Time to Face The Music

joedenise

I'd second Bosch as well.  All my white goods apart from the fridge/freezer are Bosch.  I've only ever had a washer/dryer once and it spent more time not working than it did working and I only kept it for a year until the warranty ran out and replaced with separate washing machine and dryer - would never have another one.

I've only ever had a Neff oven and have to say I wasn't impressed with it.  It took a really long time, about 2 hours, to get to 200 degrees and when I had the engineer out was told that was how long they were supposed to take!  I've never had that with any other oven!  Taking that long most things ended up being cooked before it had even got to temperature!

RelievedSheff

We had a Bosch double oven and a Bosch gas hob in the last house and have to say that we were not impressed with the quality of them and both had problems from the start.

The fridge freezers we got through like shelling peas were Hotpoint ones. We were limited with choice for the old house as the gap left for the fridge freezer was only 55cm wide which greatly reduced the choice on offer. We think we finally realised about 6 months ago why they were problematic. The end of the kitchen where the fridge had been located was originally a coal house and downstairs loo but had been knocked through to make the kitchen bigger. Problem being the construction was only single skin brick for that part and the end of the kitchen was really cold in winter. Most fridge freezers we have now found out are only designed to work down to 10 degrees C and we reckon that the end of the kitchen would have easily got colder than that in the winter which was probably the reason those fridges never lasted long.

We bought an american style Samsung fridge freezer for the new house and that has done it's job so far with no problems. The tall freezer we bought for the garage we did research and bought one that is designed for outbuildings and garages and will work in temperatures down to -15 degrees C. Again that limited our choice and we ended up with a Beko one which wouldn't have been our first choice of manufacturer given the trouble we are having with the washer dryer.

We have narrowed the choice for a replacement washer dryer down to Samsung, Bosch and Miele.  Need to save some pennies up first though!

alt80

Lots of the places I’ve bought to rent / flip have been knocked through like that - often complete traps for damp too and where I invest in low value areas nothing gets quite like an owner occupied house in a low value area where the elderly owner can’t afford to maintain. Opens your eyes.

Miele washing machines are decent put them in my hmos and got one at home bought about 15 years ago I think survived a fair few moves (used to live in flip projects). 10 year guarantee and very reliable.

RelievedSheff

alt80 said:

Lots of the places I’ve bought to rent / flip have been knocked through like that - often complete traps for damp too and where I invest in low value areas nothing gets quite like an owner occupied house in a low value area where the elderly owner can’t afford to maintain. Opens your eyes.

Miele washing machines are decent put them in my hmos and got one at home bought about 15 years ago I think survived a fair few moves (used to live in flip projects). 10 year guarantee and very reliable.

There was not a bit of damp in the old house. That was one thing it did have going for it. It was dry as a bone and the rest of the house was nice and warm, just the end of the kitchen was cold. We liked the house, if we could have picked it up and moved it we would have. It was the area that was bad and the neighbours. Unsurprisingly the house is up for sale again 18 months later.

We are trying to figure out if the Miele is really worth almost twice as much as both the Samsung and Bosch machines we have been looking at? They are expensive.

enthusiasticsaver

We have had Bosch washing machine/dryers and dishwashers but never had a Bosch oven.  I am sceptical as to why Miele are so expensive and whether it is worth paying the extra.  We looked at them when choosing appliances for our new kitchen but opted for Neff oven and hob as we liked the slideaway door on the eye level oven.  

alt80

@RelievedSheff yes always be careful about areas - whenever I’ve bought a property for me to live in for any length of time location first, rest can be sorted and you might make a few quid in the process. 

Miele well its still going strong after 15ish years but perhaps the others would be too. No complaints and got them spinning away in 6 hmos as well as my own home and a couple of hmo flips now owned by property mates who’ve had no trouble. Lots of property people have laughed at me buying top quality appliances tbf (they know I like to spend haha) but I’m not the one having to keep having blokes out to fix them / replacements.

RelievedSheff

£100 paid off credit card 4 today.

It will be a no spends day other that this though. Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be from stores. Breakfast was toast, the other half has taken his packed lunch to work, I will grab something from the fridge and dinner tonight is chicken stroganoff with rice and vegetables.

Our new mattress arrives today. Can't wait to get that on the bed this afternoon. Love a new mattress.

Today's jobs include:

• working from home
• load of washing
• cleaning the bathrooms
• wrapping christmas presents when delivered
• putting new mattress on the bed and wrestling the old one into my car to take to the tip
• walking the dog x 2

Will post a little update on account balances later when I have looked through them all and sorted them out.

RelievedSheff

Debt 1 = £0
Credit Card 1 = £300 (£150 repayment 0% interest)
Credit Card 2 = £525 (£80 repayment 29.9% interest)
Credit Card 3 = £3529 (£250 repayment 29.9% interest)
Credit Card 4 = £4480 (£100 repayment 0% interest)
Credit Card 5 = £8324 (£150 repayment 0% interest)
HP = £4187 (£251 repayment)
Furniture Loan = £672 (£16 repayment)

We are disappointed that we have had to put some purchases on credit card 5 this month but our aim is to pay the extra back next month to get that account back on track again.

enthusiasticsaver

Getting a budget that works takes time so putting some things on credit in the beginning of a debt repayment journey is sometimes unavoidable. Even with the extra purchases this month you have still paid off more than £2500 from the overall debt since 1 September. Well done and just think how much spare income you will have once those cards are gone. 

RelievedSheff

enthusiasticsaver said:

Getting a budget that works takes time so putting some things on credit in the beginning of a debt repayment journey is sometimes unavoidable. Even with the extra purchases this month you have still paid off more than £2500 from the overall debt since 1 September. Well done and just think how much spare income you will have once those cards are gone. 

Thanks for pointing that out. It doesn't sound so bad now that you put it that way