Hard Times: How to cope with everyday living.

[Deleted User]

Desperate_Housewife wrote: »

Its just a cardboard box with polystyrene liner that I can fit a pan into. I was lucky because my hubby found it at work that something got delivered in. There are more expensive set ups around but I did it on the cheap

I can remember doing this back in the 1970s when we had the three day week and lots of power cuts it was a great way to have a hot meal at very little cost.My friend who lived down the road(whom I am still friends with to this day) had a gas cooker so if the lights were off I would scoot down the road to bring my casserole up to boiling point and then bung it into my 'ahy box' to cook for the rest of the day In those days you had no idea when the lights would go off and it was a case of a very quick bath in the evening, and myself and two little girls had to share our bathwater:D
Half the country was shut down for it seemed ages then.Once it was so cold one night we all huddled together on the sofa my OH and me and the two kids as it was freezing and I had a small gas fire in the sitting room. I piled all the bedclothes on top of us to keep us all warm .No central heating back then or double glazing and there was ice on the inside of the windows in the upstairs bedrooms.So keeping us all warm in one room seemed a better idea than freezing in the bedrooms

karren

we are heading there again, ie cant afford heating these days so hunted out all the old blankets etc for kids bed.
son has 2 single quilts in his cover, and daughter has her great grans blanket on hers, which she is thrilled about x

grandma247

I have found putting a blanket over the top of a duvet keeps the bed much warmer in the really cold weather. I think the airiness of a duvet means that some of the heat escapes and the blanket stops this.

candygirl

I sit there at night with a fleecy blanket, and hot water bottle:D:DIn bed I have OH who is like a radiator all the time:eek::eek:;):D
The biggest expense for me at the mo is petrol:eek::eek:We got 2 bikes last week, so I will be getting used to mine at weekend, when it's been oiled and the tyres have been done:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

PipneyJane

Bitsy_Beans wrote: »

Where do you get your bicarb from? the places I can get it is in the baking aisle which quite frankly is more than I pay for ordinary shampoo :eek:

I buy mine from the nearest branch of Wing Yip www.wingyip.com. Vinegar too. They are the cash-n-carry that most of the Chinese restaurants in London go to for their sauces, rice, etc. They welcome everyone. Anyway, I bought a box of 5 x 3kg bags of Bicarb for £5 about 2 years ago, gave away some and still have several packets left. On the vinegar front, you can buy a box of 4 x 1 gallon bottles of distilled white vinegar from them for £5-something.

WartimeScrapingofMarmite

• Focus on what you are ecomomising to achieve; to be debt free, to be able to stay at home with young children, to pay down the mortgage, to fund that trip-of-a-lifetime, to have a cash-cushion so life doesn't lurch from one crisis to another, to get enough dosh for the home improvements, to survive. You need to have motivation to be a Thrift Monster, sometimes in the face scorn from those who are still frittering.

Greyqueen - you are so right! We recently downsized to a cheaper rented house (sacrificing alot of space - we no longer have our own bedroom and sleep on a sofa bed in the lounge) with the aim that we save every penny we can towards a deposit so we can hopefully climb back onto the housing ladder (if we can get a mortgage, but that's a whole other thread:rotfl:). That was 6 weeks ago and I am amazed at how much we have already saved- I am SURE this is because we are so focussed on our long term aim. Of course, I am not suggesting that everyone should do this to save money, but it certainly proves that there are some things in life that you really CAN live without (i.e - in our case, a separate bedroom!).

The other tips are all great too. I never buy new clothes any more, everything comes from jumble sales, car boot sales or charity shops and I no longer buy things we don't need. I also have a set budget each month for food, petrol etc and draw the cash out at the beginning of the month and only take cash out with me to the shops/petrol station. That way I can only spend what I have with me and it certainly makes you re-assess what you do buy.

VeggieCatLady

I'm loving this thread! Very motivational.

I do the following-

Don't watch TV-I save £12 a month and watch dvds instead, or watch non live programmes legally online

Use newspaper and recycled paper instead of cat litter

Buy reduced veg and freeze it

Have mass cooking sessions and make freezeable meals

Leave the oven open after cooking to warm the room

Use facewipes on the bathroom sink after using on my face

Share bathwater with the oh

Let my hair dry naturally instead of using a hair drier

Resist putting the heating on until it gets really cold and use layers and fleeces as much as possible.

Clean the floor with value/basics baby wipes

Cut my own hair

mutually agree not to buy presents to friends for xmas

kippers

Bitsy_Beans wrote: »

Where do you get your bicarb from? the places I can get it is in the baking aisle which quite frankly is more than I pay for ordinary shampoo :eek:

.

I get mine from Wilkinsons

candygirl

kippers wrote: »

I get mine from Wilkinsons

Do they do big tubs there?:D:D
VCL I have also reduced my prezzy buying this year, and feel better about it already:A:A

greent

Evening all

Our frugalness is more a want, not so much a need here (although we are on a much reduced income from 2.5 years ago) - that's not to say we're rolling in it, but by being more frugal and thrifty we are still managing to overpay our mortgage reasonably well

Things we do include:

• reduced heating consumption (we also have cavity wall insulation) - it went on at the end of Oct this year and is on for an hour in the mornings and about 80 minutes at night. Thermostat temperature has also been reduced, so the heating hasn't actually come on tonight, as it's reasonably mild.
• Showering every other day (washing my hair in the shower takes the longest - I'm saving water, time, shampoo) and a wash in between
• Buying less clothes. Some of the kids stuff is free from friends, some second hand from NCT nearly new sales, some hand me downs (I have 3 boys and a cousin with 2 boys just older than DS2 & DS3) New shoes always, though (but they don't have an excessive number of pairs - DS1 has school shoes, school trainers and rugby boots, home trainers, cheap 'crocs' (bought by my mum from Thailand) and a pair of wellies. DS2 has school shoes, PE daps, home trainers, wellies and cheap 'crocs' (again from mum). DS3 (2.5) has shoes, wellies and cheap 'crocs' (from mum) I live in jeans and tshirts/ jumpers according to the weather - mainly supermarket purchases or M&S Outlet purchases. Most of my 'going out' clothes belonged to my mum/ I've had for more than 5 years/ are cheapies from Matalan (odd item)
• I rarely throw away any food - I am the queen of leftovers
• I buy about 90% of our meat 'whoopsied' (I only buy free range/ organic chicken and also DD & DH eat a lot of steak and I only buy lean steak mince)
• More of my shopping now comes from Aldi - I used to be a supermarket snob
• I eke out washing powder and fab conditioner (a lot of which I got under Tesco's DTD so was free/ nominal price) I also will make my own laundry gloop at times with soap scraps
• I've downshifted some supermarket shopping (inc toiletries - cannot believe what I used to spend on shampoo!) (but not others, like my PG Tips or Kelloggs cornflakes 0=- but I stock up when on offer)
• I bulk buy non perishables when there's a good offer
• We have Tesco credit cards (paid off in full) for the extra clubcard points which we always use on deals (though might use some on doubling up for Xmas presents this year)
• I always shop around for purchases, using comparison sites (electricals, insurances etc)
• Cashback sites are my friend - I use this bonus cash towards mortgage overpayments
• I do teh Grocery Challenge monthly to keep an eye on food spending - you can really see how prices are creeping up when you're keeping an eye
• I sell unwanted things on ebay/ at NCT nearly new sales. I used to freegle more things, but now I often give it a go at selling it at a starting price of 99p. (I don't ask for things from freegle to 'balance' this in my head:p:o)
• I make most of our food from scratch (although I do have some Aldi 18p pasta sauce jars in - I don't eat it, but DS1 & DS3 do, and it's a quick and easy meal when there's something on like scouts or we're having something which they don;t like
• Grow more fruit and veg - still using our HG potatoes and have masses of beans in the freezer, along with apples, pears, tomatoes. Onions and chillis still growing and Iharvested the last of the aubergines this week.
• Make things for gifts - jams, chutnies, soaps, body butters, bath bombs
• Re-gift unwanted presents
• Buy Xmas paper etc in January - I even managed to buy all bar 2 of my individual cards this year at 50% off. Buy some presents in sales and throughout year
• Re-purposing items to save buying something else
• Use this site for money off codes, glitches, offers etc

We live well with what we have and I enjoy money saving where I can:D