Cost of Living - How are you handling it?

When I went through South Africa the other week, I went to a shop in the airport and bought a few things. It was 50% of the cost of what it would be in the UK when not in the airport. I also later found out that the shop (Woolworths lol) is quite a posh one, like Waitross AND it was in the airport. Take all that into account and you've gotta wonder, what the hell is going on with the UK.
I'm sure some of you know and could explain further but from the way I see it right now, our country is a joke. Price rises I imagine are happening globally, but the UK right now is a shambles.

Victor Mildew wrote:...the van fuel... £140!!!! ...

RetroCora wrote:It costs me almost £70 to fill up a 1.2l Corsa...

It's gonna cost a lot more from tomorrow, too, guys:

BBC News wrote:The price of petrol saw its biggest daily jump in 17 years on Tuesday with a rise of more than 2p a litre, according to the RAC.

The motoring organisation said the average cost of filling a typical family car with petrol was now £99.40.

It warned the cost could exceed £100 as soon as Thursday.

Managed to get petrol for £1.74 today compared to my local garage if £1.82. Not sure how sustainable this is going to be as prices keep going to up.

I'm lucky I can work from home a couple of days a week but if I was in 5 days I have to start looking for a different job.

£1.79 today. Cost me £80 to fill up my Polo.

Eighty strawberry floating pounds for a little VW Polo!

Jenuall wrote:£1.79 today. Cost me £80 to fill up my Polo.

Eighty strawberry floating pounds for a little VW Polo!

Garage near me is £1.92 for unleaded today

I have a diesel, totally strawberry floated.

Lex-Man wrote:I have a diesel, totally strawberry floated.

^ the facts

Curls wrote:When I went through South Africa the other week, I went to a shop in the airport and bought a few things. It was 50% of the cost of what it would be in the UK when not in the airport. I also later found out that the shop (Woolworths lol) is quite a posh one, like Waitross AND it was in the airport. Take all that into account and you've gotta wonder, what the hell is going on with the UK.
I'm sure some of you know and could explain further but from the way I see it right now, our country is a joke. Price rises I imagine are happening globally, but the UK right now is a shambles.

My inner conspiracy theorist could argue it's some sort of Tory plot to bring the country to its knees. Wasnt there some find sort of quote about Boris loving it when people look to him in a crisis?

Also Brexit.

Carlos wrote:

Curls wrote:When I went through South Africa the other week, I went to a shop in the airport and bought a few things. It was 50% of the cost of what it would be in the UK when not in the airport. I also later found out that the shop (Woolworths lol) is quite a posh one, like Waitross AND it was in the airport. Take all that into account and you've gotta wonder, what the hell is going on with the UK.
I'm sure some of you know and could explain further but from the way I see it right now, our country is a joke. Price rises I imagine are happening globally, but the UK right now is a shambles.

My inner conspiracy theorist could argue it's some sort of Tory plot to bring the country to its knees. Wasnt there some find sort of quote about Boris loving it when people look to him in a crisis?

Also Brexit.

They really want to scrap rights and standards and you can't do that if things are fun, but if they let gooseberry fool slide to absolute gooseberry fool they are sell it as a temporary reduction of standards and rights to save the country.

Despite still being in Credit on my account Bulb have qdecided to increase my monthly Direct debit by £51/month. Their online system won't allow me to drop it to less than £39/month more than it was.

I've emailed them and told them to drop it to £15/month more than it was. Over the next 3-4 months I'm barely going to be at the house so usage is going to drop significantly anyway. I'll manage my own account thanks guys. I'll choose what my Direct debit is going to be, not you. I don't want to build up a large credit (again) when that credit is better in my account than theirs right now.

Apparently the AA are now advising people not to drive.

Lex-Man wrote:Apparently the AA are now advising people not to drive.

Probably fair advice for alcoholics if they are still drinking

Lagamorph wrote:Despite still being in Credit on my account Bulb have qdecided to increase my monthly Direct debit by £51/month. Their online system won't allow me to drop it to less than £39/month more than it was.

I've emailed them and told them to drop it to £15/month more than it was. Over the next 3-4 months I'm barely going to be at the house so usage is going to drop significantly anyway. I'll manage my own account thanks guys. I'll choose what my Direct debit is going to be, not you. I don't want to build up a large credit (again) when that credit is better in my account than theirs right now.

I just got that too. They're obviously getting a bit nervous about the next few months given that nobody can afford their strawberry floating leccy bill.

RetroCora wrote:

Lagamorph wrote:Despite still being in Credit on my account Bulb have qdecided to increase my monthly Direct debit by £51/month. Their online system won't allow me to drop it to less than £39/month more than it was.

I've emailed them and told them to drop it to £15/month more than it was. Over the next 3-4 months I'm barely going to be at the house so usage is going to drop significantly anyway. I'll manage my own account thanks guys. I'll choose what my Direct debit is going to be, not you. I don't want to build up a large credit (again) when that credit is better in my account than theirs right now.

I just got that too. They're obviously getting a bit nervous about the next few months given that nobody can afford their strawberry floating leccy bill.

So Bulb responded to my email and reverted thr Direct Debit to an amount I specified.

A few hours later and their system has automatically ramped it back up to their original increase

OrangeRKN wrote:

Lex-Man wrote:Apparently the AA are now advising people not to drive.

Probably fair advice for alcoholics if they are still drinking

I used to get a bag of salad leaves each week at the supermarket but I've switched to buying a whole lettuce instead; more bang for your buck.

But... man, there is lots of dirt that needs washing off. It's like the stuff has just been on the ground or something ...

Meanwhile, EA boss Andrew Wilson has had a $20m pay cut.

Last year the bulk of Wilson's pay was via a $30m stock option but this time around the stock award has been just $18m. The pain really is hitting everyone now and it hurts to see :-(. Hopefully Wilson will be able to pay tax advisers to position this as a huge loss so that he can gain a rebate or something.

jawa_ wrote:Meanwhile, EA boss Andrew Wilson has had a $20m pay cut.

Last year the bulk of Wilson's pay was via a $30m stock option but this time around the stock award has been just $18m. The pain really is hitting everyone now and it hurts to see . Hopefully Wilson will be able to pay tax advisers to position this as a huge loss so that he can gain a rebate or something.

He'll have to switch to dirty lettuce now.

Moggy wrote:He'll have to switch to dirty lettuce now.

. We're all hurting hard and in this together ...

This is an excellent read from an Irish writer in London on the dwindling prospects of home ownership from millennials. It's titled 'Why Aren't We All Radicals?'

https://lkennedy.substack.com/p/why-are ... medium=ios


Brief excerpt that stood out to me:
'Why are the same people who are so clearly systemically disadvantaged so happy to be distracted by nonsense? Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars. A trial deciding whether one of two famous narcissists besmirched the other. Why are we reading (and writing) articles about Elon Musk’s Twitter buyout either representing hope and breaking the chains of the everyman, or confirming that we live in an irredeemably necrotic plutocracy? Why are we debating the morality of Partygate versus Beergate when the two political parties and leaders involved ultimately have such similar views, and both represent tacit endorsement of the system that sees even university educated adults in their mid-thirties living in their parents’ box room and struggling to pay off university loans?'