loads of bills in april

london 11.40am 10.3C sunny blue sky, but cold wind making it chilly outdoors thursday 2016

i was looking at my financial graph, and noticed at april and october there is always a big spike in spending, when all the bills come calling. i expect anytime to get the water bill, the council tax bill, and my flat’s half yearly estimated maintainance bill. and sure enough today i got the council tax bill in the post.

for a wonder, it remains less than last year, it is £668.81. this even after a 4% hike ,consisting of  2% rise to the  council tax and 2% hike to pay for the increased minimum wages that comes into force in april and which is used  to pay  for old people carers.

this is offset by  a decrease of a whopping 6.4% decrease by the london mayor’s bill, which pay for the greater london authority. good ol boris, he reduced it, and so overall there is a 0.6% reduction in the final bill. (that is what it is written in my invoice given to me by westminster council, though if u do the maths, it is more like a balance of 2.4% reduction. or nevermind the percentage but simply compare last year’s with this year, and it is .6% less. sigh, maths is not my strong point, obviously. haha.) or what is more likely there is a bit of creative accounting going on. still, i dont mind as the final thing is that it has not gone up. that is the important thing.

but other councils not in london but outside it, wont be so lucky and will have to bear the full brunt of a 4% raise.

i know what  my water bill is going to be, half of which they will take out on 1st april. and so there is only this waiting for the service charge bill for the flat.

makes me want to vote for a conservative mayor rather than the labour’s candidate in the coming mayor’s election.

labour always overspends, because they are very free with other people’s money. there is that joke that goes if u are a one legged, black, lesbian single mother, u got it made.

festival of light 14.1-17.1.2016

london 12.36pm 10.1C rain sunday 2016

saw in the observer newspaper in the library this article about light installations on show in the west-end and kings cross from 14jan  . visitlondon.com/lumiere

then there is this article in the observer about people having trouble with their power suppliers. 

this is about some customers getting wrong bills. from it i can see if they had immediately called up the company on the freeline and give it their account number and  their meter reading it would have solved all the problems before it got to that stage where the mistake escalates to the bailiffs being called in. 

i too was billed wrongly by np when i first moved to them, their estimated reading was not correct, so i called their free line and gave them my reading, and i got a corrected bill later in the post. so that was that, problem solved and  potential future trouble avoided. now why dont those people do that?

and only yesterday i called their free line and gave them my meter reading. i do it every three months. i have been doing it without them reminding me. 

 

bills and the importance of savings

london wednesday 2015

this morning in the post there came the estimated half yearly service charge bill for my flat. it came to £605. but since i overpaid last time i only have to pay £480.

 but it serves to emphasise why saving is so essential when u own a flat.

the bills invariably come all at once. because today is also the day the direct debit will deduct £153 and £70 for water and council tax respectively.

for months you see your balance grows and u think i am rich. haha. then all these payments come up, and bang the balance drops.

i look on all this with a calm mind, because i know i have the money saved to pay them all.

but people who dont look ahead will be caught out and then on top of all the monthly commitments from their hire purchases and interests , from the spending they have incurred during those ‘rich’ days… they get these huge bills. so beware.

i admit i am smug about it, haha. i think i am allowed it. so there!

sometimes i forget too, and would wonder why i am so careful about not buying things when there is so much money in the bank, and wondering if i am too stingy…and then this happens and that hits me …. it is times like this gives me a jolt and shows me this is why. and then i thank myself that i dont really bother to buy stuff…

electricity bill 1May-31July2013

London
My electricity and gas bills for the quarter (1May-31july2013) arrive today. i post it just for my own reference and for others to compare if they like.

No surprise there as I have given them my readings and know that I used 318kwh of electricity for the period .

318kwh used over 92days = £56.08

First 181kwh @21.17p = £38.32
Next 137kwh @12.96p = £17.76
Total £56.08

(Vat 5% =2.44
Direct debit and dual fuel discount 2.44+.92 =2.63
Cost incl vat £55.35)
0.176p per kwh
60p per day
3.456kwh per day average

According to their annual statement, I used 1287 kwh for the year.
(funnily enough in their annual statement they said my current tarif is the standard one, and it is 22.229p up to 720kwh and 13.611 thereafter. Yet as u can see in the actual bill, I pay 21.17p for the first batch and 12.96p thereafter. One wonders why this difference? Is it because it is a special rate for low usage customers? Hope so and that it is not a mistake on their part otherwise they will be telling me I have back payments to make. If they do I shall tell them it is their mistake and they should absorb the cost).
The good thing is that the basic figures are so low, it wont be much. That is the good thing about not using a lot of kwh…

It is a bit like not eating a lot… your foodbill is less, and you don’t get fat, and u avoid all the health problems associated with being fat. What not to like right??

And compared to last summer same period I used 331kwh last summer.

My gas bill remains 0.

I am rather pleased at keeping my usage so low. I think I have reached the limit to how much lower I can make it.