BritishBibliophile Wants A House

BritishBibliophile

This is very true savingwannabe! One of my colleagues has taught me a new Scottish proverb - "What is for you shall not go past you".

Little TT of £1.36

New total - £11488.11

BritishBibliophile

My money appears to have melted away and it's only the 3rd July! The problem with getting paid on the 26th of the month is that I end up with costs coming out of my new pay packet instead of my old one and it gets a bit confusing, I think I need to shuffle my pay in to my easy access saver and then move it back closer to the 1st of the month, might help me budget better

Anyway, £300 has gone in to the wedding fund, and a measly £230.18 has gone in the house deposit savings. Was hoping to break the £12k mark this month but that's clearly not going to happen. Must have miscalculated something somewhere, oh well, I live and learn, and I don't have any serious costs coming up this month (no birthdays for example) so if I'm careful I can have a review in 2 weeks and see what can be shuffled as a TT.

Making some steps forward with the wedding, booked a registrar for our chosen day! Still waiting for a booking form from the venue though so I need to chase that if it hasn't arrived by Wednesday.

Went to view 2 houses this weekend. One was at the top end of our budget and was nice enough inside, but there was no real room to expand if you needed to (TBH I think it was a little overpriced). The second was well within budget, but in a village down the road from the one we've been looking in. House was lovely, really nicely looked after, decent garden space, ticked a lot of boxes. But when we got home we looked up the train schedule for that village we realised that on the evenings when Gentleman Caller has to work lates (twice a week every couple of weeks) he wouldn't get home until after 10:30 :eek: Given that he doesn't get a later start the next day, and his commute is already being increased by our move, we had to decline as I can't put him through that, not even for a house.

So, back to the drawing board

Wedding fund - £755/£4000!
House deposit - £11718.29!

savingwannabe

Some months are like that. Money just disappears but still you are saving and paying for the wedding. Well done on checking train times. Talk about being really good at house spotting you are smart. I bought the first house I went to see and paid dearly for the privilege.

BritishBibliophile

I'm far too fussy for that savingwannabe In fact I'm definitely the biggest problem in this house buying situation, we've seen some nice places that I'm sure Gentleman Caller would happily live in, but I've then disliked for various reasons (including just not getting a good feel from it).

Purse was practically superglued shut this week, the only things I bought were bits for work that I claim back on expenses (mainly milk from the shop next door). This worked very well until yesterday, when I bought a cup and saucer and a cake stand to use at the wedding :rotfl: We're having an afternoon tea party for the reception and we're buying the vintage china for it from charity shops as renting it turned out to be quite expensive (individual charge is okay, but then added delivery charges and washing up charges plus deposits for damage quickly add up!), between me, my Mum and my mother-in-law we should get it all sorted before the wedding.

Yesterday was the first cup and saucer and the first cake plate that I'd seen and liked, so had to buy both of them. Happily though this is exactly what the wedding fund is for so I've moved the money I've spent so far (bought quite a few plates as well) out of the fund and back in to my account.

This has let me go for a nice TT of £20.10, and I'm sure there will be more next week as I'm going to continue to keep the purse firmly shut. I want to hit the £12k mark damnit!

In other news, the house that we offered full asking price for a few weeks ago (the one with the nightmare estate agents) came back on the market again, for the same price we offered last time. Did the agents bother to phone me and let me know the situation so we could make an offer? No, of course not, that would make them competent :mad: Slept on it over night as I was far too angry to call them that afternoon, then phoned the next morning and offered £5k under the asking price :rotfl: Don't want to mess the seller around, but these agents are hopeless and I really wanted to rattle their cage a little bit. Haven't heard anything back from them, and while I'm reluctant to go back to chasing them like I did last time, I'm tempted to give them a call tomorrow and ask what's going on.

Also really tempted to get the owner's details off land registry (the house is currently rented out so only met the tenants) and then write to them outlining our position and our offer, and state that we don't think the estate agents are passing on our offer. But I don't want to bother the vendor and it seems like it would be grossly overstepping the mark (very British problem XD)

New total - £11738.39

savingwannabe

Well done on the cup and saucers for the wedding. I wonder why the estate agents didn't approach you for the house? They don't sound v professional at all. I hope you get it, it would be fab if you got it at a lower price too.

Fingers crossed. xxx

BritishBibliophile

Apologies for the radio silence over the past few weeks. I had to take a break from MSE as the house thing was really getting me down.

The good news is that nearly 3 weeks after our original offer, and nearly 2 weeks after negotiating a second offer, we've finally had our offer accepted on the house. I was so convinced that we were going to be screwed over by this that I've only just realised we should have got ourselves set up with a solicitor, but I'm trying to remedy that as quickly as possible.

I'm not getting excited, as I'm still convinced that something is going to come along to screw it up. I will only be getting excited when we have exchanged and I know that we will definitely be getting the house.

But even though I'm not getting excited about the house, I'm starting to think towards the next few weeks. I've still been TT over the past few weeks, so that combined with my normal £200 to the HTB ISA brings me up to £12132.18 This seems like a good place to stop the deposit savings and focus on the furniture fund instead, so I've moved £167.05 in to that instead of putting it in the deposit. Should the sale fall through then I'll simply take the furniture fund extra and shove it in to the deposit, but if it all goes okay then it gives us a budget to work with in the first instance.

Wedding fund has also gone up by £300, that's not something that's going to be postponed

Deposit total: £12132.18
Funiture fund: £426.25/£1000
Wedding fund: £1055.00/£4000

savingwannabe

Had a crazy few weeks so haven't been on MSE either. HOlY COW you are buying a house. Wonderful news. Well done on everything else. yay.

hugs, swxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

BritishBibliophile

Thank you SW, just got to keep the digits crossed now that it all goes smoothly in the coming weeks.

Solicitor is now signed up for and first set of fees paid. Mortgage offer came through the post, and I've booked a surveyor who'll be inspecting the house in 2 weeks time (his calendar was "fully booked" - suspect he's having a nice holiday, hope he comes back refreshed and ready to tackle the house!) and then in late September we have our next appointment to go through things and sign everything that needs a signature. Solicitor was fairly sure that most of it would be on his desk by then, so just have to hope that the people who do the searches are prompt :eek:

Gentleman Caller has informed me that I'm not allowed to stress out and develop a stomach ulcer. We both had a tiny moment of relaxation when the mortgage offer arrived (he's been trying to calm me down so I had no idea how worried he was too ) but now I'm back to fearing that the estate agents will screw us somewhere along the way. If we had a better relationship with them I'd feel more confident and might even be enjoying the process, but as it is I wouldn't trust them as far as I can throw them. I daren't look at Pinterest or spend any serious time hunting for furniture ideas and costs as I don't want to get my hopes up and then be terribly disappointed, nor do I want to tempt fate by getting my heart set on things and then having them taken away

I did think that getting stressed about the wedding would make things worse but actually other people are getting stressed out instead :rotfl: MIL has been worrying about all the china we're going to need (we're buying vintage pieces to use), I think we've managed to calm her down about that. Then she managed to get my Mum anxious about whether we would need to pay some people to help on the day and maybe we should get some proper caterers etc. In the end I reminded my Mum that we're sorting out the food ourselves because we have so many different dietary requirements (several gluten frees, two lactose intolerant, a couple of vegetarians etc) that buying things from M&S will be easier in the long run. As for needing staff on the day, we're a small group (only 40 people, if that) and none of us are of a mind to be waited on hand and foot, no one will bat an eyelid if I point them in the direction of the kitchen to make some more tea, and if I need to then I'll do the washing up in my dress. The venue have said their staff will help us set things up on the day, there's no need to throw money at things that aren't necessary. Going to see the venue with my Mum on Saturday so she can see how it looks and reassure herself that it'll all work on the day.

I have however realised how difficult it will be to save effectively for the wedding once we have a house, whatever house it may be! I need to find a fairer way to balance furniture/decorating fund and the wedding fund. Did a little TT of £1.57 to the Furniture Fund, and £5 to the wedding fund. Anything left at the end of the month will be split between the two of them.

Oh and in other news my Eldest Little Sister got her A-Level results and is off to Lincoln :T

Furniture Fund - £427.82/£1000
Wedding Fund - £1060.00/£4000

savingwannabe

Yay for all the news on the house and fab news on mortgage.

Well done on de-stressing. Gentleman Caller needs to be rewarded he is v supportive. Well done on wedding and stick to your guns to keep the cost down.

Extra special well done to your sister. A levels are a such an important exam. Hurrah for university. I loved my times there. I am sure she will love it.

BritishBibliophile

Thank you SW, I hope she'll love it too. I had a great time at university, and I hope it'll help her grow her confidence and see a bit more of the world.

Just got confirmation from Quidco that my cashout has arrived, £11.96 as an Amazon giftcard. However I can only add £4.24 to the Furniture Fund as I've just used some of it to buy a Rammstein CD :rotfl:

Furniture Fund: £432.06/£1000