It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

The_Thrilla

ceridwen wrote: »

Reet.....i guess if desperation has struck for a few days...well maybe.

Even so - can you manage a few pennies for a bit of some dairy product of some description? I don't like seeing even a very temporary diet with no dairy products in (bar some well-up on nutrition vegans I know of on here).

If nothing else - could you maybe buy some dried milk and make it up to just glug down as a drink. Dried milk is palatable if well whisked together and then left to cool in a fridge for a few hours before drinking it.

Also - have you tried your hand at freeganism? ie seeing what supermarkets might be chucking out in their dumpsters...

If you can find some fresh milk going cheap because its just about to go out of date - then its possible to use milk that is just SLIGHTLY off-ish in pancakes, yorkshire puddings, toad in the hole (if you can find something to be the "toad" part of that), scones.

Thanks for your concern, Ceridwen; but don't worry. I am getting my vitamin B12, and my calcium. One of the things cooking on the upper shelves of the oven was a home-made pizza with water bison's cheese. I was eating that Garibaldi thing with a mug of tea, which contained fresh cow's milk. I have some banana-flavoured milk shake syrup, so I might have a milk shake tomorrow. I have a jar of bockwurst for toad in the hole.

Only trouble is that the stock in the pantry will be a bit depleted, so when the paycheque comes, I will have to go out and replenish it. Still it is good training for when the SHTF.


You may remember this from last Sunday:

_The_Thrilla wrote:

I would agree with you to an extent. But are some people really up to it today? Let me give you an example from only yesterday (Sunday) What is the most precious resource? Water. What is the resource you would not want to waste? Of course, water. A few years back, in front of a lane of six houses (three either side) a water pipe burst, and there was water all over the pavement, all over the road. It was impossible for a person who lived in any of those six houses to enter or leave that lane without paddling through the puddle. It was like that for over a week, and, living in the same street, I walked through the puddle, and said to myself: "Haven't those deadbeats from I]name of water company[/I done anything yet?" Then I said to myself: "Hey, I'll bet no one's reported it." As soon as I got home, I rang the water company, and I was right. Well, last Thursday, another leak sprang in the same position, different lane. I paddled through it yesterday, and again I wondered if anyone had reported it and said: "If not you, who else?" I got home, rang the water company, and waited, and waited, and waited...until I said: "Oh, well, **** the lot of 'em. I'll stockpile some water, and get some earplugs so I don't have to listen to the neighbours moaning at the standpipe." And that is reality. That is the result of decades of self-indulgence.

The update is that here we are seven days later, and I have underestimated the resourcefulness of humanity. The water is still squishing out. No sign of the water company. But two things have happened. In the lane, someone has put two - what looks like - sausage-shaped yellow draught excluders, only longer and thinner, probably to divert the flow away from their precious garden. Someone has also laid down several old pieces of contipla, so one can walk through it without getting one's flip-flops wet. The street is on a slight incline so the water just flows down it. However, one of the people who live in that lane has his car propped on axle stands upstream, and is working underneath it as the water trickles past just a few inches from his head.

maryb

Thames Water bill £27 per month for a family of four on a water meter (includes sewerage) and apparently that's absolutely standard for a family of four. In fact we didn't notice any real change in our bills when we switched to a meter. DDs are now teenagers and have discovered personal hygiene which you would expect to put costs up but they seem pretty constant - but it's just as well we have two bathrooms!! We have a power shower which I feel very guilty about but which I love too much not to use

mardatha

Do these water bills cover sewage as well ? Our CT says £140-odd for water and £160 -odd for sewage, per year. How does that compare to England then ?

pagangirl

Water bill - United Utilities Merseyside £14.50 per month on a water meter - 1 person in a 1 bedroom flat. (Including sewerage)

We had about 5 minutes rain all weekend, not been as hot as down south but hot enuff for me. Living on 2nd floor has its bonuses, coz I get a luvvly breeze when all windows wide open

Sorry for all people with lousy weather tho.

maryb

Separate bill from council tax. They assume the same volume of sewgae disposal as water use - which is a bit of a con because some water inevitably goes back into the water table by filtering through the ground without going through the drains. We don't have a paved drive so there isn't a lot of run off from rainfall either. However we don't use huge amounts of treated water on the garden so I don't feel too cheated.

Larumbelle

Mine with Severn Trent is £327 annually, from memory it's about a 50-50 split between water and sewerage. I know we'd be better off on a meter but LL won't hear of it and I don't want to force the issue as he is otherwise a decent bloke. But I still save water where possible as a matter of principle.

The Thrilla, if things are really tight it really is worth considering 'freeganism' (sounds so much more respectable than 'skiplifting' as we used to refer to it when we did it). Anyway, I don't think I've ever eaten so well as I did then, though that is perhaps because it was Waitrose's skips we were lifting from most of the time

mardatha

ok I see. In this house we have 2 baths a night every night, because the stove is always on and the water always hot. If I was to move down there, we would be in for a big shock eh !

annie123

mardatha wrote: »

Do these water bills cover sewage as well ? Our CT says £140-odd for water and £160 -odd for sewage, per year. How does that compare to England then ?

Does this help Mar,
I'm in London for anyone else who reads this.

DS's studio flat
Council Tax....£1050 per year
Water rates...£170 per year includes water in and out,

Our 3 bed maisonette
Council tax.......£1500 per year
Water rates......£300 per year water in and out

maryb

Silvercharming, your bill actually works out the same as mine. You might well save a bit on a meter but we didn't notice our bills come down. I think they do actually set the non meter rate fairly accurately for a family house and it's only if there are fewer people than average that there is real scope for saving. Having said that, I suspect a lot of people would, for example, still run the dishwasher every day whether there were two people or four generating washing up

mardatha

It seems much of a muchness - ours is around (forgot now LOL) £1150 and of that £300 is water & sewage. It has been frozen for 2-3 years here.