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

debtfreewannabe321

House move/ EF stands at £2377.16!!

I actually can't believe how much we've sold in a few days! 

Still aiming for £3800 ... Small goals though so £2500 next goal ... 

😁

beanielou

Every day is a school day! 

debtfreewannabe321

beanielou said:

Every day is a school day! 

It is indeed 🤣 I am always learning (and being corrected my my two know it all children 🤣)

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all, have woken up and stye is nearly gone thank goodness, that was one of the biggest I have ever had! So sore. Need to order a new mascara this week as DP & I are out this Saturday. Bit annoying as the one I have is only a month old. Thankfully not a super expensive one.

 I have posted a few bits from v1nted, and sold another over night. All small change stuff but helps DD to clear her wardrobe out. She has hoarding tendancies like my mum does for clothes. If I go in there and remove anything, she knows...even though her room is an utter pigsty. Anyway the small amounts of money that should trickle feed to her should help with letting go, perhaps I shouldn't have told her she could use the money to replace them with other bits though. Hmmm. 

I've bathed the dog this morning, DS did it the other day and then left coconut oil in the dog's hair and the dog has been licking himself ever since because he loves coconut oil so that's all out now and he's clean and blow-dried  

Not much on the cards for today, I have to upload some documents to say we have sold subject to contract.....but we are waiting on them to be sent over so can't do anything just yet. DP said I should perhaps go through the kitchen and be ruthless as the kitchen we are going to is smaller until we can afford to move it and I know it will stress me out. I do have a lot of baking things I just never use any more so might give them away locally. I might also have a load of jars to gift to someone as I bought new ones. Other than that though I think everything I have I used regularly yikes... Looks to be grey and cloudy already, the sun was out for a while but now gone in. I wanted to go and sort the garden out and put all the pots I am moving with me to one side, and all the ones I am leaving I will put around the patio. I also have plants I want to lift out and put back into pots (they have only been in the ground since we moved here so I hope they can survive being lifted again).

We have sold two big bits of furniture and a fair few small bits. The amount we have is feeling less overwhelming now. But when DP said we could move ourselves with a van now we are decluttering I was like no. The amount of money I would need to spend in the chiropractor afterwards would negate any savings no doubt  

Might try and do some surveys today. I can get enough to buy a mascara then with vouchers. 

Today's jobs are to start the garden tidy up, I will do a little at a time as it is overwhelming and backbreaking otherwise, do the ironing, washing, hoovering, run the parcel to the lockers and take dog for walk at same time. That is about it. I am shattered and think I deserve a slow day for once. Dinner is lazy too- a chilli out of the freezer! 

debtfreewannabe321

Running total for food budget- £266.31/500
I would have been well within budget for this time of the month but we have been naughty and bought bottles of wine celebrating house sale, and treats in the shops. Oops. Can still pull it in though, we have only two weeks left of food shops now for June so only just half way over....

debtfreewannabe321

Dog walked. Washing out, even though it's grey it is still warm. Another wash in (lots of towels from the DIY job, defrosting freezer for sale and washing dog!).

We've had our mortgage valuation back on the new property and all good to proceed 😃 just (still) waiting on this memorandum of sale to get that SSTC and the house off the market!!! We can instruct conveyancing to begin then too....(I know I am impatient 😆).

I've decided to declutter the cupboards that are left (not many...) as when I sold the other ones I've been emptying them out and stuffing them into the cupboards left and they are now bursting at the seams. Lots of paperwork to sort through I think and also cds/ DVDs/ records.

HotDog2020

debtfreewannabe321 said:

Dog walked. Washing out, even though it's grey it is still warm. Another wash in (lots of towels from the DIY job, defrosting freezer for sale and washing dog!).

We've had our mortgage valuation back on the new property and all good to proceed 😃 just (still) waiting on this memorandum of sale to get that SSTC and the house off the market!!! We can instruct conveyancing to begin then too....(I know I am impatient 😆).

I've decided to declutter the cupboards that are left (not many...) as when I sold the other ones I've been emptying them out and stuffing them into the cupboards left and they are now bursting at the seams. Lots of paperwork to sort through I think and also cds/ DVDs/ records.

Is that what you call a lazy day 🤣🤣 you are progressing very quickly well done, how close are you now to reaching your sell house fund goal? How do you think you will reach goal? Have you thought about using a 0% Purchase credit card, if you are savvy you can buy removals etc on card, leaving you months to pay it, and whatever else you can stick on it that you need, perhaps a months worth of shopping so you can use the cash for bigger and better things? Just an idea.

Good luckX

debtfreewannabe321

HotDog2020 said:

debtfreewannabe321 said:

Dog walked. Washing out, even though it's grey it is still warm. Another wash in (lots of towels from the DIY job, defrosting freezer for sale and washing dog!).

We've had our mortgage valuation back on the new property and all good to proceed 😃 just (still) waiting on this memorandum of sale to get that SSTC and the house off the market!!! We can instruct conveyancing to begin then too....(I know I am impatient 😆).

I've decided to declutter the cupboards that are left (not many...) as when I sold the other ones I've been emptying them out and stuffing them into the cupboards left and they are now bursting at the seams. Lots of paperwork to sort through I think and also cds/ DVDs/ records.

Is that what you call a lazy day 🤣🤣 you are progressing very quickly well done, how close are you now to reaching your sell house fund goal? How do you think you will reach goal? Have you thought about using a 0% Purchase credit card, if you are savvy you can buy removals etc on card, leaving you months to pay it, and whatever else you can stick on it that you need, perhaps a months worth of shopping so you can use the cash for bigger and better things? Just an idea.

Good luckX

Funny you should say this as this is what DP and I are discussing as a plan B.
Currently I am around £1500 short. I have money for the conveyancing now and a little over 😃 just need removals.

I have the YBS savers going which have a combined £1800. But I don't want to touch these as they don't mature until end of October I believe. They will be our replacement EF once matured. 

I also have my ISA but do not want to touch so we also came up with a 0% card too. I've not used CCs for a few years now and in the last two months I've had letters from Halifax and also MBNA telling me they're closing them down. S'burys did the same last year....so I'm actually unsure what CC I still have left open (maybe a Mr T one) but DP says he has one and is always being offered zero % offers .... We will keep saving and selling but I think we may fall a bit short....but I also think it depends on how long it takes to buy and sell. If it is three months we still have those months of budgeting money to play with and save. And I doubt very much it would be any shorter than that amount of time. The top of the chain still has to put an offer in somewhere (and we are praying and putting on vision board it is no chain above him!)

And my lazy day turned into emptying out every cupboard in the house onto the dining table 🤣🤣 now I have to sort it all out 😆.

debtfreewannabe321

Was about to write Morning all and then realised it has slipped into Afternoon all without me noticing! So afternoon all We are officially SSTC now on RM and have uploaded all items needed to get the house we offered on as SSTC as well! Very exciting! We are conversing with the guy we are buying from almost daily, he is really nice so we have an open line of communication there. He has 4 houses to go and see, all are apparently no chain, empty refurb projects. Downside is he can't get to see them until next Monday/ Tuesday (he was away all HT with the kids). But if there is no chain it should be relatively straight forward I would have thought. So hasn't put us off (or should I say, I am not panicking just yet). Solicitors have been instructed to start conveyancing too at our end and also our buyers end, all exciting and moving along nicely. 

I have made a start on a list to help me organise the move. Starting with 90 days down to removals day.

When I start to get overwhelmed I very much appreciate a tick-list to keep me going. I had a horrible move last time, and I have moved over a dozen times in just my adult life (never mind my childhood when we were always on the move it seemed) and it has really scared me that it might be a horrible move again. I don't think it will be the same but nonetheless I want to be prepared.

DP & I were discussing the size and state of the house we are buying. The current owners took it on as a project too but personal circumstances have changed and so they are now looking for a smaller refurb project, so it on paper looks to be same size as our house now but in reality it is not. There are lots of unusable spaces at the moment and I was not knowing where to put half of our stuff- hence me selling lots of things I don't particularly love anyway! 
I have a whole list now that I have spent all morning doing on decluttering each space/ category of thing in the house and out of the house. I have tried to break it down into stages I need to follow to make it easy working on plans of 90 days before moving (I am guessing that is about now) 60 days, 30 days, 14 days, 2-3 days and moving day itself.
90 days is decluttering everything and also making an inventory of what we have and how many boxes we approximately need. So I will basically carry on with what I am doing. I have made a check-list of each room which I need to print off. 

DP & I have discussed getting a self storage container too. And doing some removals ourselves to there...things like:-

• books, 
• c.d's 
• dvd's
• records
• music system and bits we have on shelves currently 
• ornaments 
• small bits of furniture 

and other such items that make a home but may be of better use being out of our way for a little while. 
This may allow me to get in, scrub it clean (I have a pretty bad dust allergy and asthma) as it is quite dirty in areas of the house. I will be able to hire a carpet cleaner and clean it thoroughly and be able to move around. We could also put up some shelving just as a temporary measure because we are losing two huge built in shelving units at this house which house SO much stuff, I won't know where to put it otherwise.

This house when we moved here was overwhelming. I actually have a video I sent my sister in tears, there were boxes to the ceiling and only small walk ways through the kitchen, dining room, living room AND conservatory. They didn't bring ANYTHING up the stairs for us aside from the beds and mattresses. We were so exhausted I ended up with flu from stress - I really can't have that happen again. I will also not be using that removal firm for a quote never mind the move.

I may also see if we can drop some garden / house plants off at new house before completion we have been cheeky and done this on the last move and it saved us a lot of money on removals as they take up so much space in the van. We are planning -if we take the self-storage route - to find a place local to the house. We will pay the removals men to move the kitchen stuff, white goods, large furniture and also any really heavy bits we have and essentials. But the rest, well we are debating quite strongly the self storage locker. I think the money we save on the removals would pay for that and allow us no stress so we can scrub house clean and be ready to move it at our leisure. 

Would be interested to hear from anyone who has done this before and any upsides and downside of it I haven't considered? I've never done it this way before...

We will make our decision when we have thoroughly decluttered the house, and garage. I will see just how much is left. In the new house I will lose kitchen, dining and living room space until we do some re-jigging of walls and extensions this is why I am decluttering like a looney we are effectively downsizing for a short while until we upsize it again. The upstairs is bigger but that extra space will absorb DP's office stuff so not really extra usable space to me. His office will eventually go outside again but until then everything is a squash and a squeeze. 

Anyway I will finish the list and try and get the dog out before the next rain shower. I have some v1nted parcels to drop off too for DD people are loving all her clothes! I can tell it is all young trendy people on there now as my dresses that I think are pretty- just too small for me are not selling and tiny little tops with barely any material to them are selling like hot cakes right I might be back....depends on whether weather brightens up or not!

debtfreewannabe321

Wow spending all day making decisions is tiring work. I have emptied out so much on to my kitchen sides, gotten tired of it all and now it is coming up to dinner time and I still have stuff strewn everywhere *oops* I am sat down with a cuppa for now. I have worked through about half of my kitchen decluttering list. And there was me thinking I had done it all the other week I have found OOD food items (some from 2019 oops), jars with no lids even though I thought I had done all that the other week. I have filled up jars on shelves and there is lots of dried stuff in the pantry cupboard but nothing too much too move if we need to. I think we will have worked our way through most of it by then anyway.

I've also been through all the baking things I have from my kid's childhood- cookie cutters etc and it was really hard to let any go because of nice memories attached, but they haven't been used in over 5 years I reckon so time to let someone else have them. It has cleared a big space in the cupboard too. I kept my favourite ones - just in case- you never know I might get grandkids one day!

I still have the cleaning cupboard to sort through. I have been on RM again and scoured the listing of the house we are buying to count kitchen cupboards, am I crazy? Don't answer that actually we have a huge pantry cupboard here probably the equivalent of four wall cupboards if not more, floor to ceiling...and it is deep too so fits a lot of stuff in. We also have about 12 other cupboards and 4 drawers oh and a shelving unit and 6 shelves and the new house has 9 small old fashioned cupboards and that is it which I had in my last house so know are shallow and smaller.....what do I do? Declutter like mad and get rid of too much just so it fits and doesn't drive me mad....or keep what I really want and perhaps have to find alternative storage in the garage or somewhere for now. Gawd I feel crazy actually swapping what I have for smaller....but anyway I will keep on. My plan is to have four empty cupboards here then I think I will be okay (ish) for space there if I put some big items on the side rather than in the cupboards. Wish me luck. I have zero empty so far  

I haven't achieved much else as the rain has been pouring all day. It is just starting to clear up now although still spitting. The dog has curled up and slept the day away, he hasn't bugged me at all for a walk so he's clearly not a fan of getting wet either. I have to drop DD & DS off at their club later so I will do the parcel drops then if there is space. Fajitas for dinner which is thankfully very quick and easy because I am short on space in the kitchen at the mo thanks to tipping everything out

I haven't found much to sell, a few bits to donate and recycled the rest. I have a distiller to gift to my sister, that will clear almost half a cupboard so that is good. 

I had an email from our mortgage person questioning all the small PP payments I have had go in - they are all survey money payments so I hope that's okay. I am not keeping tabs on them for tax purposes or anything, should I be?
Also have a lot of stuff to print off later for conveyancing so will do that when DP is home.
Still no SSTC on the house we are purchasing. They're very slow to open a couple of things up to check all is legit. 
I am starting on a fixtures and fittings list as I declutter and clean- what do I want to keep, what I am happy to leave behind. DP insisted we leave behind curtains and all sorts last time, I think it is because that house was mine and my Ex's and not his....but I really regret leaving a few things behind which I am sure went straight into the bin after we handed over because of course, my style is not everyone else's so this time I am keeping my favourite curtains and light shades - am debating taking the shelving unit in the kitchen too but that might be a faff to fix the wall under it.

NSD today. 4/15 already! 

Right tea is drunk, best crack on, I can hear hungry children looking for crisps and junk!