Hooooooooooooooray!!!!!!!!!!!!

kippers

No such luck! Hubby earns £19,000 and i earn £8 per hour 12 hours a week, so we always miss out on any benefits. I sometimes get fed up about this and wonder why i bother to work..but then realise if i didn't the kids couldn't afford swimming lessons or piano lessons etc and at least we aren't renting so we are very lucky really (though i have to really work hard not to compare myself to my friends who seem to have pots of money, but they may be hiding loads of debt that we don't know about).

Anyway thanks id wondered how you qualified for a warmfront grant.

littlescarlet

Well done Kippers for being in credit!

IMHO you should go for the central heating loan if you can get it at 0% for five years or whatever. We had a new boiler and central heating system installed and it saved us loads. We have a 4 bed 1970's house, not the best insulated, and the new combi boiler services central heating and water heating and we have a gas hob. Our monthly gas bill is £29, half what the heating bill was before.

Alitigger

bananakinz wrote:

Well done!

Jan grocery challenge £200: Week 1: £12.88 Week 2: £42.51 week 3: £40.23 week 4: £40. 09 (total = £135.80 )

I'm stunned - just trying to get below that 4-week total for one week !!
(There's 3 of us, plus 1 @ Uni being supplemented)

Now tell me how on earth you can get your spend that low...!!
Is there just the one of you ?

littlescarlet

Alitigger wrote:

I'm stunned - just trying to get below that 4-week total for one week !!
(There's 3 of us, plus 1 @ Uni being supplemented)

Now tell me how on earth you can get your spend that low...!!
Is there just the one of you ?

Altigger, it is possible to get down to £200 for three, and still eat well. I used to spend £450 per month at the supermarket and I am averaging £200 pm now after some serious budgeting. PM me if you want some ideas.

gb57

Dear Kippers

I don't think you should feel bad, comparing yourselves with friends who seem better off. I think you should feel PROUD that on a relatively low income and without "benefits" you are living within your means, buying your home, and bringing up your children, including some treats for them (swimming and piano lessons). Hopefully they will grow up knowing the value of money.

As I am an old bat in my late 50s I would say that when I was growing up everyone struggled to survive. Nowadays a lot of people appear to be very well off, not struggling at all, but how much of it is done by running up huge debts?

Congratulations to you, I think you are to be applauded (and I hope you get the money for the central heating soon - perhaps you could send the kids up chimneys on their days off school:rotfl: ).

Gill

Punkygoth

well done thats brilliant! this site really is a big help:T

lateralam

kippers wrote:

Thanks everyone...yes you are right i must start to look at everything to see if further cut backs can be made so we can get our heating quicker. We have just received a quote through our council for £3300 for complete new heating system. We are going to apply for an interest free loan thru energy wise (via the council) over 2 years or 5 years if we are lucky. We found this info from this site. But we do have to put down a deposit first.

Hopefully we can pay the loan monthly and save a little in our bank account each month as well. However, taking a loan scares me but it is soooo cold in our house as the heating system we have now is expensive and rubbish. At least this way we won't pay interest.

I am worried about the interest rate rising again on our morgage as our payments are now £517 p/m. We are locked into this morgage until July, but then we will change.

Thanks again all

Hi there this is my first post on MSE. When I did the heating in my flat 5 years ago, I ordered all the radiators, boiler, etc, etc from a company I found in Exchange & Mart. You supply them with the volumes of all the rooms you want radiators in and they work out the sizes you need and the bolier needed. They then supply all the parts that a CORGI plumber will need to install everything, except for the copper pipes and insulating materials. This all came to around £800 at the time. It then cost me about £1000 for a plumber to fit everything. Might be worth getting a copy of E & M and some quotes from local plumbers to do it this way. If you don't know anyone that can recommend a plumber then try asking in a small local plumbers merchants. I found an excellent plumber this way, some years back.

nicoliyah

Good for you! Well Done. Its inspiring to know that someone can do it especially as my debt free date seems so far off!