I was updating my personal budget spreadsheet as some of my monthly outgoings have changed and I noticed a couple of insurance company names on there and wasn't sure what each were. I got to the bottom of each of them but when I saw the home buildings and content one on there I remembered something. I used to always shop around for a better
deal but have fallen into that trap of letting them auto-renew. It's easily done as we all get so busy and I think that is the whole point and the companies rely on that. I spend about 20-minutes on a few comparison websites and eventually used compare the market and found a BETTER policy with MORE cover, including Freezer contents cover, accidental damage, outbuilding contents cover, and also cover for when you take laptops etc out of the house. My policy ended up coming down from £578.26 to £200.12. It would have been £122 if I had paid in full but I just opted for monthly direct debits instead. Still, a BIG saving for just 20 minutes of my time. I have marked in my phone calendar 2 weeks before my next renewal date to do the same process when I know what my renewal will be. Imagine how many other policies are doing the same? Car insurance? Broadband, TV Packages, Gas, electricity, mobile phones. They know a lot of us are lazy or don't have the time to shop around so can just keep creeping up the renewals each year and we probably hardly notice. Well, not anymore!
As part of my budgeting, I looked at my finances as a whole and made a note of all my debts Yikes! Taking into account my Solar panel's finance, credit card debts, personal loans and the balance on my mortgage (under £5k so not bad). I am currently in debt to the tune of over £25k :-/. It's all manageable at the moment but it just shows how easily these things pile up.
My VW car was collected this morning. Luckily it was a younger guy not some stuffy retired driving instructor in a suit, that came to collect it. He seemed really fair and said the only thing he'd marked down was a scratch on the drivers side door (supermarket carpark door prang not me). It had come up with £120 plus I only had one key, but her didn't mention that. He said the final page normally comes up with what I will be charged but it didn't bring anything up. He advised not to get my hopes up and wait for confirmation, but fingers crossed I have nothing extra to pay (that would be awesome as I don't have it).
Made myself chilli chicken wraps for dinner as it was one of the many things in my fridge I needed to get used before everything explodes at the same time when they go out of date lol.
I did wrap them up into a burrito style thing but couldn't hold the phone and he wrap to get the shot lol.
I received a nice gift in the post off one of our suppliers - Caroline Gardner for hitting our quarterly target. They are always really good like that at sending rewards out. She even remembered I'm now alcohol-free and so sent me this tonic selection and a seedlip alcohol-free bottle which I guess is like a gin alternative? I'm building up quite a collection now so I wll have a stocked bar soon of half and half so people have a choice of 0% drinks as well as regular booze. When I have any get-togethers I will ask people to bring a 0% bottle and drink some of my normal stuff instead.
In other news I have paid privately to have a consultation and tests to see if I am indeed ADHD. A lot of my friends seem to be in no doubt and I feel like for some it has just been a given from meeting me lol But I would like to get something official so I can maybe get meds or cognitive therapy to enable me to better cope with it. I do feel however, I have probably found a lot of coping mechanisms for some of the symptoms without even realising it. The fact I now ALWAYS put my phone in my left pocket and keys in my right so I always know where they are. It's one less thing for my brain to think about and stress over.
Watch this space.
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