It's time to start digging up those Squirrelled Nuts!!!!

Stubod

..the recent (way over inflation) council tax an energy bill increases have really screwed our budget which is based on an overall long term inflation figure of 4%.

However with our interest on savings and investments currently budgeted at only 0.5% (hopefully pessimistic), and our actual spending still well under budget I am hoping we have a bit of flexibility built in?

michaels

Sea_Shell said:

I've just started looking at our 2022 budget.

Allowing for a 100%* increase in fuel bills, and a 5% increase in Council Tax (both from April), it's going to look a bit like this, per month...

Bills (DD) - £400
All other spends (ex holidays/entertainment) - £630
Holidays/Ent - £350
Car Depreciation - £100

£1,480 per month - £17,760


Obviously a lot of that spending is discretionary, so it would depend on confidence, as we move into next year.

*ETA it's 100% not 50%, as I've budgeted for double. £65 to £130.

Glad I am not the only one who has a budget line for car depreciation.

I also have lines for household maintenance, and big ticket purchases (TV, settee etc)

These are all spends that may only happen once every few years or even 10 years and are generally hard to estimate but otherwise if you don't include them you are effectively 'living of your capital'

cfw1994

Sea_Shell said:

I've just started looking at our 2022 budget.

Allowing for a 100%* increase in fuel bills, and a 5% increase in Council Tax (both from April), it's going to look a bit like this, per month...

Bills (DD) - £400
All other spends (ex holidays/entertainment) - £630
Holidays/Ent - £350
Car Depreciation - £100

£1,480 per month - £17,760


Obviously a lot of that spending is discretionary, so it would depend on confidence, as we move into next year.

*ETA it's 100% not 50%, as I've budgeted for double. £65 to £130.

Pffft!
What happened to "Spend £22k in 22" 👀  You're letting me down!

We're relying on you to single-handedly bring British Industry back better.  Or beaver.  Or something 🤪

£100 for car depreciation wouldn't feed my vehicular habit.....although I suspect we are into somewhat less frequent motors now - my XC60 is now over 7 years old (owned from new, such a good workhorse I can't see me shifting it, although this year will be expensive, with £400 cambelt and £250 brakes/discs on the cards to budget for over coming months).   Only really now used for tip runs, long distances or where we need maximum carrying capacity.
Our EV is scheduled to get a new battery (google "Kona EV fires" to see why!) in the next 15 months, so that perhaps make us keep that a few more years too.....

On the energy, I like the way the Head of Octopus speaks 🤣  If anyone wants a code to share £100 to move to them, msg me.  We are over £500 in credit with them currently, which I plan to leave to allow for any 2022 rise.  We doubled our electricity usage since getting the Kona in June 2019, but our energy cost has remained the same - effectively 27k miles at no 'fuel' cost!

Audaxer

Sea_Shell said:

I've just started looking at our 2022 budget.

Allowing for a 100%* increase in fuel bills, and a 5% increase in Council Tax (both from April), it's going to look a bit like this, per month...

Bills (DD) - £400
All other spends (ex holidays/entertainment) - £630
Holidays/Ent - £350
Car Depreciation - £100

£1,480 per month - £17,760


Obviously a lot of that spending is discretionary, so it would depend on confidence, as we move into next year.

*ETA it's 100% not 50%, as I've budgeted for double. £65 to £130.

I'm a bit puzzled about having a figure for car depreciation in a budget. Do you mean you put aside £100 per month towards the cost of your next car?

michaels

cfw1994 said:

Sea_Shell said:

I've just started looking at our 2022 budget.

Allowing for a 100%* increase in fuel bills, and a 5% increase in Council Tax (both from April), it's going to look a bit like this, per month...

Bills (DD) - £400
All other spends (ex holidays/entertainment) - £630
Holidays/Ent - £350
Car Depreciation - £100

£1,480 per month - £17,760


Obviously a lot of that spending is discretionary, so it would depend on confidence, as we move into next year.

*ETA it's 100% not 50%, as I've budgeted for double. £65 to £130.

Pffft!
What happened to "Spend £22k in 22" 👀  You're letting me down!

We're relying on you to single-handedly bring British Industry back better.  Or beaver.  Or something 🤪

£100 for car depreciation wouldn't feed my vehicular habit.....although I suspect we are into somewhat less frequent motors now - my XC60 is now over 7 years old (owned from new, such a good workhorse I can't see me shifting it, although this year will be expensive, with £400 cambelt and £250 brakes/discs on the cards to budget for over coming months).   Only really now used for tip runs, long distances or where we need maximum carrying capacity.
Our EV is scheduled to get a new battery (google "Kona EV fires" to see why!) in the next 15 months, so that perhaps make us keep that a few more years too.....

On the energy, I like the way the Head of Octopus speaks 🤣  If anyone wants a code to share £100 to move to them, msg me.  We are over £500 in credit with them currently, which I plan to leave to allow for any 2022 rise.  We doubled our electricity usage since getting the Kona in June 2019, but our energy cost has remained the same - effectively 27k miles at no 'fuel' cost!

We are very similar but our xc90 is pre-depreciated being 16 years old and probably still worth similar to the 2k we paid for it 2 years ago as we only do about 2k miles per year in it, the rest being done in the leaf.  Also means that there is next to no servicing for the volvo as it doesn't do enough miles for anything to wear out.  In our budget we depreciate the 2k over 3 years on the grounds that if something major breaks then we will just scrap it.  The leaf cost 12.5k new and we are currently budgeting on it being worth 2.5k at 10 years old just to make the maths easy.

I always put an annual amount (accrual?) for all capital spend into our budget, can't see how you would budget without this?

michaels

Audaxer said:

Sea_Shell said:

I've just started looking at our 2022 budget.

Allowing for a 100%* increase in fuel bills, and a 5% increase in Council Tax (both from April), it's going to look a bit like this, per month...

Bills (DD) - £400
All other spends (ex holidays/entertainment) - £630
Holidays/Ent - £350
Car Depreciation - £100

£1,480 per month - £17,760


Obviously a lot of that spending is discretionary, so it would depend on confidence, as we move into next year.

*ETA it's 100% not 50%, as I've budgeted for double. £65 to £130.

I'm a bit puzzled about having a figure for car depreciation in a budget. Do you mean you put aside £100 per month towards the cost of your next car?

WE also put in notional monthly amounts for Christmas and Birthdays even though these obviously don't happen every month.

And as above I have budget lines for house maintenance [that can be lumpy between different years (drive 3 years ago £1500, some painting and flooring last year £400, upgrade of shed to den this year £600, budget for bathroom refurbs, redecorate etc down the line)] and also purchase of big one offs (TV, sofa etc) and holidays which can also vary widely between years but try and put in an annual and monthly guesstimate.

Sea_Shell

Audaxer said:

Sea_Shell said:

I've just started looking at our 2022 budget.

Allowing for a 100%* increase in fuel bills, and a 5% increase in Council Tax (both from April), it's going to look a bit like this, per month...

Bills (DD) - £400
All other spends (ex holidays/entertainment) - £630
Holidays/Ent - £350
Car Depreciation - £100

£1,480 per month - £17,760


Obviously a lot of that spending is discretionary, so it would depend on confidence, as we move into next year.

*ETA it's 100% not 50%, as I've budgeted for double. £65 to £130.

I'm a bit puzzled about having a figure for car depreciation in a budget. Do you mean you put aside £100 per month towards the cost of your next car?

Its a nominal "on paper" figure,  its not ring fenced.   Just keeps it in our minds.

Our general spends figure soaks up most general maintenance too, for house and car, as its based on actual spends in previous years. 

barnstar2077

Am I the only one that hasn't seen all of the doom and gloom over gas prices reflected for them?  I just fixed mine for the next two years, for £3 extra a month.

If someone already has a massive gas bill, then they will obviously see a bigger hike in their bills.  But then surely, most people who live in big houses can find the extra needed.

Are there really people struggling, or is just a good story for the media?

Sea_Shell

barnstar2077 said:

Am I the only one that hasn't seen all of the doom and gloom over gas prices reflected for them?  I just fixed mine for the next two years, for £3 extra a month.

If someone already has a massive gas bill, then they will obviously see a bigger hike in their bills.  But then surely, most people who live in big houses can find the extra needed.

Are there really people struggling, or is just a good story for the media?

Is your fix with a "big 6" supplier?

We're fixed with E.on until April...so this winter shouldn't be a problem for us.  We'll cross next year when we get to it!!

We actually use less than the "average" price cap, despite a 4 bed house.


I do think many many people really are due a massive bill shock and yes, they will struggle.

Many people don't have a clue about their usage, tariff, bills or DD, judging by the energy section.


Personally, I'm more worried about the knock on inflationary pressures high fuel costs will put on everything!!

Stubod

Sea_Shell said:

Personally, I'm more worried about the knock on inflationary pressures high fuel costs will put on everything!!

..yep, I don't think most people have cottoned on to this yet. After a relatively long run of low inflation I suspect we have now entered a period of much higher inflation. eg the Gov have stated that they want businesses to increase wages to replace the drop in universal credit, and they also want the country to be a "high wage" country and I assume this will have to be paid for in increased prices across the board?..probably OK if you are lucky enough to be on an index linked pension?