Onwards and upwards....

marlasinger

Went to Home Bargains for the first time yesterday and picked up a few bits and bobs. Was most impressed by the recycling caddy liners - 20 for £0.99, whereas in Morrisons is about £2.49 for 20. I begrudge paying it every time. :mad: But I'm quite happy having picked that up.

I'm also going to do my weekly shop in Asda today, rather than Morrisons again in the hope of saving some pennies. Must sit down and do a list though!!

Transferred £100 to the yearly spend pot. It really needs to be closer to £180 a month but better than nothing. Things are a bit tight this month.

I don't think I'll be able to OP more than my usual £150 this month which bums me out a bit, but I mustn't lose sight of the fact that I'll have made over £1,000 in OPs since November.

We are about to go to an open house today in our local area. Not quite sure what this is achieving - partly being nosy I suppose but also to see what is in our price range. Also, it's a bit of a reality-check that sometimes houses that look gorgeous on Right Move may not be all that in the flesh.

marlasinger

Not much progress on the OPs. We've had some larger than expected expenses this week due to our dog having a few complications after neutering and needing extra meds and vet visits.

I'm going to change the OP standing order by the increase in my monthly pay from the tax code change. I think it's an extra £20 per month. I'm also going to pay over any overtime I receive (gross amount). It's not much, most months it's not even 5 hours, but at least it's something.

Still doing surveys - up to £6.20 on OnePoll. I need £40 before I can claim it, so it will probably take me several months as I seemed to get screened out of loads of surveys (because I don't have kids).

Did the monthly shop in Lidl. Pleasantly surprised by the variety and prices.

That's it for now, not much of an update really.

Edit: Oh, regarding those recycling caddies I picked up from Home Bargains that I was so impressed with (see previous post)....they don't bloody fit! They are only 5L capacity, whereas our bins are around 8L. D'oh!

marlasinger

Edited for privacy

marlasinger

I've signed up to Digital Trends Panel and downloaded their web meter software. Apparently I should get £15 at the end of 30 days and then £5 every 90 days. Anyone tried this?

SomersetSaver

marlasinger wrote: »

Instead of burying my head in the sand, I've gone out and read the water meter. It's showing 915. Our previous reading on 01 Nov 12 was 872, and before that on 19 Apr 12, it was 799. So previously we used 73 cubic metres in 6 months, and currently we are at 43 cubic metres for the last 5 months.

Since April 2011 we've consumed around 72 cubic metres every 6 months, so we've cut down, but I know we can cut down even more.

Hi Marlasinger
Rather a belated reply (I'm more of a lurker at the moment not being in a position to OP, but am picking up lots of tips from people!) but I am also in the SW, in a house of 2 adults. We use 27 cubic metres every 6 months (which has gone up and which I'm trying to cut down); are you sure you don't have any leaks? We have around 2 showers a day between us (sometimes more if we go for a run or something), dishwasher on around once a week and washing machine about 3 times a week. Just in case you need something to compare it against!
Obviously if you use a lot of water outside (car washing, gardening etc) and baths every day (we hate them have about 1 a year lol!) then you would be very different, so just trying to give you a comparison to a similar sized household.
Hope that helps
SS

marlasinger

Hi SS, thanks for posting.

Wow - 27 cubic metres per 6 months? :eek: That's really good. I'm quite sure we don't have a leak (we used to have 2!) as I have taken meter readings an hour apart when we know there is no water usage and the meter hasn't moved.

I've just googled average water consumption and come up with this:

http://www.ccwater.org.uk/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.913

It says for a 2 person household, the annual water usage in cubic metres is 55 for low, 110 for average, and 136 for high. So you'd be a low user, and I think I will now fit into average.

We used to have a bath each every day; now we have switched to showers. We use the washing machine probably 3 or 4 times and we don't have a dishwasher. We rarely use the tap outside. We did used to do loads of full toilet flushes, whereas now we are more careful about using the half flusher. I also half fill the sink when doing the dishes instead of all the way up. So, there's still loads of room for improvement, but to be honest I can't think of many other ways to cut down without feeling deprived. :eek: I suppose I can try to stay below average - so less than 110 cubic metres a year, that would be a start (and would certainly help with the bills). :j

SomersetSaver

marlasinger wrote: »

Hi SS, thanks for posting.

Wow - 27 cubic metres per 6 months? :eek: That's really good. I'm quite sure we don't have a leak (we used to have 2!) as I have taken meter readings an hour apart when we know there is no water usage and the meter hasn't moved.

I've just googled average water consumption and come up with this:

http://www.ccwater.org.uk/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.913

It says for a 2 person household, the annual water usage in cubic metres is 55 for low, 110 for average, and 136 for high. So you'd be a low user, and I think I will now fit into average.

We used to have a bath each every day; now we have switched to showers. We use the washing machine probably 3 or 4 times and we don't have a dishwasher. We rarely use the tap outside. We did used to do loads of full toilet flushes, whereas now we are more careful about using the half flusher. I also half fill the sink when doing the dishes instead of all the way up. So, there's still loads of room for improvement, but to be honest I can't think of many other ways to cut down without feeling deprived. :eek: I suppose I can try to stay below average - so less than 110 cubic metres a year, that would be a start (and would certainly help with the bills). :j

27 isn't great when it used to be 11....but that was when we were both working away a lot and so weren't here as much as we are now.

Thanks for finding out about the low/average/high usage - I'd not seen that. I still don't see how you can be using all that you do - as I forgot to add that we also have a large fish tank which gets 1/3 of its water changed every week...

So it's nice to see that we count as "low" users, but I don't see how (based on your usage) that you can count as an "average" user either, as it is if anything less than ours as you don't have a dishwasher? Unless, of course, you have a gorgeous power shower and spend 15mins a day in it lol!

Have you tried this from Wessex Water? http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/watercalculator/flashcalculatorex?id=Wessex%20Water%20Services%20Ltd - it helps you calculate what your usage should be, which you could then take to their leak team? (It gives you a total in litres but divide by 1000 to get to cubic metres). Having said that, it said my usage would be 71 cubic metres over a year and it obviously isn't....perhaps WE are the ones with a dodgy water meter?!!

I could be completely wrong on all this meter stuff, so no point obsessing about it, it just seemed sensible to point out you seemed to have a major difference compared to us, when in the same area and the same size household!

Anyway, hope you get it sorted out without depriving yourself of things; if you like a bath, I say just go ahead and have one!
SS

PS well done on getting it down so massively already! And you're making great strides on repayments as well. Great inspiration for when I am hopefully back in a position to OP.

marlasinger

Thanks for the linky - it was actually fun (but that's how sad I am ).

It showed that we use 113,222L a year, so 113 cubic meters, which is roughly what I calculated it to (when we watch what we use, which we are doing now). Our water bill should be £699 a year, which is roughly what it would be once I've cleared the shortpayments (any week now :beer:). According to the site we could save £217 a year, which would bring the monthly payments down to £40. It all looks reasonable to me.

We'll be out for a few hours today, so I'm going to check the water meter before and after, so there should be no movement.

marlasinger

Forgot to check the water meter when I left. :mad:

Parking meter ate my pound, so that sucked. :mad: But still managed to have a nice day at the beach.

And on the plus side, I've added up my grocery shopping receipts and I've just managed to come in under budget. First time in ages we've spent under £300 a month on groceries. Now we just have to keep it up. :T

marlasinger

Don't mean to be obsessed by my water bill (but at £103 a month you can hardly blame me!), but I've just logged on to South West Water to find they've taken a meter reading. I've used 47 cubic metres in the last 6 months, so this week I will call about getting my direct debit recalculated. It should come down to around £50 a month, and I shall then be changing my standing order for overpayments by this amount. :j