How to live on 65 per week?

2011_will_be_debt_free

paadzer wrote: »

Thanks for the tips

Mobile contract expires in April 2012 I'm afraid and is £35pcm - regardless of my employment status I will be seeking a cheaper contract when it expires (silly me for choosing an iPhone!)
Go to the phone shop and ask about another provider buying out your contract - usually its only if your upgrading but not always so if you explain that you need to downgrade, they may just be able to help you save there.

Broadband expires in April 2011 but I can't seek work without the internet. Ironically I live above the village library but the PC's are shockingly slow your not working - you have the time but cant afford to renew, also some of the agencies that the jobcentre work with will refund your travel expenses if your going in to use the internet and do jobsearch etc. and there are only 2 of them and you can't book times to use them. I live too far from the city centre to walk and I don't drive so to get there and back it would cost £3.40 for a day pass on the bus.

Gas is fine as I only have a gas hob so my average gas bill is 40p pcm :T haha, cant do better than that! :rotfl:

Electricity I am also good with. From March - October there is no heat or hot water in my flat and I use the electric shower. I am Irish so I don't feel the cold easily as I am used to freezing weather. My heating is never above 20 degrees but my boiler is some modern energy efficent pile of rubbish and still costs a lot to run regardless of the temperature (hence the reason It's off permanently from March - October). I never had the heating on when I was in bed or at work.
Good stuff.

TV licence I can cope with for now as it's not a huge amount and I love my TV shows especially at this time of the year (with Skins, Shameless, Hustle and Dancing on Ice all back on soon :rotfl: ) as well as the ongoing soaps.

If you can afford it great but dont forget the dates for your renewal of insurances - you may just need to put that money aside and then pay them with it, so just check as theres nothing worse than being caught short.

Teen_the_Drama_Queen

I would say pet insurance is a necessary evil - recently our dog spent 3 nights in our local vets whilst poorly and the total bill came in at some £900+ The monthly insurance premium is just under £30 a month, but if we had not had the insurance we would not have access to a spare £900+ lying around. Due to the insurance kicking in, we paid out a total of £85, so I would say insurance is essential when you own pets.

grumpyoldwoman41

Thanks again everyone for even more pointers, all ideas wellcome...

Paadzer - wellcome to my misearable thread....

To be honest been in bed for quite a bit, with the lights off and the heating off it is quite misearable - could not do much job search as all closed at this time, no new jobs posted anywhere - will start tomorrow.

Dog insurance stays put for variety of reasons. Yes, I know the PDSA or other charities will help with vet care but I have heard a lot about how far will they go and I do not want to have to put my dog down if I can not afford the treatment that she may need in the future (breed prone to hip displasia) and is refused by charity vets as would be simply very expensive Also, she is a big dog, nearly 40kg, non agressive but still... Scared the hell out of me when she run after a fox one night, right across a street that is normally pretty busy. When I said she has sensitive stomach I did not mean fussy with food, I meant she gets ill - saving on food and having to pay out for the vet to sort out runny poo/vomiting etc etc and having an ill dog is not an option. Especially that the nearest vet that treats under PDSA or ather charity is quite far from me, I do not have a car, often refused to get on a bus with my girl as she is big, cabs are very expensive and still they too refuse to take dogs her size - in emergency, what would I do? Everything else will go but not her insurance and food.

Feeling pretty misearable - good I have my pets to keep me company... I do not expect people who do not have pets to understand what they mean to me...

Just fried some beef burgers and had to fight the cats for them...LOL Dog is as good as gold but expalin "this is my food" to cats... no way.. they are still babies and had to almost elbow them from my plate. Not that they are hungry, just cats being cats

2011_will_be_debt_free

grumpyoldwoman41 wrote: »

Thanks again everyone for even more pointers, all ideas wellcome...

Paadzer - wellcome to my misearable thread....

To be honest been in bed for quite a bit, with the lights off and the heating off it is quite misearable - could not do much job search as all closed at this time, no new jobs posted anywhere - will start tomorrow.
I know the feeling (unfortunatly)

Dog insurance stays put for variety of reasons. Yes, I know the PDSA or other charities will help with vet care but I have heard a lot about how far will they go and I do not want to have to put my dog down if I can not afford the treatment that she may need in the future (breed prone to hip displasia) and is refused by charity vets as would be simply very expensive Also, she is a big dog, nearly 40kg, non agressive but still...
I have a 45kg + dog and have got to the point of having to cancel the insurance - when the debts get to the point where you have to choose between feeding them or insuring them - food comes first.tbh insurance can serve as a way to put your dog through more hell than it needs to as a money maker too, or it can find a very silly but legal way to avoid paying out too, so although its a great luxury to have, IMO you can be firm with the vets and tell them your dog needs treatment and the charity you are using is there for that purpose and so its there to be used as you have paid your registration fee and also if you donate each time you go its still cheaper than insurance but they know your not just taking advantage of a charity. Scared the hell out of me when she run after a fox one night, right across a street that is normally pretty busy. Then a lead is needed in areas where there are roads. When I said she has sensitive stomach I did not mean fussy with food, I meant she gets ill - saving on food and having to pay out for the vet to sort out runny poo/vomiting etc etc and having an ill dog is not an option. Especially that the nearest vet that treats under PDSA or ather charity is quite far from me, I do not have a car, you can use your own vet with PDSA if you want to often refused to get on a bus with my girl as she is big, cabs are very expensive and still they too refuse to take dogs her size - in emergency, what would I do? But youd still have to get her to your own vet? emergency fees etc?Everything else will go but not her insurance and food.
But the insurance money would go towards her food surley? Also, look into supplements like Slippery Elm Bark Powder from Holland & Barrett - its a good stand-by to have for dogs with IBD/IBS. For sickness usually an ant-acid like Tums will sort that out and the powder firms them up and eases their gut.
You could see if you could get a 0% CC ONLY for stand-by incase of vet fees - then probably cheaper than Insurance. Only if you can be strict with it though.

Feeling pretty misearable - good I have my pets to keep me company... I do not expect people who do not have pets to understand what they mean to me...
I know exactly what you mean as I have pets...

Just fried some beef burgers and had to fight the cats for them...LOL Dog is as good as gold but expalin "this is my food" to cats... no way.. they are still babies and had to almost elbow them from my plate. Not that they are hungry, just cats being cats

Cats are worse!
Only you can decide whether or not the insurance stays but you may be helping her more to let it go for now and be able to afford to keep her than get more debt...then when you are in a better position you can take out the luxury of Pet Insurance?

I have to put up with NHS and my dog has the equivalent (PDSA) When I have the ability to freely afford luxuries for all of us then I can think about insurance (although from past experiences with them, it will be a 0% card and a 'pet savings' account.

Please don't think that we are considering your pets as 'lesser' or not important - that isnt the case.

taehc

Insurance-if you can afford it then fair enough, if not then you need to decide if it is worth keeping and losing internet etc. If your dog is prone to hips issues check that the insurance would pay out in the event of a claim. My GSD had been certified as no hip issues but most insurers won't cover it as she gets older due to high risk in her breed. (Also same issues with horse insurance)

Pet food- What breed of dog do you have? What is the food you use just now and can you afford it? If not how do you pay for it? Do look around, we bought expensive food for our GSD-doggy IBS got very ill on 'normal' food. in the end have found that Dr John's working dog food is a much better feed for her stomach and general health and comes in at £8.50-9.50/ 15kg bag.

I know that you don't want to risk your pets which is totally understandable but you can't spend what you don't have so you need to find alternatives that allow you to keep your pets healthy long term. Hopefully you will have a new job in a few months and this will all be a nasty memory but just now you have to make some changes that will allow you to keep your animals and feed yourself..

Cutting back on anything is hard because it often feels like we are taking the cheap option and therefore inferior quality but this is not always the case esp. with pet food. Good luck with everything and for 2011.

Doom_and_Gloom

energysavingexp wrote: »

not true about not needing a licence if you have a computer with internet access because it is capable of recieving live tv on bbc and and itv not just iplayer

I stated it is perfectly legal to watch programmes on players such as 4OD/i-player. I also stated "as long as you are not watching live TV, as in not watching it while it is being broadcast" you do not need a licence and even quoted the follwowing "As new technology makes it possible to watch TV on more devices than ever you need to make sure that you remain properly licensed.
If you watch or record television programmes as they're being shown on TV you must, by law, be covered by a TV Licence, no matter what device you're using" from the TV licence website.
I covered the fact that you can not watch live TV no matter what device you use. Even though it is capable as it stands you do not need to have a licence unless you do indeed use your laptop/mobile etc to watch live TV.
If you go on the TV licence website you will see that what I have put is correct.

Derivative

A TV license is NOT required to own a computer with broadband access.
It is a criminal offence to watch live TV without a license, or to control a device which you know will be used for the above.

A computer does not reasonably fall into either. Whereas a TV's primary use is to watch live TV (with the secondary uses of games consoles, DVDs, etc) - a computer with net access has thousands of potential uses, of which TV viewing has only popped up in the last few years.

There is nothing legally stopping you from watching iPlayer shows 30 minutes after they're shown on the official site.

My point is that the law as it stands is unenforcable in the case of watching live TV on iPlayer. I do not know of any case in which this has been put to the courts.

I have a strong viewpoint on this as I believe the TV license is essentially money down the drain. While the BBC do provide decent journalism and a wide range of services, you can save hundreds in license/electricity/hardware/opportunity costs by turning the blasted box off and doing something more useful with your time. I'd rather a good newspaper or book any day, cheaper and more stimulating.

Source: http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/playing_tv_progs/tvlicence

grumpyoldwoman41

Can I please ask all the TV License gurus to start another, separate thread on that particular topic - somewhere else?
Thanks a lot.

*********************

Taehc - thanks for posting....

I still feed my dog (GS) Orijen as got a bit of supply at home, still did not cancel the insurance, keeping it till the last moment...

Can you give me the link to where do you buy the food you mention? How much does it work out per day? My dog is 40kg in weight, she eats about 350g Orijen per day which works out juzt under £40. I got enough for another 3-4 months as always ordered in bulk (delivery charges) so got some time to prepare (if I really have to).

Thanks a lot

grumpyoldwoman41

2001 will be debt free - my regular vet is within a walking distance (but and they do not treat animals under PDSA), PDSA is a bus and tube ride away (cost/time) I am afraid.

I can not get a 0% CC or any CC for that matter..

Thanks for posting , missed your post before due to the TV License discussions going on here....

taehc

http://www.gilpa.co.uk/product.php?shopprodid=8

They sell it here but only small bags, but still cheeper and they deliver.Their guidelines for large dogs 25-45kg are 370-700g/day. Our bag isn't even half done (15kg) and thats been a month, but she is on a diet after spending 10 months at my dads, whilst we renovated, getting spoiled.

I buy it from the farm where I keep my horse but http://www.gilpa.co.uk/suppliers.php?pageid=1 this link allows you to look for local stockists.

Good luck and I hope you get a new job soon, you are in a position that I think most people dread ending up in.