MFW Baby steps

hiddenshadow

Wow, nice job on the interview! Hope tomorrow goes well.

I didn't negotiate salary until my current job (bad me!). I wasn't really looking seriously yet (didn't plan to look until after I'd finished at my old job and gone on a holiday!), so when they asked about salary range I took what I'd quite like to get and gave them +/- 5k as a range (this was based on the advice from Women Don't Ask: The High Cost of Avoiding Negotiation, the TL/DR version of which was basically "women tend to sell themselves short in not negotiating or asking for too little, so don't do that".

Anyway, job offered the minimum of the range (which was still 10k more than I was on at my last job!), I countered at 2.5k off the top and we settled in the middle. I defied conventional wisdom and did this all via e-mail (primarily because the HR person is part-time), but I think that worked out well for me - gave me time to try out phrasing and such. Plus I hate the phone, personally! I think I would've gotten over it for salary negotiations, but it always makes me nervous when I have to have a difficult/emotional discussion over the phone.

Anyway...long story short, definitely negotiate. Once they say "we would like you to work here" you're in a position of power. I've been in on hiring processes before, it's a total PITA so when you find someone you like you really want to secure them. As long as you're polite and fairly realistic on numbers (not 2x what they've stated they'll pay, for example), the worst they can do is say no. And even if they say no, the chances of them saying "no, and by the way no more job offer at all" is almost nil (I have heard of it happening, but only when someone was super rude and/or unrealistic in negotiating).

Petal88

MSE/MFW wise I have done the following since my last update:
- Cooked a beautiful coca cola ham with a joint of gammon I'd been given at new year's when the future MIL was making me take lots of food back home with me. Very cheap as all I had to pay for was the coca cola!
- With the leftover ham I made a yummy big batch of egg fried rice that should keep me going lunch wise at work this week.
- OP'd £125 in total in Jan and am currently on £22.18 for Feb.
- I've decided to decorate the church with DIY pom poms for our wedding instead of flowers, that should save us a pretty penny with London flower prices!
- Currently looking into getting wedding invitations done cheaply at a printer's and other cheaper wedding options that won't necessarily compromise on style.


Speaking of weddings - I went to a wedding fair the other weekend and I swear all the photographers cost between £1200 and £2000:eek:. I really need to have a proper look for someone good but a bit cheaper than that...

hiddenshadow

Petal88 wrote: »

Speaking of weddings - I went to a wedding fair the other weekend and I swear all the photographers cost between £1200 and £2000:eek:. I really need to have a proper look for someone good but a bit cheaper than that...

Ouch! We paid £500 for ours and they were good. Not earth-shattering, but they took nice photos and were friendly/polite (as a bonus, we got two photographers instead of one, both for about 5 hours). We're not really photo people (have been married for 2 1/2 years and still have nothing framed from the wedding), so that was good enough for us.

Petal88

hiddenshadow wrote: »

Wow, nice job on the interview! Hope tomorrow goes well.

I didn't negotiate salary until my current job (bad me!). I wasn't really looking seriously yet (didn't plan to look until after I'd finished at my old job and gone on a holiday!), so when they asked about salary range I took what I'd quite like to get and gave them +/- 5k as a range (this was based on the advice from Women Don't Ask: The High Cost of Avoiding Negotiation, the TL/DR version of which was basically "women tend to sell themselves short in not negotiating or asking for too little, so don't do that".

Anyway, job offered the minimum of the range (which was still 10k more than I was on at my last job!), I countered at 2.5k off the top and we settled in the middle. I defied conventional wisdom and did this all via e-mail (primarily because the HR person is part-time), but I think that worked out well for me - gave me time to try out phrasing and such. Plus I hate the phone, personally! I think I would've gotten over it for salary negotiations, but it always makes me nervous when I have to have a difficult/emotional discussion over the phone.

Anyway...long story short, definitely negotiate. Once they say "we would like you to work here" you're in a position of power. I've been in on hiring processes before, it's a total PITA so when you find someone you like you really want to secure them. As long as you're polite and fairly realistic on numbers (not 2x what they've stated they'll pay, for example), the worst they can do is say no. And even if they say no, the chances of them saying "no, and by the way no more job offer at all" is almost nil (I have heard of it happening, but only when someone was super rude and/or unrealistic in negotiating).

Great advice hiddenshadow, I'll definitely give it a go along the lines of what you did. I have a feeling I'm asking at the top end of the market rate of someone as young as me but I did tell them before I even started the process that I wasn't interested in anything below XX (funnily enough also 10k more than my current job!) so at least I think I'll have my minimum secured for tomorrow. The reason why I haven't negotiated previously is because my first job was a grad scheme with a fixed salary, and I needed my second employer more than they needed me, so I didn't dare negotiate at the time. Now though... I'm in no rush!

ScotinLondon

Morning all - I also negotiated my contract too, but I did other aspects rather than the pay, as I was going to receive a substantial amount more than my previous job. It felt good to be wanted and know that you are worth it!

As HS has said - you are in the power position.

When we got married - we got a family friend to do ours, so we got a decent deal. Also part of our deal - we received a whole photo-storybook of our wedding and a DVD full of photos, which we used to share with the rest of the family with. so, my advice is to see what services they are all offering.

We only have the one wedding photo in our home - and that one, i made up into a collage on our first wedding anniversary. V shabby but with a lot of love!

Petal88

So the Tuesday interviews were a fiasco as they had missed to book me in their diaries/systems etc and so after waiting half an hour for someone to see me they ended up having to send me home! Fast forward to today and I've just had the final two interviews (that's 5 in total!). Negotiating salaries didn't really happen either - I was under the impression that I'd receive an offer today but apparently it takes them 2 weeks of red tape to get an offer through so they just asked me what range I was looking at... It does look like the job is mine but I can't wait to sign a contract so I don't have to worry about it...

Fingers crossed I get what I want!

In MSE news:
- I've been rubbish at bringing lunches in to work this week I reckon I could save hundreds per year if I did so it's so silly that I don't!
- I've done two small OPs this week, one around £7 and another of £2 ish, basically tily tidies I've swept into the mortgage account thinking I won't miss them
- It's Feb 12th and I still haven't needed to turn the heating on!! My bills are going to look amazing, can't wait for that credit rebate when it comes
- We'll be away all of the Easter week so have put our flat up on Airbnb again. No takers yet but hopefully we can get at least a few nights in.

Otherwise I'm getting pretty darn excited about getting an annual mortgage statement in a couple of months, as I've never had one before and I'd like to see what impact my small OPs have had on the mortgage. :j

hiddenshadow

Good luck with the negotiations if/when they happen.

I found a bunch of recipes that serve 4 so we make one a night and take the leftovers in for lunch later in the week. Neither DH nor I have bought lunch so far this year (though our lunch money comes out of our allowance, so no huge budget windfalls there).

Impressed on the heating - we held out until the end of November but have had it on since then. No flats above/below us for insulation, though - it was great when we were on the top floor as we got all the heat from the lower level flats for free.

Petal88

hiddenshadow wrote: »

Good luck with the negotiations if/when they happen.

I found a bunch of recipes that serve 4 so we make one a night and take the leftovers in for lunch later in the week. Neither DH nor I have bought lunch so far this year (though our lunch money comes out of our allowance, so no huge budget windfalls there).

Impressed on the heating - we held out until the end of November but have had it on since then. No flats above/below us for insulation, though - it was great when we were on the top floor as we got all the heat from the lower level flats for free.

Thank you! It wasn't as much a negotiation as them just asking me what I want and are now going away for up to two weeks (apparently five people need to sign it off!) to crunch some numbers before making me an offer. I definitely have the job though, not it's all hinging on what they're actually willing to offer me...


Heating wise we're super lucky as I have genuinely not once been cold all winter! Most nights I sleep with the windows open and the kitchen window is always ajar as I seem to be permanently hot. It is a <10 year old flat though, south facing with double glazing and about 3 flats under us to keep us warm with


I like your recipe idea by the way as it means you get a nice bit of variety with your food - I tend to do a batch cook on the Sunday which I then get bored with by Wednesday and end up freezing or wasting... Problem is the OH only comes home on weekends so I have no one to cook for during the week! The amount of times I end up with just toast and tea is shocking.


Having said that! I made a batch of chilli con carne yesterday and had a packed lunch with me today. Got leftover tacos to have for dinner tonight and some mushroom soup to have for lunch tomorrow so hopefully that will result in enough variety for me to be able to stomach the chilli Wed-Fri.


In other news, I've been poorly for 10 days now which I'm sick of (no pun intended) as I need to get serious with my half marathon training and I had a goal of losing a stone by April 23rd, but at the moment I've just gained 2lbs!


Last but not least, I made another OP on Friday (whyyyy a Friday?? I forgot it wouldn't come through until today), taking me up to my monthly OP goal of £125 this year.

hiddenshadow

Hope you feel better soon! I've had a cold for about a week and am definitely sick of being sick. I did run twice last week but skipped my weekend run and still don't feel up to it today. (On the plus side, so far I'm down 5lbs from last week, possibly due to not wanting to eat much with a sore throat. Fully expect this to reappear once I'm feeling better, alas.)

Petal88

Oh well done you for still going on runs though! Mine's definitely lodged itself in the chest area so I'd seriously struggle to breathe if I was to run On the bright side I've managed to stick to my myfitnesspal dictated calorie goal two days in a row now

Today was an NSD (bar tube costs but that doesn't count!) as I brought my lunch in to work and had my chilli for dinner. I've got a lunch time seminar tomorrow which means free fruit and sandwiches so that's a free meal I'm grateful for I'll have a uni friend coming over for pre-drinks at mine in the evening (already got the booze so no spend there!) and probably to have dinner somewhere local so I'm happy I've been able to cut back on some spending this week to compensate for that.

Two days left until my 123 interest and I'm pretty excited