Tightening the belts for unpaid leave

Chrystal

So chuffed for you, and keeping fingers and toes crossed that things move forward smoothly. 
Bet you couldn't believe your luck when the EA let you know it was still available.

Blackcats

How exciting!

Sarahwithlove

That's so exciting. I bet you can't wait to get into a bigger place. When does your little one start nursery/school? Will you be able to go full time then if you wanted to? 

rdone

I'm so pleased for you!  Sending all the positive vibes your way

We're currently on our 4th buyer (1st strung it out for 4 months so we told to do one, 2nd had done survey & searches then found a house in her preferred area, 3rd were a nightmare and lied a lot making us think our house was unmortgage-able and therefore worthless but turns out not true, 4th currently going through!).  Basically I was looking on zoopla last August for fun, found a dream house so put ours on the market.  Dream house is still there but now is refusing our offer.  It has had no viewings in over a month so we're not upping our offer.  If it's meant to be it will be!

rugbymadfamily

Great news! So pleased for you+

Buffythedebtslayer

Really Exciting news 26th August ........not long! XXX 

[Deleted User]

@Sarahwithlove - thank you! DC1 in 2023, DC2 in 2025.  I'd either be able to go full time in this role (which would be increased pay as I currently only work 28 hours) or go back to what I was doing pre-kids which would mean salary over doubles (probably not far off triples with bonuses).  But I would hope to stay in current role and do school hours (well 8-2 as DH would do drops offs and I'd do pick ups) and maybe 1 long day a week until 6 (if could get MIL to pick up from school 1 day a week) and then possibly increase my holiday (or take some unpaid leave) so we are not stretched in the holidays (though there are obviously holiday clubs too which may mean we'd be ok if MIL would also take them for the odd day here and there).

@rdone that sounds like a nightmare!  It is so sucky the UK system.  I have everything crossed for you

@Chrystal @Blackcats @rugbymadfamily @Buffythedebtslayer - thanks!

Appointment with bank at 12 re mortgage.  We have to move our banking to them to get the deal and fingers crossed they can lend us what we want - we are chucking everything at it, showing them bonuses for last few years as they say they can probably take those into account.  I've also written a note explaining that I do have a very increased earning capacity if needed (without sounding braggy, I'd walk into a job over here given reputation) which I am hoping will help if there is any concern.  I mean, we can make the repayments without issue - it's just that we won't be able to save a huge amount.

Once we are in (presuming of course it actually happens!!), going to flog a load of baby stuff (presuming we decide not to have a third, which I think we probably won't for so many reasons) which should raise a fair amount of £££ as we have LOADS of stuff all in great condition.  Is it wrong that I'm really excited about having a mass clear out and actually being able to store things that we need to storage at OUR house without having to pay for storage lockers?!

We are going back to see the house tomorrow at 4.  DH is having a wobble because of the price - he also wasn't really taking it all in when we viewed as it was beyond our budget and we were told they wouldn't accept less, so neither of us really wanted to look properly as we didn't want to love it as we didn't think we'd get it.  So we do need a proper good look there to make sure that we 100% want it.  I think we will, we've seen over 40 houses and nothing even comes close to this one.

astrocytic_kitten

Oh yayyyyyyyyyyy! I haven’t been on MSE much lately but I’m
so happy to see this update. Fingers crossed it will be just as lovely on a second viewing!

[Deleted User]

@astrocytic_kitten - thank you!

So we are going to see it again at 4 today.  We went to see bank yesterday.  They can lend us what we need and we are seeing if they can lend slightly more but are not hopeful - it will depend on how they view our bonuses.  Basically, they take the lower of the last 2 years' figures.  For me, mine would've been much higher this year than 2020 (2k higher) but was reduced to reflect maternity leave, as was 2019's.  DH's would've been higher, but his company changed financial year end halfway through so his was pro-rated for 9 months.  The person dealing is seeing if we can gross DH's up to 12 months and use my non-reduced figure, but we suspect not.  Anyway, we can still do it even on the worst case scenario but it will be SO tight.  We will have about 6k left over and because 2k is the refund of deposit from the rental and 1900 is a refund from the agent as we sold and then bought through them, those will only come after completion, so we are down to the wire.  Also, DH gets paid for August the day before completion, so we are literally probably down to the last penny for completion, but will have about 6k left over after when everything gets re-paid.  So we are definitely cutting down.  DH did not buy coffee and has told his work colleagues he is out of the rounds on that for the moment (which was laughed at apparently).  But we can JUST about do it.

Am annoyed with ama*on.  I have a subscribe and save set up for DC1's nappies and got a notification that it was out of stock - we don't have many left so I clicked on the order now button paying more as it didn't give me the S&S discount.  Anyway, the blinking "pay now" one has been delayed also and now they're sending that, and the S&S one both arriving same time and we've paid two lots!  I mean, I will cancel my S&S order for July and we will use them (if DC1 potty trained by then, will save for DC2) so won't go to waste but it is just annoying when we are now trying to scrape together the pennies from down the side of the sofa!

DH found £70 yesterday in his Revolut account when we were getting all the paperwork together for the bank and we also got £65 in M&S vouchers from our credit card points so that will pay for quite a chunk of DC1's new clothes he needs for age 3-4.  I think I'm also going to head to the charity shop to try to pick some items up for him - mainly for when he's at pre-school because then it doesn't matter if they get wrecked a bit.  I suppose the good thing is that DC2 will use all we buy when he hits that age so we do save that way.

I am also being a bit more money conscious.  I had seen my SIL had a lovely beach bag and was going to order one too but it was £32.99.  We also needed a sun tent for the beach for DC2.  Ordinarily, I'd have ordered both, but we don't go to the beach that often and so are just going to use one of those large french supermarket bags and borrow MIL sun tent which she got from charity shop as she hasn't any other grandchildren of an age that need it so that will be fine.

Spent £7.88 in M&S yesterday on fruit for DC1, milk and some wafer thin chicken for me for lunch.  Spent £74 in WR but forward shopped for certain things we use which were on offer and so we should be good for a while now.  Need some odd bits from M&S today which they didn't have in WR but should be cheap.

We are also using up a bunch of sausages from the freezer, pasta from cupboard, sauce from cupboard and so only had to buy parmesan, the remainder of which will be used for other meals from cupboard.  DH wants to try to use up what we have in the cupboards/freezer before moving so there's less to move.

[Deleted User]

omg omg omg, the house was AMAZING.  WAAAAYYYYYY better than we remembered - it is absolutely lush.  It is immaculate and we will not need to do anything for a blinking long time!  There is also even more parking than we realised and no. shared. driveway, like our last house (which used to drive us potty).  Will be gutted if we don't get it now, so have to push everything on.  Got the letter of engagement and client questionnaire today so have filled all of those in ready to go back so will scan and email over weekend.  Mortgage application hopefully being finalised off on Monday and submitted and lady said that can take up to a week.  Arghhh, I just can't bear it.  If I am being super critical about the house, the 2 downstairs bedrooms (it has 2 upstairs) are relatively small.  But, the DC will have those when slightly older (at the moment, we will put them both in together in the spare room upstairs next to ours) so will always only have single beds in there.  Until they are in there, we are going to make 1 into a guest room (you can fit a double bed in there and it has built in wardrobes but that's it, nothing else would fit) and 1 into a playroom.  Then there's an integral garage which has permission to remove the door and put in a window instead - we wouldn't be able to afford to do that for ages though so in the meantime, we are going to put a cheap trellis or plastic table and chairs in there and make it a room for "messy play" (i.e. painting, crafting etc) for the DC as it doesn't matter if they flick/spill paint everywhere.

Fly in the ointment re saving - my parents are now coming to visit for 2 weeks in july (staying in a hotel down the road).  They haven't seen DC1 since Dec 2019 and never met DC2.  But it does mean lots of eating out (and there goes WW too) because they'll want to, which also means spending.  We should just about have enough for the house and we can always put the odd thing (like mortgage booking fee, lawyer's fees etc) on credit card short term, just until DH gets paid end August, but we don't want to have to.