You’re deciding to take on one of life’s biggest most magical experiences, having a baby. There are so many exciting things to buy and prepare for the arrival of the little one and it’s just a little overwhelming to say the least. You feel the need to shower them in the newest latest most expensive things, but after the initial joy and happiness you may then become struck with fear and worry of how you’re going to afford all of this... don’t fear because with just a few simple ways you can save money and make your little prince/princess feel like royalty on a not very royal budget.
Know your costs
I have found knowing how much you’re going to be spending (however daunting this may seem) will really encourage you to watch your spending and find ways to save money. There are a number of tools online such as this baby cost calculator where you’re able to visually see the average costs of a baby over the period of 3 years. For example it has shown child care being the most expensive at an average of £10,000 per year. Yikes.
Create a plan
Next step is to create a plan by monitoring your spending habits, after this you’re able to create a realistic budget of what you’re able to afford each month. Tally up what you’re spending on essentials and secondly on how much you are spending on the luxuries. Have a look to see what you can cut out of your monthly spending, but remember to keep a little aside to treat yourself. Once you know how much you’re able to spend on your little one every month, it makes it easier to shop for things without being left short for money during the month.
Reuse
To save yourself some money ask friends and family if they have anything such as clothes and other items that they could pass onto. I have also found a lot of baby items advertised on local selling pages such as gumtree where mums sell bulks of their children’s clothes, toys and furniture for a very good price and most of the time it’s all in tip top condition so make sure to have a look and grab a bargain. If you’re planning on having more children then store your previous child’s clothing and toys and keep it for next time around. Babies grow out of clothing so fast that this is a great way to reduce the amount of money you’re spending on clothes and spend it on items that will last longer.
As for childcare, the cost could become cut down if certain family or friends could agree to help out once or twice a week.
Buying new
Buying new things is great and makes it feel more personal to you and your baby, and there are certain things that should be brought new such as bedding items. But an item which must always be brought from a reputable retailer is your little ones car seat. Never buy a second hand car seat as you can’t be sure if it’s been in an accident, and if it has it will no longer give full protection to your child. You may be able to collect vouchers such as Love to shop vouchers which you’re able to spend in Halfords and get money off of your car seat.
Taking your time to make a list of the items you need and doing your research can mean you can make some savvy savings.
- This is a guest post
Last year we were lucky enough to buy our first home after renting numerous properties for the past few years. I say lucky but we needed to save, save, save and thankfully our bank had an offer on at the time which was a first time buyer discount. With the deal we only needed to pay the 5% deposit which was exactly what we needed. If that offer wasn't available then we would probably still be renting today.
House search -
The mortgage application was very complex and long winded but once we were both accepted then we were able to start the search to find our home. Having family in different towns we did contemplate many different area's but we decided to stick with my partners home town where we were currently renting. We made a note of all the area's that would be suitable and the area's that wouldn't and that narrowed everything down for us.
Everyday we would start our search online by tailoring our search by area, house type, number of bedrooms and price. We would then make a note of all the houses that could be a possibility. We found that looking online through street view really helped as we didn't need to go and drive out to every property to get a scope of the area. If the area looked okay online then we would drive over in the car at different times of day to get a feel of the location. In the end we only arranged a viewing for 3 properties.
Viewings -
The first house that we viewed I loved as it was huge and in a fairly okay location. Once we viewed the inside of the property we noted lots of issues that would cost an obscene amount of money to try to repair. We were open to do work but the issues were too much for us. The kitchen was full of mold and the entire house had movement as it was situated on a hill. It was a shame because I did get a good feeling from the house, but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be.
The second property looked fine on google street view but we were deceived as it ended up being in an awful area and the house itself was run down and tiny. What was worse is they were asking for a lot of money for it too, far too much. We only needed to step into the house to know it was a no from us, we couldn't get out of there faster!
Last but certainly not least was the property that we ended up buying. The house needed a lot of work but it was work that we would be able to afford and manage with the help of our family. It's in a fantastic area which is close to everything we need and we instantly knew it was the one for us.
Making an offer -
After viewing the third property we knew it was the house for us. We saw past the avocado green bathroom and bright green carpets and decided to make an offer. The previous owner had recently reduced the asking price as they wanted a quick sale but as first time buyers we needed to buy our first house for as cheap as we possibly could. With this in mind we went in at £10,000 less than the asking price which was £20,000 less than they were originally asking for. At first they declined our offer and tried to make a counter offer, which we firmly declined. We stuck to our guns and eventually they caved in and accepted our offer. It did take a few months for us to finally sign everything over and we had months and months of renovations ahead of us but we were finally home owners! We had bought our first home!
If you are looking to buy, sell or even value your property then I would recommend taking a look at My Online Estate Agent. In a digital world where we do our shopping, banking and holiday bookings online it makes perfect sense to seek an estate agent online too. Not only do they provide everything that you would receive from a regular in store estate agent but they are an estate agent with a twist! You can set wheels in motion all in the comfort of your own home, with ease and with a fraction of the usual costs. My Online Estate Agents offer fully professional services for a fraction of the cost with their fabulous upfront package fee's. I wish I had of heard of them sooner as I could of saved ourselves a nifty sum which we could of put towards our renovation.
What are you experiences of moving home? Have you recently bought or planning to sell?
I've been absent on the blog front for the past week, so I apologise for that. I've been so hectically busy that I haven't had chance to even tweet let alone write a blog post. I don't think I've ever been so busy or so stressed in my entire life! I know it's all going to be worth it though.
As you may know we recently bought our first home. We bought it at a steal of a price as it needed a lot of work doing to it. We had a month to gut and renovate the house. Just one month as that is how long we had left on our rented tenancy. A month was cutting it short and we didn't realise how much we underestimated our time scale until we were in the house and doing the work. But we couldn't of paid to stay in the rented house for another month cause we simply couldn't afford to pay rent on one house, a mortgage on the other and two sets of bills!
Our tenancy ended last weekend. We had to pack up all our belongings in our rented house but because our new house is still being worked on we only moved the big pieces of furniture. The rest of our things are all over the show, some at the new house, some at the in laws garage, some in the grandparents garage. It stresses me out to think about it as I have no idea where anything is. We also needed to clean the rented house from top to bottom to make sure we received all our deposit back. Packing and moving our furniture, cleaning the house, working on our new home all while looking after Noah was pretty difficult. We also had a big family wedding on that Saturday too which added to our list but it was a welcome bit of respite after our hectic week. As our house isn't ready yet we are currently living with the inlaws and we have no idea when we will be moving into our new home.
Now lets talk about the progress on the house. Going into our new home we had a to do list as long as my arm but every time we completed one job another two or three was added to that list. So our long list is a very very long list now.
Living room - Pretty much done. Walls were lined and painted. Alcoves and all woodwork sanded, painted and glossed. New carpet fitted. Ceiling painted. I'm in love with the front room and as it stands it's the only room that looks "finished".
Dining room - This room is one of the largest in the house and is currently being used as the dumping ground. We need space to store our tools and paint. But we have stripped all the wallpaper and half the room has been lined ready for painting.
Kitchen - All units fitted. Intergrated fridge freezer, dishwasher, washing machine in place. Spot lights are being installed. We just need to do the odd few jobs with the kitchen units and then we have to floor it, tile it and paint it.
Hallway & Landing - Mostly stipped. Needs lining and some walls need plastering. Carpet needed.
Master bedroom - New ceiling up and spot lights being installed. It needs to be papered and painted. Carpet needed.
Bathroom - Possibly the worst room in the house. There is nothing in it. It's totally stripped and the walls are a terrible condition so it needs to be fully re plastered. Bathroom needs to be installed and the full monty when it comes to tiling.
Noah's room - Noah's room is next to the bathroom so his wall needs to be re plastered too. It needs the works; paper, paint, carpet.
We have had the house fully rewired with new sockets. A brand new energy efficient boiler installed. The house had never had central heating so we needed to buy a full set of radiators and copper pipes. Then pay for it to be installed. All that is done now though so I can breathe a sigh of relief!
As you can tell a lot is yet to be done but we have made a great start!
It's traditional to get married, to buy your own home and then to start a family. We have done everything totally backwards. We had a baby, are about to buy our own home and marriage is last on the cards. It would of been nice to do things the traditional way but who does that these days? I don't know whether to feel sad about the lack of tradition or to be elated that we aren't trapped in the routine.
I blogged all about my new years resolutions at the beginning of the month and on my list was to buy our own home. I mentioned that it was a bit of a long shot but hoped that we would at least have our deposit saved up before the end of the year. Little did I know that less than a month later we would be an inch away from that dream. Our money is saved up, we have our hearts set on a house. They have even accepted our offer.
Earlier this month we viewed a few properties. Where we live there isn't really much to choose from. It's either have a decent house but in a rubbish location or a smaller house but in a nice location. Both for similar prices. It's been really hard as it is such an overwhelming decision. If you rent you can up and leave but when you buy you are stuck.
We viewed a few houses and only one really struck a cord with us. It felt right. It's in a nice part of our town, near the local nature park. It's so quiet and it smells like countryside, it just feels so nice and the perfect place to bring up our Son. The house was previously owned by an old couple and it needs a lot of work doing. It's a work in progress and an investment. We decided we would rather go for a house like this in a nice location rather than a house that needs no work doing but in a rough part of town.
The house has no central heating, it needs rewiring, a new kitchen, a new bathroom, new doors, perhaps new windows and most rooms need redecorating. Sounds like a nightmare doesn't it? The previous owners have accepted our offer at £10,000 less than they originally wanted and houses on the same street generally sell for £40,000 or £50,000 more than we have paid! So if we spend money on the house and spruce it up hopefully further down the line we will of made money on our property and can move into something better. That's looking a long way down the line though as we are buying a house for a home but if we can make money on it then even better.
We are meeting with our bank tomorrow and hopefully everything will be set into motion. The house needs to be surveyed but everything should go ok. I won't feel fully confident that the house is ours, not until we have the keys in our hands.
Wish us luck, we are going to need it!
