Cheery's path to fulfilment - finishing the DIY, looking after myself, appreciating the garden 🌻

Cheery_Daff

Baileys_Babe said:

In my phone I have a contact called phone insurance (one you each car) when I renew the insurance I update this with the claims number of the new provider, in the notes field I put the company name and policy number. It saves me from needing to remember which care is with who especially as some years they swap to the provider the other car was with. I find it harder to remember now all the paperwork comes through email.

Ooh, yes, a brilliant idea, thank you! 😃

dawnybabes said:

You’re with octopus ? 

I use an app called Octopus Compare (think it’s about £5 a year) but you can compare all the tariffs against your actual historic usage (and gives you daily costs etc) I love it - ignore the huge costs ! I’ve a EV and an air source heat pump 🤣🤣

We are indeed - and oddly enough I downloaded that app earlier this week 😂 Just need to sit down with a piece of paper to compare all the different tariff rather than just looking at 2 at a time. Will add that back on my list as I see I forgot it on the latest version 😂

I have whizzed the IPL machine over the rest of my legs 😂 also imported photos onto laptop, sorted and resized, and written a blog post. Mr Cheery has surfaced, so we are heading off for a cosy adventure somewhere 😊

LadyWithAPlan

Is the IPL machine working well? I have one but never bothered yet using it 

sorry re printer - I ended up buying one of the more expensive ink tank ones (where you fill it up with ink instead of replacing the cartridges- they are more expensive in short term but better quality really makes a difference as it rarely plays up and just works 

I also add a ‘travel insurance Aug 24 ‘ into my phone or ‘home insurance Oct 24’ with phone of company and my account details as if I ever needed to use it in an emergency I wouldn’t want to go thru years of old policies - I also reforward the email confirm they send to myself with the year etc it’s applicable for (guess you could also update annual policies into the correct YNAB category notes section 

Cheery_Daff

IPL is having an effect, although nowhere near as quickly as I'd like 😂 Have got nicely bare patches round both ankles now 😂 definitely started getting quicker since I started doing it more regularly. I told myself I'd give it til Christmas, aiming to do it twice a week up til then. I've managed once a week, and often twice, and it is starting to have an effect. So it's definitely not a short term fix, and having to shave in the meantime is annoying!

Cheery_Daff

Ok, banks checked and YNAB reconciled. Spent almost £500 on the cars this month too - one MOT, one service, but since both feel like new cars, and since that was all budgeted for (had to switch between MOT/maintenance categories, but all allocated to car spends) all ok. Also spent £236 on the dentist, but that was budgeted for too. 

Wages in and some allocated to top up this month, but most has gone to fund next month, as planned. Mr C's pension arrives on 31st, and will fund the rest. Need to remember that while I do feel like I'm struggling to fill in all the categories, this is partly due to me funding the 'monthly savings' category first! I'm putting at least £445 a month in there - at the end of the month (if it's not been raided, which it hasn't usually) that'll go to the home maintenance pot. As we've arranged for this friend to do some work for us, that will cost at least £1000 I think - there's already a bit in there, so adding October & November monthly savings should fund that. November's monthly savings amount is already in the holding category anyway - although I suspect it's unlikely he's going to get it all done by then even if he's made a start. 

(Actually, the 'home improvements' category, which most of that work should come out of, already has £700 in. Home maintenance is things like chimney sweeping, septic tank emptying etc - I'll top that up a bit too as we should get both of those things done soon). 

So as always at this time of year, I start to feel what is often described as 'YNAB poor' - plenty of money floating around, but all allocated to set things Which is good - otherwise it's tempting to see a nice bank account and start spending it! But I have, for example, £400 in the house insurance pot, £350 in car insurance, over £1000 in LPG pot etc, on top of emergency funds, so we are not remotely destitute, and will have nicely topped up pots ready to spend when needed. 

We could probably do with reigning in both groceries and cafes though - YNAB tells me we've spent £143 on cafes and £300 on food! (Although given we've apparently only spent £161 on diesel, which seems unlikely, I'm suspecting I might have wrongly allocated a supermarket diesel spend to the groceries budget...)

Anyway, enough of that. Off to check on the Octopods pricing schemes... 

Cheery_Daff

Right, tariffs all checked against each other. Agile and Tracker only started on 1st October, so this is comparing all tariffs for that time frame... 

Currently on Flexible, standing charge is 60.7p/day - all others are 61.6p

1. Flexible - average unit cost 23.83/kwh - cost since 1st Oct £37.74
2. 12 month fixed - 22.35/kwh - £36.28
3. Tracker - 22.23p/kwh - £36.15
4. Agile - 21.47p/kwh - £35.31

So Agile is the cheapest for our use since 1st October, without us making any changes. There's not loads in it, but we could definitely do a little more load shifting if necessary. 

Doesn't seem to have an exit fee, so we could always just try it for a month and see how things are looking at that point. Will discuss and make final decision tomorrow. 

themadvix

That’s the decision we came to with Agile Go - worth trying and seeing how we get on (it’s a flexible car charging tariff). So far, so good!

Cheery_Daff

Glad it's working for you! No car to charge here,  and we don't have solar either, but since we're often at home during the day it seems we're not so focused on using at peak times by default.  I'm sure we could do more to move what we do use anyway without too much bother. 

greenbee

If I wasn't exporting so much solar, I think Agile would work best for me too as I use very little during peak time. I have the ability to load shift a bit more, but not enough to make up for losing my current export rate. @Cheery_Daff
 - if you do switch, it might be worth investing in some programmable/timer plugs. That way you could run dehumidifiers/oil filled radiators/fans/slow cookers or whatever without having to rush around and switch them on. 

LadyWithAPlan

Ah the joy of feeling  YNAB poor - knowing all your money has a proper job already so no to you can’t eat more cake (if only Marie Antoinette had had YNAB..) 

I got my next months money holding category nicely up last month but now only a few hundred on it - I am liking my 6 month water bill due in Nov  is nearly all saved  

dawnybabes

greenbee said:

If I wasn't exporting so much solar, I think Agile would work best for me too as I use very little during peak time. I have the ability to load shift a bit more, but not enough to make up for losing my current export rate. @Cheery_Daff
 - if you do switch, it might be worth investing in some programmable/timer plugs. That way you could run dehumidifiers/oil filled radiators/fans/slow cookers or whatever without having to rush around and switch them on. 

I’m on agile (with solar, batteries and a PHEV) on the ‘old’ tariff - I’ve just moved my export only to octopus at 15p KW but kept my feed in with Good Energy