It's STILL tough and not getting better - so how are we coping?

JulieGeorgiana

sammy_kaye18 wrote: »

That was really hard for me to do and I paid him back within a week much to his annoyance but I cant stand owing money or having to ask for it whereas my sister will openly ask for handouts.

I have the same situation! My mum used to lend me money the few times I asked just because she knew I ALWAYS paid it back... and fast!

With regards to your son and pocket money... I am the same... only worse!!

He get's £2 a week IF his room is perfect... I deduct 20p for each thing that's wrong.

He can earn 20 - 50p for helping with chores!

I have a MAX of £10 a month... so if he does really well in a month and he hits his limit... we trade chores for TV time (he only get's TV before we wake)

If there is a school trip... he pays half....!

If there is something he wants to do... like a train ride at the country park... he pays his own way... because I have to pay for myself to go!

At 8 he is starting to understand... we don't have money... but we are happy!

I never 'lend' him money he doesn't have! If we are out I will 'lend' it to him until we get home... but then sometimes I make him wait until the next outing!!!

He also has a bank account... he made a deal with the tooth fairy... he gets 50p a tooth for sweets and toys... or £2 a tooth if he banks it!! He's at £16... when it hits £40 he can buy himself one really big toy!!!

I have a savers account for him... which is over £2k now...!

I can get to the money... only if my mum agrees (because she has the bank book) so it's only for him and his future!

We dipped into it once for a good mattress for his bed... which is for his future wellbeing :rotfl:

Primrose

sammy-kaye. You are an excellent household manager and have coped so well in the face of the financial difficulties you have faced. All of us on here understand you well justified rants about your sister's incompetent financial budgeting. You can justifiably feel proud of your independence.

EstherH

charlies-aunt wrote: »

We are in our fifties and when we got together (1981) we had nothing...and we still have most of it left!! :rotfl:

We managed to scrimp & scrap a deposit together and moved in as newly weds with a 2nd hand coffee table, a couple of 2nd hand 'interestingly patterned' (vile) curtains & a 2nd hand three piece vinyl suite - got a bed as a wedding present . . . . nothing else - gradually acquired 2nd hand fridge, TV, washer, carpets, chaits & table and replaced some of the 2nd hand stuff.

Hard up but happy - much happier than when our careers took off and we were earning & spending big money but never saw each other . . .the wheel has come full circle and we are hard up but happy again. . . . . I am grateful for what we have especially for the things that money can't buy.

Two 'thank-you-for-your-application-but' rejection letters in the post this morning ehh! they don't know what they're missing! :rotfl:

Us too. Most of our furniture is/was second hand. We had a three piece suite that was my mum and dads and my gran kept it in her front parlour for a year for us. We had the curtains that the previous owners had left which were awful. Same with carpet in living/dining room and back bedroom. Bought a very cheap one for our bedroom and had to wait for one for the stairs, hallway and landing. Had second hand cooker, fridge freezer no microwave or tumble drier. Got a washing machine as a wedding present from parents.

Even now our suite, two settees and an unmatching chair, dining table and chairs and probably other things are second hand. We are very blessed to have them.

SAMMYKAYE - you deserve your rant!

Feeling pleased with myself today as I have cleared out some space in a cupboard and have put in some of my stash with a list of what is there and useby dates. Trying to get organized little by little.

Hippeechiq

mardatha wrote: »

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1310942/Shoppers-facing-10-rise-food-bills-wheat-meat-costs-soar.html
****************
Next step, the workhouse. Just you watch. :mad:

Oh jeez I know it's going to get worse, but it puts me on a downer every time I see it in black and white. I'm so fed up with scrimping and scraping already.

It's a shame the country can't down-size on the ridiculous amount of MPs we have, the majority of whom seem to sit on their @rses in the houses of commons, arms folded, nodding and muttering "here-here" and "the right honourable gentleman" this, and "the right honourable gentleman" that. A nice little earner too for 650 MPs at £65,738 a pop (figures quoted from April 2010)

This is a quote from a BBC website dated March 2009 so the figures will be higher than this now

http://http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7970533.stm
MPs are paid an annual salary of £63,291 and receive allowances for the costs of running an office.
MPs' expenses at Westminster have been published annually under nine main headings - including a second homes allowance, travel costs, staff pay and stationery.
In 2007 - the last year for which figures are available - claims ranged from the lowest of £44,551 to the highest of £185,421.
On average, each MP claimed £135,600.
MPs who do not represent inner London constituencies are entitled to claim up to about £24,000 a year towards the cost of a second home, or rented property - usually claimed for a property near Westminster.
It allows claims for items like televisions, furniture, new kitchens and includes a £25-a-day "subsistence allowance", for food, coffees and other items on days of parliamentary business.
Receipts are not required on items worth less than £25.
MPs can also claim for subscription television services but they have to be used wholly, exclusively and necessarily to perform their duties.
Travel costs
MPs are given up to £90,505 a year to employ staff and there is no rule against employing family members although they are named and put on a register.
Travel expenses are broken down into different headings, such as car, rail and European travel, when the claims are published and are not limited.
MPs can claim business-class air fares and first-class rail travel for parliamentary business within the UK and up to three visits a year to European institutions, as well as up to 15 return journeys a year for spouses or children.
Other expenses claimed by MPs include a £2,812 London supplement for MPs representing inner London seats, a stationery allowance, an IT allowance of up to £3,000 and a £10,000-a-year communications allowance.
MPs who lose their seat or stand down at a general election are also entitled to a "resettlement allowance" worth between 50% and 100% of their annual salary.

They're full off puff and bluster and stuff and nonsense. And they all make false promises. Get shot of the majority of them - now that really would save the country some money!!

penelopedee_2

ANOTHER RANT (SORRY)

I have just been to Mr T's (on a Saturday lunchtime I must be mad!).

It was a real eye opener today for people buying a complete load of processed rubbish and having absolutely trollies full of it. I did a whole week's shopping plus squash and cat food - this week for 2 adults and 2 teenagers - and it just about filled the small trolley. Normal stuff - veg, fruit, milk, meat, pasta, bread, few tins of beans and lunch box bits.

Perhaps I've been wandering around with my rose tinted specs on again but living in the small village I do, where unemployment is really high (especially for males) I really thought people were getting the hang of it. You could just see piles of the stuff churning through the tills and probably just ended up in landfill somewhere next weekend.

It was expensive in there today just buying basics, they've already started adding a few more sneaky pennies onto stuff. Especially carb type foods. Some of those trollies must have had about £200 in them and hardly anything to make main meals out of.

mardatha

My OH says that about 1500 times a day HC !! - very true

ginnyknit

I went to Mr T's last night and it was like a feeding frenzy - Penelopedee you are so right their trolleys are full of junk and beer.When will they realise they need to plan and make things themselves? Who would think its sensible to buy ready chopped carrots and frozen mash??? the mind boggles. When the kids finished moving furniture all day they came back to potato hash stretched with lentils and full of veg. It was just what they needed. There were lots of empty spots in the supermarket though - no value toothpaste etc and I had to crawl on the floor to get a bag of Sr flour from the back of the shelf- I dont think its because people are sensibly buying it its just that the bays have been empty for a fortnight forcing people to buy the more expensive packs! funnily enough the bread flour is still well stocked at 50p. I guess its not so popular yet.

My Dad always used to talk about the workhouse, I guess being born in 1917 he heard a lot about it from his parents.

lilac_lady

I fell off my "cash only" bandwagon and spent more than usual in the supermarkets. I tried to convince myself that it was for emergencies but I had 15 tins of tomatoes and10 tins of tuna, packets and packets of pasta etc, etc. and was still in a store cupboard mode.

My daughter benefitted from this so nothing went waste but I feel that I'm more in control if I stick to cash. Some people are addicted to gambling, I'm addicted to food shopping.

Fruball

lilac_lady wrote: »

Some people are addicted to gambling, I'm addicted to food shopping.

Me too :beer:

I am getting better though

penelopedee_2

I can be like that Lilac-Lady. I took cash today as otherwise I keep topping up the tins and dried stuff. The kitchen is already full and so are the shelves in the hallway. I could probably keep us all going until Christmas if I needed too

If I use my cards I don't keep a mental note of the total as I go along, I think it doesn't matter if I don't see the cash change hands.

The other thing I stick to is not taking DH or any children with me. Between them that adds another £20 at least.