It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

Primrose

Kittie - yes a garden is a defiinite asset in these credit crunched days, and in some ways, the bigger the better, especially if you want to save money and grow your own fruit and vegetables. An allotment is a fine substitute (and we had two of them at various times in our earlier married life). However,if you leave out the community companionship issue, they are far more inconvenient than growing in your own garden. They swallow up travelling time, the inconvenience of having to transport your plants & tools, often have a lack of watering facilities, and you run the risk of your products being stolen & vandalised. That was why we gave up our allotments. Now I stick to growing veg in our garden on the basis that our Council Tax is so high that our garden has to work for its living. We've just resited a small pond so we can enlarge our vegetable patch and I suspect that a lot of households will be eyeing their gardens this year with a view of making them more productive to save money. Ironic isn't it - last year I was complaining that my arthritis is making it more difficult for me to bend down, plant and weed and this year we're extending the veggie patch because we need to grow more and save money. The mind has been concentrated.

kidcat

Yes, our garden is looking like my saviour at the moment, its huge and currently houses climbing frame and trampoline along with other garden paraphenalia with ease, and still room to spare, however my back is not strong enough for any heavy digging etc so it will depned on my DH to put in the manual work. Thinking of starting small this year and impressing him so much that he wants to do more next.

JayJay14

Last year we decided that the garden would have to be turned over to growing veg - trouble is we started rather late and found that black fly and catterpillars got more of the veg than we did:eek:

OH has built 3 deep beds and this year we are hoping to get more out of it. I wold love to be organic but I think we may need to resort to bug spray at some point.

I know that I should use seed potatoes but I think I'll use the ones I've got n the utility - they have more than enough sprouts on them.:rotfl:

mardatha

Kittie -or anybody LOL - do you think food will get more expensive as the exchange rate with the euro changes ? If so then what do we import most of ?

cw18

exhange rates are bound to impact food prices.

sugar is one we're already seeing it on, and I guess tea, coffee, rice and pasta will be heading the same way

and then the 'exotic' and 'not so exotic' fruits that don't grow well in this country, such as pineapples and bananas

mardatha

They're talking about eastern europe going bankrupt or collapsing. I wonder how that will affect us as well...
Can you tell I'm in a Voice of Doom mood today ? LOL
I should get out more..

kidcat

mardatha wrote: »

They're talking about eastern europe going bankrupt or collapsing. I wonder how that will affect us as well...
Can you tell I'm in a Voice of Doom mood today ? LOL
I should get out more..

More migrant workers?

I think as a country we need to be attempting to become more self sufficient. Its all very well for us as individuals to be working on self sufficiency but it needs to be from a more high level as well.

cw18

couldn't agree more kidcat :T

Hardup_Hester

I received a letter today telling my that e.on are putting my DD up from £72 a month to £110 a month why? Because my last meter reading showed I'd used £69 of fuel that month. I phoned & complained that it had been a particularly cold month & the amount was under what I was paying. I guess I'll be changing providers again

kidcat

Hardup_Hester wrote: »

I received a letter today telling my that e.on are putting my DD up from £72 a month to £110 a month why? Because my last meter reading showed I'd used £69 of fuel that month. I phoned & complained that it had been a particularly cold month & the amount was under what I was paying. I guess I'll be changing providers again

I am dreading what they do with ours. I am already paying £200 per month and this is well more than enough for the summer months but at the moment we are in debit due to the very high winter bill.