Little by little, and with love

RosaBernicia

kerri_gt said:

The thing about not filling up full Rosa is the speed the petrol is going up, literally a penny a day over several days round here atm.

I drive so little right now I'm not sure that the pennies I'd save would be worth it when they can be used somewhere else in the meantime.  I use less than a tank a month at present, and usually fill up when it's down to a quarter.  I did fill the van, as that's diesel and has much lower mpg, so will keep that filled...  but am debating again whether to keep it, as the low mpg means I tend to take the car for any days out that I don't actually need the van, and it's only being used for long weekends/ holidays which might be better served by spending the van running costs on B&B.  I keep putting off a decision as it obviously hasn't had a fair chance during lockdown! 
Grateful I have the option though - I picked the super sensible option with this location (I have a small high street, great local walks and a train station) and if I'd gone for other villages, or was required to go back to the office now, things would be much more difficult. 

EssexHebridean

RosaBernicia said:

One more little thing - annoyed to find the dog's insurance went up and my insurer won't allow cashback on renewals... so got onto the comparison sites and have (hopefully) got £80 cashback on a policy for about the same amount.  That takes the equivalent cost down by £6 a month and if we don't need to claim, I can shift again at the end of the year. 

Glad I spotted the email in time as I had flagged it but not got round to checking. 

Be cautious about switching pet insurance too often - particularly as an animal gets older insurers can sometimes start excluding stuff for new policies that they would cover for existing customers whose policies are just rolling onwards. I know with their old dog my parents reached the point where they were literally tied to P3tPl@n as everyone else wanted less money but for FAR less cover than they were comfortable with. Just one to be mindful of. 

As for filling cars up, we've taken the view of just topping up weekly at the moment with the way prices are increasing. 9ppl difference between MrEH filling his up on the 6th and me doing mine on Friday. (Yes - we're both diesel!) 

RosaBernicia

EssexHebridean said:

RosaBernicia said:

One more little thing - annoyed to find the dog's insurance went up and my insurer won't allow cashback on renewals... so got onto the comparison sites and have (hopefully) got £80 cashback on a policy for about the same amount.  That takes the equivalent cost down by £6 a month and if we don't need to claim, I can shift again at the end of the year. 

Glad I spotted the email in time as I had flagged it but not got round to checking. 

Be cautious about switching pet insurance too often - particularly as an animal gets older insurers can sometimes start excluding stuff for new policies that they would cover for existing customers whose policies are just rolling onwards. I know with their old dog my parents reached the point where they were literally tied to P3tPl@n as everyone else wanted less money but for FAR less cover than they were comfortable with. Just one to be mindful of. 

As for filling cars up, we've taken the view of just topping up weekly at the moment with the way prices are increasing. 9ppl difference between MrEH filling his up on the 6th and me doing mine on Friday. (Yes - we're both diesel!) 

Thanks EH.  I am expecting to have less options/ more expense as she gets older but at the moment she has no previous diagnoses or issues, so figured I'd switch while I can.  The cat was getting to the point where some of her benefits were disappearing, so longer term I will think about having funds as well as/ in place of the illness insurance.  It's accidents that are the main worry for me as surgery can be so expensive. 

RosaBernicia

So little things to do today and the weekend...

• Chase up pet insurance - I know the vet finally sent the forms, so am going to nag about when it will be paid
• Try and figure out my options re broadband.  I have superfast already, but the cost is going up - and for some reason the cheapest suppliers are saying they can't supply me because they've used up all their local allocation.  Which is a PITA - I can understand that apparently it's done to avoid a monopoly, but it's not exactly helpful if it means some of us are barred from market prices.  Speaking with a much more tech savvy friend this evening so will seek advice. 
• My phone is giving me occasional messages about dodgy battery capacity    not surprising as it's so old, it may be time to give in and investigate a new one.  Not good timing cost wise though, I was hoping to get another year out of it, so perhaps it will just have to carry on for now.  I do have a back up phone that's even older in case my main one is lost, so it's not disastrous. 
• See if I can find some garden design inspiration.  It's now clear, but messy and boring... so need to think what next, and it has to be reasonably cheap! 
  

EssexHebridean

That's appalling about the broadband thing - if the other companies want a monopoly to be avoided then they can just ensure that their prices are competitive - or so you'd think! 

Is a replacement battery for your phone an option? I got several extra years out of my last one by having a new battery fitted. 

kerri_gt

EssexHebridean said:

That's appalling about the broadband thing - if the other companies want a monopoly to be avoided then they can just ensure that their prices are competitive - or so you'd think! 

Is a replacement battery for your phone an option? I got several extra years out of my last one by having a new battery fitted. 

I believe they 'rent' certain quotas from the BT infrastructure - when we moved house once before we couldn't get a certain BB supplier because either their quota was full, or they didn't have line rentals on that area (can't quite recall which now) 

Tbh when you look at the mess of energy companies, and the number of BB companies that have come and gone, you have to consider whether re-nationalisation would be a positive option. Of course that means there's no options of prices to compare but areas of the private sector are an utter mess. 

RosaBernicia

EssexHebridean said:

That's appalling about the broadband thing - if the other companies want a monopoly to be avoided then they can just ensure that their prices are competitive - or so you'd think! 

Is a replacement battery for your phone an option? I got several extra years out of my last one by having a new battery fitted. 

New battery might well be an idea, thanks EH.  I would of course not mind a shiny new phone, and I know they always say the security is better on new ones, but since I don't use most of the functionality I have it seems a bit of a waste.  And they are not exactly ethically produced.  Thinking about it, I might look into Fairphone or whatever the ethical options are, as I think they definitely allow you to replace bits. 

The broadband thing is just mad and I'm thinking of contacting OpenReach to try and clarify.

RosaBernicia

kerri_gt said:

EssexHebridean said:

That's appalling about the broadband thing - if the other companies want a monopoly to be avoided then they can just ensure that their prices are competitive - or so you'd think! 

Is a replacement battery for your phone an option? I got several extra years out of my last one by having a new battery fitted. 

I believe they 'rent' certain quotas from the BT infrastructure - when we moved house once before we couldn't get a certain BB supplier because either their quota was full, or they didn't have line rentals on that area (can't quite recall which now) 

Tbh when you look at the mess of energy companies, and the number of BB companies that have come and gone, you have to consider whether re-nationalisation would be a positive option. Of course that means there's no options of prices to compare but areas of the private sector are an utter mess. 

That might be what's happening.  Personally I'd be quite happy with nationalisation for essentials.  I don't see how there is supposed to be a genuine market for eg water companies, it's not like I get to choose between them - and like broadband, they all have to use the same stuff so any differences will have to be created via advertising and overhead costs not delivery quality.  The energy market failures are just utterly appalling, costing us all so much money purely for failed Tory ideology. 

RosaBernicia

Well I may end up back with the old pet insurance anyhow, the cashback has failed to track and they don't seem to have taken a payment so I may just cancel it and put up with the cost increase rather than be messed about.  Still chasing the repayment for the cat related claim, sigh. 

Some work done on the garden which has cleared it a bit and now I can start to think about longer term plans.  Hoping to do some more reshuffling this week. 

Lots of house reshuffling going on too.  Hoping I may finally get round to sorting boxes to go to the British Heart Foundation, now that I've finally persuaded my printer to work and can sort the labels! 

Also noticing that rethinking energy use means rethinking timing for some things.  I've turned down the radiators and also cut down the times they are on, including cutting out the last session in late evening (as I'm either in bed or under blankets on the sofa) and reducing the time they are on in the morning (just enough to warm the room before I get up - and this will probably go down quickly as we get into summer).  I have noticed that things didn't dry overnight very well, probably because the rooms just weren't warm enough.  I'm now putting things in the washing machine on delay timer so that they run in the morning and can either go out on the line, or go on radiators and heated airer in the south facing rooms to maximise use of 'free solar heating' as EH calls it! 

EssexHebridean

We've been tweaking our heating thanks to all the lovely sunny days too - it was just slightly chilly yesterday evening but not enough to be an issue, and looking at the sunshine streaming down today hopefully I won't have the same issue tonight!