JMC Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 I am making fewer trips in the car. My day off today, car stayed on the drive usually I would have jumped in it and gone shopping to Manchester or such like. I had 3 home visits to do last weekend, normally I would have rung them up and possible made 3 separate visits to fit in with the people but this time I said that I could come on Sunday morning only. It worked and only did half the miles. Food shopping is getting very expensive and I can't even think about next winters heating bills Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenda Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 Everything is spiralling out of control, it is really worrying. My food bill is horrendous now and petrol costs, we certainly think twice about making journeys now. Where will it all end Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zico's mum Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 I live alone,drive a Nissan Micra,cycle to work daily,live in a 1 bed house,don't have central heating - just a gas fire in the lounge,have the immersion heater for hot water on just 1 hour a day,buy all my clothes from charity shops and now e-bay,never eat out.....just where am I supposed to make cuts Had a letter last week from Electricity board to drop my monthly direct debit from £27.00 to £21.00 as I'm in credit,small celebration then heard the news about the 40% increase.Food especially has increased enormously - and oddly one area I have really noticed a big increase is the cost of wild bird feed - I have several feeders out and love watching them.If I'm made redundant on 01st July I am really going to struggle.Our pay increase this year was 1.5% - big deal.I still use the car at weekends,my main enjoyment in life is taking the Ds to any of the glorious places in Somerset,Devon and Dorset within easy reach,I'm not giving that up unless absolutely necessary.I still do home checks but always take them with me and make a day out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClazUK Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 This 40% price increase that is all over the media today is, at present, just speculation: http://www.energywatch.org.uk/media/news/s...article_id=1111 Can't pretend I'm not very worried about managing on my own, though. Think I'll be out in the woods looking for sticks!We do this for kindling at the weekend, 3 carrier bags full. Keeps me going for a couple of weeks. If fuel prices DO keep rising, I might start collecting bigger stuff. I'm going to sound like a nostalgic old fart here, but I am always shocked at the amount of fallen wood lying around in woods and forests nowadays. When I was a kid you'd often see people out collecting firewood, we did it ourselves. I spoke to a forester a while back and he mentioned that the woods don't get 'cleaned up' like they used to, so maybe we should be thinking along those lines for free supplementary heat. The situation with oil prices hit home for me when I ordered the boss 1000 litres of heating oil, last time I did it was 35p a litre - this time it was 60p a litre Jesus. It was 18p when we bought White Lodge and 32p when we left. That's shocking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 I'm going to sound like a nostalgic old fart here, but I am always shocked at the amount of fallen wood lying around in woods and forests nowadays. When I was a kid you'd often see people out collecting firewood, we did it ourselves. I spoke to a forester a while back and he mentioned that the woods don't get 'cleaned up' like they used to, so maybe we should be thinking along those lines for free supplementary heat. It's policy now in most woodlands to leave most of the fallen timber to benefit the wildlife. I would imagine it might just save on staff and equipment costs too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazydaisy Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 I have started to nag kids to switch off lights, heating is down to a minimum. I now shop in Lidels and Asda, everything is the basics. I drive with the "petrol per mile" thingy switched on (Scenic), trips in the car are for the necessities, such as taking kids to school (they go to schools in a different town). Its awful having to think about everything before you do anything. And this is all on Income support ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClazUK Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 It's policy now in most woodlands to leave most of the fallen timber to benefit the wildlife. I would imagine it might just save on staff and equipment costs too! It is? We walk in privately owned woods owned by the Spencer family (as in Diana) but their list of rules doesn't mention not nicking kindling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elricc Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 When we lived in Nuneaton we used to take all the wood from a local skip company so all our wood was free and very enviro friendly, too rural for that here, but worth having an ask in the town, also we used to take all the old window frames from a double glazing place Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happylittlegreensquirrel Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 I'm going to sound like a nostalgic old fart here, but I am always shocked at the amount of fallen wood lying around in woods and forests nowadays. When I was a kid you'd often see people out collecting firewood, we did it ourselves. I spoke to a forester a while back and he mentioned that the woods don't get 'cleaned up' like they used to, so maybe we should be thinking along those lines for free supplementary heat. I guess a lot less houses have open fires or burners now but I reckon those with them blocked up will be thinking about reopening them this winter I wanted a small wind turbine but could not get planning consent so am looking at solar panels , front of my house is pretty much south facing and the estimates are it reduces bills by up to 40 % a year down side is it costs 3 k plus to install so I think its best veiwed as a long term investment I have noticed the prices of items in the shops going up but the biggest increase I have noticed is airfares , in a matter of months the flight prices to Sri Lanka have gone up nearly £ 300 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gemstone Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 (edited) Yes it is. The people who had agreed to buy our car on Tuesday have been refused a bank loan and have pulled out We are back to square one with it It is costing more to keep the teenagers full up too Edited June 19, 2008 by Gemstone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rufus the wonderdog Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 Yes it is. The people who had agreed to buy our car on Tuesday have been refused a bank loan and have pulled out We are back to square one with it It is costing more to keep the teenagers full up too Sorry to hear about the car Gemstone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ranirottie Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 we are not allowed to pick up or take any wood from our local forest. x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nettie Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 (edited) We still have open fireplaces and are thinking of installing a couple of woodburners maybe with a backboiler for hot water. Of course, we live in a smokeless fuel zone which most people seem to ignore, I guess we won't be burning coal. We can get our wood from Wimbledon Common, you're not allowed to collect it but by the Rangers Office they have a huge wood pile, and have a price for a normal boot full and a slightly higher price for an estate boot. We wouldn't be able to get planning permission for a wind turbine here but are seriously considering it in France but because the air space above us is airforce space we need to get permission from the French airforce, they do sometimes practice low flying over our property but I highly doubt we'll need a turbine so big it will interfere with their flying. We're also going to install wood burners there too, our water and central heating is oil at the moment. I need to get the tank filled when I go down mid-July and I'm dreading writing that cheque! Edited June 19, 2008 by Nettie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazz Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 its worth looking on freecycle for wood, someone was just offering bags of chopped wood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nouggatti Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 (edited) We need to replace our gas boiler and I'm strongly considering getting a wood chip boiler in. Our govt have a scheme where they will reimburse up to 80% (I think) of the installation cost so it would be a temporary big outlay until we got the refund. Food bills have increased hugely, I finding cooking a batch of stuff and freezing helps as then you know what you have. Diesel for the car here is now about £1.12 a litre and electricity is due to go up 30% One of the divisions of the company I work for sells fuel (coal etc) and we can get it at cost as one of our benefits Edited June 19, 2008 by nouggatti Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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