Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

The slow cooker bolognese was lovely tonight. Recipe from a healthy slow cooker book, which I've made before but Mr F requested it again, as he really liked it. The recipe is called "Big batch bolognese" & makes 12 portions, but that must take a colossal slow cooker as it uses 1.5kg of mince, 500g mushrooms & lots of other veg & stuff. My Crock-Pot will only hold half that quantity, so I adjust the quantities by 50%. However, when I served it up & divvied the remainder into freezer containers at the same time, it easily made an additional 6 decent sized portions, so actually 8 in total. Have made a little note in the book that it makes more than the recipe says so I know for next time.
F x

foxgloves

Steam coming off the calculator this morning..........
Desperate for coffee, which I think might assist my number crunching.
F 

Makingabobor2

Keep going with that calculator. That is one of my plans for today or tomorrow. Told DH yesterday that I think I've taken my eye off the ball a bit this month and been going over budget a bit with groceries and not sticking to meal plans and not making enough PADs. Need to start planning next month and get back in the groove.

foxgloves

Hello Campers!
I feel I've got off to a useful start this week so far. I'm not going to get any garden tasks done - that was an ambition too far, but I've cleared the decks to free up time to get out there tomorrow. So.....today's money stuff first, then I shall veritably bore the pants off you with the results of my energy bill number crunching session - do miss that (following) post out if you think it will send you off to the shed to sit quietly with a bucket over your head.
*Effortless meal tonight, as Mr F cooked sufficient turkey chilli on Saturday night to feed us today as well.
*Fed sourdough jar ready for baking tomorrow. I haven't priced up bought sourdough loaves recently, but I'm thinking it's got to be cheaper making my own.
*Made new bulldog clip desk pad using quartered=up scrap A4 paper.
*Did my regular Monday morning budget updates & moved funds around accordingly.
*Did this week's laundry. Load 1, which is all big towels, household stuff, etc, has been pegged out as it's cold, but sunny & windy which should reduce time on heated airer.
*Wrote February's & March's birthday cards & wrapped presents using wrappings stuff from my stash.
*Booked cattery for later in the year - have made a note on the holiday payment schedule in my trusty Money Book that I will need to budget slightly more than allocated to cover 2 separate pens, rather than the double one we planned. 
*Knit more scarf, which is coming along nicely....& free, as it's stash yarn.
*Contacted workman. Hope to hear from him soon to book the work as I want to know how much it will cost so I know what I have to pay into the savings pots.
*Had some of my use-it-up l/o muesli mixture for lunch with yoghurt - very nice.
*Make tomorrow's packed lunch - not yet done, but I will do it while waiting for rice to cook later.
So that's today's money saving wins.......now onto energy bill crunching if anyone wants to give that a miss, lol.
F x

foxgloves

OK, well I have been procrastinating for a while on the task of sitting down with my calculator & energy bill figures to look at increasing our monthly DD. The background, with which I've bored you all already, is that we began winter over £600 in credit because of having been overcharged for the previous couple of years. The overcharging wasn't deliberate, but was the result of payment-setting algorithms including recent years of our old more expensive 1980s night storage heating system. When we had  a new gas combi boiler & CH installed in 2020, our credit started to build & it became clear that we were paying too much, based on the cost of our previous heaters. I'd intended to leave some credit for winter, then claim a refund & a DD reduction at the end of March 2022. Of course, by then we all knew that the S was about to HTF regarding massive price hikes, so I left all the credit balance in place. The upshot is that despite the price rises, our monthly DD hadn't increased. We still have a credit balance, but with the government subsidy ending soon, I decided I couldn't really put off looking at the figures for much longer.
So I've logged into our account & the Cephalopods recommend increasing our DD to £173-73 per month. I couldn't action that today because our Feb payment date is very early in the month, but it will be in place for March's payment, which should be around £106 taking into account the final month of government subsidy. From April, we will be paying the full amount, so spreadsheet altered accordingly.
Findings (in no particular order):
*Our annual projected gas cost is now higher than our entire annual energy costs in 2021.
*The rise in our monthly DD works out at 45.45%. Given that tariffs have pretty much doubled, this shows how much we were over-paying when our heating system changed, but we were still being charged on figures from the old system.
*In simple £££ terms, our monthly DD is rising by £54.29. I am grateful that it isn't more, & of course, it may rise further from April depending on what happens with wholesale prices.......they are supposed to be coming down, but being deeply distrustful of the oil & gas industry, I am not holding my breath about any reductions being passed onto customers anytime soon. This is £54-29 I will no longer have available for savings pots, so a warning to myself of the importance of sticking to all other aspects of our budget. However, it doesn't yet look like the sort of level which would require a reduction to the modest monthly amount we pay into our Regular Saver account. I will be watching the impact of ALL the coming bill increases on our overall monthly budget.
*Comparison from the energy cost stats log I keep at the back of my trusty Money Book - January 2022's energy costs for the month were £150-75. The exact same period for this year.........£245-15. And bear in mind that we have reduced the daytime thermostat, turned the heating off at night, turned down the dial on the boiler & barely used our gas stove in the lounge. We also manage to get 2 baths from one fill of hot water on most bath nights, rather than just on some of them.  So we have spent £94-40 MORE but our household economies have meant we have actually used LESS. I think this really puts the extent of the price increases into perspective, doesn't it? I can understand why people on lower incomes & hideously high rents are really struggling & it just all feels very wrong & unfair.
*Oddly, my stats show that we used £44 less gas this billing period than the previous one, despite this latest bill including all the cooking we did over Christmas & extra hot water for all the washing-up & having 4 extra people staying with us. I can only assume that outside temperatures have not been quite so cold, so the CH has triggered on less frequently.
*The same set of stats show that our electricity use went up by £15. I'm sure this will have been due to use of the electric stove in our chilly conservatory dining room over Christmas when we had guests & used the room more, so I am OK with that.
Anyway, weirdly (but isn't it always the way?) I actually feel better for having had a good look at the figures, accepted that our monthly DD definitely has to increase & having actioned it. I've amended our household bills spreadsheet accordingly & at least that feeling of 'the unknown' has dissipated, because I've been waiting for an increase for ages & feel more in control now that I know.
Just for info, our total energy expenditure for the past 2 months = December billing period £274.10 & January £245.15. We live in a modest 3-bedroom 1930s semi & don't own a tumble-drier. The central heating thermostat is set at 18 degrees from 6am to 10pm & is off at night. 
And on a similar subject, I'm off to give the laundry a feel now to see how much heated airer it is likely to need after a good blow out on the whirlygig. If it has even managed to get half-dry, I will be looking skywards for more suitable free drying days.
F x

Crazycatlady2

We are family of 5 in an extended 3 bed semi. I pay 200 a month atm. We just had an actual use bill for 3 months if £1052 which is horrid obviously but I think it’s lowest I can get without us going without and we can afford it even though don’t want to if that makes sense 

scandimore

Ours has gone from £97 total per month when we were in a fixed deal before all of the increases to £400 per month. I can't quite believe it. 3 bed semi here too. There are a couple of habits we could change to bring it down a little but not a lot and a few of the things I would like to do are out of my control at the moment. I'm just hoping that's the worst it will get as it has been a cold winter here.

Crazycatlady2

Oh and since I commented I fetched in a load of washing and it was much dryer than I expected so finishing off on the airer overnight 😁

foxgloves

@Crazycatlady2 - Yes, same here! Even the big bath sheets were almost dry. Well worth pegging out!
F

Makingabobor2

scandimore said:

Ours has gone from £97 total per month when we were in a fixed deal before all of the increases to £400 per month. I can't quite believe it. 3 bed semi here too. There are a couple of habits we could change to bring it down a little but not a lot and a few of the things I would like to do are out of my control at the moment. I'm just hoping that's the worst it will get as it has been a cold winter here.

That's a massive rise. We are still on a fixed tariff that runs out in August. Currently paying £111 a month. Dread to think what it will be in August.  Ours is also a 3 bed semi, but the lounge is big with stairs coming down into it and I think we lose a lot of heat up the stairs. Want to downsize, but not really in a financial position to do that yet.