Moving Out - Having our first home

Hey everyone,

I posted on my Instagram that I wanted to write a blog post discussing the fact that me and my boyfriend moved into our own place together last August. I got quite a few questions that people wanted answering within the post so here it is!

A quick overview on how, why and what happened last August. Me and Zac were given the opportunity to rent a 3 bedroomed house from a family friend. Knowing how fortunate we were to have the chance to rent off someone we knew we decided to go for it. Both living with our Grandmas for most of our lives, as much as we loved them, we knew we wanted our own place one day soon and took the opportunity. It all happened very quickly.

One of the first and most frequent questions I got asked on Instagram and by friends/family were the costs. Me and Zac both knew renting wasn't the best way to do it however, due to multiple reasons we knew buying our own home wasn't going to be possible in the near future and that renting was going to be the only way to have our own space so quick. Don't get me wrong, part of me HATES the fact that the money we're putting into this house which wont be ours in the end is technically going to waste. BUT I am also extremely happy we decided to do it and I know there are so many benefits to us doing so.

1. Monthly expenditures

Before we agreed to renting I made a rough list of all the bills we would need to pay monthly and how much they would come to which we then split into two so we both paid half each. Below is the list of OUR monthly bills and some details about each one ( I understand this may be boring and very obvious to some people but I am writing this to hopefully help anyone thinking of moving out in the near future).

Rent

Gas & Electric

(we looked around and asked about and decided to get a pay as you go meter however, we think there is a cheaper alternative which we want to change to as it seems to cost us a lot more than we thought it would).

Water

(we pay monthly for our water bill)

Food

(we roughly estimate a certain amount each week)

Council Tax

(the price of this varies dependant on how many people you're living with and what band your house falls under).

Home Insurance

( I went on compare the market to get the cheapest insurance)

Broadband

(again we shopped around and got a deal with Virgin Media. We wanted it just for the internet as we have a smart TV and dont watch much Live TV)

TV License

(again this varies depending on how you want to pay it. We opted for payments every quarter).

Obviously when we first moved in we needed the main things such as a bed, fridge, sofa and initially we bought a second hand sofa for £40. We were fortunate enough that my mum was getting rid of her fridge freezer so we were able to have that and also a few months down the line she also got a new sofa so we nabbed her old one hehehe. We bought one of the cheapest beds we could from the Argos but used Zac's extremely comfy mattress he already had so even though its not the prettiest, it does the job! Slowly over the first few months we got more accessories for the living room and bedroom and even now we still aren't finished. The only furniture we have bought for the house is, bed, coffee table, dining table, chairs, shelving unit, draws for bedroom and the TV stand. For all of those pieces we either kept an eye out on the Facebook selling sites, bought from IKEA or the Argos. My advice is to just keep an eye out. Don't rush into things and shop around. We have made our bedroom and living room look and feel cosy very cheaply and as much as I would love to browse Home Sense, it just made sense to not spend a lot so when it came to owning our own home we could invest in better pieces.

2. Where do I Shop on a weekly basis?

Food wise, ALDI is my second home. You just cant beat it and once you start shopping at Aldi you will realise how much money a full shop at Asda or Morrisons could cost you. No lie, I can do a week shop for £40 at Aldi and go to Asda to buy the same thing and spend double or more! For certain products, for example Zac will not eat Aldi's frozen Sweet Potato Fries, so I have to go get McCain's from Asda and I LOVE the Nescafe Red Top Coffee so I wont drink anything other than that. Picking those random bits up every now and again is inevitable but I will never do a full food shop anywhere other than Aldi ever again! It also sells amazing cleaning products which I pick up from there too!

B&M as I am sure many of you will know is also AMAZING!! We have so many random bits from there and its my go to place for homeware and kitchenware. It is super afford able but you can come across some lovely products which look a lot more expensive than they are. One of the questions I got asked was where do I shop for household items and other than B&M I will shop in TKMAXX, Primark, Wilko's, Home Bargains and Poundland. I come across some diamonds in all these shops and you just have to keep an eye out!

3. Where do I get inspiration for my interior décor?

Instagram is 100% my go to for inspiration but when we first moved in I made a Pinterest board for the different rooms in my house. We decided to only decorate the living room, our bedroom and the little room so I could have a little walk in wardrobe. Because the living room was already white we decided not to paint and to keep the grey brick wall which was already up and add too it. Sticking with a grey and white theme I wanted to incorporate pink into the room but I know I could swap the items in pink for a different colour if I ever get sick of pink!

For the upstairs we decided to paint the bedrooms grey but left the spare room as we knew we would only use it as a storage room. Picking grey meant that again we could switch up colour schemes within the rooms. Grey, Navy blue, teal and mustard is the colour scheme for our bedroom and I am still on the lookout for some prints for the wall to tie in all the colours. I also still want a rug and a mirror for this room so I am hoping in the next few months we can get it all sorted.

4. How do I keep motivated to clean, cook etc. when home from work?

Hahahaaha, well I wish I could sit here and write 5 ways to stay motivated but quite honestly, every day is different! Sometimes I come home from work (if you dont know I work Mon-Fri 8:30am till 5:00pm) and I am in full force cleaning mode and I get it all done, make tea and sort myself out for the next day all before 7pm. But then the next I will come home and sit on the sofa and do absolutely nothing, realise its 9pm and go to bed!! But one thing I can say is that doing that second one makes you feel like absolute shit the next day. I hate seeing the washing up there from the night before so I 9 times out of 10 make sure everywhere is clean and ready for the next day.

I tend to do a deep clean on a weekend, usually Sunday mornings and this makes me feel so good about the week ahead. So any advice on this would be, try your best to do everything you need to do when you get home from work BEFORE you sit down on the sofa. Get a bath/shower and sort everything out for the next day BEFORE you sit down and watch the TV. That way you can relax and chill out for the rest of the evening knowing everything is sorted.

5. General Advice on moving into your home.

My main factor would be save. If you have the opportunity to do so, save for a deposit on a house so you can actually own it in the end. It will make decorating more worthwhile and just knowing the money you're putting into the house is soley for your own benefit.

BUT if that is not an option, like it wasn't for us, shop wisely, don't be stupid and be savvy when buying things for the house.

Do your research. Go compare is a life saver when finding what the best and cheap insurance is. Ask around family and friends for what deals they have with internet and bill suppliers.

Work out what is best for you. If you have the money to pay for the TV license up front, do it that way so you don't have to worry about it monthly or weekly etc.

Ask around for unwanted items from family members or keep an eye out on selling sites rather than buying it the first time you see it. You get to know when items are hard to find so if you do drop on certain things snap it up when you can. For example I was looking for a table for months and I nearly bought one for £150 but kept looking and found one on facebook for £40! I also found two chairs at a charity shop for £1 each...YES £1 EACH!!! - I am the bargain hunter.

6 What are our future plans?

So at the moment, the main priority is to get the house how we want it and to then save. We are getting on top of everything, paying things off (for example we got our TV on Very for a really good price on offer and you dont have to pay anything for the first year - we pay off little amounts each month but this was the best option for us at the time) and get the last little bits for our house. We only need to add small features to a couple of the rooms and then all that's left to do is save. It is really important to us that we save for a deposit so we can have the house of our dreams as soon as we can. This may not be for another 5 years but we want to make sure we're working towards it.

Me and Zac would both love a barn conversion. It is our dream and something we talk about regularly. My dream job would be to have our own mini dog hotel. How fun would that be? Making sure we have the facilities and space to do so is something we want to aim for and I know we would both be fully content doing something like that with our lives. Obviously another reason we would want to get our own home is because at some point in the future, not any time soon, we would love children. So having our own home before this happens is also another important factor of ours.

Overall, having your own home can be very expensive, a lot of responsibility and it is 100% a big wake up call as to why your mum or dad or grandparent in our case, continuously asked you whether you'd be home for tea or to make sure the sides are clean. But, it is also amazing to have your own independence and freedom. Living with a partner can also be extremely difficult and hard at times and it can sometimes get annoying but, you get through it and work together (even though Zac refuses to do the dishes all the time...). Make sure its the right decision for you and even though we love having our own space there is definitely times we wish we would have done things differently. However, I dont regret it at all because we are who we are today because of this, we wouldn't have Dakota and for me, that makes it all worthwhile.

I hope you enjoyed reading this very lengthy post and that the questions I have answered covered what I got asked on Instagram. I am starting to interact with a lot of people from my posts and stories and its nice to know people are interested so thank you so much for all your kind words and support!

Anymore questions don't hesitate to message me on Instagram!

Chlo, x

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