Household cutbacks

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  • #10598
    mammycool
    Participant

    Hi there,

    With all the recent taxes and reductions in the budget – I decided to take a look at our household expenditure. We have had a mortgage for the last 5 1/2 years. The house has had an alarm for 4 of those years. One of the things on the house insurance was that if you had an alarm – you could get a reduction. I kept meaning to ring them up and update the policy but had not got around to it. Today I rang up, told them about the alarm and my policy was reduced by 100euro.

    I have had two claims on the house insurance in the last five years – so it is quite high and great to get it down a bit.

    As a nation, we are really bad at checking up prices, tax credits and changing policies – just happy to trundle along.

    I am now determined to shop around on my health insurance, car insurance, mortgage protection and the fixed mortgage is up this year, so I will be shopping around for the best rate that I can get there. DH also suggested that we get the smaller wheelie bin – we currently have the large one but it is only ever half full each week.

    Time to spring clean the house expenses and see how much we can clawback for ourselves!!!!!!!!!

    #106743
    Siobhán @ Mams
    Keymaster

    We haggled on our house insurance when it was due for renewal a few weeks back and got 100 euro off it – not bad for a 5 minute conversation.

    we check sites like nononsense.ie etc when things are up for renewal and we say to the policy provider that we have been offered a better deal elsewhere and they will nearly always match or better the other offer.

    You can even chance your arm and just call them up and say you found it cheaper without even looking and they will most likely match it. They are so keen to keep customers now that we have the buying power.

    We spoke with ESB about why our bills were so high and they gave us lots of tips to reduce it. e.g.
    * Unplug things when they are not being used
    * Turn lights off when not in a room
    * Do not reboil the kettle unless you have to, this one burns alot of electricity apparently
    * Be smart about turning off TV’s DVD’s, Radios etc before leaving the house.

    Hopefully we will see a decrease in our bill after making these changes.

    Every little bit of money saving wecan do is helpful – it all adds up!

    #106744
    Financial Companion
    Participant

    You wouldn’t believe what some people pay out without checking! In one review recently, a guy had a direct debit going out to Aviva, when i asked him what it was for he wasn’t sure, so he checked it out and it turned out to be house insurance…….on a house he sold 4 years earlier! 😯

    If you ever want comparisons done on mortgage protection etc. feel free to give me a shout. No charge and it displays all the life companies together so you can see the best offers.

    #107041
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    We bought our house nearly 6yrs ago now. We got our bin collection set up when we moved in. However, we still get bin stickers for our own account and (I’m assuming by the bit showing in the envelope) for the previous owner of the house who owned a few rental properties. It seems he is STILL paying by direct debit for a bin collection for a house he doesnt own!!!!!! Mad or what. I keep returning the envelopes to the waste management company and have rung but they keep on coming. He must be loaded to not notice this…..I don’t have a clue how to contact him but thought the waste managment company might….obviously not.

    A lot of money going to waste so to speak!!

    #107059
    happymumblemum
    Participant

    I always shop around for insurances etc..we have a tracker mortgage so not letting that go though 😀

    AA car insurance always beat any quote I get from other companies cos I am with them 5 years now, still ring round every year but they smash the quote each time – Customer retention they call it.

    And every year I have a row with the woman on the phone at FBD over the times when I wasn’t insured in my own name years ago 🙄 🙄 errrr no I am not contacting Ex Boyfriends to get proof of being a named driver grrrrrrrr they are the only company which ask me these nonsense questions..and every year I tell her you are a f***wit 😆 😆 😆

    #107060
    Financial Companion
    Participant

    I suspect HMM that they make it harder to insure certain groups of people because they don’t make as much money out of them. As you, I ring around every year (and even have a few tricks that probably shouldn’t be typed here! 😆 ) and most companies and brokerages would be within a band of about €80, e.g. €320-€400 per year, then I would ring FBD and they would quote me something like €790 😯 When I would ask, how come a driver who has driven for years without ever having an accident, full clean license, no penalty points etc. etc. etc. and they want to charge me double the others, they would say "errr…maybe its because you live in Louth"!! I would politely point out that I live in Louth for all the other insurance companies as well!! Got to a point where I would just ring them for the laugh to see how ridiculous their quote was! They make more charging young drivers thousands!

    #107065
    hjs
    Member

    HMM u r on fire today! Rofl @ u with FBD woman, hilarious!!!!!!!

    #107085
    happymumblemum
    Participant

    Yep..bored outta my head since dh back in work 😆

    #107090
    Taylor5
    Member

    I was thinking of moving to tag a bin, we put a bin out every week but half empty!!!

    I ring sky every 6 months and get offers, i got my package fitted in April got mulitroom free, so 108 per month for package but we only paid 93, then after 6 months rang to cut my package and they offered me x % off the price, now we pay 60 odd euro for the full sky package that should be 108 (inc multiroom)

    Changed to Airtricty for both gas and Electric, havent got a bill yet but paying a few euro off a week, with the snow in Dec it will be hard to judge if they are cheaper as the bills will be much higher then normal.
    Sabbi i do as you said, unplug chargers, turn off things, turn off lights, the kids do it too, just need to get dh to learn to turn things off and im sorted:lol: 😆 😆

    I use Zaflora now instead of kitchen sprays…. you can buy a bottle of zaflora in tesco for about 2 euro, it dulites to make ltrs and ltrs for spray, i just use an old milton bottle…. saves me a bomb!

    Dh got car ins in today 537 😯 😯 😯 Eh, not a snowballs am i paying that!!!! Will start the shopping about, any good sites for car ins?

    Oh forgot to say im doing a few bits in the house to try increase my energy rating, have had a service on my sunroom windows today, only 100e and the difference already is just brilliant.
    im changing the gaskets on all my windows
    http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie … 2129wt_905
    Im getting a porch fitted and in the summer a new back door, my current doors are wooden and the amount of heat i loose is unreal.
    Getting a stove fitted into the fireplace (please god) this will cut the draft and 70% more efficent then an open coal fire, have gas fire but cant afford to use
    Also getting my cavity walls pumped, wont be doing this until the summer or spring or when i have the extra funds to do it
    http://www.hometherm.ie/grants.html

    I know i will be outlaying alot of money over the next few weeks, but over this winter and the winters that follow it all should pay for itself in savings in fuel costs

    #107104
    scole1
    Member

    i did the ringing round today on car insurance as mine due end of month, the prices i was quoted crazy money…..the crowd i’m with are the cheapest adn with everything everyone was offering…its4women.ie

    we’ve cut a few things here, like the sky every few months, cut down the health insurance, and we are going to cut mortage protection from policy (as it is we’re paying for it and will not be able to avail of it)

    moving the water tank and redoing all the insulation in the attic to maintain more heat (diy job insulation part)

    also thinking of changing front door to a pvc door (not white but a coloured one) my mil changed her door and the difference in heat is fab and less draught….so think we’ll change the door depending….

    http://www.westmeathwindows.ie/products … ial-doors/

    also there are remote plug sockets that you can get to be able to turn off etc…have seen them but handy for the likes of the tv’s etc or those hard to reach areas….

    and then the re-looking at essential items….and most importantly shopping around….

    #107106
    Taylor5
    Member

    Scole would you not look at just getting a porch door, like a sliding door type thing…. im getting a door and two side panels and a full glass panel at the side with a small window, all for 1,400e. You could could get a nice french door slotted in for well under 1000e, they you have an area for wellies and unbrellas etc

    The remote plugs sound good.

    Did you look at the insulation in Woodies, its like tinfoil (for want of a better word) you put it up onto the Apex, just staples onto the wood beams, very easy to instal. This might save you moving your tank etc, plus is keeps the attic warm in winter and cool in summer, as it keeps the attic warm it removes all the risks of bursting pipes etc.
    We were just going with the grant to up the floor insulation, but now looking to get the Apex sprayed, if winters to get colder -10 temps we want to reduce the risk of pipes bursting etc
    15% off the stuff in Woodies at the moment

    #107108
    Taylor5
    Member

    Cant find the stuff in Woodies but found it on Homebase site

    http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/st … searchtext>INSULATION+

    There is a larger roll then this, you would only need a few rolls to do whole attic, much cheaper here then woodies

    #107109
    scole1
    Member

    the uPVC door will cost around that to replace…..and it makes a difference, not keen to be honest on a porch a few people have them here and to be honest look stupid (the way our houses are) the door will do just the same as a porch iykwim….lus we are facing main road and we’d stick out like a sore thunmb being white pvc porch the door you can get white on inside and coloured on the outside….and the locking is better as we if forget to turn the lock people can walk in, this door can only be opened from inside and also children (i.e my little runaway) can’t open

    well moving the tank is also so we can more space, where it is is flaming stupid smack bang when you go up so loads of unused floor space instead of us using the sides….

    we’ve seen insulation not sure what he wants to do but attic will need to be cleared for tank moving (needs a clearout anyway) then we’ll insulate the whole attic and then floorboard again and then have more space for junk….lol

    #107110
    Martina
    Participant

    We always shop around for Insurance. This year my Car Insurance had gone up from 410 to 680 with Quinn, no claims so no particular reason for it. I got a phonecall from them twice in the month after the notice came out wanting to confirm that I was renewing and told them no it was too dear I was shopping around and then they rang me a week before it was due to tell me that they had done a review and my renewal would be €405.00 for this year.

    If I had to just confirm when they rang before that they would never have reduced it. So beware of that one.

    As for the Bin… we don’t have a bin collection. I have twelve recycling bins for all the different types of stuff, I have the thing in the sink that eats stuff (wart-hog in the flintstones) can’t remember what it’s called and then a Bin for stuff thats non recyclable or can’t go down the thing. We head for the recycling once a month and its costs €2.00 to go in and €6.00 for a Bag of Non Recycable Waste. So my bin costs €8.00 per month. Yes its a bit more work but if you sort the stuff out as you dump it, its just give minutes to load up and go at the end of the month

    #107111
    Taylor5
    Member

    I know the position of the tank, our old house was the same!! Stupid… this house its great, out of the way, yet close to the door.

    I will let you know how the door goes in 2 weeks, cant wait, im sick of having to stuff the letterbox to cut some of the draft and curtains on the door…. i will have about 2 meters of extra space for wellies and throw outdoor stuff

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