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Awesome August's No-Spend Days Challenge!
Welcome to Awesome August's No-Spend Days Challenge! This challenge is all about helping people to save money by setting aside days every month where you deliberately don't spend unnecessary cash. Over the short term, it can help you have a more frugal month. Over the long term, if you stick with it, it can help change…
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Giving away metal bed frame, but want to drill holes and add nut's and bolt for slats, advice wanted
I bought a new bed and as the old frame got bent a little when I fell even though I sorted it theres a dent where the bend was, I also got some spare slats and replaced them but some slats are loose still and want to drill some holes into the frame and put nut and bolt in to stop them wobbling as that was the problem I had…
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Buying Used Car from Dealership - How do I maximise Car Tax Payment?
Picking up 28th August I do not want to be in a position of paying for all of August. Can I set up a direct debit and then cancel and then pay for 12 months from 1st September? What is the best way around this?
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Cheery's path to fulfilment - finishing the DIY, looking after myself, appreciating the garden 🌻
Hi all 😊 I'm Cheery 😊 By name and (usually 🙄) by nature. I've been around here for many years, taking in all the excellent wisdom and trying to use as much of it as possible 😊 We are two, Mr Cheery and I. We have been together for over 18 years 😮 We moved to the countryside six years ago, gained a large mortgage, and a…
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August 2025 Grocery Challenge
Welcome to the eighth Grocery Challenge of 2025! As always this challenge is to reduce your own grocery budget to levels that you will be pleased with, not forgetting that we always recommend that you stay inside your own comfort levels and take things gently one step at a time. Remember that this is not a…
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Juggling mum/work life, whilst looking after my future self, both financially & healthily
Hiiiii, So I thought it was time I started a new diary as my old one got a bit complicated. A little about me. I’m a mum in my 40’s, my husband works away a lot, I work full time, and I have 2 children a tween and a teen. Along with 2 noisy cats. The last few months have been hard financially, and my work is teetering on…
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FIT meter gives strange readings; installer gone bust!
In January 2024, I had a battery installed to work with the solar panels I already had (January 2012). This required a new meter and I have submitted manually the three meter readings required since, to E.On. They recently asked for a photo of the meter readings to verify my entries and have said that the readings are…
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Weekly Flylady Thread 29 July 2025
Welcome to the weekly Flylady Thread. What is FLYLADY? Well, it's our version of the US flylady idea - but we work on the principle that housework is not fun, it's boring, can be time-consuming, is often thankless but, unfortunately, necessary. It's here on Old Style to provide the support we all need and to make the whole…
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eBay testing "Extended Bidding"
I've not seen any mention here, but it appears that eBay is testing "Extended Bidding" (i.e. extending an auction's end time by 2 minutes if a bid is placed within the final 2 minutes). It's not clear from the description whether this will keep happening each time a bid is placed (in which case, theoretically, an auction…
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10 years retired - how come finances are so good?
Ok this isn’t supposed to be any sort of boast but how come stock markets are so positive at the moment. My retirement fund balance is the highest it’s ever been this despite seemingly (to me) plenty of reasons why company earnings might be negatively affected in the next few years (tariff/trade wars; Ukraine war; unrest…
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What about inflation?
Hi I do the calculations (with compound interest etc & regular payments) and plan to have £1 million saved by the time I am 55 to retire. But! This is 12 years away, so £1 million will be worth quite a bit less. If I was younger & projecting my future savings plans further into the future, the inflation would be even…
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Accident
Hi, Our neighbour opposite reversed out of her drive into my
sons car which was parked on the road, she hit his drivers side wing near the front of it, she came over
knocked on the door and said sorry and we all went out and checked the damage
which looked minimal, they had a light slightly out of place and a scratch…
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UKCPS and Moorside court claim.
My hubby has recieved a court claim form for a PCN arising from parking in Playworld, Huddersfield on 12/10/2023. The parking company is UKCPS and the solicitors are Moorside. He didn't appeal to the IAS as plenty of people have called it a kangaroo court so it didn't seem worth the effort. The Particulars of Claim 1. The…
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The 365 Day 1p Challenge 2025
This challenge has been running for a number of years and is so popular I have agreed to run it again in 2025. If you wish to join please post on this thread and I will allocate you a number which should be quoted when you update on your progress. You can do this either using cash in a jar or virtually by transferring to a…
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Heat pump quote
Hi, we have received a heat pump quote from Octopus and wanted to get the thoughts of forum members if its worth the switch. Using gas boiler currently, with heating turned on only if necessary, consuming roughly 4200 kWh a year as ours is a mid terrace property. The quote is 2.9k for eco and 2.5k for the turbo version.…
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Age verification
A number of web sites are now requiring age verification. Ofcom suggests 7 different methods by which the sites could carry out the verification. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/protecting-children/age-checks-for-online-safety--what-you-need-to-know-as-a-user Bearing in mind some of these sites are a bit dodgy in…
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InfoTrack eCos Onboarding being used by my solicitor
It's been over 30 years since buying a house and I'm now in the process of buying my flat. My solicitor tells me that their firm has switched to the online 'InfoTrack eCos Onboarding' system which is to verify my ID, proof of address and source of funds. Has anyone else used this system and is it used to pay the deposit…
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New Bank Account for an Association - Advice Please
I recently discovered that, last year, our residents' assocation's bank account was closed by the bank because it hadn't been used for some time. I am in the process of claiming the funds that were in the account and would like to open a new residents' assocation account for the funds to go into. The old account was set-up…
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Renewables: "talking 'bout my generation"
Please forgive the corny thread title inspired by The Who but this post on the bloated 'how do I make the most of it' thread prompted me to initiate a new one... Well, there was yet another misty and bleak start in North Notts today (Thursday), but my SSW 3.92 kWp system was generating around 3kW for just a few minutes…
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Claim form from CPS / Combined Parking Solutions
I am looking for some help as I have received what looks like a claim form for an parking fine from 2023 i ignored all letters and had a strange letter a few weeks ago offering me to pay the original charge for £100 and some forms to complete which I ignored thinking it was strange to hear 2years later it could be a scam i…
