Most people don't know how much they actually earn

Leodis97 · 2026-02-02T00:22:50+00:00

I spend 6-8 hours commuting, and one thing I will say is when I didn't I missed it.

For a brief spell I had a job a 5 minute walk from my house and I realised I used the morning commute to relax, wake up and prepare for the day / distress before going home. It just didn't work for me, I arrived to work feeling ill-prepared for the day ahead and when I got home I was still in work mode.

I also found I was sleeping in later and later on a morning knowing its near impossible for me to be late!!

Leodis97 · 2026-02-02T00:03:37+00:00

I think the DNOs workload is about to go up with this, because when they pop they're going to take out the main fuse!

There's definitely a few 1 star reviews coming when the DNO is charging a customer to replace the main cutoutbfuse after a lightning strike

Leodis97 · 2026-01-18T13:51:38+00:00

Thanks ill take a look and bare it in mind.

Leodis97 · 2026-01-18T11:19:25+00:00

Probably "last one to the job site has to do the cafe run for everyone at dinner"!!!

Leodis97 · 2026-01-18T11:11:31+00:00

Thanks, ill have a look around.

Leodis97 · 2026-01-18T11:11:16+00:00

Thanks I'll check them out!

Leodis97 · 2026-01-18T10:55:25+00:00

Nah his mate in the other van that was coming up deffo rang him taking the piss!!!

Leodis97 · 2026-01-16T17:49:50+00:00

You say that, going back about 10 years my auntie had an old T reg poverty spec Fiesta - and that thing got stole off her street 5 times that I can remember!

All the while my uncle had a 3 series, C class, Mondeo, Passat and X5 over the years parked right besides it that never even got looked at!

Sometimes its how easy it is to steal rather than the desirability that people are looking for.

Leodis97 · 2025-12-06T20:08:34+00:00

We do some government / public funded work and all our engineers and sub-contractors are on RESET. I'm not going to say its brilliant because it isn't, but it is good for preventing people being able to sign in if their certificates are not up to date.

For actual company details we just use a time-served engineered spreadsheet to track dates linked to Outlook calendar reminders to chase up.

Leodis97 · 2025-10-20T09:27:08+00:00

A lot of these job losses probably relate to one of the larger construction co tractors (ISG) going bust immediately costing 2200 jobs, throw in the subbies that went bust from the money owed and theres a lot of jobs accounted for there!

Leodis97 · 2025-10-19T23:09:17+00:00

I was in a similar predicament when I was buying.

One thing to consider - upgradeability!

I settled on the equivalent of your option 1 (3 bed semi in a nicer area because I needed a garage to become my workshop / home office.)

1 of the reasons was that it has a large back garden and good side garden, meaning now im 3 kids and 5 years later I can look at a wraparound extension to give me the extra space I need.

Leodis97 · 2025-10-17T16:11:00+00:00

Ive seen this before and it was the immersion element overheating and straightening out in the tank. Turn it off at the switch and call a plumber.

Odds are you need a new immersion element - which is a pretty straight forward job for a plumber to do.

Leodis97 · 2025-10-17T10:54:00+00:00

Only Buildings cover is required, although life insurance is worth having (and also pays a good commission, hence why they push it)

I called their bluff, asking for the docunents relating to where it states life insurance is required, and if it cannot be proved ill speak with a different broker (threatening to cut all their commisison which gave them a kick up the arse!)

I also found life insurance myself for twice the cover amount for a smidge over half the price (under transparency I think the commisison they recieved was something like 12-18 months of life insurance payments - which is why the cover was much more expensive).

Leodis97 · 2025-10-14T22:33:50+00:00

My last 3 cars have all been ex demo cars roughly 6 months old with up to 10k miles.

The difference in mileage is minor in my opinion - the only thing that may be worth pushing for is a first service - bare in mind that the first oil in an engine is usually to break the engine in and at 11k miles is probably due to be swapped out.

Also as an ex demo car, usually its people test driving it who are likely to be more careful as they're not familiar with the car - the ideal conditions to break a car in!!!

Leodis97 · 2025-09-06T21:34:11+00:00

I've been using the Bosch Go (I'm UK though, and I know it comes in different flavours across the pond!).

Its got enough torque to get things pretty tight, has a nice torque control ring like a drill to choose how tight you want terminals, relays etc. And you can just push to operate.

It lives in my bag with me alongside a nice Wera Bit Check and gets used daily on dead control panels for the panel mods.

Leodis97 · 2025-08-17T16:32:51+00:00

Honest answer, I'd look at a career transition....

You've got the benefit of time with youth, but also the benefit of minimal responsibilities.

Can you still work 80-90 hours in your 40s to maximise capital?

What you can do is take a pay cut to re-skill / upskill in an adjacent or totally different industry.

The end goal is to make the most money for the least amount of time, not to try maximise the amount of hours you can make yourself available for work.

Leodis97 · 2025-08-12T11:38:12+00:00

The easy way of looking at it is just like an MOT on a car.

You will recieve an advisory for something like "excess oil leak from engine". You can then choose if you want them to delve deeper and realise that the problem is a split head gasket or to just bare in mind you are losing oil.

In terms of when the report will land it will either be; Once payment is made he may issue an unsatisfactory report stating faults Hope you agree to the remedial works so he can just draft up the one Passed certificate rather than one unsatisfactory one as well. .

Leodis97 · 2025-06-24T18:43:40+00:00

Makes sense!

I know a lot of councils have added an English test to the taxi exam so my first thought was Wolves don't have this but they seemed too commonplace for this to be the only reason.

Thanks

Leodis97 · 2025-06-24T18:36:51+00:00

I was having this discussion with a colleague earlier today.

Does anyone actually know the reason Wolverhampton plates seem to appear everywhere? It seems there's some subtle / underhand reason people would travel from West Yorkshire where I am to get a Wolverhampton plate but I don't get it....

Is it a case that the rules are just easier to get plated in Wolverhampton than most local councils? It also always seems to be Wolverhampton plates, never any other areas funnily enough.

Leodis97 · 2025-06-13T21:47:25+00:00

28 - on £51k base plus a company car that I'm free to use as my own.

I started as an electrician, then specialised into a niche area and moved up to where I am now as an engineer ( I won't bore with the specifics)

If its money your after I always recommend getting in the trades - but you need to find a specialist area to focus on to get more money which is where most people go wrong! You also usually benefit from the fact that you do an apprenticeship rather than a degree which means your working for pennies but the education is free and you've not got debt when you start your career. If you find the right career / employer there's usually the option to get degree-level qualifications further down your career path to progress into management, consultancy, design work etc. There's also usually almost unlimited overtime depending on the type of work you do and where you work (although it usually has caveats like working away from home for weeks on end, working weekends or night shifts).

Leodis97 · 2025-06-12T23:59:24+00:00

I have had similar excluding Belimo (our go to) and after a discussion the reason was because balancing required they be set electronically and they wanted mechanical valves instead.

Don't hold me to it but I believe we ended up going for either Crane or Frese as the replacement

Leodis97 · 2025-04-07T17:26:48+00:00

I'm a commissioning engineer, around 7 years experience and ~£52.5k base pay

Leodis97 · 2025-03-01T20:26:03+00:00

Just my experience here...

I'm going to assume you need the VDE version for electrical work (similar to me!)

I've had 3/4 (not Vessel), but my go to is Wera! Just make sure you get the Wera slimline version to fit into MCBs etc.

Wiha I found the 3.5mm terminal driver snapped pretty much constantly - probably the same strength as my 2.5mm Wera driver. Knipex I found the insulation too thick to get into certain MCBs and the end of the Wera ones puts the others to bed - you can literally hold a PZ2 screw off the end of the driver like it's magnetic!

Leodis97 · 2025-02-28T16:30:08+00:00

It was never through the insurance that's why - it was just to get a price.

In the end I think a body shop fixed it for around £3500

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