It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

mummyyof5

Crikey kidcat had mine this morning it was £360.29p I thought that was steep.

BB1984

elizabunny wrote: »

The only thing is -I know I'm not that good at it and don't want to waste money on fabric that I then end up ruining. Oooooh what to do................

You could do what I did and buy some curtains/bedsheets from a charity shop, and practice on those til you get back into it?

A quick update on me and my sewing exploits - this afternoon (drum roll please...)....I made a bag! It won't win any awards, but it's clearly a bag, and it's now holding my sewing bits and bobs Best part was - I loved doing it! It was so much fun, and so relaxing (even when I snapped the needle - oops!), and 2hrs+ whizzed by. Have ordered some ribbon and am now on the lookout for cheap scraps of material to make my bunting (oh and I need some pinking shears - anyone know where I can get some for less than £10?)

RE rhubarb - this stuff amazes me! We had some growing in our garden when we moved in last year. Unfortunately it was right where our rubble heap ended up going...! So it's been buried under about 2 tonnes of rubble for 6 months, but I can now see shoots growing up through the pile...! Nature is so clever. Looking forward to rhubarb crumble!

RE bills - I nearly had a heart attack when our quarterly bill came yesterday - £390 for gas, and £350 for electricity :eek:. Then I noticed that they were both based on estimated readings....Estimated units used for gas: ~900. Actual units used: ~480. Estimated units used for electricity: ~2000(!) Actual units used: ~400. Phew!

In other news - our council tax has gone up by 5%.....

BB

elizabunny

BB1984 wrote: »

You could do what I did and buy some curtains/bedsheets from a charity shop, and practice on those til you get back into it?

A quick update on me and my sewing exploits - this afternoon (drum roll please...)....I made a bag! It won't win any awards, but it's clearly a bag, and it's now holding my sewing bits and bobs Best part was - I loved doing it! It was so much fun, and so relaxing (even when I snapped the needle - oops!), and 2hrs+ whizzed by. Have ordered some ribbon and am now on the lookout for cheap scraps of material to make my bunting (oh and I need some pinking shears - anyone know where I can get some for less than £10?)

RE rhubarb - this stuff amazes me! We had some growing in our garden when we moved in last year. Unfortunately it was right where our rubble heap ended up going...! So it's been buried under about 2 tonnes of rubble for 6 months, but I can now see shoots growing up through the pile...! Nature is so clever. Looking forward to rhubarb crumble!

RE bills - I nearly had a heart attack when our quarterly bill came yesterday - £390 for gas, and £350 for electricity :eek:. Then I noticed that they were both based on estimated readings....Estimated units used for gas: ~900. Actual units used: ~480. Estimated units used for electricity: ~2000(!) Actual units used: ~400. Phew!

In other news - our council tax has gone up by 5%.....

BB

Evening all Thanks for the tips BB1984 and I loved your idea of the sewing bag. I could try something similar for a knitting bag as well because mine gets everywhere:o

Had my electric bill today £340 for the quarter, this is for everything we have storage heaters and no gas. Also they wrote to tell me my monthly DD could go down to £69 which is a saving of £16 per month so I'm really chuffed. I have made a real effort to switch things off at night and not leave lights on everywhere, but we keep the house nice and warm 24/7 during the winter, so I think that's pretty good. Obviously it will be much lower during the next 2 quarters.

cw18

BB1984 wrote: »

In other news - our council tax has gone up by 5%.....

Just been trying to find out what mine's doing.....

The local lunch-time news implied that almost all NW areas were going up by hefty amounts, and only 3 areas were low enough to get a mention (think these were 1 at 1.9% and 2 and 2.3%, but I do know none of the three mentioned was my council) -- but I missed the bulk of the article as someone came to the door as it started :mad:

Just been searching the council's site, and was horrified to see how much it's gone up since we bought the place in May 2002.

April 2003 - increase of 8.85% :eek:
April 2004 - increase of 3.41%
April 2005 - increase of 4.95%
April 2006 - increase of 3.37%
April 2007 - increase of 3.63%
April 2008 - increase of 2.56%

so a total increase in 6 years of 29.8%

From what I can see it looks like the increase in April 2009 is possibly going to be as low as 2.3%

But the news article (dated 19th Feb) says this has still to be approved as the measures required to enable delivery of this include "Reducing spending on overhead budgets, such as office equipment, by a quarter; Keeping posts vacant for longer; Appointing new staff at the lower end of the grade."

It appears that the eventual approval won't happen until 11th March - which it strikes me is a bit late for first payments to be collected early in April

mardatha

Scotland's govt has frozen ours again which is brilliant :j

mardatha

Just been floating around the net looking at american sites -- found one on - "Depression Proof Jobs for a 20 Year Recession"...... Maybe they know something we don't ?! LOL

Charis

cw18 wrote: »

Just been trying to find out what mine's doing.....


Just been searching the council's site, and was horrified to see how much it's gone up since we bought the place in May 2002.

[...]
so a total increase in 6 years of 29.8%

It may cheer you up to hear that in the same period, in Herefordshire, the council tax on my property has gone up from £968.92 to £1434.78, an increase of 48%. This is a 3 bed det. bungalow with no storage space and the smallest bedroom is little more than a large cupboard. The garden's a nice size, though.

cw18

Ouch!!!

I'm in a 4 bed detached, with 4 good sized bedrooms. The 'smallest' isn't noticeably smaller than the next one up, and my teenage sons were/are more than happy they have enough space in them (the size of these rooms was the clincher on the property)

And whilst I don't class the garden as big (I was spoiled as a child, as both properties I lived in while growing up had very big gardens) it's a good size for a 'new build' (it's roughly 10mx10m)

ceridwen

mardatha wrote: »

Scotland's govt has frozen ours again which is brilliant :j

Mardatha - I'm moving to Scotland.......only thing is "have you got a lot of extra jumpers to lend me.....I'm gonna F...R...EE..Z...E"?;)

[Deleted User]

I have just checked our rises this coming april. Council tax up 4.9%. Water up 4.3% and that is on top of day to day living ie eating and breathing

dd has returned to work in a very strained atmosphere. There are now 25% of the people there and she fears that she has only been brought back to deal with the re-deployments.

I so hope that we don`t have need of a third thread in the future. 2 years and 10 months since the first thread got going. I am so glad to see that many people are coping, even if it is by hanging on with the fingernails

If there is any one bit of advice I would have given three years ago (hindsight of course, wonderful!!) and that would be to get to live in a property smaller than you want and also to try and get a garden. I love where we are but we would have done just that instead of being leasehold. 3 beds town house and no garden and council tax is expected to be £177 a month for 10 months