Keeping our options open

debtfreeoneday

Energy prices seem to be really high at the moment. 

savingholmes

Glad school is going better

becky170

Well we survived until the end of term...phew. I'm looking forward to seeing the back of July as it's been a long and stressful month. My car broke down and DH's car was serviced and had new tyres which set us back £600. We also have spent £150 at the vets, I smashed my phone and we finished paying for our holiday so we are well and truly broke until payday. One the plus side we ate lunch out on Saturday (outdoors in the sun  ) and visited a farm. We also did some tidying and cleaning. I don't know why but there's something really pleasing about a sparkly sink I've also listed a couple of bits of eBay so we'll see if anything sells as I've not had much look on Faceb00k

Anyway here's onwards and upwards for August. I have a some long weekends and a whole week off to look forward to  I haven't managed to read any one else's diaries for a long while now so I'm going to try and do some catching up on how everyone is doing when I can.

savingholmes

Sounds like a catalogue of potential disasters handled with grace. Hope you get to rest up at some point.

becky170

savingholmes said:

Sounds like a catalogue of potential disasters handled with grace. Hope you get to rest up at some point.

DD came down with a tummy bug yesterday as well ...just waiting to see if we get it to! Hopefully that's all our disasters out the way for a while  I just hope we are all well for our holiday. Two years ago when we went away we all came down with a tummy bug and my DD ended up in hospital, so hopefully we've got the tummy bug out the way before we go this time 

becky170

Well we dodged the tummy bug but DD came down with a bad cold after her tummy bug. As she had a temp we had to take her for a covid test which she really didn't enjoy, but on the plus side she had a negative result returned in less than 24 hours. She's now on the mend and back at nursery.

My standard overpayment of £210 has now gone out. I'm not going to manage anymore this month as we're set to go on holiday and our cat has another trip to the vets booked in to check that her medication is working. I have remembered to top up the regular savers so that is all sorted for another month. DD is all sorted for getting her 30hrs free childcare in September too. The only thing I haven't sorted in fixing our energy supply. I'm now off for a long weekend so I may take a look at this if the kids behave and let me have 5 minutes peace   

savingholmes

Well done on the OP. Sorry your little one was ill. Hopefully she is well on the mend now

fionaandphil

@becky170 I read an article yesterday saying that some of the smaller suppliers are in danger of going under this winter as the wholesale price of gas has gone up so much, there is talk of the price cap going up 13% which is eyewatering.  I was lucky to be able to fix a few months ago and went for a two year deal with Octopus, who I can highly recommend.  Hope you get that five minutes!

becky170

fionaandphil said:

@becky170 I read an article yesterday saying that some of the smaller suppliers are in danger of going under this winter as the wholesale price of gas has gone up so much, there is talk of the price cap going up 13% which is eyewatering.  I was lucky to be able to fix a few months ago and went for a two year deal with Octopus, who I can highly recommend.  Hope you get that five minutes!

You were lucky! We have been looking at energy suppliers tonight. I've been looking at the MSE energy club and by changing supplier on a 2 year fix we'll only save £2 a month so we may just stick with our current supplier (they only do 2yr fixes at the moment). Of course we could go with a 1yr fix with another supplier but the fact that most companies are now only offering two year fixes is making me slightly wonder if that will be a bit of a gamble. The question is do we fix now or gamble and do it nearer to October when the variable rates go up.....

Anyway we have been successful tonight and we have signed up to a new 18moth fix for our phone/broadband which saves us £10 per month compared the the out of contract rate we'd lapsed into.

becky170

Wow we are in a roll tonight. DH has sorted out a new mobile phone contract saving £5 per month and I've booked a slot for the tip. If I hadn't have spent £166 at the vets today I would have said we have been very money saving.......