The true cost of running a freezer

Freezers are a great invention don’t get me wrong but they are rather expensive to run. There is the obvious cost of purchasing a freezer along with possibly having somebody come around and fit it. But that’s only the start of the costs as the electricity to keep my freezer running costs approximately £85 per year (assuming it uses 2 units per day at current rates) and then there is the hidden cost of maintaining your food inventory.

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How the budget affects me

I had planned to write a long post today on what effect the budget has on my MillionaireAdventure but this years dull budget really doesn’t give me much to say.

I estimate that I will be £8.88 per year worse off due to tax on beer going up by 4p per pint, and wine by 14p per bottle. I don’t drive a big car so escape the so called green taxes introduced and the previously announced 2p rise in fuel duty was postponed until October.

Ok so I gain a bit from the reduction in basic-rate income tax to 20% but what the chancellor gives with one hand he had already taken with the other by raising the National Insurance earnings ceiling by £100 per week.

So in summary it’s business as usual for me after the budget.

How big is the housing bubble?

Halifax released it’s latest monthly survey on house prices today which showed prices across the UK falling by 0.3% in February, taking the annual rate of inflation down to 4.2%. This now means the average home in the UK costs £196,649 (or at least it does according to the Halifax, other surveys have different findings). What it clearly shows is that the housing market has slowed over the past couple of months but they believe that house prices can remain flat if the economy and employment levels continue to grow. Now that is a big “if” and not one I would personally like to have my house staked on.

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Free day!! (or at least it is for our employers)

It only comes once every four years, but when a leap year does come we get an extra day in the year. However if you are on an annual salary this extra day means devoting an extra 8 hours or so to your employer and for what… absolutely nothing! They will still pay you the same amount this year but gain an extra day of service from you. Unless of course you are a temp and paid by the hour, in this case for once it is your turn to get one over your permanent colleagues as you are being paid for working today and they are not.

If our employers were to decide to pay us for our extra hours today that would be the equivalant of a 0.4% payrise this year, although your salary would of course revert back to it’s original value next year. So come on employers… do the decent thing and pay your employees for their extra work!

£3,500 investment in Northern Rock (made on my behalf by the Government)

The Government has invested £3,500 of my money as a taxpayer as part of their £110bn rescue package for the Northern Rock. Whilst the popular press are rushing to print their articles on the potential risks of this being a bad deal for taxpayers I have to disagree.

Richard Branson and his Virgin group aren’t stupid, they saw possible returns of upto 75% if they could have bought the bank, and whilst the Government don’t have a good track record of running businesses if they can avert a recession and offload the bank to somebody else in the next couple of years they could make a tidy profit. The question then is whether us taxpayers would see any potential return on the risk being taken. (more…)