Ditching It

SpendingPennies

First spend of the month today. It’s a family member’s daughters birthday. We didn’t realise until I saw a picture on Facebook. We couldn’t go to the shop or deliver a present because we had to work all day and they live a few miles away so it’s a non essential journey anyway. So I sent a message with an Amazon voucher attached, apologising for not being able to deliver a present and  saying I hope she had a nice birthday and suggested she might want to choose a gift from Amazon. We had a terse message from her parents later that day saying the code didn’t work and to sort it out. No thank you or any other pleasantries. Don’t know why I bothered really 😩

FtbDreaming

Oh god that would have wound me up no end! I’d be grateful for family like you and would appreciate just a happy birthday. My DS was 7 on Monday and only got a card off me and my 2 nans despite us having a significant sized family living nearby. 

SpendingPennies

Hope DS had a good birthday @FtbDreaming I know how much little ones love opening presents. 

SpendingPennies

Pay day has been and gone, and I’ve done the Savings Snaffle.  The regular mortgage payment brought us down another bracket, we are now sub £180k whoop whoop. £1000 has also been transferred into the overpayment account, plus £50 from You Gov. Onwards and downwards.

I was listening to a radio article earlier about how lots of people aren’t spending as much money as normal right now due to having no commuting costs, pub closures, holiday cancellations etc. There was a suggestion we have a duty to plough our unspent money back into the economy. Nice idea but I have really got the saving bug, and clearing the mortgage early is my number 1 priority right now. 

Viking_mfw

I like the "savings snaffle". Excellent name. 

caeler

I don’t think the media can guilt trip me into spending money again right now! Keep it save it! @SpendingPennies
PS. I was sorry to read that your generosity didn’t seem to be appreciated. Heart breaking how people (and family) can be sometimes. 

SpendingPennies

Thanks @Viking_mfw for dropping by and @caeler, gosh you are very close to your mortgage free date, you have done so well.
It’s mostly me that sorts out money stuff, especially driving our recent debt busting and now our mortgage overpayment journey. But yesterday DH chipped in by joining Martin’s club and we’ve now  changed our energy suppliers. We have had a nightmare with the previous two, so hoping for third time lucky. 

The first one, let’s call them Scarey Power changed our gas meter a few years back, apparently we were due a newer model. A few months later they decided we owed them more than £17,000 going back several years. Turns out they were charging for the difference between the reading on the old meter and the new one. There followed a year of threatening letters and phone calls, saying they would send in bailiffs etc. For a year they refused to acknowledge the fact that they had even changed the meter  We finally got them to reverse their proceedings and remove any record of debt, largely due to advice from this website. As you can imagine we had a few sleepless nights and couldn’t wait to leave Scarey Power behind.
So we changed supplier and moved to Where’s My Bill Power? Turns out we hadn’t seen the back of the meter issue with Scarey Power. Scarey didn’t send the meter details over to Where’s My Bill Power, (we had of course provided our own meter readings). They set us up with a monthly DD based upon their estimate, but we didn’t get a bill for nearly 2 years, despite regular chases and pleas from us. When the bill finally came it turns out we were nearly £2500 in arrears, unlike last time we had actually used the energy so have been paying £275 pcm to catch up. 

The arrears are all clear now and we are in credit. So fingers crossed it goes well this time and we have a lower monthly payment. 

caeler

Good luck on your next switch! @SpendingPennies
My last switch was painful, it turns out my property has 2 gas meters (one I use and one that is dormant and not even connected) so when I switch the system thinks I'm not domestic and rejects my application.  This was a few years back and I applied to have my records updated to get rid of the record so I can switch more smoothly in future.... I just haven't tried to again!

twinklie

I think I've been pretty lucky when I've switched, I've never really had any issues. I've been with the same provider since 2016. I'm part of MSE Cheap Energy club but they have been consistently the cheapest this whole time. I've had to change tariff a few times but it's been super easy and straight forward. My friend is with the same provider though and they had a bit of a mare, so sometimes I think it really is just luck with these things. 

SpendingPennies

Thanks @caeler and @twinklie the change over can take a few weeks, I will post an update in here. Have to say with hindsight I am questioning why we bothered to change the first time, it certainly wasn’t worth all the trouble, and I don’t suppose we saved much money either.
It’s been warm and sunny here today, we had a lovely walk at the beach. Hope everyone is having a nice weekend so far.