2022 Frugal Living Challenge

Annies_too

Now I’m glad I didn’t get all bread products - I’m trying to cut back on carbs, so we are eating lots of fruit & veg. I’m going to make a batch of celery soup later with the celery and potatoes I got. I was just annoyed that they thought it was ok to include rotting/unusable items. 

I’m sowing more of a variety of veg seeds this year which will help with the budget and I enjoy the time spent outdoors so it’s a win win.

joedenise

@Annies_too - you should let TGTG know about the out of date aubergines so that they can contact the store - they will probably refund your money.  We had a bag with rotten stuff in it and have to say the bags have been much improved since we complained.

zafiro1984

We have two electric 'lines' coming onto this property.

Ovo, my electric provider for the house invoices me from the 24th of a month to the 23rd of the following month. So bearing in mind that electric prices will rise from the 1/4/22 I'm going to submit a reading late on the 31/3/22 as I don't want to be overcharged on my next bill.

The farm part of this property has a smart meter which sends a daily kw usage to Ovo, so i needn't do anything about this account.

They have just recommended that I increase my STO by almost £170 per month, far more than I thought, so I'm going to sit tight and see what the April bill comes in at.

cw18

zafiro1984 said:

They have just recommended that I increase my STO by almost £170 per month, far more than I thought, so I'm going to sit tight and see what the April bill comes in at.

The average dual fuel increase (for someone on standard variable who is sticking with standard variable) is 54% - but this varies according to payment method and gas/electric split (mine being skewed, as I'm on the cheapest payment method but seeing an increase of 55.4%).

The electric part of my bill is increasing by 47.19%.     My heating (radiators and water) and hob are gas, but everything else is electric.   My shower is fed from my water cylinder (heated by gas boiler), rather than an electric (self-heating) one.

zafiro1984

cw18 said:.

The electric part of my bill is increasing by 47.19%.     My heating (radiators and water) and hob are gas, but everything else is electric.   My shower is fed from my water cylinder (heated by gas boiler), rather than an electric (self-heating) one.

On the basis of what you have said an increase of £170 per month on top of what we already pay will be correct. We've not on mains gas here, we just have electric and oil. Oil is over £1 per litre at the moment and red diesel has doubled in price since this time last year. Profit on what we do has not increased at all. 

otb666

Yes the fuel prices are doubling gas 3p to 6p and electric 17p to 28p My monthly DD gone from £80pm to £120pm now £205pm

cw18

I was overpaying (intentionally) while on my fix until end of Jan, so DD was £55 but average use was £42.27.

Afer the end of my fix my usage would have averaged £64.67 based on my 2021 usage, but I asked to set my DD to £70 (a bit more of a cushion being added in Feb & March).

As of Friday my average use will be £100.49 - so I've set my payments to £100.   That will hopefully mean all my existing credit (plus my summer build up, and the £200 'loan' being applied to our accounts) should soften the blow of any increase in October.

zafiro1984

cw18 said: and the £200 'loan' being applied to our accounts) should soften the blow of any increase in October.

What is this £200 loan?
On our council tax for 22-23  it states 'the government is providing a £150 one-off Energy Bill Rebate'  - we don't qualify.

Floss

The £150 is for CT bands A-D. The loan is for everyone in October but will be repaid through years next 2 years but am not sure how.

Effician

The £200 loan explained   https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/02/martin-lewis--how-the-flat-rate-p200-energy-bill-loan-really-wor/