Cost of living crisis 2022 - what have you cut back on?

[BOOT]

Went to the local branch of my building society on Saturday to see what options were available after the announcement of new support measures after the mortgage summit on Friday.

They didn't even know anything about it... and then they said they didn't deal with mortgages in branch.

...It's a building society. ...That doesn't deal with mortgages...

[LeMarchand]

Went to the local branch of my building society on Saturday to see what options were available after the announcement of new support measures after the mortgage summit on Friday.

They didn't even know anything about it... and then they said they didn't deal with mortgages in branch.

...It's a building society. ...That doesn't deal with mortgages...

 

I'd shop around. Depending on your age and other factors you should be able to remortgage somewhere else. Make appointments at a few of the local banks and see what's on offer. It will likely mean a longer stretch to pay off the mortgage and cost more in the long run, but might ease the outgoings in the short term.

 

IANAFinancialAdvisor.

[enjay]

If you move house, your supplier will just setup the equivalent service at your new house.

 

If they can’t supply the equivalent service then they have to let you leave your contract free of penalty.

 

Thanks, that's useful to know, but the new place will likely be rented (to break the chain when buying/selling), so it might turn out the supplier could provide the service but the property owner wouldn't let us fit it.

[enjay]

Just had a squabble with Mr gee40 about shower gel. I put a small amount on a sponge and can do my entire body with it. He uses a couple of handfuls without a sponge to clean his body. We could save a fortune on shower gel if he used my method!

 

Is this about the consistency of the product? Mrs Jay uses "shower creams" which are much thicker than the gels I typically buy. I changed brand recently to something thicker and found I use a lot less of it.

[enjay]

They brought fibre down our road last summer. We have no telegraph poles. Our elderly neighbours have no interest in fibre.

 

Fibre is possibly cheaper than what your elderly neighbours currently have, especially if they've been on the same service getting CPI+3% for years, so could you get them interested that way? Okay, they don't care and won't notice it is faster, but they might care it is cheaper.

[hardtailstar]

Just looked through my bank account after a weekend stag in Brighton.... £7 a pint!!!

 

I guess next month I'll not be spending any money! Spent far too much!

 

Ive also cut back on buying single fizzy drinks from the vending machine at work. Buy in bulk from tesco and have one a day with lunch. Drink water rest of time.

Edited June 26, 2023 by hardtailstar

[kennysarmy]

Thankfully the cost of living crisis coincided with the mortgage getting paid off and two kids leaving home, so I've not really had to cut back on anything at all.

 

I would have liked to have swapped my car this year, but I'm holding off on that as the price of second hand cars is ludicrous!

[LeMarchand]

"Simple" Facial Wash has doubled in price and guess the difference between the bottle of Comfort I bought a few weeks ago and the one I bought last week. Clue: It's not the price.

 

[elsiegee40]

"Simple" Facial Wash has doubled in price and guess the difference between the bottle of Comfort I bought a few weeks ago and the one I bought last week. Clue: It's not the price.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]69444[/ATTACH]

 

The volume of the Orange juice I buy has shrunk while the price has gone up

[Ditto]

It's the same with Radox shampoo - apparently new formula, higher price, less volume. I bought up lots of the old stock. Why are so many corporations fleecing customers when times are tough for so many. More than ever, we all need to be cost conscious. check the details and buy alternatives where possible

[Andrew_C]

Why are so many corporations fleecing customers when times are tough for so many.

Those huge bonuses won't pay themselves... I saw an MP grilling a Sainsbury's mouthpiece. CEO gets something like £4m in BONUSES.

[nicholab]

Those huge bonuses won't pay themselves... I saw an MP grilling a Sainsbury's mouthpiece. CEO gets something like £4m in BONUSES.

 

That because they are hard working! Workers apparently are not hard working.

[Dos_Box]

Keep the thread on topic please

[BOOT]

Stopped paying the TV tax. There's only freesat reception where I live and that hasn't been good either recently.

[localzuk]

Switching out my home server (a dell T330) that runs PiHole, Plex, and Home Assistant, plus file storage, for a Raspberry Pi 4B 8GB, with an external USB JBOD for the disks. Will take my energy usage from around 150W down to about 30W per hour. Will take monthly power usage from the current about £30-35pm to £6-7pm. Will pay for itself in less than a year. Could reduce it further by migrating to a smaller number of larger disks, but don't currently have the funds to spend on them (as it would double the cost of the project).

[enjay]

Stopped paying the TV tax. There's only freesat reception where I live and that hasn't been good either recently.

 

You need a licence to watch iPlayer live. We never watch live TV but have to pay because we could watch it, which annoys me.

[Rob_D]

You need a licence to watch iPlayer live. We never watch live TV but have to pay because we could watch it, which annoys me.

I thought you needed a license to watch any iPlayer (that's what the popups keep telling me), and I remember some talk about needing one for some Prime, Netflix and Youtube. I was under the impression making sure your arial was unplugged was enough "proof" if anyone actually came to challenge it.

[enjay]

I thought you needed a license to watch any iPlayer (that's what the popups keep telling me), and I remember some talk about needing one for some Prime, Netflix and Youtube. I was under the impression making sure your arial was unplugged was enough "proof" if anyone actually came to challenge it.

 

Sorry, you're right, any iPlayer content needs a licence - https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/bbc-iplayer-and-the-tv-licence. This also covers live streams from Netflix, etc (I didn't realise they did any!).

 

I was under the impression making sure your arial was unplugged was enough "proof" if anyone actually came to challenge it.

 

That's not sustainable in the era of streaming! We don't have an aerial in our property, but stream everything.

[speakercon]

You are supposed to have one if you watch any live TV regardless of provider or any BBC content, should it be through an aerial, sky or iplayer ect.

 

The sooner its got rid of the better in my opinion. If only I could start a business and make it the law that everyone in the country has to buy my product or feel the mighty wrath of the capita bullies.

[mavhc]

You don't need a licence to watch iplayer in other people's houses who have one though. This is a good reason to not use the same email address for telling tv licence people you don't need one, and for logging in to iplayer.

 

Top tip is to audit your electricity usage, are you switching off all the 0.1W chargers, but not turning off your PC? Measure everything

[southhamster]

You don't need a licence to watch iplayer in other people's houses who have one though. This is a good reason to not use the same email address for telling tv licence people you don't need one, and for logging in to iplayer.

 

Top tip is to audit your electricity usage, are you switching off all the 0.1W chargers, but not turning off your PC? Measure everything

This TP Link plug is on special offer ATM as the Kasa range is EOL.

https://uk.store.tapo.com/products/smarthome-kasa-kp115?utm_source=tplink&utm_medium=buynow&utm_campaign=product

 

I've had one for about 6 months and it works locally perfectly on Home Assistant so you can avoid the TP link app. It's interesting on sunny days to see the voltage swings from the solar PV!

[PotNoodleTech]

Rather than spending £15 per plug to save 10 pence a day - I just literally turn all the plugs off at the wall when I am not using them.

 

TV/Hifi

Kitchen stuff

Oven

 

All off until I need them. And totally free! I've got so used to it now it's automatic.

[mavhc]

You only need to buy 1 if you're just auditing, and a manual one will do just fine. Or there's a cheaper way, does it get hot * how long is it on for?

[southhamster]

I agree re: switching things off. I use it more for checking consumption.

I can see for example that our old oil boiler circulating pump uses a lot of electricity so when it fails replacing it with an energy saving one is definitely worth it.

[Davit2005]

TV license, you don't need to pay it jus for the fact of having a TV. If the license sales people (or whatever you want to call them) turn up at your door, be polite as in say "Not to day thanks" and shut the door. You don't need to sign or say anything so don't there is no legal requirement.

 

I stopped watching MSM in 2020 during first lockdown as it was too depressing, registered as not needing a license, not had any anyone call and personally have not missed it one bit.

Edited July 10, 2023 by Davit2005