would love to be mortgage free!

coldcazzie

Ps, thanks for the dodgy hug

Peonie

Caz, have a uncomfortable hug from me too :grouphug: You're not alone, I think my OH would say the same thing as well.

I wonder if there's a video on UTube about efficient motorbike driving. That could cut the fuel bills a little bit. I think I'll have a look for cars for myself. Do you think the efficient driving video they (I'm not sure who) make people watch instead of getting driving license points is on the internet? A person I know happily said their MPG increased after going on the course.

Peonie

I'm going to jump into the Sky debate. We only have normal TV so can only pass on the negotiating experiences of those I know.

Some friends stopped Sky and only had to live without it for a month and they got a please return to us for this reduced price offer.

Plus in that month you could see if you really want Sky. On normal TV there's a channel for children and it could work out cheaper buying some DVDs for them to watch. Especially if you find them in the charity shop. It all depends on what you and Mr C watch on Sky and how much you will miss it.

unhappy_shopper

Regarding fruit trees, get good quality ones preferably from a nearby gardening centre or online ones. We planted a few from T&M 4 years back and they are now producing well. I did get a Morello cherry tree from Aldi, but it is not so very productive. May be cherry trees take a longer time to start yielding well. Now off to poach a few pears and make stewed pears for freezing. Has anybody frozen whole poached pears?

Sepa74

If you're looking at gardening on a budget, and don't want to grow trees in the ground, don't get fruit trees - they don't produce well in pots. If you did grow them in the ground, I doubt they will move successfully.

I find green beans save me money, as do courgettes. I grow tomatoes, but only out of sheer bloody mindedness. Purple sprouting broccoli is great, and I find if I leave in the ground over summer, it is actually a perennial (I live in London).

Spring onions / shallots are definitely worth the money.

If your garden isn't as slug ridden as mine, you will probably make money on salad leaves like Tilly does.

I've managed to kill my raspberries by moving them, but take only 2 - 3 yrs to get your money back as they are prolific. Even better, they start fruiting in Yr 1. You could also buy a couple of cheap strawberry plants and see how they go... if they thrive you are quids in very quickly, if they don't thrive you haven't lost too much money. In my garden wild strawberries thrive while fruiting strawberries are rubbish!!

I don't think herbs are worth the money for me - dried herbs are cheaper.

I don't make money growing potatoes, but they are FUN!! Your kids will love getting mucky at harvest time.

If you want to garden to save money, you need to be focused. For me my garden is a money sink because it's my hobby, but if I was going to be focused about making money out of it, then the things I've listed above work best for me.

coldcazzie

Thanks all for the replies - have just arrived home from a family birthday, going to watch Dr Who in a bit when it's on and will my best to reply this evening. Hoping to get stuck into my final assignment tomorrow.

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Good luck with your final assignment... I hope tomorrow is a productive day for you. And once it's done you can have a well earned break!

coldcazzie

Peonie wrote: »

Caz, have a uncomfortable hug from me too :grouphug: You're not alone, I think my OH would say the same thing as well.

I wonder if there's a video on UTube about efficient motorbike driving. That could cut the fuel bills a little bit.

Our fuel bill has dropped since he started doing car share with a colleague. He was spending £150-160pcm but now more like £100-110. They take it in turns to fill the car up and he uses the bike just to nip round to collect things, to the shops, etc, and go to work if his colleague is off work. He gets around 55mpg.

Peonie wrote: »

I'm going to jump into the Sky debate.

I have mixed feelings about Sky. On the one hand it's more often than not that we find we don't want to watch anything that's on, and put a DVD on. The kids rarely watch kids TV - they prefer the collection of DVDs we have. I've wondered a few times whether it would be worth knocking Sky off completely and paying for Netflix. There are several programs that we really enjoy watching and wouldn't like to miss. Perhaps some research is necessary re: channels etc. The other thing we like is the convenience of being able to record programmes and watch them later when we're ready (sometimes we save up a few weeks of programmes, and we like fast forwarding adverts too). I record BBC schools programmes for the kids too. I'm not sure, I think it needs careful thinking about.

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice wrote: »

Good luck with your final assignment... I hope tomorrow is a productive day for you. And once it's done you can have a well earned break!

Thank-you I wish I could, but there's only 3.5 weeks until the exam so need to revise.

Thanks US and Sepa for your thoughts about growing food. We have a potato growing pack being delivered (for free!) in Feb next year. They're just for fun. The problem is finding things that are worth growing - for example, beans - if I could get them to eat beans that would be great same with courgette. Would be pointless growing stuff they don't like. Broccoli is a definite possibility. Already grow Welsh onions which are like spring onions. Agree on the herbs - never had luck with herbs other than chives. Tomatoes I can do. Might even be tempted to try set up some tomatoes on my window ledge, if I can find new homes for the camels and cacti that are already there. The raspberries weren't great this year, but I only had one cane that really got going and produced. Looking forward to more next year.

ammonite

I'll just wade in quickly and say have a good look at the options on Netflix before you go for that, we had a trial of that and Lovefilm and found the film choices were really old. We get Blockbuster DVDs, can have 3 at a time for about £12 a month (less if you only want one at a time), if we are good and post them back regularly we can watch about 15 films in a month - also they do games for the PS3 and Xbox which has saved OH buying them! We looked at getting Sky Movies but again the movies are fairly oldish by the time they get to Sky whereas with Blockbuster are new releases that might have been in the cinema 3-6 months ago. You can also pause membership which is good if there are no new films on "the list" that you make. Got to dash out now but can give more info if you need it later

coldcazzie

ammonite wrote: »

I'll just wade in quickly and say have a good look at the options on Netflix before you go for that, we had a trial of that and Lovefilm and found the film choices were really old. We get Blockbuster DVDs, can have 3 at a time for about £12 a month (less if you only want one at a time), if we are good and post them back regularly we can watch about 15 films in a month - also they do games for the PS3 and Xbox which has saved OH buying them! We looked at getting Sky Movies but again the movies are fairly oldish by the time they get to Sky whereas with Blockbuster are new releases that might have been in the cinema 3-6 months ago. You can also pause membership which is good if there are no new films on "the list" that you make. Got to dash out now but can give more info if you need it later

Yeah we had a lovefilm sub earlier this year and weren't that impressed with it. We had several discs that were damaged too so were unable to watch those completely, which added to the disappointment about the lack of choice. We don't have Sky Movies anyway. They gave us it free for 3 months last year after they messed our phone up, and we weren't impressed tbh. I was thinking more in terms of streaming shows from the US. It will need some research. We can't cancel until next year at the earliest anyway, so I've got some time. It will go on the to do list thanks.