It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

ceridwen

Yep Mardatha - I confess to being uncomfortably aware that much of our foodstuff is imported - so never mind Peak Oil (which will start impacting before long) - right at this moment we are getting it in the neck with food prices on some pretty basic stuff from (I guess) the weakness of the £. Dont know if it was our weak £ that did it t'other day when I was buying some pretty standard pasta - but I had to buy a cheaper type of pasta than I normally get to save money - BUT it was still a much higher price than even my normal one of a few months back. So - one standard size pack of wholemeal pasta bits set me back about £1.40 odd:eek: :mad: - and I remembered I'd been buying much better quality stuff than that only about a year before for about 30%/40% of that price....it sent a quick "chill" of worry through me....

Whilst I'm thinking about British food security - a link for anyone involved in trying to work out how their neighbourhood will continue to eat over the next few years:

http://poweringdown.blogspot.com/2009/02/neighborhood-farming.html

He is a well-known American blogger taking part in the debate about how we will be living in the future and this is a post with a lot of relevance for us here in Britain as we decide how to move forward...

mardatha

Ceridwenor anybody else -- there was a link somewhere on a website about a man in California who was turning his garden into a mini farm. He was quite famous, I saw this a while ago and lost the link. Can anybody find it ? It was just an ordinary back yard or two and he grew everything they ate plus more that he sold. His kids helped him.

[Deleted User]

we used to have 1/3 of an acre, so we had a big big veg plot all through the 80s and 90s and it saved our necks when prices flew up and salaries dived. It is so so satisfying growing veg, except the morning you look out of the window and cabbage root fly has got to every single broccolli, sprout and cabbage and there they are all flopped over. Anyone brand new to gardening, don`t forget the very essential cabbage collars and try companion planting ie carrots and onions alternating rows so the smells get confusing for the carrot and onion pests

Mardatha and Ceridwen, very right as always. Then again, I like eating local food and with the seasons. It is just that the farmers are no longer geared up to providing. If there is one good thing to come out of all this horrible doom and gloom, it is that we get back to a simpler life

bellaquidsin

I'm trying hard not to pay airfares for my vegetables. I love a butternut squash in soup but the one from Argentina had to stay in the shop today, my soup will consist of mostly carrots and parsnips this week and anything else I may find lurking in the fridge.

Like Primrose, arthritis had slowed me up in the garden but now we are clearing more ground for veggies.

Today DH moved some plants to make more space and now he has a bad back - O Dear. We'll just have to take the little and often approach.

Bella.

Prudent

ceridwen wrote: »

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"?;)

What area of Scotalnd are you moving too?

I live in Central Scotland and the weather isn't too bad here. I can usually keep my heating thermostate at 15 and have it on for about 3 hours twice a day.

champys

This is the toughest time of year for us vegetable garden consumers, though! I still have enough potatoes in store from last season and they are fine. One or two pumpkins/squashes that haven't rotted yet and will feature in risotto and soup very soon. In the garden, some leeks that seem to have missed their vocation last autumn/winter - I know they will be OK in another month, but not yet. The odd January King cabbage has survived, no more than 3 or 4. The turnips have frostbite and will have to go on the compost heap. All hopes are pinned on the purple sprouting broccoli to do its thing soon, the first 'new' vegetable of the year! But mostly we are eating what was frozen last autumn......... just a few more weeks and we'll be planting radishes and, after that, everything else will follow. There are winter salads under a cloche that have survived, but not ready yet for a long time - and I have put a dustbin over the rhubarb crown.
Come on spring, I can't wait!

Hollyberry

I had a wander down to the compost heap with the crock yesterday morning. The garden is trying very hard to declare that spring is nearly here. There is a single catkin on the hazel tree, which is already being eyed up by the squirrel - hmmm. :rolleyes: The birds are keeping up a full scale chorus for dawn and dusk, and are very chirpy during the day when the cats are out. Mr Pigeon was flying around with twigs for a nest, then emerging shamefaced from the tree when Mrs Pigeon berated him for the inappropriate choice of stick; their ideas of interior decor don't seem to coincide.

The daffodils, bluebells, tulips and narcissi are starting to bud. I found a few stray Jerusalem artichokes after a bit of prodding around; the soil is really good now, and very easy to dig. All the raised beds are ready for the next planting. Can't wait to get on with things now - roll on spring!

elizabunny

Evening all. I was having a little clear out today and I remembered that I had an old Singer Sewing Machine (I also have another machine which I use). Anyway, it has been doing nothing in the back of my wardrobe for years, so DH dragged it out and we plugged it in and surprisingly it still works (if a bit stiff). Anyway DH oiled it and it seemed to run a bit easier, so when DS1 and his OH came round I offered it to her a bit sheepishly because it's so old. Well she was so thrilled and I feel so pleased because she was so enthusiastic and can't wait to get going with it. So that's my good deed for the day and hopefully DSs OH will be another OS in the making. (Actually she's already very OS and is very keen to learn [strike]new[/strike] old tips.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

JillD_2

I feel a bit of an epic post coming on, sorry in advance! This seems like the best place to post it. I didnt want to post in Debt Free Wannabe as we are not in debt, but it is a rather long winded story of how we are tightening our belts at the minute.

Over the last few years we have had 3 children (now 5, 4 and 18 months) and my working hours (and hence my pay) has gone down whilst childcare has gone up. DH left his job 4 years ago to start his own business, we had 2 nightmare years but now its settled down and e takes home a good salary. However my working with the children being so young was costing us a lot on childcare and it was pretty stressful trying to fit everything into the day. Sooooo........

We did some calculations in November and realised that for the first time we were in the great position of me being able to give up work to be a SAHM, as we could tighten our belts and do without the pay I had left after the childcare.

So I handed in my notice in December and left just before Christmas.
It was a really great decision on balance not least because in Jan all 3 kids have been ill (nothing serious), DH has been away a lot, school has been closed because of snow and then because of flooding, so I would have had to take a lot of leave to cover all that.

There have been a couple of spanners in the works though.
Firstly our calculations assumed that our tax credits wouldnt change by much. I only worked 15 hours (over 3 days) so we werent eligible for the Child Care element anyway. We have been told this week that our payments, which were £414 a month are being stopped altogether :eek::eek: It turns out that as a company director hubby declares his income in a certain way, we asked HMRC how to do it last year when he started earning decent money, it turns out they told us wrong. I called them this week to tell them the final earnings from my P45, and it reminded me that hubby needed to give an updated figure to them too. When he called them they said he had been mis informed before :mad::mad::mad: and that our payment were being stopped immediately.
We had the money when we shouldnt have, but I wish we'd known at the time. The one good thing is if we'd never had that money we would always have thought that we would need my salary, but, as it is, now I am getting to spend loads more time with my lovely children, especially the baby, which is just great

The second spanner is that we also need to remortgage and our application is in some weird pending state because hubby's credit check came back bad - due to a successful identity theft in his name :mad::mad:

Then this week I called Southern Electric to give up to date meter readings to find out where we are, turns out we owe £350 on the gas :eek::eek::eek: They want to increase our monthly payment from £40 to £113. I am currently waiting for the paper bill to come in to analyse it a bit more.
I suppose one thing I'd lke to learn is how to use less gas!!!! We have an electricity usage monitor and that has been an eye opener.
Our house is double glazed but its rubbish. Noisy and we are sure its drsughty.l We have an open plan room that we use as a playroom, it has 2 big wondos and patio doors in a sort of bay type thing and it always feels really cold in there at night. No blinds or curtains, not sure how much that would save and how soon the cost of getting some curtain rods and material would payfor itself in heating bills. I have sewing machine and can make curtains, but as its a bay with the middle secction being doors I cant quite work ot how to make it all hang ?? I did a Roman blind for DS' room but its not very good. Perhaps I should try again ???

Anyway so with the tax credits and the gas, so far we are nearly £500 worse off per month that before) and thats not even counting my loss of salary)

We dont lead an extravagant lifestyle. The children oly get toys on birthdays or Christmas, just the od magazine between. We get lots of handmedowns, esp for the girls, and everything else, inc school niform is Asda or Primark. Or occasionally Tesco LOL
We rarely go out and dont have man y holidays, those we do have are in the UK and usually to stay with my family in NI). I dont have manicures, etc, and buy hardly any clothes or fancy make up stuff. The only extravagances we have is eating out with the kids at the weekend, this is our one splurgey area. I also have gym membership, and so does hubby, but he needs his as he needs to swim for health reasons (he has ankylosing spondylitis and tried to get the swiming membership somehow NHS subsidised but its not allowed. And he cant do any impact type exercise it has to be swimming Its a municipal pool, nothing fancy).

We've had a good few days of feeling really stressed out I am trying to look at it as a challenge and (finally getting to the point) we have made lots of reductions already.

- Even if we stay on variable with current mortgage lender, we can increase term from 17 years back up to 25 years saving £250. Annoying though as we were trying to do the opposite and reduce the term each time we remortgage but need must.
- I was budgeting £350 for food and "entertainment" obviously this is being pared right down to £200 saving £150
The reason it was so high before was because the eating out with the kids fell int his budget. I am hopiong to keep the gym membership - they have a great creche which gives me 2 or 3 child free hors in the week - bliss - and I really dont want to give that up, so have compromised and now go in a late slot and then go straight to collect DD1 from preschool, and forgo the coffee and teacake in the cafe! Saving a ridiculous £4 a time (such a rip off)
- Hubby called Sky to cancel our (basic) subscription.
We came out of phonecall paying about £30 less per month for sky/phone/broadband whilst losing no channels or anything YAY for hubby!!!
- Reduced boiler and heating cover by £5
- Agreed I will not top up phone by more than £10 per month saving £15 ( I seem to text a lot and need to stop)
- DH will change to PAYG saving £15 per month)
- oooh yes and almost forgot we have been so good with leccy monitor our payments are down £24 a month
- think concil tax due to go up about 5% which for us is £11

Total saving per month £478 :T:T

So we are pretty much there. I feel really pleased and a lot more accepting of our current circumstances.
We know we could still shave a off a bit more here and there.

I know it seems like we saved a lot very easily, and I guess we did, and are very lucky to be in that position. We were in this exact position 3 years ago when I was on mat leave and bringing in nothing and the business was new and bringing in nothing. We got by then, and can do so again. I must say it was very nice to be able to afford lots of coffees at the gym, and I will be saddest to see that go, but now it will seem a like a real treat if I do have one

I'm hoping to read a bit of this thread over the coming days for more inspiration. Thanks to all and hope I haven't bored you too much. I just felt the need to offload all that

JillD_2

I suppose I should also say that to reduce the food bill each month I am reurning to a lot of OS ways that I seem to have abandoned over the last few years!

Today for the first time in years I made bread in the BM, used SP flour, sugar, salt, water, veg oil, fresh yeast (free in Asda). About 15p for the loaf. We get through 3-4 Asda own brand loaves a week at 78p a loaf that's a saving of 3.5 * 4 (wks) * 63p = £8.82 a month saved on bread alone!!!
We had been having stuff like prawns once a week, obv that will stop, and I have started hanging around the reduced sections (maybe I will find some prawns there .
We have a second fridge freezer that we turned off in the reducing electricity drive, but I am considering reusing it for batch cooking. The freezer I use is small-to-average.
Hubby has been buying his lunch but has agreed he will have a packed lunch like the kids.
And I have meal planned for the month already!

oh and one other thing, posted on the green board about starting to grow some of my own veg as we have a bit of garden going begging, so as soon as we have a free weekend (outlaws tomorrow and wedding to go to next weekend - arrghh more money) I will be out there with my spade. Should have done my research by then too