Diary of a 30-something idiot

foxandflowers

Hope everyone had a nice weekend. 

Checking in with another NO SPEND DAY. Woooo. 

We have had a low spend weekend and aside from needing to put fuel in the car and pay £5 for parking, we have been good. On Friday we dropped my daughter at her dads house, and I wasn't feeling well, so basically went to bed at 7pm. I was still not quite 100% on Saturday morning, but we went to go watch Boy 2 play football and then came home, and ate lunch together, before going to the harbour in the van. We parked up and paid for parking (I need to get an annual pass for the millenium car parks -keep forgetting) and went for a nice long walk. On the way back the sunset was absolutely stunning. I mean, LOOK. 



After, we sat in the van and watched the tide come in, then went home and watched Hunger Games on my laptop. 

Today I have been drowning in housework, but made time to go for a sea swim (2 degrees in the water!!!) and list lots of things on Vinted. I have listed 26 things tonight, and I have sold 4 of them, and so far am in profit of £52.00. Feeling rather pleased with myself. You aren't allowed to list opened perfume on there as an FYI, so I will be posting that on eBay instead as per the previous advice  

Right, time for an emergency cuppa to get me through the ironing avalanche on my bed. x

foxgloves

Beautiful photo......enjoying nature is usually free & good for our mental & physical health. Sounds like a lovely evening. Hope you had some help with the housework.
F x

SuzeQStan

Just gorgeous!

foxandflowers

So, I was looking at my debt totals this morning, and I am now back OVER £40,000. For some reason my energy bill from the last house has been added to Stepchange at a total of £2,139.16 for a bill that was £94.40. I can only assume they've whacked a load of charges on? I hate this honestly. I feel like I am constantly in a state of two steps forward, nineteen steps back.  

Have rung them and spoke to them. Estimated meter readings are the culprit. It will have to sit on my Stepchange for the next 25 years. Lesson learned in droves. What an idiot I am. My diary is aptly named. 

stymied

At least you didn’t suddenly have to come up with £2k to pay them! How long was it since they’d taken a real reading?

foxandflowers

@stymied 16 months... I thought the smart meter plug thing we had in the kitchen was sending automatic readings but it wasn't. And I didn't take any when we left. So the only ones that have been submitted are from when we moved in, and a month and a half after we moved out  

foxgloves

Well yes, lesson learned there, @foxandflowers, but learn FROM it too, so as to avoid anything similar happening in future.I suspect the plug in thing in your last house may have been a smart monitor & they defo don't submit readings to suppliers. For that you need a fully installed & functioning smart meter which can only be installed via your energy supplier. Does your new house already have one of these? If it does, & it is working, then your energy supplier will be able to collect monthly meter readings automatically. If you have a standard old-style meter, then you need to be taking readings manually every month & submitting them online. This is the only way you can ensure you are paying the correct amount. Most people who suddenly find they owe a horrible big amount or conversely have been overcharged for months on end, usually find themselves in this position because of estimated readings being used due to lack of actual true figures.
F

foxandflowers

Hi @foxgloves. Downloaded the 0v0 app, and its definitely sending meter readings daily automatically. It's actually quite interesting to look at it in depth (especially Sundays as that is when I do laundry and my tumble dryer apparently eats electricity for fun). I think you may be right about the smart monitor.

At least I know now though. Nothing I can do about the huge bill but I won't get myself into this pickle again. 

foxgloves

Well, chalk this one up as 'lesson learned', then @foxandflowers. You can't turn the clock back. I've never owned a tumble dryer because everyone says they are expensive to run so I peg laundry outside when it is warm/blowy enough, & have a heated airer for winter.
F x

MeandO

So sorry to hear about the energy costs fox, how frustrating. Would they have had a meter reading from your buyers when they moved in as they were supplying the energy to the property? I wonder if they would be able to search against the property and look that up? It would give a more realistic idea of what the meter was at when you left.