Ongoing DIY

A few days absence from blogging as I have been busy working at work and also at the new house. At work we have overtime again so I am trying to make hay whilst the sun shines, as usual it could be withdrawn at anytime so I am racking up as much as possible to add to my DIY pot. The DIY pot although it is not an insignificant amount of money it is not huge and a quick calculation of jobs required and money available shows that there is not enough money available ! Some jobs that were ' nice to have' will have to wait will the 'need to have' get done first. I initially intended to do some bits in the garden but that will have to wait until next summer, time and money permitting. In the meantime we have concentrated upon jobs that we can do ourselves. To date we have rubbed down all the woodwork and plan to undercoat it in the coming days. We want to get a local decorator to gloss it as neither of us are particularly skilled in that area. My husband spent Saturday on top of the garage roof clearing away the tropical garden that had been growing there, evidently for quite a few years. Where we live it has been really rainy of late and the rain drain was blocked with a beautiful fern growing out of it. It is now all cleared and the rain can drain away properly. Some of the jobs are messy and time consuming but at least we are not paying people to do it. We do not intend to move house again for a very long time and want to get as many , messy jobs done and out of the way before we move in.

Gas & Elec Meter ..Continued

Hi folks and thanks for your comments regarding the prepaid meters. I have googled them but there is so much contradictory information. I am annoyed because either way it is going to cost me more money through no fault of my own, either pay inflated prices with the key or pay to have them taken out ! I had a conversation yesterday with someone about it and their argument was that I shouldn't have bought the house then as I knew those meters were in there ! If that was the case no properties would ever get sold because there is always something you dislike or needs updating/repairing ! In the short term I need to have the key to have power to do jobs but when I move in I will get the meters changed I think. It is a different provider to the one I have always used so if it is that I do have to pay , then I may as well pay my existing provider to remove them and keep my business with them. I could keep the key and see how I get on but I think it is inconvenient to have to keep going and topping it up every week or so. Have a good weekend x

Gas and Electricity Key Meters ???????????

Help ! Does anyone have any knowledge about the key/card meters please ? Our new property has both due to the previous owner being in financial difficulty and I have learned that we have to pay to have the meters taken out , at a cost of around £50 per meter. I have never had these type of meters before and have heard they can be quite costly as the power is more expensive to buy per unit than having a regular meter.

Freecycle and other freebies

Good evening and it is a real wet one here , the rain is coming down hard and fast. We are in house mode at the moment. I had a plasterer come over yesterday and give us a quote. I have seen his work and the price was very reasonable, which luckily fell in my budget that I had allocated. Yesterday I was given some old garden slabs. They are large and thick and are quite weighty. I have a little patch by the garden shed and two of these slabs were just the job. Someone told me I could get some new ones for only a fiver each but my budget is tight and I have reused something that was destined for the skip. Besides these are old slabs and seem much better than the ones you get nowadays. Also tonight was another first for us, I looked at Freecycle and saw that someone was offering bark for the garden. The person emailed me back and off we went armed with garden bags to collect the bark. This will be used in a smallish patch we have for underneath some trees. Again our money saved and someone else doesn't have a trip to the tip. It is quite interesting what people offer for free, I shall certainly be keeping an eye on it. The last freebie we had was a book my daughter had wanted from the Eclipse saga. Walking to school a house had a table out front with a sign saying ' please help yourself'. There was lots of books, cassettes ,videos and other bits and pieces all for free. TTFN x

Bathroom Shower

Thank you for all your messages and kind wishes.We are trying to get as many jobs done before we move in. One job was a new bathroom shower , the old one looked ancient. The property had a new bathroom fitted but they had kept the old shower. When we had the new one installed , we found new property surprise number 1. The shower had been sealed onto the wall and not fixed on properly. Also inside the shower it was not wired up correctly so wouldn't have worked ! I had a budget of £100 for a new shower and managed to get one over the Bank Holiday for £69 in the sale. A friend fitted it for free as a nice favour so £31 goes back in the kitty. How many other surprises will I find ?

Piggy gets a new sty

Hi folks and apologies for my lack of contact. Firstly welcome to my new follower Squirmy, thanks for joining. Had lots going on but the big news is that my house has completed. I am now a homeowner once more back at the start of a new mortgage term of 25 years :-( however this mortgage unlike my other allows me to overpay so I will be taking advantage and hoping to bring the balance and the term down. An on line calculator has told me that if I overpay by £100 pcm it would knock £27k off the balance and five years off the term, sounds good ! It has taken years to get to this point but now we can move on and enjoy our new family home, a bigger house in a better area. Don't get me wrong its not huge, its just bigger than what we had before. We now have three bedrooms, garage, driveway, utility room and conservatory as well as kitchen , dining room and lounge. We also have a hall which we never had before and stairs with banister and spindles ! You are probably thinking how sad but our last home was a small two bed terrace with not much space at all. My frugal journey continues with the exercise of getting the house ready to move into. More on that another time ! Have a great weekend, TTFN x