Prosperous soul embraces creativity & mortgage neutrality

savingholmes

Thanks @Mickyh=s @Merlin's_Beard DIA and Beanie

Congrats Beanie.

Just warned DD currently on track for a 40-50% increase in energy bills in October - so need to avoid using tumble dryer - instead dry on line, on  hangers, over radiator hanger etc. Try to reduce usage. I also threw in the save the planet argument. Will see next month whether it worked.

I haven't got a smart meter as they are getting a lot of bad press currently as unreliable.

happihorse

savingholmes said:

Thanks jwil @Blackcats MF and @happihorse

Thanks again for the encouragement. I agree with you all - but I'm trying to be careful what I write given it's an online diary. 

3lb off at SW so eating late afternoon onwards rather than almost non-stop throughout the day works... Who knew? Even using free food it was too much food overall. So 11lb so far. Let's hope I can get the same or better next week and then I'll be able to get my 1 stone award which would be nice. The awards do help. I'm trying to use DS's graduation as a target and hope to lose another half a stone by then (roughly 3 weeks).

Well done on the fantastic weight loss.  Glad it’s working for you too.  And hopefully you are starting to feel the benefits too now.  

EssexHebridean

Smart meters can be brilliant I think, but too many people seem to think that once they're fitted, they can just forget about ever reading a meter again - and the energy companies don't help by building it up in that way too!  It was our water company that made me laugh when we had an appointment about fitting a water meter. It can't be fitted in the place the mains supply comes in, so he was casting around for other areas and said "Oh I can put it behind the dishwasher - that'll be fine" so I said no, it wouldn't, as I wasn't going to be pulling out the DW to read it each time and anyway at that point we were shortly having the kitchen done and having a built in DW put in - to which the fitters response was "Oh it's fine - they send automatic readings now so you don't have to read it" - he seemed utterly bewildered when I said that yes, I understood about the automatic readings, but I was still going to need to check it to be sure that the readings it was sending were right! As it happened we had to have all the pipework in the kitchen ripped out and replaced so I'm very glad we didn't agree to have it put there!

Hopefully DD will take on board your comments about energy use and start acting like the grown adult she's meant to be. Have you added up a rough estimate of how much she "costs you" each month allowing for shares of food, energy, insurances, other running costs for the house etc? Plus of course the fuel for running her about the place too - I do wonder if the real-life figure might frighten her! 

leftatthetrafficlights

Well done on the weight loss!! 🙌

mark55man

well done - the axe sounds fun, but the weight loss is more impressive 

savingholmes

Thanks @happihorse EH and @leftatthetrafficlights

EH - Thankfully I got DD to buy her own food - and only occasionally feed her. I think proportionate to her income she's now paying a fairer amount. The problem with telling her the facts about how much things cost is it seems to be disincentivising her flying the nest as she's afraid of running out of £ and is enjoying her current spending. We had a conversation about a month back in which I told her I'd originally planned to charge her an element of board - and not just recover some of the utility costs - so that she could pay towards my mortgage. She was deeply shocked. Her comparison is we paid for DS to go to uni... 

I will bear in mind your comments on a smart meter. We had one years ago but not recently. Perhaps I should give it another shot. I'd need 2 though as currently with different providers for gas and elec. 

Chased P1p today for copy of my report (that they base their decision on) as I was told it should be available after 2 weeks - and they said they hadn't received it yet. I have now had a text to say they've received it - so they should now send a copy to me. I've read online if I do have to appeal - getting the report early helps with preparing the reasons in time... They can still take another 8 weeks from this point to make a decision though... I am currently around the 20 week mark. The only consolation is if I do get it - they backdate it.

My weight is continuing it's downward trend which is cheering. Still finding TRE is working for me and I am eating much more mindfully. Today I first ate around 4pm - mackerel salad and jacket spud. Had a few grapes since then and a banana. I have now run out of mackerel - so need to decide whether to just buy more or give myself a little variety and eat something from the freezer. I've had it 6 days out of the last 10 and it is full of vitamins etc but still probably excessive. I love that I don't have to cook it though and it has a strong enough taste that it doesn't need extra sauces. I am having about 80g at a time rather than the 140g that counts as a 'portion' and the health people say between 2-4 portions is okay per week if in menopause... (pollutant risk).

Sis has now confirmed she'll take me to the service down south so cancelled counsellor as it clashed. Will need that £ towards fuel anyway. I may get to see DS briefly if we get to the general area in time as he's off this week. A little worried that the trip will throw off my diet / eating plan... I've booked the next day off to recover (as suggested by my boss!!).

At lunchtime I cut up some of what BIL had cut down and have begun refilling my garden bin. Will try the little and often approach. It has rained this afternoon but dry again now. Weird weather. I still need to finish planting out the new bedding plants. I found 3 more trays at 50p each in the footwell of my car - so have 5 lots left to plant out. Will be pretty when it's done. I have loads of pots - so all I'm doing is changing the top couple of inches of compost, adding the bedding plants and watering them in.

jwil

Well done on the weightloss!

MovingForwards

Congratulations on the weightloss and finding a way eating works for you.

try_harder

I am a hoarder so i have so much stuff to declutter .Its wonderful actually getting money for the clutter but by far the best part is seeing the house looking so much tidier ,it makes me feel so much happier

savingholmes

Thanks jwil, MF and @try_harder

I got £5 yesterday for leftovers from my wedding dinner set. I was happy to see it gone. Still need to list more stuff.

Today I've set up a new (FD) 3.5% regular saver. Just sending £25 to it for now as no withdrawals allowed. You are allowed to put in up to £300 pcm though - and can catch up in future months if you 'underpaid' in previous ones.

Still sending £200 pcm a month to a 2.5% regular saver - but that's just recycling my EF into interest earning accounts rather than me having that much spare a month. That one I think I can have 3 withdrawals a year - which isn't my plan but is reassuring.

I still want to do AVCs - but am awaiting the outcome of P1p still. Sorry I know I keep going on about it. There's maintenance type stuff that I should do on the house and things to make my life easier - so need to find the right balance yet. 

I may move my mortgage payment date forward a couple of weeks - so a) it's kind of an extra payment and shortens my mortgage term and b) I don't need to have such a high balance the day before payday. My mortgage and CT go out on payday - so I've been making sure there's enough money in the account the day before. Not sure if that's really necessary? Either way it's a waste of interest earning potential/costing me £. The need would be obliterated if I changed to the 1st of the month. Will aim to dig out my details and sort it tomorrow ready for August as I'm sure they have a notice period. The backpay I'm due and my EF will help cushion the change. Slightly nervous as unsure how hard I'll be taxed or how much of my take home I'll lose when I buy extra holidays.