It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

the_cat

JillD

What a great and motivating post. I am just catching up on a few threads after a busy weekend so have skimmed through and a thought occured to me.
As your OH works such long hours and you do none, is there any way you could be employed by him to carry out some of those tasks from home, even if this reduced his income in order to pay you yours? Being very ignorant of the tax credit system I have no idea if this would help but you might then be up to the magic 16 hours per week and be in a better overall positition.

Just a thought....
Cat

tiff

kittie wrote: »

I saw some govt info in the paper yesterday about how to cope with excessive heat as in a hot summer. Do they know something that we don`t? Probably, because there is always flood info then weeks later there are floods. They said to use fans :rotfl: :rotfl:

Might we be in this prepardness state?
Green - Awareness – summer preparedness and long term planning

I have 4 good solar showers ready for washing up and hand washing. lol I can even hitch them to the bird feeder if we get any more big bills

Are the solar showers the ones you find in camping shops?

kidcat

What I find infuriating is that the big supermarkets are profiteering through all this. I went to buy soem snacks for DD14 and her friends for Saturday night movie night, usually I buy MrA SP tortilla chips at 18p per bag. They were always in a 100g bag that was white, but Friday they had changed to a clear bag which now has 200g in, new price 88p:eek::eek::eek::eek:. I realise that they have doubled bag size but they have quadrupled the price.
Today I noticed they have "rolled back" to 50p, which is still a considerable increase. :mad::mad::mad:

Primrose

I find it almost impossible to keep track of prices unless you write everything down in a notebook. It seems that the supermarkets have their own wierd and wonderful ways of moving prices up and down. I don't know whether this is dictated by Head Office or responding to local competition but I think they've got everybody so confused now that we no longer know whether we're getting a bargain or not. Perhaps that's the intention - to confuse the customer so much that they end up buying anyway just to get out of the store as quickly as possible!

wigglebeena

Kidcat, home-made sweetcorn?

[Deleted User]

yes tiff. I sent for them mail order and paid a very good price. I just lay them down on my garden table and cut the outlet tube smaller. I have only used one to date as I got them back end of last summer but was very very pleased with the result. Lol, I am the one with a solar shower bag and 2 camping kettles on the patio on a hot sunny day and my patio is exposed to anyone walking past (not that many really, just neighbours)

We had to go to shrewsbury yesterday as my dh had a job to do in the new theatre there. Shrewsbury is a nice looking place and I had the chance to have a good look around their newly built theatre. I nearly fell off my seat when I heard it cost 27 million pounds to build. You have to be pretty affluent to use this on a regular basis and tbh the people I saw popping in there all sounded rather plummy. The lower income people in that area must be pretty hopping mad at the cost of the building for a start. 27 million would have built a great many decent homes

The journey back came down the A49 and was all in the dark and gosh it was eerie. No way now would I ever want to live in such isolated places. Lovely in the light but creepy in the dark. I like the fact that I can walk 10 minutes for a bus, 20 mins for a train and 20 mins to local shops. Cycle 4 miles to a big supermarket and 6 miles to my dentist in a market town. Plus I have silence here except for birds and I have non-intrusive neighbours, including one new one, who kindly turned his music down or off for us

Why oh why did we in the uk do away with the ideal of local communities with shops, work, gardens and schools?

I did my calcs regarding energy costs this morning as I do not want any nasty surprises. I am with BG for electric and managed to find the tariff by googling. Ebico still for me for gas. I rand BG to put my dd up a little bit and spoke to a lovely lady so all in all a good start to this damp day

I have been thinking about costs and budgets for this and that. Water is as expensive as electricity so it is back to filling kettles from the first warm but not hot, run off from the hot tap. Its ok as we have a combi with a small tank

One of the biggest shocks is BT plus broadband. It is not as expensive as council tax but still a necessity and we all think of gas and electric first. The first two are non variable traps.

The variables for us are gas, electric, car use, food and I am not counting entertainment as we are both cheap to run as we like simple pleasures

Car use went down last month as we only used £32 worth of diesel in a whole month and we are cycling where we can

daska

kittie wrote: »

One of the biggest shocks is BT plus broadband. It is as expensive as council tax and yet we ll think of gas and electric first. The first two are non variable traps.

I have BT line, free landline calls and unlimited Broadband for £41/month. Our council is supposed to be cheap at £100/month!

[Deleted User]

I was typing faster than I could think. Bt plus broadband is 1/5 the cost of CT but is still a fixed and necessary outgoing. I don`t want to live in the dark ages

mardatha

Well Kittie, you wouldnt like to live here ! three streetlights in the village and the next village is over 12 miles down the road ! but lovely stars...
I agree re internet though. It makes life bearable for people who are cut off in one way or another. Scotlands council tax is frozen for the second year running, and we dont pay for water in the same way as you.
B on the other hand its a minimum 24 miles round trip to the nearest shop either up the road or down it, so we need the car & all the costs that go with it.

daska

daska wrote: »

For those of us sowing seeds at the mo 4 and 6 pint milk containers are great.

Cut the bottom off and punch a few holes for draining to make a tray, fill it full of half loo rolls, block the bottoms of the loo rolls with used tea bags before using the top half of the bottle as a funnel to top the loo rolls up with compost.

Stick the top back on to use as a propagator and then as a cloche when your seedlings move outside.

If you cut the middle of the bottle to make some rings you can use these to help protect your plants from being nibbled and poo'd on.

There are probably a hundred more uses for them at harvest time but I haven't got that far.

Found another few:

For those with limited hand strength (like me) a 2 or 4 pt bottle makes a good watering can that's easier to hold than most - use a hot skewer to make a rose out of the cap and put a few air holes near the top of the bottle (I put 3 down the handle). I can water my plants in far more easily now!:j

Cut off the top of a bottle/bottles, including the handle, and put the lid back on, turn upside down and strap on with a belt - handy tool, compost, seed carriers and much lighter than most utility belts.

I'm going to have to start drinking more milk!