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

YoungBlueEyes

Yep I first said £1 for standing charges, just as an example. Effician said I was in for a shock come October, so I doubled it - for the sake of argument. Hence £2 not actual figures etc.

On my June bill : gas standing charge is £11.94, unit rate is 6.935
                            electric standing charge is £22.16, unit rate is 26.311

I was under the impression that gas+electric prices are whatever the market dictates, whereas standing charges are more closely monitored and controlled. Which is why I go for the lowest s/c I can find, so that low usage is reflected in my bills.

Edit: I appreciate this doesn't conform to my statement of 'my s/c would have to nearly quadruple to be £2 a day, cos my frazzled brain read my bill wrong! :rolleyes

sarahj1986

Hello all

Monday today and I do my normal shopping. Last week I didn’t go to Lidl I went to Mercadona as there was more Mercadona items I needed. Back to Lidl today. Even in 2 weeks since I was last there things have jumped in price! The sushi I like, now I know it’s not a necessity but every so often I’ll have it for lunch. The pack I used to buy was €2.99 which was reasonable, sometimes I got it at 30% off but not all the time. Today I noticed it had gone to €3.99 a pack. In fact all the sushi packs had gone up €1 each. 

It was a fairly cheap shop this week. I didn’t need any meat or fish as I’m clearing down the freezer. We needed fresh items mainly, salad bits, dairy, fruit, snacks, cereal, tinned fish, fizzy drinks, shandy for my husband. I also got 2 outfits for my daughter. All in all it was €56 but the outfits were €9 of that total. 

Lidl is definitely the cheapest but even they are becoming expensive. I’m still keeping my receipts for me to do my end of year price comparison. Weird how I’m really looking forward to it 

Floss

YoungBlueEyes said:

On my June bill :
gas standing charge is £11.94, ....electric standing charge is £22.16...

Assuming that is a 30 day period, you are paying £1.137 a day in standing charges. 

sammyjammy

YoungBlueEyes said:

Yep I first said £1 for standing charges, just as an example. Effician said I was in for a shock come October, so I doubled it - for the sake of argument. Hence £2 not actual figures etc.

On my June bill : gas standing charge is £11.94, unit rate is 6.935
                            electric standing charge is £22.16, unit rate is 26.311

I was under the impression that gas+electric prices are whatever the market dictates, whereas standing charges are more closely monitored and controlled. Which is why I go for the lowest s/c I can find, so that low usage is reflected in my bills.

Edit: I appreciate this doesn't conform to my statement of 'my s/c would have to nearly quadruple to be £2 a day, cos my frazzled brain read my bill wrong! :rolleyes

Due to the large number of companies that have gone bust in the last couple of years owing money to customers etc this cost is paid by us, hence the high standing charges, electric standing charge varies from region to region but if coming off a tariff and going onto the capped rate you can expect around £0.50 a day for both, it is tough on us low users but it is what it is.

YoungBlueEyes

It was the best deal I could get at the time. Being a low user who pays on receipt of bill and doesn’t want a smart meter restricts the options a little. But I’m happy enough with it. 

Jellytotts

Our fixed deal ends in 2 weeks and after trying to move to another company (issues with our current supplier that aren't being addressed) we found that no one is taking new customers. So we've agreed the new fixed tariff with the current supplier as it's got a penalty free exit.  If prices did miraculously fall at least we can move to something more economical.  We are running at an "average home" consumption which isn't bad, there's only 2 of us but home all day and charging an electric car and mobility scooter.

elsien

You know you don’t have to go into one of their fixed tariffs? You can insist on the SVR if you want to? 

cuddlymarm

Hi guys
I’ve got a Tesco grocery delivery due later and luckily as they now send you an email receipt I noticed that because they had so many out of stocks it had taken me under the £40 limit. So they were charging me an extra £4 for them having no stock in. Anyway after phoning a very nice lady the £4 is now on its way back to me. So it’s worth being aware in these strange times and I wonder how many of us have been overcharged.
Of what I’d ordered no cooked meats at all, no fresh meat ,no fruit mousses and the only frozen stuff available was sausages and fish fingers. Strange times indeed.

newlywed

cuddlymarm said:

Hi guys
I’ve got a Tesco grocery delivery due later and luckily as they now send you an email receipt I noticed that because they had so many out of stocks it had taken me under the £40 limit. So they were charging me an extra £4 for them having no stock in. Anyway after phoning a very nice lady the £4 is now on its way back to me. So it’s worth being aware in these strange times and I wonder how many of us have been overcharged.
Of what I’d ordered no cooked meats at all, no fresh meat ,no fruit mousses and the only frozen stuff available was sausages and fish fingers. Strange times indeed.

Interesting as my Tesco delivery was on Friday and the only thing they didn’t have was frozen prawns,

I got cooked meat, all my frozen items, the fresh meat. 

Siebrie

I was at my parents' last weekend, and noticed that their emergency stash (which is kept on the top shelf in a wardrobe in the guest room / office) was getting past its best-before date (the instant soup was bb 2020...), so we have agreed that we will sort through it when we visit again next week. Most of the items won't be affected, really, but still, it's best to rotate this stuff.