It's time to start digging up those Squirrelled Nuts!!!!

enthusiasticsaver

I am also slightly miffed at the talk of water bills. 2 people in metered 4 bed detached house in the South West (horrendously expensive). We don't tend to wash our cars much but do have a fishpond. £60 a month or £720 a year.

badger09

Apologies. Completely forgot I'd posted here:o

Sea_Shell wrote: »

Maybe you just don't wash!!!;):D

:eek:

But confess we don't flush after every visit:p

westv wrote: »

So your waste water all goes into the public sewer?

Yes

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

I am also slightly miffed at the talk of water bills. 2 people in metered 4 bed detached house in the South West (horrendously expensive). We don't tend to wash our cars much but do have a fishpond. £60 a month or £720 a year.

Cars only get washed about 3 times a year and we have 3 water butts for the garden. I really can't believe that we're paying less now on a meter (with outdoor s pool & fish pond) than we were paying in a bog standard 4 bed in Hertfordshire, almost 20 years ago.

Suffolk_lass

We are on Anglian water - on a meter. £22 a month. As our home is thatched we don't pay for roof water (no gutters!), only fresh incoming and foul outgoing. I want to "interfere" with kitchen water and shower/sink tap water in the next year or so - after visiting friends in France where they have five butts and a dustbin collecting their tap water I think we can serve our garden better.

Karmacat

Some of my Zimbabwean rellies had a hose from the bath to the garden - when I asked about heat pollution (ie the hot water from a bath) they said the hose is so long, by the time it gets to the garden its not a problem :rotfl:

Sea_Shell

So I’ve just been closing off the month end figures for September, and all is still on track. We currently have a “pot” of £548,751. With our annual spends, to date, of £11,142. (Mainly because we haven’t had a foreign holiday this year, haven’t felt the need, as we’ve had a pretty good summer here)

Our joint pot breakdown is:

Instant access cash - £12,925 (net of stoozed CCs)
Locked Cash - £88,062 (including notice accounts and fixed term bonds)
S&S ISA’s - £135,797
Pension Funds - £311,967

In other news…I’ve put a couple of bits up on Facebook Marketplace to sell, and so far I seem to have attracted the attention of the local odd-ball. They’ve mucked me about over times and dates and I really don’t have the patience, so I’m ignoring their messages now. Is it always like this…?? Luckily I hadn’t got as far as giving them my actual address…but I guess I’ll have to give it to someone at some stage if I want to actually sell anything!!! I’ll maybe put a bit more effort in once we’ve had our next holiday and can commit to being around more.

Changing the subject, I’ve also now lost my “holiday excess baggage” and the scales are happy again!

We’re hoping to get away for a few days either next week (9th) or the week after, probably up to Derbyshire, walking. This Wednesday looks nice, so we’re probably going to do a more local walk, an hour or so’s drive from us. We did think about staying over, but seems a bit of a waste of money when you’re only an hour’s drive from home….and your own bed!

saver_ali

Sea_Shell wrote: »

In other news…I’ve put a couple of bits up on Facebook Marketplace to sell, and so far I seem to have attracted the attention of the local odd-ball. They’ve mucked me about over times and dates and I really don’t have the patience, so I’m ignoring their messages now. Is it always like this…?? Luckily I hadn’t got as far as giving them my actual address…but I guess I’ll have to give it to someone at some stage if I want to actually sell anything!!! I’ll maybe put a bit more effort in once we’ve had our next holiday and can commit to being around more.

I use gumtree for selling now. No charges, and you can suss them out a bit based on how they communicate before you give your address.

No-one replies to messages on Facebook marketplace, and you get timewasters. I've given up with selling via eBay mainly because they've tried to automate paying for postage (it's a painful process and it has never yet calculated the right amount for me) and also because of the charges.

Karmacat

Selling or giving, gumtree or facebook or freecycle, nobody ever lets anyone into their homes if they don't have to - bring the item to your front door if you possibly can. I *did* let somebody into my house once, they were collecting a double bed. It was a couple with a toddler, so I was fairly sure they weren't going to do anything terrible

JoeEngland

saver_ali wrote: »

I use gumtree for selling now. No charges, and you can suss them out a bit based on how they communicate before you give your address.

No-one replies to messages on Facebook marketplace, and you get timewasters. I've given up with selling via eBay mainly because they've tried to automate paying for postage (it's a painful process and it has never yet calculated the right amount for me) and also because of the charges.

I've sold a few things through Gumtree and had no problems. But did have one person ask if I could deliver the fish tank I was selling, and to a rough part of town!

MallyGirl

Karmacat wrote: »

Some of my Zimbabwean rellies had a hose from the bath to the garden - when I asked about heat pollution (ie the hot water from a bath) they said the hose is so long, by the time it gets to the garden its not a problem :rotfl:

Soap is actually a bigger issue when using grey water on the garden. It affects the soil and can affect water retention, plus it can kill off beneficial microbes. Better than drought but best used sparingly - apply via a watering can and it can cut down on insect infestations.

The_Oldsage

Congrats first off to SS, enjoyed this thread so far. I love this forum and have found it very helpful over the years....

....but.

I can't help feeling there is a fine line between being tight and being money savvy, and find some peoples lifestyles absolutely staggering considering we only live once.

I've worked extremely hard for 40 years, 12/14 hour day/nightshifts, 24/7 horrendous shift patterns etc and raised four kids whilst maintaining a very happy 35 year marriage. My house is paid for and we have two decent cars, I do my own servicing and am an excellent DIYer.

I'l be retiring soon at 60, using drawdown from pooled DC's until 63 when my first DB kicks in, and then reducing DD at 65 when another starts, then again when full SP kicks in at 67.

We have had three foreign holidays this year, including two weeks in a fabulous Villa in Spain with all kids and spouses, and if I'm able to I'm gonna try and keep that up at retirement I love good food and drink, we have beer and wine regularly - we like it, why would we stop? My wife and I are both great cooks, and every meal is homemade apart from eating out at least once a fortnight - we like to do it, why not?

Having been to way too many funerals in this lifetime, for people who died way way too young including my parents, I have never denied my family anything we have needed, why would I when we only live once? When I hear of people counting sheets of toilet roll, or not tipping good service, or darning socks.... well, come on.

I know of folks who got a combi boiler and water meter when their 4 kids moved out, and complained bitterly of the wasted 'paid for' water in the pipes that was running down the drain whilst the hot water was running through the pipes. Same couple would get wet in the shower, turn it off to soap up, then turn it on to rinse off - utterly incredible, and that is tight IMO

Why, in this one lifetime, would you deny yourself something as basic as a nice hot shower??
The list goes on, freezing house in the winter - fabulous house, but freezing, and I'm talking see your breath cold.... why would you?

When my retirement comes, I've absolutely earned it, and I will be living my life like it ends tomorrow. Honestly folks, you all know it's not a dress rehearsal, get out there and enjoy yourselves before it's too late :beer:

The Oldsage

:cool: