I want to be a MFW........ LP's Diary

pammyj74

wow thats £30 weezl :eek: I do have airers but I could use more for the pants and socks as they tend to cover the radiators, so need to get some of the 99p store ones that hang up!

Floxxie

Ggggrrr, my las message has been lost in cyberspace.

I bought a dehumidifier which was a lot of money but costs 2p an hour to run and takes all the water from the clothes so no need for a tumble drier (but you still need clothes airers!)

pammyj74, putting items on radiators prevents the heat cirulating properly so definitely invest in some more airers!

LilacPixie

We are so so wasteful. just some examples. Tv/tv box/dvd player/cd player/games consol. all plugged in and never off at the wall. Mobile charges the same. laptop charger the same. Lightbulbs are low energy ones already. tumble dryer is on daily but we do have a fold up clothes airer for things thay can't be tumble dried. We have a proper extendable one that can be wall mounted outside and it's sat in the boot of my car since MARCH.

Bizzarly we have a standby saver and an energy monitor sitting in boxes but not actually wired up. Total laziness

LilacPixie

do you know what i'm currently doing??? fitting the energy monitor for electricity!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its asking me to set a energy consumption tartget Mwahahahahaha

Queen-Bee_2

LP, is that one of those Owl monitors? I have been thinking that this might make me more energy focused.

Now I have a lodger, it's a bit trickier keeping consumption under control, and I have to be less stingy with the heat (ie I turn it off when she isn't here and wear extra jerseys instead!!).
QB

LilacPixie

Its the same concept QB but mine is by minim https://www.britishgas.co.uk/products-and-services/energy-savers/green-gadgets/Minim-Electricity-Monitor.htm

I had it all wired up from around 11 and I used 5.59units from then until midnight. Quite happy with that but it was dry here so washing was outside and i never had drier on. I fear it will all change when we use the drier and washing machine.

Queen-Bee_2

Lol... I know what you mean! My OH asked me if the drier on my washer-drier worked the other day, and I mumbled something about not really knowing how to use it properly :rotfl:

LilacPixie

well had machine on today and drier as no chance of drying washing in the snow. Usage now 7.58 KWH so far and i have 2 sets of pukey bedding to be washed. fingers crossed it wont be a third.

Why are kids ill on the day you have no chance of getting things dry

LilacPixie

I am so rubbish at updating this. We have made very little progress by overpaying this year so far but we are doing well at reducing electricity usage.

I had aimed for a target of 14kw a day but we are coming in way below that. Over the last 30 days we have used 377kw so averaging 12.5kwh a day. We do have a standing charge of 16p a day for electricity but even so I think we are well on track to reduce our spends overthe year. Currently we have a direct debit of £87 a month leaving our account, this is £68 electricity and £19 gas. Using last 30 days figures as a guide (baring in mind they covered Christmas holidays when we were home more than usual) we used 377.14kw of electricity as per my monitor (I should also cross check with meter readings to ensure accuracy) this once again according to my meter is roughly £37.70 Figure is slightly out because it only allows unit prices in whole numbers so i have it set to £0.10 when in actual fact my electricity costs 9.546p a kwh. Standing charge is £58 per year but I get a discount of £52.50 a year for paying by DD. All this is consufing me slightly but by my rough counting out over the last 30 day i have used £38 electircity. standing churge will be £4.80 for the same 30 days. Could i really have chopped my electricity usage to under £43 a month. I have been using the after VAT figures as well.

Grocery spends I set myself a budget of £300 a month for January and we are so far looking at a spend of £195.19 with 9 days to go. We only need milk and fruit/veg really so we will be smashing our target. We were even a bit naughty and bought a new bathmat in Tesco from grocery spends and not been massively frugal. I have decided to transfer whatever left in grocery kitty at end of month to Mortgage.

I have been taking part in the frugal in 2010 challenge so I feel that is helping focus my mind. I am also having a huge declutter with a big pile for ebay and alot shifted on freegal/freecycle.

My Mortgage cow is feeling a bit heavy so I might open her up at the weekend and see what is in her and what if anything can be bagged up.

I am so embarrased and shocked Last weekend during my declutter I found £69.50 worth of clubcard vouchers that I have not used and totaly forgot about :eek:. OH says I should use them for a treat fo me but I keep thinking that maybe I should forgo the treat and use then for whatever saves us the most money. I keep thinking to go for the clubcard deals but we had opted to not have a holiday this year due to impending house moves etc. Trying to work out if i would be best spending £69.50 on shopping they flinging that money into the mortgage as rate is 6.3%.

Speaking of house moves we have a bit of a decision to make. It is a bit complicated but i'll try explain. Currently we have a 2 bed flat, I bought when a single girl now it is me, OH and 2 mini pixies. Our flat is big but has no garden and with 2 yong kids its hard. I either am cleaning and they are bored or we seem to be out doing stuff and the house goes all to hell. We have far too much stuff but that is being slowly addressed. We decided we need to move to a house with a garden or two and another bedroom and we aimed to do this once the early repayment penalty was up on this morgage in June 2010 Our mortgage is not portable.

Anyway a guy my husband works with has seperated from his partner, neither party can afford the mortgage alone nor can they afford the upfront costs of the HIP to maket the property. He has asked my husband if we would possibly be interested in a private sale. :eek: Now this property is actually in the street I grew up in and still have family there. The primary school is fantastic, high school not so great but highschool is still 9 years away for my oldest and 11 for the youngest. It has an enclosed back garden and the front garden is open plan into a communal grassed area that is fully pedestrianised at the end of the grassed area is the local primary school so we can literally walk into the school without having to cross a road.

There is 1-2 dowsides. Firstly it is very very close to my family, they are on the whole nice but can sometimes be a bit meddeling. They are currently our childcare which is an arrangment we, them and the children are happy with so I see them daily on weekdays anyway and weekends we are always doing something be it swimming, gymnastics, dance or just having family days away from home. The property is a 2 bed, 2 bath, 2 public room property. I believe they have also converted the attic space into a 'games room' but not 100% sure on that. I know the attics are convertible if needed. The bedrooms are HUGE. Wel huge in my opinion 20ft x 17ft and 17ft x 15ft not including the build in wardrobes.

If we sell this place for the valuation price then mortgage on the house would be £467 a month 5.89% fixed for 3 years. We currently have a take home wage of slightly over 3k so there is a uge amount of scope there to overpay.

I do not have a clue what to do. I do think the kids ( both same sex) would have a better quality of life living in a house with a garden, due to the communal nature of the front gardens the both already have some friends in the area too. But on the other hand we said we were making a move to a bigger home that would be our forever home but I do not think this one will be a forever home but I have been in it quite a few times and it is alot bigger than we have at the moment, decoration wise not to my taste but nothing physically wrong with it.

AAARRRRRGGGGGHHHH

Queen-Bee_2

Hello LP,

Very well done on the energy reductions (and also the groceries). I couldn't quite believe the amount of gas and electricity I used in December, but have just switched to E-On and am very mindful of turning things down or off, so hopefully it can be kept under better control from now on.

As for the rest, well... choices choices eh? I bought my current house through a private sale and although for me, it probably will be my 'house for life', side stepping estate agents saved both me and the vendor several thousand pounds (we split what would have been an agent's commission).

It sounds like it ticks a lot of the right boxes for now, good primary school, more space, a garden, proximity to childcare and family (nice that they're one and the same!!! ). And it's within your budget, and sometimes it only takes a few coats of paint to give the decor a lift. However, I appreciate it's a hard one, especially if you had something else in mind!

QB