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.

Op I really feel for you.
We were all just inching ahead after COVID and now this..
I know there is a generally crisis on energy but it still amazes me why the world best shooes can't just shoot Putin.

It sounds like you can't do more and it's just hopeless.
( Did you mention electric blankets by the way?

I have started to cut back I.e. Do I really need that item, do I really need to go out as I can’t be bothered to cook tonight etc

I know that this will have a knock on effect down the line in the shops, pubs, etc I.e. Staff being laid off as a lot of people cut back on their discretionary spend

Some local eateries have shut where I live, main reason, cost of cooking food and serving it, makes it not viable to start cooking it in the first place as people won’t want to spend what it actually costs to produce

I don’t have a mortgage, benefit of being made redundant years ago and paid it off but that has allowed me to keep my son, granddaughter afloat and not go into debt

i was thinking of retiring this year, that has gone out of the window for the foreseeable future

What do people do if what they earn does not cover the basics I.e. Utilities, food, bills

Saying all of the above, the local shopping centre was packed today and money was being spent and the impression I got was that there was no upcoming problem with the cost of Utilities, mortgage increases 😳😳😳

Time will tell 😳

Astounding especially people like you with on the margin savings.

This will wipe out savings.

I was in the first position for years to try and put some money into a sipp pension.
Obviously I won't be able to now which will greatly impact my future!
I have already lost time really this was my one shot.
However unless something else catastrophic happens at least we have two incomes to get through this winter.

It's just terrible and yes it's 80% Putin.

I feel the same op.

instead of ‘living for the now’ I have lived frugally since I was 25 so have some savings & now I’m like, great, I will just spend all my savings on bills shall I. If I didn’t have savings, I would be entitled to some help as I’m on a low wage but instead, I get no help because instead of having a nice life, I’ve done without. Now I will be spending it on keep warm.

Re businesses Tom kerridge has said that his fuel has jumped from something like 65 grand to 400 hundreds .

It's cataclysmic and we need to look at how other countries are tackling it.

I think Germany seems to have a plan for cutting x first ( all unnecessary lights/heat). rolling back and make sure people who need it will be ok.

We just seem to be usual happhazzard, forced into things instead 9f being proactive.

Well I am on the priority list and are on a old pre-payment meter. They say tell them and you get put on the list. When they say you will not get cut off You have to hope its 11pm onwards your credit runs out. If you run out of money any earlier they suggest asking neighbours, and give the same you need to make sure you put enough on blah. Do these ppl really think if ppl had enough money that they would drag there heels instead of paying?

It says pre payment meters are not the right choice for ppl that are on the priority list. But if you are behind in payments they force you to stay on that type of meter.

I saw this attitude at uni where people had such big student loan debts that they gave up on being frugal.

I am worried about my own bills but I think yabvu. The war won't last for ever. High bills won't last forever. The winter might be mild. If you have to be in debt, being in £2000 in debt will take a hell of a lot less time to recover from than £4000.

Im the same way.

Ill be cancelling the DD shortly.

I will then offer a payment plan, once there is a debt, of what I can afford which is what I was paying last year.If they won't accept that, I shan't pay at all.

They can stick the rest of it up their arse. I am a priority user, so won't be cut off, and they will need to climb over my dead body to put a prepayment meter in, I've done my time of being super poor and paying even MORE for my fuel and having to choose between washing myself, my clothing or cooking my food.

There is no help until we're up to our eyeballs in debt, in reality -the token efforts we've seen so far and been promised up to now are just that, tokens, they're not serious efforts to DO anything meaningful.

Bar one credit card, I have no other debt (and that was reducing significantly til my fuel bills went up), and if I do get up to my eyeballs in debt well ill probably be dead before I have to pay it back so.. sucks for those I leave behind but IDK any more.

I get what you’re saying,,in,for a penny, in for a pound and if you’re going to have debt you don’t care how much or how long it will,take you to pay off. The issue is, it will take you longer to pay off. So it will Impact you longer.

I was reading the,cringe thread about folks delighted summer was over, squealing with excitement about hot chocolate and snuggly blankets and I genuinely thought I’d never read anything so self absorbed in my life.

There will be lots of bankruptcies.

I have thought this through, I'll empty the savings and stash it under the bed, anyone asks and oops I paid a dodgy bloke who ran off with it...

I am genuinely beyond caring, this government have done the bare minimum to help disabled people. I have worked my arse off, paid my taxes, played the game, stayed outta debt, got on the property ladder... I WON'T be forced to line the pockets of fuel companies with my last bean. I'll pay a fair price or ill pay no price atall.

Send me to prison. I give no shits. At least I won't have to worry about bills then!

Can people only post about stuff if they're on the breadline then?

You are not alone . Just like you I can sustain a bit if a increase but not triple , I have severe disabled child and I doubt they would disconnect us . My only issue is instead of gas we have oil . Last year costed £550 for 1000 litres that last most year , this year £1200 it’s absolutely ridiculous and w scan only order a minimum of 500 litres a time . I have decided to get more electric heaters and use them as much as I can until January February where we need both central heating and oil ( we are in the north of Scotland ) . I’ve been getting oil ones from marketplace on Facebook to put on each division of the house .
it’s ridiculous to get to this place but how can anyone afford an extra £400 a month

I feel the same @DesolationRow

Debt it is then

@DesolationRow , the increases are awful. Just one thing though are you about to come off a fixed tariff as the increase you have been quoted from approx £750 a year to £2400 is more than the 80% increase that will happen on October 1 for those on standard variable? At 80% your quote should be around £1350, a £600 increase. It’s still a lot but not as a steep jump to £2400? However, if you are coming off a fixed tariff soon then the increase will be more than 80%. Or does the £2400 estimate include the expected further increase in Jan 2023?

This is exactly it. Implying that the individual can 'make a difference', turning people against one another - this is how capitalism always manages to make us look the other way.

LeggyLinda

Great post. There's going to be a change in attitude.

I get what you are saying OP and I'm so worried. I've been just about doing ok but an unexpected expense a few months ago has tipped me over and I'm into my overdraft a few days after payday. I buy clothes in charity shops and my freezer is full of yellow sticker items. I shower, do my laundry and washing up once a week. There's nothing there for these additional expenses. Nothing.
Having said that, the people around me can absorb it. I have a small circle of friends and all of them have savings. I'm trying not to be bitter and angry with them as they're not worried and don't understand why I am but it's hard.

What's plan B ?

I support you entirely OP. I hope you do make the decision to spend a warm and comfortable winter, and that millions of others in similar positions to you do the same. I also think help will come, and my guess is part of that will be the writing off of debt, particularly for people with health conditions or who are otherwise vulnerable. I wish you all the best.

My absurd reaction to it all includes building up as much 'power credit balance' as I can, implementing as many cost-cutting measures as I can think of whilst drinking more wine and smoking more fags than I ever did before.

Shower long term broken, gas oven, old boiler and central heating system. Feel doomed.
We have a couple of portable radiator type oil heaters. Are they cheaper to run? One upstairs and one down. On the whole will cut down when heating/ hot water on massively in the winter. Hold off putting heating on til November, etc.

I completely agree with your first post OP. There is no logic to living so frugally if you will end up in extortionate debt anyway, so you may as well live very comfortably and maybe declare yourself bankrupt, once the debt has become impossible to contemplate.

If we are to be treated like fools we may as well live like fools, without a care in the world.

Won’t they repossess people’s homes if we just stopped paying? And cars, TVs, etc.
I remember the subprimes crises with people living in their car after loosing their house…

That's extraordinarly naive. Like the previous poster with the 'warm winter discount scheme' or whatnot.

Can we get real here? The OP is making a massive point, and it shouldn't be deflected from.