Owning your own home

How did you do it?

Don't have kids.

(Wife not working for 2 years [no maternity pay], both of us moving to part time [by choice] rather then 5 days a week of nursery/childcare, 4 years of nursery fees [extortionate in SW London, even 3 days a week], etc. Adding all of that up comes to more than our outstanding mortgage balance. Wouldn't change it though.)

I wanted to say that but I knew he had kids. :S

My missus works but mostly I had a big deposit saved which reduced the interest rate initially, it was a place well within my means because I was worried about the interest rate rise that never happened (should've bought a bigger place!!!) and I overpaid a massive amount (see also: earning good money).

I'm impressed.
Kids doe.

I assume also that you've also benefited from your home being worth more now than when you bought it... top work.

Yeah, I still have no inclination to breed so that was never an issue.

Timing was another thing. I bought from someone who was having a child and needed a bigger place quickly. It was also just after GFC so my fairly substantial savings were doing fuck all in the bank and rates were low so it made sense to borrow at the time. If I knew rates would stay low I'd have bought a bigger place back then and it might've taken a bit longer to pay back but I'd be laughing (more).

I mean, that's only useful if I was going to sell it.

It's ~doubled in value in 8 years but with Brexshit hanging over us who knows what's gonna happen. Buying when I did meant I was paying a base mortgage that was about half what rent would've been and I was doubling that every month in overpayments.

plus you are quite sexy, bet that helps.

Don't have kids.

Since one of these things arrived I've gone from YAAASSSS I'M RICH to OMG I'M GONNA DIE A PAUPER AND BE BURIED IN AN UNMARKED GRAVE.

I was always at the "hmm my finances aren't great".

Getting redundancy is always a winner when you’re trying to pay off a mortgage (assuming you can get a new job straight after).

I set myself a target of being mortgage free by the time I was fifty. I think I’ll fall short by a four figure amount, which isn’t bad.

But we will probably move next summer and buy a bigger, and more expensive house. Arse.

Suckers. I got mortgage free the easy way. Just get divorced and hand over the house!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag43uW4AOFc

move next summer

Can it be to France? Can I visit?

Nah, Bitcoin is easier...

Suckers. I got mortgage free the easy way. Just get divorced and hand over the house!

Pfft, you still had to pay lawyers though. We're just gonna sell-up (+ve equity) and move back in with the in-laws' massive house.
Free heating and food is gonna be good.

Moved into a new place (3 bed bungalow) a couple of weeks ago and we seem to be using about 10m3 / 100 kwh of gas every day (meaning about £4+/day just on gas).

Central heating isn't on all day but the boiler is burning constantly when the central heating is on. Thermostat is 21 degrees or so. Boiler is new but all the other gubbins is old.

Seems crazily high to me, considering it's not even that cold outside - or is that normal for a house and I've just been spoilt til now living in flats?

Seems crazily high to me, considering it's not even that cold outside - or is that normal for a house and I've just been spoilt til now living in flats?

It's detached ya? What kind of walls / insulation / glazing do you have?

Set the thermo to 19.5 and put a jumper on :)

Set the thermo to 19.5 and put a jumper on :)

I'm all for this, sadly after 3 days of thermostat tug of war we agreed on 21.

Yeh detached, 80s build, so modernish but not efficient by today's standards. The odd thing is the boiler burning constantly. Not sure if it's because the cental heating supply is cold enough when it comes back to constantly need heating, or it's broken/inefficient. I think I'd be happier spending £loads on an efficient system than eye watering bills and constantly feeling shafted.

Is the thermostat actually working would be my first question. Get a thermometer and compare them. Turn the thermostat down and see if it clicks the heating/boiler off.

Does seem to keep the house at 21 degrees and if you turn it right down it switches the boiler off (but the click on the thermostat is really low, at like 16 degrees).

But in my old flat the burner would switch off and it would circulate the hot water around for a while, whereas it's constantly on here, even when the room is up to temperature.

¯_(ツ)_/¯

Our monthly gas bill varied between £5 - £150 last year (200m2 Victorian detached, thermostat set 15-18°C), so if you like it warm then £4 a day probably isn’t outrageous at this time of year...

Does the boiler have its own temperature control? Sounds like it might need turning up.

Yeah this - my thermostat really flatters me because the comfortable temperature is 17. That’s a calibration issue rather than me being a Scrooge.

Seems odd that the boiler is constantly running. There are two demands, one is the room stat, the other is the stat in the boiler which measures the heat of the water circulating in the system.

Our place leaks heat massively (Victorian town house); if it's below zero outside, the max inside temp we can achieve is about 17 degrees. So the demand for heat from the room stat is constant (although it's set at 18 degrees, 21 is a sauna!)

However the boiler isn't working constantly as it can maintain 70 degrees water temp without having to be on all the time. I guess if we had more radiators, the house would be a bit warmer and the boiler would be working harder.

if it's below zero outside, the max inside temp we can achieve is about 17 degrees.

Christ