Day 26: Fuel poverty

Today's spending has been very modest indeed. This Big Society principle is paying off.

One of my friends has questioned how I am actually funding this trip around the UK, the answer is the Big Society.

My partner's family are over from Australia and they decided to do a road trip, so they are paying for the car. My contribution has been to steer the trip in the direction of places where I can get a free bed from friends.

That's meant that for the cost of a couple of hotel rooms, I've had a lovely week off and just spending on the essentials.

True, I have eaten out a bit more than I would normally, but I've been sticking either to ring fenced or cheap items (last nights smoked sausage dinner from an Edinburgh chippy a case in point).

But I was surprised by the cost of lunch today. A baguette in Warmbridge, Northumberland, was £4.50. This North/South divide becomes less evident the more you eat out.

The other big expense on this trip, which I don't normally have, is on fuel for the car. I'm glad I can normally rely on my feet or public transport as £1.19 / £1.22 a litre is really steep and with fuel price increases on the way I can see that a driver trying this experiment would really struggle.

And as, presumably for the public sector this is a cost they can't do anything about, for every penny fuel costs rise, they will have to save elsewhere.

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Sent from my iPhone, please excuse the typos.