"Simply not solvent!

Seaxwyn

Oh I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your dad. I'm certain he would be very proud of you and pleased to know that he enabled you to halve your debt.

I feel a little the same way as you, although I'm lucky that my parents are alive and well. My dad lent us the deposit to buy our house, so I would feel I'd let him down if I couldn't keep it.

Best of luck in paying off the remaining 50k and thanks for your encouragement, I will keep a look out for your posts and lets hope both of us have a good debt-busting 2007.

AndyR_3

Seaxwyn wrote:

I agree gas and elec seem high. Gas bill is due in Feb so I will see what the damage is and review switching. But I'm sceptical about saving much by switching as I have done this several times so the so-called best deals, and never noticed a drop in price.

Last spring I got a shock when my winter gas bill came, but it had been cold and we'd had the heating on a lot. Now I'm much more careful with it - the timer is set to come on for 30 minutes in the morning and that's it. Sometimes I'll put it on for an hour in the evenings if I'm at home and it's really cold, but before doing that I'll make sure I'm wearing two jumpers. I sleep with two duvets on my bed and I close the curtains early to conserve warmth. I'm lucky that I live in a flat so benefit from "free" heat from next door's flat and the ones above and below me. I've turned the temperature right down in my spare room and dining room as I don't need to keep these rooms warm. My PC is in the bedroom and I have a TV in there, so if it is cold in an evening I will just heat that one room.

I'm hoping this winter's gas bill will be a lot less.

Can you cut back on gas used in the same way? Even turning the heating temperature down a little will have an effect. I work shifts and realised that, last year, I was often paying to heat my flat when I was actually out at work, or round at a friend's house, completely un-necessery. Equally I'm trying to reduce hot water used - I no longer wash up if I've just eaten a sandwich off a plate and had a cup of tea, I leave the washing up in the sink and do one lot after my dinner. Showers not baths should also save some money on gas.

With electric, I've taken similar steps - the PC now gets turned off when not in use, and lights are always off except for those being used. I've put low energy bulbs (which I got free from the freebie board here) in the lights I use most often. TV/DVD etc are never left on standby. Even "silly" steps like unplugging the microwave (so I'm not wasting electricity prowering a clock which doesn't tell the right time anyway) should save a few pence. I even charge my mobile up at work, so use their power not mine!

If your house is draughty, could you block the draughts using old towels or blankets?

You might find more ideas on the "green and ethical" section on cutting these bills without changing supplier.

Also, have you taken up-to-date meter readings? My water meter was never read, so I just paid what they estimated. In reality, when I did read the meter, it turned out I'd over-paid by so much that I was in credit for the next nine months!

Seaxwyn

Hi Andy

Thanks for all those suggestions. I'll have a good look on the green and ethical board.

I'm nervous about the gas bill, no idea what it will be. Last time I checked the meter and they had overestimated so we didn't have to pay anything - so the next bill should be accurate at least.

We have the heating on for an hour in the morning and an hour or two in the evening, and sometimes more when it has been cold. Our house is really badly insulated and something I mean to do and never got round to is turning off the radiators in the bedrooms as we really should only heat the rooms we spend most time in awake!

Washing up - I am dreadful about rinsing stuff under a hot running tap, I will stop that from now- thanks for the reminder!

I'm sure there is lots of room for improvement in energy use, particularly gas, so I will resolve to tackle that.

Thanks

Seaxwyn

First off if anyone reads this and knows how to bookmark a thread could you tell me?

A blow today: found out that our December mortgage payment was not made. This was an Alliance & Leicester c*ck-up. I could write a long rant about their useless switching service but the real point is that I am now making two mortgage payments in January, the month I also have to pay a tax bill, so will definitely end the month deeper in debt that I realised.

Also I'm ashamed that I hadn't spotted the omission, after all I checked the account online enough times. It's shaken my confidence, I thought I was dealing with things responsibly but perhaps my head really is still in the sand as dogrose said

So that is very depressing.

On the plus side I have loads of freelance work waiting to be done. If I could only cure myself of my time-wasting habits I could earn more than enough to cover our outgoings and make inroads into the debts. Most urgently of all I need to give in my notice at my part-time job. I have developed a paralysis when in the company of my scary boss, I just can't bring up the subject no matter how hard I rehearse my speech on the way to work.

Must must do it tomorrow.

Dumyat

oh that is bad news Seaxwyn. But giving up is not an option now. Its shaken your confidence but learn from it and keep going.
good luck with the boss! You have to raise your income, no time to be "nice". get cracking on those freelance jobs.

Seaxwyn

I actually managed to give in my notice, hooray!

I'd been stressing over this for a whole month, but my boss took it really well, she couldn't have been nicer. That is a huge relief.

I've done a few sums and worked out that if I manage to do all the freelance work I've contracted to, I will earn on average £757.50 a week between now and June - that's £590.85 after tax. On top of that I get regular other little jobs so the figure should be higher.

Now I just have to get on and do this work. I'm the most awful procrastinator and waste literally hours each day (much of it on this website). I need to cure this problem. Today I'm going to buy a diary that has the day divided up into quarter hour chunks, so I can record what I'm doing. I hope this will shame me into concentrating on work, and it will help me bill for my time more accurately too.

If anyone out there is a freelance juggling different clients plus childcare etc, I'd love to talk about how you manage your time.

Thanks for reading! Onward and upward....

hypno06

I am very definate about my "working time" and split my week up as follows:

Monday - earmarked for catching up with paperwork, accounts etc. Also gives me a day for mystery shopping and other tasks, bank etc.

Tues Weds and Thurs - before 10 am is non work time - get the children sorted for school, time for shower, have another coffee, whizz the hoover round, get the washing machine and dishwasher on, have another coffee etc.

Then from 10 til 4 I work. If I am not seeing clients, then I make an effort to still do work based things - more paperwork, sort out how to get more clients in, etc etc.

From 4-7 I do dinner, spend time with the children etc.

Once or twice a week I need to see clients in the evening so they come to me after 7, once the children are more or less in bed.

Fridays I try and earmark as my day off - no plans, but often I see clients on that day, but only when Tues Weds and Thurs are full! Fridays are last to be filled in my client diary!

I only see clients on a weekend when absolutely necessary, so very rarely - this is family time for us.

So, you can see that I have a full week but it only works because I am disciplined and set myself work time and family time.

I am not saying that I stick to it rigidly - for example if a client can only make a Monday, I will not turn them away, just because it is admin day, and if I get a phone call from someone who needs help at 3.30 in the afternoon, then I will do my best to juggle things so I can help, but only if there is no alternative.

The new diary will help, but you have to be determined yourself, no one else can be disciplined for you!

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Seaxwyn

Thanks Hypno

I will have to work out a plan, and I like your approach of separating admin from actual work.

I work as a writer and editor so my working time is spent sitting at the computer, and it is so tempting to pop across to MSE, read the news, reply to an email, whatever, in the middle of working. The computer is my biggest problem.

I will work out a timetable permitting myself short computer breaks, maybe a quarter of an hour every three hours or so. How do you fit computer stuff into your timetable?

hypno06

As a complementary therapist, when I am with clients I am away from the computer, so no temptation there. Between clients I nip on and catch up. I allow myself a much needed coffee break when I am doing admin for 20 mins or so every couple of hours which can be happily spent on MSE, but that still means that 1 hr 40 out of the 2 hours has been spent on admin.

Also, sometimes, admin includes MSE stuff, like working out finances, priorities, snowballs, ebaying bits and changing phone suppliers etc, so being on this board is often part of the productive work. Just because you are on MSE doesn't mean you are wasting time, just means that you need to look at the bigger picture and get everything into perspective. If you are looking on the internet at shops you can't afford, then that is something that needs to be cut, but if you are looking at ways to get your life in order, well that is ok in moderation!

Seaxwyn

Yes "in moderation" is the key! I have learned loads from MSE and think it's a fantastic site, but can't really justify following every diary thread every day! I have a similar weakness for the Amazon sellers' discussion board, various friends' blogs, even reading the news holds great attractions. Luckily I have completely cured myself of an addiction to Freecell, so there's hope in sight.

To earn my target £575.50/week I will have to do 31.5 billable hours each week so can't afford to spend lots of unbillable time at the computer too.

I'm holding out high hopes of my new diary!