It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

arnoldy

Saw a lady ask the checkout worker to stop at £40 the other week. I insisted on paying for the other £12 of shopping for her, she had a young child with her.

The checkout worker said this is not uncommon scenario now

Why can't she have added up the cost as she went along to avoid handling all the food? She has potentially wasted chilled and frozen food that can't be put back, quite apart from adding work and cost to the supermarket which will ultimately have to be paid by the other shoppers.

Very self centred and anti social behaviour to take what you can't afford and ask others to put it back (if it can be). 

A rung below shoplifters, and on a par with those who put fresh food in the frozen compartment or vice versa. Which will also have to be paid for by the other shoppers.

Bluegreen143

Perhaps she has trouble with numbers; there are more people out there with poor literacy and numeracy skills than people realise. Of course if you can’t read or add up well you’re disproportionately likely to be on the breadline, as well. Perhaps she has bad anxiety and just being in the shop was a struggle for her and she couldn’t also cope with addition too. Maybe she had learning difficulties, or no phone/calculator with her to add it up.

I think it’s best to have a bit of compassion for someone who’s clearly in a tough spot, even if I do agree it’s not an efficient/logical way to shop. 

Wednesday2000

It is true that some people cannot do even simple maths in their head. I went to a very good school in London and I was in the top stream as well, but I remember being told many times that "Girls don't need to know Maths" and I am only 46 by the way. I am okay at basic maths as my Dad helped me with my homework occasionally, but a lot of my friends at school were not. I was the one who had to work out splitting the bill between us in restaurants when we went out.

Doom_and_Gloom

ladyholly said:

I do wonder if those people who have open plan homes will regret it now. They must be more expensive to heat.

We have an open plan living room kitchen. It does have cons but on the perk if we are cooking using the hob or oven in the winter it does also heat the living room we are in. We always shut the door to the hall in winter. If in the winter we know we are going to be using the hob or oven we make sure not to have the heater on before or turn off the heating around half an hour before knowing the hob/oven will warm us.
We have installed a blind that partitions the kitchen from the living room and although it doesn't go all the way to the ground it does help in the winter to keep the heat better in the living room when using the heater only. We invested in a Dys0n hot and cool (we have a chinchilla and so when it is very hot we need to keep them cool or risk losing them) and it is able to heat or cool our whole 1 bed flat but we prefer to isolate the area as it more efficient that way.

Like others though we have many jumpers/hoodies/robes, blankets, snug rug (like a blanket but with arms) etc and they are always used first before heating. However as I'm disabled I have a harder time with the cold as I can't easily move.

Edit - my OH also got me electric heated socks for Yule and they really help. Not expensive to run but very helpful; they were charged on the cheap time also. They aren't recommended for those with very low or no  mobility in their legs, but I can move my legs enough (or the OH does it when I'm worse than normal) that they are fine.

Effician

QrizB said:

Mstty said:

BBC News - Cost of living: Energy bills forecast to hit £3,363 a year

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62094435

Makes sense seeing all these 50p elec and 15-17p gas fixes now😳

Cornwall Insight original press release here:

https://www.cornwall-insight.com/default-tariff-cap-forecast-climbs-further-as-ofgem-announcement-looms/

New forecasts from Cornwall Insight have seen the Default Tariff Cap for Q1 2023 (Jan-Mar) rise to £3,363 a year for an average domestic consumer, increasing significantly from the £3,003 figure released two weeks ago. Predictions for the Q4 2022 (Oct-Dec) Cap, have also seen a steep increase, and now sit at £3,244 a year.

Figure 1: Cornwall Insight’s Default Tariff Cap forecasts

QUARTERLY	Q4 2022 CI Forecast	Q1 2023 CI Forecast
Electricity	£1,444.20	£1,485.89
Gas	£1,800.34	£1,877.81
TOTAL	£3,244.54	£3,363.70
AVERAGE		£3,304.12

Source: Cornwall Insight

If I break that down, assuming similar standing charge rates to the April cap, I get:

	Q4 2022	Q1 2023
Gas SC £	100	100
Gas price £	1700.34	1777.81
Gas /kWh p	14.17	14.82
Elec SC £	170	170
Elec price £	1274.2	1315.89
Elec /kWh p	43.94	45.38

Here's the latest forecast re winter gas & electric costs being discussed over on the Energy section.  If you're feeling the pinch now it doesn't bode well.

LeeXenon

Find myself driving light-footed in eco mode for all of my journeys, putting in between £150 - £200 /mo on fuel as of writing. It hurts!

Florenceem

Re adding up shopping as you go round supermarket - a lot of people struggle with maths. We have people at my SA who can't read either.

Frugalista

OH and I went shopping the other day and went into 5 different shops - we were overcharged in 4 of them!!  Luckily, we do add up (in our heads) as we go around and were able to point out all the mistakes. 

Some accepted responsibility for the mistakes graciously - others argued the toss.  What I found most disturbing is that we only spent a total of £40 - and the overcharges added up to £4.50!!  That's over 10%!!!!  Imagine if they did that with every customer.

As for some folk not being able to add up - a cheap calculator costs very little, and every person in the UK has at least 10 years of free education.

Florenceem

Frugalista -Years ago computer scientist Douglas Hofstadter coined the term “innumeracy” as the mathematical counterpart of illiteracy. He said innumeracy is “a person's inability to make sense of the numbers that run their lives.”

Sadly some who visit our SA would be in the above category. A calculator wouldn't help them.

frugal_lass

I am totally no frills now. I am single and my mum lives with me as she would struggle on her own. I work two part-time jobs and my main job means driving quite a few miles. I wouldn’t be able to survive on just the other job. It’s scary how things will be in October. 

I only drive if I need to. I don’t buy books anymore. No trips out unless essential.  No TV or other entertainment. I have YT if I want to watch something. It’s sad to hear of families struggling and our leaders are so out of touch with reality. Grateful to like a simple life so a lot things aren’t so difficult.