Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

newgirly

I have just read the meters :eek: I we an extra £184 on top of the £150 pm I have been paying. It's so frustrating as we have not had the heating on, I don't use the tumble, we have energy saving bulbs everywhere (plus they we tend to have most lights off in the evening anyway) why is it so high?

It must be the stupidly long showers the kids have daily, and the xboxes and mobiles left on standby, the only thing I use a lot is the washing machine, even that's on a quick 39min wash usually.

Eon said I can leave the dd as it is for a few more months then they will re evaluate , but I think that's a bad idea as it won't get any cheaper as it gets colder. It would be nice to plan to be super frugal with the energy use but in reality with teenagers and dh that leaves everything on charge it will be an uphill struggle. So I have upped the dd from £150 to £220 pm:( it slows down what ops I will be able to make from jan onwards) but I realise that we are some of the luckily ones who are able to pay more by cutting back. There will be so many families out there who can't pay anymore. It makes you appreciate how lucky you are.

MallyGirl

I know how you feel. I would love to know where all our fuel usage goes. I have an energy meter on the electric and the house 'resting' level is 0.4kW. I am manic about switching off lights whereas DH leaves Hi Fi on as it sounds better when warmed up :mad:; he walks out of rooms leaving lights and music on; he leaves chargers in, and DD would rather turn her lights on than open the blinds to get daylight
I work from home so have lots of IT kit on in the office but that is at the bottom of the garden so nothing is on in the house all day.
We have gas hobs, the water is only on for 70 mins each morning and an additional 70mins in the evening at the weekend. The heating is not on yet but when it is the dial is set to 16 degrees and it is only on morning and evening for 2 hours each. We don't heat the rooms we rarely use - dining room, spare bedroom. My bill is over £1800 gas and £2200 elec :eek:
A new boiler went in last week so I hope that will help to bring the gas bill down - the old one was 15 years old.

southerndave

£220 a month? £2500+ per year? My God! Perhaps some reading over on the Old Style boards and the Utilities bit.

We are a family of three, plus pets in a 3-bedroom terrace. We are ALL electric Economy 7. Washing machine is on most days and we have a dishwasher. Our garden is useless and shady for clothes drying, although we do try, so most stuff is dried indoors on a heated drier rail. Sometimes we have the de-humidifier on to help with this. Water and heating is all electric. Our monthly bill averages £100 or so, slightly more in winter if very cold. Lower bills are perfectly feasible but EVERYONE in the house has got to pitch in. We don't keep lights on when not needed, we close doors/curtains to keep heat in. We try not to leave stuff on charge. TV and similar are not left on standby.

Seems a shame to take money out of your mortgage pot (buying your future financial freedom) and give it to the shareholders of Eon or EDF or whoever......?

newgirly

I know where a lot of is going, its having three teenagers in the house. Believe me they have already had a " electric /gas bill or alton towers / Xmas present" lecture tonight they are all great until it comes to remembering to switch stuff off. Dd regularly leaves her tv on all night as she falls asleep with it on, but as she is 16 she is often up later than us. I am being s Frugal as I can be at the moment, we also use a heated airer, but do have lots of washing everyday which can't be reduced as 13 yr old boys are not the sweetest of smelling creatures. I use the slow cooker a lot and have a mini oven.

I'm hoping that £220 pm is way more than we need and I can build up a bit of credit, or at least have the heating on when its cold.

Mally girl I feel for you , thats a heck of a big bill , hope th boiler makes a difference however to be honest we didn't notice much of an improvement with our new boiler three yrs ago, but then when prices just keep going up, how do you tell?

Spamtastic

We had a 40 year old boiler replaced back in January. Our gas consumption fell by 30% immediately. I was really sceptical about the efficiency claims of new boilers but it certainly opened my eyes when I compared my monthly meter readings.

I'm wondering now if there's anything I could do to reduce the electricity usage. I wonder if it's worth the outlay to buy a new fridge (ours is at least 20 years old) but it's British made, well built, and has never let us down. However, those A-rated stickers on the new ones in the showroom have me thinking it might be a good thing to do.

We had cavity wall insulation fitted by British Gas in February and we've noticed no difference.

skint_spice

My new boiler and radiators made a huge difference too when I got it in a couple of years ago and despite using less gas the flat is much warmer. I was nodding along with the tales of teenagers though - yep, turns light on rather than open blinds, yep, leaves everything on standby...

thriftylynny

Well i came home on a summer's day to find my 23yr old d/d lounging in hot sunshine with the extractor fan on full beside her & couldn't get it why i was so cross?!!!!!

newgirly

Well I've just had a look at the new eon bill and it seems the guy in the phone forgot to mention that I had £180 odd debit on The acct due to a balance owing which is being slowly reduced ,so its not £180 odd extra usage over the last few months :T glad we have not over used by that much during summer! I think I will reduce the direct debit by £20 to £200.

The £10 a day budget is going ok at the moment, I am usually running a few days ahead of myself but not by too much considering it's such a tiny budget for a family.
I've not needed any top up food since the weekend and just spent a few £'s in poundland on toiletries.
Dinner is pasta bake made with shock horror a jar sauce! I never by ready made sauces now , but thought I'd give ald*'s creamy tomato sauce a try @ 89p plus 29p for a bag of pasta , its a cheap and quick meal.

There are no builders here this afternoon , so I am going to drink tea and have another go on the mortgage calculator one of ,y favourite pastimes

newgirly

A couple of hours wasted today on the calculator so far

I have been a mfw since April 2010 and in the first couple of years paid off around 30k , the last part of the journey up until now has not been so successful, with a drop in dhs's wages plus getting the loft converted and having a big log cabin built in the garden , we have added all that we cleared off back on to our total outstanding debts (plus about an extra 2 or 3k£)

It still could be worse I guess as we could still owe the same without the building work getting done as we have almost always been on IO.

Due to the loft work (unable to remortgage for the next couple of years) we have a loan that's been part cleared with a 0%cc plus 2x 0%cc's a total non mortage debt of £28,319 :eek:

We are still IO with am unrealistic end date of under 8 yrs which of course will have to be extended.

Basically I've been very keen to get back to repayment and probably leave the cc's on long term 0%cards (transferring when necessary) we would like to clear the mortage so we can help the kids out a bit in the future possibly as we live in a very expensive part of the country.

Anyway I have been contemplating today whether I have given enough thought to other options? Would it be a good idea to think about clearing the loan and cc's and then saving a deposit for a buy to let?

I know its a bit off the wall but it might be a way having something for the kids in the future and once up and running will not need too much financing from wages.

My Dad has quite a few buy to let's , both houses /flats/commercial units and shops and has been doing it for about 20 years , plus has a management company, so would have help and experience with how to do things correctly.

It puts a hold on us paying our mortgage off as quickly as we had planned , but potentially we could be ready to buy in 4 yrs or so, then hopefully be able to start oping our own mortgage again.

I know there a quite a few BTl landlords on here, and just wondered if anyone had any opinions on this? I realise that we need to allow for damage /voids/gas checks/ boiler servicing /broken items in the kitchen. Etc. my Dad has had some pretty filthy tennants in the past (oddly enough in the most expensive properties usually!) so I know its not an easy ride.

It just something I had not really considered long term as an investment,focussing on trying to op instead.

Does anyone have any thoughts?!

Oops, I should have added that the reason I am thinking about this is because hopefully by the end of this year I will be earning properly again and don't want all my wages to vanish as I adjust my spending to what I earn if that makes sense.

tootoo

hi ng,
no advise on btl, i think property when bought at the right price is a good investment.
i'm sure some wise people will pop along soon