It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

mardatha

Burp you cant sink. All of us are holding you up ! xxx

pagangirl

Hi everyone - been freezin here today - Mardatha you snowed up yet?

exlibris - I feel like that too now when I go in shops - get all wrapped for the cold, but forget all the shops will have me sweltering !

Ollie - you sound really organised - I am getting there - I have a credit card, but would only use it for purchases over £100, then pay it off by debit card at the end of the month - thanks to Martin for this info.) Last week was actually a no spend week :T- for me that was a minor miracle - have finally got the message - do I need it or just want it!!!

Not heard of the Shirley Goode book 'Have a Goode Year' - thanks Ceridwen - will go investigate on Amazon.

Burp - big hugs hunny, hope things start looking up soon

Has anyone else noticed whats happening in the press lately - suddenely they've all become MSE's - like today in one paper 'Delia's credit crunch recipes', there was someone on the news this morning talking about 'Green Grannies' going round to schools telling the children exactly the sort of info we exchange on here - the newsreader sounded amazed that you could make soup from a chicken carcass, or that you could make something from leftovers - I didn't realise how much food people actually chuck in the bin!

mardatha

http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/22112008/323/russia-threatens-cut-gas-ukraine.html

halia

Oh goodie a new htread.
I have a long way to go but I'm desperatly trying to cut down our spending in preperation for an increased mortgage (short term)

What I've done so far
made fires in the evening to heat living room from logmaker/newspapers and kindling sticks scavanged on a woodwalk with my 3 yr old
Bought thermals and therfore saved putting on heating for another 2 hrs when its just me
Got a free electricity monitor and so far have managed to reduce our electricity from £75/month to £45 a month (well thats what the monitor tells me)
Buying Energy Saving bulbs to replace electricity eating ones in fittings
Encouraged turning off of heating and lights whenever possible
Bought breadmaker on ebay and use it every day
More batch cooking
Use discount vouchers for everything I can
Ebay and charity shops
Bought a sewing machine and learning to use it!
Bought a prepay prescription card (which saves me about £70 a yr)
Took out B&C insurance via quidco and got £150 cashback

I really need to stop both of us impulse spending though - OH is far worse than I am. I tend to impulse spend on things I find cheap - like today I picked up some alphabet cards reduced by 50% to £1 and a lovely warm jumper £6 with 20% off both for DS for Xmas, he doesn't urgently need either of them but they will be useful/nice to have.

DH on the other hand bought Soya milk and Smoothies from the convinience score so total cost of about £7 for 4 cartons, drove me mad as I can get 4 cartons for about £2!!!

Olliebeak

I'm so sorry to hear that some of us are struggling financially more than others are. I guess that I'm in a very lucky position. My home goes with my job (subsidised - but not completely free) and I've no travelling expenses to work. On the other hand, if it's cold then I have to put the heating on for the day at my own expense and I pay the electric bill for my office equipment (computer/modem/printer) - it also means that my work encroaches on my home-life (unless I manage to escape to somewhere else on my days off ).

I well remember the recession of the 70's/80's when I was first married and my children were young. My ex-OH was out-of-work (like millions of others at the time) and I had to be OS without realising it - soaking nappies all day and hand-washing them in the evenings (2 babies = minimum of 12 nappies per day!); gas OR electric sometimes; handmaking my children's clothes; knitting/sewing for neighbours to earn some money for Christmas presents; also delivering free newspapers to earn money.

For everybody who is struggling, I truly hope that things get better for you very soon. Please make sure that, if you are entitled to any benefits, you claim them - so many go unclaimed every year. The Government don't need the money - you do! It's a right NOT charity!!

Where Christmas is concerned, concentrate on celebrating your family and your life together. It is only one day of the year and I'm sure other family members will understand if you have to cut back - bet many of them will be in the same boat.

Keep your enthusiasm up .

Jue'sDD

painted_lady wrote: »

- use washable sanitary protection on me, saves a fortune and they feel so much nicer

Where did you get these from initially and do they work as well?

Thanks for all the stories guys, very encouraging! :T

painted_lady

I have some from http://www.moontimes.co.uk/ and some from http://www.puddlepants.co.uk/accessories.php.

They are both great, the moontimes ones have cotton inserts, so you can just add more inserts to make them more absorbant and suit your flow. They fasten underneath with velcro.
The puddlepants one is soft and only one piece and fastens with a popper under the knickers.
It feels like your not wearing a pad, just feels like having knickers on, maybe because its cloth next to your skin.
Personally, I like them and am going to try make some more on my sewing machine (I WILL learn how to use that thing one day). You could use old towels etc to make your own. I have a very heavy flow and can come through good quality disposables in an hour, but have had no problems with these.
You can always order one or 2 different types and see how you get on with them.
The puddlepants site specialises in making their goods from recycled materials, I have a nappy for DS made out of old curtains! Amazing.
Let me know if I can help anymore.

Jorgan_2

Burp, it can be tough at the moment and feel like everything is against you. Ten years ago my OH was made redundant and we had just bought a house as well, literally. We were waiting for the phonecall from the agent to say come and get the keys, when the phone rang, it was her boss asking her to make an appointment to discuss her redundancy.

There is loads of advice & support on here, make sure you speak to your mortgage lender as well, the vast majority are understanding.

mags50_2

There's loads of info on making your own cloth sanitary wear....just google it


Here's one to start with....looks an easy pattern if you can sew...

http://www.borntolove.com/d-list7-make.shtml

Wish I'd thought of these when my 3 DD's and I were all living at home!

apple_mint

Thank you Kittie for starting this thread, I'm a big fan of your first one.

Thank you everyone for contributing. It is wonderfully motivating to see that it is possible to get through the hard times. This community has kept many a household budget together over the years.

I stumbled across MSE OS a few years back, when I had just managed to get a job again after having been made redundant and not been able to get a full time permanent job for over a year. We had a mountain of debt that we just managed to meet the payments on by juggling money around each month. The information on MSE has helped us to nearly clear this debt (totally debt free next April) and to be better prepared for hard times.

Just some of the things that keep our costs down (and this is by no means exclusive as we have simply integrated everything into our daily lives so that OS is now second nature):

• Using half the washing powder and drying on a ceiling mounted airer (like in a Victorian kitchen)
• Have a good storecupboard of basic ingredients, herbs and spices etc. I also have a bathroom storecupboard of toilet rolls, shampoos, soaps, paracetamol etc. These are useful during lean weeks when we have to cut costs right down to just food purchases.
• We cook everthing from scratch - including bread, yoghurt, soups for packups, cakes (individual muffins are frozen for packed lunches) and we always make more than we need for the two of us. Extra's are frozen for busy nights or as additional portions for packed lunches.
• Clothes purchases are always 'classic' designs that don't date. I also try to have just two colour schemes with my work clothes so that I can mix and match skirts, jackets, tops etc.
• I think long and hard about any new purchases and look on the 'net' for the best prices. 'Is it a need or is it a want' is the mantra.
• We try to do as many tasks as possible using one car journey. We keep a list of tasks that need to be done in town and wait until we 'have to go in' to do those things that are additional.
• We have a bread maker, slow cooker (currently with two turkey thighs in to make some 'ready meals' for the week), a remoska (fantastic ... we have the grande for the two of us and make larger batch meals), a kenwood food slicer (slicing our homemade bread - which is then frozen in twos) a second hand Kenwood chef - all of them have prooved to be a good investment for us (Many thanks to the recommendations of people here on OS :T)
• My jam and preserves shelf is full of 'free food'
• We are pretty well self sufficient in HM wine

We were a million miles away from this a few years back. We eat better and more healthily now and the feeling of relief on having nearly conquered our debt simply cannot be bought.

Thank you everyone - you are all stars :A