NOt been this low before

BenS1

Re: Council tax, it's included in the rent. Not had any notices through the door about it not being paid.

Gas and electricity, I know it's high. I wonder about the efficiency of the house, we're using energy saving bulbs in our room but not sure on the other 2 rooms (another couple. and a girl in the house too). It's been annoying me for a while, there's been a few times when the lights have been on even through no one's in the room. Example is I noticed the bathroom light on last night when I was walking up the stairs to the main door, and turned it off. Had to do that with the bathroom, corridor, dining room lights alot, even though I've told people to turn them off when not being used. Once saw the washing machine on without any clothes in it.

Mobile phone, I'm on contract. Took it out in April, which is a 18 months so that finishes in September IIRC. Was on a sim only deal for 7 months, but then upgraded and took out the contract to get a new phone.

Groceries is a very grey area. I'll be honest and say it's for 3 people. Remember in my second post in this thread and mentioned my girlfriend's friend being over? She's a student and stays here 4 days a week as it's easier for her to commute to university. It's been like this for about 4 months now, and I'm getting sick of it. I'm very flexible when it comes down to food (had a bowl of soup last night for dinner, sandwich for breakfast today), while her friend is a very fussy one. End of, the friend isn't contributing anything for rent, gas, electric and not even food. I don't have lunch breaks during weekdays. I do work 5pm-9pm, and half way at 7 we get a 10 minute break. Weekends, well it's my first weekend at work but I can manage without lunch.

Might try and cut back on clothing, it depends on how this job goes, considering that we did clothes shopping in the weekend.

Emergency fund, I put in for the "house fund". Stuff everyone uses like toilet paper, kitchen roll, washing liquid etc.

Monthly payment-wise: I got defaults on HSBC and Orange. HSBC is an overdraft. Capital One and RBS are ok for now. Capital One, they been calling me even through direct debit worked this month. Capital One is surviving on minimum payment direct debit. Ain't got any payment plans setup for the others.

Something strange happening, I got a RBS basic account like I mentioned and I thought I couldn't dip in a negative balance. Orange took out their direct debit whch got my balance to £0.54. Capital One direct debit came through, and it looks like it got processed. I did miss the last payment last month, but according to my online banking £59 got taken out even through I thought it would have bounced if it was a basic account. So I currently have a -£58 balance on a basic account. It said 5th March, and usually payment has to reach Capital One by 7th of each month.

Right, got to get ready for work but hope that this gives you some information to work out a plan for me. Hopefully I'll be back here at the end of my shift once I got home at 7.

Nottoobadyet

Yikes, thats not on at all mate. Sounds like you need to have a talk with your GF. Did you say before that even your GF wasn't contributing to rent until you were made redundant? Sorry if I misread that, but it doesn't sound very fair to me at all.

BenS1

Nottoobadyet wrote: »

Yikes, thats not on at all mate. Sounds like you need to have a talk with your GF. Did you say before that even your GF wasn't contributing to rent until you were made redundant? Sorry if I misread that, but it doesn't sound very fair to me at all.

Evening all, just got back from work.

We were going halves on rent before I was made redundant. She has kindly been covering my share of rent since my redundancy. It's her friend who hasn't been contributing anything towards bills or food since she has been living here half the time. If it was just us, then it wouldn't be a problem. Certainly our expenses would go down. When it's just me and my partner here, we buy supermarket brand stuff for things like kidney beans, tuna and cereal.

I've made the SOA based on since I've found work again so rent is £220 each, and for food etc.

Jesthar

Sounds like you really need to have a word with your friend, Ben. Staying with you is one thing, but freeloading like that isn't fair - no way I could stay with someone long term without contributing! Could just tell her the truth - you've had to take a major paycut, and need some help with the groceries and utilities? She should at least buy her own food if she insists on being fussy,and not contributing to utilities is rather impolite. You never know, she might be very willing to contribute, just embarrassed to ask? If not, then you might need go the whole way and tell her you're very sorry, but you just can't afford for her to stay any more.

Elec and gas - that sounds very wierd. To be honest, things like lights are annoying, but unless the place is lit up like a Christmas tree then it's not going to result in bills that size. The real energy eaters are things that generate heat - central heating, hot water, cooking appliances, tumble driers, electric heaters etc. Check your thermostat and central heating/hot water timers, heating doesn't need to be on all the time, and if you have a hot water cylinder (not hot water on demand) then a couple of hours a day (once in the morning, once in the evening) should be enough. Drawing curtains and using draught excluders can help keep a house a lot warmer, even if you already have double glazing - make sure curtains get tucked down the back of radiators to stop the heat going straight out the windows. Putting on a jumper is far more effective and cost efficient than turning up the heat, too

If you are allowed, you might also want to see if you can find a better enery tarrif? Or is the landlord controlling that?

~Jes

Nottoobadyet

BenS1 wrote: »

Evening all, just got back from work.

We were going halves on rent before I was made redundant. She has kindly been covering my share of rent since my redundancy. It's her friend who hasn't been contributing anything towards bills or food since she has been living here half the time.

Gotcha, sorry for misunderstanding.