A plan, a budget & a good life

Tradcob · 21 November 2017 at 6:44PM

Had a chill out day today, well after a final check of the house before dropping thd keys off at the estate agents, its officially sold. We then spent a couple of hours on the phone changing our address or cancelling policies that we no longer need, feel very organised 😀
Feel that we will really be ontop of things with the new house!

Tradcob · 22 November 2017 at 11:06PM

Hi all!!!
I hope you are all happy bunnies?!
Today i have been sorting out homebuyers survey for our house, i think ive found the best value for money option, so have booked them.
I've also checked how many boots points i have as ive never spent any points ( do you havd to reach a minimum amount befor you can spend?) Ive got £7.80, which considering i rarely go to boots i think us ok, they can go towards something nice for my mum for Christmas. Its my birthday tomorrow, so may not get round to dping anything moneysaving! See you all soon 😀

wishingthemortgaheaway · 23 November 2017 at 6:57AM

Nope, no minimum spend for the points, it's like a gift voucher. I love my boots points.

Betterthanever · 23 November 2017 at 7:24AM

Good news on the house offer! And hurrah for being organised!!

Tradcob · 4 December 2017 at 1:35PM

Hello everyone!
I hope you are well!
I've been a busy bee over the past week and did not manage to get on here to update- ooopsie!
So, what have I been up to?
Well, I've pretty much done my Christmas shopping- sticking to my budget (and arranging my siblings as we go together on prezzies for mum and dad).
I've been cancelling a number of direct debits with various companies which we don't need anymore as we currently don't have a house- I like the idea of starting afresh with the new house as we'll be able to cash in on new customer deals (no one seems to reward loyalty these days!).
My partner and I have been looking into the relevant insurances and to be honest- it hurts my head! I mean I get the point, we need building and contents insurance- that's sorted (got a great deal too), and life insurance is easy to understand too- but the monthly payments for critical illness insurance is scary!

Survey on the new place has been done- and nothing too scary on there, which is great, I'm so looking forward to moving in!

Oh and I've done some workings out
Mortgage End date (with no overpayments) will be May 2047!!! and I will be 60 at that point!!!
so obviously, because I'm in this forum, I'm wanting to be mortgage free a lot sooner than that- but there we go, the line is in the sand, lets see what I can do to shorten that time period!!!

Oh!!!! also (see I told you I've been busy!) OH and I have been talking about the wedding, and currently loving the idea of a simple do, and the reception at home, much less expensive than a full on reception but much more us :-)

bring on the new year, the new house and the new surname for me :-D

beanielou · 4 December 2017 at 1:55PM

All very exciting

When do you hope to move to your new house?

Tradcob · 4 December 2017 at 7:32PM

Should be abke to move in early in the new year:j

Tradcob · 6 December 2017 at 1:51PM

Hello!

Well, it’s all a bit busy again, chasing solicitors, estate agents, insurance stuff, mortgage application paperwork, as well as shutting down the final old stuff from our first house on top of my day job and living with the future in-laws is making the days seem like hard work. I don’t feel like I’m able to really concentrate fully on my job (distracted with personal stuff) and trying to not fall into the age old MSE nightmare of ‘I’m too busy to make my lunch/ forget the lunch I make and therefore end up spending a fortune at work!’

Received a bill for the storage container we have- so that’s on the list to do today
Ring the solicitors (if I don’t, I’ll end up at the bottom of the pile, and I really want to ensure that all paperwork for the new house is done before Christmas)
Sort through small box of paperwork we kept separate from storage as it looked important (but we haven’t actually looked at in the 2 weeks since the move day!)
Send a letter to the Student Loan Company (I can’t get on the website, the people on the end of the helpline couldn’t help…. Great! So a letter it is in the hope they can sort it- I’d love to know how much I owe- I think it will be around £5000 and I’d love to get that cleared before we start a family)

I have also been thinking about work and what I can do to earn a bit extra, I am working toward a promotion, which I don’t think I’ll achieve until possibly this time next year, its just the way things work at our place, you have to be working at said level for months before your pay will reflect. But…. I do work flexi time… previously I’ve used ‘saved up’ flexi for extra time off, which is lovely don’t get me wrong, but I’m thinking of a more even split between time off and getting paid the extra for next year, and extra in my pay will go straight to something useful, and I have to decide how best to approach things yet, but essentially the pots are as follow:
- Wedding fund
- Savings (planned for maternity)
- Student Loan
- Mortgage

Now I know that the best thing to do financially would be to chuck as much as possible at the mortgage (you know…. When we actually get one!) but the other things are potentially quicker to tick off, so I need to do the workings out for a basic wedding & reception at home, I cant see it being loads of cash, but is cash none the less!
The saving fund, again, I need to play with the numbers as, I’m the main wage earner in our house, so OH has suggested it make more financial sense if he takes some of the time off and I return to work early, but I kind of think…. Especially with the first born, I would need time to recover both mentally and physically from labour and becoming a new mum, I’ll play with the numbers and see what I need to save to support 6 months off rather than the 4 months OH is suggesting J
As I’ve said, Student loan is probably around £5000 and I’d love to get that out of the way forever… at which point both OH and myself will only have the mortgage as debt between us- so nothing else and all of our extras can go towards that….

Do I sound like I don’t have a clue? Or that my priorities seem backwards? I do wonder sometimes!

VDOT47 · 6 December 2017 at 3:04PM

Hi Tradcob,

Good luck with your move - have your solicitors given an indication of when you might be able to exchange and complete? I assume you are the bottom of a chain, so a lot will depend on the others above you and how quickly they can get in a position to exchange I suppose.

Personally, I wouldn't bother trying to pay off the student loan (over and above any amounts you have to pay from your salary) as it will probably be on a lower interest rate than the mortgage. I would prioritise savings for wedding and maternity and then mortgage overpayments if it were me.

Tradcob · 8 December 2017 at 2:19PM

Hi VDOT, I get what you are saying with the student loan, and to be honest, I'll be dedicating all spare cash to saving up for wedding/ mat leave for a while anyway! It would just be lovely to know that the only debt OH and I have between us is the mortgage!

It'll be a low cost weekend I think with the only planned spend being lunch out with my best friend tomorrow (we agreed on chippy lunch) :-)

A plan, a budget & a good life

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