Viking's Diary

Viking_mfw

Thanks everyone Such a friendly place.

Yesterday was a day of ups and downs... we sold our house! That is to say, we've accepted an offer at the level we wanted from a cash buyer, which is not to be sniffed at in this market.

Then in the evening I managed to unlock the online banking for the mortgage to check the OP had gone in... and had a nasty shock. When I rang up to find the balance on the mortgage a few weeks ago, on which all our plans for the future are based, I must have misheard the balance, because the balance is £8k more than I thought it was. This leaves us £4k short for the 25% deposit we need on the forever house. I've recovered a bit today but now to beg, borrow and scrimp enough to make it happen. (In fact my lovely mother will lend us the money in the short term, so we can go ahead with the purchase if they accept the offer, but we will need to pay her back.) So offer made on the forever house and now waiting to hear if they've accepted it.

In good MSE form, however, we will now need to eat down the contents of the freezer and store cupboard, so there's an opportunity to not spend as much money this month and next! I bought eggs, milk, fruit and washing powder this morning and that should get us to next weekend, so a total of £16.38 for the week. My OH gets free lunch at work every day this month, so he eats up then and doesn't eat in the evening (not a way I could function!). I've got pounds and pounds of frozen runner beans that I grew two years ago and never got through because he doesn't like beans, so I suspect that they will be featuring heavily in my diet for the next couple of months!

I also OP'd £30 my grandmother gave me last night as a reaction to the shock. Every little really is going to have to help. Dug out some old unwanted gold jewellery last night and will take it to the jewellers to sell tomorrow.

TTs will be my Sunday MFW job. Reading EarthGirl's diary at the moment and the section from a few year's ago where she did something sensible and financy every day seems like a good model to try.

V

Elephantchunks

Superb, this is all moving very quickly. Congrats on accepting an offer. I have my trunk crossed that you get your offer accepted on you forever house.

Re. The runner beans, (dont know if you've already done these, but if you haven't) there are lovely chutney recipes around which might mean your OH can help you eat them. There are also soup recipes, although I've never tried these.

Jessy103

Congratulations on the offer, hope it all goes smoothly and good luck with the dream house!

VintageHistorian

Welcome to the MFW board Viking! :hello: Good luck with moving house and with OPing in the coming months!

Viking_mfw

Thanks for all the encouragement

Our offer was accepted! We are now delighted and terrified in equal measure - I don't know if anyone else finds this but once the stress of getting a buyer is over, I find myself stressing about all sorts of other things, like whether they will really give us the mortgage they said they would, etc.

Our buyer is now moving fast as well - his surveyor came round this afternoon. Our vendor has spotted something she likes which is end of chain, so fingers crossed there.

The weekend turned out to be completely full so no progress made on anything there. Except that I found out the jeweller I thought bought gold doesn't, but he recommended someone else who is actually a second hand jewellery dealer so it might turn out better to go to him when I get the chance.

Got a rebate from my last mobile phone bill with my old provider - they sent me a final bill saying they were going to charge me £3.68 and then took the £30 as normal. They were so blase when I rang to complain I wonder if they do it as standard and only refund the people who notice?! Anyway, that £26.62 has been OP'd.

I also put out an appeal on freecycle for moving boxes and have just been to collect some from a lady in the village. My friend is moving house on Friday and we're going to pinch hers when she's done as well. Having already arranged this was immensely satisfying when my OH said last night "I suppose I'd better order some packing boxes" - nope! Not until we've exhausted the free ones! Have to make the most of the cheap possibilities - there's going to be so many other things to spend our money on!

Viking

Viking_mfw

Well our buyer whipped round a surveyor to do a valuation about 48 hours after the offer was accepted, so that's out of the way. Our surveyor is due to go next week - the most MSE thing I managed to do there was find one who would do a building survey for the same price as a homebuyer's report, and that price was one my Yorkshire genes would accept as a reasonable one (THEY ARE SO EXPENSIVE IN THE SOUTH! - alternatively it may just be that my idea of what it should be is fixed by my first experience back in 2004!).

Dropped the paperwork into the solicitor this morning, which is at least moving something forward. I've been ill this week and mostly confined to the sofa so there's not been a lot going on to update the diary with.

And some good news - my delay repay on a train fare has been approved so when the check for £14 comes through the post in ten days time that can go on an OP It's a definite advantage having a focus for these little drabs that come in rather than just letting them vanish into the general pot.

Kittenkirst

All sounding positive Voking! Great news on the offer and surveyor coming round

Elephantchunks

Excellent news on getting your offer accepted Viking! :j

Sorry to hear you've been ill, hope you're better now.

I too stressed about everything, especially whether the bank would lend us the money, even after the mortgage in principle. We've got the mortgage offer now and all agreed and I'm still worrying that they'll back out when we exchange. It's the biggest stress ever and I'm definitely never moving again. It'll be well worth it though. Hope everything goes smoothly for you and your chain.

Viking_mfw

Fingers crossed for your move going smoothly from now on Elephantchunks.

Started doing my 2016-17 tax return so I can figure out which of my savings is tax money and which is available for adding to the deposit/ OPing. Need to find my P60 for work to do it officially though - and I have no idea what's happened to it which is a pain. Work will do me another one but it's £50 - as I discovered when I lost one previously.

Posted two things on stickytree - an unwanted wedding gift and a piece of Wedgewood that is pretty but useless and which I can definitely live without. Not holding out much hope for them selling but perhaps they will. I don't have an ebae account.

Tried to organise life insurance for the pair of us but after getting through a bunch of questions the website froze and lost the application which left me frustrated and too grumpy to carry on.

Bought a book to send to a friend as a thank you present for taking me to dinner last night - and paid for it with vouchers from swagbucks which was highly satisfactory!

And my OH has decided we must have takeaway curry for dinner and I'm too weakwilled to say no... but we have budgeted for some treats and basically not spent anything on them this month so I reckon that's allowed. Particularly since my YS chicken is not fully defrosted for roasting.

Here's to a happy MFW last week til payday

Viking_mfw

Nothing much happening here. Been catching up with work left from last week's illness. Tomorrow there are some expenses being paid and I will need to do some account shuffling to pay off credit card, allocate the extra etc (had paid some of it out of the current account previously so that's 'free' money). What I'm finding interesting is that I want to be logging on and shuffling cash - previously I have found checking my online bank account quite stressful and something to be avoided. But having been logging in regularly this month, and with tight control over spending, I'm confident I won't get a nasty shock when I log on. That reduction in anxiety is worth it alone.

Only thing I managed to do today is claim my current account reward for contactless use of the debit card (am planning to switch post move). When it first started they had some quite good trade in values for vouchers, but they are now fairly rubbish so I've just claimed the £5.01 cash and will be looking out for its arrival to OP.

Also felt very smug when I remembered to check the cupboard before adding mayonnaise to the shopping list and found a giant jar there left over from our wedding stash.

Three days til payday