What cut backs have you made recently?
Discussion
wong said:
I'm retired, so have lots of time. Wife cooks for 4 days, I cook for 3. So we each get a break from cooking. Go to the supermarket twice a week.
There's the difference. My wife and I work very hard. And to sustain that over a career you have to take shortcuts elsewhere to maximise what remaining time there is for fun, family and friends. We are fortunate we can afford those shortcuts. Our spending will be a fraction of what it is today once we retire!We were already pretty frugal and cut our cloth accordingly when I went for a job with less pay in 2015. ( Subscriptions cut, SIM only deals, beach holidays swapped for camping ,cleaner cancelled (!!), lunches made at home, no frivolous eating out, etc.)
We are reasonably well off, however the following things have been changed recently (Feb onwards roughly)
1. Heating turned down 1 degree.
2. I cycle to work now (104miles cycled this week in total) versus driving my 2007 petrol 330i......( Maybe I should sell it??)
3. I cut my own hair (colleagues don't believe I do it myself as it is not an easy no. 2 all over) . Dead easy though!!
4. Cheaper plonk.
5. Excess Alexa's and other standby stuff switched off when not needed. Mechanical timers on lights. Turning off multiple kids night lights for just one.
6. Trying to flog stuff that has been sat in the garage for yonks. Anyone need a kid bike, VW gearbox, twin solex carbs, ignition coil, heater motor??
I suppose if we need to take more out, pension can be hit plus some of the multitude of activities for the kids could be cut (kid activities are probably £400/ month, but don't want to stop that.....) But for the time being I will see how things balance out. Wife has started working four days instead of three too - I can see the current glut of job vacancies being filled as some 50 something's who retired in COVId realise they need to go back to work again, plus the looming recession.
We are reasonably well off, however the following things have been changed recently (Feb onwards roughly)
1. Heating turned down 1 degree.
2. I cycle to work now (104miles cycled this week in total) versus driving my 2007 petrol 330i......( Maybe I should sell it??)
3. I cut my own hair (colleagues don't believe I do it myself as it is not an easy no. 2 all over) . Dead easy though!!
4. Cheaper plonk.
5. Excess Alexa's and other standby stuff switched off when not needed. Mechanical timers on lights. Turning off multiple kids night lights for just one.
6. Trying to flog stuff that has been sat in the garage for yonks. Anyone need a kid bike, VW gearbox, twin solex carbs, ignition coil, heater motor??
I suppose if we need to take more out, pension can be hit plus some of the multitude of activities for the kids could be cut (kid activities are probably £400/ month, but don't want to stop that.....) But for the time being I will see how things balance out. Wife has started working four days instead of three too - I can see the current glut of job vacancies being filled as some 50 something's who retired in COVId realise they need to go back to work again, plus the looming recession.
As someone else said currently none. In theory we'll just have less to save but not seeing a huge impact at the moment which could be for a few reasons.
It's been a fairly s
t couple of years so I'm not going to be worry about belt tightening right now. I'm reluctantly working from home pretty much 100% of the time save a day or two.
Main thing for us is we recently paid off our mortgage so in reality the increase in cost of living is biting into new disposable income.
Someone mentioned compounding, I really should at cutting wastage.
It's been a fairly s
t couple of years so I'm not going to be worry about belt tightening right now. I'm reluctantly working from home pretty much 100% of the time save a day or two. Main thing for us is we recently paid off our mortgage so in reality the increase in cost of living is biting into new disposable income.
Someone mentioned compounding, I really should at cutting wastage.
Jon39 said:
valiant said:
... Got a smart meter being installed next week so I can see where we’re wasting gas and elec but we’re getting better at usage awareness and our consumption has decreased compared to same period last year. ...
Be wary of those things. They cannot save you money. You can analyse usage now, with your existing meters.
However, what does not tend to be mentioned, is that Smart Meters have the capability of applying different tariffs throughout the day. When enough households have them, we will be paying more to use energy at busy times every day. Well I won't, because I don't want one. Guess when most people need to use gas and electricity ? At high consumption times. The hope is that people might do their washing when most people are asleep. Power generation then becomes easier and hopefully not too many washing machines, or tumble dryers catch fire.
The Smart Meter phone salesman used to repeatedly ring me and describe how I could save lots of money.
I told him that I already had a gadget which could do that, ----- pause ----- "It is called a switch".
Fortunately I must have annoyed him sufficiently, because he never calls now.
Domestic supplies cannot be altered on a daily basis.
Smart meters measure your consumption on a more regular basis and send readings to a centralised company. Suppliers don’t look at your usage and decide to hike up charges when you use more,…
Having one allows you to monitor your own usage and decide if using an appliance is worthwhile, eg tumble dryer…. After that it gets boring.
Saves you having to send readings in,,,,
a311 said:
As someone else said currently none. In theory we'll just have less to save but not seeing a huge impact at the moment which could be for a few reasons.
It's been a fairly st couple of years so I'm not going to be worry about belt tightening right now.
This. The covid 2 years of covid nonsense was depressing enough without scrimping for the next two. It's been a fairly s
t couple of years so I'm not going to be worry about belt tightening right now. Meeten-5dulx said:
It boils my piss when I read nonsense like that.
Domestic supplies cannot be altered on a daily basis.
Smart meters measure your consumption on a more regular basis and send readings to a centralised company. Suppliers don’t look at your usage and decide to hike up charges when you use more,…
Having one allows you to monitor your own usage and decide if using an appliance is worthwhile, eg tumble dryer…. After that it gets boring.
Saves you having to send readings in,,,,
Domestic supplies cannot be altered on a daily basis.
Smart meters measure your consumption on a more regular basis and send readings to a centralised company. Suppliers don’t look at your usage and decide to hike up charges when you use more,…
Having one allows you to monitor your own usage and decide if using an appliance is worthwhile, eg tumble dryer…. After that it gets boring.
Saves you having to send readings in,,,,
Have you noticed some internet posters and talking radio callers, talk nonsense ?
Presumably, they don't know what they are talking about, or even worse, set out to intentionally mislead.
Such internet types often give themselves away, by commencing with impolite language.
They never apologise for being wrong.
.................................................
Proof, but you probably don't believe any government, so I will post a second source confirmation.
Tariff Data
Smart meters support tariffs which can have different prices for different times of the day,
as well as different amounts of consumption (e.g. the first 10kWh in a given period is charged at a
different price to subsequent consumption).
Tariff information (e.g. price for a given time of use period) is stored on the smart meter and can
be made available, with consumer consent, to third parties or other connected-home devices.
(assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
......................................................................
Using smart meters with time of use tariffs will help even demand during the day by charging more at peak times
and less at off-peak times. This means that the installed peak capacity can be reduced.
As our energy mix becomes more complicated, as a result of more energy sources feeding into it,
energy companies can use the smart grid to better manage supply and demand.
(thegreenage.co.uk)
........................................................................
mike9009 said:
We were already pretty frugal and cut our cloth accordingly when I went for a job with less pay in 2015. ( Subscriptions cut, SIM only deals, beach holidays swapped for camping ,cleaner cancelled (!!), lunches made at home, no frivolous eating out, etc.)
We are reasonably well off, however the following things have been changed recently (Feb onwards roughly)
1. Heating turned down 1 degree.
2. I cycle to work now (104miles cycled this week in total) versus driving my 2007 petrol 330i......( Maybe I should sell it??)
3. I cut my own hair (colleagues don't believe I do it myself as it is not an easy no. 2 all over) . Dead easy though!!
4. Cheaper plonk.
5. Excess Alexa's and other standby stuff switched off when not needed. Mechanical timers on lights. Turning off multiple kids night lights for just one.
6. Trying to flog stuff that has been sat in the garage for yonks. Anyone need a kid bike, VW gearbox, twin solex carbs, ignition coil, heater motor??
I suppose if we need to take more out, pension can be hit plus some of the multitude of activities for the kids could be cut (kid activities are probably £400/ month, but don't want to stop that.....) But for the time being I will see how things balance out. Wife has started working four days instead of three too - I can see the current glut of job vacancies being filled as some 50 something's who retired in COVId realise they need to go back to work again, plus the looming recession.
On your point turned heating down 1 degree - surely you’ve not had heating in for months it’s been baking hot or hot or warm for so long. Heating in late spring/summer is money bags & unbearable too We are reasonably well off, however the following things have been changed recently (Feb onwards roughly)
1. Heating turned down 1 degree.
2. I cycle to work now (104miles cycled this week in total) versus driving my 2007 petrol 330i......( Maybe I should sell it??)
3. I cut my own hair (colleagues don't believe I do it myself as it is not an easy no. 2 all over) . Dead easy though!!
4. Cheaper plonk.
5. Excess Alexa's and other standby stuff switched off when not needed. Mechanical timers on lights. Turning off multiple kids night lights for just one.
6. Trying to flog stuff that has been sat in the garage for yonks. Anyone need a kid bike, VW gearbox, twin solex carbs, ignition coil, heater motor??
I suppose if we need to take more out, pension can be hit plus some of the multitude of activities for the kids could be cut (kid activities are probably £400/ month, but don't want to stop that.....) But for the time being I will see how things balance out. Wife has started working four days instead of three too - I can see the current glut of job vacancies being filled as some 50 something's who retired in COVId realise they need to go back to work again, plus the looming recession.
Adjusted thermostats down by two degrees in February…the manfolk were fine, the lizards (ladies) complained…
We have underfloor heating in every room with tiled floors and individual room control, very efficient but still turned any unused rooms down to frost mode.
Hot water on for one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening.
A request for the hot tub to be switched on was made on May 30….after watching the daily electricity costs on the Octopus App rise from about £2.50 to £9.00…. I decided it was not happening….(that went down well)
£200 a month for one of the kids to use it three times a week…..nope!
Sods Law, Octopus picked up on the higher energy usage via the remote reader and we got an email to adjust our DD from £210 to £400…. After a few emails and a submission of a detailed usage spreadsheet prior to ‘Tub-Gate’….it was agreed to raise it but only slightly…
Apart from that, we’re using the little Seat Mii (the family learner drivers car) to do more local trips as it does nearly double the mpg. Quite honestly, it’s quite fun to hurl it around with the little triple cylinder motor. I’ve become quite adept at keeping momentum with minimum throttle input. It provides a different sort of motoring satisfaction!
The fuel price does make you think about car usage..went out for a run with a mate in the Spyder last weekend. A two hour hoon cost about £60 I reckon…not quite into the ‘that’s mad’ bracket, but it does raise an eyebrow!
We have underfloor heating in every room with tiled floors and individual room control, very efficient but still turned any unused rooms down to frost mode.
Hot water on for one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening.
A request for the hot tub to be switched on was made on May 30….after watching the daily electricity costs on the Octopus App rise from about £2.50 to £9.00…. I decided it was not happening….(that went down well)
£200 a month for one of the kids to use it three times a week…..nope! Sods Law, Octopus picked up on the higher energy usage via the remote reader and we got an email to adjust our DD from £210 to £400…. After a few emails and a submission of a detailed usage spreadsheet prior to ‘Tub-Gate’….it was agreed to raise it but only slightly…
Apart from that, we’re using the little Seat Mii (the family learner drivers car) to do more local trips as it does nearly double the mpg. Quite honestly, it’s quite fun to hurl it around with the little triple cylinder motor. I’ve become quite adept at keeping momentum with minimum throttle input. It provides a different sort of motoring satisfaction!
The fuel price does make you think about car usage..went out for a run with a mate in the Spyder last weekend. A two hour hoon cost about £60 I reckon…not quite into the ‘that’s mad’ bracket, but it does raise an eyebrow!
Welshbeef said:
On your point turned heating down 1 degree - surely you’ve not had heating in for months it’s been baking hot or hot or warm for so long. Heating in late spring/summer is money bags & unbearable too
In the preceding sentence I did qualify it by saying from Feb onwards.....I'm also pretty tight, so haven't had to make many changes. Binned Netflix, but I wasn't using it so it was an easy decision.
The low hanging fruit seem to be subscriptions/direct debits. There's been a surge in the subscription model over the past decade, so perhaps we'll see a partial retraction of this.
The low hanging fruit seem to be subscriptions/direct debits. There's been a surge in the subscription model over the past decade, so perhaps we'll see a partial retraction of this.
mike9009 said:
Welshbeef said:
On your point turned heating down 1 degree - surely you’ve not had heating in for months it’s been baking hot or hot or warm for so long. Heating in late spring/summer is money bags & unbearable too
In the preceding sentence I did qualify it by saying from Feb onwards.....I work from home so I'm still spending less than i did pre pandemic on petrol and food (work lunch, coffees, teas etc).
We moved last summer and took on a larger mortgage, bigger less efficient house. My lease came to an end. I don't drive much.
However I'm still undecided on my next car. An M4 or a 911. We've got a lovely holiday planned.
We've bought an ooni so after the sunk cost of that we are saving on takeaways. Pizza night was probably £30 a pop. Now a £5 treat.
Also just replaced our washing machine which was struggling to survive and was not economic
We moved last summer and took on a larger mortgage, bigger less efficient house. My lease came to an end. I don't drive much.
However I'm still undecided on my next car. An M4 or a 911. We've got a lovely holiday planned.
We've bought an ooni so after the sunk cost of that we are saving on takeaways. Pizza night was probably £30 a pop. Now a £5 treat.
Also just replaced our washing machine which was struggling to survive and was not economic
The prospect of witnessing our retirement savings diminish in value though inflation, we are instead using it to improve the house and garden. We can then enjoy it until we can no longer afford the upkeep then downsize and recoup some of it.
This assumes, of course, that property remains a good investment.
No cutbacks here. Quite a lot of spending.
This assumes, of course, that property remains a good investment.
No cutbacks here. Quite a lot of spending.
CrgT16 said:
Stopped using the convenience store for little shops during the week and try to be more organised with the weekly supermarket online shop.
I've been of the view for a long time that the weekly shop is a false economy. Obviously it depends on things like how many supermarkets you pass by on your way to/from work and what types of supermarket you have. In turn, nowadays that depends on whether or not you're working remotely to even pass a supermarket.
I have in the past commuted on foot so it meant being within easy reach of a dozen or so supermarkets in and on the way out of a city centre, with at least three of the bigger supermarkets being major British or German names.
The habit has allowed me to simply buy things as and when I need them and not needlessly bulk buy as you would in a weekly shop, consume excessively or waste anything fresh or perishable, or feel pressurised to eat/prepare something before it goes bad or loses freshness (mushrooms, strawberries etc). Also you eventually get to know the prices and sizes of items in the different stores and monitor which places are cheaper / more expensive for particular items.
Although it does work if you're driving by a supermarket daily, having the convenience of a boot can IMO lead to temptation and additional pointless spending. If you're on foot, it helps dictate how much you can physically manage to carry and therefore buy.
The other added bonus is the mini-workout in all weather conditions over several miles with the added weight load! A t-shirt and shorts in winter has been normal. Certainly worth walking to the supermarkets if you can during the better weather for the free exercise and 'better think twice' shopping habits.
I'd say the only places where I've possibly bought in a bit more bulk are 'ethnic' stores and those like Home Bargains and Heron, Jack Fulton etc (up north).
They're worth a visit and sell things like unsold pricier items ('artisanal' soft drinks, Tropicana, Innocent smoothies, crisps, snacks and chocolate); obscure / lesser known British or wonky brands and unused catering/hospitality supplies - things like a crate of 24 glass bottles of Diet Coke for a fiver, a small box of those little plastic Robertsons marmalade packets you'd find at a hotel breakfast.
The thing is, some of the stock and offers (e.g. three 150g bags of Sensations for £1) really is 'blink and you'll miss it' and the offers and items will vary from one week to the next. They do still tend to be cheaper than the main chains for established brands and items.
I don't recommend Food Warehouse, mind. Misleading in its name branding and layout - it's just Iceland with the same whacky prices.
I'm also a tight-wad, some of my scrimping methods:
-Use my work phone as a personal phone (free)
-Cycle to work and shower there
-Have a lodger (£430 pm tax free cash, this is the big one)
-Driven a Skoda Fabia vRS for last 5 years (worth about £1.5k)
-Shop at Aldi
-Only subscription I have is Spotify (need paid one to put podcasts onto my watch when I go running)
-Bought my own weights to workout at home/ running is free so no gym needed
-Don't pay for a TV licence (don't watch TV)
-Try and buy everything second hand where possible
-Not been on holiday since 2019 (only paid £400 for a week in Greece)
The main thing that's denting my wallet now is dating, buying drinks and food and paying to do stuff really adds up...
Haircuts every 2 weeks at £13 also annoys me but I can't do it myself so that'll have to stay.
-Use my work phone as a personal phone (free)
-Cycle to work and shower there
-Have a lodger (£430 pm tax free cash, this is the big one)
-Driven a Skoda Fabia vRS for last 5 years (worth about £1.5k)
-Shop at Aldi
-Only subscription I have is Spotify (need paid one to put podcasts onto my watch when I go running)
-Bought my own weights to workout at home/ running is free so no gym needed
-Don't pay for a TV licence (don't watch TV)
-Try and buy everything second hand where possible
-Not been on holiday since 2019 (only paid £400 for a week in Greece)
The main thing that's denting my wallet now is dating, buying drinks and food and paying to do stuff really adds up...
Haircuts every 2 weeks at £13 also annoys me but I can't do it myself so that'll have to stay.
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