electricity may-july2012

london
Electricity bill today 1.5.12 -31.7.12
327kwh used over 91days
first 181kwh x 23.513 = £42.56
bext 150kwh x 11.203 = £16.80

total £59.36 for the quarter. pretty good i think. (it goes to show how confusing all this is because i thought it was pretty good, until i check with previous summers and realise it is not really. previously it was .16p a kwh. ) if even i find it confusing to compare with my own bill , i cannot see how anyone can compare with different companies. it is a minefield. i guess the only way is to stop using it as much as possible. 


0.18p per kwh
3.59kwh per day
0.65p a day

I checked and compared with the same period last year, and noticed that i used about 50kwh more last year and the bill was about the same as this. it shows how much the prices have risen. even cutting my usage by 50kwh this year i still could not reduce the bill from last year. i managed to just keeping it steady at about £60. this is the summer bill, winter will surely be a lot more. 

discounts -£3
vat 5% = -£2.78

they informed me that i am on the variable standard rate. and there are other rates, like clear and simple, online variable, and fixed price which they say is cheaper for me if i switch. 

 buggers to them for having all these different rates. I had a look at the price per unit of the various plans and it is not easy to understand. at present i got a cheaper price per unit than advertised. so what is going on?
these idiots ... 
so i am not changing the tariff. 
the savings is not a lot anyway even if i switch. and i bet there are lots of hidden disdvantages... like stopping sending me postal bills and doing it online. i like the postal bills because i can file them away... my printer do not work so i cannot print it off the internet.

when u consider in the same period 2010 it was about £45 u can realise how much prices have jumped. 30% in 2yrs.

Went to tesco and saw basmati 4kg x2 for £6.99. i bought them. last time i bought tesco's basic basmati rice £4 for 5kg, which we like a lot. but no more of those for sale. this one is laila brand.  i m not bothered what brand, as they are all the same really. just look at the grains, some are larger than others. no difference to the taste, only thing to remember is to use less water if the grains are smaller.

sainsburys is selling branded basmati 10kg for £9 now. branded basmati rice has gone down in price from last year.at least the supermarket price. 

i go to brixton and see their brasmati prices and it is higher for the same brand. there may be a glut of rice in london. maybe india and pakistan are finding it more worthwhile to sell to britain rather than to their countrymen. maybe the supermarket is able to get bulk discounts and so can undercut the independant retailer.

 thai rice is still expensive. it is more fragrant but it costs double.

i tasted thai rice at rita's. it was elephant brand i think. it was delicious.   i saw the price of it in a filipino shop in earls court, where rita buys her sambal. i went there to buy the sambal, and found it has monosodium glutamate in it, and so i did not buy it. no wonder it tastes so good. haha. 

the thai rice costs £8.50 for 5kg. i decided not to buy it because the way simon and i go through rice, it would be gone in a jiffy. haha. 

Added. 11.7.12 it puzzled me why thai rice is so expensive. today i read this in the new straits times, it seems the new thai govt headed by thaksin's sister) wants to support the farmers where their power base comes from; so to fulfill their election pledge they guarantee to buy their rice at a high price. thai rice is so expensive now and as a consequence, exports have gone down. 
and rice from india and vietnam are overtaking it. 

thailand used to be the largest exporter of rice, and thai rice has a reputation for good quality, but it seems not any more, as farmers have gone for quantity. the govt is sitting on a large stockpile of this rice. we might well find a drop in thai rice price in future when this comes into the market. the quality would drop too, and i wonder if any of us will want to buy it unless it is v cheap. maybe only the good quality will sell abroad. 
link to nst article
it seems india came back into exporting rice, after an absence of 4yrs. fr 2008. so that is why we have this glut of basmati rice.

Added. 14.8.12 read here that the rupee is in freefall. now worth £1=86.8rupees. i remember when i last time visited india, in the 90s, it was £1=60rupees. it means a holiday in india is cheaper now. and that might explain why the basmati rice is so cheap here.