My offer on a 3bed semi-detached for £245k was accepted. Overwhelming feeling of dread now.

Green_hopeful

If you are worried about money to start with you can earn up to £7500 a year from renting out a room to a lodger. It’s practically free money because you will only pay a bit of extra council tax and whatever the small amount of extra bills. I did it to pay off a chunk of my mortgage when I bought on my own. I found it was quite fun to have someone else with me. 

ProDave

Most of us have been there, done that.  I won't bore you with the details, but I moved into my first house with no carpet upstairs, a load of old gifted furniture, and almost no money left in the bank.  I could not even afford to get a telephone connected for almost a year (no mobile phones then) and then interest rates went up.  At least you won't have that last worry.

Just take a month or 2 to get used to your new level of disposable income before you go buying lots of expensive stuff and DON'T BORROW to furnish the house only buy what you can afford.

white_tree

WellKnownSid said:

white_tree said:

I will have about £8k to furnish the house, repaint some walls, fit carpet. If I have anything left for an emergency fund it'll be a miracle. 

Find your local British Heart Foundation or similar furniture store and take your time because stock changes regularly, choose the cheapest carpets from somewhere like Carpetright but negotiate hard on decent underlay and fitting, look for clearance offers on curtains (places like Dunelm), etc - and you can furnish, repaint some walls, and fit carpet for less than £2,000

If you want to spend any money at all on anything, get yourself a decent mattress (but only for your bed, not guest beds...).  Nothing else matters.

thank you, i will check out the BHF. i assumed carpetright had fixed prices! 

white_tree

Bigphil1474 said:

Agree with above. Even for your 5 year fix, your payments will stay the same but hopefully your wage will go up each year. Even if you only end up with £100 extra each month, by the end of year 5 that's £500 bigger gap between your mortgage and your income. Other bills will go up but the mortgage payment will seem less ominous. 

Don't think your monthlies is complete - what about TV license, home insurance after year 1, no travel costs (work or otherwise), maintenance on the property, life insurance. Having said that, your budget is healthy IMO, above £1k after all bills paid is pretty good even if you stay on your own for the next 5 years. 

i've not looked at it that way. thank you very much

jimbog

I think you have your head screwed on well. You'll be fine Remember if you didn't buy you'd still be stuck with mum and dad (regardless of how well you get on with them it's not ideal) 

z80dan

Herzlos said:

You'll be fine. Remember that you don't need to furnish/decorate/modernize everything at all once.

Absolutely this. Once you've been in your new place for a while I'm sure you'll find you can live with what's there. I remember doing this in our last place - absolutely everything could have done with a freshen up but I began to think in terms of "would be nice if" rather than "must". Certainly think about a priority list.

Furniture wise you'll find that second hand stuff is very very cheap (furniture on the whole doesn't hold much value). BHF is a great place to look. Facebook marketplace too.

GibbsRule_No3.

“I've struck some luck as the property could have very well sold for more under another circumstance. 3beds, driveway big enough for two cars.”

The fact you start by saying this, surely means that you would gain if you need to sell, so a no brainer to go ahead.

bobster2

Bigphil1474 said:

Don't think your monthlies is complete - what about TV license, home insurance after year 1, no travel costs (work or otherwise), maintenance on the property, life insurance. Having said that, your budget is healthy IMO, above £1k after all bills paid is pretty good even if you stay on your own for the next 5 years. 

Even with a mortgage - life insurance is not absolutely necessary if you don't have any dependents (e.g spouse or children).

Without these, the beneficiaries would be whoever ends up inheriting from your estate (parents? siblings?). For a young person on a tight budget I don't think they need to feel a financial obligation to put aside money each month for a policy to benefit parents/siblings.

Without life insurance the mortgage provider can just sell the property and claim the equity to cover the outstanding mortgage.

propertyrental

Don't furnish new.

Charity shops; auctions; freecycle; etc

You can furnish anhouse for peanuts, including white goods.

gwynlas

You should be able to furnish your home for much less than £7000. Lots of people have ideas about how they want their rooms to look but the MSE way is to endeavour to do this on a budget. It is amazing what people buy and sell on barely used as they decide to move split up or are shophaolics. Use mood boards, paint is cheap enough, recycling and upcycling is on trend rope in family and friends. Think outside the box!