Money-managing Masterfully into May - Frugaleers unite!

[needastrongone]

Thread continued for old faithfuls, new posters and anyone else that would like to contribute.

Financial talk, tips and discussion, with quite a lot of other stuff too.

We are a friendly bunch and there's lots of support for new and old.

Sounding the unfrugal klaxon.

Dh went to look at a house today without me.

He put an offer in

It was accepted.

We have a new house.

We are now poor.

em um, WOW!!! Have you viewed it? How truly exciting for you!

Frugal pork casserole went down well, all vetoed rice (before I cooked it), so I fried up tortillas instead, thus using up an open packet. I just had the casserole, am down 3lb this week.

Just sort of ran! With the dogs, one on a lead, so was very stop/start and walked quite a bit, but this is a start. I have never ran. No sooner were my super comfy trainers on, was I stepped on by a muddy dog. Such is life!

Oh my goodness em! 🍾🎉

Keys now found! Phew!

meadow that truly does not sound right. Are you accidentally paying the electricity for all your neighbours? It needs investigating for sure, but it sounds like they're going to skin you for that too. How long until you move?

wreck phew! Car key panic is awful.

That's definitely a run at that pace lonely, loads of our runners go slower than that and they've run for years!!

Whoop whoop Em, you won't regret it. Life is changing very quickly for you guys. Dead chuffed for you x

Meadow that definitely isn't right, we pay less than that for 4 adults in a large house, in the house a lot.

lonely nope. I've been at a conference all day. I saw it on the internet and set up the viewing. On internets is looked amazing. Dh agreed and he viewed. I told him to do what he thought was right.

He offered. They accepted. I'm viewing at some point over the weekend. Eeek!

The house has: 3 beds a gorgeous eat in kitchen, a laundry room, garage, large living room, two bathrooms, parking for 5 cars (probably) and a huge garden (south facing). And a shed. It's about. 10 minute walk from my parents place. A walk to work. Shops about 10 mins away (corner shop, bakery, pharmacy etc). Schools are good.

It's also god a wood burner. Yay! And a dishwasher!!!

How exciting, Em! Have you seen it yet?

Meadow Is your immersion heating all the time? Google the CEO of the companies email address and complain to them. It's the only way with these electric cunts. Sorry the pip people are so awful. I genuinely think some agencies make it up as they go along.

Brilliant news em. You won't be poor for long, with bonuses & pay rises you'll be mortgage free in no time.

lonely I've never run either, I bet the dogs loved it.

£45 Aldi
£6 lidl
£5 sainsburys
£3 superdrug.
£3 homebargains.

Hooray em!!!

Meadow - do you have an immersion? That bill cannot be right unless that is on or you have electric heating you've had raging. You need to turn everything off at the wall and then watch the meter to see if it is still going round.

Woodburner

fluffy I'm all sorts of overwhelmed right now. He's also contacted our lawyer and has started that ball rolling.

Congrats Em, very exciting (and very brave of you both when you haven't even seen it!). House buying isn't unfrugal, it's an investment .

Meadow could you get one of those devices that attach to your electricity and tell you what you are using? A smart meter thingy? I picked one up for a fiver though never actually got round to installing it It will give you an idea of what you are using, which may show your meter is wildly off or may show you what devices are guzzling it. Might be worth a try before risking the call out fee. It does sound way too high though unless you have a very inefficient electric boiler and use loads of hot water. Presume you are electric for everything?

Sorry the PIP thing is so awful Meadow and Cag. No advice really, just cheering you guys on. I worry so much about the future of the welfare system. No tory love here.

Creme sorry to hear about the awful Fire but lovely news about the new baby. And lovely tribute with the name.

Glad to hear DH is feeling s bit better Need.

I have had a busy few days and have slightly lost track. Will have to have a read back, sorry to those whose news I have forgotten. Yesterday was spendy as I had agreed to meet a friend in another town down south for a long lunch and gossip - kind of meeting halfway, although I had to travel into London and then get a train out. It was quite an expedition for me given that I am now in quite a bit of pain walking (and sitting for that matter ). Anyway. I made it. Had a lovely catch up. Train was £35, tube about £8, lunch about £18, £19 for a lightning cable for my phone (I have to carry a recharger pack all the time because my phone randomly turns itself off and I left the cable at home ). Plus a few quid for drinks at the station each way. I was knackered when I got home. Nearly cried trying to get on a packed tube at Bank - I watched at least 8 trains go past before I could get on one and it was very stressful! I expected the trains to be busy but really wasn't up to a scrum to get on. And then I got hailed on spectacularly on the walk home from the tube! After all that I had toast for dinner and then an early night.

Just parking £3 and DS SLT (have a therapy assistant some weeks now, slightly cheaper at £50 per sesh). I need to buy a birthday present fir a 5-yr old boy, budget about £10. Apparently he likes all plastic tat, especially branded characters and superhero/violent but parents say he's happy with anything (lovely family). Hard to get anything superhero for a party guest budget - any ideas?

DS has been breaking out in hives. Think it must be stress coupled with the aftermath of last week's virus. He's much chirpier today though still blotchy! Must get some piriton or similar.

I trusted that he'd make the right decision. Teamwork and all that. And he got it for a good price. Yay!!

Im making a list of things we now need to do.eeek.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2913527-Whats-the-most-extreme-example-of-effort-to-save-a-few-pennies-you-have-heard-of That thread mentioned up thread.

Congratulations em! My mum would say something along the lines of 'new keys, new baby'!!

Meadow when we lived in a small two bed flat we were being billed for our downstairs neighbour's large 4 bed flat. The serial number of the meter matched up to our bill but the wrong meters had been assigned to each flat. We had an ongoing battle with British Gas for over a year. The meters were outside and we investigated by turning everything off, checking which meter stopped, then turning appliances back on to check which meter kicked in.

Em Congrats!! So exciting!!

Everyone else about my elec & heating lol - well firstly DH has corrected me and it was £300 for the last two months, March and April woops, so that's a lot of difference . I misunderstood him earlier it turns out. So £150 a month the last two months since we've turned our heating off. That still is vastly more than we've ever paid in the past in other places. Yes we are all electric. The heating is very ineffecient electric storage heaters that we ran Nov-February. Occasionally since then we've had electric fire on for few hours here and there. Neither of us even know what an immersion heater is, we are investigating and we think we may have one and that may be why the bills are so expensive here. This flat was such a false economy, we have had so many problems with it that I wish we had just found somewhere more expensive to rent with more peace of mind and the extra bills here probably make up for the cheaper rent anyway! Private rented sector is so bad at the moment, everyone is just out to screw you over for more money . Our tenancy ends towards the end of August so we will be relocating probably mid-August. DH just looked near the boiler stuff and found an 'on/off' switch but that's it. How do we know if we've got an immersion heater and if we do, how do we bring the bills down? We also can't get a smart meter thingy or anything as our meter is in a locked outbuilding that we don't have a key to, we can only get in to take readings now and then when we catch the caretaker who lets us in.

On the plus side, London tomorrow!1 Spendy too but not going to worry about it and just enjoy ourselves, I feel like we extra deserve it after all this stress!

Seacow Sorry you had such a grim time getting home but it sounds like you had a lovely time out with your friend so hopefully it was worth it! For birthday present, not sure but I was surprised recently how decent cheap kids toys are in Home Bargains (though you're down south so I don't know if you even have it there?) and Matalan.

Wow Em amazing news!! Congrats

Have just discovered this singer/ songwritter, I think i'm in love he is ridiculously good looking!!

he could have written this song for me, so sums me up!

Well that doesn't sound so insane, though still high. Ouch.

Just scanning the thread so I'll post properly tomorrow, but I had to add my congratulations to Em on the new house. Delighted for you! It sounds perfect.

Spends: 40p library reservation fee.

Well done Em Good news.

Our car shopping has turned comical since we discovered that the BMW 3 series electric hybrid car exists.

Today's job is to contact the agent and get myself in for a look around. Then speak to local storage co to see about getting wardrobe boxes and packing boxes.

Dh is planning on hiring a van and moving us ourselves (it's literally 10 minutes from where we are now) dad and bil can help him lift stuff.

I'm going to start the pre-move declutter and pack this weekend I think.

Also have to gather docs for mortgage application and lawyers and get them certified. Someone at work can do this for me.

I spent most of last night before bed pinteresting garden designs and house decor. Yay!!

Still can't quite believe this is happening.

Em it sounds awesome! When you go on holiday if you ever need a house sitter...

Meadow that can't be right! Also that's really shit of them to say that. We have storage heaters and pay £100 a month all year round.

I only do a Friday morning at work and I'm hot desking closer to home which means I can do the school run plus I don't have to pay parking. Need to get something for dinner though.

Haha wreck obviously I'll check with you first to see if you're free!!

meadow the new amount £150 is obviously better than £300 pcm but still doesn't sound right to me. Get that checked.

In my old flat i was paying £120 pcm for electric. Turns out the outside lights were hooked up to my meter.

Saying that we're paying £77 pcm at present. Which is extortionate. But it was cold during winter so we did have heating on a lot.

After the faff with out hot water heater the other week I need to reset the timer as that saves us a bit of cash. Heating. Has been off now since march. So hopefully we'll start to see some benefit. It's a shame that here we only have two choices for electric - use the jersey co or have no electric. Otherwise I'd be switching all over the place.

mummy I am enjoying that saving pennies thread, thanks for sharing - though some are !