If things get tougher?

Sarahsaver

Thats it everything has gone up but the government have abolished the 10% tax band so those on the lowest incomes are even worse off.
Just have to go back to 'make do and mend' and not even throwing the tiniest scrap of food away. soup made with leftover baked potato skins is quite nice actually but I wonder if Gordon Brown would tolerate it! i think I may send him the recipe!

purpleivy

I have found that since joining in with the forum in January, as opposed to just occasional visits I'm doing really well. My biggest change has been getting back to OS cooking now I have my kitchen in place again. I'm also in the habit of scanning the fridge EVERY day to see what needs to be used, what needs to be frozen so it doesn't get wasted. Remember, we've already been taxed on the money that we spend on food, don't want to lose any more on that 'value' by throwing it away.

skylight

skylight wrote: »

If things get tougher???

Buy less meat too. Already buying Turkey as its cheaper than chicken and you can't really tell the difference. No Actually - am buying more as I don't see a price difference but I think that this is because I am saving elsewhere on food rather than meat being cheap.

I have already changed from BT to Talk Talk for my landline. Will be changing my broadband from AOL to Tiscali next month. Thats a £30 a month saving for those two. I did not move AOL until recently - everything is with Sky now as it worked out that extra TV included still made it cheaper than phone/BB elsewhere!

I suppose we could get rid of the people carrier - but there is 6 in our family and it is kind of a necessicity - but again, we only use it once or twice a week when we all go out together. We do have another smaller car - but thats just a run-about - the idea is to save petrol on the bigger one. After 4 months of keeping petrol records I am not convinced keeping the smaller one is beneficial either (in terms of tax and insurance compared to the extra cost of petrtol!) Its gone - but not by choice. It died. And I REALLY notice the cost difference, especially in petrol

I could start a vegetable plot, but am not sure if the megre amount of space I could allocate to it would be enough. Pipe Dream. Didn't happen!

Am also on a crusade to turn the lights off! My kids think the heating is free and the electric is free too! My bill was £140 for 6 weeks over xmas new year - not happy! I have reduced the amount that the heating temp is set at, as well as timed it - its been like this for months. If the gas/elec goes up 22% I will have to reduce the usage by 22% to stay even and I dont have a clue where thats coming from! But its no Got this going. But I still follow people and turn stuff off!

I have curtains at the front door, but my Nan is giving me a pair of thicker ones, so hopefully that will help. Got thicker curtains. Still a fight to get people to draw them back over when the come in the door!


I did the same as Spendless - the cordless phone broke, so replaced it with the cheapest one I could find in Argos (with Nectar points!). Now its corded, the eldest two are not always ringing their friends! Eldest SD moved out, so this is now not actually a problem! Plus get free calls with Sky anyway.

And will be calling my council about the cavity walling insulation too! Great idea (as its a council house, I dont think we will get help/grant elsewhere) Cavity Wall done! It has meant that although I have not saved money on last years utility bills, I have saved energy and avoided a massive bill increase. Also changed suppliers

As I posted Feb 2006 originally, thought I would make some notes on what I have done to compensate.

What does surprise me is that with a good budget as I have put in place for the last few years, I seem to have more money than I ever used to when I was spending willy-nilly! The only problem with a tight budget is that there is nowhere left to make savings now!

Triggles

I believe with that freesat from sky, that if you already have the box and the dish, you only have to buy a viewing card (£20?) and then you can go right through the box for your freeview and utilise the box. Worth a look, anyway.

findingmyownway

MATH wrote: »

Only drive my car 8 miles a week. Walk everywhere else.

[\quote]


If this is true wouldnt you be better getting rid of the car? An 8 mile taxi ride per week wouldnt cost anywhere near as much as running a car!

Triggles

We have a car which currently is used pretty much daily for work. But once we move at the end of May, it won't be used much. I know it costs money for maintenance and such, but I still plan on keeping it. With small children, DH sometimes working shifts, and father-in-law that has been having health problems, I feel better knowing that we have ready transportation available. So I prefer to cut back elsewhere and keep the car, just in case. We went without a car once before, and while the money saved was nice, it was occasionally a real pain trying to line up transportation at the last minute, especially at late hours or weekends.

sammy_kaye18

Wow - only just found this thread

our shopping budget i dont think we can get much lower but the prices keep rising and so im worried that soon i will be having to try and find extra money for this too which will be hard pushed to do. We dont eat alot of meat and do shop around but we miht have to limit this to one meat day a week and then stretchign ti beyond belief the rest of the time.

Our little son is in nursery now (2.5 hours a day) but will be going full time in September which means school uniform, lunch box stuff, school shoes and the liek to find money for which again will be pretty hard to do so im hoping to find some bargains out there in the run up to school.

Gas and Electric - bloody swalec - nearly gave me a heartattack the other day - had both bills through - quarterly - the electric was £38.30 (thought this was good considerign we are in a 2 bed flat, with a fish tank and turtle tank going, comp is nearly always onadn tv/ntl box going) so was happy with £38.30. The gas bill £307.91!!!! now im super strict about the gas - i hate using it (cooking is fair enough) but i dont cook that mucha dn our termostat is set to 18 if nto lower, we use the 'saving elcetric and gas' thread alot so rarely use it other than for water heating plus we got caavity wall insulation too now which helps. Rang them with an actual meter reading - they'd lost a payment of £75 and then had still over charged us by £72! our actual bill is only £147 - which to me is still pretty high but more realistic. So i will definately be rereading the old thread.

Veggie tubs - have the seeds - jsut need me compost and most the seeds i have need planting out in may so thats when i will do it - plus hopefully the weather will be nicer by then too and not torrential rain!

Sarahsaver

Our little son is in nursery now (2.5 hours a day) but will be going full time in September which means school uniform, lunch box stuff, school shoes and the liek to find money for which again will be pretty hard to do so im hoping to find some bargains out there in the run up to school

When my ds went to nursery, the nearest one was the montessori. Tax credits paid most of the fees. I got his boots from a charity shop, shirts from Poundstretcher and trousers can't remember but were v cheap and I only got 3 pairs. He had to have a Montessori jumper which was about £15 so I only bought one.
Freecycle is good for getting school uniforms.

Hardup_Hester

I've just looked at this thread again as I saw it had been bumped up nearer the front. My basic pay is £833 a month, I increased it by becoming a first aider, that took me up to £863, then I got a payrise & it went up to £899. It will go down to about £857 with the alterations in tax, so I've taken on a lunch duties which should take it back up to £897. Lets hope it doesn't take me long to find another lodger as after all the standing orders go out I'm left with less than £100 for food petrol clothing etc.

sans_2

[quote=sammy_kaye18;9947011
Our little son is in nursery now (2.5 hours a day) but will be going full time in September which means school uniform, lunch box stuff, school shoes and the liek to find money for which again will be pretty hard to do so im hoping to find some bargains out there in the run up to school.[/quote]

Our son is in nursery too. They don't have to wear a school uniform at DS nursery so i only got him on school sweatshirt (with the nursery name) so he can wear that occasionally or if there is a class photo to be taken. He just wears normal clothes the rest of the time (nothing fancy after all he is only 3!). I got him black plimsoles from Asda for something like £2.50 (I couldn't believe how cheap they were!). I'm sure Tescos will be similar for things like shoes.