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.

[LoveHamble]

Are you on the Warm Home Scheme?

[EmmaH2022]

Wouldn't blame you OP

risks are - getting cut off, sounds like you won't be
that's it really.

the utility companies can actually absorb the bills.

[sobeyondthehills]

I have gone fuck it, I did our budget for September, we still have to find an extra £76 from somewhere, that is when we have cut everything we can, only other thing we can now cut is council tax.

That conversation has not gone well, but I dont know what they want me to do, I cant pull that money from anywhere else.

I have to pay my gas and electric because I am prepay

[PeloDramatic]

Your usage weirdly is exactly the same as mine
I was paying £60 on a low fixed rate. Now it's going to be £202

[jennakong]

We seem to be dwelling in the future, in our imaginations. It is the 3rd of September. Is it too much to hope that the war in Ukraine might be over by autumn, or winter? That someone might take Putin out in a coup. That there might be a ceasefire. Intense diplomacy through back channels. Surely to God the govts of Europe will not stand aside while people die of the cold and fuel poverty? Maybe I am a ridiculous optimist, but Jesus I cannot spend my days fretting about what MIGHT happen in December or January! I'll try to be as careful as possible - we badly need some new furniture but it can wait - but panicking is the road to insanity.

[MinervaTerrathorn]

Your usage is low but doesn't seem low enough for your description of how you live. Is it just you? How big is the house? Ours is lower for two of us and we use more heating than that in winter and have daily showers.

[AKnitterofThings]

@DesolationRow It is such a shit situation, I think some people are only just waking up to it. Our area has a cafe and hot meal takeaway and share table twice a week using food that is donated by supermarkets and locals. If you can’t afford to pay anything no one bats an eyelid. In the last 2 weeks so many families are coming in for hot meals and drinks and taking food parcels home. I hate that CEOs are raking in the profits. It is an absolute disgrace. It is so so wrong that people are having to even worry about the cost of a bath, heating, food etc.

[Crocwok]

From the bustle of the local shopping mall this week with families queuing up to buy Clarks shoes for 2,3,4+ children, the food courts full, I would say a lot of people have either not heard the 'news' or they've reached the same 'fuck it' conclusion

Or as a 3rd option- they will still be financially fine even with the increases. Which is the case for some.

[IrishladyNE]

Personally I don’t think this has much to do with the war, I think we are people back all the furlough and business grants. I was furloughed for a couple of months but worked the rest of the time. That lifestyle was never going to happen without huge consequences. Here we are.

[FindingMeno]

I'm not panicking.
They can't have what I haven't got.
I'm going to be mindful of usage and I'm working more - but when I'm out of options I won't be alone and I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

[Undermearmour]

@jennakong

We seem to be dwelling in the future, in our imaginations. It is the 3rd of September. Is it too much to hope that the war in Ukraine might be over by autumn, or winter? That someone might take Putin out in a coup. That there might be a ceasefire. Intense diplomacy through back channels. Surely to God the govts of Europe will not stand aside while people die of the cold and fuel poverty? Maybe I am a ridiculous optimist, but Jesus I cannot spend my days fretting about what MIGHT happen in December or January! I'll try to be as careful as possible - we badly need some new furniture but it can wait - but panicking is the road to insanity.

This crisis is fast turning into Covid again. If you were here when all of that started, you know how many people on MN love a bit of catastrophising.

[Twillow]

In a similar boat. Very used to being frugal. I work and do overtime but minimum wage. The cost of living rises to car fuel and food have already eaten up any leeway. I aim to save £200 every month but this year every month there has been some car, child or domestic-related emergency expenditure that has eaten it up. I really have no way of cutting back short of cutting off the internet, don't think my children would thank me for that.

Of course [most] people survived in the old days. We had no central heating growing up. I don't really remember being particularly cold. But this is the future where progress should have been made. It's a utopian vision of course, but wouldn't it make sense to provide a basic level of free energy to everyone? Those who want more can choose if they are willing/able to pay more.

Those in power or privilege will ride this through without great inconvenience, as they always do, making it seem to them as though there wasn't any real crisis and that no real action needs to be taken. Who was that politician the other day who implied the poor would be fine if they used led lightbulbs. I despair.

[EmmaH2022]

@jennakong

We seem to be dwelling in the future, in our imaginations. It is the 3rd of September. Is it too much to hope that the war in Ukraine might be over by autumn, or winter? That someone might take Putin out in a coup. That there might be a ceasefire. Intense diplomacy through back channels. Surely to God the govts of Europe will not stand aside while people die of the cold and fuel poverty? Maybe I am a ridiculous optimist, but Jesus I cannot spend my days fretting about what MIGHT happen in December or January! I'll try to be as careful as possible - we badly need some new furniture but it can wait - but panicking is the road to insanity.

Who is panicking? Looks like a calm discussion.

some of us warned about the energy issue before war broke out. But I would bet quite a bit the war won't be ending any time soon.

[PerfectlyPreservedQuagaarWarrior]

It isn't either/or. It has to do with both things, and multiple others.

[Kezzie200]

I just cannot see anything but carnage at the moment. Very few businesses will survive - they just don't make the profit. Its going to hit so fast in October. Each night light is lost a few minutes earlier, it adds to the worry that its on is way.

I can see friends temporarily moving in together just to share a bill and leave the other house on anti freeze setting.

Please use food banks, if still operating, before you go into debt.

We need to get these politicians out as fast as possible. They are the only ones who have any control whatsoever.

[Ilikewinter]

Ive been looking at my Octopus account today and theyve updated it with the potential January rise..... so in January my bill is possibly going to be £664 and £500+ Feb, March dropping to £300, £200+ ongoing 😂😂😂😂, if I dont laugh I'll cry.

[Twillow]

@Undermearmour

This crisis is fast turning into Covid again. If you were here when all of that started, you know how many people on MN love a bit of catastrophising.

Covid wasn't nothing. Maybe it feels that way because, for most of us, things are back to normal. But trucks taking away the dead? That was real, as was my healthy young relative who died of covid, and my lovely elderly neighbour who has never really recovered after catching it. Had we not catastrophised, who knows how many more would have died or been incapacitated long-term?

[Babyroobs]

@Ilikewinter

Ive been looking at my Octopus account today and theyve updated it with the potential January rise..... so in January my bill is possibly going to be £664 and £500+ Feb, March dropping to £300, £200+ ongoing 😂😂😂😂, if I dont laugh I'll cry.

We've not long go rid of our mortgage and now will be paying the equivalent of another ! I really feel for people trying to pay both.

[IrishladyNE]

I’m not panicking at all to be honest. They will get what I can afford. I was way more anxious about covid. Even with that I chilled out after few months. All it took watch turning of the news

[3WildOnes]

YANBU there are lots of grants available to people who are in energy debt and can't afford to pay. You do have to get a referral from a debt charity who will look at your incoming and outgoings but if you can't pay then there are grants to pay it off.

[Alohaoi]

Yeah I know I’ll be defaulting on bills by December so just making the most of now and trying to plan in advance everything the kids might need in the new year and beyond. Flit between the horror of defaulting, laughing at the absolute ridiculousness of the last 2.5 years we’ve had and fear for the future my kids will have.
I look back at the 90/00s, from a child’s perspective, everything seemed so.. stable. What the fuck went wrong ey.

[Astounding]

I feel like we as a country should go on strike as energy customers and not pay the bills. They can’t switch us all off surely?

Thats what I’m wondering too. I have slightly above the £16,000 savings threshold to claim benefits. I live off a small fixed income and had to take early retirement. I could just about make ends meet after rent and all the other outgoings but I’ve cut back what I can in terms of no holidays for 7 years, no tv/licence, no meals out/takeaways, no subscriptions , shopping and cooking economically etc. The only way I can pay my fuel bills too will be to go into my savings. So anyone who has tried to save will be penalised for doing so. I suppose when I have under the threshold I’ll be able to claim housing benefit. But I really resent it just in order not to freeze and to be able to get a shower etc.

A lot of people won’t be able to cut back any more and just won’t be able to pay their ridiculous bills. It will be a bad look for the government to be cutting off gas and electricity of key workers, families just getting by who aren’t able to claim any benefits and watching business after business close their doors.

I moved into a new build one bedroom HA flat in May. I got my quarterly electric bill from British Gas which was £250. I’ve used no lighting, the washing machine once a week. I have a daily 5 min shower. I have to keep the fridge running and use my laptop a lot but with it being summer I’ve used very little. God knows what the next bill will be. It’s not going to be sustainable for many many people and I don’t think they can cut us all off en masse. Or can they?

[sobeyondthehills]

@3WildOnes

YANBU there are lots of grants available to people who are in energy debt and can't afford to pay. You do have to get a referral from a debt charity who will look at your incoming and outgoings but if you can't pay then there are grants to pay it off.

Thats not strictly true, there are grants and the companies have the right to turn you down for them and in some cases you can't apply for x amount of time. In others you cant appeal, in others you cant find out why you were turned down.

Its not like you can get the referal and then its paid off

[Overthisnow98]

My backup plan is credit cards. Pay the utilities on credit cards, that way avoiding the hell of prepayment meter and one thing I’ve realised is that small debts , say under £1000 rarely make it to court . They credit check you, see that you’re piss poor and just send letters. Ignore letters and they go statute barred soon enough. It’s not a wise way to run your finances but as someone without a car or any possessions which don’t count as protected goods there is literally nothing a debt collector could do to poor people anyway.Nowhere near that point at all , but do have half a dozen unused credit cards in a drawer ready to spank if needs be. A relative of mine who works in big finance and has always been bang on with predictions in the past has said it’ll be short lived. There’ll be a bail out from a war fund type source from government which will have a knock on effect across other things but will spread out the misery and soften the blow. No one should freeze or sit in the dark the companies are just trying it on, seeing how much the little people will pay before they have to admit they fucked it up.

[Technophobic]

It’s a pity the Tories privatised the energy sector, allowing them to profit from this situation.