LJ's Mortgage free road to early retirement

LouiseJ

setmefree2 wrote: »

-my sister's husband once switch the emersion on by accident - he didn't know what it was:D - and it was on for months....the resulting bill was 4 figures:eek:. However, same sister - in her previous house - had free gas for about 10 years;) and she moved and no-one was any the wiser. We still wonder if the people who bought her house have free gas too:cool:

Those immersion heaters are criminal! Well mine is anyway I think it is a really old one as it has not cut off and just seems to heat the water continuously. We only use it in the summer as we try not to use any bottled gas between May - September and it costs about 75p per hour to run which isnt bad as in an hour it can heat the whole tank which lasts for around 3 days if we have showers instead of baths. But if left on 75p, £1.50, £2.25, £3.00........... 24 Hours later.........£18.00:eek:

Would really love a new condensing boiler as they are supposed to be really efficient but for now its an old back boiler for water & radiators plus the ancient immersion heater in the summer. I should get an alarm fitted to it which goes off after an hour of switching it on.

I really dont know why DS put it on in the first place as he wanted a bath but if he'd asked me I would have told him there was plenty of hot water! Ahhhh!

autocasher

if you have an immersion heater set correctly with a working thermostat and a good insulated tank (very important!) then they're not too bad at all....

they should only come on for several periods each day via a timer, on an economy tariff (mine is about 5p a unit) and only actually 'on' in those periods when the water drops below the thermostat setting (normally set at about 60-70 degreees c, but if you turn it down to 55 the water is still fine and you save about 20% on the heating energy cost)


mine costs me the grand sum of about £2 per week....so as i said at the start, they can be quite economical if set up and used properly!

LouiseJ

autocasher wrote: »

if you have an immersion heater set correctly with a working thermostat and a good insulated tank (very important!) then they're not too bad at all....

they should only come on for several periods each day via a timer, on an economy tariff (mine is about 5p a unit) and only actually 'on' in those periods when the water drops below the thermostat setting (normally set at about 60-70 degreees c, but if you turn it down to 55 the water is still fine and you save about 20% on the heating energy cost)


mine costs me the grand sum of about £2 per week....so as i said at the start, they can be quite economical if set up and used properly!

Can you go onto economy 7 if you dont have overnight storage heaters? We only use the immersion in the summer months as bottled gas is used for our central heating/water (When CH is on it also heats the water).

We dont have a timer on our IH or to my knowledge a thermostat either, our tank is well insulated though with a cozy red jacket that is so thick we cant close the cupboard door properly!

LouiseJ

OH has just returned from visiting his mum and she has very kindly and generously given us £500 towards our Florida Holiday spending money. We won't get it until July so I was wondering if it would be a good idea to send £500 of the money I have saved already as an overpayment.

It might make better sense however to buy some dollars sooner rather than later as the exchange rate is excellent at the moment.

Or I could top up my Isa

setmefree2

Lucky you :money:- for going to Florida:D and getting money from your generous MIL. Where abouts in Florida are you going? We were there 3 summers ago when the rate was $1.5 and it didn't feel too expensive,as Florida can be really good value. Last summer we went to California, the dollar rate was $2 - and everything felt super cheap. It was fantastic - it was like going to Greece in the 80's. Everything was cheap - eating out, hotels, etc. My eldest son went wild on the clothes shopping (and I let him:D) as everything was about half price out there, so make sure you factor in a trip to the closest mall....

....mind you the theme parks in Orlando can be expensive.:rolleyes:

LouiseJ

We are going to Orlando for the first time, there are 12 of us going, 3 families consisting of 3 women, 2 men and 7 teenage boys ranging from 13-18yrs:eek:

We are definately doing the Disney parks and have been looking at ticket prices, you are right they are expensive. There is also a rocket launch scheduled for when we are there so a trip to Kennedy space centre is on the cards also.

We have hired a villa for two weeks at a cost of £1700 between 12 of us I don't think that's a bad price, not for July anyway.

That's the only thing I'm worried about though, I know it is going to be very hot and the theme parks will be packed but we can't go any other time due to OH holidays. If you have any MUST DO suggestions, even if a little unusual I would appreciate it.

LouiseJ

I have just sent an overpayment of £350 to A&L together with the £40 extra DD that makes my total overpayment for February (so far) £390.:j

Have had to use this months no Council tax and Water rates for our second car's Road Tax.

Should scrape together around another £100 by the end of the month though.

Happy Days, Feeling better too.

Cazzdevil

Well done on making a Feb overpayment already!!

LouiseJ

Cazzdevil wrote: »

Well done on making a Feb overpayment already!!

Thanks

A few of my book keeping clients paid me for helping with tax returns and year end accounts last week so I thought I had better send it off asap before I am tempted to spend it.

LouiseJ

Just managed to bag a mystery Shop for Asda! £10.00 fee plus £1.00 towards shopping. Thats £31.00 in mysters shops so far this month...not bad at all. Should get paid for these bu 24th of month so I will include them in this months overpayment total when they hit the bank!

I am also doing the Sun free 2 for 1 cinema pass for vue cinemas, our local cinema is a Vue so that will come in handy. If anyone wants one here is the link :http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=715953