Here I go, Step One...

HonestS

Enthusiasticsaver... the savings account is for me to do the virtual sealed pot challenge. I’m saving the EF etc in envelopes as I’m less likely to spend when I have to hand cash over and I like seeing it build up so won’t want to take any out.

I’ve owed my mum for quite a while now, I owed her £12k and was paying her back but she said she didn’t need it for a couple of years so not to worry. She hasn’t mentioned it since so I’m going to save up and give it to her each time I have £1k for her.

My insurances are high because I have an income protection policy I took out when I was self employed which is £38pm (best decision ever!), I won’t get a new policy with a recent cancer diagnosis and I need to keep it in case it comes back so that stays, as do my life and mortgage policies. I’m paying £30 for BG Homecare but might cancel this after I’ve got an EF. It’s due an annual service so I’ll sort that and speak to the engineer as I know a bit more about it now, there’s a constant drip from the overflow which we weren’t aware of before. Hopefully when they know exactly what the fault is they can repair properly. Although I do question the expertise of these engineers. At least 3 of them have asked where the overflow pipe is or told me it was outside but my neighbour came in for 5 minutes and said it’s there... at the bottom of the boiler right in front of us! Surely the engineers should know that! I also pay £6 for fridge and washer/dryer cover so want to keep those too.

The boiler was installed during renovations before I bought the house and the ‘plumber’ was a cowboy or possibly not a real plumber, everything he did was wrong so I wouldn’t get him. I’m going to have a proper look for the receipt tomorrow though as the previous owner gave me paperwork so it’s possible there’s a receipt for it.

I’ve cancelled my DDs to CCs and sent letters so the accounts will be restricted soon and I’m glad about that. I’m never ever going down the credit road again.

HonestS

Lifeisforliving... yes the food waste drives me mad too, well it upsets me more than anything. They had an arrangement with a local food bank or charity but it kept going wrong, they wouldn’t turn up to collect and once they took a load of expensive stock that was meant for the shop floor :eek: so they stopped doing it. My understanding is the food is recycled into animal feed or fuel, not sure how that works with the packaging though, but either way it’s a disgrace. It’s good food meant for human consumption and it upsets me every time I do it :-(

Onebrokelady

I wouldn't trust a BG engineer,half of them don't know what they are doing,there was one of those undercover programmes done on them a couple of year ago and they were making all sorts of mistakes,I used to have homecare with them but I cancelled it last year after the fiasco when it snowed, I was paying for 24/7 cover but couldn't even get them on the phone,I mended it myself in the end

As for supermarkets throwing their food away they should be held accountable and fined if they cause waste that's avoidable, a food bank would take it it must needa someone with some common sense to organise it that's all,they are just too lazy to do it,it makes my blood boil

My account is with nationwide and I set up my savings online in about 5 minutes,I do only have two though:rotfl:

HonestS

Onebrokelady I read that about your boiler fiasco, that was bad. As was someone who commented to say their elderly parents were left in the same position as you were! I almost cancelled a few weeks ago because they’d taken £41 DD instead of £22 and they said some extra cover I’d been given free for a year was being charged for now. I said I’ll cancel it all then because the last engineer said boiler needs replacing because they’ve done all the can so if it’s still losing pressure I’ve either got a leak under floor in kitchen or a leak from the boiler, so why would I replace the boiler if I don’t even know if that’s the problem? Plus he made me feel like I couldn’t call them out for the same issue again! She said he shouldn’t have said that, it’s insurance that’s what I’m paying it for, for them to fix it, so they will keep coming till they fix it and that the extra cover covered the leak under floor (if there is one) so it made sense to keep it for a while in case lol. And she reduced it to £30.

After the engineer said they’d done all they can I asked him to check the expansion vessel and it did need pumping up, so he hadn’t done all he could do!

I will cancel once winter’s over and I’ve got a healthy EF, but I do need to make sure it’s not leaking under the floor first because there’s a suspicious patch where the wood floor looks like it’s starting to swell :eek:

Lifeisforliving19

Best thing we ever did was to cancel our BG home cover. They were all idiots. Basically they were trying to make us have a new boiler I think. We now use a local independent chap, who actually used to work for BG years ago and left to set up by himself. It actually turns out after we had him the first time, that he is distantly related to OH.....small world.

HonestS

The general consensus seems to be cancel BG homecare cover. I will put it on my to do list!

I managed 4 NSDs in my first week and spent £15 under budget on food and nobody starved :rotfl:

Food budget might be higher this week because I host foreign students occasionally and I have two coming tomorrow for a week. NSDs will be difficult too as I’ve not had a chance to do a weekly shop yet and probably won’t till Friday. I’ve been so busy with one thing or another and have also done some extra work, I had 20 minutes free before an appt today so managed to run around Lidl for some bits to get us through the next few days at least, but I spent £26 so will go in with a list next time. I’ll have a bonus £300 to stick in my EF next week so it will have been worth the extra work and running around

HonestS

Stressed!!!! This is where I think my problem is... panic buying!

I typed out my problems that made me stressed and they didn’t seem worthy enough to cause so much panic so I deleted them. Maybe there’s a lesson to learn there but I guess I won’t learn it till I log it!

I’ve had replies to my holding letters, I’ve stuffed them under the ‘deal with it at the same time’ file and the file’s getting big.

Deep breath

Maybe it’s everything

in_need_of_direction

Even if you can’t deal with them, take them out of their envelopes and put in date order. It’ll half the size of the pile and will make it easier not to miss deadlines when you can face them.

Onebrokelady

This is something I've learned since being more in control of my finances,any paperwork that comes in is dealt with straight away because if I leave it it doesn't get done and then I end up missing important things
I open,read and file it accordingly as soon as possible then it's done and I don't have to think about it
The only thing is still haven't got into a habit of doing is reading my meters,I really need to start doing this regularly,I think it's because they are a pain to get to so I put it off and then forget

HonestS

I'm going to tackle them tomorrow, I'll devote the whole morning to money matters. I need to print off some papers I've seen somewhere, maybe in NEDCAB, that I can list the creditors and actions taken on to keep track of what's going on.

I felt quite calm and in control but the letters I've received have caused me some anxiety, hopefully peace will be restored after I've dealt with them tomorrow. I took some holiday leave this week and thought having the extra time would make things easier but I seem to have got extra things to do instead so I'm feeling quite harassed generally.