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How is the cost of living crisis affecting you?

Just looked at our energy bill predictor for the coming year. The supplier have added it recently and it calculates current payments, government help, and predicted rises.

Scarily high figure, ffs.
 
I’ve just had to email someone at work about an overpayment of approx £100 - they’ve replied asking for it to be done in instalments stating “my mortgage has gone up £100 over the last three months and will go up again due to the recent rate rise”.

I’m expecting to get more of these emails as the winter progresses
 
Have your card read by a scanner in proximity to your wallet

I know fuck all about it and whether or not its a pertinent risk

I recently found out that if you have multiple cards in your wallet and try waving that about (even if the other cards aren't contactless), then contactless card readers will throw a strop instead of processing a payment. I have to actually take my bank card out of my wallet in order to tap in a payment.

I think the risks of this kind of thing are overstated. The reader has to get damn close, as in it has to be actually touching you if the card is in a wallet in your pocket. Anyone trying to get a reading from a card on my person is definitely going to be rubbing up against the pocket it's stored in, such as on my chest or near my crotch. I reckon I'd notice.
 
I recently found out that if you have multiple cards in your wallet and try waving that about (even if the other cards aren't contactless), then contactless card readers will throw a strop instead of processing a payment. I have to actually take my bank card out of my wallet in order to tap in a payment.

I think the risks of this kind of thing are overstated. The reader has to get damn close, as in it has to be actually touching you if the card is in a wallet in your pocket. Anyone trying to get a reading from a card on my person is definitely going to be rubbing up against the pocket it's stored in, such as on my chest or near my crotch. I reckon I'd notice.

Yeah, my understanding is the RFID scamming thing is not really a thing. Just used to sell people RFID blocking wallets mostly.
 
Last night I had a cost of living crisis anxiety dream. I doubt it will be the last.

Was in the supermarket doing some shopping. Just a boring old processing dream, normal stuff, being normal. Wandered about filling my basket with the usual stuff, nothing extra, no fancies or treats. Then I got to the checkout and the cost just kept going up and up. However much I took out of the basket or off the conveyer, the cost would go up again. Inflation was so bad that the price would jump even while I was trying to work out how to pay for the items. It was always £200 no matter how much I left behind. In the end I held up two rolls of loo paper and said “this is £200? 100 for one roll?” and the checkout person just sat and looked at me and the awful look on her face mirrored the way I felt. I woke up before making a decision about paying.
 
When you are shitters in a nightclub waving your card at an undiagnosed unsighted bill

When you lose/have card stolen and someone rolls it up to its pin limit

Apparently you can be RFID’d ( don’t know how)
When I was in Canada five or six years ago I saw wallets which said they'd block this sort of thing
 
My nephew (the son of my youngest sister) is planning to quit his job and move back home to Crewe from London to live with his mother and stepfather. Between rent, energy, food and travel he simply doesn't earn enough to be able to stay down South and doesn't see any possibility of it improving. He's 33 (no partner or family) and effectively planning to start his life over again.
 
I'm sure there was a thread specifically about food prices but I can't find it.

Anyway, just found out a local bakery chain have had to stop making the bread I buy when I'm not making my own, because the cost of that flour has risen so much.
 
Half pay starting at the end of the month and everything is costing so much more. The food bill is gone crazy. I'm not buying any extras..no biscuits..no yoghurts...nothing but basics and I cook everything from scratch.
I've a decent amount of food in the freezer...but that will run through in the next 2 / 3 months. Mortgage payments were fixed rate any way so that wont impact until 2924 when I will need to re negotiate that.
On the plus side...losing weight cos just not eating outside of 3 meals a day. Also, spending time on things I can do for free like clearing the garden etc.

Eta. The electric heater has worked really well and also the electric blankets.

Eta 2..mortgage fixed rate runs out in 2024....not 2924.. 🙄
 
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It's mindblowing to see the price rise in food. Almost double what it was during lockdown in some cases.

Food, we all need it and yet the capitalists in charge don't care that we can't afford it.
 
I don't have kids, but currently I have 2 teenage boys staying. It's a shock with food (and so money) as it's like a constant swarm of locusts devouring all food in their paths. Can really see how people would totally struggle if they had this the whole time.
 
Half pay starting at the end of the month and everything is costing so much more. The food bill is gone crazy. I'm not buying any extras..no biscuits..no yoghurts...nothing but basics and I cook everything from scratch.
I've a decent amount of food in the freezer...but that will run through in the next 2 / 3 months. Mortgage payments were fixed rate any way so that wont impact until 2924 when I will need to re negotiate that.
On the plus side...losing weight cos just not eating outside of 3 meals a day. Also, spending time on things I can do for free like clearing the garden etc.

Eta. The electric heater has worked really well and also the electric blankets.
Well at least your mortgage is ok for the next 900 years, gives you a bit of breathing space 😁
 
I’m trying to get my food bill down but it doesn’t work.
I stop buying items when they get too expensive, not bought pine nuts for years now. Stopped buying tonic, replaced that with cordial. Stopped buying sliced cheese, buy the cheapest blocks, stopped buying nice deli ham, buy that cheap wafer thin stuff. I buy those cheap tasteless tomatoes, instead of the nice ones. But we eat gluten free, a loaf costs at least £3 and will only make enough sandwiches for 3 lunches for 1 person. One week I spent £40 on bread because we both had to have sandwiches every day and in the morning. I tried baking gluten free bread (we have a breadmaker that I use to bake bread for dad), but it goes stale in less than a day, so it’s no good for a packed lunch. I batch cook, I don’t buy processed, I buy rice in sacks, not tiny packets, only one of us drinks alcohol now, we have no takeaways, ever but I’m still spending well over £100 a week. I guess it’s because we eat healthily - both eat 3 pieces of fruit a day, for instance and it all adds up.
 
I don't have kids, but currently I have 2 teenage boys staying. It's a shock with food (and so money) as it's like a constant swarm of locusts devouring all food in their paths. Can really see how people would totally struggle if they had this the whole time.
Liked because that is my exact situation (14 and 17). I'm constantly staggered by how fast the fridge empties.
 
I’m trying to get my food bill down but it doesn’t work.
I stop buying items when they get too expensive, not bought pine nuts for years now. Stopped buying tonic, replaced that with cordial. Stopped buying sliced cheese, buy the cheapest blocks, stopped buying nice deli ham, buy that cheap wafer thin stuff. I buy those cheap tasteless tomatoes, instead of the nice ones. But we eat gluten free, a loaf costs at least £3 and will only make enough sandwiches for 3 lunches for 1 person. One week I spent £40 on bread because we both had to have sandwiches every day and in the morning. I tried baking gluten free bread (we have a breadmaker that I use to bake bread for dad), but it goes stale in less than a day, so it’s no good for a packed lunch. I batch cook, I don’t buy processed, I buy rice in sacks, not tiny packets, only one of us drinks alcohol now, we have no takeaways, ever but I’m still spending well over £100 a week. I guess it’s because we eat healthily - both eat 3 pieces of fruit a day, for instance and it all adds up.

Do you have a microwave at work? I've started doing some smaller portions of my batch cooking to take for lunch. Had a dahl with sour kraut for lunch today with some left over salad from last night.

It does all add up though :(
 
Pet food has really gone up as well. If I go any cheaper the cats won't eat it and I feel bad giving the dog anything lower quality then Butchers. :(
Yup, it''s a real fucker....i have two indoor cats and the cat litter reccently went up by nearly £5....am going to shop around now coz even with my paltry staff discount it''s cheaper at B&M 's
 
Yup, it''s a real fucker....i have two indoor cats and the cat litter reccently went up by nearly £5....am going to shop around now coz even with my paltry staff discount it''s cheaper at B&M 's

I use the cheapest stuff and throw out more often. The catsan is silly money.

We had years without buying any buy since moving last April one of them has started using it more and more. Luckily the other still goes outside.
 
I use the cheapest stuff and throw out more often. The catsan is silly money.

We had years without buying any buy since moving last April one of them has started using it more and more. Luckily the other still goes outside.
After trying all of the various types i do use catsan as it lasts longer and doesn't smell( in a flat this is crucial) but where i work the big bag went up to £17 !!!!!!!!! Have found it at £14 in B&M
 
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