Finance thread 2022.

[ThePrisoner]

On 12/06/2022 at 08:08, enachops said:

We’ve got SKY with movies/sports/multi room - the works. Plus Netflix, Disney, Amazon. I’m trying to persuade the Mrs into cancelling SKY as we’re paying north of £140 for all this. Ridiculous. What’s the best alternative? NOW TV was suggested but what are the thoughts in here??

Just haggle. Also cancel and they’ll keep sending you renewal offers up to your cancellation date and beyond that. 

I’m paying £52 for everything (including Cinema, Sport, Ultra HD, Netflix, and 2 additional mini boxes).

If they give you a crap deal, disconnect live chat and try the next person. They’re all at different levels of targets throughout the day so your luck will vary.   

[Abu Derby]

On 12/06/2022 at 08:08, enachops said:

We’ve got SKY with movies/sports/multi room - the works. Plus Netflix, Disney, Amazon. I’m trying to persuade the Mrs into cancelling SKY as we’re paying north of £140 for all this. Ridiculous. What’s the best alternative? NOW TV was suggested but what are the thoughts in here??
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’d recommend unplugging the telly and disposing it in Raynesway tip. Get a decent radio, music player and lots of books and you’re sorted. Save a fortune and more time to lead a fullsome life to boot. 

[LERam]

Some good advice on here

Like some have mentioned, keep on top of services coming to the end of contracts. I didn't realise I'd been out of contract on my BT phone/TV/Internet, had been paying £50 plus for a TV box I didn't use as I have a firestick and add ons, plus the Internet (albeit fast) was overkill. Changed over to Now for the Internet at £20 a month. Not a massive change but helps offset the increase of gas/elec from £90 to £200 plus.

 

Some have mentioned WFH tax relief, uniforms etc which are good. If you are in a relationship and one of you doesn't use your full personal allowance (stay at home parent for example), 10% or so of your allowance can be transferred to the one working and saves a little tax.

 

I'm also a payroll manager in my day to day work, so I'm happy to offer any help (free) if anyone doesn't understand their pay, thinks something is wrong etc. Employers tend to get pay correct but HMRC are probably the most incompetent organisation I've ever had to deal with, they regularly make mistakes with employee tax codes especially where benefits are involved. Always check things like your tax code and if it isn't the standard 1257L cumulative, then you should always make sure you know how or why it's changed.

 

Finally... We have a spreadsheet as a household, which lists all our spending, and means you can budget going forward. If you get everything down, and keep an eye over what's coming up, it's useful to stop any unexpected costs arising (forgetting car MOT for example). You'll not remember all costs straight away but as you build up a history and update the budget going forward. As part of that we also have little pots of savings like Xmas fund, holiday fund etc, so we might have x amount in the savings account but the spreadsheet will explain what that is made up of. It all sounds very boring to most people but if you can budget so things like Xmas don't bite you, it can help you get into financial trouble if you then have to borrow. Me personally, I am awful with money, I used to spend whatever was in my account and panic the next payday when I had annual costs I'd forgotten about. If you are geeky like me, it's also nice to see what the future could look like if you do A B or C. It can also highlight areas you Re spending a lot as well. Food shopping was a big one for us, as I'd just go to the shops and spend £50 on a visit outside of the main shop, just buying crap I thought I needed. Now we have a budget each month, I know I have x amount per week or so and can see if I am going close to it or not and make adjustments.

[LERam]

On 07/06/2022 at 11:42, JoetheRam said:

I fail to see the purpose of a smart meter, beyond not having to submit readings which is only a 30 second job every 3 months anyway. Seems to be a product made for the sake of keeping British Gas engineers busy.

Your energy usage is your energy usage, having a meter showing the kettle you just boiled cost you 20p isn't going to stop you making that cup of tea is it?

Didn't everyone elses dad used to go round switching lights off around the house and turning TV's off standby? That seems just as effective. Maybe I'm missing something else they do.

 

I think the idea is... you can see what the usage is and might try ans actively reduce it? Or if you can see it goes up a lot a certain periods, it might highlight how much certain appliances are costing in energy. Basically educate you more so you can make better decisions.

 

I have to be honest, we have one and it's stuck out the way so actually makes no difference at all to my habits. But I can't see any reason not to have one? It doesn't cost you any extra, unless there's some hidden agenda from the energy suppliers?

[RoyMac5]

2 hours ago, LERam said:

I have to be honest, we have one and it's stuck out the way so actually makes no difference at all to my habits. But I can't see any reason not to have one? It doesn't cost you any extra, unless there's some hidden agenda from the energy suppliers?

The only one I've heard suggested is, should they ever get them to work properly, it would be possible to charge different rates at different times of the day. So if you were short of money you might decide to have your dinner at a less 'peak' time of the day, say 1:00am?

 

[JoetheRam]

5 hours ago, LERam said:

I think the idea is... you can see what the usage is and might try ans actively reduce it? Or if you can see it goes up a lot a certain periods, it might highlight how much certain appliances are costing in energy. Basically educate you more so you can make better decisions.

 

I have to be honest, we have one and it's stuck out the way so actually makes no difference at all to my habits. But I can't see any reason not to have one? It doesn't cost you any extra, unless there's some hidden agenda from the energy suppliers?

Yeah I guess I just already switch lights off when leaving a room and turn the TV off when no one is watching it so don't need a meter showing me that doing so uses energy.

If it works for others that's great, would just question how people don't know this stuff already.

 

[RoyMac5]

44 minutes ago, JoetheRam said:

Yeah I guess I just already switch lights off when leaving a room and turn the TV off when no one is watching it so don't need a meter showing me that doing so uses energy.

If it works for others that's great, would just question how people don't know this stuff already.

 

I imagine because there's enough people out there who don't realise that paying a monthly set direct debit might not actually be paying off the amount they have used.

They're sold as 'smart' meters but I'm not sure why. The early ones seemed to have trouble being able to swap and still be smart from one supplier to another. I guess some people find it difficult to do a meter reading as I think smart meters do that. But what else, I don't know.

Edited June 15, 2022 by RoyMac5

[RoyMac5]

[RoyMac5]

Smart meters handy to enable you to stop using electricity in peak times.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62626908

[ThePrisoner]

Why games consoles? They don't consume anywhere near what tumble dryers and dishwashers do. Weird bundling there.

[Ram-Alf]

Ah another ploy to convince us all to have a Smart meter installed...nope not convinced ?

[Crewton]

There was a piece in the Money section of the Sunday Times a couple of weeks ago that concluded that Smart Meters are still problematic, so I won't be changing over anytime soon. 

[ariotofmyown]

With the energy cap rise, thought I'd have a look at my bills to see what is changing.

I'm on Bulb, and in Jan this year, Electricity was 20p per kWh and Gas was nearly 4p.

Current rates are 28p and 7p, but the new increases (assuming bulb charge the maximum) are 52p and 15p.

So the actual increases from one Winter to the next are about 2.5x for Electricity and nearly 4x for Gas.

Bills won't quite go up by this much as there is the montly standard charge too, but this will be a smallish percentage of the overall bill now.

This widely reported average annual cap of £3,549 doesn't seem massively helpful. People can spend way more, or way less than this amount depending on usage. 

And there is gonna be another increase announced in 3 months, just ready for coldest months in Jan.

Good news that I'm doing my bit for the planet though...all the engery Bulb use is renewable apparently. It just costs the same as everywhere else! Great smoke and mirrors!

Oh, and just read that it will cost the Goverment 4 billion to keep Bulb running in administation too. Trust in the markets!

[ketteringram]

1 hour ago, Crewton said:

There was a piece in the Money section of the Sunday Times a couple of weeks ago that concluded that Smart Meters are still problematic, so I won't be changing over anytime soon. 

Had one fitted last November. Booked a day off work, to get it fitted (after them pestering me for months). It didn't work.

Booked another day off months later , for them to come and fix it. 

It still doesn't work. So I'm still sending in manual readings each month , like I used to. I'm fine with that, but would have preferred not to waste those two days !

[JoetheRam]

The way it's reported is deliberately confusing. No one knows what the average household that the £3.5k annual figure (assuming the cap stays the same for a year, which it won't) looks like.

State the increase in pence per KWH (electric in October 21 was about 18p on BG standard tariff, gas 3p) so the annual increase to 52p and 15p per KWH is three times and five times.

Then report that standing charges have doubled as well to take on the  customers who were previously with the crap privatised firms that undercut themselves out of business.

Then report that we're gonna need more wind turbines, solar panels and hydro electric power and that these companies (and BP) can pay for it using the stacks of cash that they and their directors have creamed off the common man for the last 100 years else we're gonna come round their mansions and stamp on all their toys. The party is over.

[Ram-Alf]

10 minutes ago, JoetheRam said:

The way it's reported is deliberately confusing. No one knows what the average household that the £3.5k annual figure (assuming the cap stays the same for a year, which it won't) looks like.

State the increase in pence per KWH (electric in October 21 was about 18p on BG standard tariff, gas 3p) so the annual increase to 52p and 15p per KWH is three times and five times.

Then report that standing charges have doubled as well to take on the  customers who were previously with the crap privatised firms that undercut themselves out of business.

Then report that we're gonna need more wind turbines, solar panels and hydro electric power and that these companies (and BP) can pay for it using the stacks of cash that they and their directors have creamed off the common man for the last 100 years else we're gonna come round their mansions and stamp on all their toys. The party is over.

This is my fixed rate until July 23....Gas 10.487p per kWh...standing charge...31.329p per day*

        "             "            "             "       Elec 36.524p per kWh...Standing charge...52.285p per day*

My next bill in due just before Xmas...So I may have a Turkey Dinner...or Beans on Toast ?‍♀️

 

[Grumpy Git]

Just done an online calculation based on the latest price cap (load of bollox, it's no cap at all).

For duel fuel before the Ukraine invasion, I was paying about £150/month, currently paying £350/month and from October its going to be £630/month. ?

[ketteringram]

1 hour ago, Grumpy Git said:

Just done an online calculation based on the latest price cap (load of bollox, it's no cap at all).

For duel fuel before the Ukraine invasion, I was paying about £150/month, currently paying £350/month and from October its going to be £630/month. ?

....and from January, probably over £800?

[Tamworthram]

4 hours ago, Grumpy Git said:

Just done an online calculation based on the latest price cap (load of bollox, it's no cap at all).

For duel fuel before the Ukraine invasion, I was paying about £150/month, currently paying £350/month and from October its going to be £630/month. ?

As I said earlier in the thread, it is a cap but it’s a cap on the rate per KWh not a cap on your monthly/annual bill. The figure they quote in the media is for an “average” family home (whatever an average family home is). If you have a cannabis farm in your loft then your bills will be far higher than what the media erroneously called the cap. Then again, if you do have a cannabis farm, you can probably afford it or are too stoned to care.

[Van der MoodHoover]

5 hours ago, Grumpy Git said:

Just done an online calculation based on the latest price cap (load of bollox, it's no cap at all).

For duel fuel before the Ukraine invasion, I was paying about £150/month, currently paying £350/month and from October its going to be £630/month. ?

I suspect ours will be very similar - Ive done the 140/month and currently 360/month so you could just have save me a sum on my spreadsheet of gloom.........??