£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

Treadingonplaymobil

Eager_Elephant wrote: »

TOPM - I notice your water bill is huge. Either you are in a high cost area like South West or you have a leak.....

Have you checked to see if there are any tariffs suitable for you. In my area (East Anglia) our water company do a tariff for people with 3 or more children which caps their water at a set figure which is generally about half of what it would be if they were on standard tariff.

You're right on the first count unfortunately - we live in the South West! I believe we are in the second or third most expensive area of the country for water. Already checked for leaks.

walkonsand

On the high water consumption, I would guess a huge amount of that would be shower related. Have you looked at a water saving shower head. As a general rule they use half the amount of water and they do still have the same pressure as a normal shower head. That's a double win as you use less Gas to heat the water too. I got mine for about £8.

Treadingonplaymobil

walkonsand wrote: »

On the high water consumption, I would guess a huge amount of that would be shower related. Have you looked at a water saving shower head. As a general rule they use half the amount of water and they do still have the same pressure as a normal shower head. That's a double win as you use less Gas to heat the water too. I got mine for about £8.

We already have one . No easy savings, our consumption is below average for a family our size. Lots of shared baths, we do a fair bit of laundry (obv) but I'm not obsessive about cleanliness by any stretch of the imagination.

enthusiasticsaver

Can you go back to non metered? We are in the South west and went to metered when our daughters left home but I seem to recall we had the option to move back to non metered if it was cheaper. We pay £53 for just 2 of us so I am not surprised that yours is £95.

try_harder

Love reading your diary every day you have done so well and sounds like a wonderful Christmas was had by all .So pleased that you have got everything sorted now and that you feel much more positive going ahead this year .Happy New Year to you all.

Suffolk_lass

Happy New year. I am pleased to see you planning to pay down that last 18% interest card with the extra bits from the mortgage. You would really see the benefits if you could get that balance cleared and to a position where you are only using it to accumulate the benefits and paying it off each month.

Treadingonplaymobil

Can I have a MSE halo? I have been researching the flights/car hire for relative's holiday house (we have been offered free use of the house in the summer) and just flights and car hire was going to come to around £8-900 for the five of us, so I have been the bad cop and said it isn't happening - actually DH and my mum (who would have come with us) were fine when I explained the sums. That's something like 4% of the price of the extension, never mind the impact on debt repayment if we used it for that instead. I am feeling a bit sad we're not going, but it would have meant no camping trips, weekends away or anything all year (and we all know that wouldn't happen, so it would actually have meant a massive overspend), and it's easier to say no now before anyone gets carried away with the idea. :A :A :A

Chrystal

Well done you!
I'll definitely award you the MSE halo TOPM :A

DawnW

Good decision TOPM, you will have other opportunities to do things like this in the future, and as you say, it would be a bit hard on the children to have no camping trips etc this year. My children are grown up now, but still talk about the camping we did when they were young. They take their own children now

wishingthemortgaheaway

Woo hoo TOPM.
I suggest to get a couple of weekends campin pencilled in though
So you have got something positive to think about rather than feeling a bit glum about something that's not going to happen.