Escape to the country & living off savings

Skint_yet_Again

Thanks Suze 😊 I have spent some time on t’internet and found a recipe for yoghurt and blueberry breakfast cake and breakfast mug cups so I will get some blueberries and give them a shot. I have all the other ingredients. I have a terrible sweet tooth 🙄

Have had a gentle day mostly relaxing. Friend popped in for a cuppa. She had sinusitis last week so probably passed it on to me. Phoned the doctor and I am going back on the new meds tonight 

I had leftover curry for lunch as it was all I fancied (beef, butternut squash, red pepper, chickpeas, spinach). Payday so I decided to start my new month tonight with a kebab delivered (chicken breast chunks not the doner meat) paid from feb entertainment pot. 

Phone sim-only £10

Tv licence 15.00    

Water 21

Council tax £0. Visiting family £102

Union £2.35.     Increase from £2.24

Gas & Electric £77

Annual bills £100

Birthdays / Xmas £50

Car pot £50

Petrol £40

Entertainment £100

Food £160.  (£40 x 4 weeks)

Aquafit £32.50

Income £833

Outgoing £759.85

Remaining £73.15

Time2count

Nice remaining amount.
Hope you feel better soon 

SuzeQStan

Everything crossed no ill effects with the meds this time SYA 🤞🏻🤞🏻🥰

on local N@xtDo@r app today someone has posted their annual water bill (domestic) is going from £779 to over £1k next year (!!!) 🙀🙀

I was annoyed about ours going up to £45 a month!  (£540) it’s been suggested to the person on that app that they get a meter. But my goodness they must be in a mansion or something don’t you think?!?!?

jwil

SuzeQStan said:

Everything crossed no ill effects with the meds this time SYA 🤞🏻🤞🏻🥰

on local N@xtDo@r app today someone has posted their annual water bill (domestic) is going from £779 to over £1k next year (!!!) 🙀🙀

I was annoyed about ours going up to £45 a month!  (£540) it’s been suggested to the person on that app that they get a meter. But my goodness they must be in a mansion or something don’t you think?!?!?

We're on rated value and our water rates are already over £1k a year.  I haven't dared look to see what it's going up to.  Definitely not a mansion, just a standard semi (Council tax band c). 

SuzeQStan

Gosh @jwil that’s shocking guess it must be by area/water company etc.  

The person who was posting about their bill on the local neighbourhood app is a un!ted ut!lities customer (same company we are with) for our area in the NW.

Have you thought about getting a water meter?  I know it doesn’t work for everyone especially if you have a lot of usage to cover.  I think SYA’s bill dropped by quite a bit when the water meter got installed. 

Skint_yet_Again

Thanks Time2count and Suze. Wow jwil that is a big bill. I’m with Yorkshire water and when I first moved here it was £48 a month. My water meter is £21 a month with the latest increases. Mind you there is only me in the property. I shower once a day. No bath. I have a small table top dishwasher on once a day and my washing machine on twice a week. I don’t wash my car or clean my windows outside 😆 and I don’t water my garden apart from my hanging basket tomatoes in the summer. I hand wash plastic containers and pans and in summer I catch the cold water in my watering can while waiting for hot water to come through to the kitchen sink. 

badmemory

It is DSs 30 minute showers that would mess mine up.  It doesn't do my electricity bill a lot of good either.  We tried cutting him down to 20 mins a couple of years ago, that is definitely not an option.

sheilavw

I live alone too and my water is approx £21 ish a month on a meter. When I changed I had 2 years to change back if it didn't work out. At the time about 3/4 years ago I was paying I think £37/£38 ish a month

jwil

SuzeQStan said:

Gosh @jwil that’s shocking guess it must be by area/water company etc.  

The person who was posting about their bill on the local neighbourhood app is a un!ted ut!lities customer (same company we are with) for our area in the NW.

Have you thought about getting a water meter?  I know it doesn’t work for everyone especially if you have a lot of usage to cover.  I think SYA’s bill dropped by quite a bit when the water meter got installed. 

Yes, we're in the SW so one of the more expensive areas.  I am going to apply for a water meter soon. I think we should be able to reduce our bill as we are not heavy users (at the moment!).  I didn't change before because our house needs work and I was worried about leaks.  We had the bathroom done and kitchen taps replaced last year so at least the drippy taps are now resolved, so I'm more willing to give it a go.

Skint_yet_Again

Good luck with saving on the water meter @jwil

I had similar with my DS badmemory so I never had a water meter until I lived on my own. 

Hi @sheilavw I had similar timescale to change back too. 

Cloudy so far today. I had fried grated courgette (squeeze out excess water) with egg & cheese fritters this morning with a drizzle (less than a teaspoon) of brown sauce and then a pear 😋 so that’s 2 of my 5 a day. 😇 I’m not going very low carb just under 130g a day. Nuts and Greek yoghurt are quite expensive even from aldee and I don’t want to increase my food budget. I think I will try cottage cheese (£1.15 for 300g) instead of yoghurt (£1.98 for 500g). Overall almost same price per gram. Will try to keep my food budget to £40 a week.