oh my life...... Light Bulb moment.

julie2710 · 8 September 2013 at 9:51AM

Oh Mimi66, exs are such muppets aren't they? I've often considered hiring a hitman for mine, especially while I still have him insured

Your SOA doesn't look too bad. I'd question the household repairs insurance. £240 a year. I can't remember what pets you have? Might be worth checking your insurance is good value. Don't cancel it though. I almost cancelled mine and was luckily not very organised and my dog was attacked! £7,500k bill :eek: You don't have any thing for clothes etc and yes your water bill does seem very high. If you're not on a meter I would ask for one?

I do explain little bits to my children about finances and the support or lack of it that their dad provides and they are much younger than yours. I don't do it in a way that sounds as though I'm moaning about him, I just explain that their dad owes me some money and that we now have to decide what we think is most important to do with what we have. It's a tough one though as what I'm thinking and what I say are poles apart!

You are doing great, despite him! Yes it will be tight but you'll get there. What happened to knights in shining armour? Oh and if you find one or two send one my way

Jox · 8 September 2013 at 10:52AM

I would query the bank account fee £120 a year, do you use the lovefilm? Could you get cheaper mobile phone insurance elsewhere if that is important to you?

MiMi66 · 9 September 2013 at 1:17AM

Hi Jox, Orange Ena and Julie2710 -

Hi Orange Ena, Thank you for delurking and thanks also for the lovely feedback that I have spurred you into eating potato dauphinoise :-)

And Julie if I find a Knight in Shining Armour I will have him cloned! I too have life insurance on my ex - what are we like! I've done it in case something were to happen to him and his financial support towards the children would stop (I would pause to grieve a little too - afterall, when we aren't fussing over money type things he's generally an ok person.... but every now and then he says something and I KNOW why we are divorced!:rotfl: )

So back to the SOA or SODDING SOA as I like to call it....
Home repair insurance - I have used it about 6 times - twice for blocked drains and 4 times for minor electrical issues which would have cost a lot more to have someone come out. So I am a bit nervous to cancel those.
The Boiler cover - British Gas do throw in a Boiler service each year, but I guess I might be ble to get that done cheaper that the £130 is costs - I do get nervous about having a major breakdown of gas, water and electricity type things, and not having enough money to pay for the repair.

Yes I do use Lovefilm - have completely stopped hiring DVD's now, so that plus the mobile insurance ( 2 phones have died in my care....) probably make it worth it - but I am going to to reduce my package when I can at the end of October early November.

Isn't it mad though - on my income I should be able to manage so well - but it just flaws me that I can't.

I am defintiely keen to cut down that grocery bill, am hampered by my desire to buy ethically produced good food, but I think I can still make adjustments.

I put in £60 for clothes and shoes - My son needs new rugby kit and boots this month.....that is going to blow that out of the water....

Water bills - urghhhhhh - I rang SWW,and they went through an exercise over the phone where I had to tell them how we use water on average, and then said that I would likely pay more on a meter - seriously??? We are not clean freaks or mad gardeners, and my car gets washed twice a year maybe. Again though it makes me nervous to come off the open use to a meter if that is what the company are predicting. I think we pay ridiculous prices for water here considering with the exception of this year, we have incessant rain month after month for so many years with little respite.

I am wondering if I can get a better Mortgage deal - at present on a 1.89% above base rate tracker for life - what do you think? Is it worth looking - and after being knocked back earleir this year I wonder if I could get a remortgage - and would I put the debt on it?

Best away to bed so I have half a brain there for work in the morning - night owl habits are steering me in the wong direction!!

On a happy note - I saw the new bike yesterday - she is beautiful beautiful beautiful, and I cannot believe she is mine........:A

MiMi66 · 9 September 2013 at 1:32AM

Oh Weird Nev I didn't see your response at first - sorry I didn't say hello and thanks -

Actually you've made some good points - I will check with British Gas about whether they will replace the boiler if something awful happens - I am half remembering it might be one of those tied in insurances - that you have to pay to get out of.

My mortgage insurance is one of those reducing ones (less paid out as the mortgage balance reduces - BUT - I never increased the cover when I expanded my mortgage by nearly £20000 a few years ago - so the additional life cover on my ex and myself which is for £20000 covers that. Yes they both pay out on death - I don't have critical illness cover - too expensive. Yahoo.... that wasn't planned it was just by chance - I am so not that organised:-)

I am going to call SWW again I think - just to check prices of metering against my flat fee.

Oh and Julie2710 - I have three cats - a burmese and a bengal and a half burmese - they are characters! And yes they do add to the burden of monthly costs, but they are lodged in our hearts here so that's that, extra shifts here I come....

And Orange Ena - I live with my children - who are 18 and 14 - and I envy you your utilities bill!!! I am always switching off lights etc... but the prices are going up faster than I can reduce our use by.

Really going to bed now - thanks for all the good tips - I shall explore and report back!

MiMi66 · 15 September 2013 at 11:55PM

I've hit that time of the month where the cash flow has flowed out and zipcoming in. Ho hum. And dismally looking ahead to next month it is going to be the worst month so far I think as I have a large using card bill from the summer holiday period spend and shall use all my salary to pay that plus the usually bills leaving absolutely nothing for food and petrol. I have my merger savings and shall put a bit on the Cc to pay off in a further months time but it feels like a repeat all over. Am determined to get costs down! I think I shall try the notion of the food budget that I see people on here do. Set a weekly amount and manage that so I don't go over it. Any ideas on what is a fair amount for weekly food and household spending?

julie2710 · 16 September 2013 at 10:14AM

Mimi66, I'm in the same boat too

I think it's why I've lost my mojo a bit (again

) I didn't really spend loads extra on the summer holidays as spent a lot of time at home but the back to school has killed me. Shoes, trainers, blazers, new sports kit and dance shoes, the list is endless :eek:

I've been writing lists of things to do and ignoring them. Starting to do our eating out the freezer and then forgetting to get stuff out and buying things.

So I'm here on the middle of the month thinking about borrowing from Peter to make it through and kicking myself for losing my focus!

So many things can have an impact on your mindset too! I know you're single like me too. Well the other week I was seeing maybe a chance of a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, which is beginning to feel more like the entrance to the temple of doom every day! A friend of a friend had been messaging me on line. Seemed nice enough, looked ok and he upped the anti and arranged to meet. Then two days before we were going to meet he messages me to say he thinks he lives too far away for a relationship :mad: There was me thinking we were just going out for a drink!! Unbelievable! Dumped before I've even met him :rotfl:

You've done ok so far though and you will get back on track. It's just such a long trek I'm thinking little targets to keep us motivated.

Have a good Monday

consultant31 · 16 September 2013 at 2:22PM

I don't know if it works the same way where you are, but in Yorkshire, we can have a water meter installed (at no cost) and if you're not happy with it you can have it removed at no cost within the first year.

We've been on a meter for donkeys years but I finally managed to persuade my elderly Mum to have one fitted after my Dad died and her bills went down from £48pm to £12pm :eek: She was gutted she hadn't done it years before.

The only thing is that you have to be a little more conscious of how you use water.....shower instead of bathing, turn the tap off while teeth brushing, gather up the first flow (in a bowl or something) rather than letting it run down the plughole while waiting for the hot water to come through. As with everything else, it soon becomes second nature. I'm very much against wasting water anyway, so it seems easy to me.

consultant31 · 16 September 2013 at 2:32PM

Regarding your lovely pans - the old ones, not the new competition wins. If it were me, rather than giving these pans to your daughter for uni, try selling them on eBay. Have a look at past sales to see what they go for....I imagine it may be an eye-opener. I like Circulon pans and the price of those, used, on eBay makes me squint

You could always get some cheap ones for uni - trust me, they won't even look like pans at the end of 2 or 3 years :rotfl:

Granariesgirl · 18 September 2013 at 12:32PM

Hiya MiMi -

MiMi66 wrote: »

Water bills - urghhhhhh - I rang SWW, and they went through an exercise over the phone where I had to tell them how we use water on average, and then said that I would likely pay more on a meter - seriously??? We are not clean freaks or mad gardeners, and my car gets washed twice a year maybe. Again though it makes me nervous to come off the open use to a meter if that is what the company are predicting. I think we pay ridiculous prices for water here considering with the exception of this year, we have incessant rain month after month for so many years with little respite.

Huh - the very fact that they are discouraging you would make me smell a HUGE rat... if it were MORE profitable for them for you to be metered, they'd be encouraging you to go on a meter, surely? :cool:

Ask them how many m3 their calculator reckons you use at the moment. THEN ask how many m3 per year your actual water rates would buy...
Then (if you have time) go online & do the same calculations for yourself, just to check. If they are telling you porkies, report them to OFWAT or whatever!
Our m3 usage for our family of 4 was 89m3 over the last year (with leaky taps, no dishwasher, ancient washing machine & 3hr shower children) to give you an idea...

That's 22.25m3 per person per year! You could fill a POOL with that! :eek:

Rough guide here: http://www.ccwater.org.uk/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.913

MiMi66 · 29 September 2013 at 12:32PM

Well, bill paying day arrives again like clockwork -I had an enormous using credit card bill which I have paid off in full but leaves me on beans for the rest of the month..... But I have tried to pay a bit more than usual and am again under the £20K! (by £1 but it is a meaningful £1:-)
This time I should not bounce back up again.
I am pleased that I have been paying off the using card each month - all bar one month year so far which is very good for me. I really hope to be able to switch from usingit to using cash over the course of thenext 4-5 months - its a matter of swingign the finances around which I can't do unless I do add the debt overall inthe first place and I really do not want to do that. I cannot believe it has taken me since Feb to pay off £1600...shameful - I have to look at it as a saving equating to £3200 as previously I had been accruing debt to the average rate of £400 a month - so the saving could be thought of in money not spent as well as debt paid back. But the figures of course only show what gets paid back.

Ho Hum.... in the right direction at least. Hoping to be around £19500 by Christmas? Christmas.... and my two children's birthdays and my niece in Australia's birthday, and my borthers too....groan.....and my birthday in there as well......

The bike is BEAUTIFUL - still waiting to decide on a saddle bag - so indecisive....

oh my life...... Light Bulb moment.

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