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.

Like everyone we are worried what our bills will be come October, we are on a fix till then paying £96 a month, yearly bills around £900 , just had a message from EON saying our yearly cost when the fix ends will be around £1500, now while this seems a lot, its nowhere near the £2000/£3000 we keep reading in the news.

Yeah, the 70's was EASY as we hd so may other things, as posters have said, coal fires etc - this situation is different. But I think the Govt will be forced to do something, as few of us will be able to pay full bills.
Sorry if ppl have said the same, for once not RTFT.

TBH I am too old for this crap. I'm not going to be able to afford to heat my flat this winter. Well stuff it. The energy companies are making billions in profits on the backs of the poor. I'm not going to die of hypothermia because of greedy swine. I don't care about my credit rating, I'm 68, what does it matter now? I've been frugal all my life but now am reduced to a bath a week. My daily baths were a small pleasure for me, as was having the patio light on in the evening. This is ridiculous. We're approaching a new world order, which I think unfortunately will be one of right wing dictatorships and it's going to be awful. But I am not going to die of cold because of these shitty selfish bastards. What can they do to me? Kill me? You keep warm OP. Truss certainly will be and she won't give a damn about anyone who isn't.

Wanna bet?

The government will have to absolutely do something I refuse point blank to freeze I work my arse off for what go home to a cold house not enjoy the luxury of a hot shower a cosy home . It’s not happening I’d rather give up my job claim benefits and plead poverty they can’t have what I don’t have . Of course that’s extreme and I won’t freeze but many will frankly the government and utility companies should be ashamed letting people die while they enjoy profits.

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.

We did survive but it was fucking awful. We lived in a freezing cold, damp house at the best of times. I have a genetic condition (didn’t find out till I was an adult) and was always really unwell. The 3 day week just added a whole new level of misery and just existing to an already cold, damp, underfed, unhealthy life. I’d hoped not to return to those days again in my autumn years, yet here we are.

I've just done my food shop, £41
I looked at what I got and I've just been WTAF. It's nothing really, was just a small shop for a few bits to top up. The pizza was on offer but I mean I'm hardly being extravagant

Every few years there's another 'end of the world' nonsense, we're running out of energy, the financial world is colappsing, we're freezing, we're burnibg up, we're gonna be nuked by russia. It's enough news headlines to drive us all insane. Most of these predictions never come to pass. Some governments actually do mitigate the problems. So my suggestion is hope for the best but plan for the worst. In other words don't imagine tomorrow everything ends so spend your money, live for today, forget having children. Don't do this, by all means think rationally, carry on normally with your life, you can't avoid a meteor strike so save for a rainy day, conserve your resources, plan to have fun for the next hundred years not spend it all in one year.

"But Jeremy Corbyn ..."

As a country the UK didn't dump the Tories after the shitshow that was Theresa Mays time in office (hardly in power though). In fact egged on by a partisan press we doubled down and got Boris.

So I can't see the Tories going anywhere anytime soon. Especially when Boris returns.

I'll be dead soon. That's my escape.

@lindyloo57 you can find out what your energy consumption will cost from October by putting your annual gas and electric kWh’s used into this calculator…
www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/what-are-the-price-cap-unit-rates-/#tool

I'm just sad I did bring children into this shitty old world ! They are late 20s now and working , but it's hard for them.

@Diamondsareforever123 I wish someone would shout your post from all rooftops in the world or something.

Please have your daily hot bath and your porch light on.

@DesolationRow I did the Martin Lewis price cap, and it came out i am now paying £1,470 and it will be £2,590 but I'm only paying around £900 at the moment I'm on a fix, and EON estimated it would around £1500 from October not £2,590.

I was thinking this today when food shopping, I've dropped down a level in some food brands and even the price of those brands are now overpriced especially when I'm not enjoying the food.

It's really difficult to compare useage as the variables are infinite, the type of heating and hot water, the standard of insulation, window insulation, competence of the building structure and age, design, time of day you do stuff, appliance efficiency, endless. We can all make efficiency energy savings, it's just how far we choose to go in our own setting.
I've been badgering my MP about the cost of living crisis since last April when I could see it coming, I hope you are too ...whoever you are reading this.

Prepayment meters should be cheaper as you've already paid for it an are not going to default

I think the only thing that would make any difference is for politicians to somehow stop the greedy fecking utility companies paying billions in bonuses and dividends to shareholders They are making obscene profits and yet won't reduce the cost to consumers. What sort of evil bastards are they?! It is utterly sickening.

It’s not just the UK. I picked up a chicken in the shops today, reduced half price because it had to be eaten today. Thought I’d make roast chicken. It was a big chicken, but when I scanned it in to check price it was £30. So I put it back. Found it a bit depressing tbh.

Same, OP. Fixed low income, and been living frugally for years. No debt or overdraft, and I have a very modest amount of savings (for vets, replacing things and fuck it, I deserve the occasional night out and wine).

I shower twice a week, use the washing machine no more than twice a week. My TV and sound system is on for one hour a week. I live alone and only heat and light the room I am in. Not long had my air fryer, but it is a game changer. This has been my life for years. I can not cut down anymore.
I grow a lot of my own veg (although this year has been a disaster), and tend to stick to yellow ticket items for meat and fish.

Part if me is thinking fuck it, why freeze and pay more for the privilege? Maybe we should just sit in a library all day? But then my pets would freeze.

@lindyloo57 It’s hard to say for sure, because energy companies info is always so opaque, but I think the £1,500 estimate from EON could be based on the current price cap, ie it’s what you would be paying now if you weren’t on a fix? I’m guessing this because it’s oddly close to what the MSE calculates your consumption to be now. And this will increase to £2,590 in October if your fix has ended by then.

Hope that doesn’t come across as patronising - just that it took me ages to find my true annual consumption figures and make an accurate calculation and (despite keeping up with the news) it was bloody jaw-dropping when I did.

Well F’ing said!!! I cannot stand these narrow minded idiots who blame others for what the corporations have created! Your neighbours are not the issue! Stop turning on each other and realise who the real criminals are!

Bore off….everybody can see what a sham covid was! Statistics don’t add up, lockdowns caused more deaths than they saved, the experimental jab has caused more issues than covid and blind compliance lead to them implementing agenda 2030 on a faster model. That’s where we are now….a deliberate crash of the system so that we will all be begging for what’s coming next, a future I can’t bear to think about!

Put your savings into someone you trusts name and claim everything you can. Or just keep your mouth shut, they do not have access to your bank account so unless you’re sitting on hundreds of thousands I wouldn’t say a word.

Deprivation of assets. If they find out, StarDolphins would be in big shit. Yes they do have access to bank account and can check balance whenever they like. Committing fraud isn't wise

@DesolationRow I hope you are not correct, we will see, but in a email EON states when my fix finishes on October 16th my estimated bill on a variable tariff will be around £1,500