To always live in a cheaper house...

[PuckeredAhole]

...so that we can afford to travel and not feel poor at the end of the month?

We could have a more expensive house than we have but we want to travel with the kids and do days out. But am I missing out having a great house? What do you prioritise? I just don't want to get to retirement and a) be in a mediocre forever home thinking we could have pushed ourselves more (e.g. me work full time) or b) living in a huge lovely house but not having shown my kids the world or being able to buy them the latest gadgets or have a nicer car. First world problems, I know.

Nop. We are exactly the same. We have a small house but no other debt. I work part time and we have holidays and trips away and money to save. We dont have to worry if anything breaks or we need something unexpectedly. Its lovely and more valuable to me than a bigger house. I have friends with lovely big houses and sometimes i feel a bit envious as i would love more space but they have no choice but to work full time and i know they look at my life and are envious of me. Its just different choices we have made . My house is small but cosy. It has a beautiful garden and is in a quiet cul de sac 10 mins walk from some of the most amazing coastline. Its just really really tiny!! Do what makes you happy and let everyone else do the same

We are also the same, small house but good standard of living. I once asked the children if they would have preferred separate bedrooms and more space (2 out of 3 shared) but no holidays/experiences and they said no they appreciated all they had growing up.

I'm with you, OP. We've done the same, gone for a still very decent house for about half of what we could have had as a mortgage. I'd rather have money left over for fun things and savings for my DD. We rarely have visitors anyway, so the only people we need to impress are us!

Same, I remember our neighbours asking us why we still live in the street. My DH's salary was public knowledge due to his job.

I think its a lovely house, its the right size for us - and the mortgage is now paid off and we aren't 50 yet. Never been so glad as DH lost his job at the beginning of the year and its going to be a while till he's in a new one.

It's one huge worry off our minds that we aren't struggling to pay a huge mortgage!

I occasionally wistfully look at lovely garden and views houses on RightMove but just so glad we didn't stretch ourselves.

We've thought the same. Our house is a small four bed but kids all have their own rooms. We're in a lovely location. To get more we'd need another 150k which we could borrow but I like that we don't have to worry about money so much.

Meh, everyone prioritises differently according to what they like best. You seem happy and you have a nice house (better than me!) so have your nice hols as well.

We have prioritised a house over holidays, as we are in the house for a far greater proportion of time than on holiday! We will quite happily skip going on holiday though, we enjoy it but it's not a priority. We wouldn't bankrupt ourselves to get a property either though, unlikely to overstretch ourselves financially in any direction tbh.

Each to their own, though.

I've never taken the biggest mortgage I could get, so I suppose I could have afforded more expensive houses - and I downsized (size not value) when the children grew up. It's meant a lot not to have to worry about unexpected expenses or changing circumstances; not having all of my assets in the house also means I don't have to stress about property prices.

Over the years I've bought a few houses and it's always worked out best when I've concentrated on what I need - how much space, location/amenities, kitchen size, bathrooms - rather than what I can get for the money. It probably helps that I hate housework and having unused rooms to clean and decorate seems a waste of time I happily spend elsewhere.

I agree with you. We could push ourselves quite a bit further from a house point of view, but we won't. Our house suits our needs and we'd much rather be mortgage free earlier and have more choices with regards to money. We've chosen private school, travel and disposable income - we know plenty of people who have chosen differently though.

We were in the cheaper house (well, flat) for the past few years - my first flat, which is large enough for us and generally a good place to live. £500 mortgage in Zone 2 of London for a large two-bed. If we'd stayed here we could've cleared it pretty quickly - we both earn well. We decided to buy somewhere grander and are due to move as soon as the ruinously expensive renovation is done and, you know what? I'm regretting the purchase. I've bought into other people's snobbery and I'm bitter about it.

No I think you have good priorities. You have given your children experiences/holidays that they will remember without having to worry about over stretching the finances. I've seen so many people over the years overstretch themselves to get the perfect house and then when bad times came financially they were even more unable to cope and often would not accept that they had made choices and now had to live with the consequences.

Yes we have made this decision too. We have a large pleasant house on a nice estate (four kids and two of us working from home). We paid off the mortgage eight years ago and dithered about buying a big gorgeous house. Instead we have put the money away and we are retiring early this year. Life's too short.

""We have prioritised a house over holidays, as we are in the house for a far greater proportion of time than on holiday!""

I'm not, except for sleeping. After work, we'd drive to our local Beach (Crosby), or one of the country parks/woods. Of a weekend we'd at least be camping, my DDs could bring friends along.

I lived in a HA house, whose rent was as cheap as it would hhave been on mortgage. The area was rubbish, but my DDs went to high schools outside of the area and we were hardly there.

I've inherited a average house, that on paper isn't in a 'good' area, but actually is. Everyone is telling me to use it as a deposit for a better house, but at 50, I'm aware that my mobility might not be good forever, so I want to travel and help my DDs out, or save for my GC.

essentialhummus I appreciate your honesty.

I do believe there is an element of keeping up with the Joneses but as a pp said, the only people we have to impress is ourselves - I like this and try to live by this. You never know what the future will being e.g. ill health/job loss. I just want to have no regrets in life. Who does.

Dh and I have lived in our first and only house for almost 20 years. When the dc came along, we added an extension to give us a bit more room. But whilst most of our friends have moved from their first homes into large 4/5 bed detached houses, we've stayed put. I'd be the first to admit I am a little envious at times but we no longer have a mortgage, I have been able to be a stay at home parent for the last 6 years and when I return to work we will have money to have lots of fun, however our friends will have mortgages for years to come and that is something we just don't want.

I think you've got it right. You never know what's round the corner and it would be horrible to be saddled with a large mortgage if the worst was to happen.

Myself and DH never went in for big houses and paid off the mortgage years ago and this was a good thing.

BIL and SIL were trendier, got a big house, designer clothes and all the rest of it and were always worried at the end of each month. Staying within your means is much more sensible.

It's finding that right balance that is hard isn't it. Nice/big enough house but with enough money to live on. Drawing the line just slightly off, could make a world of difference.

Ours is adequate for our needs. Not big, just right for the 4 of us, 3 bed semi.

Mortgage is low, we could sell and get bigger, it's worth 3 times what we paid, but no, we are ok.

I'm out of work in 3 weeks, but it's ok as I've managed to save enough to see us ok for a year, we would be looking at loosing the house if we had pushed any further.

tinkly life IS too short and for me this is not an empty statement. In the past few weeks my dad has been diagnosed.with cancer and he may never retire. We just don't know.

Nope.

Life is for living. If that for you means more disposable income and the knowledge you have wiggle room rather than living in a nicer house, that's what you should do.

Most of us can't have everything we want. There are few people who can have a massive and lovely house, part time work, a car they like, travel and no need to worry when something breaks. Some people can't have any of those and for those who can, they normally have to choose. So logically, it makes most sense to choose what will make you happiest.

Also, if we ever do hit another recession you will see who has over-stretched themselves. I remember back in the 1990's a couple of my parents friends had been living in a huge house and lost everything, ended up in a rented flat. I don't want that for my family.

I'm of the same mindset op. We live in a large flat (me, dp, 2 dd's and dd3 due any day) 3 big bedrooms, a dining kitchen and a big living room. It's got a nice (shared, but no one else in the block uses it) garden too and is in a good area. The mortgage is just over £500 a month.

To us at the moment it means I don't have to work therefor saving us the stress of juggling childcare and work. Also we can afford a third child. With a higher housing costs we would have had to stop at 2.

But still people (MIL mainly) can't understand our housing choices. Her first comment on us telling her I was pregnant with dd3 was "you'll need to get a house!". You'd think she'd know better as she is currently in financial shit at the age of 65 with massive debt and being unable to cover her mortgage on her large house.

I think.many posters here have a refreshing outlook on life. I feel heartened today.

It depends on a lot of things - how old your children are, how sociable you are, whether you need to be in catchment for schools, whether you need a large garden, etc

We bought a large house but it gives us the option to downsize when the children have all left home or to stay and have it as somewhere for grandchildren etc

I have done a bit of both: we are south East so had to stretch ourselves to get something decent, but with the market raising, it was the only way to get what we needed.
Our latest, and current house, is near the top of our budget in terms of size and location - decent size even if could be bigger, detached, great schools, BUT we don't do anything to it apart from a quick lick of paint (windows really could do with an upgrade, kitchen and bathrooms are ... clean, but nothing else to say!), and spend money on holidays instead.

My kids do not care about having a great house and showroom kitchen units and won't even remember the colour of the walls, but they will remember our holidays together.