Oooops

csarina

Last night, just for interest sake I filled in the form on the cccs site, some of my figures did not match their, i.e. amount for food and other things.....boy did I get a shock.........:eek::eek::eek:

We moved earleir this year, second time in 10 months as OH (77) wanted to come back to Scotland, since then both my o/d and cc have spiralled....not that we are not meeting all our payments we are..... I am overpaying on the CC £100 extra each month.and I use money to forecast my budget for the months ahead.

I have had to revise my figues for both food and fuel, we now live 8 miles from the shops, I shop for staples once a month and do a top up veg shop in between. We do grow quite a bit of stuff ourselves, a bad winter and a later growing season here have also has an effect on the budget. We have a much smaller veg patch too, we used to have an allotment!!

It has been a real wake up call, my cc is in the freezer, not in my purse. I had already sourced cheaper electricity and car insurance, there is very little else I can cut. we have a deal with sky for telephone, broadband and TV, we have to use sky, reception is non existant without it, and I do allow a small amount for OH and my hobbies, days out, etc. We usually either find a freebie day out with our NTS card or visit an open garden close to us during the season, in the winter we will go into Edinburgh on our freebie bus pass and possibly treat ourselves to lunch out maybe once every 8 weeks.

Neither of us needs to buy clothes we are still using up the clothes we used for work, OH still has a cupboard with quite a few shirts in, when the collars go I use them for rags for the car.

I have told OH we have to buckle down and sort this out before it gets to the stage where we are not meeting all our payments. I have given him a spending diary and I have one as well.

My hobby is an expensive one, I have resolved not to buy any more fabric I have to use up what I have........or save up if I need a large piece for a big quilt. Not that I am aiming to make any more large quilts. No point in trying to sell anything, people just do not understand how much time goes into making a quilt......therefore not prepared to pay the price. I do sell smaller thiings though like table mats and pot holders.

bottleofred

Hi Csarina,

Have you considered selling some of the quilts at a carboot sale or some other items you no longer need at a car boot as you may be able to get some extra cash from this. Hopefully you will get some vegetables from your patch in the next few weeks which could also save you some money. You could also check to see if you can get a cheaper package with an alternate provider for the broadband, phone and tv.

Good luck in whatever you decide

csarina

The problem with selling quilts is that they cost so much to make people are not prepared to fork out,

http://i1013.photobucket.com/albums/af252/toots43/001.jpg

This quilt for instance is a queensize quilt and would cost at least £750 if it were for sale.

http://i1013.photobucket.com/albums/af252/toots43/2010_0414cushions0001.jpg

These cushions retail at £9.50 without a pad, £15 with a cushion pad.

I am hoping to do a fayre at Christmas which may allow me to sell some bags,table mats, table runners and things like embroidered pillowcases which I also make.

We are tied in with Sky until next March, but we are waiting to see what happens when the switch over takes place here, we may well go for free stat and then try and negotiate a phone and broadband package.

We downsized three years ago so we have very little if anything to sell, the only really valuable thing I have is my sewing machine and no way am I selling that!!

We just have to bite the bullet and draw our horns in. We do run a car which is a skoda fabia greenline diesel, tax £25 this year.......its essential for us we live in a rural area. We do try and do everything we can when we go out, but OH plays bowls which means he uses it maybe twice a week and I go to a quilting group, I do car share with a friend, we take it in turns to drive in. I only shop once a month for staples and then a second trip in the middle of the month to Aldi for fruit and vegetables. I put the money for car tax, servicing,insurnace and the house contents insurance into a seperate account so I can pay cash on the nail. I have just swapped the car insurance saved £40 over the renewal.....the same with the house insurance. I also put the money for the heating oil and wood into a seperate account as well.

I did think about changing my account to another bank so I could transfer a set amount each month to clear the o/d, using Money I should be able to halve it my the end of this financial year and clear it before Christmas 2011.

As long as we have enough to eat, I cook from scratch, always have, and are warm in the winter, I have just put more fuel in the tank, its full, that along with the wood we have for the wood burner should keep us going through the winter for the central heating etc. What does bother me quite a lot is the rise in VAT, food and oil will go up not a happy thought.

We are just starting to get beans from the veg patch. We live on a farm and get spuds, so they are not worth growing........we tend to grow veg thats expensive to buy and quite a bit of soft fruit.

bottleofred

If your soft fruit involves anything that can be turned into Jam, why not consider making it and keeping it for selling at the market. You could also try to get some of the local shops to sell it for you, or to cut out the middleman put a sign at the farm gate. If you do decide to do this or sell any other food item, you'll need to register with the local council Environmental Health department who may want to come and inspect the kitchen etc. Other than these suggestions, it sounds like your already doing everything you can. You can get some excellent jam/chutney recipes online on the bbc website or good food live. The quilt looks amazing, although the price is prohibitive! You could probably sell the cushions quite easily along with the other stuff your going to make, so hopefully things go well sales wise.

Good luck with whatever you decide

csarina

The fruit we grow I turn into Jam for us to eat, last year I made strawberry & plum jam and orange amd lemon marmalade, we have just finished the last jar of jam and I have made 12lbs of strawberry jam, the start of this years preserves.

I am hoping that we get some apples this autumn, I freeze them for crumbles etc through the winter.

bottleofred

As you intend using all the fruit etc to save money throughout the year, it may be better to stick to the cushions etc. Probably for the best really, as you would have to get the labels etc done for the Jam

bubbles0169

are there any jobs around by you that you or OH are capable of doing i.e light work? could you ring round local seamstresses to ask if they need any assistance to up your income a bit?
what about doing surveys online and mystery shopping? have a look at the up your income board to explore it further

bottleofred

Hi Csarina,

Bubbles idea is a good one and apparently AQA are people who deal with online surveys. The frequency of the surveys can be quite erratic, but I think there is payment by vouchers etc. You won't be making a fortune, but it's worth looking into

csarina

bubbles0169 wrote: »

are there any jobs around by you that you or OH are capable of doing i.e light work? could you ring round local seamstresses to ask if they need any assistance to up your income a bit?
what about doing surveys online and mystery shopping? have a look at the up your income board to explore it further

Neither of us can do anything to get jobs OH has a condition which means he can collapse at any time, and therefore I have to be around most of the time. I also have arthritis in my hands, hips and knees......where we live there are very few opportunities, no one does sewing round us and I am not prepared to start myself, I am hopeless at altering things. Any extra we earnt would affect our housing and councill tax benefit which would be counter productive.......at the end of the day we would be worse off.

I already do surveys on line, they do help with the shopping, I get vouchers for Tesco and put the money I would have spent to the o/d.

However I will look at the board and see what I can find in the way of ideas.

bottleofred

Hi Csarina,

It appears your already doing all you can. You should concentrate on the needlework items, although you may want to offer them for sale at an advertisement in a local shop etc as these adds can be free or for a nominal charge. I'd recommend ebay too, but there are advertising and selling fees so it may not be worth your while

sleepless_saver

csarina wrote: »

Neither of us can do anything to get jobs OH has a condition which means he can collapse at any time, and therefore I have to be around most of the time. I also have arthritis in my hands, hips and knees......where we live there are very few opportunities, no one does sewing round us and I am not prepared to start myself, I am hopeless at altering things. Any extra we earnt would affect our housing and councill tax benefit which would be counter productive.......at the end of the day we would be worse off.

Hi csarina, do you and/or your OH get attendance allowance. If not, it could well be worth claiming - from what you say it sounds like at least your OH could be entitled. It would not adversely affect your housing and council tax benefit, quite the opposite.