2023 Frugal Living Challenge

willow_loulou

I think it’s a perfect use of time in the slightly cooler weather @zafiro1984
I cooked today as well though not as monumentally as you! I’d planned to do tomorrow’s dinner as well as todays but I had so much on it really was just throwing a breakfast casserole in the oven whilst I was in the bath to reheat later. 

It was the first time I’d cooked in  a few weeks beyond jacket potato’s so I was glad to have a non salad dinner! 

maryb

We have showers these days rather than baths so we put the plug in the bath and run the water into that while waiting for the hot to come through rather than running the basin hot tap.  We have long pipe runs so we accumulate a lot quite quickly. Then we siphon it out into a water butt just below the bathroom window.

re Octopus - very mixed.  It took ages to sort out problems and I had to start a formal complaint each time.  The first time was when they said my gas meter was reading cubic feet when in fact it reads in hundreds of cubic feet. My gas bills were ridiculously low but they refused to believe me until I made it a formal complaint and they finally checked the national gas meter database.  Irritatingly this apparently happened to quite a few other people before they realised it was a system error but they didn’t chase them for the underbilled amount.  So I could have saved myself a few hundred!!  But I like things to be kept straight 

the second time was when they mixed up my electric meter readings.  I have an old Economy 7 meter but both the day and nighttime units are charged at the same rate.  But they kept telling me I had my readings the wrong way round ( I didn’t) and asking me to send in photos of the meter.  After being asked to do this for the third time I raised another formal complaint and it got sorted.

so far touch wood no further problems.  They aren’t hassling me to have a smart meter after I explained our meters are in the cellar where there is no Wi-Fi or mobile signal and I get a bill promptly after sending in meter readings.  Their bill format is a bit confusing and you have to follow it quite carefully to see whether you are in debit or credit but I’m used to it now.

I would say it helps a lot that I have a spreadsheet showing my consumption going back several years so I was able to challenge their estimate of how much I would use meaning my direct debit is a bit more accurate. But I think all the energy companies overegg it

RateTartExtraordinaire

I put in my request to switch to Octopus. 
So long So Energy! No love lost there. 

It will now be an expensive month because they take a month in advance and then another direct debit at the end of the month.

However my ongoing direct debits will be £10 less a month than my previous ones because Octopus have taken my actual usage into account.

newlywed

We have been moved from blub to octopus…. We are on economy 7 old prepay key meter. Blub said they wouldn’t change the meter unless we had a letter from the landlord saying we don’t have storage heaters…. 

Octopus say they can’t put us onto the same rate for both day and night and we have to have a smart meter installed… filled that form Out and still nothing.

we will be saving over £10 a month if we can just get off the e7 tariffs…. So frustrating that everyone makes it so very difficult.

maryb

Not sure why you can’t have the same rate for day and night.  I do and apart from them muddling up the readings when I was moved over to them when Pure Planet collapsed, it hasn’t been a problem. I’d challenge that.  If you make it a formal complaint that you were given incorrect information it should get escalated to someone who actually knows what they are doing

mama67

Looking at a different way of running our budget. 

DS2 will be looking to buy a house end of next year once finished his apprenticeship training & gf has finished her degree. 

So going forward I’m going to say we don’t have his lodge money included.  

And I’ll put it to extra savings. 

That way we can see how we go for best part of a year with tweaking various categories if needed. 

willow_loulou

Well I’ve just booked flights so every penny counts right now - so excited to get away for a couple of weeks, less so about the 10hr flights. 

This is what frugal living is about for me - living sparse so I can really live when I want to do something. Plus the it’s just common sense part of it 

willow_loulou

How did I miss that eBay stopped using PayPal this month? 

It’s really sad as I used my prolific account - PayPal- eBay so I keep that money separate and save for specific things on eBay. 

I know I can put it in my bank but - ho hum 

cw18

willow_loulou said:

How did I miss that eBay stopped using PayPal this month? 

Really???

My OH mentioned some months ago that he bought a couple of items where PayPal wasn't an option, which I thought strange - and I said then than no PayPal option would mean me not buying from that particular person.

I'd heard a whisper it was going completely, but haven't seen anything concrete about it.   I certainly hadn't seen a date for it going !!!!

I guess I'm going to have to look at the options very carefully before hitting 'buy now' on there again.   I really don't want another payment system (I've avoided Klarma and similar), but neither do I want to have to enter card details every time I make a purchase.

willow_loulou

I feel the same as you. The convenience of having different cards stored there really suited me as I shop for my parents - it was just an extra step to ensure I used the right card and address as I can’t afford the things my parents want.