MMR 4: The Walker Family

MSE_Martin

For those of you who haven't worked it out 'gatra' is Mr. Walker. Nice to see you here. Did you enjoy the programme?

martin

moonbeam682

hi gatra - just like to say how brave you all were for going on tv & exposing your finances - its a bit different than posting them on here so thank you - I'm sure that you have helped alot of people :xmassmile
So pleased that the twins have passed their hearing tests too :xmassmile
So what was it like seeing yourselves on tv? I thought it was a really good programme & no painful savings either! very impressive, Martin looked really chuffed!
good luck with the moneysaving - did you discover this site after meeting Martin or were you already a member? anyway keep posting - I'm sure you can teach some of us a thing or two!

:xmassign:

gatra_2

We only found this site after meeting Martin, the boys got themselves up yesterday as they are now in beds, I only assume Evan took his nappy off as part of his potty training, with not liking it next to his skin, as they come and tell us if they have done something......

Now I will let you all into a secret.........

We didn't buy the new van, the one in the show was hired for the show and as we drove back from Wicksteed park, Conal took the top off his milk bottle and turned the bottle upside down depositing the milk luckly all in his baby seat which contained it in the base, this one action convinced us we just couldn't buy a new or newish van the kids would soon wreck it.

In the end after a lot of looking we found an older one on the web for £2995 and paid cash for it. It still has all the stuff like aircon and is in good condition for its year.

The aircon wasn't working when I got it, so had this refilled and it still never worked. So I had a trip to fords in Rugby. they said "we can't help you as we don't know anything about aircon, we get people in to do that".

So I took to one of the Leicester Fords for an "estimate" and was told that to have an Estimate this would cost £70 plus Vat. So I told them what to do and walked out.

I had a look myself finally finding fault was a Burt out wire one 10p crimp later a/c is now working. Nice saving.......

And I even sold the yellow van on EBay for a £100
Still haven't sold the Galant as yet and is still for sale in Auto trader.

Gaz

halloweenqueen_2

Good for you, glad you got your people carrier and to pay cash instead of finance is fantastic.:T

Even more pleased to learn about the boys hearing, thats great news:xmassmile

moonbeam682

Its the same if you buy new furniture too - if you have kids you can guarantee they will spill something on it the very same day!
Good job it was in the baby seat though!
great saving on the van & repair job thats bad of Fords though having to get people out when it was only a burnt out wire & don't blame you for telling the other garage where to go - what a rip off!
have you been recognised yet as a result of appearing on the programme?(apart from on here of course!) & do you think your attitude to money has changed since meeting Martin? :xmassmile

gatra_2

moonbeam682 wrote:

have you been recognised yet as a result of appearing on the programme?(apart from on here of course!) & do you think your attitude to money has changed since meeting Martin? :xmassmile

Not yet!!!!

Yes we think twice no make that three times before we buy things, we have also cut sky right back to the bone.

halloweenqueen_2

I must admit the walkers seemed pretty savvy about their money, shopping at aldi as well as tesco and using the clubcard deals for days out. There was still a lot of savings to be had or different decisions to be made and that surprised me a bit. They were already in a plus situation each month with their bills which was great. All their savings were pain free, so i'm trying to do the same (s well as some very painful ones!) After using the budget planner of martins i'm not as flush as I thought and I think my holiday next year will have to be downsized or gone altogether, however we do have a lot of stuff going on next year, so if we don't get time to get away i'll still have some holiday money!

franney

A-HA!
See, i knew the van savings shouldn't have been added to the total
But knowing ITV (or the programme makers) they would have added an extra £12,000 to the total saved! :rolleyes:
Glad things are going well for you Gaz, thanks for the updates and for letting us know about the twins

gatra wrote:

Now I will let you all into a secret.........

We didn't buy the new van, the one in the show was hired for the show and as we drove back from Wicksteed park, Conal took the top off his milk bottle and turned the bottle upside down depositing the milk luckly all in his baby seat which contained it in the base, this one action convinced us we just couldn't buy a new or newish van the kids would soon wreck it.

In the end after a lot of looking we found an older one on the web for £2995 and paid cash for it. It still has all the stuff like aircon and is in good condition for its year.
Gaz

gatra_2

Just like to say one thing Martin was under the impression we WHERE going for the van at the time of filming, he had no way of knowing we would back out of getting a nearly new one, so anything he said at the time of filming was correct.

We made the move to buy an older van around a month after filming took place.

Also we still haven't gone for the RAC yet. Just after filming was done I rang Auto Aid to find they wouldn't cover a mini bus, I have just got off the phone to them once more and asked if they will cover an 8 seat MPV they then said YES, told then it was a Ford Tourneo they said yes that was okay for £29. So now await the next post.......

gatra_2

MSE_Martin wrote:

For those of you who haven't worked it out 'gatra' is Mr. Walker. Nice to see you here. Did you enjoy the programme?

martin

It was better than we thought it would be Thanks :beer: