My New Soa!

Keeping_Positive

Congratulations great news

IWantToBeFree_2

Had our first gas bill today, £11 in credit which is always good! Was expecting us to owe them as when we first moved in I had 7 weeks where I was home all day with the heating on.... We don't have heating on much, only time we use gas is to cook and when we shower, so I am hoping that we can become further in credit over the summer so that in the winter we don't end up owing them!

We are typical Yorkshire people though (tight) and would rather sit with duvets round us than put heating on!

Had an extra £150 in my wages today, don't know what its from, thinking it may be our mileage 'bonus' but its a bit early for that, don't get payslip until Monday, its doing my head in! Better not be a mistake, don't wanna give it back!

IWantToBeFree_2

Well the £150 is mine! woop! This month has been weird, gone from struggling to all of a sudden having loads more money than usual and getting told of pay rises and bonus's! Loving it. Of course, its all getting stashed away in the savings to pay for the wedding and not frittered away.

IWantToBeFree_2

Fallen off the wagon a bit this week, think its because the extra money has been coming in this week and instead of being sensible and clearing it out my current account straight away its been sat there and some of its been spent, and also ended up going over budget.... Grr! Back on the straight and narrow next week!

IWantToBeFree_2

Bit the bullet today and paid off my Evans card (at long last!). The final payment was £61, will be nice to have one less bill coming out every month, going to ring them up once its been processed and close down the account.

I was shopping in there yesterday, and actually went to the til twice to pay for things and they were pressuring me both times to pay with my store card, I hate it when shops just try and push credit on you at every opportunity.

Been doing really well with shopping recently, last weekend it was £16 and this weekend it was only £14 and £4 of that was on non essentials as I am going down south with work and wanted some snacks for whilst I am there. Makes me cringe that we used to spend about £60 a week on shopping and then throw half of it out at the end of the week....

IWantToBeFree_2

Talked to AOL last night and found out that our contract was a 12 month contract and not 18 month as my OH thought, best thing is that it expired in March so we can cancel any time we like! Going to ring them up for a MAC code (to switch to o2 as its half the price) hoping they make us an offer to keep us as don't wanna go through the hassle of switching incase it goes wrong!

beer_tins

Hi, just read about AOL and also an earlier post of yours RE: BT. You said you need it for the landline, but you don't. I used to think that as well. I got rid of BT and my broadband provider and get TalkTalk combined line rental/phone and broadband for around £16 a month. Tiscali do a similarly good deal.

They just take over the line from BT and it's included, you keep the same number and everything.

IWantToBeFree_2

We had to go with BT because when we moved house, the phone line had been disabled, and BT have a monopoly on reactivating the line (and charging you £125 for it!). It meant we didn't have a choice and they tied us into a 12 month contract.

Once we are out of that 12 month period, we will probably switch to TalkTalk seen as they are now just the same as AOL.

On the AOL front, they have offered us 8mb for £12 a month and a free router. Obviously we have a router so we could sell the new one on ebay, or could just switch to o2 for £7.50... Decisions decisions! I can't live without the internet (!) only thing stopping me is being scared that its gonna go tits up and i'll be without it

beer_tins

Fair enough, sounds like you might as well wait until your 12 months are up with BT and avoid getting tied in with a broadband provider. Then, get a combined deal when the time comes.

On the other hand, if you have nearly 12 months left with BT, there's no harm in getting another 12 moth contract with an ISP.

IWantToBeFree_2

Just signed up for o2 at £7.50 a month, so thats £7.50 a month knocked off my SOA