2022 Frugal Living Challenge

cw18

HelenaPinky said:

Feeling the cost of living rise for the first time this month, DH surprised to see the bank account lower than expected, because of the constant energy bills we keep getting. I have downloaded the app now so can keep an eye on it, not sure how that will help though. We've not been on a fix since our old company went bust and we got put onto one of the popular brands, I’ve always been fixed before so I’m finding this variable rate a bit scary. From what I’ve read, there aren’t really any definite gains with the fixes so I assumed I’m better off staying variable. We’re not on DD, so the bills are monthly.

I've been on a fix for years - until mine ended on 28th Feb.
My supplier offered a fix a couple of months back, but it looked too much above what was then anticipated for the October rise.
I'm now regretting not taking it!   It would have put my costs up about 48% against a projection of 45% (if I recall correctly), so I'd have taken an early hit to protect against Janary and April - which I decided wasn't worth the gamble.   I wobbled a few days after I was offered it and went back with a view to signing up, only to find it had been pulled already!   And now I've got an 80% increase to contend with

Paying by DD (either monthly budget as I do, or variable when bill is issued which is the same as paying in full by other methods on receipt of bill) is the cheapest option for paying.   If I changed to pre-payment my annual bill would increase by 4-5%.  If I cancelled my DD and started to pay by debit card / cheque, my annual bill would be 7-8% higher than now

MazzieD

@Jayzee Thanks for posting the Cost of Cooking chart, really useful to see what the most economical cooking methods are particularly for those of us with electric cookers!.  Might have to have another serious think about an Air Fryer after seeing this so  may have to re-arrange my worktop space. 

London_1

I mainly use my microwave, slow cooker and Remoska. I recently bought an air fryer from the Lidls range (£29.99) ,but as the weather has still been fairly warm as yet haven't used it. My main oven only goes on when I am doing a bake up for cakes ,biscuits etc so maybe once or twice a month and then I make sure its as full as I can so every bit of energy is utilised. I am at present until next August on a fixed rate and this months duel fuel was £38.00 odd.Not too bad as I used my electric fan quite a bit because of the heat. Good the see the varying prices for different gadgets.My daughter has ordered be a i litre quick boil kettle from Amazon for £24.92  so hopefully it will help cut costs.Although I do boil my existing kettle and save left over hot water in a thermos.Every little helps  

JackieO xx

cw18

London_1 said:

My daughter has ordered be a i litre quick boil kettle from Amazon for £24.92  so hopefully it will help cut costs.Although I do boil my existing kettle and save left over hot water in a thermos.Every little helps

I just boil what I need in my normal kettle (ensuring I hit the minimum level - but that's not normally a problem, as the mug I use for tea is a pint sized one )

pamsdish

kayannie said:

Primrose said:

BREADMAKERS AND POWER CUTS

Advice  please from anybody who.s set a breadmaker running  and then had a power cut. When the power comes back on do you end up getting a decent loaf or is it wrecked?

We were just about to set ours running this morning when the power cut out.  We're able to delay the start until power was restored but wondered what the result would have been if we,d already pressed "Start".

My bread maker had been going for about 45 minutes when we had a power cut (BM was set for 2hrs 53 mins). According to my instruction book, I should have thrown away the dough & started again when the power came back on. However, I left the dough in the BM & pressed 'start' again. I'm glad I did, as the loaf was fine.
KA

It really depends how far into the programme you are, if still at mixing and proving stages, would be okay, but if started to bake you would be better to remove and bake in the oven.

Primrose

HelenaPinky said:

Sat down tonight to watch Jamie Oliver’s one pound meals, I don’t usually watch things in real time but had been looking forward to this - turns out I’d misheard and it’s ‘one pan’ meals!

Well I suspect a pan of small chopped potatoes, onions, carrots and celery mashed up with a handful of grated cheese and a few herbs,  would probably make a cheap savoury supper, given the cost of cooking energy now. 

With current rising food and fuel costs, it would be quite a challenge to produce a cooked meal for a pound these days but hopefully some TV producers will come up with some innovative tv programmes on low budget cooking this winter to help those without too much cooking or budgetary experience.

Viking_mfw

I should think savoury porridge or daal would be a safe bet for under a pound, depending what you put in it. I doubt my children will be persuaded though...

London_1

cw18 said:

London_1 said:

My daughter has ordered be a i litre quick boil kettle from Amazon for £24.92  so hopefully it will help cut costs.Although I do boil my existing kettle and save left over hot water in a thermos.Every little helps

I just boil what I need in my normal kettle (ensuring I hit the minimum level - but that's not normally a problem, as the mug I use for tea is a pint sized one )

I would as well normally,but my kettle has definitely seen better days, and has a habit of switching itself off when it feels like it, so I was down to get a new one shortly, so I thought I'd get one before this existing one gave up the ghost which it probably would at an inoportune moment  

boxer234

Is a shallow bath better than an electric show then ? I run most mornings and if I miss the odd day showering I’m going to smell. 

Primrose

Our kettle is in the same state too but trying to get the last ounce of use from it before it gives up the ghost. Has everybody noticed that these small appliances never seem to last as long as they used to?

The Morphy Richards Toaster we had as a wedding present lasted about 20 years before it packed up.  The last toaster we had survived less than  five years.  In these days of worldwide reducing metal and other resources one would hope manufacturers would try and build longevity into such items but of course that would mean reduced sales and profits.   I don't know how we construct an economic system which favours both points of view. 

 I did read somewhere that some official body was asking for manufacturers of larger appliances like washing machines and dishwasher to create a much larger inventory of spares so that appliances could be repaired rather than replaced but everything seems to have gone quiet on that front  We need to be more resilient as a country on this issue.  Currently all the spare parts for domestic appliances seem to be manufactured in China or Taiwan, or other distant places.   National self sufficiency doesn't seem to be very high on our national agenda.

Enough ranting.   One thing about getting older is looking back how some things used to be done years ago, and whilst international trade is a good and essential thing, it does seem to be that we've thrown a large part of the baby out with the bathwater.    And all those outsourced Customer Help Lines to India may have saved the banks some money  (and they've never been broke have they?) but they certainly didn't contribute to much customer satisfaction  (In this household anyway!)