IN THE BACK
Every little helps
The much-hyped cost-ofliving crisis has well and truly arrived , with some hefty energy price increases at the beginning of the month and creeping inflation in food prices . Mrs Blowers and I even clocked up £ 160 in Lidl the other day , without even going near the booze aisle . My income certainly hasn ’ t been rising at more than 10 %, like everything else seems to be , so it got me thinking about what savings can be made across the household to ease the stress . I was bowled over to hear that LED bulbs save £ 7 per year per bulb , which cheered me up immeasurably , having just completed my house renovation – I now have hundreds of the blighters , but they should pay for themselves in the next 25 years or so .
The same too with solar . We plumped for a 14-panel system but couldn ’ t stretch to the £ 10,000 price of a battery . This has prompted a dramatic change in our behaviour . If the sun comes out , the dishwasher and washing machine go on . If a cloud passes over the sun , my wife hits the pause button . Cooking dinner has moved to the middle of the day now , when the electricity is free , unless of course it ’ s raining . If we don ’ t use it , we lose it to the grid where we receive a fraction of the amount we pay to get it back again ( we sell our unused electricity at 7.5p a unit and buy it in at 35p a unit – that doesn ’ t sound very fair ).
Spoiling the party Anyway , enough of the household tips . What I ’ m here for is to find ways of saving money on your investments , not your energy bills . As much as I hate to spoil your enjoyment , fund charges remain the most critical element in extracting the maximum value from your investments . In August 2022 , the most popular funds on interactive investor ’ s platform were
Fundsmith Equity and
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