Follow the Yellow Brick Road 2023

Staffordia

Staffordia said:

SandyShores said:

Staffordia said:

My beef with BG is that despite asking, they will only bill us every 6 months.  I have resigned myself to submitting meter readings every month which then triggers a bill.  Like you @badmemory, we won't entertain the idea of a smart meter.

Do you mean you are getting monthly bills with BG if you read the meter @Staffordia?  I wouldn't mind that - our bills with BG were very very random to start with but seem to be quarterly now - although the gas and the electric bills are on different dates for some bizarre reason.

I submitted a reading at the end of January,  5 months into the 6 month period and an eye-watering bill was generated.  I intend to submit a reading again at the end of this month,  so I will report back if it works. I don't want them raising our DD any higher than it already is.  I'm quite capable of saving the money and earning the interest. 

I am back to report a failure.  I was thanked for my reading but no bill has been generated.  I did see that my DD will be reviewed in March 24!, but no mention if they intend to try and increase it now.  

SandyShores

Thanks for the update Staffordia.  Its so annoying, there's so much data on the account, but its virtually useless because you can't work out what you actually owe.  I am going to take a leaf out of savingholmes book and start to keep my own spreadsheet.  I did see something online that they are updating the site, I hope its better than what's on there.  They've done yearly comparisons for the calendar year - rubbish when the annual review is mid-April - and there's no way to set the dates for comparison.  Roll on my review date and I'll start to do my own readings as well.

SandyShores

I am going to try another tactic this month to keep a lid on the food budget.  I've meal planned for Mon-Fri and set that budget to one side.  So hopefully it will be easier to budget for the other grocery/household spends, some weekend meals and the odd takeaway.  If it doesn't work at least I should be able to pinpoint where any overspending happens.  I'm going to make a list of how many toilet rolls, dishwasher tablets and store cupboard staples we need for the month.  I'm not sure if I have enough storage to make only one trip but I'll try, it would be great to only have to make occasional visits for bread and milk (I can send Mr Shores for those).

Edit, just a quick list and tally of the store cupboard, lunch, toiletries stuff, vet/cat food and I'm at around £260 - I hadn't thought of it as costing so much and with my meal planning which is £140 this month its already £400 total.  That leaves around £100 for bread/milk and takeaways etc.  Its no wonder my budget was always blown when its seems to already be accounted for.  I'll get the store cupboard stuff asap, then I'll have more of an idea of what's left over for sure - I can use my discount and £20 voucher which will help.  I think I'll leave the nectar points building up (over £20 at the moment) in case of emergencies etc.  I shop so little in MrT's that the cc points grow about 50p a year, might be handy for a pint of milk and loaf of bread occasionally though.

KajiKita

It’s quite shocking how quickly it adds up!

KK

SandyShores

It really is @KajiKita, I went off to the A shop this afternoon and managed to spend over £110, but it was reduced by various means and vouchers to just over  £80.  It means I have hopefully purchased most of the household/grocery stuff for the month.  I know there will be extras to buy but at least most of it is bought and paid for.  After allowing for the cats/vets stuff this month, we have around £80 of the fund left for extras.  I think if we want a takeaway it will need to come out of personal spends now - that will make DH think twice.

Good news that a Hobbyshop voucher for £5 has come through, I was off there this weekend to buy a trolley so now I will only have to spend £25.  I also had a delivery and the box it came in fits my office shelves perfectly. I have several more of the same deliveries coming through which is great news, as there are another 3 shelves to fill.  Saves me spending £15 on some from the DIY place.

@savingholmes, I spent a couple of hours this morning working my way through the Gas and Electric readings (and bills) and applying the correct rates - there were several changes last year so it was a bit of a fiddle.  All done though and my suspicions were confirmed.  They have estimated the gas correctly, but then reduced the direct debit so low that I'm going to be short at the review in a month's time.  Then the electricity is estimated too high (so they owe me around the same amount as I will owe for the gas) but I can't reduce the direct debit or claim any refund because their too high estimate (which is clearly wrong) tells the system that I won't be owed anything.  I've managed to pay some extra to the gas account to cover that, which has virtually wiped out my savings (preferable to having a higher direct debit for the next year).  I was going to contact them to re-do the electric estimate but from previous experience its easier just to let it run to the end of the annual review year.  The system says they will then keep £75 but refund the remainder, so I should get about £150 back at least dependant on usage until then  I thought smart meters were supposed to help us keep an eye on our spending - oh yes, but only if they provide more than one bill a year though!!

savingholmes

Does your smart meter tell you your spend?

My gas one still isn't working 

SandyShores

savingholmes said:

Does your smart meter tell you your spend?

My gas one still isn't working 

@savingholmes I didn't look at the smart meter - I used the meter readings online as they also show the number of kWh for the gas and there's a monthly reading.  The IHD (in home display) shows spend, but I haven't really looked at the different functions.  It was good to see the rate per hour increase when you switch different things on, but we don't look at it much now.  The IHD also shows the meter readings and they seem fairly accurate, but I haven't checked against the meter and I've seen comments on MSE that say to use the actual reading rather than the IHD.  

SandyShores

Had a few nice surprises this weekend.  PB win of £25 (so the EF has increased), and then looked at the mortgage account and another month knocked off (even though I didn't make the full £1k OP).  Mr Shores came into an extra £20 and handed it over - so that will go off to the OPs as well.  Small but very happy wins.  I've also split my PBs and ISA between a new car fund and personal savings.  I'm hoping that I don't need to buy a new car, but just in case, and the savings are for something I don't know I need yet - maybe a holiday

Its been an eventful weekend in a few other ways, but have coped and managed to get things organised, so the week ahead could be a good one. 

savingholmes

Always nice to start the week with some wins.

Well done on rolling with what life threw at you. Hope you have a lovely week.

SandyShores

Thanks @savingholmes and I'm also really pleased to have worked out the gas and electricity before the review date.  Will be interesting to see what these next two months readings are and whether I'm right in my calculations (I should get about £150 back if I am which can go towards the garage and garden).

It was a bit of an odd end to last week/start of this week in some ways, so I thought it would be good to try and find some balance by looking at my goals.

1. Financial - rolling along now, and trying a new food budget method which should help this month
2. Spiritual / Personal Growth / Inner Peace - need to devote a little more time to practicing this atm i.e. my new hobby will help
3. Career - bit of a cross roads, I'm at that point where you know so much that you are just overloaded/feel used but not learning (see below) so its time to think about moving but there are changes in motion so lets see first.
4. Family / healthy work-life balance - trying to push back re. being overloaded at work as it isn't healthy but it isn't easy
5. Learning - picked up a book on the pile, but put to one side while I work on pushing back at work - its not easy to say no, so I need to work on speaking up/challenging but in a positive way - have some articles, coaching etc.
6. Physical Health - this is going fairly well but going to try a new eating plan to kick start weight loss.   I think feeling fit helps with all aspects of life e.g. work stress, spiritual and just an overall improvement in mood
7. Social - This isn't something that I want to work on lots, but I do appreciate that social life is important.  This can be paused for a little while until I get my work decisions sorted.
8. Environment e.g. decluttering your space - I feel like our space is fairly decluttered and manageable now.  Just the garage to go when the weather warms up, and my ideal would be to make the garden more of a haven - looking forward to doing these.

It feels good to set this out to see where I'm progressing and focus on where I need to put my efforts.  So I need to focus on my new hobby, speaking up and weight this month.