If things get tougher?

suki1964

LittleBill wrote: »

I lived in a rural area for five years ... I was however surprised how few people drove 4x4's in the country ... none of the farmers wives had them ... neither did many of the the folk in the nearby village ...

Hi all ....

We were occasionally cut off by flooding ... my house in a dip between two little rises in the road ... our 'dip' didn't get flooded but we got hemmed in by water on either side ... ...

All this said I managed with a normal diesel estate car ... as did many of my outlying neighbours ... The summission was that if the weather was so bad that you couldn't leave home in a normal car ... it was not normally wise to leave home anyway ... :rolleyes:

I think I only missed one day at work in five years because of the weather ... I am convinced that unless in exceptional circumstances ... a 4x4 is not necessary ... even in a rural area ...

I now live in the town ... and have switched to a 3 cylinder 'baby' Audi ... it is all i need now ... and endeavour to walk wherever possible and have non driving days ...

My suggestion for "Something we all can do" is to log the miles you do every week and aim to reduce them ... say by 20% ... or have 'no car' days ... Examine every journey to see how you can double up ... make one trip serve several functions ... car share for kids stuff ... football practice etc ... All these things do add up ... and another benefit ... I walk on average about 15 miles a week that I used to do in the car ...

It's doing wonders for me bum! ... :rotfl:

Im so far rural we dont even have mains water

And you are right, the farmers rarely use 4x4's - they use their flaming tractors running on red diesel and no bleedin road tax

And yes they even come out for a drink or a bite to eat at the pub in them )

I dont need to worry about traffic per se making me late for anywhere, i just need to add on extra time for slow moving farm tractors on the by-pass refusing to move onto the hard shoulder to let traffic pass


Rant over

katieowl_2

suki1964 wrote: »

Im so far rural we dont even have mains water

And you are right, the farmers rarely use 4x4's - they use their flaming tractors running on red diesel and no bleedin road tax

And yes they even come out for a drink or a bite to eat at the pub in them )

/quote]

Well THAT's IT - you are a officially a genius...We should all buy TRACTORS and become URBAN FARMERS! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: Pick the bones out of that Gordon!!!!

Regards

Kate

mags50_2

Snap Suki ... we're not on mains water either!

erm... we have road tax on our tractors and don't run them on red diesel and if traffic piles up behind, we pull off road and let them pass.... honestly!

Frugalista

We live in a cottage in the middle of nowhere. We have been here for 20 years and could only afford to have mains electric put in 4½ years ago.

Previously we had an old generator to run the house. We turned it on when we got in from work, and off again when we went to bed at night (it was very noisy). In the mornings, before work, we would switch it on for approx 1 hour. We had a large upright freezer (quite an old one) and it was always absolutely fine. The food stayed frozen and we are still here to tell the tale - so nobody got food poisoning!! Just don't open the door more than is absolutely necessary and you will be fine.

mardatha

Suki I hear you and I empathize !! The one road we have is narrow, twisty, and there's ALWAYS a tractor round every corner .. the nearest teeny village shop is 11 miles let alone a real shop with food in it , and we cant get by without a reliable car. But not a 4x4, I grudge giving the govt a penny more.:(

suki1964

mardatha wrote: »

Suki I hear you and I empathize !! The one road we have is narrow, twisty, and there's ALWAYS a tractor round every corner .. the nearest teeny village shop is 11 miles let alone a real shop with food in it , and we cant get by without a reliable car. But not a 4x4, I grudge giving the govt a penny more.:(

Thankfully I get 55mpg out of my wee 1 litre corsa as I do on average 20,000 miles a year. Not a comfortable ride on the country roads and not exactly built for motorways but I cant see me being able to justify anything bigger.

We are making more savings by having SORN DH's car. He works on the mainland so its only driven about 4 thousand miles a year - perhaps less. But still his car is being pushed into the 400quid a year VED. Don't know how the GVT can say the increase is based on emissions as surely my car doing its 20,000 miles is the biggest polluter of the 2 yet my VED is going to be decreased

Tell you, dont know whether to laugh or cry at it all

Btw, i was only half serious about the farmers and their tractors. True thy do use them more then 4x4's but I never really mind them, we would be in a right mess in the winter without them. They are the first to get out and clear the roads of fallen trees and electricity/phone poles

kal25

I have to say when sitting watching the news and hearing about road tax. I think it's ridiculous. The way I see it is if it carries on me & DH may well have to give up working as what will b the point? We won't have any money left for ourselves, If the petrol keeps on rising too as it'll cost a fortune for us to get to work. I would like to know where the goverment think all this extra income will come from? After all my wages won't be going up or are they? Perhaps they know something we don't.
No everything is going up & up -gas ,elec, petrol,tax,food. How r they expecting us to live?(apart from us ms people of course) but it would b nice to b able to have a little spare money but at this rate not likely.
Sorry rant over:o

poppyoscar_3

I'm an essential car user for work - I fill up every week approx and every week petrol has gone up by 1 or 2p since i can't remember when - but not the travel expenses. I now rarely use my car for private miles - luckily I can walk to the supermarket and I just don't go out anywhere else. I'm sure the pinch is the same if not worse for everyone, but what the government doesn't seem to be trying to address is that the economy will suffer badly unless people go out and spend money............am i being totally niaive? (can i even spell niaive?????) I just don't see where this is going to end. I'm being very ms and i can probably do a bit more even, but there is going to come a point where i can't. what then? i'm kinda starting to worry about all this.

PO xx

dubgirl

Hi, i have been following this thread since it started and like everyone else, I too am worried. In my work we have not had a pay rise at all and the boss has said we are not getting one, i have effectively had a pay cut as i too got essential car user allowance and they have stopped that for everyone. OH has recently got a job with a national company that sells building supplies, he is now really worried that he will lose his job, he tells me that some afternoons, he is sitting around with nothing to do, well they are not going to let that carry on. I feel that the net of increased prices etc is just going to keep tightening and after seeing on the news about the 2 largest mortgage lenders in the US about to go under, what is going to be the knock on effect in the UK?

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

To be honest I've given up on worrying I think we've had the signs of a recession coming for at least a year now and I'm resigned to it.
I suppose having lived through it all before when we had three young children and no money before things turned bad (let alone after)I guess I feel in a much better position financially than I did then.So I'm not going to let it get me down.
This board has helped so much to spur me on and it does make you feel you have some support and the tips are marvelous.
I'm already prepared for winter and my present task is brain-washing my husband into energy saving.He's one of those people who realy believes the kettle won't work unless it's filled to the brim,even though he only needs two cupfuls and his attitude to turning off lights is what's the point he's only going to have to turn them on again when he goes back in there.Even if it is next week.
Suki and mags I know this may be a stupid question,but if your'e not on mains water how do you get your supply?.I have this image of you carrying buckets from a well.