Forever Home Fund

A question about : Forever Home Fund

I have been lurking here for a few weeks and decided it was time to stick my head above the parapet

I'm a bit of a fraud TBH, I don't even have a mortgage, but OH and I are saving to buy a house so it's kinda the same thing - will you let me join in?

OH and I are both mid (ahem, okay getting less mid by the day) 30s and currently rent a lovely house on a farm with no passing traffic and about a quarter of an acre garden. And there lies the problem... we can't find anything similar in the Thames Valley for a price we can even look at without smelling salts

So. we're saving and looking but as we don't have a target in mind we can lose out way a bit... that's where the diary comes in. I shall use this as a way of staying on track and keeping a record of where I am, it's good to be accountable.

I'd love to buy a place but it has to be the right place so we might be in for a long wait.

Why the forever home now? It's us, 3 cats, 18 ducks, 4 cars, 5 motorbikes, a tankful of tropical fish, a garden full of plants, a 3-bed semi filled to bursting, a garage, two outhouses, a greenhouse and a shed to find a new home for

Best answers:

• Hello, you are very welcome.
  I don't have a mortgage either, but I think that a MFW lifestyle helps to achieve other life goals as well.
  Good luck with your plans
• Thanks Goldie, just been reading your diary funnily enough! It's lovely to get a view from the other side of the MFW spectrum.
• Oooh I think you'll find yourself very much at home here! Look forward to joining you on your journey.
• Thanks FD!
  I find it hard not having a target so I think I need to set myself mini-goals to keep me on the straight and narrow. I tend to be pretty good with the pennies but as for those pounds... they have a habit of slipping the net.
  First plan is to have a bath with a glass of wine and a kit kat chunky to ponder on what objectives to set
• Welcome, you will find lots of tips on here on how to reduce your outgoings. It's a real eye opener of how people make there budgets large or small go as far as possible.
  Look forward to following your progress.
  Lgp
• Sooo, been at college both days this weekend and am exhausted - was so tempted to get a takeaway on the way home but resisted We had chicken burger /kiev (OH had kiev) with home made chips and beans instead, not really good for us but easy and cheap!
  Friday was pay day but I haven't really stopped because of studying this weekend so my plan is to shuffle money tomorrow and see where I am; my head hurts too much tonight to have a chance of getting it right
  Hmm, should probably fess up here, I have a bit of a thing about making sure I have enough food in, which has lead to, let's say, rather full cupboards and freezer.
  So a big part of my plan is to use up what we have a. to reduce grocery costs (which will also look good when applying for a mortgage ) and b. so we don't have to move all this stuff when we eventually find somewhere.
  So my objectives to be completed by end of next weekend:
• Shuffle money (I have a "spare" current account which I will move money into so I can see how much I have - and not dip into it - then it will go into my regular saver ISA when I have saved as much as I can)
• Inventory freezer
• Inventory larder
• Meal plan for June - I can't get my head around a set meal plan but I will work out a month's worth of meals and each evening we can pick what we want for the next day

Hmm, feel better for having a list.
Will be back tomorrow after I have moved money about.

• I did a freezer inventory in April and attempt to keep it up to date, every time something goes in or out. I feel a lot more in control now!
  I also started meal planning as well. I usually do it for about two weeks ahead, and it's all quite fluid, days can be swopped around as required
  It does seem to work quite well
• The place you rent sounds wonderful..... Do you have the option to continue to rent long term?
  Perhaps you could save a deposit and use it to fund a Buy to Let and continue to live where you are if you're happy?
  That way at lest you have some sort of investment in bricks and mortar but you get to live somewhere you love without having to compromise.
  Just a crazy thought to start the day with!!
• Welcome to Buy To Let Wannabe (just kidding Lula)
  What sort of fish do you keep? I have a tank myself and either love them or hate them (depending on how many plants they dig up overnight).
  Have you considered something along the lines of Help To Buy? A headline in the T3legraph yesterday suggested that the average FTB using the scheme in London earned Ј80k, so it may be of some use even for expensive houses in the SE. We'd quite like to buy a house at some point in the not too distant future and there would seem to be a lot of pros (and a few cons) to it.
• Ooh, lost my post!
  Lots of visitors - hello!
  Lulabelle, where we are is lovely. We have been here 6 years and the house is held in Trust and can't be sold so we could conceivably stay here for the longer term.
  We have actually considered a buy to let as we are near a large university town with lots of companies and excellent transport links so it hs a very buoyant rental market. We would also then be able to have a foot on the ladder when house prices continue to rise.
  We are however starting to have a few issues here and they are about to build a new bypass and several thousand new homes on the doorstep so it is the right time to consider the future.
  That said, we have been very spoilt living here so finding the right place will be difficult and we need to carefully consider where our future lies.
  Edinburgher, we have tropical fish. After some shockingly bad advice from our local aquatic "expert" along with several diseased fish we have finally arrived at a tank with small community fish such as copper harlequins and tetras and two catfish. I love sitting and watching them and now the tank has settled down they all get along very nicely.
  If we found a house now, we would have to use HTB as we have enough (just) for a 5% deposit, stamp duty, solicitors fees, moving costs and a small cushion in case anything goes wrong. My hope is to build up our savings for a 10% deposit as the rates are so much better but we are ready to go now if the right place came up!
  I know HTB mortgages are quite strict in terms of credit history so I recently checked all my files and am very glad I did as all my files were incorrect in some way! Noddle had a 6-month overdue payment (which was an error on the company's part - now corrected), Experian had no accounts linked to my file so it looked as if I had no credit and Equifax does not have me linked to OH. All sorted now though!
  So last month I managed to save Ј50 which actually was very good considering it was an expensive month - Ј300 on a new laptop (I may have dropped the last one, apparently they don't appreciate that ), Ј470 for the first unit of my course and Ј160 for professional membership. I am pretty happy to have saved anything and this month should be much less expensive.
  Money shuffled, I need to find my chequebook for the previously unused current account I am funnelling savings into so I can pay that money into my regular saver ISA. Then anything else I make or save this month can go into that account ready to be moved to the ISA next month.
  Good news is we have come in under budget for the last two months so we have built up a surplus in the joint account to pay for the oil tank to be filled before the end of July, instead of OH and I paying half each from our bank accounts.
• Unexpected trip to the vets for the last appointment of the day - our boy cat, who is very prone to getting ticks, managed to get two yesterday morning which didn't come out very cleanly and also had another which he had ripped out leving a big scab.
  This evening when we got home he was very lethargic (most unlike him to be home at that time anyway) and had hot ears. Cue a visit to the vets, a buzz cut, removal of the remaining "bits", two injections and Ј104 in vet bills Still he's worth it!
  Also meant I didn't get to sit through the first webinar for my course but I can get it on catch up tomorrow
  Booked my first exam so that's another Ј108 - this learning stuff is expensive
  Also went out for lunch yesterday with a friend from work who is having a really bad time so that was an extra expense but bless her she is really going through it so that's fair enough.
  We have however had dinner out of the freezer every day this week and used some bits out of the larder so that's positive.
  This may not be a great month for saving - I need to work out a target but it won't be much - but, as I get paid the last Friday of the month, this is only a 4 week month and 3 weeks tomorrow is payday And counting...
• Right, running the figures in my spreadsheet I have Ј400 for the rest of the month (this is my money, not joint account) so, if I tighten the belt for the next three weeks, I reckon I can save Ј200 this month.
  The only issue is we are on holiday later on in June for my birthday but we are planning on sofa surfing with friends and family so we only need to pay for food and drinks. We might actually get to use our National Trust membership for cheap days out and if we take pack ups and drinks we can keep the costs down
• Poorly puss is much better so glad we took him to the vets.
  Aim for today whilst it is so horrible is to do an inventory on freezers and larder and then write a meal plan.
  Wish me luck...
• Sooo, not a very money saving weekend as we had to stock up on duck food, we bulk buy so now have enough for 6 months.
  I do love a good spreadsheet so I have a pivot table showing how many eggs were laid, the value of egg sales and how much we've spent on the ducks. So far this month, they owe us Ј87
  Also got a few more fish for the tank which was unplanned and a few (ahem six) bottles of wine - our big vice as we don't go out too much. We didn't drink them all though (there's definitely one left somewhere )
  Still on track to save some money this month and am trying to do a bit on swagbucks / surveys to bring in a little bit for the pot. Also, going to a meeting for work tomorrow so should make a couple of quid on mileage as I'll take my manky old trusty diesel which doesn't cost a lot.
• Hi Habibiboo, we would love a smallholding or even just a house with a large garden (and preferably no immediate neighbours as ducks can be noisy ).
  There aren't that many suitable properties around in the areas we are looking at within our "price range". We're trying to arrange a mortgage appointment to find out what our "price range" actually is as the amount we can borrow varies massively from one lender's website to another .
  In terms of location, we are casting the net far and wide, anywhere within an hour's commute of my work, however this is prime commuter belt (Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire) so there's a lot of competition for properties.
  Had to fill up the car today so that was Ј89 (when it stopped pumping as it hit the limit so not completely full ) but will keep me going until payday so that leaves Ј111 for the rest of the month. This is really making me so much more aware of my spending .
• Wow. this month is running away with me money wise. After filling up rusty trusty diesel, we discovered the radiator is leaking so had to park it up (with a full tank ) and take my "weekend" car which does considerably less miles to the gallon and also needed filling.
  Now need to purchase a new radiator and hose-thingy as well
  And I forgot my road tax is due on Weekend Car at the end of the month - Ј285
  So unlikely to make any savings at all this month
  Eating out of the freezer is going well although I haven't managed to do an inventory but had a good rummage through today and there is a lot of stuff to use up, some of it is quite "mature" shall we say so it'll be good to make sure it doesn't get wasted.
  Sent off data capture form to a mortgage advisor and hoping to make an appointment to see them this week to find out what we can borrow
  And we finally fitted a new curtain rail in our bedroom which looks sooo much better, makes the place much more homely. The curtain rail was a bargainous Ј3.50 off the bay of e!
• Ј34 ready to go into joint account from egg sales which will help pay towards having the oil tank filled tomorrow.
  Realised our underspend in April and May was not as impressive as I thought as I missed off our gym membership - oops! Still underspent though, that's the main thing.
  Loaf of bread in the machine for breakfast and off to make lunch now; I might not be saving huge amounts of money at the moment but I am limiting my spends where I can.
• Good news about the under-spends and bargains Kate!
  Hope the car doesn't work out too expensive in all, such a pain when you're doing so well one minute and have an unplanned spend the next. Still, all the good work you're doing at least you put yourself in a better position to manage the unplanned extras, alongside still reaching your big dream.
  How's the house hunting going?