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

MankyVegSoup

atush said:

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.

Ah, but he has a tendency to go off piste. I actually enjoyed not being responsible for meal planning for a few months. Need to get back on it, I suppose.

PennyForThem_2

I have a multi fuel burner in my sitting room.  Wood = £350 ish p.a.    I am a single in a 4 bed house with a boarded attic.  I am with Octopus on 24 m Fix which ends 31/05/23.

Elec:  18.93 / kwh
SC:     23.29 / day

Gas:
3.33 / kwh
21.00 / day

I am keeping well within my DD of £66 / month and am in credit by 70 ish.  But I use my wood burner and I wrap up personally so hat, shawl, lined trousers - timed heating. 

(Lined trousers:  my mother went to Canada in the 1950's and brought back flannel lined jeans - I must have remembered how warm these were because I replicate  this  and yes, warm! )  

MallyGirl

I have lined trousers for winter walks and from when I used to race my sled dogs.

Thrugelmir

I've bought merino wool base layers (of various ratings) during the summer sales for a number of years. Rarely feel the cold either in or outdoors. Just put the right clothing on and move around regularly. Early morning walk then a hearty breakfast sets you up for the day. 

pensionpawn

Not retired yet (56), though dropping to 70% (in a fortnight hopefully) and my wife (currently at 60%) throwing the towel in in August (57), before she nobbles her boss / has a breakdown (my concern...). Just saw this Tweet which perfectly encapsulates my philosophy of using your income to enjoy life to the max throughout life whilst planning to have just enough for a comfy retirement. You can't take it with you! 

https://twitter.com/AlanJLSmith/status/1502328587659141120

Retireinten

Hi all, hope you don't mind me sneaking in on your thread .  I made the decision to fix early January, admittedly without giving this much thought at all and I had started to really doubt that decision.  Reading the comments on here I feeling a little better about fixing.  It is all a bit of a gamble either way but at least I know what I'm paying out for the next couple of years - there are no exit fees so I can jump to a better deal if one appears. 

Our estimated annual bill on this new tariff is in the region of £2,400 a year - I checked out the fixes available now through Scottish Power and they have shot up to an estimated cost of £3,500 per annum for our usage.  I can't view my new tariff information for some reason but I've definitely seen a sharp increase compared to our last bill.  But we are a high energy usage household of 4 adults essentially now: 4 bed detached, like to cook, I tumble dry everything and we have a hot tub used mainly in winter so our energy use in the colder months is very high.

To offset some of this we have a huge (7kw) solar system that generates over £3k per annum in tariff income.   The good thing is  we have become very energy conscious recently - I got up this morning to sunshine and within minutes had both the washing machine and dishwasher on.  When the sun went in, I switched off the dishwasher as it was consuming energy we were paying for - I think this could become my new hobby!  We're thinking of buying a bit of kit that will redirect our excess solar to heat our water via the immersion heater so we could potentially run the house without gas in the warmer months.

We can afford to pay increased energy prices, I just don't like feeling like I'm being ripped off.  I'm also sceptical about inflation rises.  I appreciate these will be increasing our costs but for us that extra cost pales to insignificance when looking at our own personal inflation or lifestyle inflation.  We had a very 'spendy' year last year, some of it I can pinpoint, some of it was very wasteful (not good as we are aiming for early retirement and this will extend our time at work).  We are spending much more consciously at the moment and we have seen a significant drop in our discretionary spend each month.

Sea_Shell

Retireinten said:

Hi all, hope you don't mind me sneaking in on your thread .  I made the decision to fix early January, admittedly without giving this much thought at all and I had started to really doubt that decision.  Reading the comments on here I feeling a little better about fixing.  It is all a bit of a gamble either way but at least I know what I'm paying out for the next couple of years - there are no exit fees so I can jump to a better deal if one appears. 

Our estimated annual bill on this new tariff is in the region of £2,400 a year - I checked out the fixes available now through Scottish Power and they have shot up to an estimated cost of £3,500 per annum for our usage.  I can't view my new tariff information for some reason but I've definitely seen a sharp increase compared to our last bill.  But we are a high energy usage household of 4 adults essentially now: 4 bed detached, like to cook, I tumble dry everything and we have a hot tub used mainly in winter so our energy use in the colder months is very high.

To offset some of this we have a huge (7kw) solar system that generates over £3k per annum in tariff income.   The good thing is  we have become very energy conscious recently - I got up this morning to sunshine and within minutes had both the washing machine and dishwasher on.  When the sun went in, I switched off the dishwasher as it was consuming energy we were paying for - I think this could become my new hobby!  We're thinking of buying a bit of kit that will redirect our excess solar to heat our water via the immersion heater so we could potentially run the house without gas in the warmer months.

We can afford to pay increased energy prices, I just don't like feeling like I'm being ripped off.  I'm also sceptical about inflation rises.  I appreciate these will be increasing our costs but for us that extra cost pales to insignificance when looking at our own personal inflation or lifestyle inflation.  We had a very 'spendy' year last year, some of it I can pinpoint, some of it was very wasteful (not good as we are aiming for early retirement and this will extend our time at work).  We are spending much more consciously at the moment and we have seen a significant drop in our discretionary spend each month.

I totally get that!! 

We can afford the new prices, but once that IHD starts giving us the scary numbers, it'll definitely get us cutting back where we can, without being obsessive about it (hopefully)

I've already got DH to agree to turn off the shower whilst lathering, to save on hot water, and water generally, as that's going up too (gas boiler, not combi)

It'll be the little things, like only hoovering the spare rooms once a fortnight rather than weekly.  Or not having our croissants warmed in the oven for 10 mins.   Not blow drying/styling my hair, if I'm not going out (its very short).

New habits that, if we implement over the summer, whilst general usage is lower, will pay off next winter. 

The environmental benefit is secondary to the £££ in our pockets, if I'm honest...but every little helps!!!

As for more general inflation...I'm going to try and use a little less of products that can be reduced without much negative "side effects".   Even just reducing by 10% per use, will make each bottle/tube/can, last longer.

How many of us use far too much toothpaste, for example!!!  You really only need a little bit...not a brush lengths worth.


Anyway, what have we got to worry about really, in the grand scheme of current events!!! 

Albermarle

PennyForThem_2 said:

I have a multi fuel burner in my sitting room.  Wood = £350 ish p.a.    I am a single in a 4 bed house with a boarded attic.  I am with Octopus on 24 m Fix which ends 31/05/23.

Elec:  18.93 / kwh
SC:     23.29 / day

Gas:
3.33 / kwh
21.00 / day

I am keeping well within my DD of £66 / month and am in credit by 70 ish.  But I use my wood burner and I wrap up personally so hat, shawl, lined trousers - timed heating. 

(Lined trousers:  my mother went to Canada in the 1950's and brought back flannel lined jeans - I must have remembered how warm these were because I replicate  this  and yes, warm! )  

As a fellow Octopus energy customer ( but my fix ran out  ) you might be interested in the new tariff's from April I received yesterday.
 Electric - 28.5p per kwh SC 48p a day
Gas  - 7.4p /kwh SC 28 p a day 

I expect a 50% increase in October 

Offered a fix for 12 months at similar SC but 
Gas 12.5p per KWH
Elec  41p per Kwh

Did not accept this 'generous' offer . 

I have a multi fuel burner in my sitting room.  Wood = £350 ish p.a. 

Quite a few posters mention log burners etc but I thought they were becoming a target for the environmentalists due to the pollution they cause ?
From the BBC

Around 1.5m homes use wood for fuel across the UK, however burning wood and coal in open fires and stoves makes up 38% of the UK's emissions of PM2.5.

By comparison, 16% come from industrial combustion, 12% from road transport and 13% from the use of solvents and industrial processes.

This means a wood burning stove emits more particles per hour than a diesel truck.

quirkydeptless

Sea_Shell said:.

Or not having our croissants warmed in the oven for 10 mins.   .

Mmmm ... cold croissants ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEmSmrxy0tw

bluenose1

Just persuading my 19-year-old son not to stand in the shower 20 minutes will be a result in our house.  We will  on the whole carry on as normal, apart from layering up more so that the heating isn’t on as much. Plus I have the delights of my heated throw. 

Thinking about it quite often have a shower in the gym so I’m using their energy anyway, and 10 minutes in their sauna keeps me warm for hours.

Lovely that it’s a sunny day today so enjoyed getting the washing on the line. My husband is 55 today, and is a birthday he has been looking forward to as it now means his pension which he has had since he was 49 is now indexed linked.
I was listening to a podcast yesterday on cheapest countries to retire/ have long holidays too, so when retired I can see this being a consideration in my plans. There was a good site mentioned that compares cost of living between cities - www.numbeo.com