2022 Frugal Living Challenge

newlywed

nmaria said:

Very happy that we finally had some rain. Everything is behind in the garden/ allotment. 

Have had a bumper crop of cucumbers so far and tomatoes are changing colour now. Have had lots of lettuce and plums. 

Made jam from all the berries. Ran out of jars😢
need to be more organised with collecting jars but realised that I don’t buy any jar food other than mince meat at Christmas….

There’s often empty jars being given away on olio app, for my area anyway.

joedenise

MazzieD said:

Hosepipe Ban is not going down well here.  The local media are making a huge issue out of it because Southern Water are one of the five worst water companies for fixing water leaks which would save far more water than a hosepipe ban. They get fined/told off by OFWAT quite regularly. I know Wessex Water and Thames Water are also on the list but not sure who the other two companies are.   

There was a huge outcry from domestic customers about 7 years ago as water meters were made compulsory (not sure if just Hampshire or possibly more local) which I suspect cut down hosepipe use quite a bit anyway.   Probably more newsworthy as it's the first ban, seems to be national coverage as well.  

Pretty certain it was the whole of Southern Water area.  We didn't know anything about it and we went on holiday and came back to a card through the door to say a water meter had been installed!  To be honest I'm not bothered as our water bills are not much more than half what we were previously paying.

-taff

The doing them here in wiltshire at the moment [ some parts of it anyway] Some of my neighbours are most put out. Some are very happy. But then, there's always a trade off between profilgate use and being sensible v a lump sum payment or a metered payment.

zafiro1984

I'm a Hampshire person, on a water meter with South East Water but I can't complain about  them, in fact I'm going to stick up for them. We have a quite a number of acres and several footpaths.  Some 'person' (and that's a kind word for them) turned on a tap in one of the fields we were not using and left it running for several weeks. I nearly had a heart attack when the water bill came in at over 2K. South East Water averaged out our usage over a number of years and credited me with 2.2K. They needn't have done this as any water used after going through the water meter on the road is our responsibility.
We now take a weekly reading on the road just in case this happens again.

Yes, a hosepipe ban is a pain, but at least we have water. Prices in the shops will rise because of this. We are on a small scale but we are having to already feed haylege to the animals as there is no grass at all on the fields. I dread to think about the price of winter feed this year due to this 'good weather'

On a personal note, the hot and and incredibly humid weather messed up the effect of the tablets I'm on. I was very dizzy/headaches starting on Saturday. Last time this happened to me at this level was in 2017 and I ended up in Hosp for a few days. Fortunately, I recognised it in time and slowed down only doing what was necessary. I'm still a bit 'funny' but an awful lot better - should be ok by tomorrow. Now I'm thinking of all the jobs that Ii need to catch up with. 

MazzieD

Quite agree with all the comments.  It does seem to be the water leaks that people are more upset about this time which is understandable.  There was a substantial water leak not too far from me a few weeks ago, water everywhere, road flooded etc.  Must have been a huge amount of water lost.  

I had a water meter installed 3 years before they became compulsory and it saved me money on my water bills so I'm not complaining.  Watering veg and fruit and looking after animals with or without a hosepipe is essential, what I can never understand is people who water their lawns with sprinklers for 2 hours or so each day even when there isn't a heatwave and empty and re-fill paddling pools every day.  The only time I have ever watered grass was when I had an area of the garden dug up and new lawn turf laid.  Apologies to anyone reading this who does either of those, you may find you get a hosepipe ban!.

Primrose

My dentist is trying to persuade patients to have an additional £20:Air Flow polishing procedure on top of the quarterly 3 month £55;NHS hygienist Appointment..  

Can,t see many People opting for that the way energy and food bills are rising.  

Thinking of cutting  my hygienist visits back to six monthly.. we now have to pay up front too.seems more businesses are  doing that now, presumably to improve their cash  flow but presumably you lose it if they become insolvent. 

Primrose

zafiro1984 said:

I'm a Hampshire person, on a water meter with South East Water but I can't complain about  them, in fact I'm going to stick up for them. We have a quite a number of acres and several footpaths.  Some 'person' (and that's a kind word for them) turned on a tap in one of the fields we were not using and left it running for several weeks. I nearly had a heart attack when the water bill came in at over 2K. South East Water averaged out our usage over a number of years and credited me with 2.2K. They needn't have done this as any water used after going through the water meter on the road is our responsibility.
We now take a weekly reading on the road just in case this happens again.

Yes, a hosepipe ban is a pain, but at least we have water. Prices in the shops will rise because of this. We are on a small scale but we are having to already feed haylege to the animals as there is no grass at all on the fields. I dread to think about the price of winter feed this year due to this 'good weather'

On a personal note, the hot and and incredibly humid weather messed up the effect of the tablets I'm on. I was very dizzy/headaches starting on Saturday. Last time this happened to me at this level was in 2017 and I ended up in Hosp for a few days. Fortunately, I recognised it in time and slowed down only doing what was necessary. I'm still a bit 'funny' but an awful lot better - should be ok by tomorrow. Now I'm thinking of all the jobs that Ii need to catch up with. 

That's, awful about  your tap.  Is ther no way you can put  a lock on it to prevent such vandalism happening again?

i sympathise with you on this humidity.  It,s making my breathing quite distressed and laboured too. It,s been much worse since since n attack of  Covid some months ago.

cw18

Primrose said:

My dentist is trying to persuade patients to have an additional £20:Air Flow polishing procedure on top of the quarterly 3 month £55;NHS hygienist Appointment..  

Can,t see many People opting for that the way energy and food bills are rising.  

Thinking of cutting  my hygienist visits back to six monthly.. we now have to pay up front too.seems more businesses are  doing that now, presumably to improve their cash  flow but presumably you lose it if they become insolvent. 

My dentist doesn't even push routine hygienist appointments.   I've not had one of those since........   I honestly don't remember, but it's got to be more than 15 years!  And I've certainly never paid for one.   The dentist has given my teeth a very quick clean as they weren't bad enough to see the hygienist, but it's got to be more than 8 years since I've even had that done.

cw18

I *love* my water meter.   According to my bills I use under 20% of the amount of water that an average 1 person household does - mine works out at under 35 litres a day (averaged over the last 3 years - and I was showering more in the early months of Covid), whilst the average is quoted as 149 litres

My bill now is about what I was paying as water rates up until 2001 for a 3 bedroomed mid-terrace when we were a family of 5 - I now live in a much bigger 4 bed detached, so the rateable value would be MUCH higher.  Even when it was a family home the bill was never expensive - I don't think it was ever twice what I'm paying now, but over 80% of my bill is standing charges so doubling the bill would mean one heck of a lot more water got used.   The house is only 20 years old, so it had a meter installed when it was built and as such I have no idea what the rateable value would be.   All I know is I went up 2 Council Tax bands due to the move.........

My OH pays slightly more than I do without having a meter, and he lives alone in a 2 bedroomed semi which is 2 CT bands down.   I've tried to convince him to get a meter, but he doesn't see the point for the saving he might make.  He also think not having one will make his house more saleable, but I've pointed out that if/when he ever sells the water authority can change the property to a meter without the new owners wanting one anyway.  If I were to down-size, then I'd probably be looking for something like his place - and I wouldn't see the lack of a meter as being a benefit!

florianatwobob

Water meters are an interesting subject. We have 4 adults in the house and no water meter. We can’t actually have a water meter installed. As it’s an older property the mains on the street, where they’d like to install it, controls the supply to 4 houses. Then there is insufficient space due to the ancient plumbing to install it within the house. After
many letters telling the whole street that water meters were coming they’ve given up!