Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

joedenise

Onebrokelady said:

joedenise said:

Applied to Octopus to switch gas and electric on Wednesday  and had an email this morning saying they have taken over and to send a meter reading!  How quick is that - absolutely brilliant.  Meters read and readings sent this morning so good riddance EDF.

Did you do it online. I've tried three times this week an d it won't work 

Yes.  Just went onto their website and requested a quote; then everything else was done by email.  Message me if you'd like a referral code which will give us both £50 credit.

@foxgloves - I absolutely agree with you about getting the water and CT bills so that I can sort out my budgets.  No doubt CT will be 4.99% (ie the max they can charge without going back to Government!); water I'm hoping there won't be much change as looking online my usage is down on last year so even if they increase the price per cubic metre shouldn't change my much if at all.

Cheery_Daff

Excellent saving on the broadband there, well done! Cheeky blighters.

Baileys_Babe

foxgloves said:

I wish the council tax & water bills would hurry up & arrive so I can get those figures entered on our spreadsheet too.
F x

I too wish they would send us the water and council tax bills usually, they both arrive in late March, how do they except people to be able to sort out their budgets.

Suffolk_lass

Baileys_Babe said:

foxgloves said:

I wish the council tax & water bills would hurry up & arrive so I can get those figures entered on our spreadsheet too.
F x

I too wish they would send us the water and council tax bills usually, they both arrive in late March, how do they except people to be able to sort out their budgets.

This prompted me to check my local council. The meeting where the budget is required to balance (with council tax hanging off the back of that) looks like it is 26th Feb and I know the Parishes had to put their precept reports in by the end of January. The county budget meeting is on 9th Feb. It will be the same or similar across England

joedenise

Suffolk_lass said:

Baileys_Babe said:

foxgloves said:

I wish the council tax & water bills would hurry up & arrive so I can get those figures entered on our spreadsheet too.
F x

I too wish they would send us the water and council tax bills usually, they both arrive in late March, how do they except people to be able to sort out their budgets.

This prompted me to check my local council. The meeting where the budget is required to balance (with council tax hanging off the back of that) looks like it is 26th Feb and I know the Parishes had to put their precept reports in by the end of January. The county budget meeting is on 9th Feb. It will be the same or similar across England

No wonder we don't get our bills until the end of March!

Makingabobor2

Another one here waiting for the CT & WR bills to arrive. I've done this year's spread sheets up till March, but waiting on the bills before I do the rest. 

EssexHebridean

They only just got our CT bill out last year with the required notice ahead of our DD date - it arrived with less than a day to spare in the end! 

Good work from MrF haggling on the broadband cost. We do still have a landline but only really because it was just attached to the package.

foxgloves

@EssexHebridean - Our old VM package, after we got rid of the TV channels (a few years ago) was just landline & broadband, but after my parents died, nobody really phoned us on the landline - it was something they always used - so we decided to ditch it & just use our mobiles. Mr F phoned to inform them of our decision & to remove the phone from our package but when he asked how much we'd now be paying, the reply (which I can't recall in detail) was along the lines of the payment remaining the same. This was naturally queried & I think he did get a reduction, but once that payment period had run out, I'm assuming it went up to its previous silly level. I don't deal with broadband, Netflix or mobile contracts because they bore me senseless, so unless I spot an outrageous-looking figure on a spreadsheet, I have little to do with them. Anyway, he did get a much better deal on Saturday when he was on the neverending livechat & I've just input the new figures into Spreadsheet 1 this afternoon. March will be a very low payment to correct an overpayment for part of that month's billing period, then the £24 payments commence in April. I feel much better about that. Neither of us wanted the hassle of changing provider, but we would have done so had the new £50 pm payment become a reality.
F

foxgloves

Hello diary readers & thanks for all your comments, which I have been reading, though didn't get round to posting yesterday. 

@marionmgcars - Lovely socks! I will post a pic of mine when they're finished.

@Suffolk_lass - Yes, I didn't have the dates, but I know all the different bits of the council tax bill need to be signed off by the various different tiers of council, plus the police precept, etc. I can remember the annual discussions of this from my 4 years as a local councillor. I think I'm just feeling much twitchier about bills this year, as I know the combined rises, especially including another energy cap increase in April, will be a lot more than the average public sector % pay increase. I'm sure this is the key driver in so many of us really wanting to get the new figures input on our budgets asap, so that we can get a sense of what this year's household running costs are going to look like.
So far, apart from Mr F's VM win at the weekend, nothing's going down!
F x

foxgloves

And now for today's post.....
Today's small wins on the money saving front:
*Fed sourdough jar & baked a batch of rosemary & seasalt crackers with the unfed pour-off portion.
*Did this week's laundry - all the big stuff, towels, etc, pegged out in the sunshine to get at least part-dry, hopefully, though everywhere was frozen solid first thing - a totally white lawn again.
*Did my regular Monday morning budget updates. Grocery budget is a little over because we took advantage of '10% off day' in Wilko's when we went in to buy cats' current food of choice (currently cheaper in there than local supermarkets) & bought an extra box. We do have a decent amount of food in the freezer, so I will aim to base next week's meal plans around a Sunday roast stretching to some knock-on meals plus what we already have in. 
*Checked for surveys - not much happening today, but did what there was.
*Knitted more of the self-patterning socks for Mr F, which will be going in the presents stash.
*Will knit more of my friend's wrap tonight while Mr F & I are competing over University Challenge. I managed to buy a bag of silver-coloured vintage-style heart charms on Saturday, to sew onto the 4 corners when it's finished. Bargain, as only cost £1.75 for a bag of about 15, so I can knit a similar gift for somebody else in the future should I wish. As I already had the yarn in my stash, this wrap will have cost the mahoosive sum of.....46p !!
*Virtually no effort at all required on the culinary front tonight as have defrosted a pot of the pesto I made from our summer basil. We have plenty of pasta in stock, even though the pantry is not at the level of fullness I prefer atm (but there is a re-stock list growing in my notebook, of course there is!) Might make a rice pudding, as we have a spare pint of milk lurking.

Now here's an odd little tale.....it's something of nothing really, but here goes....On Friday night I had a dream in which I found a £10 note in a thicket at the local-ish historic park we had planned to visit for a walk on the following Saturday morning. On the Saturday, due to circumstances, we decided to postpone this outing to the Sunday morning & to go into town for odds & ends of shopping instead. We were just heading back to the car, when I noticed a woman coming towards us stop about 2m away & pick up a piece of litter from the pavement.....& as she kept walking while holding it, I saw that what she'd picked up was a £10 note! I said to Mr F that if we hadn't stopped to re-juggle carrying 2 big 40-pouch boxes of cat food, that would have been our lucky find. Anyway, I am hoping as the woman who picked it up had no coat on what was a very cold morning & had only slippers on her feet, that she needed it a lot more than we did. A curious little coincidence though, following my previous night's dream. On Sunday morning, we went off on our postponed outing & did not find any money......although we did reckon we'd found something more special. We went a little off the beaten track as we often do, as Mr F is keen on wildlife photography & we spotted a fab little stoat with the most awesome black-dipped tail who popped up from his hole to watch us going by. Mr F didn't manage to get his zoom lens on in time, but nevertheless got a couple of good pictures, which made his day....... as did remembering to take a contraband cake with us to share over a coffee!
Well, the sunshine is just lovely this afternoon. I think I will go & see how the laundry is drying & bring it in for the heated airer before the temperatures begin to drop again. 
Hope everyone has managed to have a reasonably decent weekend. If not, well let's re-group, take a deep breath & see what this new week has to offer. 
Peace,
F xx