Pavlovs_dog starting as she means to go on...

pammyj74

Nice to read through your thread and good luck with your new property.

I pay my OPs online, its so much easier, I only wish you could see an updated statement but they only update once a month. Maybe its so we cant see the interest charges every day!
I had trouble with the sofas and we had to take the windows out and then came in with ease, only took 5 minutes after trying for half hour to get them in the hallway

sarahevie

I think that the ruke of thumb re water meter is supposed to be if you have more people than bedrooms then stick standard (if you have less then go metered.)

I looked into a water meter when my parents (new house again, compulsary meter, their bill dropped from £30 to £10 monthly)

However we are a family of four in a 3 bed so have stuck with the standard

LilacPixie

No idea about water meters v's bills as it isn't something that applies in Scotland. If sarahevie is right about the rooms v's people thing would installing a meter put off prospective buyers of your property, assuming you hope to upsize at some point?

adwat

Hi, saw your post earlier about energy meters. We bought one off ebay a couple of years ago for about £30. Umm'ed and Ahrrrr'ed about the cost for a bit before buying! It's been one of the best things I've ever bought, since having it we've saved hundreds on the electricty bill. From first plugging it in we identified appliances that were using electricity that we didn't realise (sounds obvious I know, but until you actually go round switching things on and off you simply don't realise what you're using) - the best example was the nice shiny new microwave which was sitting in the kitchen looking swanky but using 60W just sitting there switched on looking pretty but not actually doing anything. It also allows you to monitor your current energy usage and gives daily/weekly/monthly averages. 100% recommend you get one! Our monthly direct debit went from £45 down to £25 - and we still have a small credit with the leccy people, I reckon our true usage is about £20 per month now, so that's at least a 50% saving. All in about a £600 saving since buying it for £30. Bargain!

CathT

Hi Pavlov, have jut caught up and wishing you lots of luck. Re: the water mater i too have heard the more bedrooms than people rule. Not sure if this applies everywhere but you do have a 12 month 'cooling off' period and can revert back to standard billing if you wish to in the time period.

LilacPixie

PD who is your enery supplier?? NPower are giving energy away for nothing.

pavlovs_dog

just a quickie to say thanks to you all for coming in to have a natter. sorry for abandoning my thread. work is exhausting at the mo, i've been off coloour and there's a lot of family stuff going on at the mo as well. i'm reaching the stage where burning the candle at both ends is really starting to take it's toll and i can feel myself getting run down. Need to have a really good nights sleep tonight and then this weekend i need to work miracles to get myself onto a more even keel.

long overdue update due at some point this weekend, and i promise i will also respond to your comments.

there just aint enough hours in the day!

pavlovs_dog

slinks back into thread - merry christmas one and all!

well what a manic month it has been. My Nan has been in hospital for over two months now. She's been moved to a geriatric ward to convalesce. She is still plagued by this chest infection, but is otherwise much better in herself. No mention of the BIG C - it's not making her ill at the mo, and it's not treatable so there's not much can be done there. Luckily her new hospital bed is literally just up the road so I'll be able to visit more frequently.

on the school front, December was a killer. I had two courses and three trips (two of them residential and fell almost back to back) in the space of one month, and it seemed that all of my time off fell on the days when I should have had my PPA. To say I was knackered was an understatement. I have also reached the conclusion that the only thing worse than having to set cover work (work of the devil) is useless cover supervisors who don't even bother to give the class the work that you have set :eek: However what's done is done, and short of illness or snow, I have no more school days off in the pipeline for the rest of the academic year.

on the house front, my aim at the next few days is to give the place a thorough clean and tidy, with slow ongoing decluttering planned for the new year. our new sofas arrived (and fitted through the front door :j) this month, which has made the living room feel much warmer. We just need to decide on a coffee table and a new TV, and then that room is finished furniture wise (decorating and collecting decorative nick nacks will be an ongoing mission). Then I need to sit down with Oh and work out our revised budget for the new year. Bills will still be a bit inflated until the end of the financial year, but they are still comfortably within reach. Our council tax has been put up a brand in light of the extension that was done by the previous owner, so that's an extra £10 a month. Luckily we live in one of the cheapest towns in our country borough rates wise so the bill is much less than it could be.

will post back later with an update on the financial side of things. If i don't have a clean and house by then, please tell me off very severley!

pavlovs_dog

started looking at the budget side of things this morning. it's quite scary realising how little of what comes in each month is left over once the essentials have been paid. We feel quite comfy with the lifestyle we have (we're not flash by any means but not paupers either) but it's shocking to see how little cash in hand we'd have left at the end of each month. i've been very lax with the budget side of things since we moved in (largely cos i've been so busy with other things that I haven't had time to worry about it). That now needs to change so we can start chipping away at the mortgage. with an aim of taking control, i have:

*requested to have OH as an additional card user on my tesco clubcard CC, so that any household purchases he makes (usually petrol) are all in one place. Need to investigate past few months usage and try to figure out whether I have over-budgeted for this too generously.

*signed up for the grocery challenge, as this is one of the few parts of the budget we have most sway over. Want to check first of all that we are actually coming in at/under £160/month for all food, toiletries and cleaning stuff and then work to reduce it. again, all spends to go on the CC so we can track outgoings (and earn cashback too).

STILL TO DO

* utilities - can we get better value elsewhere?
* investigate whether water meter would actually work for us
* go to phone shop to sort out reducing OHs contract and getting mine sent off for repair
* agree which bits of furniture/jobs around house are our next priorities
* sit down and work out exactly how much we have in savings over the various accounts
* agree on an achieveable OP target for 2011. Are we going to increase DD or make ad-hoc payments?

my next job for this morning whilst OH sleeps - plan new years buffet (both sets of parents coming over - our first real do in the new house :j) and work out next week (or maybe even monthly) menu plan so I can go to messers Asda and Aldi later on.

katsu

Have fun at the Mr A's Pavlov. What happened about your brickwork holes?