Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)

danlightbulb said:
Ive done this myself for several years now. Everything I can cut has been cut, everything I can switch has been switched, and every cashback incentive I can get has been got.

Virgin media TV and broadband package - £33 month with free mobile sim card 5Gb a month (so my mobile costs zero as I own the handset).
Don't pay for any subscription services having cancelled Prime a couple of months ago.
Contact lens scheme (essential) £33 a month.
Car tax £30 per month
Car insurance £30 per month
Home contents insurance £7 per month
Life insurance policy £6 per month
Council tax £107 per month
Water £12 a month

There is no way to reduce any of these bills. Possibly a tenner could be saved on the broadband but then I'd need a mobile sim as well because I'd lose that benefit, so Id be barely saving anything.

Everything else left is rent, child maintenance, energy, fuel, food, and then discretionary spending.
Click to expand...
glasses .. £100 .. £150 for bifocals (lasts 2 yrs or more).. just saved ya loads ... get an eco car .. we pay £30 a yr tax .. :)
 
the shadow said:
Anyone working 40 hours a week should be paid enough to feed, clothe and house themselves
Click to expand...
yeah you would think that .. i'd say 20% aren't the rest have just collected to much debt .. but there are some .. that just like to live on benefits and try to screw the system ..
 
I remember working in a team in the earlyish 2000s for a big old bank (in a massive tower in canary wharf) and we were all earning early to mid 50s per year. At that point I’d been recently divorced so it was doable but with a mortgage as well (7 odd % IIRC) it was no cake walk, at least we got a bonus which would pay for the big stuff (think 25% or so). Once one of the guys slammed down his phone as just shouted “I HAVE NO DISPOSABLE INCOME!”. Well as it turns out, he’d just got married, bought a flat in Surbiton, had (as he so proudly corrected me) a BMW 320 ”m sport” and also had some kind of super bike that he took to that ring place in Germany once a year. He was the classic 3 months away from being homeless. I didn’t really have any sympathy (but I am human, so some) because he was chasing the yuppie lifestyle.

I shudder to think how many others will be shouting the same now, sans BMW, bikes and ring trips but just to heat their homes.

To be clear, this was someone working for an investment bank in a big tower who everyone would think is rolling in it, but he was close enough to smell an IVA (if they even existed then). He wan’t a bad chap but obv. learning the lesson about aspiration (i.e. it should remain aspiration rather than assuming you’d got there). People are now having to learn that lesson without the yuppie dream, just to survive with the basics.

When we look back at the incompetence (I’m being generous here by not saying it’s deliberate) of the current government, well we will be ashamed we put up with it.

Apologies for the ramble, friday night, wine etc.
 
flea.rider said:
yeah you would think that .. i'd say 20% aren't the rest have just collected to much debt .. but there are some .. that just like to live on benefits and try to screw the system ..
Click to expand...

How many, or is that a guess? I’m not saying that doesn’t happen but it’s fairly convenient for the government if you think they are the problem and not policy. “Bad guys and bogeymen” like that are a great vehicle for convincing one they are the problem and not the system.

It’s a bit like when people say “stereotypes exist for a reason”. That reason is usually because those saying it can’t/won’t back it up so go the lazy route of “it must be the case”.

Sorry I’ve gone all magnanimous tonight :D
 
theone8181 said:
As a contact lens wearer, glasses might be cheaper but they are so inferior especially when you have kids.
Click to expand...
why ?? brought up 2 kids always worn glasses ..how can something that does the same job be inferior ?? go on just say it glasses make you look like a ???t ... lol if your own self-centeredness cant get past it to save you £700 every 2yrs or so .. so be it :P
 
flea.rider said:
why ?? brought up 2 kids always worn glasses ..how can something that does the same job be inferior ?? go on just say it glasses make you look like a ???t ... lol if your own self-centeredness cant get past it to save you £700 every 2yrs or so .. so be it :p
Click to expand...
You ever tried lenses? It's genuinely life changing.

Plus the car, yeah I'd swap it if I could get something equivalent with lower tax for a straight swap. My car was £3k and it's probably worth around the same now, so there's not a lot I can do to swap it really.
 
The simple thing to do is organise into groups by supplier and withhold the payment until they go bust and then onto the next one until the government steps in and makes some form of government controlled energy for the people.
 
GIBURROWS said:
The simple thing to do is organise into groups by supplier and withhold the payment until they go bust and then onto the next one until the government steps in and makes some form of government controlled energy for the people.
Click to expand...

Radical, but to be honest, better than anything the government is coming up with :p
 
Nothing will k come out that protest.
There will be power cuts and suffering but we will endure it for we are British and it's our nature.

There may some tutting in the supermarket qué
 
Poorer folks are on pre-payment meter ... so don't pay is a squeezed(low-IQ) middle action.

Shell could make a similar gesture like french filling station with big profits.
TotalEnergies announces in parallel a reduction in the price of its fuels at the pump. From September 1, the oil group will apply a reduction of 20 cents per litre , he announced in a press release. This discount will be applied until November 1 , then will return to a discount of 10 centimes per liter between November 1 and December 31 .
Click to expand...

... Coalpits will be re-opened as potential energy stores, or community ground source heat pump water stores
 
danlightbulb said:
Ive done this myself for several years now. Everything I can cut has been cut, everything I can switch has been switched, and every cashback incentive I can get has been got.

Virgin media TV and broadband package - £33 month with free mobile sim card 5Gb a month (so my mobile costs zero as I own the handset).
Don't pay for any subscription services having cancelled Prime a couple of months ago.
Contact lens scheme (essential) £33 a month.
Car tax £30 per month
Car insurance £30 per month
Home contents insurance £7 per month
Life insurance policy £6 per month
Council tax £107 per month
Water £12 a month

There is no way to reduce any of these bills. Possibly a tenner could be saved on the broadband but then I'd need a mobile sim as well because I'd lose that benefit, so Id be barely saving anything.

Everything else left is rent, child maintenance, energy, fuel, food, and then discretionary spending.
Click to expand...
Get yourself some glasses. I can't wear soft contacts due to my eye condition. Have to be hard RGP ones. Which I have tried and couldn't get on with them as my eyes are super sensitive. Cost of glasses, test, special coating which I need for my eye condition with a pair of prescription sunglasses was £285 from Specsavers. I visit them every 18 months and sometimes my prescription stays the same. Sometimes in your junk mail, you can get vouchers for free tests or one I had last month, £50 off frames £129+ or £30 off £99 frames. Didn't use this voucher. Though it takes ages to find a pair that suits me. Don't like these Thunderbirds Brains chunky frames. I know its the fashion, but some people look bloody awful in them.

My employer also has discounts for Specsavers - 10%. Need to buy vouchers in increments of £25. I just saved the link on my phone and when it was priced at £285, I bought £275 of vouchers saving me £27.50 plus paid £10 extra. Ask your employer if they have any glasses schemes.

Many employers have discount schemes which are not promoted well.

With contents and car insurance, can you pay that in one lump sum? As some insurance companies charge 15-37% APR. My contents insurance is around £42 pa and if I did pay it monthly, I would be paying £4.50 a month. That's £12 on APR. My friend puts aside £35 a month for her car insurance as her's is around early £400. If she had a monthly DD, she would be charged an extra £5-6 a month. With these examples, you can save £84 a year.

Some councils can do CT spread over 12 months, instead of 10. If your £107 is based on 10 months paid (April - Jan) and your council can do 12 payments, that will bring your DD to £89 a month.
 
cheesefest said:
Get yourself some glasses. I can't wear soft contacts due to my eye condition. Have to be hard RGP ones. Which I have tried and couldn't get on with them as my eyes are super sensitive. Cost of glasses, test, special coating which I need for my eye condition with a pair of prescription sunglasses was £285 from Specsavers. I visit them every 18 months and sometimes my prescription stays the same. Sometimes in your junk mail, you can get vouchers for free tests or one I had last month, £50 off frames £129+ or £30 off £99 frames. Didn't use this voucher. Though it takes ages to find a pair that suits me. Don't like these Thunderbirds Brains chunky frames. I know its the fashion, but some people look bloody awful in them.

My employer also has discounts for Specsavers - 10%. Need to buy vouchers in increments of £25. I just saved the link on my phone and when it was priced at £285, I bought £275 of vouchers saving me £27.50 plus paid £10 extra. Ask your employer if they have any glasses schemes.

Many employers have discount schemes which are not promoted well.

With contents and car insurance, can you pay that in one lump sum? As some insurance companies charge 15-37% APR. My contents insurance is around £42 pa and if I did pay it monthly, I would be paying £4.50 a month. That's £12 on APR. My friend puts aside £35 a month for her car insurance as her's is around early £400. If she had a monthly DD, she would be charged an extra £5-6 a month. With these examples, you can save £84 a year.

Some councils can do CT spread over 12 months, instead of 10. If your £107 is based on 10 months paid (April - Jan) and your council can do 12 payments, that will bring your DD to £89 a month.
Click to expand...
Apart from the lenses (which I would never give up in a million years), I appreciate the tips.

Overall though, the point is that we're talking small change in the scale of energy bills. This is the problem, for a lot of people there is no more money to find.

I'm a keen mountain biker and I've been about 3 times this year in total. Why? Because of the petrol price increase.

We're heading back to Victorian times when people just worked, slept and ate basic foods and that was their whole income gone.
 
Last edited:
danlightbulb said:
Ive done this myself for several years now. Everything I can cut has been cut, everything I can switch has been switched, and every cashback incentive I can get has been got.

Virgin media TV and broadband package - £33 month with free mobile sim card 5Gb a month (so my mobile costs zero as I own the handset).
Don't pay for any subscription services having cancelled Prime a couple of months ago.
Contact lens scheme (essential) £33 a month.
Car tax £30 per month
Car insurance £30 per month
Home contents insurance £7 per month
Life insurance policy £6 per month
Council tax £107 per month
Water £12 a month

There is no way to reduce any of these bills. Possibly a tenner could be saved on the broadband but then I'd need a mobile sim as well because I'd lose that benefit, so Id be barely saving anything.

Everything else left is rent, child maintenance, energy, fuel, food, and then discretionary spending.
Click to expand...
have you looked at your contact lens scheme? I highly recommend.my lenses. Specsavers sleep ins (can't remember exact name, pure vision maybe). you can theoretically keep them in a month at a time and then take our and bin, let your eyes rest a few days then put new in.. I don't however I tend to go 6 days lenses 1 day glasses and bin every month. they are £10 a month and also get half price glasses every 2 years. nothing to do with energy mind but it's exceptional value imo
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom