Do these direct debits seem too much?

[Starfish125]

Picture to save time but these are me and my DH direct debits every month. Do these seem reasonable to you? Do you think some of them are too much/or actually ok? Trying to find ways to save money every month (our incomes combined are around 48k) so would be interesting to get outsiders opinion!

Yes definitely good value with a fire stick. We use Amazon video/TV and pay a separate subscription for Disney plus.

The water bill is probably for water and sewage

Martin Lewis does a great course called Academy of Money on Open Learn, you may want to have a look at it OP.

It's not great to take out finance if you really don't need to. We bought cheap sofas from IKEA a few years ago. Had no choice as we don't do finance plans. Pay outright if you can. Martin Lewis covers these different scenarios in his course. It's a free course and worth doing. I am really good with money but even I learned some new tips from doing the course.

We just have Talk Talk & then pay £5.99 a month for Netflix & £7.99 a month for Amazon Prime. I don't think you need Sky.

Er, what's illegal about a fire stick?

They sell them in supermarkets, Curry's, Argos, Amazon etc and you just use the apps and pay for whatever services you choose.

I assumed the OP meant her cousin had a spare one because sometimes it's cheaper to buy a new one because they come with free subscription offers.

Look at combining sky and broadband, mine is £56 for both. Obviously one phone is high and check out cheaper insurance

Plus one for nothing illegal about a fire stick! You can buy them on Amazon. It's merely a way of turning your TV into a type of smart TV able to access (paid for) apps and subscriptions.

Good for places with good internet but bad TV signal for example.

Yeah I didn't think firesticks were illegal until u said it, Amazon do them! But even if it was I still don't see how it would hurt anyone, and if sky do rocket the prices because of illegal streaming then do what I do and leave them, the robbing b*!

Yup my water bill is water and sewage, do some people only have to pay for water where u live then? I'm in Bedfordshire.

No such thing as a victimless crime.

It’s the illegal streaming that can be performed with a fire stick. Nothing illegal with legitimate ones.

I think the mix up with firestick was because people sometimes jailbreak them but used as they come from Amazon is of course legal

@jazzyfips I realise that some people do use firesticks in a dodgy way but there was nothing to suggest the OP was going to do unpaid streaming.

The PP that brought it up implied firesticks are dodgy. They aren't!

That needs cleared up or people using them legitimately might get a fright.

There's quite a lot of free content available via a fire stick. It's not great but it's free! (Pluto TV for example)

Some libraries offer streaming to world movies. Random selection but worth a look.

Do your employers offer life assurance as a benefit? We automatically get this. You can also buy it for spouse at discount and get NI savings.

Yeah I get that. I think because the OP said she would get one from her cousin, there is the option to interpret that as a jailbroken one. If she’d said but one from Amazon, there would have been no issue. Obviously her cousin might have a legit one that isn’t being used.

We pay Sky £75 a month for TV & Sports, Netflix, Broadband & Landline/calls . Its half price because I refuse to pay more - I would rather cancel & am upfront about this when I negotiate each time.

Tesco mobile, I pay £45 for 5 x mobile contracts - that's for the phones themselves as well. Don't insure, it's always cheaper to replace / upgrade early should you ever need to. All Samsung phones. They will reduce the contract price once you are no longer paying for the phone.

We have Tesco mobile x3 for £54. Our Sky is £75 with phone and internet. Not sure you need all those insurances from L&G. As before, paying car insurance and home insurance monthly is costly. Try to get some multi cover.

Cancel that Sky payment after giving the required notice period because that looks like they are taking the piss. Do not even negotiate with them. Go with somebody else for a sensible price.

Water seems high, what do your itemised bill say in regards to the amount you use? I do about 8 loads of washing a week, 2 adults and 2 teens, £29.
All our phones are on a rolling one month plan with giffgaff or o2 for less than £10.
We made the decision to stop cable tv subscriptions years ago and have Netflix, Amazon prime and the occasional month on Disney +, via a Roku box.

Who is your water supplier OP? I'm not that far away and ours is Affinity.

Update - now cancelled sky, was on the phone (on hold and them trying to persuade me not to cancel) for 1 bloody hour 49 minutes! Did tell a white lie and said my partner had been made redundant and couldn't justify £75 a month on TV especially with nothing extra with it. He tried to get me to have Freeview with them for £15 a month but I told him to stick it and now have the Amazon firestick. Quite a relief getting rid of one direct debit!

My water supplier is Anglian water and we pay for both water and sewage and are based in Bedfordshire. House of 5 people. Do 1 wash a day, shower used several times a day and a dishwasher used every other day if that.

Well done OP, that's great. But it does highlight the difficult position they put you in that you can't cancel it without phoning them and likely being on hold for ages.

Which is another advantage of Netflix, Disney etc. All month to month contracts that you manage yourself online and can stop and start at will. Plus if you try to cancel Now TV, they'll almost certainly offer a cheap deal to stay. We've had it on and off for years, always been on a deal. Currently have 3 months of movies for £1 a month.

Well done in ditching Sky. Have you got any further with mobile phones? I think you were moving to sim only?