2022 Frugal Living Challenge

Soontobeoap

We still havn't put our central heating on yet. Its usually 1st October. The lovely sunshine that we are getting during the day floods into our small front living room. By keeping the door shut during the day we have kept it nice and cosy for the evening. I havnt even had to snuggle under my crochet blanket yet!  Feeling very happy about that. Its a chilly in the bedroom but we are soon snuggled up under the duvet and homemade quilt. Have only had the oven on twice this month and made sure it is stuffed full to make it worth it. All other meals have been cooked on induction hob with bits done in microwave. (Warming up cooked baked potatoes etc) 

I was all set to look at finding the best home insurance quote this week. We have been with Sainsburys for 9 years. Thry sent through a quote today and it has dropped £160 from last year. Cant be bad.

Still waiting for first £67.00 payment from government for gas /electric. Have any of you guys recoeved it yet? 

We are also having a cheap month on food shopping. We are eating through the cupboards and freezer. 

I have a couple of things to list for sale too that i must get online this month so its very busy but going well. 

linz

Soontobeoap said:

Still waiting for first £67.00 payment from government for gas /electric. Have any of you guys recoeved it yet? 

Got mine about a week ago (Shell Energy). They added it to the credit i'm in with them.

kiloranbay

I am really hoping my £67 comes via my electric supplier (prepayment key) and not my gas supplier (direct debit in credit). But neither Octopus nor British Gas have sent me anything yet.

I realised today that though I thought I was already fairly frugal last winter I've since managed to get through rent, council tax, food and utility bill increases (by being increasingly frugal) so that's an overall slow and steady win. 

While I haven't spent anything this week apart from the budgeted-for dog food, I have eaten much further through my food stockpile and got through more of my car fuel tank (diesel) than expected, and I'm feeling quite miserable. I am going to try to get back in the habit of checking my bank balances every day because I've noticed that is one of the first things I stop when I am anxious about my budgeting. 

I'm sure it gets asked a lot, and probably proper tea and coffee gets mentioned a lot, but: what relatively small expense brings in huge dividends for you? In the kitchen I have cut out on a few things I used to buy, like paper towels and foil and cling film and bin liners...

But I think I may splurge on bin liners again soon, as having a strong, properly fitting bin bag (especially the drawstring ones) makes me feel like I live in extreme luxury and wealth and I could do with experiencing that feeling! I grew up with family who never bought bin bags, so always saw them as unnecessary - I wonder if that's key to how much I relish them now! 

Cheery_Daff

We got ours at the beginning of the month (Bulb). Our DD was £72, they reduced it to £30 and added the £67 to our account (and told us they would have increased the DD to £97 if it wasn't for the £67). 

flamingo747

Ours was the end of last week, British Gas, straight onto our electric credit on our smart prepayment meter. I believe it was supposed to go on electric as some homes won't have gas as well. 

Decent bin liners are a must for me @kiloranbay . Like with tights, buy cheap, buy twice. I go for the ones listed as garden sacks, I dont find any other black bags are strong enough. 

joedenise

Got the £66 help with power bills this morning in our bank account; full DD was taken a week ago.  We're with EDF.

newlywed

We got an emailed voucher (bulb prepayment). Went to the local post office, they checked Id and took £67 out of the till, walked to the newsagent/offie counter and gave them the money and asked them to put it on the key…

man behind the counter said my key didn’t work and as I didn’t have my gas card, to take the cash.

I expect a lot of people in my area would be pleased about that (and probably not spend it on fuel), but now I have to go somewhere else to get the key topped up. 

Oh well.  Think I will try a different post office next month tho!

cw18

kiloranbay said:

I am really hoping my £67 comes via my electric supplier (prepayment key) and not my gas supplier (direct debit in credit). But neither Octopus nor British Gas have sent me anything yet.

The government are giving it to the company who supply electricity to each household, so it'll be Octopus for you.

Soontobeoap

Thank you @joedenise we are with EDF i will watch out for a week afyer DD is taken.

cw18

The energy payments has been a total fiasco for me......

I'm with Shell on a Direct Debit budget account (ie. pay a set amount monthly)

On 31st August, I received an email from them which states

"You’ll automatically receive a discount to your monthly Direct Debit payment. For example, if your monthly Direct Debit is £200, we’ll deduct £66 in October, leaving you £134 to pay.

If you usually pay less than £66/£67, we won’t collect payment from you that month. Anything leftover will be applied as a credit to your energy account.

The discount will appear on or around the 7th of each month. You can see it, along with how much you owe, on your bill or in the ‘Account Summary’ section of My Account."

I took the fact they mentioned 7th of the month to mean that if my DD was due before 8th it probably wouldn't be adjusted until the following month, And that was backed up by a section in 'Account Summary' where it states

"If your monthly Direct Debit amount is collected in the first week of the month, you might see the EBSS discount deducted from your payment the following month."

But mine's due on 17th, so I've been keeping an eye on my account where it states the next payment date and amount as everything indicated it should drop.

On 2nd my account showed the £66 as a credit, but no change to the payment amount in my account info.

My bill normally appears around 3rd, so I started watching for that.

On Sunday 9th my bill finally appeared - dated 6th. That showed the £66 as a credit to my account (along with the DD taken on 17th of last month), but it clearly stated they were taking the full amount on 17th of THIS month.


So today I phoned them.....

The first chap I spoke to said that the £400 would be credited to my account over the next 6 months, and after that they'd adjust my DD to take account of the credit balance. I told him they'd better not be planning to play it that way, as everything they've issued so far says different - and I've not heard of ANY company playing it that way.

He passed me onto someone else.

Second chap said monthly payments ARE being reduced, but "not everyone's has been sorted for this month, so you'll actually see the reduction from November to April rather than October to March".

I told him this was unacceptable, as everything they've sent has given me good reason to expect it to be reduced this month - and if it isn't that could mean either their DD would bounce (which he shrugged off saying they'd just take it out of my credit balance, and he clearly didn't care I'd get bank charges for a bounced payment!) or I could end up short for other bills.   (Neither should actually be the case for me, but because I'm currently losing pay when on strike I could really do with the money in my bank account NOW just in case I have problems anywhere else.)

At that he offered to manually reduce my DD by £66 (the system would only let me drop it by £19), so I said yes please. Having done whatever he needed to do he said that it STILL might go at the full amount as they need 5 working days to guarantee a change, and my payment is due out in 5 working days. He then continued to say that if they DO take the full amount I can call and ask for a refund of the £66 - but it will take 10-12 days for it to turn up in my bank account, which wouldn't be a lot of use if I was desperate for it.

I filed an official complaint for misinformation, which could put people into a financial mess this month. They have 8 weeks to come back to me with an official response, and I'm interested to see what they're going to have to say for themselves. It won't help anyone out now, but it might mean they're more careful as to how they word information they pass our in future - and that's what I'm hoping for.

I also informed him I'd be trying to spread the word that Shell customers need to be checking their accounts, and if it's STILL showing your next payment as the full amount I'd advise calling them ASAP if you've been budgeting for them to reduce it.

If your payment is due before 18th they won't be able to reduce it in time.

If it's due 18th and you call them tomorrow (Tuesday), then you're in the same boat as me - it MIGHT go through at the lower amount, but it also might not.

If your payment is due after 18th, then the sooner you speak to them the better.