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.

So secondary pupils at home without supervision? Or parents needing time off work and all the logistical and financial repercussions of that? And how do people prepare hot food and heat their homes in advance of scheduled power cuts if they're out at work all day? I can see the merit in your ideas, just not sure how they would work in practise.

Good old Liz Truss is giving us tax cuts.
Everyman and his dog can see this isn't a good move apart from her.
Or I haven't read anything that suggests it's a really good idea tbh , but she will think this is enough.

I have heard many more people are bypassing meters
Daily Mail mentioned it, and all the comments under the article was ''How do I do it?''

shoplifting is rocketing...Friend heard someone exit a well known grocery store with hundreds of quids worth of goods {payment declined} was flashing up.
Person in store said ''The customer didn't look the type''..

It will be Anarchy, I fear. The GREED of the gas and electric companies knows no bounds.

@SheBuilds because my last annual statement summary said I would have only saved about £30 if I’d paid by DD and I’d rather pay that extra and have control over how much money leaves my account. Also, when I moved house a few months ago I was quoted an astronomical DD amount which bore no relation to my usage.

As ever, if we all pootle along saying "we can't do anything, we're just the little people" then sure, nothing will change.

If we all stop paying, if even just a significant number stop paying, we will force change.

Myself and my sister are both with British Gas on standard variable tariffs. She’s on Prepayment meter and I’m on quarterly. Her price per KW is 2p cheaper than mine for electricity So it isnt always more expensive. I think this is a bit of. Myth. I always found my prepayment meter cheaper. When I moved (way before all of this) and moved to bills I noticed an increase.

In my case, I have to go and physically top up and since BG changed, I only have the post office to go to, my post office has no staff.

If DD payers stop paying, then the companies will claw their money back from somewhere and that is going to be from people like me who have no choice but to pay.

Yeah… so. This shows the government is NOT explaining things well. Might as well go ahead and live in heat and comfort while you can. The prices are rising because Russia cut off the flow of gas. It is now a much more finite resource. Companies are raising prices to get people to use less, because frankly, they may not end up having enough. We’re not dépendant on Russia, but we’re trying to import from Europe and THEY are, so we’re fucked. www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-08/uk-s-lucky-gas-glut-about-to-run-out-as-winter-approaches
It’s going to get ugly when power cuts hit in the dead of winter for people who don’t have any other sources of heat. I see people saying shit like OP just did and honestly, do you not get WHY prices are rising? You should be thinking: if everyone uses power freely, as if there’s no limit, as if prices haven’t risen, and we start having rolling power cuts IN WINTER, what is my plan to stay warm and not freeze? And you better have one, because if people en masse act like OP is suggesting, you’ll need it.

Gas and other forms of fuels are finite resources, and this winter, they’re “more” finite than ever. If your electric plant is powered by non-renewables, then your electric is vulnerable, too.

If you’re going to go in debt for anything, do it to buy a wood-burning stove (if you live some place freezing or often need heat).

A power cut of say 6 hours will not cause too much of a problem for food in fridges and freezers unless you open the doors, especially in the winter months if heating is not on.

So I guess you grew up in some nice Western country and thought life could only ever get better? Guess again, there's millions of people round the world that can tell you what goes up can come down- and then ķeep going down and down. No country stays on top for ever and let's face it, we've had our turn.

I read Peepo this evening to my young child and it brought a tear to my eye. Buckets of coal, open fire, tin baths and dad going off to war. Feel like we could be heading backwards very quickly. I hope we can change the course.

Let's all top ourselves now. Might as well.

I think you're right and should just get to enjoy a warm home, regular showers/baths and hot meals particularly if you have a life-limiting illness.

It's so sad that this is what things are like in 2022.

Ration energy?!

How about, as some rich person suggested, making the likes of b p and sh ell have a 2% profit cap?
[Like some uk constructions work by?]

Instead of making obscene profits of 120 billion pounds per year or 60 billion pounds?

tbh, you dont sound like you are on the side of a customer at all!
But saying "nice" words to try and make it sound like you are.

I went into two charity shops today
Their stock was down by about 50% I thought.

Dont know whether people are not donating as much now, or whether demand for it is higher.
Perhaps both.

@CheapBeersFilledwithCrocodileTears I mostly agree with what you’re saying though isn’t it a bit unfair to say I’m talking shit when my energy consumption is around only 60% of the UK household average? I’m not planning to be wildly extravagant, just to stay basically warm and cook a hot meal every day. Oh yeah and maybe a couple of extra baths a week.

I’m not the problem here. People on low incomes did not cause this mess.

(I’d love a log burner but unfortunately my HA don’t allow us to install them).

@lightand im a normal consumer, a mum on below average household income actually. I would be happy to give up some comfort for the greater good. The Ukraine war is the cause- we import too much energy. If we import less the price comes down. Simple economics! I’d rather use less as a country so the price comes down. I’m happy to endure some hardship.

The government can’t control the wholesale prices, the companies making the profits are Shell etc who sell wholesale. If we don’t buy it they’ll sell it to another country- for less money as the demand will be less.

Should say the supply is constrained due to Ukraine and that’s what has pushed the price up. If we use less energy, we don’t need to import as much and if the government uncouple the price of domestic production we could be paying a lot less for our energy. National blackouts are a good short term solution while we work to increase our energy security.

@lightand I’ve noticed that too and think the problem with charity shops is that they charge so much these days they’ve priced out their usual customers, also that people sell their stuff on fb pages, marketplace, vinted etc to make a few quid.

Honestly? What’s happening isn’t right and it isn’t fair. But it’s also not right that you’ve had to live without being comfortable for years already. I’m sorry. Our society should never have been like this. We forget that even before this winter, it’s been years of austerity for many of us. You should always have had either the money or the bill support to have enough heat for a hot meal a day and to wash yourself a few times a week. I’m sorry if the system has let you down, truly. It’s a tragedy, and it’s fucking disgusting treatment of people who are all humans and deserve their humanity.

You’re right that I should have been a lot more careful about articulating “the problem.” Of course, you’re not “the problem.” It is ridiculous to suggest that you having a hot meal or a hot shower (maybe a full bath is out of the question) every day is going to be a problem or should be out of your price range. I was trying to indicate the part of your post, that if people follow what you’re saying and simply say, “£2000 is the same as £4000 so I might as well do whatever I like,” that’s where we’ll have problems, BUT we’ll have those problems more from homes where four people lead semi-independent lives, so cook four meals each a few times a day, and take four showers a day, and keep the heat on all day, and decide they’re just going to keep doing it, and not care how much energy it burns.

And I’m sorry they won’t let you get a wood burning stove. I understand perhaps they’re worried about burns to the property but they need to think about how their residents are going to afford these bills, ie you can’t. Please consider appealing to them or writing to your MP.

@CheapBeersFilledwithCrocodileTears Thank you - happily I can say I am in complete agreement with you now! What a shit show huh.

@DesolationRow Of the highest order. The amount of stress this is causing people is just exponential. I mean, it’s starting now, but when the bills actually arrive and there’s no money to pay them, the winter mental health crisis will be huge. And I’m afraid people will start doing things that cause actual deaths and sound “stupid,” but you know are actually born of pure desperation, like cooking with barbecues indoors in winter. Or leaving the oven on and open to try to heat part of the house instead of turning on the heat. Or using propane heaters indoors. These are all things the very poor in America do every year, and there are tons of carbon monoxide and fire deaths there from it all.

For those of us who lived through the "3 day week" and "Winter of Discontent" under James Callaghan, this situation holds no fears.
Ordinary Britons were ordered to limit heating to one room and to keep non-essential lights switched off.
We survived.