HELP - How would you spend this money??

[hippipotami]

This is not something I ever thought I would need help with, but here goes:

We took out a small loan because our heating/plumbing packed up back in Feb. All is now repaired and working well.
We have approx £3.000 left over as the plumbing was no where near as expensive as we thought.

What do I spend this money on. It HAS to go on the house (Victorian money pit that it is) so no tempting suggestions for fancy holidays!!

These are the options:

1. Kitchen make-over. Not enough money to have new kitchen fitted, but could do with new floor, worktop, new oven/hob and a paint job. However, it will still look old and dated so is it worth throwing money at?

2. Supply and fitting of two wood burning stoves. One to replace ghastly brick fireplace in diningroom, one to replace beautiful but useless original fireplace in lounge. We could have real heat rather that rely on radiators, cut our electricity bill, plus I love the look of them. The nice original fireplace could move to our bedroom (to look pretty, not be functional) so would not be wasted.

3)Suppy and fitting of ONE wood burning stove. It is not a big house (think victorian terrace) so do we need 2? We could then also afford to do some much needed painting, and put gates up at the end of our short driveway/path in an attempt to make the front of our house a little more private (at the moment we have a hardstanding for a car and then the public footpath and I feel a little 'exposed'.

What would you do? We fully intended to use the money for the kitchen, but dh is worried that we would 'waste' the money making the kitchen look nice, but it would only be a 'patch-up'. He would like to wait a few years (I hope the kitchen lives that long) and save money so we can have a decent kitchen fitted by kitchen fitters instead of a DIY job.)

Help please. I have to make a decision by Tuesday as I have a kitchen tiler on standby....
AAARRRGGGHHH

Thanks in advance!

I would go for option 3

I decorated kitchen but couldn't afford new units and it just made them look worse.

Wood burners are a lot of work and 2 would be more work than one.

I think the privacy part of option 3 is invaluable as well.

Good luckl

3. Wood burning stoves can give out a lot of heat - check and choose the smallest one you need. I'd want gates at the end of the driveway if I were you, too. Hth.

Sounds like you'll get more done for the money this way, so every time you look at the stove/newly painted walls/gates you'll 'see' your money.

If you plan to do the kitchen down the line I would definitely spend the money elsewhere.
I would then want to know how good your house looks from the street and how "defined" your ground is. If it could do with some improvement I'd go for option 3. Otherwise number 2, but I LOVE fireplace (replaced the one in our lounge and had one fitted in our bedroom). Personally, though, I wonder about the choice of a wood-burner. Is your house cottage-style? Otherwise I wonder how much value you'll add (am traditional re fires though).

No. 3 sounds good - lots for the money.

You could just repay the £3k? If you're not desp to do any of it that is. Other than that, 3. Not worth doing 1 unless it'll make a big diff.

I agree with WWW. Pay it to service the loan and reduce your debt. If you're in debt, by far the best thing to do with any 'spare' money is to pay off the debt, otherwise you're wasting money on interest. Sorry if that sounds boring.

Yep, that is another option, repay the bulk of the debt. The loan is such that you can only repay the whole amount in one go, and we needed part of it for the plumbing. DH is looking into upping the monthly payments to pay it back quicker to save on interest.

Good point about the woodburner not being in-keeping with Victorian - we are just not able to get a decent fire going in our trad. fireplace and thought a woodburner would be easier.
Perhaps not though... sigh...
Not really worried about re-sale value. We love this house and are planning to stay for a long time. (and when we move we may even take the woodburner with us...)

Don't really want to pay the money back as we never spend any on the house and it would be nice to do a few things.

Have you thought of having a gas insert put in your traditional victorian fireplace?

How much would a new kitchen cost? Only I'm surprised that £3k isn't enough to do the job!

If you are going in for a woodburner, research it first as to what it may be necessary to have done to the chimney for it to work effectively. They can be brilliant and give out terrific heat, but it really is worth doing it properly or you could be wasting your investment. these suit all kinds of settings and really do keep clear

agree with EDAM-would 3grand not get you a kitchen? you'd be amazed how cheap you can pick them up for.ours was only 3.5k HUGE.granite worktops,range cooker,american fridge freezer-the lot!

I agree with WWW.
Repay it.

Save for what you need.

We can buy a kitchen for 3K easily, it is getting it fitted, floor tiles, walls plastered and tiles, etc etc...

Argh, I don't know...

Basically, I think the real problem is that I feel nervous spending the money. We never spend money. We don't run up debt on our credit cards, don't take out loans. This was a first, a plumbing/heating emergency. I feel guilty spending it. Also, to get the kitchen we want (an Ikea basic one) and get the electrics/tiling/plastering/floor done in our kitchen we need a minimum of £4,500. We only have £3,000. So a whole new kitchen and the work to rectify or old walls/tiles/crappy floor is not feasible. Dh does not want to do one without the other. We can't fix walls/tiles/floor without ripping old kitchen out, but can't afford to do a complete job either. So I think best to leave it as it is and save up more money.
The current thinking is to put the gates up at the front for privacy/security and buy a couple of tins of paint to do some of the other rooms.
Save the rest of the loan money and try to add to it until we have enough to have the whole kitchen replaced and the walls/tiles/floor done too.

Life is definately much easier when you don't have any money. At least you don't have to worry about how to spend it.... sigh...

You would be much better of paying whatever money you don't use back into the loan than saving it and adding to it. You will save more on interest than you will ever earn on it. That way you pay the loan back earlier too.

Put the £3k in an ISA (personally I'd go mini-ISA ie savings rather than stockmarket but I'm very risk-averse). Then it's earning interest for you without incurring a tax bill. And it will help to cut the amount you need to find to repay the loan at the end of the term, of offset your payments while earning you a bit extra, IYSWIM.

I agree with repaying the loan early as probably the best course of action. Once that was paid off you could then consider if you could afford another loan to cover the entire cost of the kitchen (am I right in thinking that you have central heating anyway?) I do like wood burning stoves but a friend has one in his living room and it gets unbearably hot. Also they do burn A LOT of wood to be effective and unless you are fortunate enough to own a wood(as he does) the running cost could be quite high and so might end up more decorative than anything else.

Also, when I have to find a temporary home for some money I'm a bit of a fan of premium bonds. Depends how long you will need to keep hold of it whether or not interest from an ISA etc will amount to very much anyway.

You guys are very sensible - thank you

We are putting the bulk of the money into a mini-isa (we are very risk-averse aswell) but are keeping £500 back to re-do the hall floor as it is getting dangerous. Some of the tiles are broken and I had ignored them but a friend cut her foot on one edge yesterday so a new floor it is.

The rest gets saved until the savings equal the amount outstanding on the loan which we will then clear early.

I do love the idea of being debt - free.

Thanks all, you are fab!

Glad you've decided. Can I confess I'm not that sensible with money at all IRL? Just know roughly what sensible is without doing it myself!

No worries Edam It is much easier to be sensible with other peoples' money as you don't have those 'but I really want that rug' type urges...

Feel kind of virtuous (sp?) not spending the money....

Thanks again.