To think our mortgage is not affordable ?

[Anxiousaboutmortgage]

I am watching another thread on this topic and it got me even more worried about what we are about to do!
We are about to buy a property that costs 680k with a deposit of 115k
Our take home pay (both working) is 7980 per
Month our monthly mortgage (fixed) comes around 2888
Is that too much ? We are moving for better schools our kids are 5 and 7 and ideally this will be our "forever" home
We will have around 20k left from our sale for any needed work and we have another 20k of savings
We don't have any car loans etc . Our current mortgage is much lower though which scares me A-lot !

Not bespoke, that includes appliances, tiling, plastering, fitting etc

Ok well if you were overpaying the mortgage before that can't be much different to the new higher payments

As a rule of thumb, your fixed costs should be around 50% of net income, 20% savings and 30% for non-essentials. Your mortgage represents 36% so if the rest of the bills, food, car etc come to less than 14% then you're doing well. I appreciate that this won't be achievable for a lot of people, but it's a good guide. Also consider that mortgages generally become more affordable as inflation eats away at the debt, so hopefully things will only get easier. Good luck with the move!

You say your life insurance is through work but also your concerned about redundancies. I would suggest that you need to take out your own life insurance policies to protect yourselves in case of redundacies as the work policies would no longer exist 🥰

We’re considering taking on a similar mortgage with less income compared to yours. Although it does intimidate me, I do believe it’s financially feasible for us. We're right at the top of our budget for the next year until the nursery fees stop, but if we can do it so can you.

If you’re at your absolute limit with no possibility of increasing your salary in the future and no room in the budget for sudden expenses, I’d be concerned. However, if you have a decent monthly savings buffer (or an existing emergency fund) and/or some flexibility to reduce your expenses if necessary, I wouldn’t worry.

My large, bespoke, kitchen was 20k over 10 years ago. A dated kitchen is a nice to upgrade not immediate essential. Decking can be removed by you and disposed of without replacing. I agree with other posters, do not spend that cushion

I didn't mention war torn countries. I meant people in this country who are using food banks and trying to eke out what paltry supplies they have in their cupboards to feed their families until pay day.

I stand by what I say. £5k before bills is a luxury many of us don't have.

Costs have increased astronomically since 2019
We only replaced doors and worktops in our kitchen. Tiled ourselves with basic metro tiles and it was £8k. In our old house we fitted a second hand kitchen, new worktops, tiled, new bathroom including tiling and decorated every room of our 3 bed for £5k total doing everything ourselves!
My parents had their kitchen last year too. Off the shelf kitchen they fitted themselves and that was £18k. We had the glass in 3 windows replaced in 2019 and they were £600 then. You might find your £20k won't go as far as you think!

We have a detailed spreadsheet. When were planning our move my daughter was still in nursery we budgeted 25% take home pay on the mortgage, 25% on bills, 25% on nursery and 25% into savings. We are on similar incomes so this meant if pulled our daughter out of nursery we could just about afford our lifestyle on one salary. She's in school now so childcare costs have reduced so we are putting more into savings. Out of the blue a few weeks ago I was put at risk of redundancy. It has been a comfort to know that my wage isn't essential and we can manage on my partner's salary whilst I search for a new job if I do lose my job.

Private schools, luxury car loans?? Holidays. It's a pittance.

Look at insurance - I think there is something to cover mortgage if there is job loss. Also life insurance each, so mortgage can be covered in event of death/injury to either adult.

This

Rip out the decking.
Your 'modernising' is 'MN needs modernising' (not IG ready) not the EA modernising (needs re-wiring, new CH, re-plumbing....)

Can you afford 7 or 8% if it's that in 3 years time?

Ah I see. We have personal life insurance policies as well as work ones, so they went up for us. Rates went up significantly as did house insurance because the new house was worth about 3 times the old one. Electric bill went up a fair bit too.

I'm not saying you can't afford it, just something to factor in. Also the cost of needing new/more furniture as your old stuff might not fit/suit/might need more. Also this is generally a want rather than a need and can be done gradually.

Get some software called ynab, it’s tracks all your expenses. You have been very lucky to not budget, but you may be surprised how much money goes out on ‘little bits’ where you can make changes.

I’d be comfortable with £5k a month after mortage. We live off £3.5k after mortage. It’s tight if we want to do house upgrades or buy a new half decent car, but it’s a good standard of living.

Unless you live in London you should be fine. Just don’t buy brand new cars, and don’t do mega expensive holidays

Agreed it’s nauseating.

OP take some of your £5,000 a month left over money and invest in some therapy because if humble bragging on here is what you need to boost your self esteem then you need it.

It all depends - how would you feel if things got tight and you had to shop at Aldi rather than Waitrose?

if that doesn't make you feel anxious, then I think you'll be fine.

I think PP was joking…

@MumCanIHaveASnackPlease i don't think i am the one who needs therapy 🤦🏻‍♀️ as i said i do not have 5k left over ! That's 3k just on mortgage no other bills .
Thanks to everyone for the suggestions i will do a thorough spreadsheet this evening and make sure we won't have to change our lifestyle drastically
In terms of insurances i don't want to be bombarded with calls any good websites i can use to understand monthly cost without giving my phone ?
I am 90s child as well so very risk averse just the thought of such a large mortgage scares me

I already shop at aldi 🤨

I think you can afford it, but my biggest worry is your lack of savings - that will go on works for your house rapidly. Leaving you with no emergency fund.
I think you honestly need to budget but you also need to allocated a good portion of this budget to an emergency fund savings to make it sustainable. Only you know if you can do this.
We have 1 DC in nursery, take home less than you - ~£4.8k/pm, we save £1.8k a month. Moved to savings account on payday like a bill. It is doable to save, but we 0 budget to do it. I would suggest looking into that. We don't have much disposable income this way, but DC small and enjoy free activities. We both grew up poor so very used to not much disposable which is a mindset that allows us to save, what I am saying is it is doable but you need to adjust your mindset, saving and spending accordingly.

My mortgage isn’t affordable either - but I’m just having to pay if for these two years fixed in the hope interest rates will come down by next year.

It was affordable when I took out the mortgage!

We don't plan to touch the 20k savings just the 20k from the sale of our house . But looking at how much people spend on a kitchen it might be delusional to think we only need to spend that

You need a spreadsheet of all income and expenditure. Expenditure divided into core/essential and other.

Make sure you have an emergency fund of 6 months outgoings which should cover you in the event of redundancy/job loss.

Once you start tracking your expenditure more closely you might find you naturally start spending a lot less which is what happened to us.

We bought a much cheaper 3 bedroom house that needed work last year, kitchen alone £8k (not with labour), new upstairs carpets in 3 rooms £2k, downstairs wooden floor restored in 2 rooms £1k.
Honestly it's bloody sickening how fast it goes and how much these jobs are.
Being realistic you need more money for this.

I always wonder how people can earn so much money but be so utterly clueless about finances at the same time.

You have 5k a month to play with after your mortgage. If you genuinely don't think that's enough to support a family of four, you need some help!