The cost of living.

[Psycho Sonny]

One thing I've noticed is supermarket offers are all practically gone or now only on the more expensive offerings.

The orange juice we buy is no longer on the 3 for £4 deal.

The small packs of meat I buy is no longer on the 3 for £10 deal.

Soda water is no longer 3 for £1 just 50p each now.

Deals are all disappearing. Places like Aldi and Lidl don't sell half the stuff I buy like soda water. Having to do 2-3 different shops just isn't worth the time or hassle.

 

[Pottsey]

You're the odd man out at a time of crazy energy prices. A couple of questions if you don't mind.

Who is your energy provider and how much are you paying per kWh for gas and electricity?

Do you only use 73 litres of petrol per year?

To honest I was surprised at this October bill in regards to gas. I am on variable rate, Midlands area. 17.612p per unit for Electricity, 3.104 per unit for gas which for some reason has gone down over this time last year. With -£49.74 to the bill from Solar Panels for October. Provider Utility Warehouse.

For the car I am below the average of 7,200miles per year. Not got time right now to work out how many miles I do. Takes me 7 min to drive to work what ever that works out as mile wise.

 

[Martynt74]

What about people who always buy bags when shopping? This must be the easiest things to save money on. Don’t use them as bin bags! Either reuse bags until they get full of holes or handle breaks and get replacement for free. Or buy some strong sturdy bags instead.

For some people, esp the customers that shop at my work and live in the council estate opposite who always buy a bag or two. A bag for life for them is a bag for 10 mins.

England has had the bag charge in place for 6 years and it should have been time where hardly a soul buys one. Keep hearing bags have been reduced by 96%. But where I live, it’s probably only been reduced by 6%!

Have only purchased about 8 carrier bags since the charge. One time, I bought a coat and didn’t have a bag big enough for it. At least three times was, I only brought two bags with me and one of them split. As this wasn’t a bag from the shop I was in, had to buy one.

Is there any thread you post in that you don't moan about carrier bags?

 

[robcat101]

What we really don’t want is a cycle of increasing inflation and interest rates - then things may get very uncomfortable. Obviously most Millennials and all Gen Zs won’t have experienced that. The last time we had sustained inflation and high interest rates was the late 80s/early 90s. (I’m old, but not old enough to remember the really high inflation of the late 70’s/early 80s - it wasn’t pretty though). Although I suppose Generation Rent may not be as directly affected as people with mortgages were in 1990.

 

[Martynt74]

What we really don’t want is a cycle of increasing inflation and interest rates - then things may get very uncomfortable. Obviously most Millennials and all Gen Zs won’t have experienced that. The last time we had sustained inflation and high interest rates was the late 80s/early 90s. (I’m old, but not old enough to remember the really high inflation of the late 70’s/early 80s - it wasn’t pretty though). Although I suppose Generation Rent may not be as directly affected as people with mortgages were in 1990.

Course they would. All the people who rent will have their rents whacking up as all the BTL landlords now need to pay a higher mortgage cost. Then the landlords who own outright will put their prices up too because that's now market rate and make even more money.

Interest rates going up could be disastrous for all the people who really high mortgages too and i imagine there'd be an uproar in the media with sob stories of people no longer being able to afford their house.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Course they would. All the people who rent will have their rents whacking up as all the BTL landlords now need to pay a higher mortgage cost. Then the landlords who own outright will put their prices up too because that's now market rate and make even more money.

Interest rates going up could be disastrous for all the people who really high mortgages too and i imagine there'd be an uproar in the media with sob stories of people no longer being able to afford their house.

It's greed and poor financial understanding that causes people to buy homes they really shouldn't.

It's hard not to because it will end up being one of the best investments you can make. If you cannot afford interest rate increases then you really do need to re-evaluate your options.

I was originally going to lock in for 2 years but decided to go with 5 this year. Glad I did now but people had been saying for 10 years now rates can only go up lock for longer. So that's what I did 5 years ago and they were all wrong and I lost out as a result, rates decreased. Hoping this time I got it right by making my own decision and not listening to the herd.

 

[adam cool dude]

It's greed and poor financial understanding that causes people to buy homes they really shouldn't.

It's hard not to because it will end up being one of the best investments you can make. If you cannot afford interest rate increases then you really do need to re-evaluate your options.

I was originally going to lock in for 2 years but decided to go with 5 this year. Glad I did now but people had been saying for 10 years now rates can only go up lock for longer. So that's what I did 5 years ago and they were all wrong and I lost out as a result, rates decreased. Hoping this time I got it right by making my own decision and not listening to the herd.

Mines due next year although only got 10 years left on mortgage. We only pay £460 a month so hardly back breaking. Maybe we will use savings to pay a huge chunk off if rates decide to go up.

 

[Martynt74]

It's greed and poor financial understanding that causes people to buy homes they really shouldn't.

It's hard not to because it will end up being one of the best investments you can make. If you cannot afford interest rate increases then you really do need to re-evaluate your options.

I was originally going to lock in for 2 years but decided to go with 5 this year. Glad I did now but people had been saying for 10 years now rates can only go up lock for longer. So that's what I did 5 years ago and they were all wrong and I lost out as a result, rates decreased. Hoping this time I got it right by making my own decision and not listening to the herd.

Oh for sure, it takes a lot of willpower not to keep having scope creep when looking at houses.

I need to remember my moving abroad plans when i next do my mortgage. I'm split into 3 parts and the plan was to align them all next June and consolidate to take advantage of one of the fee based fixes. That'd tie me in longer than i want though and mean i'd be stuck with huge early repayment costs.
I need to keep drilling this into my head!

 

[Martynt74]

Mines due next year although only got 10 years left on mortgage. We only pay £460 a month so hardly back breaking. Maybe we will use savings to pay a huge chunk off if rates decide to go up.

Would be interesting to see what effect this would have on the stock markets. I feel there's been a lot of money going into it that was once used to overpay mortgages because there's such little benefit of doing so these days.

If rates rise, then i see a lot of people cashing out to pay off a decent chunk of the mortgage.

 

[Haze]

Eh? No it hasn't.



What? Where are you living? In a dream? Petrol prices are almost at record highs in the UK, average price is now 140p

Some sort of idiot...

 

[Surveyor]

To honest I was surprised at this October bill in regards to gas. I am on variable rate, Midlands area. 17.612p per unit for Electricity, 3.104 per unit for gas which for some reason has gone down over this time last year. With -£49.74 to the bill from Solar Panels for October. Provider Utility Warehouse.

For the car I am below the average of 7,200miles per year. Not got time right now to work out how many miles I do. Takes me 7 min to drive to work what ever that works out as mile wise.

I doubt you're on a standard variable rate as every energy provider seems to be at the energy price cap prices now, around 20.592p for electricity and 4.047p for gas. Those are the figures Utility Warehouse are quoting now for their variable rate tariffs.

 

[Nasher]

But are >100% efficient compared to any electric heater. (Up to 500% efficient depending on conditions)

I suppose it will come down to if a gas turbine power station and transmission is more efficient than a traditional gas boiler (or even modern condenser boiler)

Not good enough to justify the cost. Id rather just fit a couple of split AC units for a fraction of the price, which can heat and cool. A retro fitted heat pump will never pay for itself and its massive hassle fitting one.

 

[200sols]

Not good enough to justify the cost. Id rather just fit a couple of split AC units for a fraction of the price. A retro fitted heat pump will never pay for itself and its massive hassle fitting one.

The idea isn't for it to pay for itself, its to reduce emissions. However heat pumps are not the solution, I don't know what is but these are unworkable and unaffordable for most.

 

[Nasher]

The idea isn't for it to pay for itself, its to reduce emissions. However heat pumps are not the solution, I don't know what is but these are unworkable and unaffordable for most.

But people still have to be able to afford it. 16k+ after a government grant is totally unviable. In older houses you will have to strip the house to redo all of the insulation and floors. Like smart meters it will be a total fail.

 

[200sols]

But people still have to be able to afford it. 16k+ after a government grant isnt totally unviable. In older houses you will have to strip the house to redo all of the insulation and floors.

As I said

these are unworkable and unaffordable for most

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

One thing I've noticed is supermarket offers are all practically gone or now only on the more expensive offerings.

The orange juice we buy is no longer on the 3 for £4 deal.

The small packs of meat I buy is no longer on the 3 for £10 deal.

Soda water is no longer 3 for £1 just 50p each now.

Deals are all disappearing. Places like Aldi and Lidl don't sell half the stuff I buy like soda water. Having to do 2-3 different shops just isn't worth the time or hassle.

I don't have a horse in this race because I don't live right now in the place you guys do but the days of BOGOFs and multibuys and BUY [x] get [y]% off semi-related product [z] are probably down the gurgler for the UK for the forseeable which - hilariously - was forseaable because a ton of UK imports and deals are from European suppliers who often footed some or all of the margin loss on those deals in your shops begining with 'T' and 'S' and, uh, 'M' (separately, not really) 'S', and not so much your Aldi's and Lidl's of this world because ... you can work the rest out I'm sure.

If you try to change the world and do a hamfisted job of it then expect the world you were used to become unfamiliar.

 

[moon man]

My heating oil i buy on dip if possible but i like the fact you are your own supplier once itss in there! Electricity scot power fix using £30 month ish bit i think the freezer in the detatched games room (boom) is kicking in too often. (recent smart meter )
Did a small tesco shop that went from £19 to £13 with a club card phone scan, so deals are still out there.
Water rates £18ish a month
I run a nearly 20 yr old reliable car, property has always been my priority hence no mortgage
Mate 20 pro phone £6 mnth unlimited

 

[Psycho Sonny]

My heating oil i buy on dip if possible but i like the fact you are your own supplier once itss in there! Electricity scot power fix using £30 month ish bit i think the freezer in the detatched games room (boom) is kicking in too often. (recent smart meter )
Did a small tesco shop that went from £19 to £13 with a club card phone scan, so deals are still out there.
Water rates £18ish a month
I run a nearly 20 yr old reliable car, property has always been my priority hence no mortgage
Mate 20 pro phone £6 mnth unlimited

What car out of interest? I'm thinking it has to be Japanese.

 

[moon man]

Its an old sdi fabia non turbo diesel

 

[Richie]

The old SDI engines are bulletproof and can run on anything remotely diesel-ish.

Rattly old diesel tech with no performance compared to modern diesels but what you lose on that, you gain on reliability (if serviced)...

It's the corrosion on the body/subframe/components that would be the issue, not the engine. Given your location (next to the sea), that would be your only concern with the salt spray