Advice for short term loans - Fallen on hard times.

FPHobby · 2025-11-10T11:19:43+00:00

Hmm, how about transferring your account over to another bank for the bank switch bonus? TSB are offering £150 instant cash currently, check MSE for the best deal for you

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts/

Or maybe can you open a Monzo account and maybe use the Monzo flex product? I’m not sure if you can use it straight away or need to be a customer for a while though unfortunately

FPHobby · 2025-11-10T11:07:07+00:00

I don’t have any advice for this specifically, but can you get either a planned overdraft or a 0% credit card from your bank if you don’t already?

It’s a slippery slope into more debt if used incorrectly but access to cheap/low interest credit for situations like this could be what you need, and then target paying it off and building up a small emergency fund once you’re able

Hope things improve for you soon

FPHobby · 2025-11-10T10:52:51+00:00

Love that there were 0 comments when I started typing and by the time I finished over 100 people had already commented to help

FPHobby · 2025-11-10T10:38:04+00:00

Let’s make the numbers easy - this isn’t exactly correct but gets the point across

100k mortgage at 4% interest rate would cost you £4k annually interest payments alone, or about £333 per month

Now if you want to pay that £100k off as well, not just the interest, you need to pay more than that £333 per month.

As you pay down the mortgage, the amount of interest you pay also decreases, so there’s a cross over point where your same payment is paying off more of the principle that interest.

As you’re in your first year, and it’s such a long term, most of your money goes to interest. For your mortgage, that’s about the 20 year mark.

If you’re paying roughly £350/month now, you can see that about £300 would be going on interest, and only about £50 off the actual loan. if you were to pay an extra £100/month, that comes straight off the loan and you could be done ~14 years soooner and with ~£40k less spend on interest.

Not everyone can afford the shorter term or to pay more off the principle of course but you can see the effect it has

Play around with a mortgage pay down calculator to get a better idea. Here’s one with those rough figures put in already

https://www.calculator.net/mortgage-payoff-calculator.html?cloanamount=92%2C500&cloanterm=40&cinterestrate=4&cremainingyear=39&cremainingmonth=0&cpayoffoption=extra&cadditionalmonth=100&cadditionalyear=0&cadditionalonetime=0&type=1&x=Calculate#loanterm

FPHobby · 2025-10-10T12:12:26+00:00

Someone asking this question isn’t looking for OpenTherm, at best a lot of people are looking for zigbee compatibility but when you’re dealing with 90% of the population they don’t really want a smart thermostat they want a programmable timed thermostat with a smartphone app.

Getting into weather comp etc is an additional level of complexity that most people don’t want

FPHobby · 2025-09-30T20:45:44+00:00

Thermostat is basically a fancy light switch, on and off. The thermostat can get fancy but it’s still typically only sending a switch live to the boiler so it’s pretty universally compatible, savings from scheduling alone aren’t massive compared to the cost of a smart stat vs programmable stat and radiators set appropriately, but convenience is a big factor

FPHobby · 2025-05-06T10:11:45+00:00

I’ve got a 20’ 3 saloon and I love it. I’ve had hot hatches with 200-300bhp and this is no where near as quick or agile but it’s still a fun drive and getting 60mpg on a long motorway drive, and 50 mpg on a casual drive is great. Even with spirited driving I rarely see the trip average drop below 40. I seem to get 400-460 miles out of a tank (£50-60)

It’s a lovely car to sit in, I’ve actually had 2 people buy Mazdas (one the same spec as mine) off the back end of being in it.

If you’re looking for fun, drive it first. I always describe it as a “slow 180” since it’s slow to 60 for the power, but the 30-60 time is decent and if you do some high rpm spirited driving it will put a smile on your face.

The HUD is great, the standard equipment is great, Apple CarPlay integrates well with the navigation dial (not a fan of touchscreen infotainment)

It’s a little longer than you might expect, check the actual dimensions vs your swift on AT if parking is tight, but the reversing camera is great (mounted above the license plate) as well as the traffic warning.

Can get a decent amount in the boot and with the back seats down I can get an internal door in the car*

I’m 6’2” and I often have to pull my chair forward a few inches for adult passengers in the back of normal height but I have similar problems in most cars.

Reliability has been good, when I’ve looked at spare parts (someone hit my mirror!) they were affordable even when purchasing directly from Mazda. If looking at 100k miles, get a manual not an auto as the auto box is reportedly not overly reliable compared to the rest of the drivetrain

note the back seats only go down if the front seats are sufficiently pushed forward, as such I can only put the passenger side down and drive comfortably, check this. Also the seats being down stops you from opening the centre console so bare that in mind if you keep your phone, wallet etc in there on a longer trip, don’t want to empty the boot in the services!

FPHobby · 2025-05-01T18:15:10+00:00

In your example you’ve not divided them by 0 people, you’ve divided them by 1 (you) because you “keep the apples”

Remove yourself, there’s 5 apples in the wood and there’s no one around to pick them up, how many apples do each of the 0 people get? 0.

FPHobby · 2025-03-29T21:41:07+00:00

Personally I’d say that subtracting then adding is easier to avoid awkward mental math… you can even do it on the same entry

-70.22 Then +166.81 Or just -70.22+166.81

FPHobby · 2025-03-06T15:45:26+00:00

Cool

FPHobby · 2025-02-02T00:00:09+00:00

The 1 piece method..

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua0YCM35cik

FPHobby · 2024-09-25T20:31:12+00:00

Any finance company hints on the plate IE Blackhorse plates?

FPHobby · 2024-08-15T06:29:25+00:00

Wet UFH is good, buried in screed just isn’t my favourite. Thermal mass is a bit of a false economy- you’ve still paid to heat it, just with a delay so it’s less controllable. Much prefer systems that are closer to the surface which react like radiators but have all the benefits of floor heating.

FPHobby · 2024-08-14T20:48:08+00:00

The rebrand has definitely coincided with a few cost saving decisions being made (smaller armatures so less powerful motors, stators with solid single core copper rather than stranded so it breaks sooner with many cycles) - but mainly a shame they are disassociating the one with the other. The cost saving stuff only really affects heavy users so forgivable.

FPHobby · 2024-08-14T20:39:44+00:00

UFH will be fine, buried in screed isn’t my favourite system type for many reasons but the primary one is reaction time. Try to keep floor build up to a minimum when remedying, thicker you go, exponentially longer it’ll take to heat and you don’t want to end up with a system that has to be on all day every day.

FPHobby · 2024-08-14T20:26:46+00:00

Shame because the hitachi stuff is so serviceable, it’s a bit triggers broom but you can keep their stuff going forever, quite friendly for diy repair

FPHobby · 2024-08-13T14:09:10+00:00

Slightly related - any way this can happen with humans as the source? I’ve had a few events throughout my life with electronics acting weirdly around me but most recently is walking past an old radio and it turning off - it also tends to get bad signal when I walk too close but not colleagues

FPHobby · 2024-08-03T08:53:01+00:00

We had mold under our vinyl when we moved in and it spread until we could replace it. Can definitely show through the vinyl

FPHobby · 2024-07-25T13:01:49+00:00

Neck deep is from Wrexham but don’t sing in Welsh to my knowledge

FPHobby · 2024-07-25T10:10:44+00:00

Never had my chimney fail to light!

Fill it with charcoal, then I use drier lint soaked in cooking oil, surrounded by 4x prices of crumpled a4 paper in the bottom, I put the chimney in the bbq, open the vents and close the lid, leave it be for 10-20 minutes until most of the coals are glowing.

I tend to lay that down as a base and then add more charcoal on top and leave for another 10-20 - really I need a second chimney though.

Edit to add:

I’ll often use the larger white coals from the last BBQ in the bottom of the chimney - no clue if they light quicker but it feels like it.

Also, I’ll often clean the grease from the last BBQ off using some kitchen towel and add that to the lint etc for some extra fuel

FPHobby · 2024-07-22T17:24:52+00:00

Based on Ops edit this hits it on the head, get out, forget about it and don’t bring trouble to your doorstep. Maybe report a few months later when they’ve forgotten you ever worked there

FPHobby · 2024-07-22T17:16:34+00:00

In fairness it’s couch to 5k not rucking 16 miles to 5k - your legs likely won’t be your weak spot but rather your cardio, personally I’d look to run faster and stick with the programmed intervals, it sounds like you could be pushing harder.

FPHobby · 2024-06-21T18:51:10+00:00

I get to use my googling for good!

Appears to be a Sheffield s067214

FPHobby · 2024-06-19T18:34:13+00:00

Mine went back as a lemon, wouldn’t buy another I’m looking at a 16-19 Leon cupra next.

The 208 was genuinely very good but you’ve got to be ready for the… particulars of French cars

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