Spend a little, Save a little
Last week Pedro contacted the landlord, D, about adding my name to the lease. There was a bit of back and forth about how to go about it. D said he could add me as an occupant or create a whole new lease. Pedro responded that it was for my proof of address, so we weren't sure if adding me as an occupant would suffice or not. To our surprise, D contacted lawyers to check. They said an occupant addition is too informal, so we need a whole new lease which will cost £60, half of which D is willing to pay for. Kind of him, honestly, and we gotta do what we gotta do.
We've avoided council tax so far with Pedro's student exemption, but I wonder if now that I'm officially on the lease, we'll have to pay from the date I first moved in. Even so, it's cheaper in this neighborhood and covers our water usage, so I won't feel horrible about incurring this fee. To make myself feel better about this, I'm trying to think about all the things we aren’t paying for.
One thing we’ll never pay for is a TV license. Yep, you need to purchase a TV license to watch, record, or stream programs live on TV. Luckily, streaming services like Netflix don't fall under this. As long as we're not watching live programs or BBC, we can avoid the license. Even in the States we gave up on cable, so that’s nothing new. News articles are free!
Since we don't have a car, we avoid obvious charges like gas and insurance, but also the MOT (Ministry of Transportation). In the UK, a car must go through a yearly inspection, nicknamed MOT, to make sure it is 'roadworthy'. If you don’t comply, you’re heavily fined. If your car fails inspection or even has minor issues, you can't put it on the back burner and fix it when you have the time/money like in America. You must pay for the inspections and cost of maintenance, or you cannot drive off the lot.
We don’t have A/C and haven’t had to use the electric heat yet. We
walk everywhere. We don’t eat out and we stock up on sale items. It’s like college dorms all over again!
Fun Fact-
The mail here comes through a metal slot in the front door. Pretty convenient and nice once you get over the initial terrifying sound like someone is in the house when you're home alone (that metal flap is loud!). However, the mail comes in, but doesn't go out. There are no outgoing mailboxes! You have to find a post box or go to the post office. It's fine for the occasional holiday/birthday card I want to send, but we're still getting mail from the previous tenants. Wherever they are, they haven't figured it out because first, second, and third notices are still coming to this address. I'll admit I didn't want to make the trip for someone else's mail. I even googled “illegal to open someone else’s mail in the UK?” I know in America it is, but you can also usually tell junk apart from important mail, which makes it easier to decide whether or not it’s worth to send back. (If they really wanted their BrandsMart USA deals, they should have forwarded their mail.) But the mail coming in here all looks the same. I couldn’t tell if half of these were serious or if someone just REALLY wanted to reach them about their car’s extended warranty. UK Google said return to sender, so I did.
