The totally off-topic thread

[medhead]

It's not just coffee. It's most things.

If inflation is supposed to be ~1.5% I am not sure how increases to some services can be justified.

I have been in this apartment for 2.5 years. The power bill with AGL was between $125 and $150 a quarter. They recently went to monthly billing and I am paying $62.5 a month. Nothing has changed in my energy consumption. In fact according to the bill I am consuming slightly less than last year.

All I have is a fridge that is running at all times. Think it is 420k/w per year. Aircon that is used occasionally, a fan used in summer occasionally, a microwave and hot plate that don't get used often and the lights which are used only at night time for a few hours. I spend 5 days here and 2 days in Sydney. I was missing for 16 days in March and the bill didn't change.

Should I be paranoid? There is something seriously wrong here.

Supply charge, how has that changed.

Some of my government based colleagues talking about linking fee increases to CPI. I usually call them on this type of thinking because if CPI is based on the cost of the various fees then they risk creating a positive feedback loop. CPI is supposed to be a measure of how much costs have increased, not a mechanism for how much you need to increase costs. I recently found out that CPI doesn't include many government fees so that was kinda good news.

 

[JohnK]

Here's another one.

I was covered until the 06th of every month with Medibank Private. Now I am covered until the 03rd of every month. Did I miss an announcement somewhere where they increased my monthly premium by 9.4% and short changed me 3 days.

Don't blink. There won't be anything left....

 

[coco50]

5000 to 1 at the start of the season. Might be a few rich foxes fans today.



Forever!

Bookmakers paid out 47 million pounds! Thank god a favourite didn't get up!

 

[JohnK]

I have used this - I think it is quite good.

You get it at the chemist.

I have just bought some. Has a 6 month expiry. Started using today. Hoping all my problems are solved.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Here's another one.

I was covered until the 06th of every month with Medibank Private. Now I am covered until the 03rd of every month. Did I miss an announcement somewhere where they increased my monthly premium by 9.4% and short changed me 3 days.

Don't blink. There won't be anything left....

pretty much... my medibank went up by about 9% on 1 April or whatever it was. I paid 6 months in advance and saved $60. nothing much but reasonable.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It's not just coffee. It's most things.

If inflation is supposed to be ~1.5% I am not sure how increases to some services can be justified.

I have been in this apartment for 2.5 years. The power bill with AGL was between $125 and $150 a quarter. They recently went to monthly billing and I am paying $62.5 a month. Nothing has changed in my energy consumption. In fact according to the bill I am consuming slightly less than last year.

All I have is a fridge that is running at all times. Think it is 420k/w per year. Aircon that is used occasionally, a fan used in summer occasionally, a microwave and hot plate that don't get used often and the lights which are used only at night time for a few hours. I spend 5 days here and 2 days in Sydney. I was missing for 16 days in March and the bill didn't change.

Should I be paranoid? There is something seriously wrong here.

is it an actual bill or an estimate? sometimes the consistency of a bill can be due to them estimating rather than actually reading the meter.

 

[Meggsy]

Happy and safe Saint Florian day to all the firefighters out there.

 

[whatmeworry]

The cost of coffee is something which is an outrage.

I remember when $1.80 could get you a cup of coffee at any of the good / trendy coffee shops. Nowadays it's $3.8 / $4.0 / $4.5. In Perth I paid $4.80 in City Square, and it wasn't even any good.

Coffee inflation is far more than the CPI.

Someone was telling me the price of coffee beans wholesale was really low, whereas the final retail price was ridiculous.

It's not just coffee. It's most things.

If inflation is supposed to be ~1.5% I am not sure how increases to some services can be justified.

I have been in this apartment for 2.5 years. The power bill with AGL was between $125 and $150 a quarter. They recently went to monthly billing and I am paying $62.5 a month. Nothing has changed in my energy consumption. In fact according to the bill I am consuming slightly less than last year.

All I have is a fridge that is running at all times. Think it is 420k/w per year. Aircon that is used occasionally, a fan used in summer occasionally, a microwave and hot plate that don't get used often and the lights which are used only at night time for a few hours. I spend 5 days here and 2 days in Sydney. I was missing for 16 days in March and the bill didn't change.

Should I be paranoid? There is something seriously wrong here.

Thank the gold plating of wires and poles by the retail companies. Also before you go away, unplug things at the wall. Some items consume about 10% of electricity even when switched off on the device but not at the wall.

 

[Foreigner]

Trump's triumph in the Republican race:

Primary results: Donald Trump becomes presumptive nominee - CNNPolitics.com

 

[penegal]

When you really buy a cup of coffee you are mostly buying labour.

Rough OOM of costs (I'm sure someone will correct me).

Labour
Rent (premisis)
Milk
Cup (either porcelain + cleaning, or disposable paper cup)
Maintenance & depreciation of coffee machine
Coffee beans
Electricity
Water

 

[whatmeworry]

Trump's triumph in the Republican race:

Primary results: Donald Trump becomes presumptive nominee - CNNPolitics.com

I thought I felt a disturbance in the force today.

 

[JohnK]

is it an actual bill or an estimate? sometimes the consistency of a bill can be due to them estimating rather than actually reading the meter.

I paid the bill. I am guessing the meter reading doesn't happen and it's an estimate based on previous usage. Must check meter tonight.

 

[Flashback]

I paid the bill. I am guessing the meter reading doesn't happen and it's an estimate based on previous usage. Must check meter tonight.

I submit monthly meter readings for elec + gas over here, although quarterly is all that is needed. Anyway, it always comes in well below the estimated bill as the Mrs and I don't really consume all that much and for the size property we have, we're well under 'average use'.

 

[JohnK]

Thank the gold plating of wires and poles by the retail companies. Also before you go away, unplug things at the wall. Some items consume about 10% of electricity even when switched off on the device but not at the wall.

Do this with most things when I go away. Just the fridge and microwave are left plugged in.

 

[mushez]

Do this with most things when I go away. Just the fridge and microwave are left plugged in.

Microwave? So you can tell the time/time zone you are in when you get home? Or so you have it as a litmus test to tell if the power is disconnected while you have been away and not to bother opening the fridge?

 

[Quickstatus]

If you place $100 on them to win that's half a million and enough to retire on. If only....

Alternatively like my father who plays "Reverse Lotto" you place your $100 in your pocket and just write your lotto numbers down. At the end of the day you are $100 in front. Better than any antibracket creep measure by Sco Mo in last night's Budget.

My father reckons as of last financial year he was at least $17540 in front. This is the accumulated deposits in his Reverse Lotto bank account. He even calls the account "QS Senior Reverse Lotto"

 

[Moindardt]

Someone was telling me the price of coffee beans wholesale was really low, whereas the final retail price was ridiculous.



Thank the gold plating of wires and poles by the retail companies. Also before you go away, unplug things at the wall. Some items consume about 10% of electricity even when switched off on the device but not at the wall.

The biggest recurring cost to almost all non-wholesale businesses is labour and the cost of maintaining and administering labour (eg workers comp, payroll tax, oh&s, ISO cert). Most smaller manufacturing processes incur very high scheduling costs due to excessive sick leave or absenteeism or terrible worker comp laws. In the retail space, stupid penalty rates make those beans very expensive. A proper restructure of archaic labour laws would greatly reduce production/retail costs.

I don't know about other states but in Qld, the electricity is super inefficient NGOs. Thanks Labor.

 

[JohnK]

Microwave? So you can tell the time/time zone you are in when you get home? Or so you have it as a litmus test to tell if the power is disconnected while you have been away and not to bother opening the fridge?

How did you guess? I leave the microwave connected so I can tell if there have been any power failures/blackouts. Unless of course the power has been cut off around midday/midnight.

Have had a few blackouts already but only for a few hours.

 

[mushez]

How did you guess? I leave the microwave connected so I can tell if there have been any power failures/blackouts. Unless of course the power has been cut off around midday/midnight.

Have had a few blackouts already but only for a few hours.

Just thinking why one would leave the microwave connected - and reminds me of my grandparents leaving the refrigerator and VCR powered on when they flew away - but VCR was they couldn't for the life of themselves program it, so as frugal as they were - they sucked up paying the few cents for power to leave the VCR plugged in.

But wouldn't it more be midnight/mid day where power was re-connected that would get you? And doesn't yours flash still when power has been disconnected even though it is still counting the time from power re-connection?

And I once went to NZ for two weeks and discounted all power, including deep freezer ........ only to come back to a very smelly freezer and house that took days to clean up.

 

[Pushka]

I leave ice cubes in the freezer out of their trays. If a molten mass then there's been a significant outage and need to chuck away thawed/refrozen food.