Thankfully I work flexible hours, so I'm not really losing anything other than the actual cost. And if I have an MCard it will cost me the same whether I use it or not. And personally I much prefer getting into the office, sometimes making part of my commute a nice walk along the Leeds Liverpool canal.
Yes, but you could be enjoying an alternative train, cycle, walking or car journey instead of the one you've done hundreds or thousands of times before.
I make a flask of tea with a teabag inside, after a minute of stirring I add milk and sugar, tastes OK to me! It's difficult adding milk to a drink when you're on a train, can spill all over the place!! Also prefer long-life milk to "ordinary" and I get through two litres of that a week. Probably a saving over ordinary milk these days, but that's not a deliberate attempt to save, I actually prefer the taste of long life! Must ask the cat who might have a different opinion...
Once opened they still need to be refrigerated, so you'd still need the fridge.
I got stuck* overseas during the second lockdown period. My HR department was quite insistent that I returned before tax thresholds were reached triggering different liabilities, so that would be a consideration for many people.
They weren't but given current price levels most certainly are now but we aren't benefitting from that due to the energy market design using marginal pricing. Put simply the last generator on the system sets the price for all generators and as NG have us use the CCGTs (Combined Cycle Gas Turbines) to keeps the system supplied with enough energy to match demand every generator is benefitting who doesn't have a pre agreed energy supply agreement. So todays level is above £600/MWH its was 50-75 12 mths ago this is because the day ahead gas price is off the scale although it has retreated from the ridiculous peak seen last week which was all built up by speculators. It is this price which OFGEM monitor daily and are using to set the unit rate price for the energy cap but it bares no resemeblence to what many of the enrgy suppliers are actually paying for their gas as they have long term supply arrangements put in place when prices were much lower. Oh and to make it worse its the nasty can't be trusted big 6 energy suppliers that have these arrangements not the stupid poorly capitilised small suppliers that all went bust leaving consumers having to pick up the bill (already over £100 loaded onto standing charge and if they have to recover Bulbs losses will be another £150).
Working at home you would be finished and home an hour earlier and could go to bed an hour later and get up hour later in the morning. That would free up two hours in the evening. In the summer use that for your leisure train/cycle/car ride. In the winter use it for household chores and travel on your rest days.
I would love to see some actual hard figures on average central heating temperatures. My gut feeling is that there aren't really that many people of limited means who are heating their houses that much.
I did the sums and I think even with the price rises, home working will be cheaper for me.
I struggle with those lids they put on the hot cups in station cafe's and on the trains. At Bolton recently, they put the tea into a double paper cup with the lid firmly on, and I scalded myself opening it to put the milk and sugar on. Makes flasks more desirable but they need carrying round all day! Which is what I intend to do in winter, fill a large one up and make the journey Bolton > Stalybridge > Airport > Bolton on a day ticket with my pre-prepared lunch in a bag. All those stations have a warm waiting room, and the upstars area at Piccadilly should be pleasant enough.
But not all electricity is traded at the marginal price is it? My (big 6) supplier must have long term contracts in place to enable them to offer me a price around half the cap?
Given that (most) big six supplier own their own power stations they could theoretically bypass the market alltogether
Well, you don't have to refrigerate it but by the same token you don't have to avoid food poisoning. Once the carton is opened the milk inside is exposed to the same bacteria and spores as any other food and there is nothing inherently antimicrobial about it - unlike foods like jam, honey or spreads that have too high a sugar/salt content for rapid microbial growth.
Nuclear and renewables, yes. But a lot of them are gas-fired.
Agreed. But there's a difference between "You won't get food poisoning by drinking UHT milk that's been out for a day" and a blanket "They actually don't [need to be refrigerated]". Even a fresh pint of pasteurised milk would be fine out of the fridge for a day.
...especially in a house without the central heating on in winter, which I think is what we're talking about.
Yes, it's normally referred to as 'hedging' where the utility companies will buy ahead at a fixed price and only have to buy a small amount to cover any shortfall on the spot market.
FWIW, I'm not being pedantic for pedantry's sake*. Internet indexing is super weird and posts here can show up in the results to seemingly unrelated searches - people who are looking to save money may well come across this thread. While it's clear that you know what you mean when you say that UHT doesn't need to be refrigerated - ie. that it doesn't need refrigeration any more or less than regular milk, not everyone necessarily will get that.
I wonder why the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph are mentioned so often in postings on this website? Does no-one read the Daily Mirror any more?
The Daily Heil and Torygraph... sorry, Mail and Telegraph are barometers of right-wing sentiment in the UK. The Daily Mirror is left-leaning, so their musings are of somewhat less import while we have a Conservative government.
Indeed, it took until yesterday, at the age of 26, and all the current discussions about heating and energy to have the striking realisation that perhaps there are people who don't expect to feel cold indoors in winter. For me being cold in winter is such an inevitable and logical thing that it genuinely never occurred to me that it's not a universal experience.
At this time I would have been in full control of the thermostat, in no financial difficulty, just heating to my expectation of a house in winter.
