Time to get rid of some debt! :)

fd1972uk

Hi,

Thanks for the input SBO.

Re: Your input.


Gas - I was on standard with BG, but have now moved onto websaver 12 so hoping that will have an impact over the coming months, works like a tracker type thing with I believe a 6% discuont, also works for electricity.

Internet - Sorry I didn't know how to break this down, but it is a package, equates to £55.84 per month (small line rental increase next month to come also), I have been thinking of move over to sky with practically the same package which would cost around £46.

Other Insurance - Mortgage Protection Insurance.

Presents - I've actually broken this figure down to monthly, but in general it will equate to what we save away for a year, this will take into account all birthdays and Xmas presents, basically over the course of a year we have aruond 20 kids alone to buy for.

Haircusts - We're all bald to save money. :rotfl: No only joking, we have some money ourselves (see pocket money) that we can use at times for this.


The only savings I can see are the likes of the insurances which are coming upto renewal next month, so maybe saving anywhere upto £20 for that, could save nearly £10 for Sky if I opt for that. The only other possible saving is moving to a new car, but I only have 17 months left to pay it off and not sure if tieing myself down for another 5 years with a car with lower fuel possibly (maybe upto around £100 per month saving). Question is do I just pay it all off and then I'm left with a car I only have to maintain and put petrol in, no more HP payments saving £260.00 per month.


FD

Skint_but_Optimistic

Its great youre thinking about it all. Some of the early saving are real quick wins, but things like making your own cakes and bulk cooking are the things which really help us through.
You could also sell on ebay and use that to fund your present purchasing / entertainment fund perhaps.

Read through peoples blogs and look on the old style boards and get some ideas for life changes which will make a real difference, but wont mean youre cutting back.

foxgloves

Your gas & electricty payments seem high. We pay £66 a month for both gas & electricity. Used to be more than double that but we had a look at where we were wasting energy which really is money down the drain with fuel bills now so immorally high. Do you sit at home in just t-shirts but with the heating on? Boil a full kettle for a couple of cups of tea? Keep topping up the hot bathwater? Leave lights on? Leave stuff on standby? Are you on a daytime & nighttime tariff for electricty? If so, are you making sure you set your washing machine on timer to wash when the cost per unit is 3 times cheaper? Do you use a hot wash for everything even when a 30 degree wash would do? Is the TV on as background when no-one is really concentrating on it? These are just a few suggestions. Try and do a bit of an 'audit' by looking at your family's use of energy over a week and you'll see where you can cut down. Our payments had more than halved within a year AND we had a rebate. Worth a try. It's better in your pocket than those rich company shareholders. (It's even got political here.....every time I switch something off, I think I'm fighting the system just a little....) Good luck with it.

fd1972uk

Yeah Fox, I think you could be right with some of these faults we probably have.

Was thinking of getting one of those energy meters that are free. And see how that works.


FD

edinburgher

Was thinking of getting one of those energy meters that are free. And see how that works.

Those are good if they actually help you change your habits, but useless if you're not motivated. Case in point - relatives (who have 4 TVs in a 4 bed house for two of them) got one of those meters.

For the first couple of weeks the man of the house ran round in a tizzy whenever it went 'red' (high usage), switching off lights and extension cables. Now tho, it just sits in a cupboard as they can't really be bothered changing their habits.

Foxgloves made some cracking suggestions, another few would include:

1. Switch all your light bulbs to energy saving ones - the quality of light takes a little getting used to, but you won't notice after a few months
2. See if your utility company will offer you cheap/free roof or cavity insulation, these could make a massive difference to your heating bills
3. Make sure everything gets switched off at the wall at night (as opposed to standby). An easy way to do this (well it works for us), is to put appliances on extension cable 'strips'. That way one switch can turn off four items...

fd1972uk

Yeah I noticed that about everything being switched off. There are some stuff that I couldn't switch off and I'm a little unsure about switching for example my Virgin Box off also.

Maybe as you say though the rest can go off. I'd need to take a look at the stuff and maybe re-jig some stuff.

Things that won't go off:- Alarm clock, Virgin Box (I think), Phones (x2), Bedside lights.

Think I will get one anyway and just see how it goes.

As I said the prices won't be changing for a few months, I literally just moved over to a nwe tariff a couple of weeks ago.

And in terms of wall insulation I need to call BG back, as someone was meant to call me to arrange a survey.


FD

foxgloves

Yes, admittedly our Virgin media box does stay on....the damn thing plays up so much we didn't want to throw constant reboots into the mix as well as its other problems, & we're getting rid of it soon as we've decided we watch virtually none of the extra channels, so why pay, basically. We did get one of those free electricity monitors....we are with Npower & they were giving them away. It's eye opening! That's what changed my kettle-boiling habit to be honest. In the past, I've changed suppliers about 4 times, but despite all the promises about how they are the lowest tariff, etc, the only thing that ever actually lowered our bills was auditing our own energy usage and cutting out wastage. We're quite environmentally-minded so it feels better from that point of view too.

edinburgher

Bedside lights.

Bedside lights shouldn't be drawing any current when they're off, so they're fine. Typically the power 'vampires' are things with standby modes or clocks (microwaves, computers, games consoles, TVs etc.) As long as you get these turned off.

Yeah - the Virgin box doesn't like getting turned off - accidentally did this at someone's house once to save power and they lost half a series of Dexter

fd1972uk

LOL..................... (I know I shouldn't laugh).

Yeah, I think I'll look into these free energy usage monitors.

I'll need to call them though as I'm unsure online if I'm actually signing onto another tariff? I thought they'd just give me some sort of monitor, but I'm not sure.


FD

foxgloves

Another option is to see if your local library lends energy monitors. Some do and 2 or 3 weeks hooked up to one could be all you need to have a look at what the big energy users are & give you a kickstart.