What else can go wrong? A financial lament.

[carlosthejack...]

So, in the last 4 weeks or so, we've had:

1. Boiler break down. Coldest week of the winter we had 4 nights with no heating or hot water. Not been billed, but it's looking to be around £500, and that's mates rates.

2. Bathroom windown spontaneously shattered (inner window of double glazed unit, no damage to outside), one of several according to my glazier mate. Only charged me £20 to change it, as it was only a small unit.

3. Microwave go ping. BANG. Feck. £50 to replace.

4. Wife's car. Engine management problems, took them an age to sort it (fingers crossed it's done now) but that was close to £800 all told.

5. Just got my car back, front nearside wheel speed sensor fucking up and needing the wiring loom replacing, and that was almost £200.

So my credit card's taken a hammering and my nerves are shredded. What's next? I'm not sure me, the wife, the bank account or the credit card can take much more!
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DonnyBrago: "I think you may be confusing rain and napalm..." Paulington: "It's not what you ride, it's how you ride it."
Current rides: '05 VFR800 VTEC, '57 Mondeo 1.8 TDCi #58LEGEND

[panrider_uk]

Get your heating covered by British Gas. Cheaper than £500 and same day callout usually. You can call them out to do a repair and take out cover at the same time - counts as your first job.

You're lucky you get mates rates for things.

Mark
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Current bikes: Honda ST1100 Pan European. Moto Guzzi V85 TT Travel

[carlosthejack...]

[Recluso]

Boo, sounds like you're having a crap month

Agree on getting BG's Home Front insurance. We have it and it's covered just about every appliance we have. It's been a real lifesaver. HOWEVER. If you have any Dyson appliances (hoover/washing machine) it gets a bit tricky as Dyson won't let BG touch their stuff.

Definitely worth looking into though. It's saved us a LOT of money over the years.

Here's to hoping nothing else happens!
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'Just erotic. Nothing kinky. It's the difference between using a feather and using a chicken.'
Honda PS125i > Yamaha YBR125 > Yamaha XJ6 Diversion > Yamaha Tracer 900

[hellkat]

You could do without the microwave for a while.

I hate when that happens.

Seems like I've been in "all modes of private transport are off" mode for several months now, all around the time that I run out of spare cash

Happily, my bike is working again (ish), and various other vehicular things are occuring, to hopefully make us a more-than-one-vehicle household again
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[Babba]

I'm struggling to think what part of a CH boiler costs £500 to replace

Are you sure he's a mate?

£800 to solve an engine management issue

We all have expensive weeks where the Gremlins strike chap . . . but you're sounding like one of those 'mug punters' who every tradesman takes the piss out of.

[carlosthejack...]

[carlosthejack...]

[hellkat]

Mates rates, gotta love them!

I had a "mate" like that once.
Agreed to do the top end rebuild on my XJ900 (pre-Diversion).

He was just starting out in his own garage/chop shop so I thought I would put the biz his way and then I could tell people "go to him, he'll see you right".

Cost me £800 (if I remember rightly).

I was earning fuckloads of cash at the time and could afford it, and besides: I liked the bike.

These days, I coulda bought two and a half new bikes for that
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[Andy_Pagin]

[quote="carlosthejackal"]

[Ariel Badger]

What MPG are you getting from the LR?
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[Babba]

[P.addy]

[Ariel Badger]

Best Landrover ever, Series 3 Air Portable.
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[Ariel Badger]

Always fancied a Forward Control LR, drove one one, made of win!
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[carlosthejack...]

[calyx]

You could get a brand new boiler for that money
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Boris - London

[Paulington]

Boilers nowadays seem to be made of cheese and fail. All you see on TV is adverts for boiler cover, cheaper boilers, boiler scrappage scheme and so many people say:

"Grr! My boiler has packed up and I need a new one. We've only had it 3/4 years!".

The boiler in our house, we've had it in there over twenty years and it has been working fine all that time as far as I know. It's an old Glow-Worm boiler from the 1990s I think.

Seems most things now are just made to break instead of being made to last? .
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"Four wheels move the body, two wheels move the soul."
Current Vehicles: '89 Kawasaki KDX200, '99 Yamaha XV535, '00 Honda ST1100 Pan-European, '08 Suzuki GSX-R1000, '08 Mitsubishi Lancer GS4 2.0 TDCi, '15 BMW 1 Series 116d Sport Turbo.
CBT: 27/08/08. Theory: 04/09/09. Module 1: 16/09/09. Module 2: 01/10/09.

[angryjonny]

I had a Johnson and Starley unit in my house from 1984 which finally packed up in 2009. I went back to them for a replacement so I'll let you know if this one manages another quarter-century. It's a warm-air and hot water unit and it looks pretty similar to the old one (interface-wise it was a straight-swap) and it was bleeding pricey so I expect 25 years out of it.

As for what else can go wrong? Fridge-freezer is always a pain because you not only lose the appliance but all the food in it as well. But at least you can have it replaced without paying some cowboy £50 per hour to hit your house with a hammer. These days if so much as a lightbulb goes in your kitchen you've got to get a "qualified professional" round to change it for you.

[Asimo]

I spoke to one of those british gas central heating engineers and he reckoned the older boilers with cast iron heat exchangers keep on going forever as long as you keep on top of servicing. Whereas the newer boilers use aluminium heat exchangers which tend to fail rather quickly but they're more energy efficient.

Bit of a toss up on life span and efficiency.

For the record a £20 pressure switch cost me £180 fitted a couple years back when we didn't have boiler cover in place. 3 months after buying said cover, the fan packed up, so money well spent as the part alone was ~£75.

[ajag]

The first thing anyone should do is get boiler cover with British Gas. I decided to go for it and now I consider myself extremely lucky as everything that could have gone wrong with my boiler/heating has gone wrong. I have had to pretty much replace every piece except the tank itself and the pumps for the hot water. I did had to change the valves inside the tank a few times aswelll though. I must have gotten my money back 3 or 4 times already.
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Street Triple

[Andy_Pagin]

[Ariel Badger]

The 2a was a superior wagon to the Series 3 as it had a metal rad grill you could BBQ on rather than the plastic on the 3 .
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[garth]

The expensive repair bills are pretty much what made me put my uber sensbile hat on and buy a really simples car that I can fix for next to nothing. That, and 60mpg.
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You ain't a has been if you never was

[Fawbish]