Quarter of the way there and full speed ahead

elantan

gallygirl wrote: »

And THIS is why I don't think spending 7k on solar is a good idea. You've just remortgaged to relieve some of the pressure on you and Mr El. Neither of you are in the best of health. I think you'd be wrong to do it right now. The £315 you've overspent is on life, not on anything exceptional, and as you've said, you don't have any emergency savings to call on.

In my opinion the panels are a WANT, not a NEED. I know you're thinking ahead, but I think you need to sort out the here and now 1st. There will be time enough in the future for things like that, and the costs are coming down all the time.

Sorry, I know I'm a voice in the wilderness here but it made me feel uncomfortable to be honest El. Hope I haven't upset you with being so blunt.

GG x

GG you havent upset me at all ... i truthfully value your input and am grateful for it

you are very right that if we chose to get solar panels it would be a want and not a need, as i say nothing is set in stone at this point, we are just mulling about options, there is a kinda timeframe on it though as the F.I.T will change again and make it less worth our while to do.

there would be so many things to wade through before we decided to go ahead, i still dont even have a price for a system at this stage, a friend just spent £12k on a system which would not work for us, in fact anything over £7k wouldnt work for us, we still have a long way to go but we are thinking ahead to our future early retirement as well as to live in the present.

if we do decide to go ahead with it we will then have to seriously look at the finances, we may have the option of being able to borrow from family for free, or we we have to find the cheapest way to go ahead, we wouldnt then go ahead unless everything was fully in place.

We dont officially have any emergency savings but we have overpaid the mortgage to the extent that should worst come to worst we could get money back from the mortgage, while this isnt an ideal situation it does mean we dont have to panic about emergency savings, we do also have the money tied up in the n@tionwide 5% account just now as well (£2,5k) which could also be used as emergency savings should we need it.

you are totally right as well in that the overspend last month was on life, nothing extraordinary like car breakdowns etc, i have to admit i was really surprised at how much we did overspend and it is something i will be addressing, whilst it was an overspend it didnt take us back into debt, it just meant that holiday spending money was wiped out last month, and that is something we cant afford to happen this month (or in future tbh) i do feel though that that in itself has taught us to keep an eye on our budgets, i'm pretty positive that throughout our lives we have overspent many many times, however as we wern't recording anything we were un aware of it, being aware of it has made us more determined to stay on top of it, hence the menu planning being back in place etc.

southerndave

I have to say I agree with Gallygirl 100% here. I'd stabalise the here and now and worry about what are frankly huge comittments later. Solar panels are, in my opinion, a bit of a minefield - we have looked into them too. So far as we could work out, at very best you break even or even make a little profit, but over a long period. Certainly for the first years, not months, your more in debt. There are so many pitfalls that we decided there was too much room for things to go wrong and like everything else that seems too good to be true, we didn't want to be locked into it for decades.

Keep it simple!

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi El, I've been thinking about this as well. If you wanted to move house in the future, then you would have spent the cash and not benefitted from all of the rewards.

I would be more inclined to OP the mortgage and own more of the house outright.

Good luck with your mulling - best wishes Tilly x x

elantan

Thanks for taking the time to respond Dave as I say we're just at the finding out stage, it may be right for us it may not be, but it's good to get a balanced view

Can I ask though

1) how much we're you being quoted for your system ?
2) in what way was it a mine field ?
3) what pitfalls did you discover?

The answers may help us know more

We have a lot still to learn but I have found a thread with very helpful people on the ethical board so am a bit more wiser about it all than I was previously, still got a lot to learn of that I am in no doubt, but for those over on the board that have chosen to get sola panels fitted they seem to have no regrets so far.

Before we decide we will weigh up the pros and cons and find out all that we can, it appears its a chance to double our money, which is better than you would get in an ISA, yes that takes a long time to make any money but it appears its not unknown

elantan

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS wrote: »

Hi El, I've been thinking about this as well. If you wanted to move house in the future, then you would have spent the cash and not benefitted from all of the rewards.

I would be more inclined to OP the mortgage and own more of the house outright.

Good luck with your mulling - best wishes Tilly x x

Hi Tilly,

Thanks, we did add this into our ponderings but tbh both of us love our house and can't ever see ourselves moving, our plans in retirement may include renting the house whilst we travel but that's really all, we may divide the house into two houses ( one for renting one for living in) but anything we do in that area won't be for a long time, by then the FIT would no longer be being paid

nattypants

Hi El / hi all

Just to add to the solar panel discussion, a 'renewables energy' lecturer (well boffin really), told me approximately a year ago that he wouldn't recommend solar panels, as they slowly disintegrate and lose effectiveness over time - or words to that effect. Anyway, after 10 years or so the repair costs kick in.....

I hope this helps X

elantan

Thanks Natty every bit helps

Buffythedebtslayer

I haven't got a clue but thought I would say hello!

xx

elantan

Hi Buffy, hope your good xxx

elantan

I miss Z .. He's been away so long now ... Hope he comes back