MY SOA – be gentle I feel so embarrassed! ;-(

weimaranermerlin

Cleosmum wrote: »

Personally I would concentrate on paying the debts off then concentrate on the mortgage once that was cleared.

I was thinking that! Is that the general consensus?

I also have upped my working hours which should give us about £150 a month more...

MrsBartolozzi

I notice that you do not include child benefit in your income. Have you already included this somewhere?

HTh
MrsB.

weimaranermerlin

MrsBartolozzi wrote: »

I notice that you do not include child benefit in your income. Have you already included this somewhere?

HTh
MrsB.

You are right – I have forgotten about that! Thanks!

all_hours

weimaranermerlin wrote: »

Electricity: I will have a go at… Not sure how to find out where we are losing it all.. Hubby insists it’s the fridge freezer in the conservatory and the conservatory (only tiny) itself. I beg to differ… How would I find out where we spend all that electricity?

when hubby is at work switch everything off at the plug apart from the fridge/freezer and anything else you consider essential. read the meter and then read again after an hour.(tell him youre going to do this so he has chance to close everything down without cause damage or problems).

compare that to a regular hour with all his gadgets plugged in and switched on. work out the price difference + show him. he cant be using them all at the same time. point out that electrical goods left on stand by waste electricty + encourage him to switch off what he isnt using.

you can work out the cost per hour of each by looking at the watts (usually on the back near where the power cable connects) and work out how many kilo watts it uses then look at your bill for the price per unit. how long are they on each day for 30 days - you soon see it add up.

if you work out what the fridge/freezer should be using and compare that to the meter reading you take - if its way out then it could be faulty.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Change all the light bulbs for low energy ones (if you get the equivalent of 100 watts they are still quite bright.) Don't leave anything on standby. Turn off lights as soon as you leave the room. Don't use the tumble dryer if you have one. Keep the heating thermostat on the lowest setting unless it is actually frosty outside.

I do all of this and it has definitely saved me money. Before the prices went up I was in credit for gas and electricity (now sure what will happen now the prices have gone up )

I tour the house several times a day turning off lights, switching off tv's and playstations etc. I sound like I need to get a life but it is definitely worth it :rotfl:

RAS

weimaranermerlin wrote: »

Electricity: I will have a go at… Not sure how to find out where we are losing it all.. Hubby insists it’s the fridge freezer in the conservatory and the conservatory (only tiny) itself. I beg to differ… How would I find out where we spend all that electricity?

I was posted about a couple of things recently

1. The OWL Wireless Home Energy Monitor
http://www.2saveenergy.com/products.htm
A wireless electricity monitor displaying the cost of electricity use in
the home on a portable, easy to read LED display.
* Displays cost of electricity, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions
* Separate displays for temperature and humidity
* No additional wiring necessary
* RRP £49.95.

2. Standby Buster
http://www.standbybuster.com/
Standby Buster is a remote controlled electrical socket that lets you switch appliances off completely so that they use no electricity. Each socket can take a 4 way adaptor.
* Fed up with wasting money and energy by leaving things on standby ?
* Can't be bothered to turn everything off at an inaccessible plug every night ?
* Standby Buster Value Pack. Three electrical sockets and one remote controller.
* RRP £29.99.
* Standby Buster Starter Pack. One electrical socket and one remote controller
* RRP £14.99.

Not saying they work, but given your bills, it might be worth it? Or try and see if anyone on www.freecycle.org has one you could get, borrow?

duchy

Check out packaging Sky tv, phone and internet (usually included free) into one package and ditching the tivo in favour of Sky plus. May work out cheaper.
Which catagory do the cars fall into for tax ? Could this be lowered by dropping the cc as OH is changing his car anyway ?
Agree about the saving at a lower rate of interest than you are accruing on the debt.
You've nothig listed for personal spending-pocket money, lunches at work, school meals, coffees at work etc-are these included somewhere or is this a "leak" area ? A spending diary-especially for hubby if he's not taken the situation on board-might be useful.
Definitely take the gadgets off of standby-it's pretty easy to check consumption by looking at the meter with specific appliances turned on and then off-and eco lightbulbs make a big difference too. Put the old gadgets gathering dust on ebay and throw any profits directly at a debt-same goes for books and CDs/DVDs and Amazon.
Personally I find grocery shopping on-line saves me a fortune as it forces me to menu plan and stops the impulse buying and "popping in for a couple of things" -and coming out £20-£30 lighter
Once you start seeing savings it'll spur you on to do more.

frosty

Hi,can you claim the special diet food on your pet insurance? It might be worth asking if you havent already.


Tesco are selling low energy bulbs for 1p each (4 per customer),buy 4 then go back in and go to a different till with 4 more and repeat until you have enough to do the whole house.