2022 Frugal Living Challenge

Primrose

 Think most people like their privacy and  wouldn, want somebody else "living in" but if you had a reasonable sized room to spare somebody who didn,t have the space to properly "work from  home" might want to rent it out during  weekdays.

Floss

cw18 said:

Floss said:

cw18 said:

otb666 said:

water company wanted to increase dd from 31 to 53pm I am not in debit with them Another bill I have to keep an eye on 

If you ARE on a meter, then you should be able to calculate what your bill is likely to be as long as you're using the same amount of water as last year.   Mine have the standing charges and unit prices on their website - and this year my bill should work out about £5 LESS than last as long as I don't use extra (some elements have gone up slightly, but others have come down).

But if you use more than you are paying for there is a bill at the next reading which will be added onto the reassessed usage, which I think is what's happened here. I bet your next reassessment will be to around £42 pm, assuming you stay on the same usage.

But obt666 saud there's no debt on the account.  The only way it can be due to using more than they've been paying for is if the account was hugely in credit, and the payments had been reduced to use up the credit balance.   If that were the case they'd now have a balance with a low (or no) credit balance and have to start paying for what they're using so they don't fall into debt.

With water it is generally billed on a 6-monthly basis.  If the water co have increased the direct debit, there must also be an increase in usage from the previous year - the highest increase in charges was just over 10% by Northumbria Water and that does not add up to a £22 increase, which is 70% higher than previously.

https://www.ofwat.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/prs_lft_101117meters.pdf

Floss

JinJinBlue said:

I've just watched Frugal Queen in France. The video was, "What are you prepared to give up to win financially?"
It was interesting but the last suggestion had me shaking my head in horror. It was to give up privacy as in sharing accommodation, living in a place where people could see your comings and goings, living in a terrace and hearing your neighbours through the walls etc. I nearly had a breakdown when we lived in a semi with nightmare neighbours next door. When I downsized, I went a lot smaller but detached and I wouldn't swap it for all the tea in China. I'm prepared to give up a lot but not my privacy. How about you? I know many people don't have the luxury of choice and I know how lucky I am but one more Jimmy Hendrix impersination at 2.00am in the morning would have pushed me over the edge. 

I lived in a 1930s terrace for 12 years without hearing much from the various neighbours and to be honest we saw less "comings & goings" than when I lived in a semi-detached home. I live in a 2008 terrace now with my living room at the back - vastly improved building standards mean I hear very little from each side unless I'm in the garden when they are in theirs. I decided the choice of mid over end terrace was a no-brainer when it came to keeping my home warm and I only have 2 external walls & no gable end to maintain.

Siebrie

When Frugal Queen still lived in Cornwall and had her blog, she mentioned that her son had moved back in, and that she charged him full commercial rent.

-taff

Primrose said:

 Think most people like their privacy and  wouldn, want somebody else "living in" but if you had a reasonable sized room to spare somebody who didn,t have the space to properly "work from  home" might want to rent it out during  weekdays.

Now that is a genius idea.

Sweetlittledaydreams

I'm in a semi detached house and my previous neighbours used to annoy me so much, they were just noisy. But they moved a few weeks ago and my new neighbour is very quite and works long hours and sometimes overnight so in my mind is the absolute perfect neighbour and I no longer need to consider moving. My neighbour the other side that I'm not attached to, plays rock music in their garden, but it's not too loud and I like the same sort of music so don't mind but can see how that could also be annoying. I think I'm generally a good neighbour, i work a lot and commute so I'm out of the house around 14 hrs a day if I'm working, and over than my boy chick who likes to crow now and then, I dont think that we make much noise. I considered letting my spare room to my best mate but decided I valued my privacy too much.
Almost finished a night shift, bit of extra pay for overnights, all helps. There is a food festival in my town at the weekend so if I wake up early enough (will be after 3 night shifts so might accidently sleep through it all!) I will head in and have a look, should be a good atmosphere and opportunity to catch up with friends even if I don't buy anything.
Started a compost heap yesterday, collecting rain water already and plan to make hay with the grass clippings to use as bedding and want to plant up some containers of greens and sprouts for the chicks when I get a chance. All little things that might help with a bit of money saving and sustainability.
Will try vinegar in with the washing because I've run out of conditioner so good time to try it, enjoying the good drying weather at the moment too. 

Bluegreen143

I wouldn’t rent out a room unless we were in dire straits as at this stage of my life (having young kids at home) we need our own space as a family. Neither would I consider moving into my parent’s home unless it was desperately needed. But I live in an end terrace in a cul de sac (so the neighbours on the other side aren’t attached but are at a right angle to our house) and the neighbours just don’t bother me at all. My garden isn’t really overlooked due to window positioning and seven foot high fences. Luckily it backs onto a nursery, which has a hill in their garden and the building is down it, so isn’t close to our garden, and the other side backs onto a patch of woodland/waste ground but again there’s a big drop down to it. And the layout of the house is such that the bit that joins to the neighbours is mainly both houses’ stairwells so you can’t really hear the neighbours at home. 

Though, before we bought this we lived in a flat for 7 years (DH lived there for 13 years as had it before me) and it was fine. We live right in a city though so you take it for granted you’ll have neighbours close by. What I’d now be reluctant to give up though by moving to a mid terrace is our large corner garden - it’s about 4/5x the size of the middle terrace gardens on the street.

Bluegreen143

Oh last night was the first time “in real life” (apart from talking to my mum and sister, who are very open) I’ve had a conversation with a friend giving up something to save money because of inflation - she’s taken up cycling to save petrol costs and may get rid of the second car. In my social circle people still seem to have plenty of money. Which I can believe, as we are also in a fortune position (debt free and both have good jobs) but we’re still taking the economy into account when making decisions so we can still save as much as possible.

The good thing is, I asked my best friends if we can not exchange birthday gifts this year and the fact that this friend was saying about petrol costs made me feel less mean/stingy about asking, as she seemed genuinely glad not to.

ladyholly

I live in a mid terrace but unusually our houses are all built the same way round so our hallway is next to next doors sitting room and our sitting room is next to the other sides hallway. This does cut down on the noise. In fact we get very little from either side and we get the benefit of them heating 2 sides of our house.

MazzieD

The downsizing issue is an interesting one.  I actually did this from a much larger semi detached with a huge garden to my current much smaller semi detached house with a tiny garden.  It wasn't a financial decision in my case and didn't make much out of it financially, it was watching both parents developing serious health issues and refusing to move out of a large 4 bedroom house stuffed full of clutter.  Guess who had to deal with it all after they both passed away within 9 months of each other. 

I vowed at that point that I would downsize before I needed to and I'm so glad I did.  I know some elderly couples who say they aren't ready to downsize and that's fine but they then can't cope with all the stress of moving if they need/have to and life becomes very difficult.

On the subject of neighbours, both sides moved in after me and are probably the worst I've ever had.  Two barking dogs with behavioural problems and the owners are similar(!) in the other half of the semi and I won't go into detail on the other side because their behaviour is so bad it's almost unbelievable.  Still, have to make the best of it as moving again would be way too expensive.