Stephen's Journey to Mortgage freedom

lcfcstephen

Thanks all!
LW is very ill so job searching has been put on hold (especially as we have no Wifi - should be the 18th October) so both hoping she can get better today and get back to applying tomorrow.
Had a call out of the blue from a friend who might be willing to take the flat off our hands and so saving us money. Just after we'd given up hope of not having to pay all of the contract! Fingers crossed when we show him tonight he likes it and we can get the deposit back early as well as saving on the £900 still to spend for two months rent!

newgirly

Good news!

lcfcstephen

The friend likes the flat! They want to move in as soon as possible, so I am expecting that if everything goes well we will not have to pay one months rent (and hopefully get part of another months rent back) as well as getting the deposit back a month or two early. Which will help us and mean we could potentially buy something for the house!
LW is still ill, but applying for jobs again, hoping something comes up soon. Need to tidy the house when we get back as friends are coming over to watch GBBO and the house needs a tidy anyway!

lcfcstephen

Started the process to move the friend into the flat, but have been told it might take a month - which is frustrating, but at the end of the day even if we just get our deposit back earlier it's a win for us. Hoping to also get a months rent not paid too, but we'll see what happens.
Had a conversation with friends about 'adult' things and persuaded a few of them to sign up to credit checking sites and look at their money better. The things that happen after Bake off!
Got paid yesterday, with a bonus of overtime that I'd forgotten, unfortunately most of it will have gone by the weekend as all the bills go out around the 1st and we're still paying for the flat. Thats why it was budgeted though!

lcfcstephen

Unfortunately I couldn't switch tariffs in the end because no one could tell me my tariff numbers in time because it was a new build. Hoping that there will be another switch before February!
Friend who wants the flat looked over it again, and still wants it (which I was worried about) hoping to speed that process up, we still need to tidy it a bit too.
LW has an interview today, hoping that goes well - especially as it seems to be a job she would be happy with! She's prepared, now needs the person interviewing to give her a chance!
But one of our other friends heard that she had got a job yesterday so we celebrated with a meal at ours, hoping that we have to celebrate LW getting a job soon!
Another mortgage payment has come out, I need to look at it and update my signature.... But the interest charged was £183.64 which is about a third of what we paid, hoping to reduce the percentage of the payment that is interest (which will come naturally over time, but also when we increase the payment when LW gets a job)

lcfcstephen

So LW didn't get the job she interviewed for yesterday. But was instead offered a similar position in a different building (it's an office building and she interviewed for the managing company to be a receptionist - or "front of house" as they called it) The catch is that they wouldn't start her until mid January.
We are trying to work out if she wants it, if she should accept but keep looking or what she should do, it's a tricky situation - we could manage fine without a job until then, though it would obviously be nice to not have to wait that long.
We also changed our names yesterday (to combine our surnames) so have to go through the changing name process for everything having done the changing address thing for everything!
Updated my signature to reflect the mortgage payments. Also need to figure out a budget, and stick to it. Difficult at the moment with renting the flat, trying to sort the house out and without a second job.

lcfcstephen

LW has accepted the job (though we also think that it may be later than mid Jan that she starts as the lady she is covering is due in March) So now she's going to keep looking for jobs (and hopefully find a better higher paid one!) but also look at places where she should be able to get a job for a few months so we have a bit of income until then.
Still having issues with the friend who says he wants to rent the flat - now saying that he didn't realise there was an admin fee (£125) and so might struggle to afford it (he's in quite a well paid job, got two months salary last month, been living with parents and was looking for more expensive flats - how he doesn't have enough to pay a months rent, deposit and a small fee is beyond me). Hoping it still goes through, but date has been delayed again, looks like we might get a months rent back which is nice, and obviously the deposit a month early too.
Not sure what we will use that for, may just be to bulk the savings up a bit more, especially with Christmas. Not sure we're going to buy much for the house until LW has the job, which is annoying because there's still more we want/need and also want to save to be able to afford a car. Fortunately, we're not stretching ourselves, which is good, but I want to be in a place where we don't need to think about what to get/save for next!

lcfcstephen

Been trying some new recipes! Tried a slow cooker one that sounded and smelled nice, but the meat (pork) ended up just being a bit dry - not sure how that can have happened when cooked for hours in liquid! Trying a barbecue pork belly recipe tonight, hopefully it's good!
Friend still causing issues with the flat, doesn't want to go through all the checks etc. At the moment I don't think we're going to get anything back which is annoying.
LW is ill, has been on and off for ages, finally getting her to go to the doctor. But it's meant that we haven't done any tidying, and she hasn't done many job applications.
We've been told we should have Wifi by tomorrow which would end a very long and annoying saga! Though I took two half days off for engineers appointments (they told me a day was booked, then changed it) now been told I don't need to be in the house for the appointment. Very annoyed! Was then told they'd compensate me £30 for it which is just ridiculous especially with the other stuff thats happened with it too!

lcfcstephen

1 Year Anniversary on MSE forums today! Half day at work due to needing to book time off for WiFi engineers, despite now being told I don't need to be in the house. So a day of tidying is in order as the house is a bit of a mess and LWs parents are coming to stay as LW is graduating this weekend.
Constantly remembering things that need to be included in the budget (TV licence being the latest extra thing). The difficulty is that the budget I am editing is the one where LW has a job, which may not be until January - though most of her wage in that scenario is savings towards buying house things or a car so we're not overspending. Will be glad when she does get a job and we stop paying for the flat though!

lcfcstephen

It's been a good few days with LW's parents. Good day at graduation, and having two rooms meant they could stay over at our house, rather than a hotel!
Been a rubbish few days since. We were supposed to get Wifi yesterday (after midnight possibly) but we don't have it. This is after six weeks of waiting. We've been told that it seems that the engineers that were supposed to come on Wednesday couldn't be bothered and that means that we don't have Wifi. Fortunately they've been fairly good at dealing with this and we should apparently have Wifi on Friday. Who knows if that will actually happen.
On top of that the bins we've requested five times still haven't come, so we keep having to do tip runs. And the bin that we do have now has maggots because it's not been collected in two normal collections and a special collection - again because people can't be bothered.
It's frustrating that we stilll have to pay for these services despite the lack of service.