Sparkerly's SOA

Sparkerly

LillythePink wrote: »

What's your HP for?

Is your buildings and contents insurance really that low? Who are you with? I only ask because ours is £75pm - we are with a local firm

Will your house be worth more when finished?

I know you mentioned about your life assurance - we pay £200 pm for ours, so yours does seem excessive and ours isn't cheap!

Where do you shop over there?

Surely you do spend more than £20 pm on petrol - I know it's cheaper than the UK, but still......

The reduction on your gas dd - will it be enough to cover your gas bill? Are you in credit with them now? Is gas your only heating? If so, in one respect, I would be tempted to have kept the dd higher so that I don't have any big bills coming in which then go on the cc!

I'm lucky, I don't have gas, but have oil - but it's still expensive compared to the UK

Hp is for a new boiler and range cooker and also my daughters Xmas present of a new lap top. Think one thing I am realising is that I am spoiling my kids to make sure they have everything they want unlike me as a kid.

I was with a local firm and had high insurance costs as we have a flat roof, but used an insurance comparision website and reduce the cost by £100 a year.

Sparkerly

RAS wrote: »

Hi

On the utility side, do you have a watertank. Get a screw driver and set the temperature to 60 degees. Will reduce your electricity and gas bills.

I have jsut reduced my water temperature to 60ish - not sure as its on a dial but in the region of that. And attempted to reduce the times the water heater is on, but not quite sure I figured how the timer works. Gonna get OH to look at it shortly.

Sparkerly

Wish me luck time to talk to OH about SOA, had a brief talk before and voices became raised, but I know that now is the time to deal with it before it gets worse!!!!

Tixy

Good luck sparkerly. I'm sure if he sees the figures all written down he will realise the same as you have done over the day, and it is certainly much easier to cut back and debt bust if you have the family on board.

elaine12022

Hi I recommend 'the Takeaway secrets' book which has it's own thread on here - lots of different home takeaways to try out, which you can personalise - and actually can be much tastier usually.

Good luck with sorting everything out, hope all the family can pull together.

beanielou

Hope it goes well.

sophieschoice

I've been to Guernsey a couple of times and know that the price of food over there is truly horrendous.
Would it be possible for the OP to start growing some of their own food?
Alternatively, they have 'hedge veg' over there where you can pick your own from the roadside and leave the money in an honesty box.
I do know that people, particularly the more wealthy, pay a premium for house cleaners so maybe take a job cleaning for now?

nic_santorini

Did you say one of your children is just about to start school? If this is the case, surely you can pop them into state school now and the upheaval will be much less and then explain the situation and if things change, then schooling can change. I am sure they are old enough to understand. There are some really easy savings here, its just whether you want to take them and live an easier existence.

firesidemaid

Sparkerly wrote: »

I have jsut reduced my water temperature to 60ish - not sure as its on a dial but in the region of that. And attempted to reduce the times the water heater is on, but not quite sure I figured how the timer works. Gonna get OH to look at it shortly.

I played about with our hot water temp after reading a book - why do we run hot water into a bath/sink, only to add cold to it? so i reduced it down so it was the right temp from the tap. have showers to save even more money.

re. OH - you have to remember that you are way ahead of him, have started to have your LB moment and have all this good advice from here - he hasn't benefitted from that yet - so may take a while to sink in.

perhaps you could work out, how much WORSE off you will be in one or two years if you continue to spend at your current rate?

ViolaLass

The recipes you have been given for pizza base look fine to me but I just wanted to add that we make pizza all the time and we just use whichever bread dough recipe we fancy that day. If anyone wants to cry 'not authentic' at me, I'm Italian! All that really matters is that you like it and (in the OP's case) that it is easy and cheaper. (If, on the other hand, you want to pineapple on your pizza then I might have something to say ;-) ... )

I think if I were in your position, I would consider whether any one of the children could be moved at this stage. I can't comment on the state schools where you are but I attend state and private and although private gave me some great opportunities, I wouldn't have liked my parents to run themselves into the position you're in to send me there. I would have done fine in the state schools (and there were plenty of opportunities outside school).