Discontent #11 food, energy, transport, cost of living, society etc

[Yel]

New thread.

Just got an email from my nationwide saying they'll give £10 when people spend £200 on groceries with their debit card.

Current account cashback offer | Cost of living | Nationwide

Get cashback with your Nationwide current account. Earn up to £10 a month at a wide range of supermarkets and convenience stores.

www.nationwide.co.uk

 

[Falkor]

Halleflippinglujah, I had another go at my SSE direct debit today and finally managed to get through to someone with the right access to sort it out for me I was hoping they'd put it down to £250 a month, they recalculated it at £181, which is hugely appreciated.

 

[Yel]

Checked my pension that I started 3 years ago. It's worth 8% less than all I've paid into it. Fabulous .

I said how come when the FTSE is at record highs and apparently it's due to all the gilts my money is invested in. Not sure why I bother.

They also make it impossible to work out their fees. I bet they've still made a chunk of money (mis) managing it.

 

[rainbowlemon]

Checked my pension that I started 3 years ago. It's worth 8% less than all I've paid into it. Fabulous .

I said how come when the FTSE is at record highs and apparently it's due to all the gilts my money is invested in. Not sure why I bother.

They also make it impossible to work out their fees. I bet they've still made a chunk of money (mis) managing it.

Who is your pension provider with? Is it a SIPP?

You need to look at your overall portfolio allocation and what funds you actually have. If you're not invested into the FTSE 100 you won't get the perks. Some have larger UK weightings than others.

Gilts are separate and are loans from the UK gov and are seen as the safer option, but don't do well with high inflation unless you've got linked ones.

I've always been told to avoid St james place.

NB *I am not a qualified financial advisor.

 

[Yel]

Oh yes I know where it's invested, I was more being facetious to the pension guy who allocated it with his "expertise "and it performed poorly, like all the gilts (not just limited to the UK). Which haven't done well in the current environment.

Yes I would say avoid st James place also, all their "advisors" aka sales people are tied to sjp products which often aren't the best performing and their fees are said to be higher. I was told always speak to an independent pension advisor.

I guess the important bit is storing away some money, then you can transfer it to another provider.

I've got a handful of different accounts and it's interesting to monitor them all. Glad I ignored his advise to transfer it all to one.
---
Apparently they'll be a pension dashboard coming this year, although that's a government estimation

UK Pensions Dashboards Programme | Homepage

Money & Pensions Service has established the PDP team to deliver the infrastructure that will make pensions dashboards work.

www.pensionsdashboardsprogramme.org.uk

 

[Jc456]

O2 going up 17.3%, makes my cheap ish (£26.80) contract go up by £5.50

 

[emmer_moans]

O2 going up 17.3%, makes my cheap ish (£26.80) contract go up by £5.50

I got that message too, seems such a steep jump

 

[Jc456]

I got that message too, seems such a steep jump

It is, it's already gone up from £24 so will be almost £10 higher than when I took the contract out 15 months ago

 

[Folkevermore]

My phone contract was £46 when I took it out in Nov 2021, it’s now going to be over £60 a month!

 

[Blonde_moment]

My phone contract was £46 when I took it out in Nov 2021, it’s now going to be over £60 a month!

Mine was about £37 a month 18 months ago and will be £48.04 from April. And that’s with a 30% friends and family discount with EE, plus an extra 10% discount because they messed something up when they set my last contract up.
I’ve always got a new phone every 2 years, but I’m contemplating keeping my current phone and going SIM only when my contract expires in 6 months. I just can’t justify spending this much money on my phone each month, especially not in the current climate.

 

[Folkevermore]

Mine was about £37 a month 18 months ago and will be £48.04 from April. And that’s with a 30% friends and family discount with EE, plus an extra 10% discount because they messed something up when they set my last contract up.
I’ve always got a new phone every 2 years, but I’m contemplating keeping my current phone and going SIM only when my contract expires in 6 months. I just can’t justify spending this much money on my phone each month, especially not in the current climate.

I had the same phone for five years until I upgraded to this one. I definitely plan to go onto a sim only deal after this - it’s not worth it for me

 

[emmer_moans]

It is, it's already gone up from £24 so will be almost £10 higher than when I took the contract out 15 months ago

I just took out a new contract last month to take me from about 29 to 25 to make it a bit better on my wallet, and now it's going back to that price again it just seems quite a hike and you know it will never deflate when inflation is over.

 

[Codiaeum]

I work from home exclusively and have never had a phone plan, always just a sim. Mine has some low volume of free data, but it’s fine,since I’m home so much that I rarely need it anyway. And even though free Wifi has been traditionally tit and nonexistent here, it’s gotten a lot better. Good thing this is, it saves me a ton of money.


is it true that they’ve started to ration cucumbers amd tomatoes in Tesco? It made the papers here, reputable ones as well.

 

[emmer_moans]

I work from home exclusively and have never had a phone plan, always just a sim. Mine has some low volume of free data, but it’s fine,since I’m home so much that I rarely need it anyway. And even though free Wifi has been traditionally tit and nonexistent here, it’s gotten a lot better. Good thing this is, it saves me a ton of money.


is it true that they’ve started to ration cucumbers amd tomatoes in Tesco? It made the papers here, reputable ones as well.

I haven't seen the actual ration signs near the veg yet, but my local Sainsbury's the other day had no cucumbers or tomatoes whatsoever, all the cardboard crates were turned over.

It could have been the time of day though.

 

[HoGi]

is it true that they’ve started to ration cucumbers amd tomatoes in Tesco? It made the papers here, reputable ones as well.

I think it's only asda and morrisons that have imposed limits at the moment. But stock is nonexistent in most supermarkets so you can't even buy 1 let alone 3.

 

[Yel]

This whole salad fruit and veg shortage is reminding me how wasteful our year round unseasonable diet is.

It's due to UK growers delaying growing due to energy prices and crop failures in Africa and Spain.

I know growers are calling for a bailout to reduce their energy costs. But is that really the answer? The public debt is high enough.

We're predicted to have 0 degrees here in the SE this week. Maybe it isn't a good idea flying in or using a lot of energy to grow summer produce in the winter.

I do think there's some truth in the eastern philosophy of hot and cold foods. It feels like watermelon and cucumber is good to cool your body in the summer and root vegetables are good to warm your body in the winter. Tomatoes are often awful in the UK, I'd rather use passata that's made from tomatoes at the hight of the season.

 

[Jc456]

We're in the UK hungry gap, the guy from riverford warned of shortages this time of year when we left the EU.
I watched something ages ago that said most tomatoes are grown inside so don't understand why they're saying it's due to weather and EU countries haven't had such a big increase in gas and electricity? (Not sure if their business prices are different)

 

[Cantthinkofausername]

We're in the UK hungry gap, the guy from riverford warned of shortages this time of year when we left the EU.
I watched something ages ago that said most tomatoes are grown inside so don't understand why they're saying it's due to weather and EU countries haven't had such a big increase in gas and electricity? (Not sure if their business prices are different)

They have been affected by weather conditions. Obviously Brexit is playing a part here as Spain and neighbouring countries have full supplies, though apparently much more expensive than we are used to paying.
I think we will have to get used to paying more for some produce in the UK. If the supermarket refuse to pay the producers increasing prices then empty aisles will be the result and that's something they don't want long term.
We might also have to return to more old fashioned ways of shopping, like shopping more frequently instead of weekly, going to several shops instead of getting everything in one shop and actually physically shopping to get the best quality and availability.

 

[Yel]

Spain and neighbouring countries have full supplies, though apparently much more expensive than we are used to paying.

I think this is the main thing, UK stores saw that the prices were so high due to the weather conditions so they said we're not ordering them.

Presumably they thought consumers wouldn't be willing to pay the increased prices in the UK, which they maybe right about. Other countries carried on ordering and increasing the price.

Other EU countries have had huge energy price rises.

 

[Falkor]

It's also about cost of transport. There are, for example, plenty of tomatoes in the Netherlands right now, but none of the haulage companies want their lorries to be stuck for, on average, 77 hours of queuing on top of the actual mileage to get them through customs and into the UK. So the Netherlands is enjoying record low tomato prices as a result.