Solid fuel price warning

[British Red]

Received this e-mail today from the local coal merchants - make of it what you will

"Due to the current economic situation, the cost of all fuels is increasing at an unprecedented rate.
We have now received notice from our main suppliers that they will be increasing their fuel prices from the 1st May 2022 by at least £90 per tonne. We expect to see further increases heading into the Winter months.
Therefore, we are contacting our customers to urge you to stock up on your Winter fuel now, before these increases come into effect. We will be maintaining our current prices until Midnight on Saturday 7th May, but this is only whilst stocks last."

 

[MartinK9]

Glad I had my woodshed refilled earlier last month.

 

[Robbi]

What sort of % increase is that.?

 

[slowworm]

What sort of % increase is that.?

A frightening one!

Actually, as I cut and process all our own firewood, it does mean my "homesteading salary" has risen greatly over the last few months and I can justify investing in some more equipment.

 

[British Red]

What sort of % increase is that.?

Two years ago smokeless fuel here was £300 a tonne. This Winter it's £400. From May £490. Next Winter....

Thankfully at the moment we have an excellent supply of free firewood. I have enough to process right now but tree surgeon friend has just offered three large trees next week. I'd be mad to turn down fuel delivered to the cottage for nothing right now.....

 

[Erbswurst]

We heat here with some kind of saw dust bricks, no idea how it's called correctly in English. A few weeks ago it was sold out nearly everywhere in and around of Berlin.

I guess there are still many people who have a wood oven and simply bought all what they could get. Then we got a bit more and now it's sold out everywhere.

I guess it might be sensible to get a few bow saw blades and saw chaines now.

 

[British Red]

I guess it might be sensible to get a few bow saw blades and saw chaines now.

Many years ago I hit on two good deals.

Heavy cotton t-shirts for £1 each

Bow saw blades (all 3 lengths) £1 each

I bought what, at the time, seemed a lot of each.

I should have bought more.

 

[MartinK9]

Two years ago smokeless fuel here was £300 a tonne. This Winter it's £400. From May £490. Next Winter....

Thankfully at the moment we have an excellent supply of free firewood. I have enough to process right now but tree surgeon friend has just offered three large trees next week. I'd be mad to turn down fuel delivered to the cottage for nothing right now.....

Too true

 

[Kadushu]

My mother's holding out until next month to buy her coal because she thinks the price will go down!

 

[Kadushu]

Many years ago I hit on two good deals.

Heavy cotton t-shirts for £1 each

Bow saw blades (all 3 lengths) £1 each

I bought what, at the time, seemed a lot of each.

I should have bought more.

There are a lot of things I think that of but mostly I wish I'd bought a load of OSB and useful sizes of timber.

 

[British Red]

My mother's holding out until next month to buy her coal because she thinks the price will go down!

Traditionally it does in Summer. I have no means to ascertain whether prices really are going up or not next month, I'm just passing on what one local firm has said.

 

[British Red]

There are a lot of things I think that of but mostly I wish I'd bought a load of OSB and useful sizes of timber.

I have bought bulk sheetboard and timber several times - but I keep using it!

Bought a big stack of tanalised tongue and groove from a local firm who delivered this week.

At 05:15 !!!

Only way they can keep up with demand after all the storm damage apparently

 

[Kadushu]

Looking at gold prices now, I wish I'd bought a load of that 20 years ago!

 

[Erbswurst]

It's better to buy farm land.
Gold you can't eat.

 

[daveO]

I pruned a neighbour's tree for them a few weeks ago. I stacked any useful size timber on my driveway for them to take away if they wanted it but it was stolen before they had a chance.

 

[TLM]

I pruned a neighbour's tree for them a few weeks ago. I stacked any useful size timber on my driveway for them to take away if they wanted it but it was stolen before they had a chance.

There, an example of the worth of fire wood!

 

[Broch]

I assume the value of the woodland I bought five(?) years ago has gone up proportionally - not that it makes any difference; I'm not planning on selling it

 

[TeeDee]

It's better to buy farm land.
Gold you can't eat.

True that you can't eat gold.
Also true most people can't afford to purchase Land in any meaningful amount to make it profitable even if they did have the Time , energy and knowledge to work it properly.


Land 'value' seems mostly to have taken off post 2008 GFC - as does the 'value' of Gold.



The difference being I guess its probably easier for most people to purchase and hold Gold as a store of value in incremental , fungible assets rather than possess the necessary large access entrance costs to purchase Land.

Land varies per acre by £5000 to £9000 depending upon its quality. Thats quite a chunk of change ( I think ) for most people in this day and age to find and stump up.


The rising value of both probably reflect the various currency expansion since 2008 , and recently with the SAR-Cov schemes of various governments trying to find their errant way out of a Pandemic.

Both have inherent merits and issues connected.

 

[British Red]

I assume the value of the woodland I bought five(?) years ago has gone up proportionally - not that it makes any difference; I'm not planning on selling it

I would argue that it's value is the same, but it's price has probably changed markedly

 

[Erbswurst]

Well, some have an acre or two of good farm land and an old cottage, some have a nice car. Some even have both.
Everyone can earn and spend his money how he wants to.

I highly recommend to buy very little pieces of gold if you invest there. Farmers don't give change when the times become really complicated.