Cost of living increases

[Tangled up in Blue]

John Stonehouse did to name one…

That's topical.There''s a tv series starting on him in Jan.Used to know the MP for Walsall South (JS's neighbouring seat) very well.

 

[SARF]

German electricity is trading at minus .79 cents today.

 

[southendkid]

German electricity is trading at minus .79 cents today.

That's quite common around Christmas time in Germany apparently, they have a lot of wind and solar power in the country but very limited ability to store it long term, that means if it's a windy day and a lot of businesses are shut then they have too many energy and they need to get rid of it before it's wasted. Unfortunately once businesses open after Christmas demand will surge and prices therefore will as well.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

That's quite common around Christmas time in Germany apparently, they have a lot of wind and solar power in the country but very limited ability to store it long term, that means if it's a windy day and a lot of businesses are shut then they have too many energy and they need to get rid of it before it's wasted. Unfortunately once businesses open after Christmas demand will surge and prices therefore will as well.

They were saying something similar on the Spanish news last night too.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

That's quite common around Christmas time in Germany apparently, they have a lot of wind and solar power in the country but very limited ability to store it long term, that means if it's a windy day and a lot of businesses are shut then they have too many energy and they need to get rid of it before it's wasted. Unfortunately once businesses open after Christmas demand will surge and prices therefore will as well.

I noticed yesterday at one point we were only using about 10% gas and 2% coal. Obviously there’s much lower industrial demand this time of year but it does make me wonder why our bills are based on the cost of gas when all that wind power is generated much cheaper.

 

[Holy Joe]

I've just read my gas meter - looks like I've used 3 times more gas in Dec than Nov! That cold spell of weather is going to hurt

Actually it's almost 4 times more!! Electric is about 25% more - but my son is back home from Uni, so I expected electric use to increase quite abit

 

[SARF]

I noticed yesterday at one point we were only using about 10% gas and 2% coal. Obviously there’s much lower industrial demand this time of year but it does make me wonder why our bills are based on the cost of gas when all that wind power is generated much cheaper.

The levies to fund ‘green’ power are all on your electricity bills not on your gas .. which does seem a bit backwards now but made sense at the time..
a lot of wind power is still priced at the most expensive component of electricity generation, which currently is gas , regardless of the mix on any given day. Which seems backwards but made sense at the time..
new wind warms have contract for difference deals where the the price they can receive is capped , but the minimum price is always enough to still make the whole thing financially viable

 

[RHB]

We normally use Coffee Mate in our coffee and were paying £4-£4.50 for a 1kg drum. Today at Iceland we discovered that the large size is now 800 grams and it cost us £5.50 for the privilege. FFS

 

[kaymac]

E10 at Jet Rochford 141.7p / BP Toomeys 143.9p

 

[southendkid]

The amount we pay for energy will be going up again by about 20% in April. It's down to government support being pulled this time so there's a chance they'll do a U-turn and keep prices as they are but anyone on a tight budget should assume bills will be going up to be on the safe side.

Edit: Announced now that the EPG isn't going up, however the £66 a month payments will still be scrapped.

 

[Mad Cyril]

We normally use Coffee Mate in our coffee and were paying £4-£4.50 for a 1kg drum. Today at Iceland we discovered that the large size is now 800 grams and it cost us £5.50 for the privilege. FFS

Coffee Mate - do you like that vending machine taste?

 

[Supershrimper]

The amount we pay for energy will be going up again by about 20% in April. It's down to government support being pulled this time so there's a chance they'll do a U-turn and keep prices as they are but anyone on a tight budget should assume bills will be going up to be on the safe side.

We should be seeing a reduction due to the fall in wholesale gas prices. I guess the appetite is not there form the utility companies who are all on the governments price cap. They are all probably just accepting the governments price cap and going with that, knowing that they should be making decent profits due the fall in prices.

If you see 1 fixed rate below the market price cap, more will follow. I guess they are all doing a waiting game to see who blinks first.

Energy bills should be under £2,000 due to lower wholesale costs but prices will go up instead

The regulator is expected to drop the energy price cap by around £1,000 to £3,295 to all bills from 1 April, according to the latest forecasts

inews.co.uk

 

[southendkid]

We should be seeing a reduction due to the fall in wholesale gas prices. I guess the appetite is not there form the utility companies who are all on the governments price cap. They are all probably just accepting the governments price cap and going with that, knowing that they should be making decent profits due the fall in prices.

If you see 1 fixed rate below the market price cap, more will follow. I guess they are all doing a waiting game to see who blinks first.

Energy bills should be under £2,000 due to lower wholesale costs but prices will go up instead

The regulator is expected to drop the energy price cap by around £1,000 to £3,295 to all bills from 1 April, according to the latest forecasts

inews.co.uk

I think it's too early to expect prices to drop, the article talks about wholesale now being lower than Feb 2022 but if you go back 3 or 4 weeks it was about twice as high as Feb 2022. Suppliers usually hedge their bets and buy most of their gas months in advance at a fixed rate (the big ones anyway, there were some smaller suppliers that risked buying less than a month in advance but that's a gamble that resulted in most of them going bust so nobody does that anymore), so it's unlikely they're paying those low prices yet and hence neither are we. Give it a few months though (July cap is predicted to go down to £2100 so prices should hopefully stay low long enough for companies to start paying the low wholesale prices) and we may see competitive prices being offered.

Martin Lewis thinks what we may see now though are fixed rate offers coming back (although companies will likely wait to see if the government u-turns on the EPG). If they do happen though make sure you don't get conned into agreeing to a rate that's higher than the predicted July price cap.

 

[Mad Cyril]

Just been to Sainsburys in Southend.

A grab bag of Skips is £1.25.

A tin of Heinz Tomato soup is on offer at £1.50

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Can't say I was too impressed by the price hike at our local Pack & Mail for some black ink for the printer .Back in Feb. it was 14.70 euros .On Monday 18.00 euros .That over 20% in my book.

 

[The General]

Now petrol prices seem to have frozen for months but I noticed desiel is now down to 156.9p at the Tesco down Prince Ave today. The unleaded stays glued at 141.9p. How fuel prices really flat lined the past few months!?

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

Now petrol prices seem to have frozen for months but I noticed desiel is now down to 156.9p at the Tesco down Prince Ave today. The unleaded stays glued at 141.9p. How fuel prices really flat lined the past few months!?

Unleaded at, wait for it........£1.68 on M40 services.

 

[kaymac]

Saw 152.9p for E10 / 176.9p Diesel at Leigh Delamere M4 services this week.

 

[Mad Cyril]

Saw 152.9p for E10 / 176.9p Diesel at Leigh Delamere M4 services this week.

Leigh Delamare is right up there on the list of places that sound nice but aren't.

 

[kaymac]

How right you are.....