Discontent #12 food, energy, transport, cost of living, society etc

[emmer_moans]

The food shop today I bought some fresh fruit and veg plus minimal carbs, cereals, etc to get 2 of us through the week without being decadent, and it cost so much I even bought stuff on offer, but it still came to far to much. Food prices are definitely still higher than pre-pandemic. I’m struggling to save any money.

I needed to buy replacement toothbrush heads and all the options were over a tenner, some even like 25 quid!! Feels like hygiene comes at a premium too.

 

[Falkor]

I had to have yet another tyre valve replaced yesterday as they seem to break with depressing regularity. When I had one done in February it was £39 + VAT, same garage, same job, same part yesterday was £69+VAT. The owner even rang his parts distributor to double check the price because he couldn't believe it had gone up so much in six months.

 

[Mamacita]

The food shop today I bought some fresh fruit and veg plus minimal carbs, cereals, etc to get 2 of us through the week without being decadent, and it cost so much I even bought stuff on offer, but it still came to far to much. Food prices are definitely still higher than pre-pandemic. I’m struggling to save any money.

I needed to buy replacement toothbrush heads and all the options were over a tenner, some even like 25 quid!! Feels like hygiene comes at a premium too.

We buy replacement heads online!

 

[Pesky Tarian]

We buy replacement heads online!

I bought a bumper pack of rip off sonicare heads on e bay and they're great, £5.95 for 12.

 

[Lollyy]

Is anyone on fixed energy/gas tarriff
I recently moved house and not sure what to do.
Also ULEZ is a joke, but I can’t help but think sadiq khan is a puppet and he is just being paid to be the face/hate figure of it. But underlying it’s a govt plan. I mean why else did it get approved

 

[JoeBloggs]

Is anyone on fixed energy/gas tarriff
I recently moved house and not sure what to do.
Also ULEZ is a joke, but I can’t help but think sadiq khan is a puppet and he is just being paid to be the face/hate figure of it. But underlying it’s a govt plan. I mean why else did it get approved

I moved to a fixed one with eon in July.

 

[Yel]

I had to have yet another tyre valve replaced yesterday as they seem to break with depressing regularity. When I had one done in February it was £39 + VAT, same garage, same job, same part yesterday was £69+VAT. The owner even rang his parts distributor to double check the price because he couldn't believe it had gone up so much in six months.

Cars are so complicated these days and seem over engineered so every time something minor happens it's a fortune. Or it was a fortune pre current cost of living, I wonder just how much simple things like the petrol flap that used to cost £250 a few years ago costs now. It's just a bit of plastic that clips in!

---

I don't think anyone will be surprised to know that printers are a con. 3ml in a whole cartridge that only lasts 35 text pages and costs 45c a page! I gave up with a home printer ages ago and just do everything in the office.

• They purchased a $48 Canon printer from Walmart, which worked well but had frequent ink depletion.
• Opening a cartridge revealed it was nearly empty, leading to research on printer conspiracies.
• The user tested various printer myths and facts, including:
  • A standard black ink cartridge can print 35 pages.
  • Usable ink in a cartridge is about 3 milliliters.
  • Even printing black and white uses color ink.
  • Turning off a printer can trigger wasteful cleaning cycles.
  • Printing blank pages consumes ink due to cleaning cycles.
  • Cartridges may not measure ink using sensors or page counts.
  • Refilling cartridges is possible and cost-effective.
• Ink cartridge costs: 45 cents per page with a cartridge, 0.4 cents per page if self-refilled.
• Despite initial frustrations, the user finds the $48 printer cost-effective after realizing it can be easily refilled.

 

[Jc456]

I moved to a fixed one with eon in July.

I noticed I've got a few options with eon now. Ones a tracker and 3 fixed rates. I think I may fix after October

 

[whyhellothere83]

Been having a day adulting today trying to do life admin tasks and be a grown up.
Also jobs I been dreading
Rang mortgage advisor who's lovely and 5.41% is best deal we can get when it ends in Dec.
The 5.28% 999 fee 5 Yr fix 60 % loan to value is only for 1st time buyers with 60% deposits trust the newspaper hightlight that example.

2nd depressing fact is pensions
Mentioned before husband got annual statement and is depressed as paying in for 10 years not worth much £140 per month once he reaches retirement.
Hes paying over 200 per month.

Thought I would check mine but had long career break to raise the kids do I'm behind.
I been current job 1 year minimum wage
25hours.
I contribute 5% employer only 3
Pensions provider also has charges
Won't let me transfer partial amount out to another fund or change fund its in as they only offer 2 funds.
Don't want to withdraw as would Lose employer contributions always through they matched % sadly not.
Well currently worth £500
In 10 years mayhe worth 5k seems so pointless.
I defiantly now need to start private pension alongside.
Start a stock and shares isa
Even if I invest 100 in each per month that's a better rate of return hopefully 12k.
Also need overpay mortgage and make sure it's cleared by time husband retiree who's 7 years older
I have 12 years until I'm 55
24 years until 67 although they probably raise state retirement to 70 by then.
Right until now we been Putting our eggs into 1 basket the house.
In reality we want to stay in this house until we die so we need additional savings/ investment plan.

When did you check it? As the stock market has fallen within the last week. You’re getting tax relief and now is the best time to buy when the stock market falls. Over time, it’ll build up a decent pot!

 

[Falkor]

Cars are so complicated these days and seem over engineered so every time something minor happens it's a fortune. Or it was a fortune pre current cost of living, I wonder just how much simple things like the petrol flap that used to cost £250 a few years ago costs now.

---

I don't think anyone will be surprised to know that printers are a con. 3ml in a whole cartridge that only lasts 35 text pages and costs 45c a page! I gave up with a home printer ages ago and just do everything in the office.

• They purchased a $48 Canon printer from Walmart, which worked well but had frequent ink depletion.
• Opening a cartridge revealed it was nearly empty, leading to research on printer conspiracies.
• The user tested various printer myths and facts, including:
  • A standard black ink cartridge can print 35 pages.
  • Usable ink in a cartridge is about 3 milliliters.
  • Even printing black and white uses color ink.
  • Turning off a printer can trigger wasteful cleaning cycles.
  • Printing blank pages consumes ink due to cleaning cycles.
  • Cartridges may not measure ink using sensors or page counts.
  • Refilling cartridges is possible and cost-effective.
• Ink cartridge costs: 45 cents per page with a cartridge, 0.4 cents per page if self-refilled.
• Despite initial frustrations, the user finds the $48 printer cost-effective after realizing it can be easily refilled.

It's a 9-year-old Kia, they just seem to be ridiculous cars to work on. To change a headlight bulb you have to strip off half the front - we were lucky that time that we could manage without it for a few days, because the Kia replacement bulb (six years ago) was over £100 and the garage was able to leave it disassembled while they tracked down a much cheaper generic one. I've had slight play in one of the wheel bearings noted at the most recent MOT and my garage have flatly refused to fix that one because they had so much trouble doing the one on the other side. Which means if I want to keep the car it's going to be an overnight stay in Inverness so it can go to the dealership. As it's got nearly 100k on it and I'm going to need new brake discs and pads before the next MOT as well, Mr F has suggested looking for a replacement - especially because I'm about to start a new job that's a 50-mile round trip commute three times a week.

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

Cars are so complicated these days and seem over engineered so every time something minor happens it's a fortune. Or it was a fortune pre current cost of living, I wonder just how much simple things like the petrol flap that used to cost £250 a few years ago costs now. It's just a bit of plastic that clips in!

---

I don't think anyone will be surprised to know that printers are a con. 3ml in a whole cartridge that only lasts 35 text pages and costs 45c a page! I gave up with a home printer ages ago and just do everything in the office.

• They purchased a $48 Canon printer from Walmart, which worked well but had frequent ink depletion.
• Opening a cartridge revealed it was nearly empty, leading to research on printer conspiracies.
• The user tested various printer myths and facts, including:
  • A standard black ink cartridge can print 35 pages.
  • Usable ink in a cartridge is about 3 milliliters.
  • Even printing black and white uses color ink.
  • Turning off a printer can trigger wasteful cleaning cycles.
  • Printing blank pages consumes ink due to cleaning cycles.
  • Cartridges may not measure ink using sensors or page counts.
  • Refilling cartridges is possible and cost-effective.
• Ink cartridge costs: 45 cents per page with a cartridge, 0.4 cents per page if self-refilled.
• Despite initial frustrations, the user finds the $48 printer cost-effective after realizing it can be easily refilled.

It’s a higher initial outlay but laser jet printers are significantly better.

It is frustrating that printer technology doesn’t seem to have come on. I had assumed/hoped that there would be cute compact ones these days, alas we have an ugly block of a thing!

 

[Falkor]

It’s a higher initial outlay but laser jet printers are significantly better.

It is frustrating that printer technology doesn’t seem to have come on. I had assumed/hoped that there would be cute compact ones these days, alas we have an ugly block of a thing!

Totally agree - if you don't need colour, you can't go wrong with a Brother mono laser printer. I used to print about 50-100 pages a day when I had an online shop and a toner would still last me about three months. Still working fine 10 years later.

 

[emmer_moans]

Cars are so complicated these days and seem over engineered so every time something minor happens it's a fortune. Or it was a fortune pre current cost of living, I wonder just how much simple things like the petrol flap that used to cost £250 a few years ago costs now. It's just a bit of plastic that clips in!

---

I don't think anyone will be surprised to know that printers are a con. 3ml in a whole cartridge that only lasts 35 text pages and costs 45c a page! I gave up with a home printer ages ago and just do everything in the office.

• They purchased a $48 Canon printer from Walmart, which worked well but had frequent ink depletion.
• Opening a cartridge revealed it was nearly empty, leading to research on printer conspiracies.
• The user tested various printer myths and facts, including:
  • A standard black ink cartridge can print 35 pages.
  • Usable ink in a cartridge is about 3 milliliters.
  • Even printing black and white uses color ink.
  • Turning off a printer can trigger wasteful cleaning cycles.
  • Printing blank pages consumes ink due to cleaning cycles.
  • Cartridges may not measure ink using sensors or page counts.
  • Refilling cartridges is possible and cost-effective.
• Ink cartridge costs: 45 cents per page with a cartridge, 0.4 cents per page if self-refilled.
• Despite initial frustrations, the user finds the $48 printer cost-effective after realizing it can be easily refilled.

This is why I gave up on my home printer too. I’d print off some craft instructions or something that would be say 10 pages and it would cause arguments because I’d run out the ink before my husband had a chance to print something. We were constantly having to buy ink. I now tend to use my ipad to read sewing pattern instructions etc but my brain definitely prefers looking at an actual paper document for that kind of thing. 3ml in a whole cartridge feels like an absolute joke.

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

Totally agree - if you don't need colour, you can't go wrong with a Brother mono laser printer. I used to print about 50-100 pages a day when I had an online shop and a toner would still last me about three months. Still working fine 10 years later.

We also have a brother that we love Ours is only 2 years old though but we’ve only replaced the black toner once in that time, we’re not super heavy printers but it’s useful to have for legal things/selling stuff online!

 

[Yel]

It's a 9-year-old Kia, they just seem to be ridiculous cars to work on. To change a headlight bulb you have to strip off half the front - we were lucky that time that we could manage without it for a few days, because the Kia replacement bulb (six years ago) was over £100 and the garage was able to leave it disassembled while they tracked down a much cheaper generic one. I've had slight play in one of the wheel bearings noted at the most recent MOT and my garage have flatly refused to fix that one because they had so much trouble doing the one on the other side. Which means if I want to keep the car it's going to be an overnight stay in Inverness so it can go to the dealership. As it's got nearly 100k on it and I'm going to need new brake discs and pads before the next MOT as well, Mr F has suggested looking for a replacement - especially because I'm about to start a new job that's a 50-mile round trip commute three times a week.

It's ridiculous and they do it on purpose. These things should be modular and easy to replace.

Someone was saying recently that they couldn't even replace a bulb in their car as it was part of a whole sealed unit so needed to spend hundreds.

There's hardly anything that's a quick and cheap fix on a car thesedays. It's all so unnecessary.

 

[IfTheCapFits]

It's a 9-year-old Kia, they just seem to be ridiculous cars to work on. To change a headlight bulb you have to strip off half the front - we were lucky that time that we could manage without it for a few days, because the Kia replacement bulb (six years ago) was over £100 and the garage was able to leave it disassembled while they tracked down a much cheaper generic one. I've had slight play in one of the wheel bearings noted at the most recent MOT and my garage have flatly refused to fix that one because they had so much trouble doing the one on the other side. Which means if I want to keep the car it's going to be an overnight stay in Inverness so it can go to the dealership. As it's got nearly 100k on it and I'm going to need new brake discs and pads before the next MOT as well, Mr F has suggested looking for a replacement - especially because I'm about to start a new job that's a 50-mile round trip commute three times a week.

I traded in my 12 year old kia rio a few months ago, low mileage but a few things needing to be replaced & local garage said it's a bugger getting parts for them as can't use non kia & are expensive.


Printers, we got an Epson eco-tank last year, quite expensive to buy but lots of functions that we need for our small business. Still on its original ink, think it will last at least another year the way it's going! Compatible refill ink is pretty cheap compared to cartridges too.

 

[Whatamadworld]

In regards to car costs, got a 2010 ford mondeo. Accidentally scraped the side of the door on the lower side while coming out of a parking space that had those small parking space bollards. Garage said it would cost almost a grand to fix. It's about £500 to replace the door. So decided to just leave it. It's not too bad, but ridiculous money to fix a large scrape. A grand would be about half the price of what the car would cost these days! Ha, mad.

 

[pixxyy]

We use HP's Instant Ink you just pick how many pages you want to print & pay monthly, Our package is £2.99 for 50 pages but pages can rollover & you can add on pages. And they can tell when your inks getting low in order to send more

 

[Yel]

We use HP's Instant Ink you just pick how many pages you want to print & pay monthly, Our package is £2.99 for 50 pages but pages can rollover & you can add on pages. And they can tell when your inks getting low in order to send more

Sounds way better value than buying the cartridges, although a fair bit more than refiling yourself. Do they send properly filled cartridges that last longer?

I think I'd just use the library if I really needed something printed. Usually it's backup stuff or a returns label.

 

[pixxyy]

Sounds way better value than buying the cartridges, although a fair bit more than refiling yourself. Do they send properly filled cartridges that last longer?

I think I'd just use the library if I really needed something printed. Usually it's backup stuff or a returns label.

yes they seem to last longer than normal cartridges and because they know how much you've printed you never run out of ink