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

Margaret54

Hi had to go onto the website to top up my shopping order which is coming tomorrow from Sainsburys. The prices of food are just rising, can't believe what we are paying. I am using the last of my vouchers they sent me, £12 off a £60 shop, so choosing carefully what I can and saving where possible. The delivery varies so getting the one for £3.50. They sent me them as I had stopped shopping with them and had gone to Asda for ages, so might as well use these up:) Talking about the Woolite earlier, I had mentioned Sainsburys own make which I always used and it worked out much cheaper? Well today in Sainsburys there are a couple of even cheaper ones. Woolite is £2.99 and the Ecover is £1.75 for 500 mls and there is another one slightly sensitive I think the name was and it is 500mls as well for £1.75. Quess which one I ordered:) Even baked beans our old staple and favourite is so dear now too. I have noticed a lot of sneaky wee pennies being put on week by week all over the different stores. Not happy at all.

mardatha

It makes you wonder Marg, where we are going to be in a few months time..

jackieglasgow

I am really worried about the price of food going up over the winter. My OH normally runs out of work in December and January, and money is always lean then. My plan is to have enough money in the bank for DDEBs and the GroceryChallenge budget for then, but he's on half his normal wage just now, so tha saving is getting a bit tighter. I am off sick just now, and although I hope to be back at work by the end of October, you never know, but my wage will go down to half salary in November I think, and as I am suffering with depression, worrying about having even less money coming in is doing my current frame of mind no good at all. Still, onwards and upwards, I too am a recent convert to Memorygirls DFW diary, and her positivity is quite infectious.

mama67

seasalt wrote: »

Well done on job, Mrs B and hope you get some more hours and in bigger blocks iykwim.

Sammy you are doing so well, chin up hen, you will get there. What did happen about the car in the end?

Julie, I'm with annie on this one. Different if they had offered and you didn't want to take it/could afford to help them out until they find work, but they should be contributing something, however small (welcome to the real world, lads!) AND should be helping with laundry (doing their own?), cooking, housework etc so you don't have to do it all. My 14yr old DD had summer job this year and offered to pay us something! We said we would rather she saved it for college or as a safety net for whatever she does after leaving school and both she and DS now pay for pretty much everything (social lives/clothes etc) apart from school shoes and clothes. Means thay have to make decisions about what their priorities are - I think it's good for them!

ETA. I'm sorry you have just lost your job - even more reason they should be helping to make the family ends meet.

My DS1(15) has a job as a football referee each season, each week he gets a fee and a petrol allowance, the petrol comes straight to us, and then from his fee he buys all his clothes apart from school uniform and shoes and any socialising he wants to do; he also every so often treats us all to a takeaway; at the beginning of May he did a big tournament and earnt a very nice sum, he paid for a new referees kit which he needed and then used the remainder for his spendo for his school trip to Belgium, which we had paid for.

He has now stated that an amount each week is going into his bank ready for his driving lessons etc in 18 months time.

I totally agree, as you now have a reduced income then they should be contributing bigtime

fantacee

Off to have a read of that diary Jackie,

re milk, I have been buying 2 x 4pt (8pt) for £1.50 from Farmfoods these last 6 weeks, and buying 4 a week and freezing them, trial and error led me to dunk them in warm/hot water to thaw slowly if not out of freezer in time rather than fast thawing. I too miss real Milk! - also as we have to make flasks of Hot chocolate at the weekend (footie!) - I'm diluting them half and half with dried milk, it works great and I think I will use the dried milk for more now during this coming winter

Kitcaboodle

DH came home today and said that he's heard on the grapevine that the Government are definitely still planning on axing the department he works for. Still no official announcement but it may well come with October's spending review. Time for him to start looking at jobs online a bit more closely I think!

ceridwen

kidcat wrote: »

AFAIK - As far as I know??:)

Yep..thats right...AFAIK is "As far as I know". In this case I put it because, for all I know, other people might have found other/better ways to use duck eggs - hence I put AFAIK about this to indicate its the best way I've heard of to date of using them.

Lindy_-_Loo

Kitcaboodle wrote: »

My sister-in-law is a primary school teacher and she buys breakfast bars with her own money because some of the kids in her class don't get given any breakfast. One of them has an older brother who looks after him while his mum is at work and said his brother ate the last bowl of cereal so there was nothing for him to eat.

It makes me so sad and angry to hear of kids who aren't cared for.

The toast was started by the PTA due to a number of children at the school not being given breakfast, up to year 2 they also got fruit before first break but apparently many wont eat it as they dont like it. If we have toast left I will happily give the kids half a piece each as I dont want it wasted but were not supposed to as its not fair to those who pay.

That is very kind what your sister in law does - she should be very proud of herself.

jackieglasgow

fantacee wrote: »

Off to have a read of that diary Jackie,

Watch out, you'll not be able to "put it down" I have to limit myself to 20 pages a session.

ceridwen

Kitcaboodle wrote: »

My sister-in-law is a primary school teacher and she buys breakfast bars with her own money because some of the kids in her class don't get given any breakfast. One of them has an older brother who looks after him while his mum is at work and said his brother ate the last bowl of cereal so there was nothing for him to eat.

It makes me so sad and angry to hear of kids who aren't cared for.

Well - as you know - I never wanted any children BUT I do think any time I hear something like this "WHY did they have them if they didnt want them?". If you have children then you should look after them properly - feed them/educate them/look after their health/check out what sort of friends they are making/the whole package...so why why why DO people have them and then NOT look after them properly? I simply dont understand it myself...

Its obvious to anyone - isnt it? - how to bring them up. If you have them = then you do your best for them to make sure they have what they need...and one of the first most obvious things is a full stomach worth of food....