What costs surprised you during/after a house move?

[DavidG87]

Hi all,

Family of 4 here! When we were house hunting we realised quite quickly that the “affordable” number from mortgage calculators didn’t always match what real life would feel like month to month.

Once we started factoring in council tax, commuting, childcare, energy bills etc, two areas with very similar house prices suddenly looked very different.

What caught other people out the most when they were looking? Thanks

Things that make your life easier when moving/decorating, like ordering pizza/buying ready meals and pre made sandwiches, pet sitter for the day of the move, bottles of wine to thank friends and family for helping.

Then the cost of exploring a new area, trying new pubs/restaurants/cafes etc.

We also had to pay to have some heavy items removed that had been left behind by the previous owner, and we had to get the driveway professionally pressure washed as it had got too bad for us to do it ourselves (took the guy 2 hours with pro equipment and it's literally the size of a small car). Also turned out the house had a mouse problem!

Oh and our internet bill went up by a silly amount - didn't realise that the new address basically only had one supplier.

That not everyone will leave the house as clean you leave yours/you would like… trying to move in and clean sucks…

Commuting. Our train fares have doubled in 8 years. Salaries not so much.

Scale. Moved from zone2 to the sticks, no regrets about that but you get a lot more space. Tiling a downstairs loo cost the same as our old family bathroom as it was the same size floor 😩

Plants - cost a bomb. See scale above.

DIY. A tin of Ronseal floor varnish was £50 15 years ago. I'm still aghast, god knows what it costs now. We just used to haemorrhage cash in B&Q every weekend with our first time buyer fixer upper.

Yes absolutely this in my experience. Lots of little things that are fairly cheap in themselves, but overall add up to quite a lot of money.

Yes all those wee things that add up. I swear I was never out B&Q having spent a £100 and not much to show for it.

Tv & broadband. Only moved two streets but didn’t realise Virgin didn’t cover there. Not being able to swap between Virgin and Sky means no good retention deals.

Curtains. We have 8 more windows in this house. It’s amazing because of the light, but extra curtains and blinds adds up.

Do people normally take their lampshades with them or leave them? I'm thinking of taking most of mine with me to the new house

I take mine as I've spent £££ on them.

Depends how much you still like them. I left half because I was sick of seeing them and wanted the joy of new ones. The other half I took because I still loved them even after ten years. The house I moved into had just bare bulbs everywhere (not all of them working grrrr).