What’s the point in being frugal anymore?

[DesolationRow]

I have a fixed low income and am good at cutting my cloth accordingly, I have no debt and free/cheap hobbies and social life.

My average fuel consumption these past few years has been 6500kWh gas and 2000 electricity = around £750 a year. I pay quarterly, always promptly.

On very cold days I put the heating on for an hour early evening. I have reasonable insulation, heavy curtains, I ‘warm the person, not the room’ ie base layer, wool jumpers and socks, fingerless gloves and a hat, hot water bottles and electric blankets. I have an air-fryer and microwave and have two baths a week. My luxury is a small coffee machine and putting the heating on when I have visitors (because my home is definitely too cold for most people to bear!)

So I’m happy and comfortable enough BUT I’ve used an online calculator and my new annual fuel cost will be £2,400 - way, way more than I can afford!

AIBU to think why the fuck should I pay £2,400 to live like this? As I’ve no way of avoiding debt now I might as well heat my home properly and bathe and cook hot meals every day. To me, £3,400 (or £4,400) is as unaffordable as £2,400. My credit rating doesn’t matter and I’m on the ‘priority register’ so think I could avoid being put on a pre-payment meter.

Wow, you just quoted one of the biggest “conspiracies” those tin foil hat wearers have been saying since covid….those power cuts are coming! Energy rationing is coming! Food rationing is coming! Climate change and the so called energy crisis is the new covid. By 2030 you will own nothing and you will be happy. The great reset-the new world order…those hats aren’t looking quite so shiny anymore.

I think a lot of it is a "last hurrah" before the shit hits the fan come winter.

Good luck claiming anything without sharing bank details. Fingers crossed they miss the sum you've recently drawn out on your bank statement or the assessor won't have heard of deprivation of capital, and you could be on to something!
You might not go to prison for utility debt, but benefit fraud us a different story, and not to be recommended.

@BoffinMum
What world do you live in? There have been hundreds of PMs and there have been millions of their detractors. There will always be millions who disagree with whatever party is in power, have no doubt about that.
Imagine this. If a completely different party were to magically appear, do you really think that they would be able to lower food prices, lower energy prices, recruit more lorry drivers, recruit more police and NHS workers, lessen the numbers of people needing hospitals this winter, stop strikes immediately, sort out illegal immigration once and for all and give more handouts as well as doing all the other more minor daily stuff pertaining to running a country.
Do you think that the media would stop their harassment of government? No. The problems listed above would remain no matter who was in power and there will never be a day when everyone is on the same page.
There is only so much money in government coffers and they are the taxes we pay. Do you want it handed out to poorer families, the unemployed, disabled, pensioners?
Your energy companies are not the ones making millions it's the drilling companies who call the tune and providers have no option but to charge more as they have to pay more in the first place, otherwise they would go into administration and we don't need that again...do we?
Covid depleted the coffers to the tune of trillions which has to be recouped somehow.
They can't afford to give more handouts.
We will get through it even if we have to cut back on what we have always taken for granted.
Our parents have done it, I have done it and other countries are dealing with their own similar problems too.
So, will it kill us not to have houses and streets list up like Blackpool illuminations? Will it pain us to make presents instead of buying the latest iPhone for a 12 year old? Will it be impossible to make nice food from cheaper ingredients? Will we freeze to death? No no no no no.
Grasp the nettle. Talk to your energy provider and ask what help or advice is available when the bills arrive in November. Be proactive.

We point blank can’t afford to pay anything more than we already do and they already almost tripled our bill back in April. We have DC so there’s no way I’m making them suffer in a freezing house. If/when they hike our bill again, we’ll just tell them we can’t afford it. Absolutely no point freezing to death when the bill is going up to such a ludicrous amount regardless.

Read the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists please, I implore. You’re very much like the character Misery…

I have know idea what supplier your with but I'm with eon and mines only going up to 130 I have 2 kids and a dog.

But this is all avoidable - a windfall tax on the EXTRA profits of fuel companies would offset this misery imposed on the poorest. It will be the poorest who will suffer the most.

I’m utterly bewildered as to why this is being allowed to happen.

@Shauny098
Don't kid yourself. The DWP have the power to access all your banking details, what goes in and what goes out etc and make no mistake, if they ask you for details and they think you're not telling the truth or their investigations find out that you have illegally claimed benefits and given money to someone else to look after, you'll be spending some time in prison.

But it has been made obvious that a windfall tax on the EXTRA profits accrued by fuel extractor companies would offset those rises creating misery for the poorest and most vulnerable???

I’m utterly bewildered as to why this being allowed to happen. Surely we can all see a pattern by now.

This is avoidable!

Sorry, thought post had been deleted so rewrote!

But you get my drift

OP I get where you're coming from.

Do you know why we have it so bad here? The government agreed energy companies can charge UK citizens the international cost for energy not the cost in the UK, so instead of $330, we pay twice that much. Our own government did this to us.

Congrats, Tory voters, you gave fucked us all up 🤬

I for one am not going to stop heating my house or taking showers.

But how much actual energy do you use?

That's the key.

The Catch 22 situation of not paying = meter installation = greater cost highlights out powerlessness. This has been the plight of the poorest for time. It is expensive to be poor!

I’m all for the Don’t Pay sentiment, but unless we have the middle classes firmly onboard, it can’t work.

Op, I would liaise with local Don’t Pay groups. Yanbu

Yep agree with you 100% !

@LoisLane66 You say ‘So, will it kill us not to have houses and streets list up like Blackpool illuminations? Will it pain us to make presents instead of buying the latest iPhone for a 12 year old? Will it be impossible to make nice food from cheaper ingredients?…’ but this does not describe my life, it’s a million miles away from how many of us live, and now we are being forced to go into debt, even whilst having freezing homes.

How much money there is in government coffers is a political choice. And energy companies could charge less if they didn’t have shareholders.

@Shauny098 thingnis, I can’t & shouldn’t have to put my savings into someone else’s account. I will be the one that gets found out. I know 4 families claiming benefits fraudulently but I will be the 1 that doesn’t get away with it. And, I don’t want to do it. I want it to be fair.

I wish I’d have spent it living a good life instead of being sensible & doing without. It’s not much savings but it’s over the threshold for getting any help. Now, it will get spent on food/heat.

@Hia £130 is your monthly direct debit, not your actual usage. From October my monthly usage would average out at around £190pm, which is about 60% of the average household’s energy consumption, as far as I can see. It’ll be different between suppliers (I’m on British Gas standard variable) but your £130pm after October is extraordinary low. I hope it’s right but I’d double check.

@lindyloo57 I hope so too, good luck 🙂

@moneybeingwasted @the80sweregreat selfish perhaps but I’m really glad I did have DC’s - they’re very nice to me and one of them has a log burner!

You don’t really understand contemporary finance or politics. Governments can effectively print money as long as they keep an eye on domestic inflation - it doesn’t need to be paid back as long as the economy can be persuaded to grow, it’s also not a zero sum game - giving to one group doesn’t necessarily mean another group can’t have something - these are all policy choices, ideological even. Immigration is a key example - we know that educated migrants enhance national prosperity so deciding to keep them out of a country is simply ideologically driven. it serves little rational purpose. Can new political ideas change things dramatically? Thatcherism did, and so did new Labour. After WW2 there were even more extensive political shifts, seismic even. In fact it happens once a generation. So if you want the lights on, heating, decent education, healthy international trade, strong defence or whatever, do something more practical to progress that.

There is no shortage of money. National prosperity is a nebulous term. We are the 7th/8th (slipping rapidly?) richest country, yet we have food banks and child poverty. A tiny minority have billions more than they could ever spend.
There is so much money sloshing around in the coffers of those who want it to remain theirs. This imposed frugality, like ‘austerity’ is another way to ensure it stays that way.
It can only change if we acknowledge then unite to challenge this.

There is no shortage of money. National prosperity is a nebulous term. We are the 7th/8th (slipping rapidly?) richest country, yet we have food banks and child poverty. A tiny minority have billions more than they could ever spend.
There is so much money sloshing around in the coffers of those who want it to remain theirs. This imposed frugality, like ‘austerity’ is another way to ensure it stays that way.
It can only change if we acknowledge then unite to challenge this.

I sold a vehicle I could no longer use (for well below the savings threshold), and lost sleep over it. I ended up very unwell as a result.
I hate claiming UC, and I hate being scared of every penny that is not DWP going into my bank account. If someone offered me £10k, I would turn it down.