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

TheBanker

linz said:

Another idea that may not have been mentioned that some people could consider when the price cap goes up again is to cook one large meal eg a large casserole or stew and share it out amongst neighbours or friends who live close by and all take it in turns, that way you'd only be cooking a meal every x days. 

A good idea, but not sure my neighbours would appreciate my cooking

If I had friends or family within walking distance, then rather than cook for each other I'd invite them here for their evening meal, and hope they'd return the favour. That way, we each get a night off from heating our houses as well as cooking. 

In the '80s, my uncle was out of work for a long time. My cousin would often come to our house of an evening and have dinner with us. I once asked my mum why they never invited me to their house. The simple answer was that it was freezing as they couldn't afford to put the heating on, and they couldn't offer us dinner as they couldn't afford enough food. I really thought those times were behind us.

CKhalvashi

Trying to arrange to get to a friend for birthday, which is always going to be a long journey at the moment.

Watched a specific flight go from £12 to £19 to £25 today while waiting to hear back. Question I have is book or not book, because I'm tempted to book it and deal with everything else later.......

Broomstick

When my mother was at University just after WW2, and rationing was still in place, she was living in a women-only hall of residence.  She talked about the only heating in the place being the coal fires in their individual bedrooms but coal was quite severely rationed.  How they coped was for a group of them to gather in one student's room and use her coal ration to keep that fire going, make tea and toast and spend the evening warm in each other's company.  They'd move on, in rota, to the next student's room the next evening.  She had fond and vivid memories of that time.

TheBanker

I'm feeling quite proud of myself. My electricity usage today is the lowest it's been since I had my smart meters fitted about a month ago, even though today was a work from home day. I've just turned the light off and am running my laptop from its battery to try to keep it that way!

The secret - I didn't use my electric shower today, and I've not done any laundry. I doubt I'll get my usage any lower than today but it's a target to aim for. 

CKhalvashi

CKhalvashi said:

Trying to arrange to get to a friend for birthday, which is always going to be a long journey at the moment.

Watched a specific flight go from £12 to £19 to £25 today while waiting to hear back. Question I have is book or not book, because I'm tempted to book it and deal with everything else later.......

Edit: booked it but managed to pay £6 to change the date for free.

I'll use it as a cigarette run, so this trip should be cost neutral in any event. Mentally sometimes it is necessary to get away from things for a few days.

YorksLass

Our fixed deal for gas & electricity ended today and we're now on a new fixed plan - obviously much more expensive but still better than the predicted future prices for SVT, including the October price cap.  Even so, we're now officially in Fuel Poverty.      

I normally send readings every month on the 20th but have also sent them for the period from the 20th to the end of the month so we're billed for exactly what we've used.  Once yesterday's DD has been processed we'll be £111 in credit and I'm not sure whether they will refund or keep that.  Last year they kept it but didn't take a DD in August.  Either way, it will go towards the winter bills.  

Yesterday I had a walk to the local Co-op for a TV guide and, although not intending to buy anything else, I was pleased I took my purse as there were quite a few reduced items.  I bought baby plum tomatoes (still firm); a full cucumber, still good (will use half "as is" and the other half will be pickled with sliced onions); a block of mature Cheddar cheese (now cut into smaller portions and frozen) and a pack of leeks that have provided us with 6 ample portions of leek & potato soup.  Soup weather is definitely on the way!

Our gas boiler service has been booked for next week - fingers crossed they don't find anything amiss!

London_1

One nice one  litre pot of carrot and coriander soup in my fridge for several lunches. Even managed to squeeze a couple of diced portions of the reduced carrots I bought last week into the steamer for tonight and tomorrow nights meals So my 12p reduced 500gms of carrots will have done four  side steamed portions to eat over four meals (I already have had two steamed portions, and a litre of carrot soup which will do at least three lunches as I added a few diced baby potatoes and a good handful of lentils plus lazy garlic some ground coriander and a hefty dollop of sweet chilli sauce I do enjoy zinging up my soups  
My 12p carrots have streeetched about as far as I can go I think. When I bought them, although reduced (over-ordered I think as we still were having a heat wave in Kent ) they still had three more days dates on them  (not that I take any notice of dates )  so I knew they would go a looong way  

I have juggled my meals around, and used up the last of the sweetheart cabbge from the fridge into the steamer By the time I chopped it for the steamer there is enough for tonight and tomorrow on one tier, the next tier down has the diced carrots and the bottom tier has the last of the 12 baby potatoes from my potato bag so veg all in the steamer to steam for tonight and whats left over once cold will be put in a covered dish in the fridge to have with what ever I decided to have for tomorrow night dinner.
So onto my shopping list for the new month is

Potatoes
green veg of some description (what ever's on offer)
mushrooms
jar of beetroot

I will either shop on Saturday, as I have potato wedges and green peas in the freezer and fish for Friday nights dinner, or maybe even wait until one day next week as I do still have stuff in the fridge to use up




                                            Budget for September food only £60.00   30 day month  

Florenceem

I bought 2 more packs of the Asd. cooking bacon today as the price is so good compared to other shops.
I am going to shop at Ald. tomorrow - first time for 2 weeks. I plan to get some extras to stash away.

London_1

My eldest DDpopped in tonight and said she had been to our local large Tesco's and a lot of the shelves were bare of a lot of goods

Jellytotts

@YorksLass. I'd ask for that credit back if I were you.  Your new fix tariff DD will be set to cover your estimated use for each year (which will be estimated on previous use) so with the credits you'll get to your account from the £400 government payment you should stay in credit with your new DD price.   Get that extra back and use if where it's needed.

We had nearly £200 credit so clawed that back and used it as larder/provisions stock up money.  Our new DD price is based on last years figures but we've dramatically cut everything down by being more savvy so I think our DD will drop quite a bit too once we've got the winter behind us.