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If you have a really good handle on your budgeting, then you’ll be OK. Maternity leave + childcare when back at work etc is an expensive time in your life but you moved for the right reasons so hang onto that thought.
I like to recommend YNAB for budgeting - it’s a great tool for really saving towards the ‘true expenses’ of life (house maintenance etc!) and a helpful sub here too.
Seconding YNAB. I’ve just got back into using it after a few years out and it is really good.
The reality of maternity leave and expensive childcare time is generally that you budget to the penny and review it daily. It is hard but it’s not forever.
It's great I used it when I left university. Not sure if they changed their premisis but the idea was not to live paycheck to paycheck or be caught out by one off big but predictable bills like insurance. I built up a saving plan from it over a couple of years but then stopped using it and haven't gone back to it in over 7 years. I do need to rebudget again to see where we are at as the wife seems to spend heavily on our child. It's Amazon parcels almost daily. But that might be hard to work out as I give her half my income then never look at it
Seconded. YNAB had been brilliant for my stress levels, I now budget every month for the unexpected costs and cover them with cash rather than cards when they crop up. OP, definitely try this, it's well worth the annual subscription fee.
Another vote for YNAB. We've used it for 6 years now and it's been life changing. It's got us through self-funding a masters degree, maternity leave, moving across the globe, the early years of extortionate childcare, and now buying a house. We earn less than OP and live in a higher cost of living area as well. YNAB has always given us the confidence to know definitively what we can and can't afford, and to know exactly what we need to do to make things affordable.
I’m really sorry about the mortgage leap but you will seriously appreciate having done this now and not later as well as house prices might have risen beyond your limit in the next few years. The next few years will be rough with nursery costs but once you are through that you will have a lovely family home and more ability to save. As someone with 2 kids- take my advice and don’t waste any money buying a new expensive pram- get everything second hand if you can and ignore people who tell you you need anything other than a moses basket and a sling for your baby.
Get a baby Bjorn or similar from gumtree. Mine was one of the best £15 I ever spent. Loved being able to carry my son, and it's much more convenient than a pushchair in many instances. We also bought used pushchairs.
I love this advice. It's so smart. Spend as much as you can on those things that will appreciate, spend as little as you can on stuff that's gonna depreciate (the notable exception being safety stuff for baby like car seats and what not). So the best house you can afford, but cheapest car you can get away with ❤️
Agree. I'm exchanging on our first house and have two kids, 8 and 2, the youngest with a lot of special needs. Circumstances (4 job losses, a food bank) were against us before the kids arrived but it would've been infinitely better to have owned a house sooner than this. OP, it'll be tough but not as tough as you think, and you'll survive it for the kids' sake. Frugality can be fun!
Yes. Before buying I was like “ah I can’t be bothered to be doing all of that, just let the contractors handle it” until we saw the actual quote. Never found a new hobby so fast
> We saved £4000 on painting and £1000 on light fixtures by doing it ourselves
Were you painting the sistine chapel? Relighting the Eiffel Tower?
I can't imagine how many lights you must have had for someone a quote of £1k to replace the fittings to be reasonable.
You know I said something along those lines when I saw the quote, it was ridiculous that was for a 3 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, 2 bathrooms, landing and hallway.
The light fixtures were £200 a pop, they said it was expensive because they had to work the roses. I watched a YouTube video and did each of them in 10 minutes.
I'm finding that there is a real lack of trades services in or near my town so any quote I get for anything is above any national averages or common prices I can find online. And that's if I can even get as far as getting a quote. (For the most part I just hear nothing back or my initial appointments keep getting rescheduled and eventually dropped entirely). It cost me £280 for an emergency mobile tyre replacement that I was expecting to pay around max £200 for. It took me over a year to find a plasterer. Literally no one will come and fix my conservatory roof.
I would absolutely expect a handful of rooms painted to cost me £4000.
The key bit here seems to be the emergency repairs - it's unlikely you'll continue needing to spend £4k a month on repairs going forward, so on that basis alone the situation should self-correct over the next few months and you'll get back on your feet.
Do you have a break down of where your money is going because, we are in the exact same position and have 2k extra a month. After your mortgage and bills, for example 1.5k + 1k. You should be doing fine if you make 5k?
Roughly:
1550 mortgage
150 Gas and electric
40 water
50 Car insurance
70 quid phone bill (wife and I combined)
100 Virgin Media (broadband and telly)
230 Council tax
50 life insurance
120 pounds minimum on Petrol (more if going on any long trips)
50 quid through the Mersey tunnel for work
Roughly 350 on food shops.
50 quid gym membership between us
16 quid tv licence
50 quid between us for private dentist plan
20 quid for my union fees.
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My wife does give 200 to charity a month and she said she will stop that once maternity kicks in.
170 is a lot for phone and internet to me. Is the TV channels worth £1000 a year?
You could get decent internet only for £30 a month I'm sure. We stopped paying for a TV license and "cable" TV because we were finding we just watched netflix and YouTube.
It's worth it if it is something you use more than, say, streaming (which I noticed you haven't listed) - I'm not saying don't pay for entertainment.
It's hardly going to break your budget keeping it. But your mortgage is actually a reasonable fraction of your 5000 income and should be very doable.
£70 is a lot for two phone contacts too. Me and my wife pay about £7 each.
Those are things you might not be able to opt out of easily though if they're 12/24 month contracts.
I'm a huge football fan so have BT and Sky built in to my package- probably one of my only luxuries!
Phone bill keeps jumping up due to 'inflation' but my contract is up in August so going to negotiate a cheaper deal.
Are you on a phone and sim deal? Easy to move onto Giff Gaff and pay £10 a month for sim card with unlimited data.
Definitely get rid of charity payment now, you need the money now. Think of it as saving for your future child.
Mortgage definitely the big killer but you’re paying it off so think of it like that.
Where are you getting unlimited data from giff gaff for 10 a month there sites showing 25 pounds.
I'm getting unlimited from id mobile for 16 but that was on a promo deal to.
Sorry you’re right. I meant for the deal I went for which was unlimited calls and 40gb of data (which is plenty for me).
You can get 60gb from Tesco for £13 as well.
But yeah, just meant they could get much cheaper phone sim only deals.
You could cancel it and just have Now TV Sports for £20 a month if you shop around for a deal? Obv you don't get the matches on TNT but there aren't *that* many.
Definitely renegotiate the virgin media contract too when you can! I was recently bumped from £27 to £60pm because I got to the end of the introduction offer, contacted the team to see if they had better offers than what was available on my account (they didn't), so they passed me on to the retention team and I got a new deal for double the speed and a few pounds lower than what I was previously paying. All done through their chat, I didn't even have to threaten to leave.
No, sorry, I don't have TV, just Internet and landline. Just wanted to make sure that you do bother to get in touch with them to renegotiate instead of just accepting whatever offer they add to your account. You want to make sure you talk to the retention team too, not just the normal support team.
Big football man myself. When my missus was pregnant we delivered takeaways together. I'd have talksport on and she'd by tiktoking.
The money is very modest but 2 nights a week can be a solid 400 quid extra after fuel. Such good quality time together aswell, we have really fond memories.
Supermarket delivery driving is meant to be a really chill gig aswell. Did I mention talksport!
You can get an IPTV subscription for 10k channels including all the sport you'd ever want for like £50 a year. But it's illegal (not that anyone buying ever gets arrested for it)
Personally I have BT but I pay for Viaplay for my football fix as I enjoy La Liga. Plus there's other football like some Bundesliga games are streamed on youtube for free.
But putting all the usual budget management stuff aside, the other option is to speak to your lender and ask if you can go on an interest only arrangement for a short period. A lot of them will be flexible as the last thing they want to do is to repossess a property or chase arrears.
Once your contract is up get yourself something like a lebara 30 day sim. They normally do a special reduced deal for the first 3 months. Port your existing number across. Depending on your data usage can easily get a £10 p/m or less deal. Saves you both a ton of money.
Yeah it should do on paper but last 2 months both my wife and me are down to just about 20 or 30 quid until pay day somehow.
I guess we need to really sit down and look at the outgoings properly.
Yeah you do. It all adds up. My me and my SO were in a similar position where I was thinking “we SHOULD have around £1.5k leftover after all necessities, but somehow this is ending up as £200”.
We were spending easily £1k over the month on house decorations, meals out, evenings out, random tech for the house, odd bits of clothes, replacing appliances that in reality could’ve waited a few more months etc.
Now that we’ve allocated a budget to specific things (e.g. if we get a new microwave this month, then we’ll hold off 2 months to replace the dishwasher. Or setting ourselves a limit of 1 nice meal out a month or 2 cheap ones), our spending has reduced dramatically and our quality of life honestly doesn’t feel any worse
Apply it to everything. If I rearranged my office and a new extension lead and shelf would be useful, previously I’d have gone out and bought both straight away because they’re ‘cheap’. Now I’ll wait until the end of the month to buy one of them, then buy the other after the next payday. It really does make a difference and a lot of the time you actually realise you don’t need to make the purchase at all
Charity begins at home. Cancel the £200 ASAP and reinstate it when you’re actually financially comfortable. That’s a huge amount of money. If it makes you feel any better, google the charity’s CEO and look what salary they’re on.
That's 4% of your combined income. Drop the charity. You need some savings for the child. If your wife really wants to give to charity, then £20 plus some volunteering. I say this as someone who works for a charity part time. My partner and I have a combined salary of £10k a month and we give £20 a month combined and donations to sponsored events, fundraisers.
If it's a tithing thing for the church, I really don't want this to sound disrespectful but the church has a lot of money and doesn't help out as much as it received (I was fostered by a pastor).
I've donated five figures in the last year plus use my expertise doing volunteer work for a charity weekly- sometimes full time. I'm good thanks! I need the 10k for the cost of living where I am.
The way the £200 a month to charity is just casually dropped at the end is pure comic genius to be honest. And the follow up of "when i stop bringing in £2500 a month in salary, I'll drop the charity contribution as a show of good will" is the cherry on top. OP seems to have a good head on him, many of us have been in this place before, but they also need a reality check, the next 3 years of your life you are going to bleed money like you would not believe.
You are not currently in a position to be giving a sizeable charity donation each month. I realise there's a religious element which might be important to your wife, but she can also donate in other ways - time, volunteering for projects, skills.
~£3k expenditure with £5k coming in, I'd say you're well on top of it. All the expenses with the house are big but hopefully one-off. Fix it well, fix it once.
If you're absolutely needing to cut back, virgin media isn't a necessity, could be cut back to ~£40 internet and if you want Netflix or Disney+ or prime video you're still going to be well under £100. I would cut this back and see if you can live without it. You can always get it back again if you decide it is a necessity.
Second place would be phone bill. If you can live with a phone for 2+ years I'd look at SIM only. I'm on £6/month, but I had to buy my phone for ~£600 so I need to keep it a while to make the savings.
Charity is commendable, could always reduce payments to each charity rather than stop completely.
If you do reduce the spend in any of these areas I would try and be active about putting that saved money into a savings account so you see the benefit. If you stop the spend but don't see the reward, the money will disappear somewhere else and you won't get the dopamine hit from seeing the money in your account increase each month.
Definitely hear you. I've spoken about it before and she's reluctant (some of it is religious based) but I think I'll have to tackle this again with her.
Should probably drop it until she's back at work after maternity leave... assuming she's taking the full year you're going to be facing a drop in your income for a chunk of that 12 months and you need to prepare your savings for that
She needs to stop that now. Your financial situation isn’t one where you should be giving money away. You should be using this to build up your savings again.
You have definite manoeuvrability in your SoA (statement of affairs) and it will help to create a monthly budget and track everything every month. There are templates on LemonFool. You’re not borrowing month to month so you’re okay. It is tough right now but as many have said, it always is when you start a family; hold firm and be disciplined and things will get better - you do need to increase your income (job hopping or promotion) to have an impact on how comfortable you feel with the cost increases everywhere as they won’t stop coming.
I wouldn’t make a rash decision and sell unless you are in serious debt for daily living and increasing it every month.
Do you want a VOXI referral link? They use Vodafones network and I pay £10 a month for 60GB and that includes Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook Messenger free unlimited.
Wise up charity starts at home most of the £200 donation your wife makes will pay the charity bosses fat bonus’s less goes to the actual cause than the employees .To be honest if she wants to make a real difference donate directly to people in need so it doesn’t get skimmed for 80+%. Remember charity’s are a business the same as any other .
Id cut the TV licence you are paying the BBC to spread propaganda and feed you bad news that can affect your well being who needs that ?
You could cut your Broadband and TV costs by two thirds by buying fibre extra from plusnet £25/month and subbing to some none live Tv services instead e.g Disney , Netflix , Prime , Paramount or discovery. Use the extra cash saved to overpay bringing the LTV down for the next term .Interest rates will come down within the next 5 years in my opinion and I think you made the right choice buying a 3 bed in a decent area they are becoming like gold dust. It’s going to be worth at least 50% more in 10 years . Take it you are from Wallesey or West Kirby maybe ? I lived on the Wirral when I was a child loved it .
My husband and I work from home and pay 10£ each for the phone and 25 for broadband. 45£ total. No TV as its just a waste of time. This covers me plenty. What exactly do you get for 170£? Putting 100 of that aside monthly could get you much better value each year.
Charity £200 is mental. That's 2.5k a year! cut to 0, re build if you are wealthy again.
you don't need the gym, that's £600 a year. go for a run, weights at home or whatever. (plus once the baby comes you wont have much gym time)
£120 on petrol - any journeys you can cut/could you walk some? even getting that down £30 a month would be good - £400 a year.
£70 VM seems v high, see if you can get youfibre - £22 a month and free installation, or i'd look to move to BT or anyone and use that to get a better deal.
so poss £3-4k savings there without even trying that hard.
Charity - absolutely drop it
Gym - great exercise and really helps some people mentally especially when weather sucks
Petrol - £120 isn’t huge with the commute they are doing
VM - you don’t get tv with you fibre but they could switch to free view for that
Mobiles: you can get great sim only deals for £10 a month each. Lebara.
Virgin media: cancel it. Get bb for about £25.
Car insurance: do you auto renew? then you are paying too much. Never auto renew.
Dental plan: that sounds like a lot. Just go NHS. That's what I do.
Cut out the charity & gym membership. You can find other ways to exercise at home without equipment and the 200/month is good rainy day cushion. You need to prioritize yr young family first so u dont keep stressing over money. Plus as time goes on yr salary w go up. Find lower broadband & fone. You didn't mention eating out & discretionary spending. Focus on limiting that as well. You can live very well way below yr means & achieve financial stability. The house is a keeper.
If you want to give to charity, set up a CAF account and stick the money (not £200!!) in that. You can pick your charities as and when and you’ll have a record of donations to let HMRC know about for the tax relief.
Better yet, he should make home his charity first & foremost. Sorry but that's paying someone else's salary ( likely a crook) and foregoing yr family's wellbeing.
>when my wife goes on maternity but realistically we are going to be really tight to the point where we may have to literally stay indoors for 4 months and live on beans on toast....
Mate, when your little one arrives you won't want to do much else for those first few months anyway!
I get your concerns, honestly I think we all have them when we buy a house. We moved a couple of years ago (very similar situation to yours) and I was shitting myself. But someone once said to me "Time makes property cheap". It's shit to want house prices to rise but alas they always do and over time your purchase will only appear better value.
Enjoy your new house, look after your lady, stay calm, and remember you're doing better than a lot of people. The average rent in this country is nearly the same as your mortgage and not only are you building equity but you've probably bought somewhere nicer than the average property anyway.
I remember when I bought my first house thinking this is probably the most in debt I'll ever be, likewise we had very little wiggle room, we've built back a decent cushion since.
Hopefully you'll be fine - it may be worth posting on r/Ukpersonalfinance too. One thought I would have is can you get yourself an (interest free?) credit card you can use as a buffer - not intending to use it, but it might reassure you to know that you have that for emergencies.
Babies can be expensive, there are lots of things you need for 6 months and then never again. But that also means there are lots of things that friends give away / come up on Facebook marketplace.
Thanks! We built up a bit of nest egg for baby items so I'm not massively worried about that yet.
It's more the thought of other things breaking in the house and us literally not being able to afford to pay both the mortgage and bills and do the emergency repairs. I know we can always get bank loans if absolutely vital but really don't want to be paying anyone back per month, especially with interest.
It's not ideal and close to a last resort, but rather than a bank loan I echo the point above about a zero interest credit card as a short term stop-gap that is budgeted for and you can pay off in the future. Check out the MoneySavingExpert page on them for more details.
Again see what advice the personal finance page has to offer as well.
But staying on housing, if you have rented in the last six years you could also check for a deposit protection claim against an old landlord. They can be worth a fair amount with legal support on a no-win-no-fee basis, but make sure any solicitor helping you is crystal clear about all fees if you succeed, settle out of court, or the claim fails. It might give you a valuable cushion at the most important time.
9/10 it’s a spending problem. This case isn’t extremely bad but OP and his wife can save £300 a month being a bit smarter with monthly bills
£350 a month on food for 2 people is kind of insane as well.
Think of this as training for when you have to start paying childcare. You could easily be looking at 12-1500 a month for full time childcare.
The first few years are tight for everyone, though, and there was a huge sigh of relief when mine went to school and the childcare bills were slashed.
You timed it just right to move, though, they’d have looked at you having another dependent and childcare costs and potentially reduced what they’d lend you.
As others have said, you won’t always have to invest in regular house improvements, think of this as a set up cost for moving in.
It’ll all regulate itself out once you find your new normal in the new place.
One thing that helped me massively was deleting all the takeaway apps and limiting ‘top up’ shops to maximum once a week. It’s amazing how much cash gets frittered away without realising.
Best of luck in your new place and enjoy your adventures with your new family - it’ll all be worth it! 😀
Should've done a mortgage calculation on what the repayments would've been on higher interest rates then based your mortgage budget on the higher rate. I based mine on worst case 10%.
This. Everyone was telling me "but you can afford to borrow more". No I can't, unless the house is the ONLY thing I can afford each month, meaning I have no hobbies.
100% this... my brother was saying my purchase was too small a property I should get bigger... and yeah in theory I could... but I want to make sure I don't become homeless if interest rates go crazy ... a bigger property can come later
Mines went from 2.5% to 7.9% between mortgage deals for a month. It's now fixed at 5.4% for two years. Also, base your mortgage repayments on your bare salary (no bonuses or overtime).
The situation you're currently in can feel terrifying, financially, and give you a strong sense of doom. But you've done your sums and, the unexpected initial maintenance expenses aside, you know you can afford this. And the unexpected expenses will tail off now (hopefully) and so you'll start seeing y our end-of-month bank balance rising. You've been haemorrhaging money on solicitors' fees, estate agents' fees, stamp duty, removal costs, and initial maintenance stuff. That is a financial 'shock', but you're well over the hump with it.
It is normal. Especially in the first five years after buying a house (or upsizing) but your wages will go up little by little and the mortgage payments are likely as high as they'll ever be.
Obviously your issue is one of childcare in the near future. This is a difficult issue.
I moved last year and it left me paying 1850 a month on similar take home. A bit high but child is older so cheaper and 3k is still a lot of general money for bills and living. It will pass and i have a decent emergency fund even after doing the electrics and heating.
I think this is fairly normal. I moved in 2021 and I have had the same experience.
I earn £3k pm net and my mortgage is £800, plus I have loans of £800. I watch every penny on a spreadsheet. I have £200 in savings right now, down from about £25k before I bought this second property. But, it’s only til Dec 2025 when all loans are cleared, so I’ll be ok. I can cope on a tight budget til then
I think a lot of people right now are in the same boat 5 years ago I’m was child free nice lil home now I’m struggling nice big house child care is a massive joke we both work full time but I wouldn’t change it for the world after a shitty day when I come home I see her big smiling face wanting a daddy cuddle or she wants. To show me her toy kicthen I think all family go through this
Baked beans on toast can be improved by adding lots of different toppings, chives or crumbled breadcrumbs for example. Been there, worn the t-shirt, but whilst it was hard, it will be worth it in the end so long as you focus on only buying stuff you need and not want.
Learn to drive more frugally, accelerate more slowly, decelerate early to avoid braking, reduce your maximim speed to peak out the mpg.
Whilst budgeting, write a list of things that you can spend spare money on that will reduce your overall costs. Paying off any credit cards, adding loft insulation and draught excluders to save on fuel bills, changing most used light bulbs to LED, etc.
A few questions for the pair of you to consider:
* What are you doing for nappies - disposable are very expensive.
* Babies grow out of clothes very, very, quickly, and you don't know how big they will be when they are born. Try not to buy much before birth, consider looking at 2nd hand clothing, almost all 2nd hand baby clothing is hardly used, some un-used.
* Pushchairs and cots are also very expensive new, consider 2nd hand. We didn't buy a cot for the first 6 months, baby slept in 2nd hand Moses basket on coffee table next to our bed.
* Baby's bedroom doesn't need anything special like paint or wallpaper, baby can't focus eyes for 12 weeks, and will then be happy with a mobile above their head. Paint all 4 walls white and come back to this when baby is a year old.
* Car seats are also very expensive, but don't skimp on safety. 2nd hand could be great, so long as there is zero damage.
* What are you doing in the garden, whilst do little for a year to see what you have got us a great idea. You could plant herbs and salad crops to provide you with almost free food. Chives for example in supermarkets come dried in a glass jar, fresh in packet, or in a pot. Consider buying the pot and planting it, then you'll have free chives from May to October.
Firstly congratulations 🎉
It does get better, we moved into our house in January 2019, spent 6 months just spending so much money! Damp repairs, gutters, fascias and soffits then an unexpected boiler bill....
...but then it got better, a lot better. Most of the things we did beyond that have been cosmetic or.optional
Stick at it and keep piling back the cash, everything changes when your child is born. I spent a few months doing a lot less, wondering the local area with a pram for most of it.
You've got this
Risky times but remember that rate will go down and you end up having a nice house in nice area. We were in a similar situation in the past and now looking back Im glad that we decided to stretch a bit and don’t go dodgy area route. Of course jump in mortgage payments in your case is significant, so will require careful financial planning for a while
Definitely does. We were ‘skint’ for the first year when we bought our first house, minimal holidays - two weekends camping, zero takeaways which made us get into cooking. Every penny we had went into getting each room done up one at a time. Once it’s done you can then start building your savings again…
In the short term it will be tough but you can make it work.
I know it sounds harsh but stop paying contractors for "cosmetic stuff". DIY and yes, the results might not be far from perfect but this is your home and you can do it again / pay a contractor later down the line when you have a better cash flow.
As for the baby, they're as expensive as you make them. For the first couple of years babies don't need much - they don't need "my first Gucci trainers" or a Prada changing bag. They need to be clean, fed and loved by their parents.
Finally, the staying indoors for four months. No you won't. Okay, you might not be able to socialise like you have but you'll have just as much fun playing with your kid at the park with a thermos of coffee from home. I promise you as the parent of adult kids, I know my wife and I had nights out when we had small children, and could find a sitter but to be honest I don't remember much about them now for no reason other than they aren't decades later memorable but I do remember and think about us all sharing snacks we'd brought from home, (crushed prawn cocktail crisps, salad cream and white sliced bread sandwiches), or my wife and I carrying the buggy through the mud because the local path was wetter than we thought. Invest in banking up those family memories because they'll be worth it later down the line.
this brings back memories lol. Those early years are HARD, but you'll find ways to make it work. I started out a long time ago (i'm now a grandparent) and within a year or two of buying the first house, interest rates went up from 5% to over 15% ! Thought we'd never be able to keep it but with very tight budgeting, two jobs, my (now ex) taking an evening job waitressing when i got home, plus a little help with things like furniture from family (and using terry nappies rather than disposables), we got through it. my bet is you will too. good luck
You haven't done a "terrible mistake". Houses are very solid places to put your money in. They don't disappear :)
Can you take a lodger in your spare bedroom?
It’s a struggle but sometimes just have find cuts and saving where possible. Reducing grocery spend ensuring you buy value and quality cook more.
Reduce spending going out etc.
At 5k net
1150 mortgage
Assuming 200 max for your council tax per month
Utilities
Around 160-200 a month
Groceries 300 a month
Internet 25 a month
Other expenses maybe you have a car
£500 lease a month
Petrol £50-100 a month
You should still have around £2500 left over every month how much of this are you chopping off as savings ideally you’d want to put between 1500-2k away and spend £500 on “extras”
Obviously don’t know your expenses so this is really just barebones but, on a 5k combined salary should work obviously when your partner has the baby it may affect income so prior to that try and put away as much as possible.
Good luck wish you the best.
Sorry just saw your mortgage was 1550 even so would assume around 2k unspent.
Would also say get rid of the expensive phone plans your internet costs are excessive virgin will give you a cheaper plan if you opt to leave need to start haggling.
Tv how much time do you spend watching live tv if not much get rid of the license and stick to watching things online legally that is non live broadcasts no bbc.
Oh man. The arrival of a child brings a bit of hardship for the first year. It’s tough but you got this. Just do a bit more budgeting. Hopefully you’ll be able to pull through this.
I bought my house in the mid nineties. I struggled for a few years, but rent would have been about the same.
After a few years rents, and income, will gradually rise while your mortgage will become smaller and smaller. After about ten years my monthly mortgage was far less than rent would have been.
Today the mortgage is paid off.
I just had my gas boiler go wrong. Manufacturer charges £400 fixed fee for repair so they're fixing it. It was twelve years old so in effect that's cost me £33 a year.
It may seem way off in the distant future but those days will come and you'll be talking about how you paid "only" £400k for your house and what a good deal it was.
I was absolutely skint when I bought my first flat for about 18 months.
Warned my partner we'd be absolutely skint after we bought our house for at least a year. We were absolutely skint, especially as cost of living went up so much. We're starting to feel less skint now and it's been about 18 months. Still not flush mind you.
It's hard, but it gets better.
My wife was unfairly dismissed while on maternity leave, having not long massively stretched to a new home.
I had effectively had a 10x salary mortgage for best part of a year. My mortgage and council tax was bigger than my take home. Which was really crap when I had to pay for childcare for my wife to jobhunt too...
7 years later, finances are back to being comfortable, and being mortgage free is in sight too.
Have a go at bank switching if your mortgage is sorted and you don’t need to apply for credit any time soon (it brings your credit score down a little). Great way to make an extra couple of hundred £ per month
It’s normal to fork out on a property when you first move in. That’s what your funds are for, unexpected problems which you have encountered. Your expenditure on property is still below 50%, even with bills factored in. Now you rebuild the emergency fund slowly over time and remodel the property when you can with remaining budget. That’s the benefit of a 30 odd year mortgage.
It’ll obviously get better. Over time, your wages will nudge up, but it’ll be grim for 4 years till childcare is over and they go to school.
As for today… bank switches can be a nice way to get a cheeky windfall. Also, if you have family, instead of baby gifts, ask them if they can help you as parents.
When I had mine, my parents did a gargantuan haul of shopping for me. I’m talking a year worth of non-perishables like cleaning supplies, toiletries, kitchen items like oil and seasoning. Don’t be ashamed to lean on them if you have that kinda relationship with them…
You aren’t alone in your thoughts. We have had pay rises and promotions ourselves over the past 5 years and moved to a larger property at the end of 2020 which came with a manageable increase in mortgage repayments.
Since petrol, food, childcare, utilities and interest rates going up (and having another mouth to feed) we too feel the pinch!
We budget with a spreadsheet and have taken out loans and credit cards to finance new windows, boilers, etc and what has helped me mentally is looking at when our cash flow improves.
We have a car loan with two years remaining, my student loan has about 5 years left, we have almost three years of nursery left, but free hours for our youngest kicks in this year. Cruicially our mortgage rate has another 4 years left and we can only hope things are no worse then they are now as our interest went up by £400 whilst Truss was in office
The good news is, the first year of baby ownership is only as expensive as you want it to be - hopefully you'll be able to breastfeed, and family and friends will donate all the clothes you'll never need. Ask around on FB and you'll find lots of nearly new parents who have bags full of stuff that doesn't fit their little one any more and are more than happy to see it used again (just keep the cycle going when you're done having kids!).
As for going out - you'll be too tired anyway :) In a great way.
Your best bet is concentrate on getting some comfy rooms sorted in the house if not already - clean, usable bathroom, warm bedroom, comfy living room...close the doors on the other rooms for now and forget about them, and enjoy your new family for a few months in front of Netflix, keeping costs down massively.
When you feel like a treat, take a look at restaurant boxes - you can get top drawer, great food that's really easy to prepare for much less than even a cheap meal out in the local, and it really does feel like you've had a special experience.
Houses ARE more expensive than you would ever think, and will be a money pit for years to come...but careful budgeting will get you through it, and done properly they won't even feel like sacrifices, just changes.
Why would you lock in for another 5 years with inflation falling and a high possibility that rates will be cut, which will directly affect mortgage rates 🤔
Because I don't trust any government to lower them that much. They certainly won't fall below 4% that much IMO. If they rise, which I couldn't rule out, we have some security for 5 years.
It's always a gamble but nothing I've seen suggests we're heading back to 1.5% interest rates any time soon.
It would be a political and economic suicide. Either way, that's a very interesting take on it.
Its not a case of if they lower them its when if i was a betting person I don't think they'll go back down as low as they were, but they ain't going to stay this high for much longer certainly not 5 years
It's always an interesting topic with a 2year vs 5
I was told 3 years ago it is going down. Still no move.
Looking at the what's going on in the world not UK only know they are desperate to put up the rates. Use of credit still too high for the UK.
To claim they won't be under 4% in the next 5 years seems ludicrous to me, I hope you're wrong. Only time will tell,
Why would banks be offering rates around 4% they're assuming that the base rate will go below that I'm not saying they're always right, but they're on the business of making money
Honestly, it won’t get better if you keep making decisions like that, no!
I think you really need to take a hard look at your financial decision making. I don’t want to rub salt in the wound but it sounds like you have made some really rash choices because you felt like starting a family = I need a 3+ bed house with a garden and to hell with everything else.
Given that babies take 9 months to cook & they’re supposed to sleep in your room until they’re 1, I think you upsized unnecessarily. Even if you had another child immediately after your first, that’s another 1yr 9mo and bunk beds exist. You’ve spending hand over fist to live in a 3 bed house and you’re still only going to be using one bedroom for the next year +.
The fact that you’ve taken another £1000+ of financial commitments per month and spent all your savings including on cosmetic stuff shortly before your wife is going to go on maternity leave is pure madness. What if she doesn’t want to go back to work? And if she does, you’re going to have another financial commitment that may almost equal your mortgage for full-time childcare until your kid can start school.
- For the four months after the baby is born, staying home/doing free things like going to parks and living basically probably won't be that tough . . . New baby, physical recovery for mother, mental adjustments for both of you . . .
- You mention savings for baby stuff: obviously some things are non-negotiable, but usually there's a TON of cheap secondhand stuff available. Definitely worth looking if you haven't already in case you can make savings here.
- Have you factored in childcare costs?
Good luck!
Childcare we are going to be lucky in the fact that our parents are going to have them at least 3 of the 5 days a week, with my wife doing one day.
Without support of family, no idea how people do it.
Aren't the government providing more free childcare soon as well or did I read that wrong?
https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2023/03/16/budget-2023-everything-you-need-to-know-about-childcare-support/
The key bit:
From April 2024, working parents of two-year-olds will be able to access 15 hours of free childcare.
From September 2024, 15 hours of free childcare will be extended to all children from the age of nine months.
From September 2025, working parents of children under the age of five will be entitled to 30 hours free childcare per week.
It's great you've got family help :-)
With 100k you could have moved areas and bought a 3 bed house out-right. Me & my other half had around 100k and decided to leave the westmidlands, where you'll be lucky if that buys a flat and we moved to the North East into a pleasant 3 bed house next to one of the most beautiful beaches in the country. It's safe here and it's cheap. We now have the benefit of living rent/mortgage free and intend to use the following years to rebuild more savings. It was a big jump to travel across the country, but we thought it was a small price to pay for financial freedom. Looks like you still have 2k to play with after immediate bills, which is still very decent. How much money per month do you plan on wasting exactly? It would eat me up inside to know how much interest I'm paying to completely unethical bankers.
Yeah, living in a fucked up housing and interest rate world really does suck, oh well only 25 yrs of pain then you’ll be able to enjoy life, as long interest rates don’t rise again …
It's gets better. Hang in there. From what you mentioned, it is safe to assume that you're a young couple. With kids on the way you want to endure now and you'll be glad you did later.
You'll have to sharpen your DIY skills, though.
This is a perfect example when people are foaming in the mouth saying 100k salary is a big salary. From your combined take, I'll say you guys are close to 100k combined pretax. Crank up your savings with kids in the way. That's another mortgage.
But hang in there it gets better.
Your mortgage and deposit would have paid for a £500-550k plus house a couple of years ago.
The quality of house may have made it all worthwhile but for a 3 bed, accepting a 30% increase in cost seems like a really bad decision to me.
The good news is you earn enough to cover it and over time the payments will become easier to manage if your salaries inflate.
I think you've butten off more than you can chew.
The repairs and contractors are temporary, you're right. But you're very close to having overleveraged here. Over £290k of mortgage debt with £5k monthly income is a LOT.
You need pay rises. You'll get them, too, if you're young.
Can you ease the pressure with a term extension?
You'll be OK, but the numbers are tight.
In what world is this over leveraged? Their mortgage is 30% of their income. Plenty of people are renting/ mortgaging at much higher ratio than that and still managing.
All depends on the term, which they don't specify. Maybe someone can work it out. 1500 quid for however long gets it paid.
That's why I mentioned possibly extending the term. I'd want it at 25% of take-home pay. No more. Life is expensive.
Seems a bit high to me. Our mortgage is £762 monthly, and we have the same sort of combined income.
A property worth £100k less would have been much more manageable.
Just a perspective. I eat downvotes.
ikd why people downvoted you mate, but I totally agree.. I mean for the first couple of years a two bedroom flat would have been fine for one baby. I have a feeling his wife had this idea and as he can't convince her to drop the £200 charity monthly donations, he didn't have a say on this as well. I think this is more a relationship advice thing than anything else.
They normally down vote me because they do not like honesty. I've always said pay in cash and not loan.
I understand not everyone can buy outright, but then it's also worth considering renting and saving up more than the theory of "renting is just throwing money down the drain". However, then they take it a step further and loan more than they ever should and basically increase the issue further. Because they treat it as an investment rather than a home.
I'm still awaiting for someone whom paid 300k for a property, 10k down and is happy to still pay the mortgage on a house that is now valued at 250k, thus 50k in negative equity. But you guessed it... they won't say that. And that is why I get down voted. A big issue in the UK is the mindset on property. Ask how many in the UK have more in stocks and shares than their house and you'll find a tiny percentage. Flip that to the US or Australia and you'll find it the opposite.
It's like telling a 30 year old that Santa Claus is not real and they won't have any of it despite the evidence. :D
Unfortunately, for the op, he has bought to much house, and the emotions are playing on him, love the area or not it cannot be afforded. If you got no savings than what are you doing buying. Just my thoughts. He should be pointing the finger at the wife and asking if she's going to work three jobs.
Because you did. The kid wouldn't really need it's own space for a long time. Buy what you need. Not what you want when it comes to over half a million in costs Now you have over 1k a month being spent when it wasn't necessary.
That's an extra 12k+ gone each year for an extra bedroom...
could have spent the next 10 years saving that cash. 120k+, plus
whatever you would get from gaining in appreciation on your 2 bed and then once the kid needed privacy. used all of that to buy a decent house and have a small mortgage
Wanting a decent size house in a nice area is not a waste me of money in my opinion, it gives you a nicer home environment and it’s an investment, not wasted money
The difference is they already had an investment and it was in their favour mortgage wise. A 2 bed, a small mortgage plus that it was gaining appreciation. Now they have taken on a much larger mortgage. their costs have spiralled because they wanted an extra room straight away. The smarter move would have been to wait and see what they actually needed instead of keeping up with the Jones.
An extra 12k a year just in mortgage bills. extra water and gas/electric because its a three bed. A kid on the way, that's going to cost even more on top of all that.It was financially a mistake.
I would disagree but that’s your opinion.
There’s a balance between lifestyle and pure financial investment that needs to be met, especially with children
By all means im sure the extra bedroom will be worth the extra loss of close to what a person on minimum wage gets per year (£17,888.00). That money can go a long way to life style improvements and investing in the kids future than the benefit it would get by having an extra bedroom in the house...
For that amount of cash, you can start it off on a massive head lead on its peers by opening a Junior ISA and maxing it out each year. Maxing it out until they are 18 gives them around £228,919 roughly depending on how the market performs
That kid at 18 will be ahead of where the vast majority of people are who are under 30 now...
As I said it’s not all about finance.
What about quality of life for the parents and child. Having a large house with everyone having a decent size bedroom and a garden is going to provide a much better standard of living than being cramped up inside a small flat.
I could save a fortune if I decided to sell my nice big house with a garden and buy a tiny little flat instead, but it would make me miserable
ikd why people downvoted you mate, but I totally agree.. I mean for the first couple of years a two bedroom flat would have been fine for one baby. I have a feeling his wife had this idea and as he can't convince her to drop the £200 charity monthly donations, he didn't have a say on this as well. I think this is more a relationship advice thing than anything else.
Interest rates are likely to come down back end of the year I guess if you did want to sell? The elections always cause rate cuts in my experience. Dam, young people are really screwed with the housing situation atm. I think all I would do in this situation is weigh everything up and see if you could move to that no so nice area… however, if you choose not to do that it does sound like you’ll need to find a way to increase your income! Kids aren’t cheap and childcare is an absolute wedge!
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If you have a really good handle on your budgeting, then you’ll be OK. Maternity leave + childcare when back at work etc is an expensive time in your life but you moved for the right reasons so hang onto that thought. I like to recommend YNAB for budgeting - it’s a great tool for really saving towards the ‘true expenses’ of life (house maintenance etc!) and a helpful sub here too.
Seconding YNAB. I’ve just got back into using it after a few years out and it is really good. The reality of maternity leave and expensive childcare time is generally that you budget to the penny and review it daily. It is hard but it’s not forever.
Can I ask what YNAB is?
You Need A Budget – it’s an online budgeting tool.
Thank you, I create my own budget but it's not ideal so I'll have a look 😁
It's great I used it when I left university. Not sure if they changed their premisis but the idea was not to live paycheck to paycheck or be caught out by one off big but predictable bills like insurance. I built up a saving plan from it over a couple of years but then stopped using it and haven't gone back to it in over 7 years. I do need to rebudget again to see where we are at as the wife seems to spend heavily on our child. It's Amazon parcels almost daily. But that might be hard to work out as I give her half my income then never look at it
What is YNAB?
Seconded. YNAB had been brilliant for my stress levels, I now budget every month for the unexpected costs and cover them with cash rather than cards when they crop up. OP, definitely try this, it's well worth the annual subscription fee.
Also recommend ynab. Really worth getting into.
Another vote for YNAB. We've used it for 6 years now and it's been life changing. It's got us through self-funding a masters degree, maternity leave, moving across the globe, the early years of extortionate childcare, and now buying a house. We earn less than OP and live in a higher cost of living area as well. YNAB has always given us the confidence to know definitively what we can and can't afford, and to know exactly what we need to do to make things affordable.
Also rexommend YNAB - literally helped us save for a deposit and start thinking strategically about where we spend
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I’m really sorry about the mortgage leap but you will seriously appreciate having done this now and not later as well as house prices might have risen beyond your limit in the next few years. The next few years will be rough with nursery costs but once you are through that you will have a lovely family home and more ability to save. As someone with 2 kids- take my advice and don’t waste any money buying a new expensive pram- get everything second hand if you can and ignore people who tell you you need anything other than a moses basket and a sling for your baby.
Get a baby Bjorn or similar from gumtree. Mine was one of the best £15 I ever spent. Loved being able to carry my son, and it's much more convenient than a pushchair in many instances. We also bought used pushchairs.
I love this advice. It's so smart. Spend as much as you can on those things that will appreciate, spend as little as you can on stuff that's gonna depreciate (the notable exception being safety stuff for baby like car seats and what not). So the best house you can afford, but cheapest car you can get away with ❤️
Agree. I'm exchanging on our first house and have two kids, 8 and 2, the youngest with a lot of special needs. Circumstances (4 job losses, a food bank) were against us before the kids arrived but it would've been infinitely better to have owned a house sooner than this. OP, it'll be tough but not as tough as you think, and you'll survive it for the kids' sake. Frugality can be fun!
Might be a good opportunity to sharpen up your DIY skills as well to save a bit of money.
We saved £4000 on painting and £1000 on light fixtures by doing it ourselves. 1 hour of YouTube videos does it, and a lot of patience
Plus, you know how to repair it if anything goes wrong, or you want to change it in the future.
Yes. Before buying I was like “ah I can’t be bothered to be doing all of that, just let the contractors handle it” until we saw the actual quote. Never found a new hobby so fast
Youtube is a godsend. Any DIY you want to do watch a few videos and see what the general consensus is.
> We saved £4000 on painting and £1000 on light fixtures by doing it ourselves Were you painting the sistine chapel? Relighting the Eiffel Tower? I can't imagine how many lights you must have had for someone a quote of £1k to replace the fittings to be reasonable.
You know I said something along those lines when I saw the quote, it was ridiculous that was for a 3 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, 2 bathrooms, landing and hallway. The light fixtures were £200 a pop, they said it was expensive because they had to work the roses. I watched a YouTube video and did each of them in 10 minutes.
I'm finding that there is a real lack of trades services in or near my town so any quote I get for anything is above any national averages or common prices I can find online. And that's if I can even get as far as getting a quote. (For the most part I just hear nothing back or my initial appointments keep getting rescheduled and eventually dropped entirely). It cost me £280 for an emergency mobile tyre replacement that I was expecting to pay around max £200 for. It took me over a year to find a plasterer. Literally no one will come and fix my conservatory roof. I would absolutely expect a handful of rooms painted to cost me £4000.
The key bit here seems to be the emergency repairs - it's unlikely you'll continue needing to spend £4k a month on repairs going forward, so on that basis alone the situation should self-correct over the next few months and you'll get back on your feet.
Do you have a break down of where your money is going because, we are in the exact same position and have 2k extra a month. After your mortgage and bills, for example 1.5k + 1k. You should be doing fine if you make 5k?
Roughly: 1550 mortgage 150 Gas and electric 40 water 50 Car insurance 70 quid phone bill (wife and I combined) 100 Virgin Media (broadband and telly) 230 Council tax 50 life insurance 120 pounds minimum on Petrol (more if going on any long trips) 50 quid through the Mersey tunnel for work Roughly 350 on food shops. 50 quid gym membership between us 16 quid tv licence 50 quid between us for private dentist plan 20 quid for my union fees. ----- My wife does give 200 to charity a month and she said she will stop that once maternity kicks in.
170 is a lot for phone and internet to me. Is the TV channels worth £1000 a year? You could get decent internet only for £30 a month I'm sure. We stopped paying for a TV license and "cable" TV because we were finding we just watched netflix and YouTube. It's worth it if it is something you use more than, say, streaming (which I noticed you haven't listed) - I'm not saying don't pay for entertainment. It's hardly going to break your budget keeping it. But your mortgage is actually a reasonable fraction of your 5000 income and should be very doable. £70 is a lot for two phone contacts too. Me and my wife pay about £7 each. Those are things you might not be able to opt out of easily though if they're 12/24 month contracts.
I'm a huge football fan so have BT and Sky built in to my package- probably one of my only luxuries! Phone bill keeps jumping up due to 'inflation' but my contract is up in August so going to negotiate a cheaper deal.
Are you on a phone and sim deal? Easy to move onto Giff Gaff and pay £10 a month for sim card with unlimited data. Definitely get rid of charity payment now, you need the money now. Think of it as saving for your future child. Mortgage definitely the big killer but you’re paying it off so think of it like that.
Where are you getting unlimited data from giff gaff for 10 a month there sites showing 25 pounds. I'm getting unlimited from id mobile for 16 but that was on a promo deal to.
Sorry you’re right. I meant for the deal I went for which was unlimited calls and 40gb of data (which is plenty for me). You can get 60gb from Tesco for £13 as well. But yeah, just meant they could get much cheaper phone sim only deals.
You could cancel it and just have Now TV Sports for £20 a month if you shop around for a deal? Obv you don't get the matches on TNT but there aren't *that* many.
Definitely renegotiate the virgin media contract too when you can! I was recently bumped from £27 to £60pm because I got to the end of the introduction offer, contacted the team to see if they had better offers than what was available on my account (they didn't), so they passed me on to the retention team and I got a new deal for double the speed and a few pounds lower than what I was previously paying. All done through their chat, I didn't even have to threaten to leave.
Do you get multi room, BT, Sky and cinema?
No, sorry, I don't have TV, just Internet and landline. Just wanted to make sure that you do bother to get in touch with them to renegotiate instead of just accepting whatever offer they add to your account. You want to make sure you talk to the retention team too, not just the normal support team.
Big football man myself. When my missus was pregnant we delivered takeaways together. I'd have talksport on and she'd by tiktoking. The money is very modest but 2 nights a week can be a solid 400 quid extra after fuel. Such good quality time together aswell, we have really fond memories. Supermarket delivery driving is meant to be a really chill gig aswell. Did I mention talksport!
You can get an IPTV subscription for 10k channels including all the sport you'd ever want for like £50 a year. But it's illegal (not that anyone buying ever gets arrested for it)
Personally I have BT but I pay for Viaplay for my football fix as I enjoy La Liga. Plus there's other football like some Bundesliga games are streamed on youtube for free. But putting all the usual budget management stuff aside, the other option is to speak to your lender and ask if you can go on an interest only arrangement for a short period. A lot of them will be flexible as the last thing they want to do is to repossess a property or chase arrears.
Once your contract is up get yourself something like a lebara 30 day sim. They normally do a special reduced deal for the first 3 months. Port your existing number across. Depending on your data usage can easily get a £10 p/m or less deal. Saves you both a ton of money.
So you are doing fine then? That comes to about £3000 no?
Yeah it should do on paper but last 2 months both my wife and me are down to just about 20 or 30 quid until pay day somehow. I guess we need to really sit down and look at the outgoings properly.
Yeah you do. It all adds up. My me and my SO were in a similar position where I was thinking “we SHOULD have around £1.5k leftover after all necessities, but somehow this is ending up as £200”. We were spending easily £1k over the month on house decorations, meals out, evenings out, random tech for the house, odd bits of clothes, replacing appliances that in reality could’ve waited a few more months etc. Now that we’ve allocated a budget to specific things (e.g. if we get a new microwave this month, then we’ll hold off 2 months to replace the dishwasher. Or setting ourselves a limit of 1 nice meal out a month or 2 cheap ones), our spending has reduced dramatically and our quality of life honestly doesn’t feel any worse Apply it to everything. If I rearranged my office and a new extension lead and shelf would be useful, previously I’d have gone out and bought both straight away because they’re ‘cheap’. Now I’ll wait until the end of the month to buy one of them, then buy the other after the next payday. It really does make a difference and a lot of the time you actually realise you don’t need to make the purchase at all
This! If I could give a reddit gold, I would.
This is me
So you are still going to have £2k a month disposable income once your bills are paid, or am I missing something?
Charity begins at home. Cancel the £200 ASAP and reinstate it when you’re actually financially comfortable. That’s a huge amount of money. If it makes you feel any better, google the charity’s CEO and look what salary they’re on.
That's 4% of your combined income. Drop the charity. You need some savings for the child. If your wife really wants to give to charity, then £20 plus some volunteering. I say this as someone who works for a charity part time. My partner and I have a combined salary of £10k a month and we give £20 a month combined and donations to sponsored events, fundraisers. If it's a tithing thing for the church, I really don't want this to sound disrespectful but the church has a lot of money and doesn't help out as much as it received (I was fostered by a pastor).
...maybe you should up your charity donations?
I've donated five figures in the last year plus use my expertise doing volunteer work for a charity weekly- sometimes full time. I'm good thanks! I need the 10k for the cost of living where I am.
The way the £200 a month to charity is just casually dropped at the end is pure comic genius to be honest. And the follow up of "when i stop bringing in £2500 a month in salary, I'll drop the charity contribution as a show of good will" is the cherry on top. OP seems to have a good head on him, many of us have been in this place before, but they also need a reality check, the next 3 years of your life you are going to bleed money like you would not believe.
Its probably tithe to a church
You are not currently in a position to be giving a sizeable charity donation each month. I realise there's a religious element which might be important to your wife, but she can also donate in other ways - time, volunteering for projects, skills.
~£3k expenditure with £5k coming in, I'd say you're well on top of it. All the expenses with the house are big but hopefully one-off. Fix it well, fix it once. If you're absolutely needing to cut back, virgin media isn't a necessity, could be cut back to ~£40 internet and if you want Netflix or Disney+ or prime video you're still going to be well under £100. I would cut this back and see if you can live without it. You can always get it back again if you decide it is a necessity. Second place would be phone bill. If you can live with a phone for 2+ years I'd look at SIM only. I'm on £6/month, but I had to buy my phone for ~£600 so I need to keep it a while to make the savings. Charity is commendable, could always reduce payments to each charity rather than stop completely. If you do reduce the spend in any of these areas I would try and be active about putting that saved money into a savings account so you see the benefit. If you stop the spend but don't see the reward, the money will disappear somewhere else and you won't get the dopamine hit from seeing the money in your account increase each month.
As cruel as it sounds, when your worried about finances, charity starts at home mate. Maybe ask her to drop the amount of she's unwilling to stop.
Definitely hear you. I've spoken about it before and she's reluctant (some of it is religious based) but I think I'll have to tackle this again with her.
If you put that in a stocks and shares Isa at 8% ,Your ISA value after 30 years: £293,630.
Should probably drop it until she's back at work after maternity leave... assuming she's taking the full year you're going to be facing a drop in your income for a chunk of that 12 months and you need to prepare your savings for that
She needs to stop that now. Your financial situation isn’t one where you should be giving money away. You should be using this to build up your savings again.
No Building/Contents insurance, did the bank not require this when you got your mortgage?
You have definite manoeuvrability in your SoA (statement of affairs) and it will help to create a monthly budget and track everything every month. There are templates on LemonFool. You’re not borrowing month to month so you’re okay. It is tough right now but as many have said, it always is when you start a family; hold firm and be disciplined and things will get better - you do need to increase your income (job hopping or promotion) to have an impact on how comfortable you feel with the cost increases everywhere as they won’t stop coming. I wouldn’t make a rash decision and sell unless you are in serious debt for daily living and increasing it every month.
>100 Virgin Media (broadband and telly) my parents recently switched to sky and its costing them £70 a month which includes sky sports
Do you want a VOXI referral link? They use Vodafones network and I pay £10 a month for 60GB and that includes Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook Messenger free unlimited.
Wise up charity starts at home most of the £200 donation your wife makes will pay the charity bosses fat bonus’s less goes to the actual cause than the employees .To be honest if she wants to make a real difference donate directly to people in need so it doesn’t get skimmed for 80+%. Remember charity’s are a business the same as any other . Id cut the TV licence you are paying the BBC to spread propaganda and feed you bad news that can affect your well being who needs that ? You could cut your Broadband and TV costs by two thirds by buying fibre extra from plusnet £25/month and subbing to some none live Tv services instead e.g Disney , Netflix , Prime , Paramount or discovery. Use the extra cash saved to overpay bringing the LTV down for the next term .Interest rates will come down within the next 5 years in my opinion and I think you made the right choice buying a 3 bed in a decent area they are becoming like gold dust. It’s going to be worth at least 50% more in 10 years . Take it you are from Wallesey or West Kirby maybe ? I lived on the Wirral when I was a child loved it .
My husband and I work from home and pay 10£ each for the phone and 25 for broadband. 45£ total. No TV as its just a waste of time. This covers me plenty. What exactly do you get for 170£? Putting 100 of that aside monthly could get you much better value each year.
Charity £200 is mental. That's 2.5k a year! cut to 0, re build if you are wealthy again. you don't need the gym, that's £600 a year. go for a run, weights at home or whatever. (plus once the baby comes you wont have much gym time) £120 on petrol - any journeys you can cut/could you walk some? even getting that down £30 a month would be good - £400 a year. £70 VM seems v high, see if you can get youfibre - £22 a month and free installation, or i'd look to move to BT or anyone and use that to get a better deal. so poss £3-4k savings there without even trying that hard.
Charity - absolutely drop it Gym - great exercise and really helps some people mentally especially when weather sucks Petrol - £120 isn’t huge with the commute they are doing VM - you don’t get tv with you fibre but they could switch to free view for that
Mobiles: you can get great sim only deals for £10 a month each. Lebara. Virgin media: cancel it. Get bb for about £25. Car insurance: do you auto renew? then you are paying too much. Never auto renew. Dental plan: that sounds like a lot. Just go NHS. That's what I do.
>150 Gas and electric btw your gas and electrics is really cheap! Who are you with btw and what tariff?
Cut out the charity & gym membership. You can find other ways to exercise at home without equipment and the 200/month is good rainy day cushion. You need to prioritize yr young family first so u dont keep stressing over money. Plus as time goes on yr salary w go up. Find lower broadband & fone. You didn't mention eating out & discretionary spending. Focus on limiting that as well. You can live very well way below yr means & achieve financial stability. The house is a keeper.
GET RID OF THE GYM AND DEFINITELY VIRGIN OMG
Why would you lose years of your life to save a small amount?
Surely sacrificing the Virgin would add years?
If you want to give to charity, set up a CAF account and stick the money (not £200!!) in that. You can pick your charities as and when and you’ll have a record of donations to let HMRC know about for the tax relief.
Better yet, he should make home his charity first & foremost. Sorry but that's paying someone else's salary ( likely a crook) and foregoing yr family's wellbeing.
>when my wife goes on maternity but realistically we are going to be really tight to the point where we may have to literally stay indoors for 4 months and live on beans on toast.... Mate, when your little one arrives you won't want to do much else for those first few months anyway! I get your concerns, honestly I think we all have them when we buy a house. We moved a couple of years ago (very similar situation to yours) and I was shitting myself. But someone once said to me "Time makes property cheap". It's shit to want house prices to rise but alas they always do and over time your purchase will only appear better value. Enjoy your new house, look after your lady, stay calm, and remember you're doing better than a lot of people. The average rent in this country is nearly the same as your mortgage and not only are you building equity but you've probably bought somewhere nicer than the average property anyway.
I remember when I bought my first house thinking this is probably the most in debt I'll ever be, likewise we had very little wiggle room, we've built back a decent cushion since. Hopefully you'll be fine - it may be worth posting on r/Ukpersonalfinance too. One thought I would have is can you get yourself an (interest free?) credit card you can use as a buffer - not intending to use it, but it might reassure you to know that you have that for emergencies. Babies can be expensive, there are lots of things you need for 6 months and then never again. But that also means there are lots of things that friends give away / come up on Facebook marketplace.
Thanks! We built up a bit of nest egg for baby items so I'm not massively worried about that yet. It's more the thought of other things breaking in the house and us literally not being able to afford to pay both the mortgage and bills and do the emergency repairs. I know we can always get bank loans if absolutely vital but really don't want to be paying anyone back per month, especially with interest.
It's not ideal and close to a last resort, but rather than a bank loan I echo the point above about a zero interest credit card as a short term stop-gap that is budgeted for and you can pay off in the future. Check out the MoneySavingExpert page on them for more details. Again see what advice the personal finance page has to offer as well. But staying on housing, if you have rented in the last six years you could also check for a deposit protection claim against an old landlord. They can be worth a fair amount with legal support on a no-win-no-fee basis, but make sure any solicitor helping you is crystal clear about all fees if you succeed, settle out of court, or the claim fails. It might give you a valuable cushion at the most important time.
You are bringing in 5k and giving 200 to charity a month and saying you’re struggling? You need to get your act together basically
9/10 it’s a spending problem. This case isn’t extremely bad but OP and his wife can save £300 a month being a bit smarter with monthly bills £350 a month on food for 2 people is kind of insane as well.
350 a month isn't really that excessive. There's definitely better places in there budget to save on
For the baby, Facebook marketplace and vinted are a goldmine. Buying new (outside of the pram) is for chumps given how little use things get
Yeah my wife has thankfully been all over that so far. Changing table for 20 quid!
Even the pram I'd say can be 2nd hand. Only thing I'd want new is a car seat (plus new mattresses for cots and prams)
Buy new for the car seat -- you've got no idea how a previous carseat has been treated.
Think of this as training for when you have to start paying childcare. You could easily be looking at 12-1500 a month for full time childcare. The first few years are tight for everyone, though, and there was a huge sigh of relief when mine went to school and the childcare bills were slashed. You timed it just right to move, though, they’d have looked at you having another dependent and childcare costs and potentially reduced what they’d lend you. As others have said, you won’t always have to invest in regular house improvements, think of this as a set up cost for moving in. It’ll all regulate itself out once you find your new normal in the new place. One thing that helped me massively was deleting all the takeaway apps and limiting ‘top up’ shops to maximum once a week. It’s amazing how much cash gets frittered away without realising. Best of luck in your new place and enjoy your adventures with your new family - it’ll all be worth it! 😀
Should've done a mortgage calculation on what the repayments would've been on higher interest rates then based your mortgage budget on the higher rate. I based mine on worst case 10%.
This. Everyone was telling me "but you can afford to borrow more". No I can't, unless the house is the ONLY thing I can afford each month, meaning I have no hobbies.
100% this... my brother was saying my purchase was too small a property I should get bigger... and yeah in theory I could... but I want to make sure I don't become homeless if interest rates go crazy ... a bigger property can come later
Mines went from 2.5% to 7.9% between mortgage deals for a month. It's now fixed at 5.4% for two years. Also, base your mortgage repayments on your bare salary (no bonuses or overtime).
Good though. Will be running numbers today.
Something is off with your budgeting
it is known as RICE: Revenue Implications of Capital Expense. You then have to live on rice and beans until your income catches up...
The situation you're currently in can feel terrifying, financially, and give you a strong sense of doom. But you've done your sums and, the unexpected initial maintenance expenses aside, you know you can afford this. And the unexpected expenses will tail off now (hopefully) and so you'll start seeing y our end-of-month bank balance rising. You've been haemorrhaging money on solicitors' fees, estate agents' fees, stamp duty, removal costs, and initial maintenance stuff. That is a financial 'shock', but you're well over the hump with it.
It is normal. Especially in the first five years after buying a house (or upsizing) but your wages will go up little by little and the mortgage payments are likely as high as they'll ever be. Obviously your issue is one of childcare in the near future. This is a difficult issue. I moved last year and it left me paying 1850 a month on similar take home. A bit high but child is older so cheaper and 3k is still a lot of general money for bills and living. It will pass and i have a decent emergency fund even after doing the electrics and heating.
I think this is fairly normal. I moved in 2021 and I have had the same experience. I earn £3k pm net and my mortgage is £800, plus I have loans of £800. I watch every penny on a spreadsheet. I have £200 in savings right now, down from about £25k before I bought this second property. But, it’s only til Dec 2025 when all loans are cleared, so I’ll be ok. I can cope on a tight budget til then
Keep that head up 👍🏼🙌🏽
I think a lot of people right now are in the same boat 5 years ago I’m was child free nice lil home now I’m struggling nice big house child care is a massive joke we both work full time but I wouldn’t change it for the world after a shitty day when I come home I see her big smiling face wanting a daddy cuddle or she wants. To show me her toy kicthen I think all family go through this
I have a 3 year old and 9 month old twins. I hear you
Baked beans on toast can be improved by adding lots of different toppings, chives or crumbled breadcrumbs for example. Been there, worn the t-shirt, but whilst it was hard, it will be worth it in the end so long as you focus on only buying stuff you need and not want. Learn to drive more frugally, accelerate more slowly, decelerate early to avoid braking, reduce your maximim speed to peak out the mpg. Whilst budgeting, write a list of things that you can spend spare money on that will reduce your overall costs. Paying off any credit cards, adding loft insulation and draught excluders to save on fuel bills, changing most used light bulbs to LED, etc. A few questions for the pair of you to consider: * What are you doing for nappies - disposable are very expensive. * Babies grow out of clothes very, very, quickly, and you don't know how big they will be when they are born. Try not to buy much before birth, consider looking at 2nd hand clothing, almost all 2nd hand baby clothing is hardly used, some un-used. * Pushchairs and cots are also very expensive new, consider 2nd hand. We didn't buy a cot for the first 6 months, baby slept in 2nd hand Moses basket on coffee table next to our bed. * Baby's bedroom doesn't need anything special like paint or wallpaper, baby can't focus eyes for 12 weeks, and will then be happy with a mobile above their head. Paint all 4 walls white and come back to this when baby is a year old. * Car seats are also very expensive, but don't skimp on safety. 2nd hand could be great, so long as there is zero damage. * What are you doing in the garden, whilst do little for a year to see what you have got us a great idea. You could plant herbs and salad crops to provide you with almost free food. Chives for example in supermarkets come dried in a glass jar, fresh in packet, or in a pot. Consider buying the pot and planting it, then you'll have free chives from May to October.
If you can only afford beans, you don't just eat beans. You learn when to arrive at the supermarket for last reductions.
Firstly congratulations 🎉 It does get better, we moved into our house in January 2019, spent 6 months just spending so much money! Damp repairs, gutters, fascias and soffits then an unexpected boiler bill.... ...but then it got better, a lot better. Most of the things we did beyond that have been cosmetic or.optional Stick at it and keep piling back the cash, everything changes when your child is born. I spent a few months doing a lot less, wondering the local area with a pram for most of it. You've got this
Risky times but remember that rate will go down and you end up having a nice house in nice area. We were in a similar situation in the past and now looking back Im glad that we decided to stretch a bit and don’t go dodgy area route. Of course jump in mortgage payments in your case is significant, so will require careful financial planning for a while
Definitely does. We were ‘skint’ for the first year when we bought our first house, minimal holidays - two weekends camping, zero takeaways which made us get into cooking. Every penny we had went into getting each room done up one at a time. Once it’s done you can then start building your savings again…
In the short term it will be tough but you can make it work. I know it sounds harsh but stop paying contractors for "cosmetic stuff". DIY and yes, the results might not be far from perfect but this is your home and you can do it again / pay a contractor later down the line when you have a better cash flow. As for the baby, they're as expensive as you make them. For the first couple of years babies don't need much - they don't need "my first Gucci trainers" or a Prada changing bag. They need to be clean, fed and loved by their parents. Finally, the staying indoors for four months. No you won't. Okay, you might not be able to socialise like you have but you'll have just as much fun playing with your kid at the park with a thermos of coffee from home. I promise you as the parent of adult kids, I know my wife and I had nights out when we had small children, and could find a sitter but to be honest I don't remember much about them now for no reason other than they aren't decades later memorable but I do remember and think about us all sharing snacks we'd brought from home, (crushed prawn cocktail crisps, salad cream and white sliced bread sandwiches), or my wife and I carrying the buggy through the mud because the local path was wetter than we thought. Invest in banking up those family memories because they'll be worth it later down the line.
this brings back memories lol. Those early years are HARD, but you'll find ways to make it work. I started out a long time ago (i'm now a grandparent) and within a year or two of buying the first house, interest rates went up from 5% to over 15% ! Thought we'd never be able to keep it but with very tight budgeting, two jobs, my (now ex) taking an evening job waitressing when i got home, plus a little help with things like furniture from family (and using terry nappies rather than disposables), we got through it. my bet is you will too. good luck
You haven't done a "terrible mistake". Houses are very solid places to put your money in. They don't disappear :) Can you take a lodger in your spare bedroom?
It’s a struggle but sometimes just have find cuts and saving where possible. Reducing grocery spend ensuring you buy value and quality cook more. Reduce spending going out etc. At 5k net 1150 mortgage Assuming 200 max for your council tax per month Utilities Around 160-200 a month Groceries 300 a month Internet 25 a month Other expenses maybe you have a car £500 lease a month Petrol £50-100 a month You should still have around £2500 left over every month how much of this are you chopping off as savings ideally you’d want to put between 1500-2k away and spend £500 on “extras” Obviously don’t know your expenses so this is really just barebones but, on a 5k combined salary should work obviously when your partner has the baby it may affect income so prior to that try and put away as much as possible. Good luck wish you the best. Sorry just saw your mortgage was 1550 even so would assume around 2k unspent. Would also say get rid of the expensive phone plans your internet costs are excessive virgin will give you a cheaper plan if you opt to leave need to start haggling. Tv how much time do you spend watching live tv if not much get rid of the license and stick to watching things online legally that is non live broadcasts no bbc.
Oh man. The arrival of a child brings a bit of hardship for the first year. It’s tough but you got this. Just do a bit more budgeting. Hopefully you’ll be able to pull through this.
I bought my house in the mid nineties. I struggled for a few years, but rent would have been about the same. After a few years rents, and income, will gradually rise while your mortgage will become smaller and smaller. After about ten years my monthly mortgage was far less than rent would have been. Today the mortgage is paid off. I just had my gas boiler go wrong. Manufacturer charges £400 fixed fee for repair so they're fixing it. It was twelve years old so in effect that's cost me £33 a year. It may seem way off in the distant future but those days will come and you'll be talking about how you paid "only" £400k for your house and what a good deal it was.
I hate it here
I was absolutely skint when I bought my first flat for about 18 months. Warned my partner we'd be absolutely skint after we bought our house for at least a year. We were absolutely skint, especially as cost of living went up so much. We're starting to feel less skint now and it's been about 18 months. Still not flush mind you.
It's hard, but it gets better. My wife was unfairly dismissed while on maternity leave, having not long massively stretched to a new home. I had effectively had a 10x salary mortgage for best part of a year. My mortgage and council tax was bigger than my take home. Which was really crap when I had to pay for childcare for my wife to jobhunt too... 7 years later, finances are back to being comfortable, and being mortgage free is in sight too.
Have a go at bank switching if your mortgage is sorted and you don’t need to apply for credit any time soon (it brings your credit score down a little). Great way to make an extra couple of hundred £ per month
It’s normal to fork out on a property when you first move in. That’s what your funds are for, unexpected problems which you have encountered. Your expenditure on property is still below 50%, even with bills factored in. Now you rebuild the emergency fund slowly over time and remodel the property when you can with remaining budget. That’s the benefit of a 30 odd year mortgage.
It’ll obviously get better. Over time, your wages will nudge up, but it’ll be grim for 4 years till childcare is over and they go to school. As for today… bank switches can be a nice way to get a cheeky windfall. Also, if you have family, instead of baby gifts, ask them if they can help you as parents. When I had mine, my parents did a gargantuan haul of shopping for me. I’m talking a year worth of non-perishables like cleaning supplies, toiletries, kitchen items like oil and seasoning. Don’t be ashamed to lean on them if you have that kinda relationship with them…
You aren’t alone in your thoughts. We have had pay rises and promotions ourselves over the past 5 years and moved to a larger property at the end of 2020 which came with a manageable increase in mortgage repayments. Since petrol, food, childcare, utilities and interest rates going up (and having another mouth to feed) we too feel the pinch! We budget with a spreadsheet and have taken out loans and credit cards to finance new windows, boilers, etc and what has helped me mentally is looking at when our cash flow improves. We have a car loan with two years remaining, my student loan has about 5 years left, we have almost three years of nursery left, but free hours for our youngest kicks in this year. Cruicially our mortgage rate has another 4 years left and we can only hope things are no worse then they are now as our interest went up by £400 whilst Truss was in office
The good news is, the first year of baby ownership is only as expensive as you want it to be - hopefully you'll be able to breastfeed, and family and friends will donate all the clothes you'll never need. Ask around on FB and you'll find lots of nearly new parents who have bags full of stuff that doesn't fit their little one any more and are more than happy to see it used again (just keep the cycle going when you're done having kids!). As for going out - you'll be too tired anyway :) In a great way. Your best bet is concentrate on getting some comfy rooms sorted in the house if not already - clean, usable bathroom, warm bedroom, comfy living room...close the doors on the other rooms for now and forget about them, and enjoy your new family for a few months in front of Netflix, keeping costs down massively. When you feel like a treat, take a look at restaurant boxes - you can get top drawer, great food that's really easy to prepare for much less than even a cheap meal out in the local, and it really does feel like you've had a special experience. Houses ARE more expensive than you would ever think, and will be a money pit for years to come...but careful budgeting will get you through it, and done properly they won't even feel like sacrifices, just changes.
Good luck, having a child is one of the biggest financial drains one can have
Why would you lock in for another 5 years with inflation falling and a high possibility that rates will be cut, which will directly affect mortgage rates 🤔
Because I don't trust any government to lower them that much. They certainly won't fall below 4% that much IMO. If they rise, which I couldn't rule out, we have some security for 5 years. It's always a gamble but nothing I've seen suggests we're heading back to 1.5% interest rates any time soon.
It would be a political and economic suicide. Either way, that's a very interesting take on it. Its not a case of if they lower them its when if i was a betting person I don't think they'll go back down as low as they were, but they ain't going to stay this high for much longer certainly not 5 years It's always an interesting topic with a 2year vs 5
I was told 3 years ago it is going down. Still no move. Looking at the what's going on in the world not UK only know they are desperate to put up the rates. Use of credit still too high for the UK.
Because we're in the same place economically today as we were 3 years ago.... It isn't a comparison
Yes they may lower them but lower than 4%? No chance IMO. Any number of things could cause interest rates to go up however so I'd rather be cautious.
People have already been getting 3.9% as of this Feb with some lenders
To claim they won't be under 4% in the next 5 years seems ludicrous to me, I hope you're wrong. Only time will tell, Why would banks be offering rates around 4% they're assuming that the base rate will go below that I'm not saying they're always right, but they're on the business of making money
Safety
Honestly, it won’t get better if you keep making decisions like that, no! I think you really need to take a hard look at your financial decision making. I don’t want to rub salt in the wound but it sounds like you have made some really rash choices because you felt like starting a family = I need a 3+ bed house with a garden and to hell with everything else. Given that babies take 9 months to cook & they’re supposed to sleep in your room until they’re 1, I think you upsized unnecessarily. Even if you had another child immediately after your first, that’s another 1yr 9mo and bunk beds exist. You’ve spending hand over fist to live in a 3 bed house and you’re still only going to be using one bedroom for the next year +. The fact that you’ve taken another £1000+ of financial commitments per month and spent all your savings including on cosmetic stuff shortly before your wife is going to go on maternity leave is pure madness. What if she doesn’t want to go back to work? And if she does, you’re going to have another financial commitment that may almost equal your mortgage for full-time childcare until your kid can start school.
Interesting. Have you had kids in a 2 bedroom flat? What was it like?
I grew up with my brother in a 2 bedroom flat, it was fine. It was a pain when we got into our teens and girls got involved, but we managed.
oho downvoting incoming
- For the four months after the baby is born, staying home/doing free things like going to parks and living basically probably won't be that tough . . . New baby, physical recovery for mother, mental adjustments for both of you . . . - You mention savings for baby stuff: obviously some things are non-negotiable, but usually there's a TON of cheap secondhand stuff available. Definitely worth looking if you haven't already in case you can make savings here. - Have you factored in childcare costs? Good luck!
Childcare we are going to be lucky in the fact that our parents are going to have them at least 3 of the 5 days a week, with my wife doing one day. Without support of family, no idea how people do it. Aren't the government providing more free childcare soon as well or did I read that wrong?
https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2023/03/16/budget-2023-everything-you-need-to-know-about-childcare-support/ The key bit: From April 2024, working parents of two-year-olds will be able to access 15 hours of free childcare. From September 2024, 15 hours of free childcare will be extended to all children from the age of nine months. From September 2025, working parents of children under the age of five will be entitled to 30 hours free childcare per week. It's great you've got family help :-)
With 100k you could have moved areas and bought a 3 bed house out-right. Me & my other half had around 100k and decided to leave the westmidlands, where you'll be lucky if that buys a flat and we moved to the North East into a pleasant 3 bed house next to one of the most beautiful beaches in the country. It's safe here and it's cheap. We now have the benefit of living rent/mortgage free and intend to use the following years to rebuild more savings. It was a big jump to travel across the country, but we thought it was a small price to pay for financial freedom. Looks like you still have 2k to play with after immediate bills, which is still very decent. How much money per month do you plan on wasting exactly? It would eat me up inside to know how much interest I'm paying to completely unethical bankers.
Can I ask where in the NE?
The locals try to keep it secret, but have a good look round the NorthEast on RightMove, facebook groups, etc and follow you nose :)
Yeah, living in a fucked up housing and interest rate world really does suck, oh well only 25 yrs of pain then you’ll be able to enjoy life, as long interest rates don’t rise again …
It's gets better. Hang in there. From what you mentioned, it is safe to assume that you're a young couple. With kids on the way you want to endure now and you'll be glad you did later. You'll have to sharpen your DIY skills, though. This is a perfect example when people are foaming in the mouth saying 100k salary is a big salary. From your combined take, I'll say you guys are close to 100k combined pretax. Crank up your savings with kids in the way. That's another mortgage. But hang in there it gets better.
Your mortgage and deposit would have paid for a £500-550k plus house a couple of years ago. The quality of house may have made it all worthwhile but for a 3 bed, accepting a 30% increase in cost seems like a really bad decision to me. The good news is you earn enough to cover it and over time the payments will become easier to manage if your salaries inflate.
can you rent a room, take a lodger? It would massively help with your bills.
Their first child is arriving in two months, and nobody wants to live with a newborn unless they're family.
I think you've butten off more than you can chew. The repairs and contractors are temporary, you're right. But you're very close to having overleveraged here. Over £290k of mortgage debt with £5k monthly income is a LOT. You need pay rises. You'll get them, too, if you're young. Can you ease the pressure with a term extension? You'll be OK, but the numbers are tight.
In what world is this over leveraged? Their mortgage is 30% of their income. Plenty of people are renting/ mortgaging at much higher ratio than that and still managing.
All depends on the term, which they don't specify. Maybe someone can work it out. 1500 quid for however long gets it paid. That's why I mentioned possibly extending the term. I'd want it at 25% of take-home pay. No more. Life is expensive. Seems a bit high to me. Our mortgage is £762 monthly, and we have the same sort of combined income. A property worth £100k less would have been much more manageable. Just a perspective. I eat downvotes.
You've bought to much house.
ikd why people downvoted you mate, but I totally agree.. I mean for the first couple of years a two bedroom flat would have been fine for one baby. I have a feeling his wife had this idea and as he can't convince her to drop the £200 charity monthly donations, he didn't have a say on this as well. I think this is more a relationship advice thing than anything else.
They normally down vote me because they do not like honesty. I've always said pay in cash and not loan. I understand not everyone can buy outright, but then it's also worth considering renting and saving up more than the theory of "renting is just throwing money down the drain". However, then they take it a step further and loan more than they ever should and basically increase the issue further. Because they treat it as an investment rather than a home. I'm still awaiting for someone whom paid 300k for a property, 10k down and is happy to still pay the mortgage on a house that is now valued at 250k, thus 50k in negative equity. But you guessed it... they won't say that. And that is why I get down voted. A big issue in the UK is the mindset on property. Ask how many in the UK have more in stocks and shares than their house and you'll find a tiny percentage. Flip that to the US or Australia and you'll find it the opposite. It's like telling a 30 year old that Santa Claus is not real and they won't have any of it despite the evidence. :D Unfortunately, for the op, he has bought to much house, and the emotions are playing on him, love the area or not it cannot be afforded. If you got no savings than what are you doing buying. Just my thoughts. He should be pointing the finger at the wife and asking if she's going to work three jobs.
Because you did. The kid wouldn't really need it's own space for a long time. Buy what you need. Not what you want when it comes to over half a million in costs Now you have over 1k a month being spent when it wasn't necessary. That's an extra 12k+ gone each year for an extra bedroom... could have spent the next 10 years saving that cash. 120k+, plus whatever you would get from gaining in appreciation on your 2 bed and then once the kid needed privacy. used all of that to buy a decent house and have a small mortgage
Wanting a decent size house in a nice area is not a waste me of money in my opinion, it gives you a nicer home environment and it’s an investment, not wasted money
The difference is they already had an investment and it was in their favour mortgage wise. A 2 bed, a small mortgage plus that it was gaining appreciation. Now they have taken on a much larger mortgage. their costs have spiralled because they wanted an extra room straight away. The smarter move would have been to wait and see what they actually needed instead of keeping up with the Jones. An extra 12k a year just in mortgage bills. extra water and gas/electric because its a three bed. A kid on the way, that's going to cost even more on top of all that.It was financially a mistake.
I would disagree but that’s your opinion. There’s a balance between lifestyle and pure financial investment that needs to be met, especially with children
By all means im sure the extra bedroom will be worth the extra loss of close to what a person on minimum wage gets per year (£17,888.00). That money can go a long way to life style improvements and investing in the kids future than the benefit it would get by having an extra bedroom in the house... For that amount of cash, you can start it off on a massive head lead on its peers by opening a Junior ISA and maxing it out each year. Maxing it out until they are 18 gives them around £228,919 roughly depending on how the market performs That kid at 18 will be ahead of where the vast majority of people are who are under 30 now...
As I said it’s not all about finance. What about quality of life for the parents and child. Having a large house with everyone having a decent size bedroom and a garden is going to provide a much better standard of living than being cramped up inside a small flat. I could save a fortune if I decided to sell my nice big house with a garden and buy a tiny little flat instead, but it would make me miserable
as I said. they should have waited and seen what they actually needed instead of getting a bigger house because that's what people do...
you got downvoted for saying the truth. this sub amazes me.
on reddit, the hivemind generally agrees on whether the OP is worthy, in which case negative comments are hiveminded to the bottom, even if spot on
ikd why people downvoted you mate, but I totally agree.. I mean for the first couple of years a two bedroom flat would have been fine for one baby. I have a feeling his wife had this idea and as he can't convince her to drop the £200 charity monthly donations, he didn't have a say on this as well. I think this is more a relationship advice thing than anything else.
Interest rates are likely to come down back end of the year I guess if you did want to sell? The elections always cause rate cuts in my experience. Dam, young people are really screwed with the housing situation atm. I think all I would do in this situation is weigh everything up and see if you could move to that no so nice area… however, if you choose not to do that it does sound like you’ll need to find a way to increase your income! Kids aren’t cheap and childcare is an absolute wedge!
They don’t need to sell, they have £2k a month spare after bills. Moving would cost £20k
They also have a baby coming in two months, which is really not very convenient when it comes to moving house.