Prosperous soul, mortgage neutrality & creativity Year 2

savingholmes

Thanks Beanie, TallGirl, BM and Blackcats. I offered £300K and they countered with £315K. I've said that still too high and I'd need to discuss it with my sister and look at my finances. That drops the cost £95 a month over 5 years though so an improvement.

savingholmes

Today was less manic work wise / I'm feeling more rested. I finished an hour early today and took back some time. I was late to one client meeting though which was unfortunate - I'd forgotten all about it. They were fine over it though when I apologised profusely.

I've booked my car service and mot in for a month's time but forgot to ask how much it would be. They've said I can drop by and they'll check one of my tyres - so I'll get a proper quote then.

I got quotes on my car insurance the other day - and my existing provider is the cheapest by around £100! It's sadly gone up about £70 compared with last year though which is a blow. I think a lot of people are finding similar. I was hoping to put DS on it - but it is cheaper to insure him on a per day rate for the amount I see him so will stick with that.

I'm trying to work out what's the most I'm willing to pay for that house but I'm unsure so need to think on that a while longer yet!

doingitanyway

Glad work is a little less manic. 

jwil

Well done on making the offer, at least you know where they are in terms of price now.

Glad work has been quieter today as well.

DancingInTheRain

Well done on making the offer, hope you manage to secure it at a price you feel comfortable with 🍀

beanielou

Glad work is less manic.

Hope you can find a mid way point on the offer.

Merlin's_Beard

Fingers crossed on the offer. Sounds like you can work your way to a compromise, hopefully.

savingholmes

Thanks DIA, Jwil, Beanie, Dancing and Merlin

I went to bed and lay in a darkened room for a couple of hours after my last post as my head was just swirling. My Mum rang during that time and we debated the house. My gut feel is I probably shouldn't pay more than about £305K ideally. I don't know whether they'll agree to that but I think if not they have an inflated view of the house value.

I looked again on RM. The other houses I like are either cheaper but too far from the main places I travel to or are more money still. I looked at a 4 bed online up for £330K. That looked worth the money as it's much bigger than the one above - and very slightly bigger than mine. However - although it looked in reasonably good condition - because of its footprint and the much bigger garden it would be far more work to maintain so could cost me a lot more than the 'ticket' price over the long term. I used to want my own land, and a huge garden and all of that - but I'm slowly realising I like looking at it once its done rather than maintenance. I enjoy pruning but not weeding - so tend to want a 'set and forget' type low maintenance garden - where I put in the structural plants, lots of weed membrane and bark and then let it do its thing - or plant stuff so close together there are few weeds.

I then decided I'd go to McD and get a kiddie meal and milkshake - strawberry - and my car battery died in the car park. They were heroes and after the comedy of trying to push start an automatic (would never work) that I'd accidentally put in drive rather than neutral (to add to the fails) - they organised their partner to come with jump leads and start my car which was awesome. I then drove it around for an hour in the hope that recharged my battery enough. While out doing that my tyre pressure warning light came on (it did a month ago too - but I refilled the tyre) - so I'm wondering if the valve is leaking or it has a slow puncture somewhere. 

DD comes back from her holiday tomorrow with her car enthusiast BF so he'll look at the battery and stuff for me tomorrow. I'm going to have to put the jump leads in my car rather than the garage!! If DD doesn't have any I'll buy her some. I was glad I had a rechargable usb light in my car that I could have used on a motorway and a warning triangle although I didn't end up using either. I have a battery charger in the garage but don't know how to use it - will see if DD's BF does - as that could be an option. I've changed the battery once in the 7 years I've had it so it doesn't feel right to need to change it again so it could just be I'm not using my car enough. I've been having a weird error come up - but it wasn't for battery - but obviously should have been!! I'll ask the mechanics if they can reset the error message so it gives the right message in future. 

An eventful evening! Makes me glad I have an EF - but therefore also more worried about potentially emptying it for the move.

savingholmes

£25 went to savings automatically today. If my car trouble persists it and more could soon be coming back out though!

lucielle

Hope the car is an easy fix. 

L