It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

katholicos

maccanut wrote: »

Hi smileyt i still don,t know how to put your comment on with reply will need to ask ds how to. No i couldn't buy his blazer for school as it has to be a certain one from a certain company along with school sweatshirt wont tell you the price, and he has to have badged t-shirt at 12pound a pop i don,t spent that on ourselfs, we are really struggeling and mil comes in and said shes going to buy him a pair of trousers, im suppossed to look pleased at that one not. I had to give up work to look after my lovely dh and went to the dss and they told me all i would get is 97p a day because dh has a very very very small pension and to live on that.
sorry ranting things are getting me down at the moo
blessings
abigail

If you absolutely must by a certain blazer and can;t go for a lower priced one, then get one that is at least 2 sizes too big. My daughter is about 5ft 8 inches and she was this height two years ago when she left school...but she only had 1 blazer the whole time she was at high school and she must have grown a good 6 inches in height. When she left school the sleeves were a bit short on her but it was never that noticeable.

ginnyknit

calleyw wrote: »

Yeah not good down here either.

The problem is that people think farmers will be making a killing but they won't as they will need the hay and straw for their own animals (if they have any).

This will then have a knock on effect to the price of food. As meat will go up again as the grain prices will have shot up. Might help the arble farmer but not the ones with animals as the feed prices will shot up.

Yours

Calley

I presume the farmers will also be preparing in case we have a repeat of last winters big freeze, it must have been hell for them especially the hill farmers. Also the crops were late this year after the snow so they must be still struggling, as I saw on Country file last night a lot of farmers are on very low incomes. As we all know its the supermarkets who make the big bucks - so shopping in small local shops is better for all - if you have them. Unbeleivably where I am there are very few small shops they have all been pushed out of Manchester by the big 'un's so I have to travel a bit tofind an old fshioned shopping area. Im 5 minutes from Manchester city centre and as well as a Starbucks on every corner there is a supermarket!

Our local council sold off most of the council houses last year to a private company yet they still have the same offices?? All the workmen are on part time contracts - cheaper - and are under pressure to get the jobs done, not very happy men but at least they have a job is their view.

mardatha

Think the next preps need to be for strike action. Who do you all think most likely to come out on strike - and how might it affect us?

sb44

mardatha wrote: »

I didnt see the TV series, it says it was in the late 70s, when by oure chance a producer was out hill walking in the dales and met her. But this book is great, it tells of her relations, her childhood, people who lived nearby, how they farmed, etc etc. Its got a lot of old photos in as well. I havent read it yet, just the blurb on the cover. I bet she would cope with less money than all of us ! She is still living .

I remember watching this in the 70's, I feel old now.

I can't remember much about it as I was a young teenager but I do remember she seemed like a lovely modest sweet old lady.

smileyt_2

maccanut wrote: »

Hi smileyt i still don,t know how to put your comment on with reply will need to ask ds how to. No i couldn't buy his blazer for school as it has to be a certain one from a certain company along with school sweatshirt wont tell you the price, and he has to have badged t-shirt at 12pound a pop i don,t spent that on ourselfs, we are really struggeling and mil comes in and said shes going to buy him a pair of trousers, im suppossed to look pleased at that one not. I had to give up work to look after my lovely dh and went to the dss and they told me all i would get is 97p a day because dh has a very very very small pension and to live on that.
sorry ranting things are getting me down at the moo
blessings
abigail

Hi Maccanut

You need to get yourself down to your local Citizens Advice Bureau, or your local welfare advice service (some Councils have them) - you can't take what the DSS (DWP now I believe) say as gospel as a lot of them aren't trained in benefits. Or try this website as a starting point http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx but still try and get some advice from an advice agency. Hope that helps.

Tregemred

Spendless wrote: »

Also on Fri night we found my dd's bike at the park across the road, damaged beyone repair. How it got there I'm not sure, whether she played with it at the park when I was at work and DH working from home and forgot and left it, whether she left it on our drive and it was taken from there I have no idea - all I know is it's fit for scrap and that's it. My sis has rang me and offerred me neice's for £40 bt I can get brand new fr £50-£55. Not sure what to do.:cool:

Hi SL,

While I sympathise with the loss of the bike (if everyone was honest/decent, this wouldn't happen...:mad:), I'd just like to add my thoughts to the mix.

In our family of four, we have had four brand new bikes in our lives. The rest have been bought second hand, hand-me-downs, from freecycle or fished out of skips.

Personally, my first port of call for a bike would be freecycle or skips. My daughter got a beautiful ladies raleigh on freecycle and we got three brilliant bikes out of skips. Other places to try would be the local "recycling centre" (formerly known as the tip ) but you probably need to clear any "aquisitions" with the management.

Good luck,

TGR

calleyw

ginnyknit wrote: »

as I saw on Country file last night a lot of farmers are on very low incomes. As we all know its the supermarkets who make the big bucks - so shopping in small local shops is better for all - if you have them.

Another worrying thing is that the average age of a farmer is 60.

According to figures from 2008 60% of farmers are heading towards retirement and 3% are younger than 35.

According to here 3/4 of all dairy farmers will earn approx £20K in
2009-2010 and they could be working up to 80 hours a week :eek:

I know farmers are seen as well off, but they asset rich as they have the land. But it has to worked either by themselves or by rented out to be worked by someome else or sell it to make anything from it. And cost of the machinery even second hand would make you go :eek:and next you burst a tyre on a car think about on a tractor or trailer no cheap budget tyres for £45 try a £200-£300 EACH.

At time when people are worried about food miles is it not time to start to support the english farmers as best we can. As the more than go to the wall the more reliant we will be on imports. Foods that has travelled for days to get to us. What about fair trade for own farmers?

The biggest problem is that people have had cheap food for so long I don't think they really understand the value of it.

According to here data from 2009 it cost 61p to produce 4 pints of milk and the farmer is paid 58p for pints :eek: The processor is paid £1.07 and then the supermarket charge £1.45. The figures will have changed slightly but not much as four pints are milk is now £1.53 in most supermarkets.

It is hardly rocket science to realise that you can't keep that up. Farmers are going to the wall everyday.

Yours

Calley
(can you tell I am farmers daughter and now know why I never married one:rotfl:)

downshifter

calleyw wrote: »

Another worrying thing is that the average age of a farmer is 60.

According to figures from 2008 60% of farmers are heading towards retirement and 3% are younger than 35.

According to here 3/4 of all dairy farmers will earn approx £20K in
2009-2010 and they could be working up to 80 hours a week :eek:

Around here many of the farmers have diversified just to make a living, and therefore work amazingly hard. My nearest neighbour has a couple of other jobs, as does his wife, and they come home, often as late as 9, and then start seeing to the sheep. Others do holiday cottages, bits of logging, bits of building, gardening - whatever they can

While planning rules prevent the building of small cottages etc for young farmworkers or daughters and sons of current farmers, though encouraging the conversion of barns etc for holiday cottages and not for local residents, young people will always go to the towns for work. Petrol/diesel being the price it is, they can't afford to live in town and commute out to the country to work.

In my case, I now look at every job to see whether I can afford to get to it. I work 2 sessions (about to become 1) in town and earn around £2 for the 2 hr session. Which is pay minus petrol to get there. This is just about worth it, but any lower hourly rate just isn't viable, so then I will have to apply for benefits. It's completely bizarre. I think fuel costs are so fundamental to everything, such as food prices etc, that I don't understand why there hasn't been more pressure to do something about it.

Rant over, working from home today all day, yay! Can't think of the last time I was here for a complete day - but am wearing cords and big woolly jumper. Brr, it was warmer at 6 I'm sure.

DS

ceridwen

unixgirluk wrote: »

A friend who works in a charity shop said they are getting busier. People trying to get bargains. Unfortunately I've noticed some of the bigger charities are hiking their prices in their shops (I think they think some people are stupid). A well known charity shop chain was charging £15 for a Matalan dress near me, its price new was £20!

Don't I know it:cool: Was going to buy a book anyway that cost £20 and found one in new condition in an Oxfam Bookshop for £15 - so thought it was rather expensive, but bought it. I then found it was on sale in bookshops new for - wait for it - £15!!

Grrrrr:mad:

mardatha

is it not time to start to support the english farmers as best we can.
********************
Ooooooh ! wot about Scottish farmers then ?? poor wee souls, are they not worth supporting ? LOL !
DS, I totally agree with you. We cannot understand why this whole country is not in an uproar at the cost of fuel. Maybe it's because most people live in towns & dont have too far to travel ?... when we both worked at different jobs, we did a 100 miles a day. (He worked days, I worked nights) We used to do 30,000 mls a year. When we both got made redundant we had to find work together to make it worthwhile.
This is one of the many horrible unfairnesses that is going to catch people out in the new benefit crackdown. If there is a job going in a town 30 miles away - which is common in rural areas - they are going to make you take that job, even if busfares/petrol will take a huge chunk of your wage. Then HB/CT etc will work on the actual wage you get - not taking into account that it might cost you a LOT to actually get to work. And it's ok smartasses saying "get on yer bike"... it is not possible to cycle to work in the kind of winters we have. Not physically possible.
My OH goes on & on & ON about petrol and I get fedup listening to him. But I wish people would get together and do something about it !