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Finally Debt Free After 34 Years, But Still Need to Live Frugally

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Comments

  • You must send them Carboot. Nothing ventured nothing gained. Have your debts been sold to any DCAs?

    Yes, 4 have been sold and just Lloyds hasn't been.


    Could I ask you, did you make offers to your creditors all at the same time or did you stagger them?
  • The classic old style tip for reducing drafts is safety pinning cheap fleece blankets to the back of curtains as thermal liners. Ikea value type fleeces used to be about £1.50. The offcuts would cover a hot water bottle nicely.

    I'm also a fan of the sausage dog type draft excluders. Ours are offcuts of fleece, into a simple tube with half an old pillow as stuffing. It matters less when the blasted dog decides they are a deadly enemy in the middle of the night that way. Stuffed socks for the non sewers, anything that blocks the draft.

    Cats can be useful as lap and hand warmers, but in my experience they cost more to run than a full house of 24/7 central heating.

    Some really useful tips there:T

    I agree about cost of cats:rotfl:
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
    edited 31 October 2018 at 2:03AM
    We have a gas combi boiler not an immersion heater Redo.

    It's our electricity bills that are the highest (apparantly) but it should help that I'm not using the tumbler any more. They are also predicting that we'll use lots of gas heating over the winter. I think we'll be using less heating than they think as we woke up to frost on our attic windows this morning and we still haven't had the heating on.

    The washing machine is on once a day and DS2 has his light and laptop on all the time, unless he's asleep. But even so it still seems a bonkers amount :mad:.

    I wouldn't have thought that DS2's light and laptop would contribute all that much to the electricity bill even if they are always on. It's appliances that heat which use most of the power.


    We have no mains gas in this village so have oil central heating which is rarely on. If desperate I use a small halogen electric heater. We used to have an immersion heater but it was so expensive to run that we rely on the oil central heating boiler to heat the water now. It's a standard boiler not a combi one. Of course, the boiler pump uses electricity to drive it. Our cooker is electric and we have an electric shower, washing machine, tumble dryer (which I confess to using more than I should) and all the usual small appliances but no dishwasher. With all that our electricity bill is £65 a month and I sometimes end the year in credit. NPower's assessment of your usage is ridiculous:eek:. I'm sure your own weekly readings will convince them that they've made a mistake.
  • beanielou wrote: »
    When funds allow you could always consider a Breville(or who ever) hot cup. It only heats the water you need. It is fab. I got a deal on one on Amazon a while back.

    Love that idea, beanielou:T. Might see if I can find one.
  • badmemory
    badmemory Posts: 9,987 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Well if I ignore my DS's home built computer, which I swear you can hear the fan going 2 doors away, our biggest usage is the electric shower. But after 30 mins it is over 4kw so, what, about 50p, so add in both standing charges & you are already looking at almost £30 a month.


    I would think putting your readings in online even every week should help to "keep it real".


    Just so you know - I don't time my DSs shower time because I want to know how much his shower is costing but because it is an indication of how he is. The longer the shower, well I really wish that shower would wash his troubles away. And just may possibly have some bearing on why I am posting at almost 5 in the am!!
  • badmemory wrote: »
    ….. And just may possibly have some bearing on why I am posting at almost 5 in the am!!

    Good morning, badmemory:wave:. Another early bird here although I'm not usually quite as early as this. Or are you still up from last night?


    Had a very fitful sleep, so darn cold:(. Looks white with frost from the little I can see outside. The outdoor security light keeps coming on, probably cats walking across the beam. Decided to get up make myself a pot of tea, refill my hot water bottle and put one element of the halogen heater on in the small sitting/dining room. I've got a recliner chair in here and a thick blanket. I pay the electricity bill so for once I'm saying hang the expense:o. I'm far too old to be shivering for hours on end. Good thing we're not with NPower like HH, eh? The meter dials would be whizzing round:eek:, I'll be switching it off soon but it's been sheer luxury for the past 15 minutes.
  • badmemory
    badmemory Posts: 9,987 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Good morning,back at you:wave:. Or are you still up from last night?
    .


    Still up, It seems to be a trend after date night. At 72 you'd think I'd know better - gave up on men over 20 years ago then re-met a man from my late teens, big mistake. He was a cheater at 18 (first time) 19 (second time) 23 (third time) I'm sure you get the picture. Re-met 14 years ago when he cheated on someone else, & for the last 10 years he has been cheating on me with someone else. I am officially a grade A idiot. But the A team has been committed, so I am trying to find a way to say twice a week was fine before so go away the other 5 days. We all know I won't. I even sympathise with her, she may well have subconsciously known that he was never honest with her & that may have helped trigger the attempt.



    Added to which he has been a widower twice & he isn't getting any of my money!! Although if anyone could guarantee third time lucky................ He has much more than me but then again could go bankrupt again tomorrow. But I do like doing his books for him!


    A bit like a swan here, gliding along on the surface & nobody sees the frantic paddling going on below the surface. Which is I suspect how most of us live.


    Sorry for the hijack HH!!
  • HH, is it worth getting your meter checked to see if it's working properly? I'm in NI where, due to lack of competition, fuel prices tend to be a bit higher and my electric bill is nowhere near what you are being charged.
    Mortgage at 01.01.14 £119,481.83:eek: today £0 Emergency fund £5.5/5.5k & £200/200 cash.:jWeight 24/02/19 14st 7lb now 12st determined to stop defining myself by my mistakes. Progress not perfection.:T100%through my 1% mortgage challenge. 100% through my pb challenge.
  • jwil
    jwil Posts: 22,375 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Thank you, beanielou:T

    I've had proposal letters for 2 of my creditors drafted for a couple of weeks but haven't been able to bring myself to send them.


    I'm so desperate to clear my remaining debt as soon as possible that I'm really worried they won't accept my settlement offers. What a wimp I am:o

    Good luck with the F&Fs - are you going nice and low so you can negotiate up if you have to?

    My DH doesn't know about my DMP either, though he knows I have debts. I wish I'd done mine a lot sooner rather than struggling through two lots of maternity leave.
    This morning DH and I did a bit of work on my business. Then I went for a long walk in the park. This afternoon DH and I calculated and submitted our vat return, which is my most hated job. I find it so stressful :(. But it's done now and the next one isn't due for three months :j.

    The washing is drying (or freezing) in the garden at the moment :).

    I'm getting used to having numb fingers and a frozen nose tip, but I think it may warm up a bit tomorrow. I'm very proud of us for not succumbing to the cold and putting the heating on :D. DS2 is partly nocturnal so doesn't benefit from heating anyway and we told DS1 to wrap up warm in lots of layers.

    So overall a productive day :A.

    Glad the VAT is done, well done for not putting the heating on.

    Is it worth a written complaint to N Power if you don't feel like you can speak to them? Or just cancel the DD and pay the bill and some of the debt directly. There's no way I'd accept £45 a week.
    "Good financial planning is about not spending money on things that add no value to your life in order to have more money for the things that do". Eoin McGee
  • badmemory wrote: »



    A bit like a swan here, gliding along on the surface & nobody sees the frantic paddling going on below the surface. Which is I suspect how most of us live.


    Sorry for the hijack HH!!

    Sorry to hear of all the angst caused to you and other poor women. You've certainly lived though, I'm almost envious.


    I agree with the swan analogy, it's certainly been true of me many times:o. Do you know the Stevie Smith poem Not Waving but Drowning?
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