Cost of living - 2022!

[Colin P]

2 hours ago, Kimbers said:

Just been told its going up again, another £60 a month increase.

I'll be at £400 a month soon. 

Just went into the house from the Office out back. Midday, its sunny and 3 lights on from when I was last in there! Son went to work an hour ago and his fan and computer are both still running in his bedroom. 3 loads of washing done yesterday, mine and Wendys a full load and the boys both washed a pair of trousers and a shirt for work (yes 2 items a load) and already one today, dishwasher was turned on with half a load. I have given up trying to tell people. And I get told off for getting "Shouty" as they are Autistic and I am "Making a fuss over a little bit of money".

 

You are not alone, my pet peeves:

- Lights on in middle of the day because the curtains are still drawn. 

- Kids leaving bedroom lights on when they are not in there, plus the hall light (and basically every light switch between their bedroom and wherever they happen to have relocated to) 

- Son, Radiator on Max and windows wide open.

- Son, washing machine on every day for 1 T shirt and a pair of shorts (old work uniform hopefully new job will stop that)

- Son, I'm not hungry (only as soon as the oven has cooled down from our dinner it goes on again because he wants to make himself something else)

- Kids, standing in front of the fridge staring blankly at the contents trying to decide what they fancy to snack on

...... and my all time "favourite" wife and kids: open front door and stand there having a conversation with the door wide open. I'm less diplomatic telling them to shut the door these days and it usually ends up with me getting 48 hours of the silent treatment.

 

[Mark Blanchard]

Another small energy efficiency, turn off appliances at the wall, so they're not on standby.  

[exeterjeep]

55 minutes ago, Colin P said:

my pet peeves

one of mine is someone puts the kettle on for a cuppa, (hopefully only putting enough water for what's needed), but then after the kettle has boiled, not using it having walked off and come back a few minutes later and put the kettle on again....

[RobinB5]

4 hours ago, Rambo said:

Me too. £57 per month with Octopus, fixed until Sept 2023.  I can't believe how much money, and electricity, people are wasting a month 😯 

Lol, try paying for energy in a house occupied by 6 people!

[Barrykearley]

Who said that ? The lights don’t work and all the windows are covered in thick lined black out curtains.

[red vtec]

1 hour ago, Colin P said:

 I'm less diplomatic telling them to shut the door these days and it usually ends up with me getting 48 hours of the silent treatment.

 

Every cloud…..

[pete]

https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/nick-ferrari/lbc-callers-taxes-plan-raise-cost-of-living-funds/

[C8RKH]

5 hours ago, Kimbers said:

Just been told its going up again, another £60 a month increase.

I'll be at £400 a month soon. 

Just went into the house from the Office out back. Midday, its sunny and 3 lights on from when I was last in there! Son went to work an hour ago and his fan and computer are both still running in his bedroom. 3 loads of washing done yesterday, mine and Wendys a full load and the boys both washed a pair of trousers and a shirt for work (yes 2 items a load) and already one today, dishwasher was turned on with half a load. I have given up trying to tell people. And I get told off for getting "Shouty" as they are Autistic and I am "Making a fuss over a little bit of money".

 

No you're not being shouty and they're being twits. Next they'll probably be quoting Greta at you and telling you the earth dying is your fault!

2 hours ago, Colin P said:

with me getting 48 hours of the silent treatment

Sounds like heaven to me.

[Rambo]

Reading these posts it strikes me that quite a lot of you are living way beyond your means. Tougher times are here, and they will only get worse, I can guarantee it.

So get rid of all this Netflix, Amazon Prime, Sky, Spotify, 4 car, 3 foreign holidays, £60 pm mobile phone crap and get real. Cut the cloth according to your means and you will find you can save £££hundreds a week/month

It's not rocket science 😐 

PS if you don't believe me, ask your parents how they coped during the war and subsequent post war era 

[Barrykearley]

Phew - yes you are right - I’m down to just three vehicles now and only 1 lotus.

special thanks to my soon to be ex wife for smegging the kona Ev into a tree and writing it off lowering the electric bill 😂

tough economic times indeed.

[DaveC72]

Bleeding heart, left-wing, woke, snowflake here.  Just sticking my head above the parapet...

[red vtec]

48 minutes ago, DaveC72 said:

Bleeding heart, left-wing, woke, snowflake here.  Just sticking my head above the parapet...

A rather left wing simplified view. The issues are wider spread and partly to do with Covid and the reawakening of consumer demand after that and restricted worldwide supply chains. And then throw in a war in Western Europe and it’s affect that is restricting fuel supplies, running down of power generation in western countries and reliance on Russia for gas etc… and then add in tensions in Asia etc….. it’s almost the hard lefts utopia. 

[Barrykearley]

Let’s face it though - I’m a true blue blood and a capitalist. There’s something so very wrong with the Status Quo at the moment. Some of the ceo bonuses and packages are frankly disgusting. I’ve no issues with high remuneration - but the figures we have seen the likes of persimmon dish out are just plain wrong.

[DaveC72]

Don't disagree with the macro-economic factors.  I am not a simpleton.  The increase in share-holder value and wages of the upper percentiles are however demonstrably disproportionate to the rate of increase in average earnings.  By significant factors. 

Interestingly, our reliance on Russian energy sources is far lower than most in Europe. 

Energy price rises in the rest of Europe certainly make interesting reading when mapped against their dependence on a now restricted supply...Indeed, the UK's problem is more storage than supply.  

The increase in consumer demand post-covid has been relatively short-lived (in Economic terms) due to the current crisis, and  the UK was largely in line with the rest of Europe.  The prices of goods and services have increased, but largely at (small) percentages higher than increased costs.  That's normal business behaviour - and the increases are usually a hedge against future costs.  Profits aren't bad, they're kind of essential.

So far, so what?

What is "bad" (and I'll grant this is subjective) is the obscene amount of profiteering being made in some sectors.  There are plenty of ways to tackle this, and even the most ardent right-of-center should probably concede that announcing record profits by companies in the energy sector during the current cost-crisis is downright wrong.  And inflationary.

Which is really the root of my post.

Not quite sure anyone with any sense would view the current situation as Utopia, regardless of their particular political leanings.

[Kimbers]

16 hours ago, andydclements said:

Heating oil, well it is what it is for cost. I bought it when it was reasonably low for the current rates, in the last week or so it seems to have gone up 12/l so that would have been an extra 1500@12p. I feel sorry for those whose oil tanks are c500l or so, firstly you can't generally get the same price per litre and secondly you may have little choice but to fill up twice/year at least one of which will be mid winter when prices traditionally were higher.

I topped up a month ago, have 3/4 of a tank with a 3200 litre tank so hoping I am ok for a while!

But here's an interesting question. My Boiler is off. I turn it off when we don't need heating and use the Immersion Heater. However, After checking "hourly costs" of devices in the home it says an immersion heater can be up to £1 an hour!!!! 

So is it cheaper to have the Boiler on or the Immersion? I have checked online and there are arguments for both.

[DaveC72]

Run both for an hour independently keeping the rest of your useage as constant as possible and take readings to calculate the cost.  Probably best to do when you're home alone so you can avoid the family forgetting and distorting the results. (For a full test you should probably do this a few times to get an average comparison).

But I'd hazard a guess that the boiler should be more efficient than the immersion heater.  I remember my folks going batshit crazy if I used it without their permission due to the cost, but on the grounds that I haven't lived with them since 1988, there's a good chance the technology has improved.

[Kimbers]

Found this on Money Saving Expert.

With the proviso it needs to go up 80% in October!!

 

How much electricity are you using?
Common household appliances and the average cost in pence for 10 minutes of use.

Electric shower: 29p - 44p
Immersion heater: 12.5p
Kettle: 12.5p
Tumble Dryer: 8p - 12.5p
Electric fire: 8p - 12.5p
Oven: 8p - 9p
Hairdryer: 8p
Washing machine: 5p - 12.5p
Dishwasher: 4.5p - 6p
Grill/hob: 4p - 8.5p
Iron: 4p - 4.5p
Electric drill: 3.7p - 4p
Toaster: 3.3p - 6.2p
Microwave: 2.5p - 6.2p
Vacuum cleaner: 2p - 5p
Dehumidifier: 1.2p - 2.8p
Plasma TV: 1.2p - 1.8p
Towel rail: 1p - 2.2p
Fridge-freezer: 0.8p - 1.6p
Freezer - 0.6p
Heating blanket: 0.5p - 0.8p
LCD TV: 0.5p - 0.8p
Desktop computer: 0.3p - 0.8p
Games console: 0.2p - 0.8p
Fridge: 0.3p
TV box: 0.1p
Laptop: 0.1p
Video/DVD/CD: 0.1p
Tablet (charge): less than 0.1p
Broadband router: less than 0.1p
Extractor fan: less than 0.1p
Smartphone (charge): less than 0.1p

5 minutes ago, DaveC72 said:

Run both for an hour independently keeping the rest of your useage as constant as possible and take readings to calculate the cost.  Probably best to do when you're home alone so you can avoid the family forgetting and distorting the results. (For a full test you should probably do this a few times to get an average comparison).

But I'd hazard a guess that the boiler should be more efficient than the immersion heater.  I remember my folks going batshit crazy if I used it without their permission due to the cost, but on the grounds that I haven't lived with them since 1988, there's a good chance the technology has improved.

Strangely enough I checked over the weekend and my "Smart meter" is stupid. It doen't have a Cost per minute/hour etc switch. We were one of the first to get a smart meter and it literally has "Your total Cost", "Your total Useage" and "something I don't understand at all! tried every button and there is no "Your current useage per **** is" at all

[DaveC72]

Ugh, that blows.  And not in the good way.

Do they bypass/remove the old meters when they put a smart meter in?  Genuinely don't know...
 

[red vtec]

@DaveC72 I don't disagree that Upper echelon wages are well out of step and a complete p!ss take with the rest of us.  Our (UK) inability to store gas is due to closing down the storage facilities, also our inability to refine Oil is a similar story meaning diesel is imported from...Russia. Our inability to also generate enough power is due to successive governments not investing in it.

I don't see any of the parties actually coming up with a plan to resolve this, apart from installing wind farms, they have just opened the largest in the world, it powers 1.3 million homes, trouble is there 27 +million homes in UK.

I do agree that there is profiteering going on. I think we can all agree the current situation is a gigantic cluster F%ck, but its not just a UK issue the whole world is in a financial meltdown at the present time.

The Utopia comment is due to myself having been involved in politics and having met the hard left, they love a mess!

 

 

[PaulCP]

1 hour ago, red vtec said:

A rather left wing simplified view. The issues are wider spread and partly to do with Covid and the reawakening of consumer demand after that and restricted worldwide supply chains. And then throw in a war in Western Europe and it’s affect that is restricting fuel supplies, running down of power generation in western countries and reliance on Russia for gas etc… and then add in tensions in Asia etc….. it’s almost the hard lefts utopia. 

Change that bottom line on the graph from wages to investment and it illustrates perfectly the point in my post from yesterday.

IMO need an investigation in to how Ofgen operates since they do appear to be at the whim of the energy companies more than an organisation who are supposed to also be consumer friendly.

Additionally the Govts approach to windfall taxes is beyond my comprehension. How will such a tax reduce investment when the extra profits are not linked to investments.

Take EDF for instance, they want the Govt to put billions in to their plans to build Sizewell C. This is a company whe are currently making billions in the U.K. but are a French nationalised company who have been instructed by the French Govt to restrict price increases to 4%. So are those excess U.K. profits being utilised to support the French? It certainly appears that way hence why windfall taxes to support the U.K. are needed.

[DaveC72]

Interestingly, the  government sold off our gas storage (what was left of it) and then refused to subsidise the private companies who in turn promptly informed said government that the investment needed was not in the interest of a private company.  You couldn't make it up.  Still, Centrica did very well out of it at that time driving shareholder value to it's highest ever level.  Not linked to their donations at all.  No siree.

The hard-line of both sides of the political divide like a good crisis.  If nothing else it creates a fervent opportunity for polarisation of viewpoints.

[DaveC72]

13 minutes ago, PaulCP said:

Change that bottom line on the graph from wages to investment and it illustrates perfectly the point in my post from yesterday.

IMO need an investigation in to how Ofgen operates since they do appear to be at the whim of the energy companies more than an organisation who are supposed to also be consumer friendly.

Additionally the Govts approach to windfall taxes is beyond my comprehension. How will such a tax reduce investment when the extra profits are not linked to investments.

Take EDF for instance, they want the Govt to put billions in to their plans to build Sizewell C. This is a company whe are currently making billions in the U.K. but are a French nationalised company who have been instructed by the French Govt to restrict price increases to 4%. So are those excess U.K. profits being utilised to support the French? It certainly appears that way hence why windfall taxes to support the U.K. are needed.

Ah, now that is a sentiment to warm the cockles of this old-fashioned (centrist) socialists heart.

The "don't tax or you risk investment" was at the heart of the trickle-down economic theories as espoused by the right-wing economists in the early 80s.

Sadly, we are seeing the benefits of this today - and I am not laying the blame at any one particular party here, although the mantra is certainly more comfortable for those to the right of the political divide.

You could, if you extend the logic, argue that the market will make minimal investment to produce super-normal profits.  That is what drives share-prices higher, in the short term.

For a public company (one listed on a market) to invest today, they must show significant return or shareholders will move their capital elsewhere to enjoy a more profitable return.  Whether that is good or bad is a huge conversation, probably best enjoyed over a few pints. 

[DaveC72]

(Hint: I think it is a BAD thing🤣)

[RobinB5]

Greed, that thing that wallows in all of us, will be our end one way or another.

[Kimbers]

13 minutes ago, RobinB5 said:

Greed, that thing that wallows in all of us, will be our end one way or another.

Yup when I am a millionaire I'll live in a villa in the middle of nowhere in Cyprus and you can all end whatever you want then. 

Of course my winning the lottery isn't written in stone!