Must stop spending

abba1772

We are £80.54 a month for gas and electricity and our house is 60 years old they tried to up my monthly payments to £125 :eek: even tho I was £265 in credit :mad:.........chancers xx

kirtsypoos

Currently we haven't been paying for gas for the 11 months we have been in our new build - apparently Persimmon haven't registered meters with anyone so no one can take over our gas supply but we are still using gas....go figure!!!

In our old house I'd say we used about £35-40 a month in winter for gas but it was a 2 bed semi so I guess it's size relative....and depends how much of a cheapskate you are with the heating :rotfl:

little_miss_spendtoomuch

Oh no are you putting money aside? I had that problem in my flat. I spent 4 years chasing my gas bill to then find out when I moved that it was included in my service charge! Ugh.

Well I hope I’m paying enough then but it’s just two of us in a very small 3 bed semi and I’m very stingy with the heating! Ha.

I gave them our readings from the day we moved in and from today and the guy said we haven’t used a lot. It was about £80 in over 4 months. I hadn’t had the heating on though!

Rachel24

Hi, I hope you don’t mind me popping by. I’ve really enjoyed your diary. With regards to council tax if you live in Scotland then you would appeal it with the Assessors and you need to appeal it within 6 months. Not too sure how the process works in England though but I hope you get it sorted.

little_miss_spendtoomuch

Thanks for stopping by Rachel! :hello:
Looks like we can do the same here too. I emailed them last week asking for them just to explain how they made the valuation and came home last night to a letter saying they had opened up a case! Boom.
Fingers crossed I get somewhere with it. They said it can take them 4 months

I paid £150 to my cc yesterday dropping the total of my debt to £152

kirtsypoos

Yeah we are putting money aside but I have a horrible feeling it won't be enough time will tell!

Also need to say thank you - Your post gave me a kick up the backside as I had given up contacting anyone since September as I kept getting the same answer so I spent 45 minutes on the phone to the most amazingly helpful guy at British Gas who tracked down our MPRN which had been registered against the completely wrong address :mad: I've now got to wait for the address to be changed before I can submit all my meter readings.

Totally understand your stinginess with the heating - I'm already stressing about having to have the heating on more with a little one and what it will do to my yearly bills spreadsheet

Fingers crossed for your valuation case too!

little_miss_spendtoomuch

So I had my response from the valuation office. A little quicker than I was expecting and it’s a no to changing my band.
They gave supporting evidence which was utter rubbish.
Compared my house to 3 other properties but they are worth over £100k more than mine and in decent areas. Are they having a laugh??
A house exactly the same as mine on the road next to me is a band D. I’ve emailed them again asking them to clarify.
If they refuse again then next step is to take it to the tribunal.
All similar houses in my area are band D or even C. They have compared our house to houses nearly 3 miles away!!
I’m not backing down. It’s £50 a month difference

We went over to our friends house for dinner on Friday night.
On Saturday evening we went to a Halloween/firework party. I managed to borrow an outfit which was handy.
Our friends went all out with their outfits. They were saying things like a mask cost £20 or their boots cost £30. They were only accessories! Mad. God knows how much they spent in total.
We took alcohol we had at home so the only cost was the taxis which was £9 each. So a pretty cheap weekend!

Christmas is creeping up now. I have a few social events coming up with friends and work and stressing about not having enough money for it all

little_miss_spendtoomuch

A while ago I received a letter from the Student Loans company saying at this rate I will pay my loan off within two years and it’s now better for me to pay direct debit. I ignored the letter for a while as my student debt is this debt I’ve always brushed to the corner. I’ve never included it in my debt even though each month I pay about £180 out of my pay. Because it comes straight out of my salary I don’t really notice it. To pay by direct debit would make the debt feel more real.
I read the letter again over the weekend and it all makes sense now. The loan company don’t get all my payments for the year until after the tax year ends and if I keep paying out of my salary I will end up over paying my loan. So I’m going to phone them at lunch and work out what my balance is and set up a direct debit.
I think I owe just over £2k. I will round the payment up to £200 and hopefully by this time next year it will be gone.
Feel really sorry for hubby though coz he went to uni a year after me when all the fees went up. He then struggled to find a job with a decent salary and his loan is still at £15k
Not looking forward to my debt figure looking bigger but will be pleased to take control of this debt and see an end to it.

little_miss_spendtoomuch

I phoned the student loans company yesterday and arranged to pay £200 pm dd. It won’t start til February though and my salary payments could stop by December so I might have two months of not paying it. If that happens I will pay that money towards my other debt.

We were given £1000 compensation from our builders for problems we have had and the cheque has cleared today. We are going to use it to pay towards our holiday in May. We have known for ages we were getting it but they were very slow in paying it.

I’ve got £122 in the bank to last until the end of the month and lots of things coming up with friends :eek:

little_miss_spendtoomuch

Old habits die hard. I can’t stop spending
I’ve been out of control lately. I just keep ordering stuff online. Black Friday weekend was the worst. I don’t know what’s wrong with me at the moment.
Good thing is I have returned most of it!