rabbitstew

I was locked into a 7.5% fixed rate mortgage for a long time in the 2000`s. This was when the rates happily dropped down to nearly nothing. In the end I paid a large penalty and got out of the mortgage and switched to a variable.

I saw that earlier. Amazing!!!!!!

72?!!!! wow. Hopefully I can retire before I reach that age, but at the moment with the wife & kids spending money like its going out of fashion its looking unlikely. Ive not even got a proper pension lined up yet. Argh! Enjoy the spare time!

Sounds like a result then!

I remember back in 1998 I was renting a house in Peterborough and the owner offered it to me to buy for £42k. It was a fairly new 2 bed semi, nice location and 12 minutes walk into the city centre. I turned it down as I was in the middle of changing jobs. As it was I ended up buying a house in Peterborough a few years later. I should have bought the 2 bed semi as I could have always rented it out and now today its worth about £160k. However, my previous house, I paid £80k for it in 2001, spent about £40k on renovating it and then 10 years later sold it for £150k. I worked out that if I had rented instead of bought, and kept the extra cash I had paid out on the mortgage and renovations in savings account over those 10 years I would actually have been better off. Its varies a lot depending on area and type of house bought.

Its funny. When I bought my HR Roadster, it was 3 years old and had 22k miles. I used it as my daily and stuck 20k on it in 18 months before I sold it. I dont know why but I was worried all the time that something was going to go wrong on it and id have a big bill. I ended up not really enjoying driving the car as much as I should have. And that, as well as the mind blowing depreciation of the car at the time (£5k a year) is why I sold it. Roll on a few years and my daily is a 997 turbo, no warranty and im happily doing the same mileage and not worrying at all about any bills. Not that im suddenly a millionaire or anything, but I dont know why my mindset is different. I figure most cars will need stuff doing to them at some point, and if you work out the cost of ownership over the time you have the car, you may not find much difference between owning a porsche and owning a 350z. Forget about it all and just enjoy the car!!!

As above. It wasnt until my cars got above about 6 grand in value that I stopped dealing in cash, but anything below that and its pretty normal. Very often when going to view a car for the first time I would take the full asking price in cash in my car just in case I liked the car and could make the seller do an on-the-spot deal. Keep the cash in your car, maybe with a mate until you need it. Whilst its always sold as seen, id still get a receipt with the sellers signature on it to say he has sold you the car on this date for this amount because its the sellers responsibility to send off the logbook and whilst most sellers are keen to get it in the post asap some may be slow.

I know!

A friend of mine does this for a living and she charges around £50 an hour. Where she makes her money is that after the first session she usually recommends the client comes back for 2 or 3 further sessions. She has a lot of repeat custom and then gets new clients mainly through word-of-mouth. She makes some very good money out of it. After speaking to her, I can see where some people would benefit from it, but from what she says she basically just sits there and lets someone tell them their problems. Then she asks them what they feel the solution is and lets them answer their own problems etc. Theres more to it than that, shes fully trained marriage guidance and all that kind of stuff too so she knows what shes doing.

Whats this "spare time" people refer to? Clearly they are not married with kids!

You might be okay. Seems to be pot luck as to whether it affects your insurance or not. My wife had a smash back in 2011 and lost 2 years of NCB as a result. The renewal premium was so high that she had to sell the hot hatch and buy a diesel. She had another claim earlier this year, and when the renewal came through it didn't affect it at all this year - in fact it was less. Both claims were for a similar amount and both were entirely her fault. However, due to her claim this year, my car insurance has gone up by 50% if I keep her as a named driver on my car. Go figure.

That is pretty much spot on. Crying babies used to drive me up the wall, but after having 2 myself you do kinda get used to them. Getting stressed with them doesnt help anything. They cant help it. In general I have found babies do cry for a reason and that reason is either they are hungry, tired but cant get to sleep or they have filled their nappy. You soon learn how to keep them distracted though. The worst is, when they are tired and cant sleep though and then it comes down to trying everything in order to get them to sleep. Sometimes rocking them works, other times it doesnt. Sometimes stroking their hands works, other times it doesnt. You end up trying every trick in the book to get them to nod off. Then when you think you can sit down and relax its "waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" again. Car wise, as long as you can feed the family I dont see any problem with having a nice car or a project car. The only problem ive had since the kids came along is zero spare time to actually work on my project car or go out on my motorbikes etc. A lot of that isnt actually down to the kids but having to do all the housework as well as hold down a 9-5 job. But what little time I used to have at the weekends is taken up with taking the kids to birthday parties or the park or this or that etc. Ive actually taken to having to have a day off work in the week in order to try and catch up on things around the house. The only person ive had moaning about my Porsche is the wife. She would rather I sell it and drive some boring car. Not sure why as its not affecting her. Shes got the family wagon. Comments from mates have been positive but then most of my mates are car enthusiasts.

No, hes been really good. He rang up the planning officer directly and had a long chat with him about what he feels we need to adjust in the plans in order to keep the town council happy. He`s dealt with the guy before and gets on well with him. He`s taken all the feedback on board and redone the plans for free etc. so they now match what the planning officer has recommended. He`s also emphasised all the positive points I mentioned and pointed out its replacing the existing extension and is only slightly bigger etc. We have also tried to make sure they are aware that we are using matching materials etc so it will blend in with the street scene. Just have to wait until end of month now to find out as they only meet once a month. Still, will give me longer to save up for the 8 metres of bifold doors its going to have. Sigh....

You can see the building to plot ratio from the OS maps, its pretty obvious if they looked at it properly. I guess I could measure them up and put that forward - which I will if I have to go to the full planning committee thing. The only thing I can think is that when the Councillors looked at the new plans they didnt take into account that the extension is replacing an existing one and may have thought that the new extension was going to be adding something like 40m2 onto the side of the existing 3 bed house. Even so, 40m2 of a 400m2 garden is hardly over development and not unusual from what I see just driving around the local area. Luckily the planning officer in my case seemed a really sensible bloke, he had no problems at all with it. I think the majority of planning applications are dealt with my the local Councillors in their monthly meetings and it only goes to the full planning committee if they refer it, or they decline the permission and the applicant appeals. Something like that, ive not used the process before. Their next meeting is in a couple of weeks so I will find out then.

Thats great. Which insurance company was it? EDIT: I can see the OP said Aviva.

Wow, that was a bit of luck then. I think I have only ever been let off once and that was because the officer was radio`d to an emergency before he had written my ticket. Usually one look at me and they throw the book at me.

Yeah I think they like to give you a 2nd chance, so rather than refuse outright they have said make it smaller and we will reconsider. Which is what we have now done, so will wait and see. Whether or not its worth me attending the meeting and pleading my case I dont know, but I may as well. Cant hurt to have a 15 stone skinhead pointing out to them where they are wrong. Just have to try and not get aggressive with them. You mention applying for more initially. Good point. Originally I wanted a much much bigger extension to make full use of the unused side garden, but we foolishly kept it much smaller to try and keep it (in theory) a simple straightforward process. You mention garage, which is funny as originally I did want to also extend the existing garage forward by 1.5 meters to give me more space for my toys, but again, I didnt want to push things with the planning department so left that off. At my old house I built a shed/garage/workshop which was something like 30m2 in size. Massive. No problems at all. Didnt need planning or planning regs, but at my current house the only way I can extend the garage is to add to the front of it, which apparently if it affects the front view of the property you then need to apply for planning, even for a small 1.5m x 5m extension to the front of it. The understanding ive been told is that it should be "easier" to get the local council to approve the planning permission rather than let it go to the full planning committee. Apparently I could stick to my guns and take it to the planning committee but they are more strict apparently.

The original extension was built at the same time as the house, 1970. It looks like it was a bit of an afterthought as whilst it matches the house brick wise, it has no insulation and a leaky flat roof. If I was to just rebuilt it and not go 2 storeys then apparently that is permitted development and I wouldnt even need planning, but once you go 2 storeys you do. Originally I was just going to rebuild it, but then all the builders I consulted pointed out you need the same foundations for 1 floor as 2, so making it 2 storeys would make more sense financially. No conservation area and no objections from any of the neighbours. In fact they think the extension is an excellent idea. Its not been refused outright, the feedback they gave me was its overdevelopment of the site and I should make the extension smaller and resubmit new plans. But any smaller and it means ditching the onsuite, and we will still have this large bit of side garden doing nothing. Originally I actually wanted a much bigger extension to give me an additional downstairs room I could use as a gym, but the architect thought that might be considered overdevelopment, so we went with a much smaller conservative plan and kept it well away from neighbouring boundries to avoid any party wall concerns. The planning officer has now said if I put smaller plans in, I can attend the next council meeting and put my case forward if I want. Just seems a lot of hassle and a completely nonsense reason from them. The most annoying thing is that due to the shape & location of my plot, most of the new extension will not even be visible to anyone passing my property.

One reason I bought my current house is that there was an obvious potential to extend the side of it. However I never got around to applying for planning permission until just now, some 10 years later. I got a very good architect to give us some suggestions and pointers. He has designed something which is in keeping with the existing building but allows us to redesign the inside more in keeping with how modern houses are laid out. Basically what we are wanting to do is to pull down a ramshackle existing single story extension on the side of the house and rebuild it, but a fraction bigger and in order to off-set the costs built it as a double story extension. This will give us a nice sized new kitchen and a 4th bedroom upstairs with an on-suite. The new extension will be about 14m2 bigger than the current one. It doesnt overlook anyone, does not impact on light to any of the surrounding properties and all my neighbours, who I spoke to before putting the plans in, are more than happy with the extension. The local planning officer has came out and said he is also more than happy and didnt foresee any issues. I currently have 400m2 of garden & drive around the house and our building to plot ratio is a lot smaller than any of the surrounding houses, who all seem to have virtually no garden due to their houses being so large. So it was all looking very straight forward until it went to the local Town Council who review all applications. They have no building or architectural experience and are normal "people off the street". They have said they think its "over development". I am at a loss as to how they can say that, when the new extension is only taking 14m2 of a 400m2 garden/drive. Thats only about 3.5%! The part of the garden the extension will be on is an unused waste bit of garden to the side of the house, which has no impact on us being able to use the rest of large garden and even after the extension our remaining building to plot ratio will be miles smaller than any of the surrounding houses. Does anyone have any experience of this sort of thing? Is there an actual technical definition as to what is "over development". I am quite puzzled, especially when a bloke 500 yards away has got permission to build 9 houses in his back garden. The planning officer genuinely seemed really surprised by the Councillors decision and has said I can attend the next meeting and try and put my case forward if needbe, but it all seems rather strange so far!

Thats not at all what I meant. What I was saying is that the NHS is understaffed and we just are not attracting English people into the service so we have to look abroad. Nothing wrong with non English Doctors at all, but we need more people.

Indeed, nothing wrong with non English Doctors at all, but shows that we just arnt attracting any English people in these jobs any more. Whether due to low pay, or bad rep or they just cant be bothered..

The NHS has been bad for as long as I can remember, although it does seem to be getting worse and worse. I remember back in 2002 I got pleurisy. Exceptionally painful and it made me struggle to breath. Quite dangerous as it could lead to pneumonia. My local Dr who I think was from Nigeria and was notorious for miss-diagnosing people just gave me some anti-biotics and sent me on my way. In the end after a few days he realised it was a bit more serious and sent me off to hospital. I sat there in a waiting room for 5 long agonising hours. They wouldnt give me any pain killers until a Dr had checked me out and I was pulling my hair out. Ive been to A&E a few times over the last few years with our little lad and as they give kids a higher priority he does get seen quickly, but it always amazes me just how busy they are and how few staff they seem to have to look after everyone. It is very worrying. My local Doctors surgery is a bit a of a joke these days. If you are sick enough to need a Doctor - and for me that means im really sick - then you have to phone up between 8 and 10am and book an appointment for later in the week. The phone is always engaged solid so you are very lucky if you get through and when you do you may get an appointment for 3 days time. Thats right. No same day appointments at all unless its an exceptional emergency. Another thing which always strikes me is the high number of non English people who work for the NHS. I cant remember the last time I actually spoke to an English Doctor. I cant actually pronounce the names of the 5 Doctors who work at my local surgery. Not that it makes any difference to the service or care they provide, but it seems to me that noone born in England wants to go into this sort of profession any more and so we have no choice but to recruit outside of the UK. Again, thats a bit worrying. We really need to do something to attract more people into this industry.

Indeed! Scary things was, mates were crashing & breaking their arms etc and yet we still did it. I had a massive highside at about 120mph once and totally wrote my bike off, and yet within about 3 weeks id bought another identical smashed up bike and made a good one out of the 2 and was back out on the roads again. Think I actually crashed that bike 3 times in the end and it only finally died when the engine overheated once.

I was thinking this the other day. I seldom get chance to really open up my daily driver on my commute and when I do, within 30 seconds I am back stuck behind someone happily cruising along on a lovely bendy B road at 40mph in a 60. Then I am stuck behind them again for ages until a suitable straight comes up where I can get past them. What amazes me though, ive noticed of late, when ive made a decision its not safe to overtake, along comes some idiot in a 40bhp Astra and happily overtakes me, and the car in front whilst approaching a blind bend. It happens all the time! The other night though, I had pretty much an empty B road for a good 20miles on the way home. Stuck sport mode on and happily wrung its neck. Id forgotten how good the adrenaline buzz was. One of my biggest worries is dashcams now though. Everyone has them. So if you do want to give it some stick and overtake someone, next thing you know they could be emailing that HD footage of you to your local police or uploading it to youtube etc. I shudder at some of the stuff me & my mates did on our sportsbikes back in the late 90`s, you just couldnt do that stuff these days - not that id want to tbh, those days of being "invincible" are long gone.

Thats really bad. "Book value" is not "market value", book price is the low trade in price a garage would give you if you sold your car to them. They would then add 25% to that and stick it on their forecourt. I thought that if you claim then they had to put you back into the same car/miles/spec as you had before hand, that`s the whole point of insurance. You shouldnt be any worse off. Its shocking that they say otherwise now. I remember when my brother had his Golf written off a few years back, the insurance companies initial offer was 50% market price. We sent off some adverts showing what the same year/spec/mileage Golf actually costs at garages and they didnt question it, and just paid out the market value.