It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

Charis

A friend told me today that Tschibo have pulled out of the UK and gone back to (Germany?) They used to have half an aisle in our little Somerfields and she went in to get her mum some Tschibo coffee but one of the staff told her they no longer stock anything of that brand.

Raspberry_Swirl

angelavdavis wrote: »

Well, its happened, the prices at our local Lidl have shot up!

Bread flour - gone from £49p to £75p!
Chorizo sausage - gone from £1.89 to £2.49
Passata - gone from £28p to £55p

Just some prices from memory.

There are still plenty of prices that are cheaper than Mr T and these costs are still competitive, but the savings don't seem to be there any more

Anyone else noticed the prices in Lidl shooting up?

Lucky you that they've only just gone up!! Im my local Lidl the Chorizo went up to about £2.19 ages ago so no doubt it's gone up again to £2.49 now! Also, the passata in my local hasn't been 28p for at least 6 months now Last time i bought it, probably about 4 weeks ago it was about 48p...

Hawthorn

mummysaver wrote: »

Hawthorn - I know exactly what you mean about kids and clothes! Thankfully none of mine are precious and all are quite happy with second hand, hand me downs, Primark etc. Well if they weren't they'd have to go out naked!!!!

None of mine are either Indeed, the 14 year old is as proud of a bargain as I am! The others haven't yet got to that stage, but really aren't fussed about labels as long as they like it.

second hand is getting harder to come by. I've had some nice bits off ebay (but postage is so expensive!) but the charity shops seem very thin on good clothing these days. A few have said they aren't getting anywhere near the donations they used to and this is probably due to the economy. People are making clothes last longer.
I would like to make my own stuff, but fabric over here is expensive, and I'm not convinced it would be a whole lot cheaper to make your own clothes.
There's always the USA (who have some fab stuff) but postage and the weak pound have meant it's no longer such a bargain, plus any taxes you have to pay.
I was going to order a sacred threads skirt from the USA a few weeks ago - $30 postage :eek:

Patchwork_Quilt

Hi Hawthorn - just a thought but how about going up to school and looking for those jumpers? Children often say they have looked and then when you ask them where the lost property box is, they have no idea!

You could also have a word with school. Ours sets all the lost property out on tables at the end of each term and anything unclaimed can be taken home by anybody. If you're really struggling, they might let you have some of the long-term residents of the lost property box for nothing.

Either that, or be really proactive and offer to organise a jumble sale for them. You'd get first pick of the clothes and they'd get a quick boost to profits. Storing them is not so nice, though.

Good luck

Hawthorn

Hi Patchwork - been there, done that
We did get one back today though, which is good. I reckon we have a little entrepreneur, that's taking the clothes and has an Ebay account LOL.

My next step is to sew the sweaters to the trousers. Lets see 'em lose those

elizabunny

Hawthorn wrote: »

My next step is to sew the sweaters to the trousers. Lets see 'em lose those

I had a little smile when I read your post Hawthorn, it reminded me of the time when my boys were little and DS1 (now 31!) had just started school. We had saved up hard for his uniform and a nice new pair of shoes. He used to travel to and from school on the bus and every afternoon when he arrived home, his shoe laces were missing. This went on for weeks and cost us a small fortune in new laces. Every day we we tied them tightly and tried every knot invented. He was only 4 at the time and he gave us every excuse for the missing laces -including, 'they just fell out'. After about a month or so, the laces stopped disappearing -but it was years later before we found out what had happened to them. He had been taking them out and using them himself and supplying them to his little pals to thread their conkers on to!!!

mummysaver -thank you for your thoughts. We are just hoping she can recover enough to have a reasonable quality of life.

ceridwen

A useful preparedness "post" from a blog I follow:

http://downshiftingpath.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-if.html

GreenandThrifty

Ceridwen, thats a great blog I read it too. Found myself making a very similar post on mine last week - I guess getting snowed in kinda makes you think of emergency planning a bit more seriously!! Still working on my disaster plan.

Gigervamp

GreenandThrifty wrote: »

I guess getting snowed in kinda makes you think of emergency planning a bit more seriously!!

I wonder if the people who were laughing at us in the getting prepared thread have changed their attitudes after the last week.

Hawthorn

Gigervamp wrote: »

I wonder if the people who were laughing at us in the getting prepared thread have changed their attitudes after the last week.

:rotfl:

I doubt it

edited to add, compulsive prepper here