Living basic to save on bills
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Same lad
Run Silent-Run Deep
Same lad
Run Silent-Run Deep
Elen Sentier
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
As will I. But he's promoting his ideas in national newspapers saying they save him lots of money when they apparently don't. I would call that a nuisance.
I would argue far less of a nuisance than "bloke lives without money". I guess it all depends on how you do the maths. I cut my own fuel for heating. It saves me money. If I factor in my hourly rate it doesn't I expect - but I don't do it in working hours.
My point is he is not sponging from you or me to pay for his share of the NHS or bin collection - he works and pays taxes - so he can do what he likes in his house. Strikes me as pretty unimaginative tbh - I just dumped 6,000 litres of water as I had too much
However - his house, his rules - tolerance does not mean uniformity.
My point is he is not sponging from you or me to pay for his share of the NHS or bin collection - he works and pays taxes - so he can do what he likes in his house. Strikes me as pretty unimaginative tbh - I just dumped 6,000 litres of water as I had too much
However - his house, his rules - tolerance does not mean uniformity.
I would argue far less of a nuisance than "bloke lives without money". I guess it all depends on how you do the maths. I cut my own fuel for heating. It saves me money. If I factor in my hourly rate it doesn't I expect - but I don't do it in working hours.
My point is he is not sponging from you or me to pay for his share of the NHS or bin collection - he works and pays taxes - so he can do what he likes in his house. Strikes me as pretty unimaginative tbh - I just dumped 6,000 litres of water as I had too much
I played the ball not the man Red. I think most people who criticised, did likewise.
I personally think non-working hours are more valueable than working hours, and also they are in short supply these days, which drives their value up.
So IMO if you are factoring in your non-working hours for free on something you don't enjoy you are really robbing yourself.
If you do enjoy it I still don't see that a reason to set those hours for free when doing the numbers about how much it costs.
So I seem to recall a discussion that if I grow my own spuds it isn't really cost effective, I buy the seeds, I plant them and I tend them making sure that I keep the weeds down and the bugs down, I water them through the growing season the time I spend doing it would be far better spent "flipping burgers" on minimum wage for a few hours a week so I could buy my spuds at a fiver a bag... But I grow them in my "Non-working time" so in reality it doesn't cost me anything apart from the seeds.
So if that stands I do my "Day job" and earn my £100+ a day, all I do after that is free time to do what I like, if I grow or work on my land anything from it hasn't really cost me anything.
As an aside if I paid for my water via a water meter instead of by rateable value it would cost about £3 for a thousand litres, but I think that mightn't include out going or standing charge...
Ho hum...
So if that stands I do my "Day job" and earn my £100+ a day, all I do after that is free time to do what I like, if I grow or work on my land anything from it hasn't really cost me anything.
As an aside if I paid for my water via a water meter instead of by rateable value it would cost about £3 for a thousand litres, but I think that mightn't include out going or standing charge...
Ho hum...
I don't see how he's saving money; he's simply juggling things around and scrounging washing from other people's water fees at the gym.
The amount of time he must spend on that alone though
Sorry, he's not destitute and while I'm all for both energy saving and making the most of one's money, quality of life factors in too.
Each to their own though.
cheers,
Toddy
The amount of time he must spend on that alone though
Sorry, he's not destitute and while I'm all for both energy saving and making the most of one's money, quality of life factors in too.
Each to their own though.
cheers,
Toddy
At one point in Rhodesia it would work out cheaper to fill your pool with beer than water... that was a long time ago though.
We have wood burners, no woodland so buy what we want. I also use gas for cooking and heating. To heat this house gas is by far the cheapest option and the wood stoves are something we light as the urge takes us and they look nice. If the gas stopped in the morning we'd be fine but I'll not spend my leisure time chopping wood unless I had to; my choice, my opinion.
This bloke is looking to make a few quid on his 'crusade' so good luck to him I suppose. If you want to live like that then go for it, live on Scheiße food, gain weight and be isolated then go for it
Hmmm stirred up a bit of a hornets nest here by posting that. Plus I didn't know he was a scam artist with this phone line at premium rates. Anyway casting judgements aside I don't really get his logic bu having the water turned off, seems to me he'd save money if he used it more economically.
I recently bought a small bungalow here in rural Normandy so I am playing and experimenting with different methods of basic living in order to make as little impact ecologically and also try and keep the bills down to a minimum. I won't go as far as turning off the water supply and buy in bottled water though.
So far my only utilities coming into the house are water, electricity and phone. I have a septic tank which means I don't pay for sewage and the septic tank works pretty well if you look after it and keep feeding in the bacteria additives it could last many years. Besides I need to upgrade it next year, but that's already on the cards to be done.
My cooker is a Butane gas hob and oven and bottled gas over here runs to about €26 for a bottle, Just one of those running the hob will last me 9 months, maybe even a year if I'm frugal. My cooking needs are very basic. My heating will be a woodburner and I can buy cubic meters of wood for as little as €40, but being a carpenter I also bring home lots of scrap wood from jobs to feed the fire. At the moment my hot water is electrically heated but I am planning on fitting new a 100 litre very energy efficient hot water immersion heater, though I am considering a heat exchanger system combined with the woodburner to preheat the water as it comes into the house so the immersion heater doesn't have to heat cold water. However if my needs for hot water get low enough in the winter I'll just put a big pan on the wood burner and use that to heat the water for washing up and baths. As a kid I used to bath in a tin bath and it wasn't until I was 9 years old that we moved into a house that had a bath in it and inside toilet. Luxury!
I am currently doubling up on the insulation in the walls of the living room and that's going up rather well too. I found out the loft got new fibreglass fitted to it in 2006, though I would like to upgrade that to solid insulation like I'm fitting in the walls now.
So getting back the unclean nocturnal hermit in the article. In my opinion he seems to have too radical an approach when just simple cost saving methods could work in his favour. Buying water and hauling it home seems a bit dim if he could have it plumbed directly in but just use it more wisely, like scavenge the water he uses in his strip wash tub to flush his loo.
Thanks for your input and comments.
I recently bought a small bungalow here in rural Normandy so I am playing and experimenting with different methods of basic living in order to make as little impact ecologically and also try and keep the bills down to a minimum. I won't go as far as turning off the water supply and buy in bottled water though.
So far my only utilities coming into the house are water, electricity and phone. I have a septic tank which means I don't pay for sewage and the septic tank works pretty well if you look after it and keep feeding in the bacteria additives it could last many years. Besides I need to upgrade it next year, but that's already on the cards to be done.
My cooker is a Butane gas hob and oven and bottled gas over here runs to about €26 for a bottle, Just one of those running the hob will last me 9 months, maybe even a year if I'm frugal. My cooking needs are very basic. My heating will be a woodburner and I can buy cubic meters of wood for as little as €40, but being a carpenter I also bring home lots of scrap wood from jobs to feed the fire. At the moment my hot water is electrically heated but I am planning on fitting new a 100 litre very energy efficient hot water immersion heater, though I am considering a heat exchanger system combined with the woodburner to preheat the water as it comes into the house so the immersion heater doesn't have to heat cold water. However if my needs for hot water get low enough in the winter I'll just put a big pan on the wood burner and use that to heat the water for washing up and baths. As a kid I used to bath in a tin bath and it wasn't until I was 9 years old that we moved into a house that had a bath in it and inside toilet. Luxury!
I am currently doubling up on the insulation in the walls of the living room and that's going up rather well too. I found out the loft got new fibreglass fitted to it in 2006, though I would like to upgrade that to solid insulation like I'm fitting in the walls now.
So getting back the unclean nocturnal hermit in the article. In my opinion he seems to have too radical an approach when just simple cost saving methods could work in his favour. Buying water and hauling it home seems a bit dim if he could have it plumbed directly in but just use it more wisely, like scavenge the water he uses in his strip wash tub to flush his loo.
Thanks for your input and comments.
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Just checked my water bill £36.81 a month, I think that is over 10 months though, so it is £368.10 a year, so just a little over £1 a day for everything, water in, waste out inclusive of all charges.
Yes I could buy bottled water but I doubt £0.40 per day would cover the cost of enough water to live on.
Using other peoples supplies is one way around this problem, and good on them for letting him do so, but as one of the comments in/under the article stated... "I bet he's not married"
Yes I could buy bottled water but I doubt £0.40 per day would cover the cost of enough water to live on.
Using other peoples supplies is one way around this problem, and good on them for letting him do so, but as one of the comments in/under the article stated... "I bet he's not married"
xylaria
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
The bloke does look a bit of a plonker. His jumper aint that clean either. However there is a nobility in his protest. The utility price hikes are crippling. I pay three times the price for water from dwr cymru than I did off severn trent. Half that midlands water is a welsh export.
I was thinking today if people started switching the lot off as a protest. No electric no water no mains gas, would it change anything. I could do it and wear clean clothes and wash everyday. It would be an interesting survival exerice, if nothing else.
I was thinking today if people started switching the lot off as a protest. No electric no water no mains gas, would it change anything. I could do it and wear clean clothes and wash everyday. It would be an interesting survival exerice, if nothing else.
Really? If you do enjoy it I would think that it's even more savings as you're getting free entertainment vs paying to go to the cinema or the pub, etc.
http://www.stwater.co.uk/households/about-your-account-and-bill/our-charges/
Severn trent incoming water charges per cubic metre, 1000ltrs 153.46p
Outgoing charges on those thousand litres 93.81p
Total £2.47.27
http://www.dwrcymru.com/_library/leaflets_publications_english/your_metered_supply.pdf
Welsh water incoming water charges per cubic metre 1000ltrs 133.12p
Outgoing charges on those thousand litres 165.54
Total £2.98.66
Metered supplies
ST £2.98.66
WW£2.47.27
Difference between 1000ltrs of metered water.
£0.51.39
Not quite
three times the price for water from dwr cymru than severn trent.
Severn trent incoming water charges per cubic metre, 1000ltrs 153.46p
Outgoing charges on those thousand litres 93.81p
Total £2.47.27
http://www.dwrcymru.com/_library/leaflets_publications_english/your_metered_supply.pdf
Welsh water incoming water charges per cubic metre 1000ltrs 133.12p
Outgoing charges on those thousand litres 165.54
Total £2.98.66
Metered supplies
ST £2.98.66
WW£2.47.27
Difference between 1000ltrs of metered water.
£0.51.39
Not quite
three times the price for water from dwr cymru than severn trent.
I do know the figure. And I choose to spend it.
Just as you choose to spend time doing things (like cutting your own fuel) that don't make sense from accounting point of view. Why do you do that? Because it it has a value to you much higher than the monetary value.
But I would put it to you, that you are very clear about which measurement you are using, why you are using it and that you are not cheating within that type of measurement.
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