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

ex-pat_scot

ex-pat_scot said:

I enjoy being on heating oil.
My last delivery of 1000 litres in mid-Feb was 55ppl. Inc VAT, the full tank was about £600.
I just spotted that today's rate is more than double. £1.30 ish per litre
Domestic Heating Oil Price Chart for England | BoilerJuice
Given our use of about 5,000 litres per year, will mean a huge hike.
Electricity is doubling from £600 per year to just short of £1,200. Small change, in comparison.

I've taken a look through last few years of ordering oil.
We use just under 300l per month, although clearly that will be mostly November to March.
That gives an annual cost of about £2,500 ish, but will jump to about £6,000 at current prices.
It's not subject to any price caps or Government initiatives.
It's also very volatile, so planning for delivery (prices and availability) can be a real stress.

If it remains at this level, it's going to cause huge headaches for all rural communities.
Our house isn't terribly large, but it is old and cold, and not at all easy to insulate. I can afford to do so and to bear the pain of the current prices. I don't think many of my neighbours can

.Bravepants said:

ex-pat_scot said:

Electricity is doubling from £600 per year to just short of £1,200. Small change, in comparison.

My step-sister in North Wales is struggling to find heating oil at the moment.

I can quite expect that the immediate problem will be to find supply, at any price.
We've had a couple of winters a few years back where sustained bad weather has interrupted supply lorries whilst exacerbating the demand for heating and power - and the price quickly doubled if you could actually find any oil

Bravepants

My missus and I have resorted to a multifuel stove and electrically heated fleecy blankets al la Silvercrest and John Lewis. Very cosy in the lounge infront of Netflix!

Stubod

..we have halved our electric usage compared to last year. We have a multi fuel burner and it now makes more economic sense to spend money on coal and logs. We also invested in a heated overblanket which has been great!

atush

MankyVegSoup said:

Morning everyone. Can I join in the nut diggers? Have loved keeping up with your retirement tales.

Just agreed with my IFA to start drawing down from my DC pot - feel quite excited about it.

I'm 60 in April and get a small LGPS pension from then, so I think I can consider myself properly retired. I haven't worked much in the last 2 years as my business (mainly wedding industry) was badly impacted by covid and I shut it down.

Have been managing fine on OH's salary as covid and then a broken ankle meant spending on eating out and holidays has been limited. I was planning to buy a campervan and set off on a 2-3 month UK road trip as a birthday/retirement celebration. But as I can still hardly walk, that's off for at least a year.

We need to tackle our groceries spend as that's gone through the roof while I haven't been able to shop or cook. Been relying on recipe boxes. Without them we would have been living on spag bol for 6 months as it's the only thing OH could cook.

Financially we are solid for at least another 18 months. Then OH's current (academic) contract ends. If he doesn't get a new one, then we can manage but it'll be tighter than we'd like until he starts to draw his USS pension - he's just 53 so a bit of a gap.

Surely the IH could buy groceries from a list you create?

Mind you, i once sent the OH out for a cauliflower and he came back with a cabbage lol.  Been over 20 years and he hasnt done that one again.

Bravepants

Stubod said:

..we have halved our electric usage compared to last year. We have a multi fuel burner and it now makes more economic sense to spend money on coal and logs. We also invested in a heated overblanket which has been great!

Indeed, the realisation that (apart from avoiding freezing pipes) one only has to heat the small volume of air around one's body.

MallyGirl

Bravepants said:

Stubod said:

..we have halved our electric usage compared to last year. We have a multi fuel burner and it now makes more economic sense to spend money on coal and logs. We also invested in a heated overblanket which has been great!

Indeed, the realisation that (apart from avoiding freezing pipes) one only has to heat the small volume of air around one's body.

OH wouldn't let me have one of those
I sit wrapped in a fleece blanket with my feet on a cushion (big cold crawl space under the floor) but plugging a blanket in was a step too far for him.

Sea_Shell

Sea_Shell said:

You may have read in another thread of mine, but we've just fixed our fuel tariff at the Eon Next V12, as our current cheap fix expires mid April.

Cost (on actual usage) going from £690, to £1700.   April cap would be about £1490.   So we've taken a punt.

Heaven only knows what the October cap's going to be, that's if it's not reviewed earlier than then.

Just by way of an update.   Our on line account shows that they will start taking our new DD of £142 from 1st May...however, they don't appear to have factored in the £200+ credit we will already have going into May.

We're going to leave it high for now, at least whilst Santander are still  paying 2% cashback, and review it again in a few months time.   Also by July, we'll have had our new boiler for 12 months, so our annual usage may even come down a bit from what it is at the moment. 

It looks like V12 has been pulled already too!!!


In other less expensive news, I've just finished my last jigsaw of the winter season, and having had a tot up, I've completed 15 since October.   Mostly 1000 piece. 

Bravepants

MallyGirl said:

Bravepants said:

Stubod said:

..we have halved our electric usage compared to last year. We have a multi fuel burner and it now makes more economic sense to spend money on coal and logs. We also invested in a heated overblanket which has been great!

Indeed, the realisation that (apart from avoiding freezing pipes) one only has to heat the small volume of air around one's body.

OH wouldn't let me have one of those
I sit wrapped in a fleece blanket with my feet on a cushion (big cold crawl space under the floor) but plugging a blanket in was a step too far for him.

Blimey! We're much more democratic in our house. The radiator in our lounge is not particularly effective, it's one of those long short ones that fit under the bay window. So even if we have the full central heating on it's still quite chilly in the lounge, hence the stove and the blankets. We may need the system flushing and a stronger pump. Nowadays we only boost the heating for a couple of hours rather than run it continuously over long periods. Having a terraced house also helps with insulation.

Lifematters

MallyGirl said:

OH wouldn't let me have one of those 
I sit wrapped in a fleece blanket with my feet on a cushion (big cold crawl space under the floor) but plugging a blanket in was a step too far for him.

Is there context to this? I mean, is he a firefighter who has seen dangerous faults in these type of products or something similar? I’m thinking of buying one myself.

MallyGirl

Lifematters said:

MallyGirl said:

OH wouldn't let me have one of those 
I sit wrapped in a fleece blanket with my feet on a cushion (big cold crawl space under the floor) but plugging a blanket in was a step too far for him.

Is there context to this? I mean, is he a firefighter who has seen dangerous faults in these type of products or something similar? I’m thinking of buying one myself.

No - he just says we are not poor and we can afford to have the heating on rather than me sitting there looking like a vagrant. I did ask for a heating gilet or blanket for Christmas to use on camper trips but he only gave me rechargeable hand warmers. He just doesn't feel the cold as much. We only put the heating on in the evening as both our offices have separate heating systems.
I may treat myself to a blanket anyway before our next trip - its not that I couldn't just order one.