@mikejd

Everything in the house is electric – heating, lighting, cooking, etc. We have ground source heating in the main house ( 3 bed croft cottage) and air source in the flat. All fully insulated, new doors and windows 12 years ago.

Ok – so you’re comparing your electric to everyone else total energy. I’m guessing a croft cottage still has uninsulated walls and probably isn’t especially airtight and is probably in a pretty cold and exposed location so it’s not *so* bad.

I once knew a bloke who, for over 30-40 years, had enjoyed free electricity via a spliced cable from the mains supply, which somehow went underneath his house. It was only discovered when he died. Know of other folk who’ve run cables off lampposts etc, but 30-40 years of free electricity? Get in mate. 😀

How awesome. Stealing stuff so everyone else has to pay more. Get in mate.🙄

What dont i have to keep my electric so low?
Hot tub, swimming pool, lights that illuminate trees, ligjts that illumimate brick walls, 9 ligjts in the lounge when 2 suffice. TV on standby 18hrs a day then on for 6hrs ( it is a 50″ hd tho). Digi box on quick start for a few hrs a day only.
Washing machine and dishwashers fed direct fron combi boiler hot feeds only.

Dogs. We have two standard poodles. In addition to the food and vet bills every dog gets they get groomed at £60 a time. One gets done every 5 weeks, the other every 7.5 weeks. Around £1000 a year to the groomer.

Add the vet and food bills and we must be around £2k a year on dogs.

Mrs IRC has an irrational impulse for a 3rd dog. Not happening. And when our elderly cat goes he won’t be replaced either.

A) pension so I can stop having to work
B) housing costs – live somewhere relatively cheap

@singletrackmind

Hot tub, swimming pool, lights that illuminate trees, ligjts that illumimate brick walls, 9 ligjts in the lounge when 2 suffice. TV on standby 18hrs a day then on for 6hrs ( it is a 50″ hd tho).

None of that. Lighting make little difference if its LEDs. Standby on TV is less than 1 watt. I guess it does add up, 50x 1 watt devices on constantly would cost abotu £5 a month, but it’s still a long way short of the difference between your bills and mine.

Washing machine and dishwashers fed direct fron combi boiler hot feeds only.

that might help a bit, though we only do about 2 loads a week, at 30 or 40C. I looked into hot feed but few machines are built for it now and since machines now use so little water unless your machine is very close to the boiler the hot water that sits and cools in the pipe to the machine offsets the saving of heating the water by gas rather than electric.

More:
– Eating out (well when we could in the good old days, pre-covid, pre-anxious dog)
– BBQ, meat, acceccories and decent UK sourced charcoal
– Coffee, hand grinder, manual press and single origin bean habit (I drink 2 at home every day though cos, WFH)
– Hifi/TV Sound, decent 5.1 system, currently a 3.1 system as the dog ate the cable for the rears
– Dog, rescue, got sick, ate all the insurance within her first 3 months with us, so it’s all on me now
– Petrol, I still buy the 99rin stuff even though it probably makes bugger all difference

Less:
– Maintenance/adaptation of the house, bathroom last year was the first real money spent on the place in 12 years, no new kitchens, carpets or extensions for us (seems to be all a lot of my friends do)
– Pensions, both my wife and I should be loading these heavily at this point in our lives, I stand by the ‘die before I can claim one’ plan at this point, I realise this is not ideal

I probably spend more than is sensible on most items, but only buy items I really need so the total cost is lower if that makes sense.
Nice tools, kitchen things, that sort of thing. If I need a new tool for example I see which is the best, then where that can be had cheapest and get it. £100 for some workshop Allen keys, £70 chain tool, probably excisssive but they are really nice and should last for years. Oh, and far too much on maps, I have a lot!
.
My van is paid for, I spend bugger all on clothes and have no subscriptions to anything. I live pretty well, have my own (mortgaged) house and can treat myself to nice things while earning about 20% less than the average wage. Very few fripperies but what I do buy is good stuff.

@b33k34

Cottage totally renovated 12 yrs ago. Inside ripped out back to stone walls and dry lined and insulated. New double glazed windows and doors. Pretty draught free. Flat is new timber frame building. 4 kW PV panels.

Rural location meant alternative heating was LPG or oil which were looking expensive cf electricity.

I forgot vet Bills, one of our cats cost £4k a couple of years ago with an Intussusception.

This thread is not helpful for me.
My thoughts this morning went: I don’t spend much on cars, so actually I will just blast £80 on a new saddle I like the look of on the off chance it’s better than my current model.

Rear shocks… i’m terrified to add up where i am with these in the last 12 months !

a) Tools
b) Servicing/maintanance/contractors

So, everything we buy is free range and, mostly, organic. That means it’s not cheap; last Sunday’s roast chicken was £16, which I’m aware some people will find, well, mental

~2Kg free range organic chicken** at Aldi doesn’t cost that. I can get a whole Sunday lunch for five incl. a half decent bottle of wine for £16.

** No idea whether these terms are ‘subjective’ and M+S free range organic is somehow ‘happier and more organiccy’ than Aldi.

Lurpak.

**** knows where it goes!

I do 4 to 5 washes a week through the machine. 3/4 of that goes through the tumble dryer as im lazy, rest air dry.
Ok, so i live alone and happy to have the house at 16c
Dont heat in the morning, just up and out the door quick smart.
Heat in evenings, well afternoon combi fires 30 on 30 off for 4 hrs
Washing machine sits about 2ft below the combi.
Dishwasher, every 5 days or so, i run hot tap to kitchen to fill the pipe work as its a 15ft run then let it rip
Oven use is 3 to 4 x 30mins a week rest on gas hob
Never have a bath but prob have 8 or 9 x 5min showers a week

I stand by the ‘die before I can claim one’ plan at this point, I realise this is not ideal

Just because others think maxing a pension is the best thing to do doesn’t mean you have to. Pension companies/funds work on an average life basis; there are as many that live under as there are over.

Just because others think maxing a pension is the best thing to do doesn’t mean you have to. Pension companies/funds work on an average life basis; there are as many that live under as there are over.

I think you’re mixing up pensions and annuities. They’re not the same thing.
If me and the missus continue to cram money into our pensions and then croak the day afterwards then it just means that our kids get a fat wodge of money IHT free.

(Unless we’re stupid enough to put it into annuities of course. Which we’re not.)

How do you 4-5 washes a week when you live alone?
I do one every week/ten days, and often find myself looking for things to make a full load, tea towels, bath mat, oven gloves, etc, just to bulk it up

Going back to my original response. It’s Bandcamp Friday (probably the last one) and I’ve spend £80 on music. Today. Insane.

This is a good one

Less spending

Casual clothes, I have t shirts and polo shirts that must be 10 years old knocking about. At the start of lockdown I got a load of cheap lee Cooper shorts and vests and have worn them on rotation for the last year.

Mortgage, everyone I work with seems to have spent 3x what I have on their house. Mortgage is maybe 15% of NET.

Cars, as per a few others, live in London so the cars are more luxury than necessity so both our cars are 10 years old and owned outright. I don’t think I could live with myself paying monthly for a car I do 15 miles a week in.

Food, I like cooking which I think means we spend less on food than the average house, Ingredients and time to make family meals saves cash.

More spending

Holidays, me and my wife enjoy different things when it comes to holidays so we tend to do 3 or 4 a year. One winter, Easter, big summer one, maybe another week with family in autumn. Tied to the school holidays too, adding those up is eye-watering.

Work clothes, specifically shoes. Someone on here linked to the churches or herrings website and I’ve bought a load of nice shoes from there, I have maybe 6 or 7 pairs that cost in total probably £1500 – 2000. They will last forever though so over a lifetime its not going to be so bad

Pensions, until the threads on here recently I wasn’t doing this but I currently pay >40% of my salary to pension and my wife does 30% which added up I think has to be above the norm

More:
Prescription glasses
Bike stuff
Eating out
Clothes
Less:
Children stuff
Takeaways
Home decor
Things to impress neighbours

Just because others think maxing a pension is the best thing to do doesn’t mean you have to. Pension companies/funds work on an average life basis; there are as many that live under as there are over.

There’s some fundamental misunderstanding going on here.

Wash cycles
King size bedding
Work overalls jeans fleece tops
Big towels plus polo shirts
Bath mat plus bits, tea towels etc
Cycling kit, socks, pants, tees

No omne likes smelly people and i do physical work

More spending :-
Live music , I love concerts ( remember them 🤔)

I reckon I spend more and go to more than just about anyone I know in real life

Less spending:-
Holidays …. especially compared to close family …. my brother got a deal on his last holiday and saved more than I spent even though I thought my trip to Gambia was pricey ( both in pre COVID times )

More
Holidays (and we have a holiday house so that bumps things up)
Eating out
Mrs kilo spends a lot on clothing, shoes, handbags but she has quite a high profile job so has to dress well.
Mrs Kilo spends a lot more than me on bikes and bike kit, she once popped out to get her bike serviced and came back with an ibis mojo hd instead.

Less
Cars, currently driving a £900 Honda and a 03 plate combo van (which is broken atm)
Home improvements flashy furniture big tv not really into that sort of thing.
Flash phones, iPads etc.
Take always, local chippy is the only one we use with any sort of regularity.

At heart I’m basically tight, I think it comes from having parents who knew poverty and were careful with cash, I find it very difficult to spend on “luxury” things.

I think for me it’s not that I don’t like spending money so much as I don’t like wasting it. I’m happy to pay a little extra for something if it’s worth paying for. Like, I get milk delivered. It’s a little dearer than the five minute walk to Tesco but for the sake of a few pence I can support a local business rather than shipping it in from Scotland or New Zealand or gods know where. I’m happy with that.

On the other. We got kittens and I ended up buying a kitten-specific litter tray as one of them was too feeble to use the regular-sized one. Then they started having ‘accidents’ so I bought them a tray each, that’s two new ones for the kittens in addition to the existing cat’s tray. Turns out, they don’t care and all three use each other’s interchangeably. Then they grew – 1.15kg back in February, 3.25kg and counting in April – and I’ve had to toss two nearly-new trays and get bigger ones. I replaced Mollie’s whilst I was at it. Now my OH is making noises, “maybe we should have got the XL ones…” If we do (and I’m resisting it) that’ll be ten litter trays since December. This pisses me right off.

We do seem to be quite good as a society at taxing the poor. I could buy, say, a pair of boots for £100 that’ll last me ten years, or a pair of boots for twenty quid that’ll drop to bits after 12 months. So if I can’t afford the posh boots then I’m actually paying over twice as much overall for an inferior product.

When do banks charge you? When you go over your overdraft or a payment bounces – ie, when you have no money. Credit cards and loans, pay half as much again for something you can’t afford. Payday loans at 2000% APR, that’s (probably) worse than a loan shark. I don’t know what the solution is here but it’s messed up and I really resent giving these people free money.

Rear shocks… i’m terrified to add up where i am with these in the last 12 months !

Welcome to the Spec’duro owners club 😃

I’ve had approx £2,500 worth of rear shocks on my Enduro in just over two years. Thankfully Specialized paid for all of them though, eventually.

I could buy, say, a pair of boots for £100 that’ll last me ten years, or a pair of boots for twenty quid that’ll drop to bits after 12 months

The ‘Sam Vimes boots theory of inequality’. Very true.

Interesting thread to read. I think our spending habits change over time. We had a very ‘big’ holiday after my wife had a cancer scare. We’ve spent a lot supporting offspring through HE. No mortgage so we’re trying to save/dump into pensions as much as we can so I can drift into semi retirement.

Spent WAY too much on bikes (I don’t even want to think about how much), naff all on clothes, probably an inordinate amount on Macs/phones/toys.

More importantly whenever we had proper spare cash, we spent it on experiences as a family. This is why we still haven’t replaced the carpets (or even fitted a stair carpet) for 12 years. I’m happy with that.

Waterproof trousers. Six pairs. All rubbish. Will keep on buying them until I find a pair that fits and works or global warming turns the UK into a desert.

The ‘Sam Vimes boots theory of inequality’. Very true.

Indeed. Except he did it on purpose because he liked thin boots.

So he could feel the streets through his boots. I need to go back and read every discworld book with Vimes in it. The early stuff especially and ‘Night Watch’.

Anyway, as you were 🙂

I have never, ever seen a post answered more by “Full members” than “Free members”

Tyres… I have a rubber fetish and will happily spend a kings ransom on the sticky race rubber for the motorcycle or offroad tyres for the 4wd. On the flip side I spend less on fuel as I often ride (an e bike) to work.

Brake pads and brakes in general, people obsess about what pads to buy, they get the expensive ones, they buy at LBS prices, they buy the latest shiniest cool today model and the floating rotors and the cooling fins…

Me, I have brakes from 2010, the same model on my dh bike and fatbike and enduro bike and xc bike, with boring cheap steel rotors and they all have the same Bikein brake pads from Aliexpress, £6.98 for 4 pairs

OTOH, they’re attached with titanium disc bolts because I’m a mug for titanium.

Cougar
Full Member

Indeed. Except he did it on purpose because he liked thin boots.

Once he was rich, he found he was used to the thin boots. He didn’t do it from choice when he was poor, though.

More on? Not so much recently, for obvious reasons, but gig tickets. Most people I know hardly ever go to live gigs, and while my gig-going has dropped off over the last few years, mainly due to working shifts, I probably go to four or five times as many per year than most, ie ten or more against two or three, if that. I’ve always got at least half a dozen booked for this year, although some are carry-overs.

More – barista oat milk (£1.80 per litre)
Tea bags – redbush earl grey
Vet bills – don’t ask.

Less – food (cook own food from scratch. Buy end of shelf life deals) about £35 a week for two of us
Car – Bangernomics all the way. £500 per MOT is the norm these last 15 years. Purchase price of car about the same.
Hotels. Rare occurrence as are holidays, and then usually have camped/cooked except for a few self-catering/cooks
Restaurants – hardly ever. Meals out = the odd pub meal or birthday lunch. If not cooking then will treat selves to takeaway or have friends over/eat with friends (pre-covid times)

Less & More – bicycles. Buy used, fix them myself if at all possible. Most people wouldn’t dream of spending £400 on a bike. Especially if it’s a used bike. OTOH, a lot of cyclists would spend more, and wouldn’t buy an £80 (used) bike as their ‘best’ bike. Price is unimportant to me inasmuch as it’s the actual bike I want, so if I had the money I would spend as much or as little as required (all else considered)

I was thinking this one as well:

Bikes – more than many, but all are second hand and maintained by myself for the vast majority of the time. Because we have 8 bikes, and I buy decent quality to then hang on to for as long as possible, it is not ‘cheap’. But much less than many I suspect.

Holidays – we have always DIY’d in self catering, tend not to pay for too many attractions and spend our time walking/paddling/cycling instead. Again, all things considered, most of our holidays are pretty cheap for a family of 5. The most expensive was the fortnight in Les Gets with all the uplift cost and bike maintenance…

Less than most…

Cars. Changed jobs where I went from a nice company car to a better job that meant commuting on the train. Now share my wife’s Jazz and daughter’s i20 when I need them. No desire to spend several thousands of pounds on something that will sit on the drive / car park for 95% of it’s life losing money. Not meant to be a judgement on those who do send big bucks on cars, just not for me.

More than most…

Clothes. Love clothes shopping.

Going back to my original response. It’s Bandcamp Friday (probably the last one) and I’ve spend £80 on music. Today. Insane.

A. I spend (inc spotify, soundcloud & mixcloud) about £100/month on music on average. Very important to me.

Spend a fair bit maintaining numerous bikes, kite and surf kit.

Think I’m reasonably sensible with cars but I’m sure some will disagree. I like owning (either outright or via a loan) over PCP tho.

Spend way too much on maintenance for the ex!!

B. Honestly don’t care what others spend money on, however…It’s their choice. When I sat next to my Dad on his deathbed, it was never more obvious that money and possessions don’t matter a jot; living a full life does, however.

How you manage that is up to you. It’s of no-one else’s concern.