After the successful analysis of my food diary, I have done a similar exercise with anticipated costs for our house purchase.
I’m not talking about the cost of the house itself and all the legal paraphernalia that goes with it, but simple stuff like Furniture!
Hubby and I possess one item of furniture, a coffee table currently packed flat in storage.
You can see it here in front of the radiator, so you can see how ‘huge’ it is and that we could have serious trouble fitting it into our new home-to-be.
Having been used to boat living and everything built in, we know what we can do without and so won’t be tempted to fill a house with clutter or bulky furniture.
We have promised ourselves a new bed and mattress, plus a new washing machine.
Other than that, we reckon we can pick up everything else we need second-hand.
We actually won’t need a lot and the overall criteria is as follows:
Something to sit on.
Something to sleep on.
Something to cook with.
Something to store perishable food in.
Something to wash our clothes in.
If we’re really lucky, we might find a property with a decent kitchen and appliances in situ. That would save us a fair bit of money and possibly a lot of work!
However, we think we can furnish a two bedroom property for between £1000 and £1500 with practicality and a bit of imagination.
Bills will take up most of our outgoings, as in addition to council tax and electricity as we had on the boat, we will have to find water rates, pay for a phone line for an internet connection, heating costs (hopefully oil) and insurance.
Food costs will be about the same as now, as will our car running expenses.
What we won’t have to find of course will be £3000 in mooring fees, £400 in boat insurance, £430 for a river licence, around £250 for boat fuel and £325 for laundry.
Always on a budget and making our money stretch as far as we can, it will be a different kind of challenge. I’m actually looking forward to it.
But first we have to find the property.
Here we go again…………………..
pensitivity101 