Want to be a mfw but worried?

ally18

Another relaxing day in work for me today so a NSD. Bit worried about my heating as radiators are only luke warm at the bottom of some of them although hot at the top. I know it isnt sludge because they were flushed last year. For the first time ever, I put the dial on my boiler up to max and it didn't make any difference to the feel of the temperature, I have one of those energy monitors in the kitchen/dining room and it said 8 c last night, with the heating on. I don't have a main thermostat or tvrs on the radiators (its an old system) so they are either on or off. My house is 1930s, single brick built so cannot have cavity wall insulation and the loft area was converted many years ago to a bedroom so can't improve on that. I have a gas fire in the front room which we use but the room is large and trying to get the 3 kids to stay in one room is a bit difficult, they all want to be doing their own thing. I've brought down fleeces and we sat with those around us yesterday. I did decide to leave the heating on low overnight and all I could hear was lots of noises coming from the pipes (I assume), not all the time but in stages which was weird. I will try and get it sorted in summer ready for next year, not paying the call out charges which I would be hit with now!
Coffee pot on, time for a break. lol

cha97michelle

It could just be trapped air in your radiators. You need to put the key in the top and let the air out to help the radiator feel hot all over.

Not a good time to have insufficient heat.

katsu

ally18 wrote: »

[tt]Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 3
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1312
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 520
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1832
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 230 Wow, I envy you
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 170
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 86
Electricity............................. 45 seems a bit high. Are you using energy saving bulbs, not leaving things on standby, not using the immersion to heat the water etc? See if you can borrow an OWL meter from your library to measure consumption of your stuff and get the kids involved in turning things off more often!
Gas..................................... 26
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 40
Telephone (land line)................... 12
Mobile phone............................ 15
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 20 Considered a freeview box or any offers on this?
Internet Services....................... 13
Groceries etc. ......................... 210
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 40
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 35
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20 Have you got car breakdown cover? You can get good deals on that from Martin's motoring tab.
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 22 can you get something like a prepayment cert if this is prescriptions?
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 10
Contents insurance...................... 10
Life assurance ......................... 8
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50 You could look at cutting this down without it being too obvious if you are putting this much by all year round. I do 23 people for Xmas for <£200 (big family on DH's side). I use bargain offers all year round to stock up on favourites, charity shops, sales, 99p store etc.
Haircuts................................ 0 never? not for any of the family?
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 100 could you cut this down a bit?
Emergency fund.......................... 10
Total monthly expenses.................. 1235

Assets
Cash.................................... 3000
House value (Gross)..................... 125000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 5000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 133000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 62368....(230)......0.68
Secured Debt.................. 17442....(170)......1.49
Total secured & HP debts...... 79810.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Car loan as overdraft..........2990......500.......5
Pment to ex o/h................3000......100.......0
Total unsecured debts..........5990......600.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,832
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,235
Available for debt repayments........... 597
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 600
Amount short for making debt repayments. -3
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 133,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -79,810
Total Unsecured debt.................... -5,990
Net Assets.............................. 47,200
[/tt]

Hope some of the above ideas on places I might save give you some ideas. Good luck.

thriftychap_2

how do you make adhoc overpayments? can you do this online? or do you have to phone your mortgage provider?

ally18

Hi Michelle,
I've already tried bleeding the radiators, only water comes out the top.

Hi Katsu,

Thanks for your comments, to explain further -

My mortgage is the two £230 & £170 totalling £400 which includes my £90 o/payment each month which is going into a savings act for next year.
Electric is a rough estimate as I pay £71 for joint, it does tend to be higher on electric than gas each month, ive just changed suppliers to see about a difference for next year.
Satelite/landline/internet are a combined package at £45 (inc money for any calls calls) from Virgin which includes nearly everything plus an additional box so is a bit of a luxury but we don't go out so want to keep that.
Car maintenance of £20 includes MOT, service and rescue costs for each year.
Dentist/opticians of £22 is for annual costs of contact lenses/glasses/dentist as I can't get an NHS dentist where I am. If I'm lucky and have money left over, it stays in the pot for future bills. (got stung for £110 bill recently due to a filling needed).
Birthdays/xmas money of £50 is to cover birthdays & xmas for my 3 and 10 relatives. I don't tend to spend much on each so that I have a little more for my 3 for xmas, they only have £130 max spent on them at xmas but I do try to get bargain deals when I can. If there is any left, it goes elsewhere.
Haircuts are done by a friend for kids, am growing mine at the mo. I tend to have a trim around 3-4 months and that comes out of my clothing fund.
Holiday £100 - this I know is a luxury but I want to have something to look forward to each year. It includes spending money as well and if it isnt all spent, it goes on other entertainment, ie got annual passes for kids for zoo next year.

Thats about it, thanks for your comments, all advice helps. I think I have cut down on practically everything I can to o/p the m payments. They will be boosted next year once the car is paid for.

ally18

Hi thriftychap,

I don't know about anyone else but I pay my mortgage by standing order which means I can change my payments each month. I find that way much easier than by direct debit because I control everything, the amount and payment date as well. I do online banking so can access it at any time with no problems.

ally


Well update for today is spent £41 in matalan on kids pressies to be wrapped up. Was a bit sneaky actually as I used the vouchers out of todays paper for a £5 discount off £25 spend. Used the first one then went out bought another 25p paper and got the voucher and went back to m and used another voucher. For 50p I saved myself £10 so well chuffed.

Had to pay a bill today as well so ended up having £5 cashback to treat myself as I was feeling down to start off with. This will come out of my allowance for the month and change has gone in the jar.

Jar total - £5.60

Not doing a big shop this week just odds and sods from local shop I think.
First of the utility switches has tracked and fingers crossed for the other one.

Thats it for this week. No work tomorrow and kids are off school.

Pennypincher2

Hello,
I think you are doing fab. I used the SOA on this website - and then I tried to switch my money around so I am saving for up coming things rather than just paying them off when the bills arrive, if you know what I mean. I haven't been successful. I will be trying again in Jan. So the idea is you split a bill up by 12 and save for it all year and when it comes the money is there... but in the mean time everything else is coming at you like bats! I do think you are doing well. Any thing is better than nothing and you can see your numbers going down just in a year with your normal payments and overpays it is fantastic.

The mortgage calculator I favour is the egg one cos you can work out what you are paying then play with extra over pays and it tells you how much you will shorten your term by.

We don't have a lot of spare cash for over pays. Our last mortgage we took over 15 years and this one we took over 11 so to shorten it requires the kind of strategies only found within the pages of MSE MFW!!!

I really look forward to seeing you working away at reducing your numbers.
(shh dont tell anyone but I have only £520 in my emergency fund - the kids have more money than me- ha ha ha)
Bye PP

cha97michelle

I am like pennypincher. I am trying to save money each month for the annual bills, but it really is hard to do. If i could manage for 2 or 3 months in a row i would be better off. I am also swearing to start again in January. I have savings accounts and have worked out the amounts i need to save. I just need to do it now.

ally18

Hi all, thanks for your comments penny and michelle. I try and read your diaries on a daily basis when I'm at work. How do you subscribe to them though, I can't figure it out?
I started saving money each month years ago for each bill as I've always found that worked for me, especially if it goes out on payday straight into another account. I recommend setting up a SO for this because you can control the amounts all the time. If you can, always account for a little more than you think your bills will be, this then could be used for emergency savings.
Penny, it doesnt matter how little you have for your emergency savings, the fact that you have that amount is fab, you should be proud of yourself for saving it. It took me 2 years to save my pot which has been put away safely for 'just in case'. I don't have the recommended 3 months amount as others suggest but its there for whatever decides to hit. :cool:

Well my diary for the weekend. Annoyed with myself over shopping this weekend, I spent £47 in Mr Ts (and I said I was only going to the store nearby for essentials but due to the snow, they didn't have much). Anyway, will NOT be shopping big this week, def not!!! Got loads of bread so will manage!

Took one of the kids to pics sat to watch HP, thankfully the other two didn't want to go so cost a little less than I expected but it was a treat. Not impressed with HP though, hmm disappointing. Tried to sneak in own sweets but felt so guilty that our local pics was trying to stay open and charging low prices, that I bought the snacks in there. My bit for the economy hopefully. :T

Spent a few sad hours yesterday comparing the costs of having gas fires on as opposed to c/h. What am I becoming?:eek: I think I'm taking this economising a bit far sometimes, however, it does work out cheaper (obviously) to run a gas fire instead of the whole house. (0.11 units for fire/0.35 units for c/h for an hr so say for an average of 10 hrs, the actual money costs would be about £1.90 per gas fire and £7.73 for the c/h!!!!!!!!!!!!) I could not afford to have the heating on on a daily basis so looks like its the gas fires and jumpers. :rotfl:The only problem with doing this is, the kids will not stay in the same room as me! Oh well. Two rooms will be warm.

By the way, jar total now £6.10.

NSD today.

Am really annoyed with one of those phone suppliers. :mad: Back in Sept I chose a new mobile through a supplier that guaranteed cashback when you send off your first bill etc. Well, did that back in October and I'm getting nothing back but excuses as to why they won't send me my cheque. It was approved on 20th Oct but their accounts system crashed just at that time and so the cheque cant be written? How come nonone can put pen to paper and write the cheque out?????????? As it is £155, its important I get it, after all thats the only reason I went for the phone!!!!!!!! I have a feeling they are trying to get out of the 'guaranteed cashback' promise.

Can anyone give me any advice as to how I can get my money? Can I go through the small claims court or something? I don't want to lose this money as I need it.

Thanks

ally18

Had a confirmation email yday afternoon to say I should get my cashback in two weeks, will believe it when I see it!

Feeling down today, pipes have frozen in the house so no cold water to upstairs taps, shower or toilets. Am hoping the pipes wont burst or anything today, I have left the heating on low to see if that solves the problem but am worried.

To cap it off the boiler at work had switched itself off so will have to wait a bit here for the building to get warm.

I'm fed up to be honest, fed up managing on my own, worrying about job security, worrying about everything else on top and not having anyone to talk to. :sad: