Live on £4000 for a year - part 4 (Oct - Dec 2008)

shorelines

whitewing wrote: »

shorelines, try a search of the forum to check, but I think www.glassesdirect.co.uk has good reviews. My brother is intending to try them out next year after I sent off for a brochure for him.

great, thanks for that! It's my first time getting glasses after squinting for so long. I have no perception of the cost. At least the eye test was free from work : )

Brighton_belle

Thanks Nyk, fortunately we can survive xmas as we are going to my parents for xmas dinner and the bits I'm taking I can do in the remoska. It's a built in oven rather than a whole cooker so I have already found one in argos for £127 so I'm sure I can do better somewhere in the Jan sales. I have an emergency fund for house stuff, as with lodgers I have to be able to keep on top of essentials, I just need to source the cheapest deal I can, so thanks for your ideas.
Marru - hope you can find the right balance for you and your future.

Cat_Addict

Bails, I really feel for you. I've been in this situation and remember the sickening gut punch feeling I felt. Ex-husband had gone self-employed and I was expecting full HB. They took 4 weeks to decide we were entitled to nothing. I'm rather ashamed to say that I just burst into terrified tears on the phone - literally panicked. The guy said to leave it with him and when he came back to me he reversed the decision. I kind of threw myself on their mercy. It is such a scary thing the benefits system, your life in someones decision making hands and I wish I could fix it for you cos I know exactly what it is like. I'm not much help and can only say that thank god those days are history for me (currently!) and I hope they soon will be for you too.

Sending love.

cw18

I've made a start on trying to reduce what I spend under one of my budget headings -- namely dog food......

Our dalmatian has been on an 'own brand' version of an expensive hypo-allergenic food for a good couple of years, but it's still expensive. I found one with no additives etc. in Qu@lity S@ave/H0me B@argains a while back, but he wouldn't eat it. If I mixed in some of the food I have for the Yorkie he would, but we then had a few problems with him (and a couple of unscheduled vets bills!)

I then reduced how much of the Yorkies food he had (was only 25% that anyway), and he finally started to eat his on it's own about a month ago.

But now I find the stores either don't have or don't have much -- and they tell me they're not expecting any more in So I had to budget for putting him back on the dear stuff :eek:

So on Saturday I checked the manufactures website to see if I could trace the one I'm currently using up anywhere else. They didn't even have it listed on their site as a product they make -- so I assumed I must have been buying 'end of line'.

I emailed them anyway, and got a reply this morning saying they make it exclusively for one distributor -- and gave me their phone number.

Called the distributor this afternoon, and have been told that they have P0undstretcher down as a stockist in my area -- so I'm going to have to check a few of them and see if I have any luck. I have one on an out-of-town complex which is near my closest Mr A, but the other 2 are in town -- so mean parking fees or bus fares.

Here's hoping the one by Mr A have it -- or can get it in if I ask I need 15kg a month, and I've so far seen it in 2.25kg and 5kg bags -- but it's been working out at no more than 88.5p/kg compared to the £1.96/kg for the alternative in the 'best value' 15kg sacks. So a potential saving of £16.12/month (or £193.50/year).

sophiesmum_2

What is the name of it cheryl, I can check out the one near me (instore)it is quite a big store.

cw18

Tasty Bites - made by Butchers. Comes in Beef, Chicken and Original.

sophiesmum_2

cw18 wrote: »

Tasty Bites - made by Butchers. Comes in Beef, Chicken and Original.

Likely to be down that way after meal tomorrow will have a look for you.

cw18

Thanks

Really hoping I can track it down a reliable supply, as it almost halves that area of my budget !!! Even better if I can get 5kg bags, as that worked out cheaper than the 2.25kg (smaller ones were £1.99, think I paid £3.49 for the 5kg)

tryingtodobetter

Just done my scratchcards for the day, does anybody know if I can sign my DH up or is it one person per household?

Not much happening here today waiting for DS1 and DS2's bunk bed to turn up (ebay purchase using 10% off voucher) and having a good tidy up before Christmas day.

Hope everyone is well and enjoys their day.

TTDB.x.

lyndasharp

whitewing wrote: »

shorelines, try a search of the forum to check, but I think www.glassesdirect.co.uk has good reviews. My brother is intending to try them out next year after I sent off for a brochure for him.

I bought some glasses from them earlier in the year, and I've been happy with them, though they are just driving glasses so I wasn't too worried about how they looked. I tried some on in real shops and then chose something similar to the styles I liked. Make sure you use the cashback sites, TCB pays you for asking for the catalogue last time I checked.

Nan's op is due this morning, and they are saying she should be out of hospital tomorrow as long as it all goes well.