So it’s already mid April and so far a lot of changes have been taking place with myself and amongst my closest friends. I’ll start with my own news. Just last week I set up my help to buy ISA with my bank, as well as new savings builder account, which will hopefully help me reach my goal to move out in the next eight to 12 months. Here’s hoping, anyway. After my two long weekends away to Madrid and Copenhagen (separate blog posts to come in the coming week or so about these trips), I now have no more holidays abroad planned and no big holidays jetting off to somewhere sunny and hot to look forward to. I don’t mind too much. I’ve been very fortunate to be able to afford going on one or two holidays/long weekends to various locations for the past five or six years. The time has come though, for me to get serious with my money, and unfortunately that means having to make some sacrifices.
In retrospect they’re not really sacrifices as such, largely due to the fact that, as I just mentioned a few sentences ago, I’ve had two trips away to two beautiful locations in the past month. More so though, because I really, really, REALLY, want to move out. I love living at home, I love my room, and I love the memories that the house holds, as it’s where I’ve lived with my parents since I was a newborn baby just over 24 and a half years ago, although for the past four years my step mum has lived there with myself and my Dad. But I know I can’t live there forever, and I feel the time has come where I feel ready to spread my wings and fly the nest. The desire of moving into my own home has been somewhat present ever since I moved back from university almost three years ago, but for the past six months or so, the desire has become a growing necessity and my saving efforts have been maximised to help me get to where I want to be sooner rather than later. After giving myself some treats here and there for the first three and a bit months of the year, I’m now putting my head (and my bank card) down and letting the extreme saving commence.
I hopefully won’t be moving out alone though, as myself and my boyfriend of almost a year have decided to take the next step and we will be moving in together. That’s scary isn’t it? It didn’t really hit me until I was sat in the bank last Tuesday lunchtime, with my bank advisor telling me about mortgages and what we would be entitled to if we saved up X amount of money, when I realised that this is actually happening. That it’s going to happen. Cue minor heart palpitations and slight panicky feeling rising in my stomach. And breathe. It’s daunting, particularly as I will be moving away from my hometown of South East London to near where my boyfriend lives in Brighton. Thoughts have raced through my head about how I will commute to work, how often I will get to see my family and friends, will I be able to manage my money and the responsibility of living by myself, with no adult guidance from my parents. That’s the scariest part of it all. I’m going to be the adult. Since when did that happen?! I don’t even know if I’m doing being an adult properly. What does it take to be an adult?? I work, I pay taxes, I bought my own car, I pay my phone bill, does that mean I’m doing it right? Or maybe, and I think this is probably the correct answer, becoming an adult means you just wing everything. If that’s the case, then I think I’m doing it right. Or at least I hope I am.
Don’t get me wrong though, I’m extremely excited to be potentially reaching this stage in my life and to be taking a vastly huge step forward with my boyfriend. The excitement I get every time I look online at estate agents, or see a For Sale sign on properties in the area we’re looking to move to, and the overwhelming desire to go in every single home ware shop and buy anything that I can imagine fitting in well with my currently imaginary home, is at times too much to take. I sometimes find myself wishing time away so I can hurry up and get to the point where I can stroll into my bank and say that I’m ready to take out a mortgage. At the same time though, I find myself not wanting time to go too quickly. I hate wishing time by, and I would quite like to hold onto these last few months of being a somewhat carefree young adult with no mortgage or bills to pay.
This year must be the year of change, as I guess any year is, but this year seems to be full of surprises when it comes to myself and my friends taking the next steps in our adult lives. Back in mid February, one of my closest friends and her boyfriend moved in together and have even added a new addition to their family, this addition being four legged, furry and a cat, not a baby, just incase you got the wrong idea! Only two weeks ago, another of my two friends who have been together for almost five years got engaged and are getting ever closer to having enough money to move in together, with buying a property being the priority over getting married at the moment. This now means that three of my closest friends are engaged and planning to get married in the next couple of years, let alone the numerous other people who I once knew from secondary school and sixth form who have all announced their engagements in the past year. It’s strange to think that five or six years ago, the news that one of us had gotten engaged would have caused a bit of a ripple amongst the rest of our friendship group, and our families would have no doubt claimed that we were ‘too young to start thinking about getting married’ and that ‘they were throwing their lives away’.
It’s so nice to see everyone I know ‘growing up’ as it were, even though I’m also going through these changes and moving further into adult life. It’s a scary ride, but I’m excited to see where it takes me next and what the future will bring.
Life's Peachey 