Weekly Flylady Thread 24th June 2013

pigpen

bonnie_bumpkins wrote: »

bubbly and sweet smelling?

But of course!!

trulymadlydeeply_indebt!

Thanks for the replies regarding my electric bill.

We have 1 TV with sky dish and xbox - on constantly, as is the laptop and PC. New purchases with A/B Energy ratings include WM (9kg), TD (8kg - and hardly used), kettle/toaster/microwave, electric range cooker, 1 large fridge freezer, smaller one been switched off about 3 weeks, about 4 chargers for phones/Nexus, immersion heater for hot water and electric shower. No gas to the property, single-glazed windows. We have electric heaters in lounge, 3 bedrooms and study - but only put on when temp is around 5 degrees.

I am like a woman possessed at turning off things everyone leaves on standby which causes no end of "Mu-um, why have you turned of such and such .......?" "TMD, why have you turned off the water for the bath?" Er, because you put in on 2 hours ago and you still haven't had a bath!

I must admit, most things are left on standby i.e. cooker, microwave, toaster, BM, kettle. WM and TD are turned off at the wall as soon as they've done their duty, but I have said to OH that everything will be off at the wall in the kitchen from now on. We really don't need a £1000 range cooker telling us the time when there is a perfectly good clock on the wall next to it. Hopefully, this will shave a few more units off the clock.

Our daily unit consumption has gone down from 57 to 48 since winter, so that is good news.

We lost a power line to the house at Easter when a tree took it down in the high winds. I wonder if we've been connected up to next door who have a cottage (large one) with an attached 2-storey granny flat? I've asked them yesterday but they don't think their bills have come down.

I also do monthly meter readings and submit them online.

I am stumped.

Mumto5

The last 8 days have caught up with me. I collected the littlies from school and slept from 4 - 6.30. I know I am running on batteries . Note to self take more care of no 1. My UTI has come back - another sign I am run down. I can't get a GP appt until Monday. Grrr!

trulymadlydeeply_indebt!

pigpen wrote: »

Good grief TMD ... what appliances do you have?

We have 3 freezers, 1 fridge, TD, 2 WMs, 2x electric ovens DW, 2 PCs,4 laptops, TV&xbox, a couple of lights which are on 24/7, on top of kettles, phone chargers, and stuff that is on periodically.. MW/hair dryers etc... most of which are on all day every day and mine is a few quid either way of £100 a month... and the shower which is seemingly in use from 6-10pm

bossymoo wrote: »

TMD :eek: £600 a month??? That's nuts! Do you take readings? It's definitely for one property? You don't have a joint supply that's gone pearshaped? Start taking readings, daily if poss and ask them if the do smartmeters. They can't leave a bill like that uninvestigated.

bonnie_bumpkins wrote: »

I pay £76 per month for gas & elec in a 3-bed mid terrace. We have no central heating but old !!!!py double glazing. A laptop and phone each for 3 of us. No TV but X-box/DVD player. Hot water is on constantly as I have been known to stamp my feet and cry on encountering a tepid bath :cool:
.

My last house was a 3 bed mid terrace and we paid about £36 for gas and £45/50 ish for electric. This old, draughty farmhouse has been a shock to the system in more ways than one!

Can I be cheeky? Would you lovely ladies mind letting me know who you are getting your supply from and I may have a nosey online? If you don't wish to say on an open forum, I do understand. I changed from npower before Christmas to Scottish Power on a Fixed until April 2014 deal. I've looked online and I have noticed there is an entry saying "Change of Plan" in early April. This coincides with me not getting paid on time at Easter and having to stall the Direct Debit by 2 days. I'm now wondering if they've cancelled my deal. I haven't had anything in writing to say that is what has happened, so will have it out with them on Saturday morning when I ring them up. If they have stitched me up, I will go and find a better deal. No loyalty here where money is concerned :T

pigpen

I'm with British Gas.. dual fuel capped until 2014. I have a 5 bed house, 3 rec. rooms. I found Scottish power absolutely extortionate by comparison.. plus they sent me about 4 bills in 6 weeks I was with them!

Gas is about £120 a month year round.. inc. the CH, 7 ring hob.. I usually only use 2 or 3. and the hot water.

I did replace the boiler about 8 years ago as the 2 that wer in were ancient and inefficient. Over the last 5 years I carpeted the hallway which made a massive difference to our heating and over 3 years had double glazing installed.

M WM's are both 12Kg loads and the TD is 8Kg load

Do you have any arrears or anything they might be adding??

bonnie_bumpkins

trulymadlydeeply_indebt! wrote: »

Can I be cheeky? Would you mind letting me know who you are getting your supply from and I may have a nosey online? If you don't wish to say on an open forum, I do understand. I changed from npower before Christmas to Scottish Power on a Fixed until April 2014 deal. I've looked online and I have noticed there is an entry saying "Change of Plan" in early April. This coincides with me not getting paid on time at Easter and having to stall the Direct Debit by 2 days. I'm now wondering if they've cancelled my deal. I haven't had anything in writing to say that is what has happened, so will have it out with them on Saturday morning when I ring them up. If they have stitched me up, I will go and find a better deal. No loyalty here where money is concerned :T

Currently Scottish Power, prev npower. Before that... Scottish Power again. I am a utilities tart Seriously there is no way any private household uses £600 per month. Your meter may be faulty. I would request an urgent check by an engineer & suspend payment pending results of said check. x

bossymoo

I'm with Atlantic Electric and Gas but they're owned by someone else now. I joined them before we moved, on a loyalty plan. Every November I get a months worth of payments back :T When we moved they kept my deal and took over the supply at the new property. Easy to deal with, online billing and access to readings etc.

I pay just over £100 a month combined, GCH and gas fire (hardly used) but all else is electric. 4 bed detached, fairly new and reasonable insulated although boiler 15yrs old now. Plenty of laundry with 2 kiddies but rarely use dryer. Don't have loads of appliances. I think my electric is £44 and they just gave me £175 back as I was in credit.

Hope you get to the bottom of it X

skint_breeder_5

trulymadlydeeply_indebt! wrote: »

My last house was a 3 bed mid terrace and we paid about £36 for gas and £45/50 ish for electric. This old, draughty farmhouse has been a shock to the system in more ways than one!

Can I be cheeky? Would you lovely ladies mind letting me know who you are getting your supply from and I may have a nosey online? If you don't wish to say on an open forum, I do understand. I changed from npower before Christmas to Scottish Power on a Fixed until April 2014 deal.

If they have stitched me up, I will go and find a better deal. No loyalty here where money is concerned :T

TMD, before the BD took a hold of me, I used to be that annoying person from the Big 6 knocking at your door persuading you to change supplier I have a couple of pieces of information that may help

Firstly a well equipped "seafront" house with 8 bedrooms and an electric heated swimming pool, their electric bill was £600 a month although they had gas for their heating........but that was memorable because of the sheer value.....no normal property will spend anything near that amount.....if your property is "listed" or very old you may be limited in terms of what you can do to insulate walls, loft and windows and stop your £££'s heating up the street:(

Secondly, as you have no gas I take it you have an Economy 7 (or possibly an older Economy 10 meter), would that be right?

When I had my own supply with Np0wer their meter reader came and incorrectly entered the Night Rate and the Day Rate on the handheld meter, this made my DD jump to an extortionate rate, and their customer service just could not accept that their meter reader had done a switcheroony when entering the figures.....so I whacked all the outstanding balance on a credit card, THEN switched suppliers to a better deal on the correct readings and then banged my fist to get my money back (it still took 12 months for Np0wer to admit their mistake, but I didn't pay over the odds in the meantime)

Thirdly, you will need to check the T&C under your Fixed Price contract with your current supplier....you may find that by stalling the DD you have "breached" the T&C's of your price plan, but that would be very very harsh. However, a lot of Fixed and Capped price plans from the Big 6 issued in the last 2 years have a penalty clause (to prevent people from being :money: and to limit customer churn) these can be quite hefty (I know of quite a few that are £250 to leave!!!!) in addition they are within their rights to ensure any billed amounts are paid (even if you have disputed them :mad:) before you put in a transfer request .....so before you turn on your heels on principle make sure you have the funds to do so....harsh as it sounds in this current economic climate witholding payment until they "sort it" will only damage your credit score, however offering to reinstate your DD at the former payment level while the investigation takes place should alleviate letter writing. Never be afraid to ask to "escalate the call to your manager". Don't accept a callback!!!! All call centres have "floor walkers" to take calls over when customers are not happy, always take dates & times and the NAMES of people you speak to....if they don't want to give your their full name (some companies don't) then ask for their extension or employee ID number (no good if their name is Sam and then there are 5 Sam's in the Call Centre!)

Fourthly, if you believe you may be funding the neighbouring property, take a meter reading go to your fuse box and turn the whole house off (I know you may have to reset your clocks/Sky etc but only for a few minutes) and then check if your meter moves AT ALL.......to eliminate coincidental error, I would do this 2 or 3 times at times when you can realistically expect your neighbours to be using their supply (ie dinner time)

Fifthly, this may not be a problem with your direct neighbour as electricity can be phased to each 3rd house (explaining why sometimes when there are powercuts you may be affected by your neighbours directly either side are not) there may be an issue outside which the UK PowerNetworks needs to address.

Lastly, check your electricity meter, there should be a paper tag attached bearing the number shown on your meter confirming the date the meter was installed.....despite what your energy supplier says meters CAN and DO go wrong, especially with the older meters, and when they go wrong it can happen literally overnight, and should be investigated. The onus is on the supplier who bills you to repair a faulty meter , however you may be fobbed off by their customer services who will say if no fault is found they have a right to charge you a call out fee....therefore a new supplier who has had 1) no DD payments from you 2) no meter reading history is going to be less likely to want to foot the bill for a meter replacement than your current supplier who has the full history and profited from your custom for the last XX number of years


One last thing, the country is carved up into "regions" so the most competitive supplier in one area of the country may be the worst in another part of the country. As a general rule of thumb, when it comes to Standard tariff the original legacy electricity board has to be the most expensive in that region....for example I am in Region 10 - the old E@stern Electricity region, E@stern Electric is now E0n. But when it comes to special deals the old legacy electricity board company may come out on top.....this is why it pays to be :money: and check your suppliers prices regularly, by comparing the number of units you consume not the monthly DD you currently pay...... but before jumping ALWAYS ALWAYS check for penalties clauses on your old contract.....as doorstep selling has all but stopped now, be wary before jumping on a "too good to be true deal" at a pop up stall in your local supermarket or shopping centre, the true saving may not be a saving once you factor in any penalty clauses. In most cases the face to face "special offer" can be found online although it may be under a different name.


I know this is a long post, but I really HTH

skint_breeder_5

righty ho - yes flying! almost forgot why I had come on here

Day from Hell in a nutshell

In short DD3 was a royal pain in the nether regions to me for several hours, then she rowed with my EX on the phone, DS emptied a litre brick of orange juice in fridge, and then at 11pm I had a pipe burst in my ceiling (which I finished painting a few weeks ago, the walls have yet to be finished.) the ceiling has half fallen down and I have tidied up the worst of it, I have been up for getting on for 22 hours straight.....I have not done my exercise DVD tonight, and now I do not plan to

DD4 decided it would be a good time to blow the contents out the side of her nappy onto yesterdays freshly changed bed, oh and yes inside freezer decided to defrost itself :eek::mad::eek:

But fridge has been cleaned sorted and tidied up, salvageable food transferred chest freezer,:) remainder cooked or binned :mad:

Kitchen de-gibbled again after cook-fest

Bed, washed and remade....my BR de-gibbled and hoovered

Yesterday's frog smoothie consumed - the items for the loft have gone up, some toys for DD4 and DS developmental ages brought down, and some general stuff down for day to day use, some for bin, and one item down for DD1 to try and Ebay (as she has plenty of time on her [STRIKE]hands[/STRIKE] hand right now ) upstairs landing hoovered

Spoke to Insurance Co at stupid o'clock, I get £200 Emergency Assistance, but had to agree to pay anything over £200..my CC is not that flexible for anything else right now..put on hold and rang the EX and texted a picture of the bulging ceiling. He was over within 2 hours, and within one hour he had:

punctured the ceiling to drain the water carefully into buckets as much as possible,

removed the sodden collapsed ceiling and sodden insulation,

determined the leak was not from the Central Heating pipes as I had thought, but cold water pipes that feed the bathroom downstairs,

drained all the water from the system,

removed the offending piece of pipe with the tiniest pin !!!!! hole you would not be able to see with the naked eye,

soldered a new piece of pipe in and restored all my running water so at least normal functionality can restart in the morning.

I think a call out at 1am would have definitely gone over £200 for all that, so pleased the EX came and helped. DS slept through the whole thing and will be gutted to have missed him.:(

Good job I hadn't finished the decorating in the hallway, I am quite miffed that the old mats I have down in lieu of carpet may not be able to have a resurrection by V@x, but I will try my best so my hallway may not be perfect when my Aunt arrives but she is not squelching on wet carpet

Rubbish, recycling and compost out ready for collection in about.....oooo, an hour or so :rotfl:

Time for a quick cat nap as DD4 is stirring and I will no doubt be back in Daisy mode imminently:eek:

skint_breeder_5

DD4 is awake......moo!