Longing for a break

Who would have guessed just 6 weeks ago now that I’d have an offer down on a house with my longtime friend, Jodie.  For the longest while it seemed as though we would never get there, never really making the effort – stupid when you consider the Perth market exploded these past 5 years.  Thankfully the hand of fate smiled upon us, and the market is falling in price.

On Friday we conducted our pre-settlement inspection on the house, itself only 8 years old this year.  As we’d expected it was in immaculate condition, the Cassidy’s having taken great care of the place.  THe only thing we could find to have corrected was the light in the oven, hardly a big deal.

Our whole buying experience has been met with a great deal of stress.  As you would imagine being a first home buyer you’re particularly naive, and that very much typifies Jodie and I.  We decided to use a mortgage broker based upon the recommendation of her boss, himself having used the broker several times, and more recently his son.  Unfortunately for us this guy has been a poor communicator, the result of which has stressed us (me in particular) greatly.  We have been left completely in the dark during the whole process, an extremely frustrating experience I have to say.  It would now seem that that is the domain of our bank, which strangely enough on Friday rang to ask if we’d signed mortgage documents – we hadn’t – and they hadn’t ordered any.  Our settlement is this Friday and there is a possibility of things not going well.

Today I decided to sit down and try budgeting via Excel, I wanted to be sick.  Money is going to be particularly tight, and that is without any rise in interest rates, which seems to be as popular with the banks as raising their fees.  THankfully we are going to get in a foreign student to board with us which will help with paying the bills, making money a little less stressed.  At this point I have a few options available to me to free up extra money:

• Get rid of my pre-tax contribution to super, currently 7.5% of my salary.  Whilst post-tax I won’t get all of that back, it will get me $120 roughly which is a big help
• The federal government decided to change the income level at which I’d have to compulsorily buy private health insurance, which I’ve been forced to do for nearly 10 years.  Saving $32 per fortnight.  Not huge, but an option.

Even despite the tightness of money I know I want to do it.  I have been excited about the house ever since I saw it, the feeling I had after seeing it for the first time was one of euphoria.

Man I can’t believe I did a budget, I’ve never done that, never had to.  I am glad that i did it, but it’s going to be serious work on my part to really rain in my spending, something I really struggle with.  I’ve been doing it recently by not going to the shops, works wonders – trust me!

Watch this space.  Next update I guess will be how signing the loan documents goes.  Fingers crossed they arrive Monday arvo, or at worst Tuesday morning.  Anything later may cause settlement to be delayed – which affects not only us, but also 6 other houses.  Things going awry makes me sick thinking about it.

Finally not stressing so much, a welcome change after so many weeks of high stress levels.