How is everyone dealing with rising prices?

[jansman]

I have put this here as prices of goods equate to money.

The topic of rising prices seems to be rearing it’s head on the forum. Fuel is the big one it seems,food too,and both are non- negotiable aren’t they? Contrary to to what I read ,incomes do not seem to be rising when talking to friends,but prices are.

So what are the good members of UK Preppers doing to mitigate the pressure on their household incomes?

[Zedsdead]

We’re having one takeaway per month. I already bulk buy when things we use are on offer. I’ve set myself a £1 work lunch budget per day. Which Tbf is easy for me. We’re not struggling for money(not rich either) but I’m keeping an eye on things.

[hobo]

Food and fuel about to go up as my kids are coming back from Uni soon! For now we base our meals on what we get in the weekly Lidl veg box (£1.50), the community fridge bag (free), whatever Sainsbugs have on offer plus basics. That shouldn’t change too much when they land. Fuel is scavenged wood for heating and minimal gas/electric. We’re still on a good community tariff until March then we’re expecting it to double

[Arzosah]

I buy at the cheapest delivery-friendly supermarket round here, which is Asda. I book the deliveries that are the cheapest - thats usually Tues and Weds early and mid afternoon, £2, just gone up from £1.50. I use frozen veg, for simplicity's sake, it's very good value. Texture can be dodgy, especially broccoli, but I can hack that.

Downgraded my coffee brand twice over - used to use ground (I only have one cup a day) then went to freeze dried with ground coffee in, now it's just supermarket own ordinary freeze dried. Almost half the price.

I bulk buy nuts and seeds (I'm vegetarian) from an online supplier - 500g of organic turmeric, 3kg of lentils, that sort of thing. Delivery is free if you spend over £50: bulk buying rules.

I dislike the taste/aftertaste of takeaways, fortunately for my budget, though I'm splashing out on a £2 gluten free vegetarian pizza on 20th December I still have a *lot* of flour from last year - just used 200g in making a victoria sponge, very proud of myself

I don't really drink, either - I got into trouble with it in my 20s, by the time I went back in my 30s, I could only take a couple of drinks. I miss it as a stress-reliever, but I don't dare get into my previous consumption habit

I use dried beans, not tinned - much, much cheaper. I cook up to half a dozen portions in one go, and freeze half.

Fuel - I use an extra jumper when I'm in the house. I tend to hang out in bed for a while before I get up. Very careful about how much water I put in the kettle. I happen to sit right by my big radiator in the living room, its lovely, even though the rest of the room is cool and the little hall is downright freezing. It's astonishing how warm I get when my laptop is on my knee I only put the hot water on when I'm having a shower or washing my hair (though I've lost control over how long it takes to heat up, it varies according to the time of year). And I'm not good at harvesting the crops I grow - must do better, lots better.

Clothes and shoes: ahem. My mum's t shirts and fleeces, my brother's satin cotton shirts from M&S, and my sister's shoes and boots. I'll never need to buy another t shirt as long as I live my ambition is to wear things out before I get rid of them, so I focus on a few things to wear at a time, even though there's lots of new-to-me stuff in my wardrobe. Underwear's getting a bit dodgy, though, I need some more soon

[Yorkshire Andy]

Cutting back a bit

Looking for bargains more / shopping about more been in a small town it's Easy enough...

Reducing treats cutting back on takeaways noticed our regular has put it's prices up / quality dropped and no more meal deals used to do a decent curry meal starter / main / rice / can of pop ... Not anymore

Using the car less and using the wife's more (more fuel efficient) new tyres are more fuel efficient that I've put on mine (every little helps)

Have threatened to remove the light bulbs from the kids rooms if they leave the lights on when they are not in their rooms already using solar powered lights In the hallway and our room got a few more sets I might put into regular use it won't do any harm

The boss lady is the walking expert on shopping prices / yellow sticker hunting

House is as insulated as it can be so far this cold weather I've managed to keep the boiler running on eco mode both on the thermostat and boiler itself guessing the boiler setting is the optimum flame size for the heat exchanger and the thermostat runs the boiler for about 20 mins then it knocks off and waits to see if the heat rises and by how much then either stays off if it hits the pre set or it runs again rather than just grafting to hit the pre set temperature then knocking off .. know the other year when it got really cold I knocked the boiler up to max to keep the house warm... But keeping the curtains closed traps tye heat ... Likewise making use of any sun and opening the curtains to let the sun warm tye room whilst keeping the shaded aspects curtains shut the house soon warms up


One can't win issue is the extraction fan in the bath but I'll take the heat loss Vs the black mould

[jennyjj01]

Cutting back a bit
Have threatened to remove the light bulbs from the kids rooms if they leave the lights on when they are not in their rooms already using solar powered lights In the hallway and our room got a few more sets I might put into regular use it won't do any harm

House lights cost sod all to run, especially LED or energy saver ones. But the washing machine and tumble dryer . OMG. Mega expensive. Don't sweat the small stuff.
If you have a smart meter, use the monitor they supply you with to see what costs what. You might be shocked.

[jansman]

Sounds like some good old- school money saving going on there.

We too,are watching electricity consumption.As Jenny points out,the tumble drier is the real energy hog in our house.Eon keep offering a smart meter,but we don’t need one to know what uses the juice! The kettle is another ,and for the life of me, I cannot get Mrs J to put only the water in she needs On the other hand,she is the one to peg washing outside instead of automatically using the drier,so it’s six of one,half a dozen of the other.

I am making sure that errands are done on the way back from work to save both fuel and time.Also keeping crap out of the boot,making sure tyres are inflated properly etc.

Fortunately,our primary heating is solid fuel ,over which we have a degree of control. I am currently monitoring our coal usage over three weeks to get a mean average ,so then I can restock at a steady pace instead of binge- buying.Wood costs us nothing - I never,ever,pay for it. I just invest my time and energy,and I get some satisfaction from it to be honest,as well as a good cardiovascular workout.

Like everyone else,we watch the prices of food and weekly consumables,and keep in a good stock to try and smooth the peaks and troughs of prices and availability.We learned this during the first lockdown last year. Our garden plays a big part too. We tend to create meals around what is available or needs using ,so currently it’s Winter squashes,beetroot,carrots,kale,perpetual spinach and stored spuds and apples. It all helps. Of course ,we have the fowls ,but to be absolutely honest,they are expensive eggs! I have always kept them though,and I always will.I trade any surplus eggs with my neighbour,who always has firewood available from his workshop activities. I have got back into rabbit keeping again - I like doing it- and the money I make there goes into rabbit and poultry feed and garden consumables too.So in a roundabout way,our little food production area is sort of sustainable.

I feel that a little bit of thrift won’t hurt , as I believe our profligate,consumerist society is realising ( slowly) that the party might be drawing to a close. Of course,there will be a triple whammy in the Spring of next year,when Council Tax goes up,the Fuel Cap is lifted,and National Insurance goes up.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Cutting back a bit
Have threatened to remove the light bulbs from the kids rooms if they leave the lights on when they are not in their rooms already using solar powered lights In the hallway and our room got a few more sets I might put into regular use it won't do any harm

House lights cost sod all to run, especially LED or energy saver ones. But the washing machine and tumble dryer . OMG. Mega expensive. Don't sweat the small stuff.
If you have a smart meter, use the monitor they supply you with to see what costs what. You might be shocked.

It all adds up

11w led lights times 4 (hall way 2x and 2 kids rooms 44w)

23 hours and that's a kw then there's the TVs / Computers left on standby

The Tumble drier hardly ever gets used it's there purely for emergencies if we can't get work / school uniforms dry on airers / the line outside ...

Washing machine is AA rated and most stuff gets cool washed bar my work gear which is usually oily ...

Fridge freezer is a modern inverter driven unit which are more energy friendly than the old DOL thermostat switched compressor motor fridges

The electric cooker probably chomps a bit too hard on electric when this one dies we will price up an induction version as they are much more efficient and heat up quicker so it's not on as long

[Yorkshire Andy]

Sounds like some good old- school money saving going on there.



I am making sure that errands are done on the way back from work to save both fuel and time.Also keeping crap out of the boot,making sure tyres are inflated properly etc.

[grenfell]

One side effect of the pandemic was that we ate less takeaways and to be honest i came to the conclusion that i don't miss them . They were , by and large , either Indian or Chinese and i was getting fed up with what are really little more than expensive glorified stew anyway so it wasn't a great loss to eat less of them. Most of our local pubs don't do food now either so that's another avenue for our money to run away gone too. We're happy enough to cook and eat at home. Not far from us we have a shop called "bag a bargin" ( it might be just one word , i'm not sure") and it's one of those pile it high in an industrial unit type of places. The contents vary week on week but they do put a video on facebook each week so there's an idea of what to find.
We try and drive as little as possible . We do take my daughter to and back to work but it's only around five miles and we're frankly happier to do that rather than her using the bus especially late at night. I use petrol for my tools and for the two strokes i have been using the premium E5 stuff which is a tad more expensive but seems to work ok. Not much i can do about it although at this time of year i'm using less anyway. The mowers don't get used at the moment or very rarely and i have a stock of petrol for them in case the price goes up next year. That's something i've done for a while .
Largely my actions haven't changed much as i've always been frugal . Money wise all three of us are working and my wife has sold shedloads of stuff on ebay and facebook in the last year much of it stuff that i've collected that otherwise would have ended up in the skip. Again that's something i've always done and a trait i've inherited from my father. My wife collects autographs , i like ostalgia and old cameras and those hobbies have seen less activity so there's a saving there and it's probably less for our daughter to dispose of when we're gone.