Everything related to making money and saving money.
AD. Recently I wrote a post on RateSetter and peer-to-peer lending. Today I have more information to share with you, including details of a generous bonus from RateSetter for new customers. Read more to learn a little more about peer-to-peer-lending and how you can earn a £100 bonus on your investment.
I have been writing an annual bucket list for our family for the last few years. This year I have been RUBBISH at arranging things from it, but I’ve still got time to turn things around! Being self-employed means I can get caught up in working every single day. This 2019 bucket list has been designed to motivate me into arranging fun trips and days out with my family on a regular basis. Although I haven’t been great at that so far this year. Anyway, this is our first 2019 bucket list update!
AD. Since becoming debt-free a few years ago I haven’t made a huge amount of effort to make my money work harder for me, at least not until 2018. I have the majority of my money in premium bonds, as we are going to be using the bulk of our savings to purchase a house hopefully very soon. There are a vast array of ways to invest money, and today I want to talk to you about peer-to-peer lending, and RateSetter in particular.
Ad. This is a guest post by Tracy Walter – the ‘mum next door’ who is passionate about personal finance. Although she blogs about personal finance for work, she recently branched out to writing just for mums so follow her on her Medium account.
My son came home from school one day with a list of ideas to literally make the world a better place!
His list of eco-friendly lifestyle improvements included:
WHAT? Solar panels? England isn’t exactly the Sahara. We don’t have enough sunshine!
My son duly informed me that I was wrong. Solar Panels need daylight – not sunlight – to operate. In fact, there was a day in May 2017 that solar energy produced a quarter of the UK’s electricity.
Then he pitched his idea to his personal finance blogger mum: “You can save a lot of money by installing solar panels. The government also gives you money. You can even write about it!”
Okay, he had my attention.
Important Definitions
Solar Panels are not as expensive as they used to be. The Feed-in-Tariff program which aimed to compensate people for investing in renewable energy while making the cost more competitive, successfully brought down the cost of solar panels. In the past 9 years, the price of solar panels has dropped by 70%! The total cost of your solar PV system will vary depending on your needs.
According to The Ecoexperts in March 2019, a family of my size (4 people) will need a 16 panel 4kWp system that could cost between £6,000 to £8,000. (Although the Energy Savings Trust estimates that one can buy a quality 4 kWp system for £5,500). A 4 kWp system generates around 3,800 kWp yearly – which would be more than enough for my family, considering that we are out for most of the day.
The amount of money I will save when I generate my own energy depends on what my current bills are. My bills vary not just according to my lifestyle but also varies whether I use it during peak times when National Grid peak prices apply. I also need to take into account the long term cost of my power as cost per kW goes up each year with inflation.
The amount I can save will also depend on how much electricity I generate. This will vary according to factors such as:
I advise using the Energy Saving Trust’s calculator to calculate your savings or use the tables Great Home UK made specifically for Solar PV Panel payback in 2019.
From 2010 until early 2019, people braved the initial investment by selling their extra energy back into the grid as part of the FiT program. The Feed-In-Tariff Programme (FiT) was a government scheme that brought in additional income to solar panel owners. Although the program ceased in 2019, one can still join if they installed solar panels with MCS certificate dated before the 31st of March 2019.
I came just in time to find out about the FiT’s successor- SEG (Smart Export Guarantee). In June 2019, the government finalised a new bill to require medium-large energy to buy back electricity from small scale generators such as offices and small businesses.
Even if I get the most economical solar panel – it will still set me back at a few thousand pounds. I looked around for more affordable ways to get a solar panel, and this is what I found:
In the past, people rented out their roofs to companies. The company would install a free solar panel system on their roof in exchange for the money the owner earned by selling electricity back to the grid. This is an excellent option if you only care about the environment and paying less on electricity bills. However, it is uncertain how rent-a-roof programs will continue now with the end of the FiT program and the cheaper cost of solar panels. Furthermore, being enrolled in such a program may be a liability if I sell my home in the next 20 years.
There are community programs that make collective purchases of solar panels. If your council isn’t yet participating in one, you can write to them and request they do.
It depends on whether you have £6000 on hand to invest. Solar panels are a long term investment that will take decades to break even once you include your savings as well as the export tariffs. If you have the money to spend – then it will pay itself back over 20 years.
AD. Running a car is an expensive business. Even though I’m not a fan of driving myself I help my husband with contributions towards his car. The main reason for this is because he drives me around, anywhere I want to go, and I never have to pay towards petrol or insurance. Recently our car had £750 of repairs (ouch!) and in just a few months we have the MOT coming up again! Today I want to talk to you about quick wins to help your car pass its MOT. These are little things that you can do yourself or have done cheaply elsewhere, to try to help your car pass its MOT.
Now there is no guarantee that there won’t be larger work that needs doing to your car, but if you know you’re going to be forced to pay for repairs, as you can’t afford a new car, then these steps may help you reduce the overall cost of any work come MOT time.
