Save and Survive!

Supplier	July 2008	August 2013	Difference (£)	Difference (%)
British Gas	£870.40	£1,270.40	£400	45.96%
E.on	£861.11	£1,260.52	£399.41	46.38%
EDF Energy	£868.13	£1,251.34	£383.21	44.14%
Npower	£888.30	£1,257.62	£369.32	41.58%
Scottish Power	£849.51	£1,271.19	£421.68	49.64%
SSE	£851.81	£1,274.17	£422.36	49.58%
Average			£399.33	46.2%

Hello Dear Reader,

I am so glad I'm moving! I love this big house with the sun streaming through massive windows but just the heat and light for the place costs more than two work a day professionals can bear. I'm going to stand up to speak for the British workers who are being squeezed from every angle.

The infographic above is from gocompare.com and shows how much more we now pay for energy. If any one has seen their salaries increase by 46% over the last five years then please let us know what job you do and we'll all retrain to do it! Salaries and wages have been cut year on year. Cut? You don't think you've had a cut? If you've had pay freezes and the cost of living has consistently risen, then effectively you have had a pay cut. Dearly Beloved and many public sector workers actually took a 10% pay cut with smiles on their faces that they weren't the ones being made redundant. All jobs, in all sectors are being cut to the bone and some families are facing joblessness and losing their homes. We thank God daily that we are some of the lucky few who are coming through this with jobs and a roof over our heads.

The other massive increase for every British family is the cost of just getting to work. Fuel has increased, on average by 38% since 2008. It now costs us as much as it did for two of us to go 25 miles in the opposite direction (he went 20 miles one way, and I went 20 miles the other) by train as it does now for us to share the car together and just go 20 miles together each day or 40 miles a day there and back. Again, we're grateful that we can afford to get to work but other workers are out of pocket just by going to work.

The biggest increases that all British families have seen over the last five years have been the massive increases in the cost of food. Ordinary families are suffering the misery of food poverty. They have not all spent the money on big TVs and binge drinking but precariously try to balance the books each month with whether they can afford to get to work, heat and light their homes and feed themselves. 

We all have to be completely money savvy if we are going to get through this solvent, with our own homes and still in work. Every day that I sit down to write I am painfully aware that someone in an act of total desperation may be seeking advice on how to survive the economic downturn whilst they live with less and less money. If that is the case, I'm going to give you five things you can do tomorrow to stretch the last few pounds or pennies you have.

1. Stop wasting money when you shop - set a budget and stick to it. Your family's financial survival depends on how you run your kitchen. Stock take your entire house and menu plan from there first. If you are totally stuck for ideas then email your list of 'stock' to [email protected] and I will peruse the list and come up with some menu idea. Make sure you use everything you have and don't buy anything until you've used up what you have. That goes for clothes, make up, toiletries, food, dog food, loo paper in fact anything in the house. Use up the half used bottles of shower gel, little lumps of soap and small amounts of rice in the bottom of the bag with a twist tie at the back of the cupboard.

2. Change your attitude to waste. Waste is iniquitous................end of! Wear all of your clothes, all of your shoes and don't buy any new until they have worn out............totally! My work shoes are now three years old and they will go on for years more. I wear them every day. The same pair! I am not Kate bleedin' Moss, my life is not a runway and I'm not here to keep clothes shops in business. How many toys do your children have that they don't play with? Rotate their toys, put some away for a few weeks and leave them a few to play with and then rotate them. Children need very few clothes as they grow so fast and just a couple of items of each, such as trousers, are all they need. Let those clothes wear out by passing them on to younger siblings or those of your friends and relatives. They do not need a new outfit every time you go shopping. Plus, let their clothes get stained, dirty and holes in............it shows they are having a real childhood where they play and experience life. 

3. Turn the lights off and the heating down. If you've got your heating on now, then you must be in the Highlands as no where else is that cold! Just have enough light in the one room you are in and turn every other light off in your house. Don't light empty rooms. Turn your thermostat down to 17 degrees and turn your timer down to one hour a day. I bet the boiler won't even switch itself on as it's not cold enough. Whilst you are at it, find your woolly cardigans and jumpers and get them on when you get in from work. Pull on a pair of socks and wear more layers. Keep blankets on the back of the chairs and snuggle under them with a hot drink and you'll not need any heating until December.

4. The Jones can go get stuffed! You do not need to keep up with them! When my house was viewed, the family who bought it seemed determined to replace everything...............it's their money and their choice. I am moving to a house that has been kept immaculately by an elderly couple. It's not to my taste but nothing will be changed until the wallpaper peels and the carpet has holes! If it doesn't need changing then ignore trends! They are fickle and will come and go but good quality is to be used until it falls apart! Buy your furniture and curtains from freeads in the paper, charity furniture warehouses or get it free from Freecycle. Ignore the silliness of the media, you need very little! Some is plenty, enough is too much. 

5. Adjust your wants and desires to your own default setting! You have your own values and stick to them. If you think you can't afford it, or you don't need it then your probably can't and don't! If you think you can do without it then you probably can. If you think you will go off it, or the children will tire of it in a few weeks then you are probably right. If you think you can't afford to go then you are probably right. I return time and again to my own simple life and know I don't want much and certainly need very little. If you are happy to have a baked potato and beans for supper then that's fine. If you are happy with a walk in the park and to run round the grass with your children then that is the perfect weekend outing. 

As British people, the ordinary people,we are all financially suffering. It's almost as if we are living through a period of rationing without a war. Just like war time we have to have the resolve, dignity and determination to get through this and make every penny count.

Is frugality a lifestyle choice? Is it heck? It's a means of national survival! Over to you Dear Reader, who else feels we are in a state of survival and somehow we have to get through this!

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxxx

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