Argh! Boiler broken – coldest night of the year SHOCKER!

The story is pretty predictable… Winter weather, snow warnings, -5C outside. And of course what happens? My heating doesn’t work. Not just in one room, but in the entire house. Nightmare…

Yes! I know I’ve heard the radio ads. Constantly trying to guilt me into buying boiler cover or boiler insurance or whatever. A lot of them do gas cover and leak cover and you-name-it cover too, but they cost £600 a month or something.

Turning up the boiler thermostat didn’t work!

Sadly it turned out that I was wrong, they aren’t that expensive. The jury is out as to whether they’re good value or not (like most insurance products…) but if you hunt around for comparing boiler cover on websites like this, you can get a decent saving. Comparing boiler cover and insurance prices is always a good idea if you’re particularly savvy with money.

The better solution would probably be to just put away £40 a month into a savings account for ‘rainy days’ and emergency home funds. But most people don’t; if they see £40 in their bank then they must spend it on Deliveroo instead. If you’re like that, then boiler cover is probably a better idea.

It seems I’m not alone; MummyFever has had a similar escapade! And in any case, bleeding a radiator is pretty straightforward and you don’t really need an engineer. The system could need balancing if it’s just certain radiators in your home.

In the end Mike the plumber came out and fixed my leaky boiler (no water damage thankfully). Because it was night rates it ended up costing me £380 + VAT. Pretty shocking but then I asked myself, ‘how much would I want to get out of bed at 1am and fix some random person’s boiler?’. The answer is, probably a lot more.

Why is buying a mattress so confusing?

Argh. I need to rant. Recently my mattress gave up the ghost, it was lumpy, uncomfortable and generally just a mess. I was waking up at 4am with back and neck pains, and this wasn’t really ideal as you can imagine.

Part of the problem was my pillow.

I have had the same Slumber branded pillows for 8 years now, and they say that most pillows should be replaced after just 5.

But the average person only replaces their mattress every 7 years or so – despite coming with 10 year guarantees, as is the case with the Nectar mattress for example.

And what’s more pages and pages of reviews don’t really help, although this website tries to de-mysitfy the entire mattress buying process.

Dreams claims that you should replace your mattress every 8 years – and has come up with some techy-sounding formula for it.

Strange that a company that sells mattresses should advocate such a long period – I would have thought, it would have been better for them to say every 8 months! 🙂

There are so many strange words and marketing hype in this market that it makes me want to scream. What exactly IS ‘micro-Q’ technology? And why are all mattresses, if they are so different, made in the same factory in Derby?! It is all just marketing nonsense.

Their marketing spend is also huge. I have read that around 25% of the cost of a mattress is eaten up by marketing and advertising.

Hiring models and a photography room all costs lots of money

 

In the end I bought the mattress that was cheapest, highly ranked and reviewed, and just generally easy to understand…

For anyone wondering, the one I bought was the (double) Sofia mattress by Silentnight. Nothing flash, nothing expensive, but it does the job.

If you are spending £1299 on a mattress I think personally you need to re-assess your life.