2020++ - smiling and waving and looking so fine

mark55man

Thanks Sarah, SH,

The bar is not high in this case - I only paid under £1k (it was a friend's old car and he gave me the option of matching the garage trade-in price).  It was meant for DS but it would have cost £2K to insure it, so we car swapped and it looks like I got a year's motoring for £100 net loss + £150 service.  Most of my work miles are paid for (lucky I know)

FootyFanDan

Great work on the savings, its amazing to be able to save quite a fair bit for a few hours work. I think its a good plan to review every so often, makes you more aware of spends. I agree re the sky we have thought about going down the now tv route but I just don't think it would do what we get from our sky package, for very little savings when sports is added. So while I can make savings elsewhere I am happy to keep this. 
Good luck with the car sale.

mark55man

so SKY dealings are finished.  I went with £27 pm instead of £46pm for the same thing although half that saving was baked in for doing a new 18 months, the other half was through negotiation.  I feel maybe I could have hung on a little more - and got nearer half, but basically paying £10 pm just so we didn't have to change anything in terms of how we watch was affordable  

Also because I elected to start immediately they will refund the difference in charges, thus refunding some of my stupid tax in not dealing with this last month !!  My Feb bill will be £0 (and £0 council tax woohoo) and then March will be £27 for TV and £33 for Broadband + Phone.  Down from £46pm / £42pm respectively.  Plus the Virgin TV box they threw in for nothing could probably get used in a different room by one of the DC -as we won't need it.  I'll count that as a win  

mark55man

And car sold - I know on Ebay you shouldn't really close early, but I was at my expected price and the guy had the feel of a reliable buyer plus selling early means I can source a replacement more safely and in plenty of time before I go back to work.  So that means my motoring costs were £300 for 12 months (£150 loss on the car, £150 for a minor service) - oh and £1500 for DS insurance - but that's the deal

I should stay off work more often, its amazing how many frogs you can sort out !!

  

Sarahwithlove

I've been looking into mine as virgin are just about to hike the prices up by 4.50 a month but apparently if you're in a contract you won't be effected. So I'm gonna hold on until April when it ends and then look at moving it. 

Sarahwithlove

mark55man said:

And car sold - I know on Ebay you shouldn't really close early, but I was at my expected price and the guy had the feel of a reliable buyer plus selling early means I can source a replacement more safely and in plenty of time before I go back to work.  So that means my motoring costs were £300 for 12 months (£150 loss on the car, £150 for a minor service) - oh and £1500 for DS insurance - but that's the deal

I should stay off work more often, its amazing how many frogs you can sort out !!

  

Great news about the car can't complain at £150 loss for a year on a car really 

savingholmes

Fantastic outcome on the car. BB still sounds steep though. We pay £23 for phone and BB with Vod*****

mark55man

True SH - I could have gone for the 100Mb and not 200Mb bundle that would have been £28.  I haven't counted the £50 refer a friend I will get from DD which is £3pm over 18.  The main advantage is virgin is cable to the top of my little cul de sac, and then will be cable to my front door, whereas all the other providers share the same BT/OpenReach infastructure, which is fibre to the cabinet (about 500m away) and then copper to the house.  Therefore I had started that although SKY were amongst the best of the traditional providers, its just not good enough anymore.

So I think for £7pm extra getting triple speed and removing that particular source of problem is OK.  Plus I get the Virgin TV box for free (effectively) and that allowed me extra discount from SKY.  Also, and I'm its the right decision for you, but I wouldn't touch VODA with a bargepole after my experience with their mobile customer service division.

savingholmes

Sounds good speed. 

Sarahwithlove

I'd be careful though as you may not receive anything like that speed wise. I'm on the 200 plan and get only 35 which tbh is fast enough anyway but not the point.