Cost of living crisis.

[dsr-burnley]

46 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

Well done.

 

Make sure you look into any tax breaks you can get from home working Claim tax relief for your job expenses: Working from home - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

It probably won't apply to Ren.  It only applies to people who have to work from home, not those who choose to.  If the employer has no office at all or you are so far from the office that daily travel is impossible, you can claim work from home allowance - but the blanket covid allowance has gone.

[yorkie1999]

So, EDF emailed me to ask if if want a fixed deal energy price. Lot of If's and may's. Question i ask is why? No-one gives you something for nothing. Are they expecting the government to step in on energy prices later this year therefore locking customers into a deal that's more than they currently pay. Are they expecting a price competion with their competitors. All seems a bit odd considering they've never offered me anything before. 

[coolhandfox]

14 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Does this affect your tax code at all? 

I've only done the claim for previous years and got a rebate, I assume it would be for future stuff.  

[leicsmac]

2 minutes ago, yorkie1999 said:

So, EDF emailed me to ask if if want a fixed deal energy price. Lot of If's and may's. Question i ask is why? No-one gives you something for nothing. Are they expecting the government to step in on energy prices later this year therefore locking customers into a deal that's more than they currently pay. Are they expecting a price competion with their competitors. All seems a bit odd considering they've never offered me anything before. 

If there is another reason that they'd offer this to you that doesn't indicate prices will be lowered for some reason in the near future, I'd like to hear it.

 

You're correct with your reasoning here imo.

[grobyfox1990]

11 hours ago, leicsmac said:

... is the national equivalent of restarting a forty a day smoking habit now because "hey, I can worry about that lung cancer in ten years time, right?" really common sense? Gratifying, certainly, but common sense?

 

Other solutions do exist and Germany taking this one isn't sensible for a few reasons.

It’s great to laugh at Germany’s incredibly short sighted over reliance on Russian gas, and headlines like this are laughable but unfortunately we have the same going on in the uk! 
 

Plans to fire up a coal plant in Whitehaven and a Tory ‘net zero scrutiny group’ !! Hilarious. Even tho red wall voters now see net zero as an’important issue’ 

 

The funniest thing about all this, and I come from a purely financial viewpoint, is that these stupid moves will cost us more in the long term. The move to net zero is inevitable, the longer it’s delayed the more it’ll cost. So - effect on the climate is undeniable. But this move will also fail every half decent risk management and investment scenario analysis. So conclusion, let’s go for it and maybe win some votes!! Idiots 

[Tommy G]

3 hours ago, dsr-burnley said:

It probably won't apply to Ren.  It only applies to people who have to work from home, not those who choose to.  If the employer has no office at all or you are so far from the office that daily travel is impossible, you can claim work from home allowance - but the blanket covid allowance has gone.

I choose to wfh occasionally and got my accountant to claim back two years worth on my latest tax return, reflected in my tax code. 

[leicsmac]

1 hour ago, grobyfox1990 said:

It’s great to laugh at Germany’s incredibly short sighted over reliance on Russian gas, and headlines like this are laughable but unfortunately we have the same going on in the uk! 
 

Plans to fire up a coal plant in Whitehaven and a Tory ‘net zero scrutiny group’ !! Hilarious. Even tho red wall voters now see net zero as an’important issue’ 

 

The funniest thing about all this, and I come from a purely financial viewpoint, is that these stupid moves will cost us more in the long term. The move to net zero is inevitable, the longer it’s delayed the more it’ll cost. So - effect on the climate is undeniable. But this move will also fail every half decent risk management and investment scenario analysis. So conclusion, let’s go for it and maybe win some votes!! Idiots 

That's right, and it bears repeating.

 

Doing this doesn't make any financial sense in the medium term (propping up a market that is going the way of the dinosaur anyway and ignoring how green tech saves money) and most definitely doesn't make any sense in the long term (contributing to a situation where incidences of mass economic upheaval through war, famine, pestilence and death are hugely increased).

 

So that just leaves the short-term interest, then. Small and transient as it will be.

[Soar Fox]

I drive past Sainsburys petrol station everyday on my way into work. In the past 6 days it’s increased in price 3 times. Is that what all petrol stations are doing or is that just sainsburys being greedy?

[Nalis]

Question for those ITK on the tools - is the cost of labour and materials still increasing / demand staying high? In terms of home improvements that is.

[Innovindil]

5 minutes ago, Steve_Walsh5 said:

I drive past Sainsburys petrol station everyday on my way into work. In the past 6 days it’s increased in price 3 times. Is that what all petrol stations are doing or is that just sainsburys being greedy?

All of them are doing the same thing. Still usually within a few pence of each other but sometimes there's about a day lag so prices can be 5-6p apart. 

[dsr-burnley]

2 hours ago, Tommy G said:

I choose to wfh occasionally and got my accountant to claim back two years worth on my latest tax return, reflected in my tax code. 

Exactly.  The rules that you claimed on for 2020-21 and 2021-22 were under covid and allowed you to work from home for any reason.  The rules Ren would have to claim under would be the 2022-23 rules which are different.

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

5 hours ago, yorkie1999 said:

So, EDF emailed me to ask if if want a fixed deal energy price. Lot of If's and may's. Question i ask is why? No-one gives you something for nothing. Are they expecting the government to step in on energy prices later this year therefore locking customers into a deal that's more than they currently pay. Are they expecting a price competion with their competitors. All seems a bit odd considering they've never offered me anything before. 

 

Out of interest, what was the difference in price offered between your flexible monthly cost and the fixed price cost?

 

When I was offered it from e-On a month ago, it went from (fixed) £82 per month to £145 flexible. The only fixed they offered was £182 per month (12 months), which I turned down

[urban.spaceman]

£70 for an off peak return train ticket to London.

[Tommy G]

16 minutes ago, dsr-burnley said:

Exactly.  The rules that you claimed on for 2020-21 and 2021-22 were under covid and allowed you to work from home for any reason.  The rules Ren would have to claim under would be the 2022-23 rules which are different.

Hadn't realised they'd changed. 

[Tommy G]

Just now, urban.spaceman said:

£70 for an off peak return train ticket to London.

Probably cheaper than running a car there and back

[yorkie1999]

20 minutes ago, Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo said:

 

Out of interest, what was the difference in price offered between your flexible monthly cost and the fixed price cost?

 

When I was offered it from e-On a month ago, it went from (fixed) £82 per month to £145 flexible. The only fixed they offered was £182 per month (12 months), which I turned down

Don't know, you basically have to click a link which agrees to the offer, then use the 14 days right to cancel. I'll ring them up tomorrow and see if i get any joy, but i know it's 150 quid per fuel to cancel so if you don't want it at xmas, they've got £300 of you. I think they're just taking advantage of the situation.

[TiffToff88]

1 hour ago, Nalis said:

Question for those ITK on the tools - is the cost of labour and materials still increasing / demand staying high? In terms of home improvements that is.

 

I work in the office of an M&E Contractor - Wages are not increasing so labour costs are not going up. The biggest issue in construction at the moment is the rising cost of materials. Our electrical estimator was telling me that he had a quote for a load of cable one day last week, but the supplier could only guarantee the price for 4 hours. 

[FoxesDeb]

The energy companies will be offering fixed rates now so that people can hopefully avoid the further hikes in October this year, and again in April next year. If you don't fix now for 12 months you know the rates will be going up at least twice within the same period, or at least the cap will be increased. 

[Nalis]

13 minutes ago, TiffToff88 said:

 

I work in the office of an M&E Contractor - Wages are not increasing so labour costs are not going up. The biggest issue in construction at the moment is the rising cost of materials. Our electrical estimator was telling me that he had a quote for a load of cable one day last week, but the supplier could only guarantee the price for 4 hours. 

Thanks for the info, that is crazy.

[TiffToff88]

8 minutes ago, Nalis said:

Thanks for the info, that is crazy.

Quotes for materials used to be valid for 31 days. Just shows how much costs are snowballing at the moment

[Fazzer 7]

2 hours ago, Steve_Walsh5 said:

I drive past Sainsburys petrol station everyday on my way into work. In the past 6 days it’s increased in price 3 times. Is that what all petrol stations are doing or is that just sainsburys being greedy?

This despite the oil price falling in the last week. 

[fox_favourite]

2 hours ago, Steve_Walsh5 said:

I drive past Sainsburys petrol station everyday on my way into work. In the past 6 days it’s increased in price 3 times. Is that what all petrol stations are doing or is that just sainsburys being greedy?

Common place. BP are worse! 2 price rises I’ve seen in 2 days! Sainsburys near me seem more reserved. 

Edited 21 June 2022 by fox_favourite

[Innovindil]

2 hours ago, Steve_Walsh5 said:

I drive past Sainsburys petrol station everyday on my way into work. In the past 6 days it’s increased in price 3 times. Is that what all petrol stations are doing or is that just sainsburys being greedy?

An addition, just drove past hamilton tesco, diesel 199.9, melton road sainsburys 193.9 

[Fazzer 7]

Likely the lockdowns, furlough, printing money costing hundreds of billions have caused this crisis, Ukraine will have compounded the problems we’re now facing. But ultimately I believe it mostly comes back to covid. Labour constantly  calling for more spending is reckless especially as bank rates are rising. The interest apparently costing in excess of 80 billion to service. Then with wage rise demands as they are, we’re going to be in an inflationary spiral for some time to come. God knows what the answer is. 

[yorkie1999]

2008 crude peaked at $140 a barrel, today it's $115, petrol was £1.03, 2 days ago it was £1.88, the government ain't going to stop the hikes cos they're 2 years from an election and they're making a shedload of revenue. It's just one giant uncontrolled rip off. The only way to stop it is for every motorist agree to boycott one supplier, BP, asda, whoever, and force them to drop their prces therefore creating competition

 

Edited 21 June 2022 by yorkie1999