Aim to get mortgage down before increasing again

Schoolworker

Just booked a table at a nice Italian restaurant about 15mins drive away for hubbie 40th birthday on sat 28th October for direct family and close friends. Will need to do own Invitations to see how many of the 16 folk will attend. Hubbies birthday is actually Halloween but can't do that day as kids like to go round the doors. Will need to try to allocate money for this and then see what he wishes within reasonable for a present. This is happening during the build otherwise I would have family dinner out and then friends round to house for drink and nibbles but can't as house will be a building site at that time and we may not in the house at that time.

Schoolworker

Made an overpayment of £40 to mortgage today. Managed to get new canvas shoes for hubbie in the sale since his current pair has a big hole in it.

Need to try to stop the spending as not much left over from my wages last Thursday but hubbie big wages due in this Thursday. Got money out in case we need this tomorrow as attending hubbie gran funeral - so I have a day off work and thinking of going out for a bite to eat later on rather than cooking - kids will love it no doubt.

Have sorted out new mortgage protection cover so going to cancel old policy since we have been told we are now covered and need to update monthly spreadsheet with the new amount and adjust other figures - will do after lunch to get it sorted.

Schoolworker

My grocery spend for august was £320.50 - not sure if it was a 5 week month but ok about this.

We got the quote for kitchen from howden's which includes a dishwasher for £1k less than wren kitchen so need to tell builder ok to get this. We have cancelled wren kitchen and await deposit back onto the credit card - I have allocated this money for hubbie family birthday dinner out.
Sorted out the new mortgage life cover and finance guy is due to come to see us to sign us up as customers in paperwork and look into hubbie pension since he has several different work wee pensions - think we will be poorer when retired so will see what he says
Phoned lender and requested the extra borrowing for our build so should receive this next week. The build starts in 2 weeks time.
Went looking at tile place and saw nice tiles but we did not have our build plans with us so need to go back with this to price up the tiles we like.

Trying to see if we can make some savings from bathroom place and get the towel rail, fancy radiator and shower slightly cheaper at screwfix.

Off out this afternoon. To the next village for the scarecrow festival - at least it's dry and sunny. need to check weather for tomorrow as would like to do car boot sale but it's in a field so need to be fairly dry - daughter wishes to come early with me to sell - will see if it's a delight of a chore for her.

Schoolworker

Had a good day at scarecrow festival yesterday and then to my mum to collect their pasting table back for dinner and then food shopping - so busy day. Today daughter and I went to car boot sale and for most of our stuff sold which is good and made £100.60 - really chuffed with this. Will see if I'm able to pay £80 towards the mortgage as we have allocated spends for our wee holiday later in the month when we go to large.

Working all week so will be tiring - this is overtime as two Inthe office are on holiday so says ok but only work until 2pm as need to get kids from school and extra money will be handy.

Schoolworker

well got more bad news builder number 2 has says he has hurt his back and in a brace so can't start our extension in 2 weeks as we thought. Back to square 1 of trying to find a builder and think this will not happen this year - trying to see if builders will maybe think about this mid March. Hubble not sure if builder is really hurt or it's too big a job for him.

We have asked for the mortgage money which is being processed so unsure if I should cancel this if I can or it maybe too late. If we can cancel then we will need to go through it all again and interest rate could be higher. We will be Ltv of 80% of the current house price at the moment. I believe we are due the money in our account by Thursday/Friday this week.

Not sure if we have made the wrong decisions but I hope this can proceed at some point at roughly the same price as we were quoted.

MichaelDH

Sorry to hear you've had a set back with the building project, bet you are really annoyed!

If you genuinely think the project may be too big for your chosen builder then I would go with your instincts and try to find someone else. You really can't be too careful when it comes to builders and handing over large sums of money - there's a house local to us that has had a tarpaulin for a roof on their new extension for months as the builder !!!!!!ed off with their cash so they are struggling to afford finishing the project.

In the meantime, have you got an account with a decent interest rate where you can stash the cash?

Don't lose hope, you will get your shiny new extension and kitchen eventually!

Jessy103

Oh no! Sorry to hear about this and I hope you can get it sorted soon.

Schoolworker

Thanks for your comments - we are plodding on trying to get more quotes and see what happens. 2 builders have visited the house to see the work to be done and we await prices this week. I think 3 other builders have the plans do will see if any of them come back with prices.

Builder1 was nice and is doing an extension next month for my daughters friend gran - she rates him highly and he would start in January if price ok and we go with him. Builder 2 visited us last night and had a look and to get price to us later this week. He says he is finishing a job and there is talk of another job but no contract has been signed so could start the following week if we go with him and sign a contract. He says it would take approx 12weeks depend on weather but would hope to be watertight in 4 weeks max. It sound great and both were nice but we have been here before and been stung thankfully not lost any money. Time will tell what happens.

Made overpayment of mortgage today of £240 as well more money into the savings when we need this.

Received refund from old energy supplier for our credit on electric and await more money from them for the credit in the gas. It will be split between mortgage overpayment and savings I think.

Off out tonight to see a youth group do the musical Annie with my mum and daughter who is 10 yrs and starting to like musicals. I hope it's a good night out.

Schoolworker

Well Annie was great and daughter enjoyed it. Kids at grand since we were out for dinner and drinks with friends in Glasgow last night. Hubbie suffering a bit.

Schoolworker

Well we got money from mortgage lender so mortgage is over £118,000 at the moment and will see what small payments can be done over the next few months.

Updated news we received 2 quotes and one of the builders gave us a good quote and can start work on Tues 26th sept after the local holiday. My dad came up for a meeting with him o. Thursday night and all seems good so we sign a contract and talked about payment terms etc. Fingers crossed he will show up and start a week on Tuesday.

Going to empty small garden stuff into hut and try to empty outside stuff this week in anticipation of works starting. Builder 3 seems nice and hope it goes to plan. Need to go to a different howden's to choose our kitchen as we only had a plan no specifics of cupboard etc so need to choose this again and get it priced up.
Been told it will take at least 12 weeks so think it will be majority there for Christmas but not finished but we will have to see what state it's in for Christmas we usually have one set of grandparents here for dinner etc.

Usually start thinking about kids Xmas in sept/Oct but may put this off until extension is watertight and then think about it. Exciting and scarry times ahead.