I need to ask what I think is a stupid question

[3ducksinarow]

Will I be more immune to heating price rises being in an oil fired central heated house? Everywhere is talking about the rise in gas prices but I don't think it will affect my household as much?!

I'm quite worried about all the rising costs. Me and dh have appalling budgeting skills. Usually we find we've over spent when the bank texts us were about to go into the overdraft.

Sorry, no you won’t. Oil prices have also risen. The last time I had our tank filled, it cost double the previous time. Our tank holds 1100 litres and needs filling twice over the winter and once in spring/summer.

i would try to dig out your last bill, double it and try to be putting a quarter or a third (depending on how often you have to refill) away each month.

Or, some oil delivery companies will do a scheduled top up at regular intervals - if you could do it every two months, that would help you keep an eye on how prices are moving.

The other fuel shock is electricity and presumably your lights and appliances all run on electricity? So unfortunately you’ll also see those bills rise.

The price of heating oil has risen by over 50% in the past year. Oil used for heating is no protected by the price cap. See www.nationalworld.com/news/uk/rocketing-heating-oil-prices-leave-uk-families-struggling-to-stay-warm-3645530

Thanks. Dh sorts all bills out and I don't really see much but recently I've realised he's just as bad as me and keeps saying it won't affect us because we're on oil but I though as much. I will ring up some oil places and ask how much it is.
Dh is in complete denial about any cost rises. We're down to our last penny already with our monthly costs. Looks like a cold winter for us then! Thanks

And yes electricity and both wfh. Worried about that. We've cut back as much as possible but dc still leave lights on etc. will have to just see what happens. We're both trying to get better paid jobs. Im grateful for the advice dh is burying his head in the sand and keeps saying all this won't affect us but I gathered it must do.

I have OFCH. We may be able to ride this out a bit differently because some of us (with the spare cash, very large tanks) can buy a lot when price seems relatively low, not pay the prevailing rate at times we need to use the oil. Oil can be good value if you can fill up a lot in summer when prices are usually lower than winter.

Relatively low right now means a mere 83p/litre even though oil was probably 43p/litre in last 2 years. Note that the crude price of oil seems to be falling at moment, and that may feed thru to lower kerosene prices in next 8-12 weeks (I heard from industry commentators).

Shorter answer: govt won't put up with rioting in streets. Maybe people will go back to 1940s style cold houses, frost on inside, & wearing lots of clothes, but probably they will threaten to riot instead, and some kind of mega-subsidies will be allocated to quell the outrage. Tory party is now a high spend high spend party.

Thanks @UxbridgeVoteBJOut . Our tank isn't that big so we have to wait until we run out to make the most of any bulk discount.
I'm getting out old ski clothes to wear for winter! Im planning to only heat the office a couple of hours In the day at the coldest points. We're quite out the way so it will get cold. I'm ok to go cold but more worried about dc. Will have to cross that bridge when we're there I suppose.

@3ducksinarow you could have a look at oodies. Lots of cheaper clothes shops are doing knock of versions too.

We are also OFCH. We filled our tank up just before the prices went crazy last spring. We have been trying to use it as little as possible since then.
As PP said I think prices are due to go down shortly, but then will likely rise for over the winter months. We are planning to leave it a few weeks and then look at topping up.

My parents have an oil tank and they used to pay £400 for a full tank, now £1000!

That's what I'm worried about. That we're going to be in for a shock. We haven't used much this year thank goodness.

thanks @BooksAndChooks Will take a look at the oodie

We're on oil and have just filled the tank. I'm afraid prices are going up though as others have said you do have some options, like trying to fill the tank when prices are low. The other plus is that you're not locked into a contract with any one supplier so at least you can shop around a bit. If you live somewhere where a lot of people have oil, it might also be worth seeing whether you can get together with any neighbours to order together - this can be cheaper as the supplier saves on transport costs.

@110APiccadilly thanks it's a good idea. Our neighbours both sides are quite frosty but it's worth a shot in these circumstances, everyone around us is on oil afaik.

Have a look at heated throws. They will make a massive difference to you. You can also get heated foot pads which will really help as well.

The only thing to do with your money as well as to check your bank every single day. There's no point waiting for the message telling you you're overdrawn. What do you think you waste money on?

Sounds like you need to get on board with budgeting or else you're just going to get into a bigger and bigger mess

Do you have any debts currently? If so, you just end up wasting loads of money on interest, instead of saving it or spending on essentials and nice things.

Do you have a budget and do you know if you have enough money on paper and it's a spending issue, rather than being genuinely short?

Can you ask DH to go through everything together?

Have a look at:

www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/money-help/

Would it help if you split your money into different accounts and only spent from the ones where money is there to be spent?

One account with money in for all your bills on direct debit. Don't touch this and just check once a month that there's enough to cover a months worth of bills. Set up a standing order or make a manual payment. Or if is the account where your salaries are paid into, move money out and just leave enough in there each month. Either way, never spend out of this account.

Set up a standing order just after pay day to a savings account for annual and irregular expenses like Christmas, insurance, car repairs, white goods etc etc. Only take money out of this account if it is needed for these sorts of things.

Set up another account for your grocery and other day to day family spending - this is another one where you need to watch what you're buying. Do you know how much you spend on food? Do you waste food?

Finally after all the above is accounted for, divide what's left 50/50 for your's and DHs personal spending money. This is to cover things like haircuts, your clothes, lunches at work, coffees, anything that's your's personally and fairly low priority in that it would be the first spend to go if you need to free up money to pay a higher gas bill.

For the spending accounts, operate them on a 'when it's gone, it's gone' basis'. Work on sticking to a budget.

But also have a look at the last few months bank/credit card statements and download into a spreadsheet to see if you can identify exactly where you're overspending - common areas are grocery shopping, food and drink out of the house plus general treats, days out, clothes, tech etc.

Good luck.

Well we live rurally and our fuel bill has gone up quite a lot over the last few months. We have sorted car sharing for next school term which will help reduce it.
We have also been trying not to drive anywhere to help reduce the cost but is hard in the summer holidays to go nowhere at all as well.

We have cut back in all dc clubs as a lot of money was going on those (including driving to and fro) but that's only since end of term so will hopefully see the savings going forwards.
We just fail to realise when the money is gone I think because things have gone up and we have budgeted for the rises. Our food bill has increased quite a lot but we're working on getting it down and going cheaper more frozen etc. we are in a learning curve there as never really froze much before but now trying to freeze as much as possible buying as cheap as possible no farm shops allowed anymore (!)

It's only the last few months we have been getting the texts from the bank and we've been moving our savings over to cover things but then our savings are dwindling. Things have just caught up with us I suppose. We are pretty frugal as it is, very rarely buy clothes, our lives are pretty boring, rarely eat out or takeaways. I don't get any hair or things like that done since wfh.

Just running out of money quickly most months all of a sudden. Hopefully one of us will manage to get a better job soon. We are both trying but summer is terrible for job hunting. I've had interviews but nothing solid and dh has had no interviews. No salary rises in a couple of years.

An account just for bills sounds a good idea actually. I have to take responsibility for not really looking at the bills and now I'm having to I don't actually know much about what we spend.

It will only affect you when you fill the tank. But unfortunately, filling the tank will be more expensive. My db is on oil and the fill up was £££.

You'll need to think about security of that oil when you do top up as heating oil is often stolen - so working out a way to protect it when you get a delivery is important too.

There is a company called Boilerjuice who will alert you when neighbours are having deliveries and therefore you might get some small savings, but we have found it better to have a local supplier who we know and who lets us know when he thinks we might be getting a bit low and prices have dipped a bit.