Jo_R's debt-free diary, slow and steady progress!

[Deleted User]

Hi Jo,

Sounds like you are very organised.

:eek::mad: to Eon, I am in the process of trying to change from them as it was a big mistake going with them in the first place due to the high bills we've had from them. We don't pay by DD just when the bill comes in as they wanted to charge us that amount too per month.

E.ON_Company_Representative

Jo_R wrote: »

Got the quarterly bill from Eon yesterday. It seems we are in debit by over £600 and they want to increase our monthly DD from £73 to £173:eek:

Hi Jo_R,

Hope you don’t mind me posting, I just thought I may be able to provide some useful advice.

Firstly the increase in Direct Debit doesn’t necessarily need to be quite as drastic as has been suggested.

The £73 Direct Debit has been too low to cover the amount of energy you have been using. So the new Direct Debit figure will firstly be higher as a result of this and secondly in order to claw back the £600.

Paying back the £600 over a longer period of time means you will pay a lower amount each month on top of the consumption amount. This will allow the monthly Direct Debit to be lower than the suggested amount of £173.

If the arrears are a result of either a billing error or us not reviewing the Direct Debit then we should be able to extend the repayment periods we are talking about.

If you’d like me to look into this for you and see if I can suggest anything to help please feel free to drop me and email on the address in my profile.

Brian

Jo_R_2

Thankyou Brian, I may well do that!

Herein starts another "baby is asleep so let's get loads done in a crazy mad rush" post:D

Lovely day here, debated taking DS to playgroup but decided our need for food was more pressing so went "in real life" to the supermarket. Wasn't as stressful as I remember it having been previously, as well as food shopping bought DS a t-shirt for £1 and another pair of new trousers for £4 as firstly he's growing at an alarming rate and secondly he keeps wearing holes in the knees of all his trousers! Plus (and I'm not weird for saying this, honest), I do like boys wearing 'warm' colours instead of the traditional blue so his t-shirt is orange and the trousers brown.

Need to get OH to 'refund' the cost of food shopping to my account minus the clothes which will come out of my account.

Also had to buy a new mobile phone as my very old one I got for free off OH's friend has finally given up the ghost. Picked up one in Asda earlier, after some comedy attempts by the assistant at scanning the very unco-operative bar code, he entered it numerically and it came up as being £15 instead of the £30 it said on the shelf edge label, and even that price was a rollback, so rather pleased at my bargain!

Have a few things still left off the list from yesterday so need to catch up with those when I can.

I realised I hadn't mentioned, DDs are stuck in Spain:eek: They were due to come back on Sunday but couldn't, they're all okay but basically playing the waiting game. Missing them lots, but trying to use the time to get their room done after getting a bit behind with it.


So the list for the day is as follows:

• [STRIKE]transfer money from savings into current account to cover purchase of stereo and bookcase (will do this evening as need to go through receipts)[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]do shopping:)[/STRIKE]
• remind OH to transfer money to my account for last week's and today's shopping and money for half of lawnmover (see below!)
• [STRIKE]put laundry away[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]washing up[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]pack up for OH for tomorrow[/STRIKE]

Edited to add: completely forgot, we bought a lawnmover (another strike for suburban bliss:D) at the weekend and I paid for it on my card and we decided to go halves. So have transferred that amount extra on top of the stereo and bookcase amount to my current account, and OH owes me £45.

bevan840

Oh no for DD's!! The no flights is the reason I'm on my own tonight as DH has just been told he's got to go somewhere to pick some people up and take them to an airport (why to an airport when nothing is flying I've no idea!!!) Hope they've enjoyed their holiday though

Jo_R_2

Just had phone call from DDs' dad; I won't go into loads of detail but basically they're now in northern Spain (they were in southern Spain) and have been royally p*ssed about by their tour operator and the tour rep abandoned them. So bloody cross and they have no idea as yet what's going on except they're staying put until concrete plans are in place.

Nothing much pressing going on today. I did a little unplanned spending up at the shops so need to add those receipts to the others to tot up which might get done tonight.

OH should be doing bunk beds later, DDs' room looking good.

Baby asleep so been rushing round as usual!

bevan840

Oh no, hope DD's are ok!! Thats terrible about the tour rep abandoning them, I hope he's going to put a complaint in!! Good idea to stay put, if they were to leave they might miss something which could help getting home sooner. Bet you'll be glad to get your arms around them

Found out that DH is now in Reims, picking up at the airport at 4pm and will be travelling back asap, taking them to an airport over here I'm assuming so they can get cars, meet with family etc Should get home around 2-3am so hope he's quiet when he gets in as I can guarantee I will be asleep

Jo_R_2

Wow that's quite a journey for your DH! Was he quiet when he got in?:)

Well DDs still stuck in Spain. Got news yesterday they'd been booked on a 5am flight, but got an early text off their stepmum saying it'd been cancelled:eek: So just waiting on news as and when they know anything.

I need to stop buying things for the house:o It's gradually looking better in here bit by bit but I have to realise I can't do/get everything I want all in one month, it's just not going to happen:o I'm not spending frivolous amounts but it's easy to spend a fiver here, a fiver there and it all adds up. I can afford it out of the surplus so in that respect it's not a problem, but of course ideally I'd like to use any remaining surplus to overpay my cc.

Maybe a little budget for a month for such things might come in handy, or a short list of a couple of things I will budget for each month then when it's gone, that's it.

Still need to ask OH to transfer money for shopping - I keep forgetting - doh!

bevan840

I have no idea if he was quiet, unfortunately he only got home at 9.30 this morning, he's only had 3 hours sleep in 48 hours so he's gone straight to bed

Even he said that there is no organisation out there, but he was only in Reims. One of the coaches had to stay behind and wait, they should be home sometime today but I'm very glad it wasn't DH's coach that was delayed. They didn't fly with Ryanair did they? Ryanair are refusing to payout compensation for the people who have been stranded.

Good idea on the budget furniture for a month Maybe on the bottom of your SOA write down what bits you are going to get that month still need to find a shoe tidy myself, the bottom of the stairs is a trip hazard!

Did OH get the bunk up?

Jo_R_2

Nope. Currently DD2 is sleeping alternately in with DD1 on the bottom bunk, or on a mattress on the floor. Didn't want to sound like I was nagging OH so been mentioning it, he seemed fine to do it up until the other day when he made a comment about why don't I sort it out?

Ah I wish I was practical like him, but I'm not, I leave that sort of thing to him because he's better at it!:D I know he likes it when I accomplish something practical that I might have otherwise expected him to do, but honestly I'd have no idea what screws to use, or how many, or where to place them, and tbh I don't fancy clambering all over the top bunk in my 'state' LOL!

He doesn't go in DDs' room much if ever (he leaves tackling that to me!) so he doesn't see what it's like. Getting quite peeved about it now:mad:

In other news...!

Things expectably hectic now DDs back and school has started again. I can see I'm going to struggle keeping up with housework, not only the amount of it but having the stamina. OH admitted that because there's not much 'bump' to see yet, he almost forgets we have another on the way, he made some comment the other day when I said I was feeling poorly (get horrible nausea at times) that I can't be poorly because I didn't look it... That was met by a select few comments!:D

I need to get through a mountain of laundry, but anything else will get done as and when. I don't fancy trailing around the supermarket again with DD2 and baby in tow so going to do it online for tomorrow - if OH complains he knows where he can stick it:p

Jo_R_2

Bunk beds fixed up (although DD1 refusing to sleep on top bunk - but that's for another day!) and online shopping done and due to be delivered after school.

Made a MAJOR error with my Eon DD- after having received a letter saying they wanted to increase my DD from £73 to £173:eek: I only got round to ringing them yesterday and it's too late to cancel that DD on their part. The plan now as agreed with them is to let that payment go through, then from May budget for a monthly total (gas and elec) of £115. Means things will be quite tight for May, but I keep telling myself it's a good thing as it will go a way towards paying off our debit balance of £600!

Needless to say I'm being super-cautious about what gas and elec we use. It does seem the main culprit is the storage heaters according to where the increase in electricity usage came in the year, which have been switched off for a few weeks now. I have also refrained from using the tumble dryer this week and insisted on drying everything outside.

I really want to sort out using a timer on the washing machine, the one I bought not long ago seems to have gone for a walk so might look at getting a digital one. Quite often I do need to do more than one load a day but if I can do at least one at night it should make a difference.

I have been receiving some sarcastic comments from OH over what I get done in the day, prompted by him finding me doing online shopping when he got back from work yesterday rather than having been, and dinner not started. I explained the way I was feeling, traipsing round a supermarket with kids in tow was the last thing I felt like doing, which went onto another conversation about what I get done during the day:mad: I resisted the urge to mention his work's legendary lunchtime naps and so am doing a list of what I HAVE done today.