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

LadOnTheHill

The cost of charging a mobile phone battery is so low you don't really benefit much at all from charging it elsewhere. Assuming it's a USB charger, that outputs 1a of electricity (this is a rough guess based on the chargers I have laying around), it'd need to be charging your phone for 200 hours to use a kW of electricity (about 28p). The time it takes to fully charge the phone from dead will vary by model of phone,  as they will have different capacity batteries, but it's never going to be very much at all.

This Sun article suggests that Uswitch did some research and found it costs ~£5 per year to charge an iphone:

https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/16409011/how-much-does-it-cost-to-charge-an-iphone/

I can't find anything by Uswitch that suggests they actually did the research, though. 

euronorris

Well, I filled the car up just now, seeing as I noticed that diesel had crept up again and I was concerned that petrol would soon follow. Better to fill up the tank now at a slightly lower price. Was still galling to pay over £50 for only 2/3 of a tank!

When I defrosted the freezer, I took an inventory of everything in there and am planning meals this month around what is in stock to reduce our grocery spend as much as possible. 

MIL is doing a boot sale on Sunday and kindly offered to take some of our bits for us and see what she can get, so that should help boost it a little. Mostly kids stuff that DD has grown out of, but I think those things usually sell well

Wednesday2000

Tahlullah.H said:

I may be awkward here, but I really do not feel it a great idea to have you and as some have suggested, your family charge things at work.  Especially if your employer is not a large organisation.  They have to pay the electricity bill too, and if their costs go up to a point they cannot sustain, then what usually happens is they lose staff via redundancy.  So, the extreme end is someone losing their livelihood because everyone/people decide to put the financial burden onto the employer.

An extreme example I know, but it could fundamentally be classed as theft.

OrkneyStar said:

Tahlullah.H said:

I may be awkward here, but I really do not feel it a great idea to have you and as some have suggested, your family charge things at work.  Especially if your employer is not a large organisation.  They have to pay the electricity bill too, and if their costs go up to a point they cannot sustain, then what usually happens is they lose staff via redundancy.  So, the extreme end is someone losing their livelihood because everyone/people decide to put the financial burden onto the employer.

An extreme example I know, but it could fundamentally be classed as theft.

I have been thinking the same while reading some of these posts. Charging your gadget anywhere than your own house isn't free, someone somewhere will have to pay for it.

I found that quite comical. My husband works for London Underground and if you had any idea how much money they waste on idiotic things you wouldn't say that. I have no problem with them paying for our phones to be charged. 

He has to use that phone for work anyway!

Pixiekazza

Looks like most of the thermos fillers are on Economy 7 like me. It's so nice staying at my other half's, when I don't have to get up at 6.40 to get the flasks filled by 7! I'm still saving money working from home though, with fuel costs going up. I've worked out it would cost me £13 per day in diesel to commute, based on my recent tank fill. There isn't any suitable public transport I can use instead. Really feeling for people who don't have any choice.

OrkneyStar

Wednesday2000 said:

Tahlullah.H said:

I may be awkward here, but I really do not feel it a great idea to have you and as some have suggested, your family charge things at work.  Especially if your employer is not a large organisation.  They have to pay the electricity bill too, and if their costs go up to a point they cannot sustain, then what usually happens is they lose staff via redundancy.  So, the extreme end is someone losing their livelihood because everyone/people decide to put the financial burden onto the employer.

An extreme example I know, but it could fundamentally be classed as theft.

OrkneyStar said:

Tahlullah.H said:

I may be awkward here, but I really do not feel it a great idea to have you and as some have suggested, your family charge things at work.  Especially if your employer is not a large organisation.  They have to pay the electricity bill too, and if their costs go up to a point they cannot sustain, then what usually happens is they lose staff via redundancy.  So, the extreme end is someone losing their livelihood because everyone/people decide to put the financial burden onto the employer.

An extreme example I know, but it could fundamentally be classed as theft.

I have been thinking the same while reading some of these posts. Charging your gadget anywhere than your own house isn't free, someone somewhere will have to pay for it.

I found that quite comical. My husband works for London Underground and if you had any idea how much money they waste on idiotic things you wouldn't say that. I have no problem with them paying for our phones to be charged. 

He has to use that phone for work anyway!

If the phone is used for work purposes then it's totally different! Them wasting money is beside the point though.  

Spendless

I had a feeling charging a phone wasn't going to cost much, I just wasn't sure. Everything so far that I've observed via the energy monitor the cost is more when the appliance heats up. 

Thermos water is luke warm now just poured another cuppa. I do know from my Dad who takes a flask to his outdoor hobby that some brands are better than others at retaining heat.

London_1

if like me you are running your freezer down to defrost, until its empty, some screwed up paper  wadded put in the replace the empty spaces will stop the freezer having to work harder as it gets emptier. I have een doing this for about four days and hopefully want to get it defrosted by easter or just after if possible 

Jackieo xx

maryb

you don’t have to be on E7 even if you have a two rate meter.  I have one - a legacy from years ago but every energy company I have been with will charge all your units at the single rate tariff if you ask.  The cut off for saving money on E7 is about 35% of your usage being at cheap rates.  Any less than that and it costs more overall.  Even with running appliances overnight I could never get my cheap rate usage to the point where I broke even let alone saved money

Slinky

Spendless I've just made tea for both of us, the half flask had water too hot to put my fingers in still.  I've just noticed a label on the outside saying hot 5 hours, cold 9 hours. It's 8 hours since I filled mine. It's a Tesco stainless steel jobby.

EssexHebridean

The question of charging things at a workplace will be different within different companies - I work for a tiny firm, and there is no issue with me charging a phone, or my garmin etc during the day. Someone else might work for a company with specific policies about that sort of thing, and it could be totally off limits. I mainly charge stuff at the office because it's more convenient for me to have my watch off for an hour here charging when I'm sitting at my desk anyway, and I prefer to have a freshly charged phone ahead of the commute home in case of getting caught on a closed motorway - I've been there and know how reassuring it is to know that the phone isn't going to die on me as well!