Miss Thrifty

Following my round-up of property raffles a few weeks ago, this blog has received oodles of hits from people in the UK searching for home hooplas. So thanks to Miss Thrifty reader Sima for alerting me to the news that the draw for that lovely 11.5 acre fishing estate in Devon, which was due to take place today, has been postponed pending a Gambling Commission investigation.

The issue appears to revolve around the difficulty level of the question that all entrants had to answer correctly before they could purchase a ticket. The couple who have organised the raffle did clear the question (”What is the cost of an adult full season coarse fishing license for 2008/2009?”) with the Gambling Commission before launching their house raffle sale, so fingers crossed that the draw goes ahead. If worst comes to worst, they have pledged to give everyone their money back.

I have copied their statement below, in full.

Apparently the last-minute flurry of interest from the powers-that-be has been sparked by the growing numbers of house raffle sales around the country. Here’s an update on the others: (more…)

I’ve been thinking about writing a will for a while now. It’s not like we have much to give away, but we own a house, we don’t want to make things difficult for anyone left behind, and reading c jane’s and Nie Nie’s blogs brings home the truth that anything can happen, at any time.

Ashley at Wide Open Wallet has been writing about her will recently, and this has finally inspired me to action.

To anyone who hasn’t made a will before, I will say this: it’s a lot quicker and easier than you think it will be! My husband and I went to a very sweet solicitor on Monday, to go through the finer points. Wills for the pair of us are only going to cost £100, which is less than I was expecting. We took along the forms that our solicitor gave us to fill out with details of any pensions and stocks (ha ha ha), who we wanted as our executors and guardians of children, plus details of any legacies that we wanted to leave.

Filling out these forms makes one very morbidly-minded. We chose one of our in-laws as the first executor, on the grounds of his Teutonic efficiency. But then fell to thinking, what if he dies? So we added my brother as the second executor, just in case. (more…)

(After several minutes of faffing with the bank’s labyrinthine telephone triage system, plus a few minutes confirming mortgage account number, mother’s maiden name etc. ad infinitum.)

CALL CENTRE EMPLOYEE: So how can we help you today? 

MISS THRIFTY: Well, our two-year fixed rate mortgage deal runs out in the next few months, and we’re hoping to get something else in place. So I’d like to find out about what you have on offer right now.

CCE: Well, when your fixed rate runs out in February you’ll automatically go onto our standard variable rate. That’s 7.09% right now. So you would be paying around £868 a month.

MISS THRIFTY: Yuck.

CCE: Oh, but you don’t have to stay on that rate! We have lots of mortgage products available to existing customers such as yourself.

MISS THRIFTY: Really? Are they fixed rate?

CCE: Hmmm. Well, we have a few fixed rate products.

MISS THRIFTY: That’s reassuring. When I checked your website, all the fixed rate deals were demanding 75% loan-to-value. Our loan-to-value will be 80%.

CCE: Ah… (more…)

As the world economy lurches from one crushing disaster to another, and house prices continue to slide, UK homeowners are resorting to unconventional selling methods. They have given up on securing their (admittedly ambitious) asking prices via the usual routes, and are raffling off their homes instead.

I’ve come across three house raffles this week.  The first home is rather swanky; it was featured on Channel 4’s Grand Designs, which is the Holy Grail for housebuilders.

It’s a three bedroom house in Cheltenham (very la-di-da!) and is a memorable Grand Design because most of it was built underground. If I remember rightly, there (more…)

Here in the UK, today’s news has been chock-a-block with houses, houses, houses. We’re all potty about owning our own homes, due to (a) this being a small island with finite space upon which to build, and (b) the simple fact that over the past decade, house prices have soared out of reach for many of those who aren’t already on the property ladder.

As the credit crunch has started to bite, house prices have started to plummet. There are still lots of people tearing their hair out, but for different reasons now. Today our government announced that stamp duty would be axed for a year on all homes selling at £175,00 (about $330,000) or less. These are the lowest-priced homes - the first-time buyer places. Stamp duty is a unpopular tax that all homebuyers must pay the Treasury upon purchase. For lower-priced homes, it’s 1% of the purchase price. (Heck, our free healthcare has to come from somewhere!) The people who were complaining that the Government wasn’t doing enough to help first-time buyers are now complaining that the Government is encouraging first-time buyers to invest in a plummeting housing market. Sigh. Everyone’s gone a bit bananas.

The statisticians have gone a little crazy too. They are drawing up doom-laden graphs such as the one on this page, showing that the average house price has plummeted by 10.5% over the past year. Where I live, however, the prices have gone up by 2.5% during the same period. What gives?

Meanwhile, sitting on my bottom in my own modest dwelling, I’m dribbling - yet again - over my dream home. Here it is: (more…)

I’m thrilled that my post NEW-BUILD HOMES: A THRIFTY OPTION? has made it into the latest Carnival of Personal Finance!

The Carnival is hosted by Squawkfox this week, with a “City Slickers” theme. There is lots there, and I’d recommend checking it out.

My favourite post is THE BEST MONEY ADVICE I EVER RECEIVED, from Art of the Coupon. You’ll have to go visit to find out what it is though!

Following the steep rises in British Gas prices, Persimmon Homes has come up with an answer. Today the UK housebuilding giant put out a press release telling people to swap their current homes for new-builds.

Home owners looking to reduce this latest impact of the credit crunch on their bank balances should consider a move to a new build property, according to Persimmon Homes. Not only will purchasers save on the ongoing costs of maintenance on an older property but with new homes boasting excellent insulation they could make significant savings on their energy bills.  

Uh, right. The energy bills may be lower but truly, new-builds are not the housing option of choice for thrifty misses. This is because: (more…)

I rolled my eyes at a piece in the Daily Mail at the weekend. The headline: Heartbreak Home: One woman’s blow by blow account of what it’s like trying to sell a house in the credit crunch.

This is how it begins:

It was reported yesterday that house prices are falling at their fastest rate since the 1990s property crash. There are already a million unsold homes in Britain  -  with a tale of misery behind each one. Here, Femail charts the agonising diary of one family’s attempts to sell up. Karen Green from Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, is a 38-year-old widow with four children. She works full-time as a dental receptionist. Her children are Michael, 18, Nicky, 16, Charlotte, 13, and Sophie, eight. Her three youngest children attend a private day school.

This lady’s “tale of misery” revolves around her decision to sell her large £575,000 home in Worcestershire and buy a £400,000 home, so that she can pay off debts and spend the surplus capital on her children’s school fees. The value of her home drops to £470,000 as the months pass, and the tale ends with her buyer pulling out at the last minute.

I know I should feel sorry for her - her husband died eight years ago and she is struggling to support her young family - but I can’t help thinking that her priorities are bonkers. (more…)