Live on £4000 for a year - part 4 (Oct - Dec 2008)

mumzyof2

My washer is on about every other day usually as DS at school now. But i then do a white wash n dark wash. so twice in one day but will only do if its full load. I not going to be using my dryer anymore n only used it really for towels n underwear. I put jeans etc on maiden but not anymore!! I boil my kettle alot in day sometimes up to 10times even more but that will stop when i get my flask. I have hot water all the time. We shower daily i take around 5mins in shwer and also DD hates showers so she spends about 2mins in there n son takes 5 mins.Only reason we dont shower long is because we shower just b4 setting off on school run as DS still in nappies and i dont want him smellin at school And i feel all dirty if i dont shower daily. We hardly have baths as my bath is huge and i always have to have it full if i have a bath wich is very rare!

also hob runs off gas and oven off electric. downstairs shower runs off boiler as with downstairs shower i get instant hot water.. would a wet room shower (power shower) cost more in electric? I have a shower upstairs which takes ages for water to get hot so think that is electric but doesnt run through boiler. but i would use that shower but its slow coming out and not very hot as i would like.

sorry to gone on

cha97michelle

I can only add to the bad news today i'm afraid. DH rang this morning on the way to work for the AA number. His exhaust went on his car. The catalytic converter had gone on it, and it has cost us £500 today to replace. His company have also had some of their equipment stolen today. :cool:

The bright side is previously when we have been late in and the day has been a bad one we would have said stuff it, let's get a takeaway and lickour wounds. Today, DH said, well, here what it all cost first, and while he was telling me the veg was chopped and i got on.

We have a plan though. We haven't given out all the invites yet for DS1's birthday party, so i am not inviting four of the guests i had planned on doing out of politeness. I don't care either way if they come, and if the choice is coming to being polite or sorting out my family, then i am scaling it down. That should save me £20-40 i reckon.

We've also had to have a serious chat about one of our cats. He is 3 years old, but has a badly disabled leg due to an accident when he was a few months old. This has then led to kidney disease as he can't empty his bladder properly, and more recently bad hygiene issues as he can't groom properly and his fur has badly clumped. We have tried our best to manage it, but basically he has faeces mangled in with the clumps. also, he is limping really badly with both of his back legs - at some points just dragging his back legs. He has also started urinating in the house, so far doing it in the pantry and the worst, in the baby's car seat. We have decided that we are going to have to take him to the vets, and see what our options are, but basically we can't keep him in this condition as he is a health risk for the boys. We are assuming the options are
1) cat sedated while they cut out chunks of fur out, then try and keep on top of it again
2) cat needs his bad leg removed - this one has also been suggested to us
3) cat rehomed - but who would want him with his expensive special diet and smelling like he does
4) cat is not having a good quality of life with us and wouldn't elsewhere - time to ease the suffering.

All of these options are grim, and the finances aren't strong enough currently to cover big bills. I have allowed myself to get rather down tonight, but then reading some of the other posts i have then felt bad - at least my boys and DH are with me and healthy, and i can afford to do things with them as well as clothe and feed them. We have helped the cat have 21/2 good years with us even if the worst happens by paying for his treatment/specialist food in this time.

lynda your attitude is so inspiring. I hope you get sorted soon

janey sorry to hear about your mum's accident. Fingers crossed she recovers quickly.

Sorry to add to the downer. I feel better for sharing.
Michelle, x

cw18

mumzyof2 wrote: »

would a wet room shower (power shower) cost more in electric?

power showers are not only energy hungry, they also use a huuuuge amount of water. I read somewhere that 10 (?) minutes in a power shower uses as much water as having a bath !!! NOT good if you're on a water meter.

We're on a water meter, but the shower in the en-suite is gravity fed from the hot water tank so much kinder to the bills. And our other one runs off the mixer tap on the bath, so basically the same set up there too The builders looked quite surprised when I asked what type the one in the en-suite was, as I don't think they expected people to be up on this info back then (late 2001)

redglass_2

nykmedia wrote: »

Has anyone thought any more about the stoozing? I don't really like asking on the stooze thread, as I always feel I'm too much of a small time. I am really small time - I fill my ISA and then have been using ICICI's high interest account for the rest of the switching about, but I don't want to end up in the situation that I can't transfer balances and, at the same tme, find out I can't access the lump sum to pay it all back if things go wrong. And I certainly don't want to withdraw from my ISA as that's my housefund. I'm tempted to turn my stooze pot into premium bonds for the 6 months or so that I have left of my 0% interest... any thoughts on this? I don't know what to do.

Nyk, I'm catching up in a hurry and answering this with loads of posts still to read, so forgive me if it's all been said already. I'm also a small-time stoozer putting my credit card money into ICICI . Some time ago there was a message on the MSE site (an official one, from Martin, I mean) saying ICICI's dealings in the UK are bound by the same rules as any UK bank, ie the first £35K is protected. Not sure if that's answered your question? I'm going to stay put, anyway.

bails

Ah Michelle, I'm sorry to hear about your day and especially your cat. Please don't underestimate people's willingness to care for an injured animal, people in different circumstances to you without a young family to worry about etc so please try your local home first.
Really glad to hear your mum is doing better Janey.

mumzyof2

Oh God i did not even know that about the power showers. I dont know if im on a water meter, all i know if I pay £22.57 a month which is higher than normal as i did not set it up untill 2 months after they sent me first bill lol. I just got a bill at begginning of april i think it was for the whole year

thriftylass

Mumzyof2, powershowers might be energy and water guzzlers, but you could switch them off while soaping up etc. We only use a powershower and never have the boiler on. We make hot water for washing the dishes with the kettle (one fill's enough) otherwise we don't really need any (you get used to brushing teeth with cold water and a good antibacterial soap cleans your hands also with cold water). Both powershower (for 2 people once a day) and using the kettle (wash dishes daily) works out a lot cheaper in our case than having the hot water tank on all day. Definiely good idea to stop using the dryer, they're the worst. And just the usual little things, like have nothing on standby if you don't use it (telly, washing machine, pc, oven etc) and only fill the kettle with what you need.

sophiesmum_2

Mumzy I would agree with Nyk, i think that would be about right at £25 for gas and electric based on what you are using - dryer etc. You really need to work on clearing the arrears then you can actually see what you are using and not always playing catch up. I know that's not easy on a limited income but every little will help.
With the school uniform it would probably work out cheaper in the long run to get DS a couple more shirts/sweatshirts and save the washing to the end of the week instead of doing it every day/other day. Then you have all weekend to get it dry without using the dryer.
get a couple of lamps with energy saving bulbs for downstairs and don't leave anything on standby.

I have some energy saving bulbs I can bring you that we have been given free- and you can get small lamps in asda etc for about £3. Will sort something out for weekend and give you them then, will also have a look at your bills for you if you want me to;).

Marru

I have to join this electric shower conversation. I have one and it is brilliant as it means I don't need to keep my hot water on. After the winter I had my gas on debit as much as I had electricity on credit and during the summer form mid June to mid September only used £24 worth of gas and my monthly electricity payment went down from £25 to just over £7. I keep upstairs hallway light on all evening so that my little furry friends in the box room are not completely in the dark but I have energy saving bulb in there.

DD leaves her light on when she goes to bed but soon I should be getting a free solar lamp from one of the cash back sites which charges from the sun light and then I can leave it on for DD instead the electric light. (funny thing is that she has no problems creeping in pitch dark house in the middle of the night from upstairs to downstairs into my bed :rolleyes:)

redglass_2

Have read it all now...sending good thoughts to everybody having a rough time out there. We're overdue for some good news, methinks. Does it count that a nice local lady gave me some free jam? (The things you get on Freecycle...! ) :rotfl:

Mumzy, I don't quite follow your description of your showers and hot water supply, but if you have one of those cylinder-type hot tanks you can turn down the heat of the water so far that you can take a shower with it, using a mixer tap, and not even need to turn on the cold tap. (I HAD to do this when the cold bit of my mixer tap packed up and I was being boiled alive in the shower). It has reduced the cost of showering, so now I don't even bother with the cold tap, I just have mildly warm water instead of hot. My Dad still washes under scalding water mixed with cold, so he's paying to heat it up and then cooling it down. Sometimes the thermostat isn't obvious at all, my tank is an antique and the thermostat lives inside a thing shaped like a tuna tin on the top of the cylinder; I can unscrew it, take it off, and all the 'workins' are inside - best have somebody knowledgeable with you the first time you do it, though, and/or turn everything off at the mains first. Sorry if this isn't any use to you, if you have a different kind of hot water supply, but it might help someone else. Good luck. Or maybe you've already got your water temperature just where you want it :cool: so you don't need any of this information.

I can't believe how slow my broadband is tonight and I wonder if the internet is clogged with traffic 'cos of the financial situation...?