Preparing for winter II

Kitchenbunny

I would make sure you have a few extra tins in - inside the house so you don't need to venture outside if the weather makes any travel impossible - and jars if possible. Tins of things that just need heating are good, like soup, beans or ravioli, and tins of hot dogs for meat-type meals. Tins of fruit or rice pudding/custard so you can still have some fun comforts and it doesn't feel like you're stuck. Make sure you've got tea, coffee, hot chocolate and some emergency powdered milk. Then get a few extra bits for the freezer, make sure you've got some emergency lighting and some good, thick blankets, and then I'd be tempted to save the rest for bills. You'll be able to rest easier if you know you can turn on the heating without thinking too much about being able to afford it. Peace of mind is priceless.

KB xx

redlady_1

I would split it. £100 on stores. £100 on clothes and fleeces and £250 on bills.

bramble1

Thanks for the advice guys

Am going to allocate £100 for buying offers when they are on between when i get the rebate and winter - beans/noodles/rice/pasta/soup tins etc

Then use the rest on bills/clothing (maybe put £50 towards the cost of christmas too)

Larumbelle

If you do as Desperate Housewife suggested, then it can help to 'play shop' with your supplies, which is what I did when I was first building up a bulk store. What I'd do is stock up when there was an unbeatable offer, then when I used that item, I'd 'pay' myself from that week's budget. That money then went towards bulk-buying the next unmissable offer, and so on. Now if I see a good deal I can just get it, and I can stock up for emergencies and winter without worrying about whether I am diverting money from things we might need here and now. It also leaves me more money in my pocket to pay unexpected bills etc. That way you will notice the full benefit of your 'investment' long after the first batch of food is gone.

Money_maker

SpikyHedgehog wrote: »

and a sledge to aid with getting DS2 to school/shopping home.

If anyone comes across any cheap sledges, please post them. Mine cracked last year but can't seem to find any cheap at the mo.

SpikyHedgehog

Money_maker wrote: »

If anyone comes across any cheap sledges, please post them. Mine cracked last year but can't seem to find any cheap at the mo.

The one I've gone for at Sports Direct is half price at a tenner... Not sure how long it will last us or whether I could have got a better price elsewhere! It has inspired DS1, who says he's going to ask my dad to help him build a traditional wooden slatted one over the summer holidays. Now I'm thinking about it, will tell him to talk to his DT teacher when he goes back after work experience & see if he can do it as one of his projects.

[Deleted User]

Desperate_Housewife wrote: »

ooooh! Bramble1 keep this money to use to bulk buy tins and nonperishables when they are on special offer. Its a good way to maximise your money, for example, I bought Lidl branston baked beans when they were 4 for £1 (I bought a shedload and store them in an old wardrobe in the garage with other tins). When I go to the suoermarket I see them for around £2 for 4 now so I have automatically made 100% return on my initial investment.

Translate this to other purchases and you can really maximise your money. Any money saved you can put towards the energy bills :cool:

I did similar with stamps. I bought a stash of 1st and 2nd class stamps when 1st cost 26p. Its a good way of `investing` either that or tins at bargain prices

The_Thrilla

kittie wrote: »

I did similar with stamps. I bought a stash of 1st and 2nd class stamps when 1st cost 26p. Its a good way of `investing` either that or tins at bargain prices

I'd been doing this for a couple of years. I'd worked out that these postage stamps behave like zero coupon bonds. That big second class stamp in April went up by 13.725 percent. Just think. Owning a few sheets of these is the equivalent of having a bank account, and getting nearly 14% on your money. Tax free. And if you have any of these left over by next April, those same stamps will probably go up again. I'd still got a load of these big second class stamps left over from the year before.

They also have equivalents in the USA. They call them "forever stamps" over there, and the American ones, too, keep going up in price. I was listening to an American radio programme presented by a multi-millionaire, and he was saying that he buys whole rolls of forever stamps.

The_Thrilla

Desperate_Housewife wrote: »

ooooh! Bramble1 keep this money to use to bulk buy tins and nonperishables when they are on special offer. Its a good way to maximise your money, for example, I bought Lidl branston baked beans when they were 4 for £1 (I bought a shedload and store them in an old wardrobe in the garage with other tins). When I go to the suoermarket I see them for around £2 for 4 now so I have automatically made 100% return on my initial investment.

Translate this to other purchases and you can really maximise your money. Any money saved you can put towards the energy bills :cool:

We may be regarded as oddballs, but in fact, percentagewise at any rate, we are investors who are outperforming the so-called professionals in the City of London with their technical analysis, and their naked shorts, and their yield curves etc. Here is a passage from an American book called "The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need" by Andrew Tobias:

"Charles Revson, the late cosmetics tycoon, bought his mouthwash by the case. By doing so, although it was the furthest thing from his mind, he did better investment-wise than he ever did in the stock market. In the stock market, with his Revlon-made fortune, Revson perennially blew tens of thousands of dollars on one or another speculation. But on Cepacol he was making 20% or 30% a year, tax-free.

"He made it two ways: the discount he got for buying the super-economy size, in bulk; and the discount he got, in effect, by beating inflation. He got a year's worth, or two, at last year's price. If he had kept the money he spent on Cepacol in a savings account at 5% - for him, 2% after tax - and taken it out bit by bit to buy Cepacol in the one-at-a-time $1.19 size, where would he have been?"

I've got a son who works in the finance industry, and he does not understand what I am doing with this frugality. I told him about the forever stamps, and he didn't buy a single one. I bulk-bought a load of tubes of Crest toothpaste that were going at 50p in Home Bargains. He did not understand that a year or three from now, a tube of toothpaste might cost over £2, £3. He'll learn...the hard way.

A penny saved is more than a penny earned. There was no income tax in Benjamin Franklin's day.

pinkmami

I got 3 x 600ml tins of De-Icer in Tescos this morning for 62p each. Will probably buy another 2 next week if they have them on offer. Cashier asked me "do you know somethingI don't?!":rotfl: