2023 Frugal Living Challenge

2Scratters

@cw18 wow that is an impressive water bill!
Yes same utilities company.  I just need DH to not flush as often. He has got the drift of it now thankfully. My aim is to get under 10m3 on the next bill. 
We have some outside work to get done hopefully this year and I intend to save from our roof too, we save the running off water before the combi boiler gives the hot water and that is saved to use in the water cooler in the fridge and coffee machine (our Achilles heel) Oh the simple joys of not giving too much money to these companies!

2 Scratters xx

Frugaldom

pregnancy_parking said:

Hello, would love to join you as I’ve just been made redundant but I’d like to get by without having to find another job so I’m trying to spend as little as possible, make money where possible and get my life minimalist and organised. Just wanted to say hi.

Just now I’m taking a walk to my local Waitrose because they havo

Welcome! It's never too late to join us as a frugaler. Hope you enjoy being a part of our frugal.living family.

Frugaldom

Good evening, frugal friends. Sorry it's been so long but life just keeps on getting busier. I can't even remember where I got up to on here. March is proving to be expensive with insurance policies, vet bills, groundworks at Frugaldom and the usual bills. I finally caved and put in a home delivery order to M0rris0ns. It's the first food shop I've done this year, other than buying some milk, cake and biscuits for visitors. It's horrifying how much things have increased in price! Thankfully, we have been really lucky with Olio over the past few weeks, although it means eating vegan produce most of the time. Can't believe how much waste there is in that department.

Finally update for now, can anyone remember username Ddraigoch or, later, Duchess of Frugonia from previous challenges? Well, we finally managed a meet-up at Frugaldom after the best part of 20 years of online friendship through these frugal living challenges!

mama67

Frugaldom said:

Good evening, frugal friends. Sorry it's been so long but life just keeps on getting busier. I can't even remember where I got up to on here. March is proving to be expensive with insurance policies, vet bills, groundworks at Frugaldom and the usual bills. I finally caved and put in a home delivery order to M0rris0ns. It's the first food shop I've done this year, other than buying some milk, cake and biscuits for visitors. It's horrifying how much things have increased in price! Thankfully, we have been really lucky with Olio over the past few weeks, although it means eating vegan produce most of the time. Can't believe how much waste there is in that department.

Finally update for now, can anyone remember username Ddraigoch or, later, Duchess of Frugonia from previous challenges? Well, we finally managed a meet-up at Frugaldom after the best part of 20 years of online friendship through these frugal living challenges!

Lovely to hear you’ve finally met up

RateTartExtraordinaire

I'm the excited new owner of a slimline water butt! I pre-ordered and used MSE discounted price at Al_di on garden stuff £22.99. I'm getting a filter system separately as I've been warned that they can get clogged up with debris. Hopefully, will help water the garden in the summer.
 
I don't have a water meter, but am thinking about it. Weighing up the pros and cons:

We are two people in a Victorian two-bed terrace with low usage. No car washing or hoses, take showers and low washing machine usage. I could have it put in the garden. It won't fit in our kitchen as it the stop tap comes in where it would block a cupboard opening. Many of my neighbours have an extension over the area where they would need to fit it. I'm not planning an extension, but it might put someone off buying my house in the future, I guess. The water company said any builder could move it and I wouldn't need to consult the water company?! 

Our bill non-metered water Rateable Value is 107.00 @ £0.7165 = £76.670 Plus the standing charge of £48.60.
A different company does out waste / sewage and they charge Non-metered wastewater charge 107.00 @ £0.6835 = £73.13

Fixed charge 01/04/2023 - 31/03/2024 £70.23

All is all the upcoming 12 month's charges will be £268.63. 

The metered customers increase in combined bills this April is £1.85 monthly based on same usage. and for non-metered customers it is an extra £2.25 a month. 

I've ordered some water saving devices free: 

Shower Head

A replacement shower head regulating water flow to 7 litres per minute.

LeakyLoo Strips

Easy-to-use, biodegradable strips designed to help you detect a leak in your toilet.

Swell Gel

Water storing granules designed to absorb and slowly release water, reducing the risk of over watering your plants!

Twin Tap Saver

Fit to your taps to regulate water flow to 5 litres per minute.

I've done my water companies little quiz and it came up with an estimated usage of approx 23,800 litres. With the extra saving from the devices they reacon I could save about 4405 litres a year.

How does this compare with those of you on water meters? My partner says we should go for it, I'm undecided as yet.

Madbat60

@RateTartExtraodinaire we have 9 water butts in our garden, plus we recycle our shower and bath water in really dry times to water the plants.  We use the water  butt's for the veg.  We live in a very dry part  of the country.

RateTartExtraordinaire

@Madbat60 Thanks. That is great! I don't think I have the room for so many but I'm also in a region that is water stressed. My OH has already talked about getting a second one. How do you have them set up? Are they linked?

I know that once I opt for a meter, they won't take it out because of the water shortages. Some regions which will put you back on previous billing if you don't make a saving. 

I've gone on the ccwater.org.uk and it has estimated my usage as 54 cubic metres! I need to count how many times we flush the toilet on average to be sure I've put in the correct info This is very different from my water companies quiz which came up with 23800 litres. Even so, it calculates that based on 54 m3:
Water Variable Charge £64.77
standing charge £28.92 (This info was wrong according to my water company, should be £24.30 6 monthly billed)
Sewerage variable charge £53.79
standing charge £71.05
Total Estimated Bill £218.53

This would potentially be a saving of £50 a year. More if we can be more conscious of water usage.

UPDATE
I've just called my water company this morning and spoke to a very helpful person in the accounts dept. 
The surprise in her voice when she looked at the Rateable Value said it all.
Apparently, I'm on a very low rate.
She did a quick calculation of the estimated metered average bill for my property with 2 people... £38 a month (£447 per annum) which is £10 more a month!

She suggested I should wait until it is compulsory installation in my area, at which point I would qualify for the 2 year transitional period where I can opt to be billed on a non-metered basis.

Decision made for now!
I will be making all the water saving I can in the meantime though, as I know this is coming down the line, eventually.

2Scratters

@RateTartExtraodinaire I'm glad you got some more figures as I had thought about ours and it is more than yours already and we are metered and working hard at reducing it. Absolutely right to not change and wait until the end of whenever that is. How about saving the money you would be paying and compensating yourselves on saving for the purchases you may need further down the line?
Proud of you being conscientious too.

2 Scratters xx

nmaria

Council tax bill has arrived. An increase of 4% compared to last year. Services are going down but rates go up. Oh well, the privilege of living in a village where they took away the library, the community centre and part of the bus service….

cw18

Just been onto the website for my council to see if they've posted the figures for this years CT yet - and they have.

Mine is up by 5.19%  !!!   So I have to find an extra £5.65/month for that.
I'd budgetted the 5% limit without a referendum, but I've heard nothing about an application to life it by more than that


I've also been comparing the increases in my salary against the increase in minimum wage between Nov 2015 (when I started) and now (don't know what, if anything, we're getting next month).   When I took the job it was promoted as paying well above minimum wage, but it's no longer as much higher.  From Nov 2015 to March 2023 the Minimum Wage for over 25s has increased by 41.82%.   My salary has increased by 34% (assuming the April 2022 pay deal which is still in dispute doesn't get increased).    We were being offered 2% from next month as part of the 2022 deal (which then wouldn't be increased for another 18 months), so if that went through the gap would narrow even more given the Minimum Wage is increasing by 9.7% next month.