Renting household appliances

[Vidar]

First of all, my apologies if this is in the wrong section but as it's not relating to a project etc I figured this would be the best place.

In the past few days my already tight budget has gotten even tighter (long story) so I'm looking for any areas that I can in order to save some money. One expense I have is my regular weekly trip to the Launderette, costing £12 to do my weeks worth of washing. Doesn't sound like a lot but when you're only getting £86 a week coming in and have lots of other little things to pay out for it adds up fast.

It's been suggested to me that I may save money, every little helps right now, by renting a washing machine; not a rip off hire purchase agreement from the likes of certain high street chains that pray on desperate people but a straight up rental agreement.

I've checked out some of the costs and a washing machine, Bosch baseline model can be rented from a reputable firm for less than £4 a week but I'm wondering with the additional costs on electricity, I have a pre pay key metre, whether or not this will be a false positive.

Multiple washes as opposed to a single wash, depending on the amount of electricity used could in my mind put me past £12 a week.

The model I've looked at is the Bosch WAE24061, what do you guys think, will it help save even a few quid a week or is it a wash out?

 

[Judgeneo]

Whats your electricity rate? You can estimate power usage if you know this and the machines power draw.

With washing machines though, you will obviously need water. Have you thought about how to plumb it in?

 

[Heliospherez]

Why rent ?

Can you not get a loan from a friend/family and actually buy a half decent machine ?

Renting is just giving your money away - same as renting a TV / DVD etc. And decent enough washing machines aren't that expensive these days. £4 a week is just over £200 a year and it would break my heart knowing that someone else was getting £16 a month of my money for doing nothing in return for me.

The electric will be another 50p average a wash or thereabouts (if it's a normal 40 degree wash that runs for approx an hour - and heated by your electric) - the water is nothing to really worry about.

 

[marc2003]

how on earth are you spending £12 week at the launderette?

my local charges £3.40 to use their larger machines. even with 3 pairs of jeans, a few t shirts, a few tops and a couple of large towels, it was still half empty.

 

[Vidar]

Whats your electricity rate? You can estimate power usage if you know this and the machines power draw.

With washing machines though, you will obviously need water. Have you thought about how to plumb it in?

The plumbing is already in place in my little flat, from what I can tell my rates according to the Scottish power website are 14.027p per KWH

Not sure what the draw rate on the machine is.

 

[Haggisman]

Borrow £50 off a mate/family member, buy a 2nd hand machine off ebay/gumtree, pay them back £6/week for 2 months?

 

[Vidar]

how on earth are you spending £12 week at the launderette?

my local charges £3.40 to use their larger machines. even with 3 pairs of jeans, a few t shirts, a few tops and a couple of large towels, it was still half empty.

Bedding, towels, clothes fill the large machine and a smaller machine nicely at £7.00, to spin them (getting the excess water out) costs £1.00 (well worth it as it saves a fortune in the dryers) Then to dry everything costs £4.00

 

[Heliospherez]

£12 a week at a laundry is crazy. If i thought everyone was paying that - i'd set up a business and collect your clothes for you, wash them, dry them, fold them and deliver them back - and still be in with a hefty profit.

 

[Vidar]

£12 a week at a laundry is crazy. If i thought everyone was paying that - i'd set up a business and collect your clothes for you, wash them, dry them, fold them and deliver them back - and still be in with a hefty profit.

Tried that service once.... cost £20

 

[Vidar]

Okay so the draw rate on the machine is 0.95 KWH for a standard wash according to this site
http://www.safewayelectrical.org/in...=6&flypage=flypage-vmbright.tpl&product_id=22

And at my rate of 14.027KWH I'm looking at what 10p a wash? Or am I having some sort of intellectual breakdown?

 

[Pabl0]

Can you change your circumstances so that you take more then £86 a week?

 

[Cold_And_Miserable]

You should sell your hex core PC that you cannot afford to maintain and purchase a decent washing machine.

 

[arknor]

The plumbing is already in place in my little flat, from what I can tell my rates according to the Scottish power website are 14.027p per KWH

Not sure what the draw rate on the machine is.

I think I pay 13.5p with eon but my standing charge is a few quid a week (I thought the government was supposed to make it so prepay meters are the same as normal rates?)

it was on about 11.5p when I moved in but i stupidly decided to let them no I was a new tenant instead of just using the key and never saying anything

btw if when you moved in your meter had any debt complain and you can likely get it credited back onto your meter I did that with eon

BTW £200 beko washing machines are stupidly good value for the money

 

[wez130]

The best suggestion above is to save / borrow £50 and buy a used one. Or even try freecycle to see if anyone is getting rid of one after buying a new one.

Launderettes are horrendously expensive, we had to take our washed clothes to the launderette to dry and even that cost £6 for one load.

 

[wez130]

You should sell your hex core PC that you cannot afford to maintain and purchase a decent washing machine.

Why should he sell it if it's bought and paid for? And what maintenance costs are there? What would he use instead? Access to the internet is classed as essential in this day in age.

 

[Vidar]

You should sell your hex core PC that you cannot afford to maintain and purchase a decent washing machine.

Sell the one and only thing I have of any value, the one thing that provides me entertainment via gaming etc as I don't own a tv, games console or anything else?

 

[Trifid]

Save even more and do it by hand.

 

[Windle]

I literally gave away a decent 2yr old washing machine in good nick (moved to new build with white goods already there), tried sticking it on Gumtree/Freecycle for £50 and offered to deliver locally. No interest at all so ended up giving it to one of my girlfriends aunts.

Check out the usual websites, you may get lucky.

 

[arknor]

Sell the one and only thing I have of any value, the one thing that provides me entertainment via gaming etc as I don't own a tv, games console or anything else?

lol you sound a lot like me but I'm not hard up as you can tell from the dulux paint which is bloody expensive..
check out my badboy living room



btw that desk makes the room seem smaller than it is, it's one of the huge ass ikea gallants
I moved in at the start of January

started painting that room about 1-2 weeks back and just need to finish a wall where the radiator is then move my pc into that room using that new desk but I cant be bothered

 

[Glaucus]

Renting?

Get on ebay (gumtree, freecycle etc) and buy a second hand one for £20 any will do as long as it works. My entire house is kitted out from freebies when friends/family (put the word around work, parents, friends, its amazing how many people redocarate and just want someone to come and take stuff for free) chuck stuff out and cheap stuff of ebay.
My dinning room table i got for £0.99 and he refused to take that as he said it was pointless.

Even my massive chest freezer couldn't fit in the car, so sack trucks and just over a mile push home.

Oh and on ebay, don't be scared to email people for items that haven't sold, most people want rid of furniture appliances as soon as possible.