wow, no wonder our conveyancing team were so quick, we paid way over the odds for their services *oops* this is what you get when you don't shop around I guess. They were pretty good though...this time we have opted for several quotes and we have chosen a local office so I can pop in and out as I need to to sign things. We had to travel across the city before to do this and it was stressful. Their quote also happened to be one of the cheaper ones almost a thousand pounds less than what we paid before!
The estate agency fees will come from the sale.
Removals I am unsure right now. I would like to move with my EF in tact but not sure if this will happen....
We are getting our MiP very soon, Tuesday I think as the guy is on holiday. We should only need a 30k top up, maximum. All dependant on what we sell for though........
Still need some buyers through our doors..............they are not forthcoming just yet. They will come though right? If you build it they will come...didn't some great philosopher once say that  

debtfreewannabe321

We have one viewing confirmed! Bank holiday Monday. And another one to be confirmed 🤗 fingers crossed for me please 🤞 
Just spoke to my sister and she's really excited about us potentially moving back. Her partner is terminally ill (I've mentioned him before I think) and I really want to be there to support her &him. It's one of the main reasons I made my mind up to just get on and do it. Rather than waiting. So I really hope we can find a buyer ASAP.

Had my NSD... nearly went into buy some washing up liquid but remembered I have some on the shop on Sunday so I'll eek out what I have and mix it with water. 

Right off to do the washing and dinner, DD is at her friends house for a sleepover so just DS and DP and myself to cook for this evening which is easy as I don't have to think about fussy eaters.

debtfreewannabe321

MAY 2024 GOALS
MFW #17
EF Goal 2 complete! EF total £2003.40!  NSD 17/15 
FOOD & TOILETRIES BUDGET £569.34 / £500 
MOP- 0/50   

MORTGAGE BALANCE JAN 1st £99224.13 
MAY 1st £97,285.47

End of month signature before I change it for May -June goals. 

I've just moved £150 into the EF for next month so will add that to next month rather than this month.
I am going to aim for the same amount of NSD -15.
I am *still* aiming for £500 on grocery 🤣 I know I know I should probably give that one up now.

I'd love to add another £150 to the EF through sales on FB/vintage etc (just realised vintage is supposed to be vinted obviously but duh spell check on my phone has changed it!)

I will start with that and see if I want to add more. I'd love to have one big push at savings now and decluttering so that we can pay upfront for removals, conveyancing etc rather than it coming from sale of the house. I don't think I will have enough for it all but just one of those big expenses would be fantastic. So I guess my aim is to save £2500 min. For that and try to retain a small EF as well. Aim high. Eh!

Right washing machine has actually finished now so really off ...

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all, Up early to get DD for her revision session and she had the wrong week! Never mind, it got me up early and I have done some surveys, cashed out another voucher for £5 that is £15 this week and I haven't really even been on the laptop to try. 

We have ordered some windows to be replaced - we have two that have blown. We actually put the order in before I had committed to selling,  otherwise I think we may have left them, so they will be ready to fit on Tuesday. At least then all the windows that were broken were done before the sale and new owner won't have to do anything. That money will have to come out of the EF. £300.

Today I am dropping DD & DS off to meet their dad. Then I am going to clean their rooms tomorrow and shut the doors on them and hopefully have all viewings done before they are back. We are still waiting to hear from EA on the other interested party. Some neighbours came over yesterday to say they were sorry to see us go which was nice...I don't always have nice neighbours and I will miss them too. 

Made another sale on FB and another V1nted one too. Small monies coming in now, I don't have many big ticket items left to go. But all helps and the space it is giving us is worth more than the few pennies  

DP and I are treating ourselves to a Chinese tonight. We haven't had a take away in a long time. So we will collect it from the city on the way back from dropping the kids and will be cheaper if just two of us as we share. It is 3 roads away from our potentially new house and our favourite one in the city  

Okay suppose best get back to the jobs I was doing now I have cashed out the surveys hope everyone has a good bank hol weekend, weather has already turned here and is grey and cold. 

HotDog2020

All sounds good, good luck on the viewings, wishing you a speedy sale...I hope you too have a good weekend..Positve vibes I have sent out. 

skint_spice

Good luck with your viewings.

debtfreewannabe321

Afternoon all!
We've had a super busy bank holiday weekend.
We dropped DD and DS off and had a walk around the area the restaurant was in before it opened. We only had an hour or so to kill so wandered around some antique centres and had a drink in the pub when it started to rain. I bumped into an old friend which was nice too. 
Wasn't a NSD by any means 🙈 but nothing over budget.

Saturday evening we just chilled out and decided to clean house on Sunday. So we did that and shut doors from the dog and muddy paws. All we had to do Monday morning was make our bed and put the washing up away!
DP did the viewing and I walked the dog. 
I was out over an hour and made my way home thinking no signal so they may be gone and DP can't tell me....and they were still there! So I went in and after getting the okay they like dogs I washed his paws and let him go say hello. They asked about whether we had any other interest and I was honest and said they were the only ones to view so far with a couple more wanting to book after the bank holiday.

Anyway they went after about half hour of chatting (they had been there a long time!. I don't think we've ever had a viewing that long ourselves.) we went off to our favourite bank holiday haunt, a nice cafe and the antique centre locally. As I pulled in I said we don't get a phone signal here what if we get a call. DP laughed and said wow give them a night to sleep on it 🤣.

So off we went and as we got deep into one of the older buildings full of antiques lo and behold DP phone rings with the EA calling. Cue me, told ya so...and running outside to get a signal. We couldn't get a signal...of course. So had to drive ten minutes back out onto the road 🙈🤣 then the EA was on another call. Ugh ten minutes of waiting and they call back and we can hear one another. And the viewers want to offer full asking price! EA tells us they're first time buyers but need financial bits in place first so technically they won't put it under offer until that happens....so that is where we are at. We've accepted. But they need to prove finances this week so it can go sstc. How exciting!
We've not heard anything about the other viewings yet, I know the lady who was interested works in London so has to do them as and when she's back. 

The guy we are buying from has been told and now he's the one to find somewhere... hopefully with no chain and we will have a very small chain to work with.

Today we've had the last two windows replaced that had blown. We've done all the blown ones over time and these had been ordered ages ago. I also spent two hours changing all the handles on them from scratched up gold to white. They look great now. 

NSD today. So my first one of the month. 1/15

We've done some money shuffling. I need to update the signature as I took the money for windows out of the EF. I'm still undecided what to do about EA fees, conveyancing fees, removals and anything else....we can't afford it all out of the savings. Which is a shame. So I'm trying to decide what to pay for from savings. How much I should keep back and how much to borrow. 

I had some really really good news on top of all of this today! My DS1 is moving back to England!!! He's in Wales at the moment and a seven hours drive from us so we rarely see him. He was moving towards Cheltenham....DDIL has just told me they are looking at moving to the camp closest to where we are moving to!!! This is so exciting for me esp as they are thinking about starting a family. 😍

Okay need to go finish the handles off there were four that were giving me grief so need to go fight a bit more with them.

redofromstart

That sounds very promising indeed.  Hurrah!

skint_spice

Excellent news about the offer and also about DS, it’s good news day!

beanielou

What a good day for you today.