It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

spike7451

mardatha wrote: »

Goodness, it's shocking how hard people like us are having to scrape to get by.. and on top of this is the speech this morning by Cameron promising its going to get worse ! I am a very determined person and to me, this is a fight between me and TPTB and I will NOT be beaten LOL! If my mum and granny coped then I will, we have things much easier than they did.
But I have a very negative grumpy OH who really drags me down at times - he doesn't have the same outlook at all. "Why should we have to scrimp & save...nobody else does all this stuff...it's embarrassing having a trolley full of Basics, nobody else does" etc etc. So it's so good to feel that in this forum we're all in it together , thank you all for being here

Tell him to wind his neck in!:p ALL of the stuff in my shopping trolley today bar Daisy's food,my Whiskey & Oxo cuber was either Tesco basics or value brands for the Chilli,Pasta & Curry sauces.
I buy cola from the local Spar for 29p a bottle,why? because I prefer it.
Take something like Spaghetti,Whos' to say apart from the food snobs that basics spaghetti at 39p is'nt as good as the 69p one? Taste's the bleepin same to my taste buds!
Value beans,I crumble half an Oxo cube ito them if I think they lack taste.
I buy what I can afford for me.not the person next in the queue.If they look down their nose at me,it's them that need an attitude adjustment,not me!
However the is one area I will not compromise on,and that's Daisy Cats food!!

mardatha

Quite right. Cats are much more important than people.
Well.
than men !:rotfl:

Primrose

There seem to be sneaky things happening with the ingredients of some products. My OH bought a squeezy bottle of Hellmans mayonnaise the other day. Previously it has always been quite thick but this was as liquid and runny as a normal salad cream. Don't know whether they're just putting more liquid (i.e. cheap oil) in it to reduce the cost of ingredients but it was distinctly unpleasant. I've written to complain anyway but I do dislike the way these changes are made, with manufacturers thinking we won't notice.

sammy_kaye18

Mardatha

Dont panic about the RV and his grumpy ways - my boyfriend is exactly the same and turned his nose up today when I offered him a pasta pot reduced to 20p that had yesterdays date on for his lunch - part of me is thinking if he is going to be so date snobby that i might put it into a plastic tub next time so he cant see the use by date! does my bloody head in as he always whinges that the fridge / freezer is empty or that im buying reduced items that feels he has to eat on the day or they go off. had my argument all planned for today too - he short moneyed me by £100 for the rent this month so as a result his mobile bill hasn't been paid, nor the dentist and I have had to make up the extra £50 for rent - that's why you had a reduced pasta pot!

Also had two dented tins of value sweetcorn - they were meant to be 33p each and they were reduced down to 10p cos they were dented - oh well - i wasn't about to complain and it'll get used in shepherds pie etc!

I am doing a food shop tomorrow but I want a majority of our bills paid first so ive got a list of bills and what i pay on the computer - debt and household basics come first so I'm leaving the gas (we are going onto a pre paid meter next week because we hit hard times and i couldnt make the £100 a month payment and now owe them £554!:eek:), the electric (its £50 a month and the bill was only £131) and the NTL until my maternity allowance comes through or my last wages are paid next week. so i worked out with benefits tomorrow I should get basics and debts paid and have £45 for shopping to stock cupboards etc for a fortnight.

My mother in law has been being sly too - she has been making up powdered milk when her milk gets 3/4 empty then adding it to the original milk in the bottle and no one has realised - the only reason i did was because she forgot to shake the bottle before making a cup of tea and i asked her if her milk was going off and she said only i knew her secret - figure its a good idea the amount of milk we go through - and you cant tell when its on cereal either! so will be using her idea form now on to save some pennies!

I cant imagine being able to do much if things get any harder - life is already hard enough for us at the minute! plus with bump on the way very shortly its set to get harder!

greengoblin

mardatha wrote: »

Goodness, it's shocking how hard people like us are having to scrape to get by.. and on top of this is the speech this morning by Cameron promising its going to get worse ! I am a very determined person and to me, this is a fight between me and TPTB and I will NOT be beaten LOL! If my mum and granny coped then I will, we have things much easier than they did.
But I have a very negative grumpy OH who really drags me down at times - he doesn't have the same outlook at all. "Why should we have to scrimp & save...nobody else does all this stuff...it's embarrassing having a trolley full of Basics, nobody else does" etc etc. So it's so good to feel that in this forum we're all in it together , thank you all for being here

The reason more people don't have basics is because they do all their shopping on credit. At the end of the month it just gets added to the big debt. I'd rather be well fed and only just in the black, then luxuriously fed and always in the red.

Everyone on here does a stirling job motivating each other and teaching young people like me a trick or to ! :T

sb44

mardatha wrote: »

Goodness, it's shocking how hard people like us are having to scrape to get by.. and on top of this is the speech this morning by Cameron promising its going to get worse ! I am a very determined person and to me, this is a fight between me and TPTB and I will NOT be beaten LOL! If my mum and granny coped then I will, we have things much easier than they did.
But I have a very negative grumpy OH who really drags me down at times - he doesn't have the same outlook at all. "Why should we have to scrimp & save...nobody else does all this stuff...it's embarrassing having a trolley full of Basics, nobody else does" etc etc. So it's so good to feel that in this forum we're all in it together , thank you all for being here

Tell him to do the weeks shopping out of his pocket and see how much it costs him.

That will def make him grumpy.

sammy_kaye18

sb44 wrote: »

Tell him to do the weeks shopping out of his pocket and see how much it costs him.

That will def make him grumpy.

Ha Ha I agree with that - could be an interesting experiment if your brave enough

I could never let Owen loose to do the food shopping - he'd just bring home pizza and junk etc - I cant stand food shopping with him - love him to bits but I can manage a decent fortnightly food shop on about £45 with £20 for top ups of reduced fruit/veg/milk whereas if i take him and Ben with me it comes to about £60 - £70 easily and still not got half of what i need!!

jamanda

I'm glad other people have noticed food basics rocketing in price. I thought it was just me. I even asked my mum and she said she hadn't noticed any particular change. It seems to me that the prices of basics like butter, cheese (unless it is a loss leader) flour, tea, coffee, even eggs have gone up out of all proportion to luxury items (or what I class as luxury - i.e. want them not need them). It sometimes seems the more you try to economise the more they try to get you.

They're not getting me. Garden "dug for victory" and we're eating out of that as much as possible, and my shopping habits have gone very strange. We have food mountains of what has been on offer and close to running out of the stuff where I am waiting for an offer to pop up.

AND I've also ordered Austerity Britain from the library (the ladies there are in great fear of redundancy too). Eat your hearts out TPTB. If they read this thread they'll emigrate.

frosty

Primrose wrote: »

There seem to be sneaky things happening with the ingredients of some products. My OH bought a squeezy bottle of Hellmans mayonnaise the other day. Previously it has always been quite thick but this was as liquid and runny as a normal salad cream. Don't know whether they're just putting more liquid (i.e. cheap oil) in it to reduce the cost of ingredients but it was distinctly unpleasant. I've written to complain anyway but I do dislike the way these changes are made, with manufacturers thinking we won't notice.

I noticed with Dolmio sauce,it used to be very thick and you could add a bit of water to make sure you got all the contents out of the jar,now when you tip it into a pan the jar is clean.A lot of products are getting smaller or bulked out.All very crafty price rises.

charlies-aunt

Hhhmmm... prices rising all round over here too and our local Sainsburys are gradually phasing out their Value range...probably because they have just expanded the clothes section to twice its previous size and devoted a whole aisle to gardening products!! Grrrhhh!

I'm in the last few months of my fixed term contact - just hoping and praying that I get kept on a bit longer and trying to stash non-perishables away to tide us over if the worst should happen