Own brand for own brand on a proper like for like basis, the cost difference between Aldi and Lidl and Tesco/Morrisons/Asda is minimal.
The adverts Lidl and Aldi put out are very clever but they are very carefully selected products.
Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)
- Thread starter DXP55
- Start date
Own brand for own brand on a proper like for like basis, the cost difference between Aldi and Lidl and Tesco/Morrisons/Asda is minimal.
The adverts Lidl and Aldi put out are very clever but they are very carefully selected products.
Very true.
Man of Honour
Just like for like brand stuff. It saves us about £20 per week. Which for a family of 4 is pretty good.
Same reason we have no social housing building programs. What the solution is to short termism I dont know, as I dont think having elections every 30 years would go down well.
I feel we absolutely have to look at generating more of our own power, the most obvious is a nationwide gov funded/subsidised (dependent on wealth) solar panel installation program, and also a legal requirement for every new home built to have them.
A massive increase in nuclear power capacity.
A target to have imported energy down to below 5% of our needs within a decade.
Caporegime
Also if we need to use oil/gas for manufacturing use our own reserves. Burning it for energy usage is a waste anyway!
yes - getting rid of branded stuff - cereals/biscuits/jams/spreads/cheeses/coffee/tinned/cleaning/bathroom is the big saver
....
parents have a 20 year old gas boiler, recently discussing that might save 20% going condensing - better insulated moden tank is what I think will be the main advantage, but it's not going to be 50%.
do you did stuff tastes different or do you just get over that hill eventually by just buying the same brand stuff?
I have a very brand aware family, so forcing them to change would be painful, though not as painful as the thought of paying out extra when all this goes south lol
It’s depends on the product, some this is just plain bad and other stuff is very good. My main issue is they just don’t stock everything you need for actually cooking from scratch which means a trip to the bigger supermarkets. It’s fine if you don’t really ‘cook’ though (bunging a pizza in the oven is not cooking
).
Then I wouldn’t buy ketchup because it’s Hienz, I got out of that way of life years ago and saved a fortune on my food bill. In that regard I found it pretty easy to just go cold turkey and just stopped buying branded stuff, most stuff is so similar it’s mostly in the mind.
Cooking from scratch also helps a lot as you naturally aren’t buying branded foods.
).Then I wouldn’t buy ketchup because it’s Hienz, I got out of that way of life years ago and saved a fortune on my food bill. In that regard I found it pretty easy to just go cold turkey and just stopped buying branded stuff, most stuff is so similar it’s mostly in the mind.
Cooking from scratch also helps a lot as you naturally aren’t buying branded foods.
Man of Honour
As I said earlier we still buy meat from the local butcher (we live in a small town) and a lot of veg from the farmer's market. Those are our luxuries - and overall with the savings we get from Aldi it nets out as I'd still rather buy decent quality meat when we eat it as there's no point in buying **** meat/poultry.
Frozen veg is the same in terms of quality.
Dried pasta is the same in terms of quality.
Tinned goods (not that we buy many) are basically the same.
Bread we make our own.
Dairy we don't really drink much milk.
Cereals as long as you buy the fortified stuff (for kids) it's fine. They still do organic produce like oats and so on.
Fish is good enough.
Beans and pulses are all fine.
To be honest the only thing you miss out on are luxury items, things like pizzas we make ourselves (me make the dough) for example. We've always cooked from scratch anyway which makes saving cash easier.
We've only really started focussing on this late last year as we predicted that life was going to be getting tricky/expensive - hence why we downgraded the car etc... We wanted to make sure that the kids can still do their clubs and activities etc... They're our priority, they need to experience life to the max and we fully intend on doing everything we can to do so, and eat healthily.
We still pop to Waitrose (it's the supermarket in our small town) as their deals in the afternoon/evening are worthwhile, and they do their 3 items for £10 which are worthwhile for lazy evenings which still happen.
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Soldato
We use Asda home delivery for none perishables, they were doing an offer of £35 for a years unlimited deliveries so we snatched their hand off, I couldn't drive there and back once a week for a year for £35 nevermind the time it saves.
Local farm shop for veg, bags of potatoes, meat etc and an occasional Lidl shop to pick up a few other items.
Local farm shop for veg, bags of potatoes, meat etc and an occasional Lidl shop to pick up a few other items.
So just had a second email in the space of a month or so saying my energy bills are going up, I understand that the more I use the more I should pay but now they're increasing the electric standing charge from 24.102p per day to 43.394 ( that's an 80% increase even if you use almost no electricity ) Unit price is up ~ 37%, bargain.
The gas standing charge is only increasing by just over a penny from 26.112 to 27.219p.
In all that makes a 100% increase since December on my DD.
EDIT: Finally found somewhere giving unit prices, not a general % price increase, and this is inline with the Price Cap. Still don't see why the SC goes up by over twice the unit cost for leccy
The gas standing charge is only increasing by just over a penny from 26.112 to 27.219p.
In all that makes a 100% increase since December on my DD.
EDIT: Finally found somewhere giving unit prices, not a general % price increase, and this is inline with the Price Cap. Still don't see why the SC goes up by over twice the unit cost for leccy
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yep -
1. If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.
2. Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk.
3. Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
4. Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it for yourself.
5. Avoid foods you see advertised on television.
6. Eat your colors.
7. Treat treats as treats.
8. Don’t eat anything that won’t eventually rot.
9. Break the rules once and awhile
Aldi sells stuff for cooking from scratch that hasn't covered many food miles .. if you want exotic stuff less fresh yes you need to go to the big supermarkets.
What are examples of these branded products people can't live without .. other than British gas.
Soldato
Economy 7 and night storage heaters here. DD going from £104 to £245 per month. Annual usage: Night = 5000kWh Day = 3400kWh Night rate up to 19.5p kWh Day rate up to 33p kWh Standing charge up to 38p per day. how the hell am I meant to afford that increase?
Caporegime
Wait for October then, best lube up.
Soldato
not a bad price for an off grid ready property
As posted in other thread.
Ok so I just clicked on change tariff for octopus.
12m contract
1 - Moderate increase on SC for electric 19.74p to 23.76p day. Roughly 20%.
2 - Increase from 19.74p unit to 35.61p unit for electric. Roughly 85% or so? no calculator used.
3 - Moderate increase on gas SC from 23p to 26p day, approx 15%.
4 - Increase from 3.76p unit on Gas to 9.63p unit, approx 250% increase?
These are insane, given I have still a month of october cap left as well, this would be 6 months of april cap and 5 months of next october cap.
12 month offer vs April cap.
Electric SC 23.76p day vs 45.34p day
Electric unit price 35.6p vs 20.8p
Gas SC 26.10p vs 27.22p day
Gas unit price 9.63p vs 7.37p
Electric
10 units day usage, on 12m deal approx £113 every month.
10 units day usage, on price cap approx £76 every month
Gas is clearer in the differences so not bothered with calculations.
If we assume price cap doubles so 100% increase next Oct then I am basically better off on price cap by circa £40 month for 6 months, then worse off by circa £35 for next 6 months.
So this really needs to be a 2 year deal or even a 18 month deal at same rates, these companies know what they doing. Able to make these calculations thanks to Martin publishing the unit and SC rates instead of the silly vague average bill from ofgem.
Note the analysis is disregarding gas, my gas usage is extremely low, high gas users may well be better off on this 12m deal as the advantage is only 2p unit on April cap and could be much bigger deficit on Oct cap.
Ok so I just clicked on change tariff for octopus.
12m contract
1 - Moderate increase on SC for electric 19.74p to 23.76p day. Roughly 20%.
2 - Increase from 19.74p unit to 35.61p unit for electric. Roughly 85% or so? no calculator used.
3 - Moderate increase on gas SC from 23p to 26p day, approx 15%.
4 - Increase from 3.76p unit on Gas to 9.63p unit, approx 250% increase?
These are insane, given I have still a month of october cap left as well, this would be 6 months of april cap and 5 months of next october cap.
12 month offer vs April cap.
Electric SC 23.76p day vs 45.34p day
Electric unit price 35.6p vs 20.8p
Gas SC 26.10p vs 27.22p day
Gas unit price 9.63p vs 7.37p
Electric
10 units day usage, on 12m deal approx £113 every month.
10 units day usage, on price cap approx £76 every month
Gas is clearer in the differences so not bothered with calculations.
If we assume price cap doubles so 100% increase next Oct then I am basically better off on price cap by circa £40 month for 6 months, then worse off by circa £35 for next 6 months.
So this really needs to be a 2 year deal or even a 18 month deal at same rates, these companies know what they doing. Able to make these calculations thanks to Martin publishing the unit and SC rates instead of the silly vague average bill from ofgem.
Note the analysis is disregarding gas, my gas usage is extremely low, high gas users may well be better off on this 12m deal as the advantage is only 2p unit on April cap and could be much bigger deficit on Oct cap.
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Associate
These 'standing charge' rate hikes on electricity seem to be pretty large - are the companies trying to make up for lost revenue from the cheaper fixed deals when gas prices started surging? Or is it to cover other losses. It looks like I'll be going from 23p to 42p standing charge.
I understand the price hike in 'usage charges' as that is based on the gas prices etc. Perhaps they are employing gold-winged unicorns to deliver this electricity?
I understand the price hike in 'usage charges' as that is based on the gas prices etc. Perhaps they are employing gold-winged unicorns to deliver this electricity?
As I understand it a big chunk of the increase is to cover losses from migrating over credit balances, but you can see in my calculation a higher SC is preferable to a higher unit price unless you have very low usage.