Chip off the old block

My dad is shameless when it comes to trying not to pay full price for things. Totally shameless. For example, he'll be in Sainburys and when the poor person on the check-out tells him how much the bill is, he's the kind of bloke who says 'but how much for cash' - and means it. It can be excruciatingly painful to be with him when he launches into a 'money saving' conversation with someone in the service industry (eg when he's visited me in London before and I've taken him for a coffee and he's asked for 'Birmingham prices not London prices' when I've asked for the bill......the shame!) I know that he comes across as being as tight as a gnats chuff, but I think it's actually that he just can't bear the thought of being ripped off. Well, that and that he's tight too.

Anyway. There is a part of me that is like him when it comes negotiating on appropriate purchases. This part of me got a few hundred quid off Glen's posh watch a few years ago, and has got a few hundred quid off art for Paul over the last couple of years (they were both initially mortified by the idea of negotiating then very quickly got used to it when they realised they would save money and that it was totally acceptable to do so).

So I've been in negotiations with my chosen loft conversion company (satisfactorily) and today got a quote from the 'agreed' surveyor that my neighbour wants us to use. The quote was significantly steeper than I had anticipated (by a couple of grand, certainly not an amount to be sniffed at) but it actually didn't occur to me to try and negotiate with them (they give an hourly rate and say how many hours they think it'll cost and I figure that well, they're professionals and that's just what it costs)....that's until I spoke to another surveyor who said that a more realistic expectation for the work was not only an hourly rate far cheaper than quoted, but also much less time taken to do the work.

In a hulk-styleee transformation I think I'm just about to turn into my dad....