ellie12022 wrote:So the cashback can be a good bargaining tool, then?
Actually, contents insurance is the next thing on the list to sort out. My landlady(my mum!) has the buildings covered & a certain amount of contents but we need to investigate further. We had a quote from HSBC in the branch but I'd like to compare others to see. I don't think I've ever had contents insurance before but it may be a good idea now.
I may start doing more things with GP then, once the broadband is up & running (should be by midnight next Monday!) it may be easier to do things then, but I am wary of signing up to things to then cancel them as if I am unwell for a few days I may not be able to keep on top of things.
BTW I have checked my washing machine & the difference in elec use between the 30 & 40 wash that I usually use is 0.1kwh. The 40 wash uses 0.5kwh & the 30 0.4kwh, which doesn't seem a lot of difference at all really. I have worked out as well that my fridge/freezer costs about £1 a day to run and the tv & sky box are not using too much either. (I used my electronically trained hubby to explain these things to me).
I am just taking weekly reads at the moment.
That's another convert to the inain measuring lark... it will take over if you don't watch it,lol. It starts out as a weekly reading then twice weekly then daily then twice daily........ I'm sad as I know the power useage of every appliance........
0.1 kwh might not sound much but if you wash one load a day it's £5.47 a year in leccy.... ok I'm a tight arm as well as being sad..lol.
A few things about contents insurance you might find helpful are these. If you under insure then make a claim the insurance company can refuse to pay out because you have under insured. I had £20k of contents which is what i thought would cover my contents then had a claim for accifdental damage to a table and the assessor came out and done his thing then we were told that we were under insured and got no pay out. Aparently it's in the small print.
Always get a few quotes. use these to barter with. I once got my car insurance down from £774 to less than £235 by continually phoning one against the other. In the end the bloke on the last quote said if I go any lower it will be eating into my commision. i replied give me 50 pence of your comision and I'll buy now. He did and I bought a loaf of bread with the 50p,lol.
Check the excess part. Sometimes the cost of your insurance may be say £200 with a £200 excess. If you reduce the excess to zero your policy may go up by say £30 so if you have a claim it will have saved you £170 but the flip side is if you don't have a claim you have paid £30 more than need be.
I put the link into GP for ease of use but I'm on the computer every day and most of the day when really I should be doing the housework like now so it's easy for me but it's a good thing to only do things that you can control.
If you think of the fridge freezer costing £365 a year to run that is around 2400 kwh your FF is using in electric terms based on my unit price of 15p per kwh. A new FF, even one of those big swanky american type ones only use around 570 units. The ones i've been looking at use around 282 units a year but if you were to swap your FF for one of those swanky American type ones then you would save around £280 a year in running costs.
I only mention this because I got a real shock about my FF's running costs and need to change them asap but then the credit union takes 12 weeks to get a loan....
3 out of 4 in the ishers club & gone down from a C rating to a D. And I thought I might have used a bit less gas this week than average but sadly, no. I've had my quarterly bills, abt £90 for elec & £155 for gas. i can't remember the details but I noticed on the back they kindly told me how much gas & elec I used compared to the year before, one was slightly less, one slightly more. Actually I felt I had done quite well based on that as now there are two of us in the house. 
£10 less a week, in the winter. Wow!
Still, I have to remind myself that if we can pay the bills and eat quite well, we are well off compared to a lot of people. 
)
good to have you, I have slipped to No 3 on the list.. 
). Our leccie use has stayed about the same, I think this is cos the computer tends to be on a lot more - now I have broadband I can go on in the day. Trying to persuade OH to switch off if he's going to be away from the computer for a while, although his argument is it could take more power to switch it back on..).
