June 2012 Grocery Challenge

LavenderBees

meg72 wrote: »

Just come on for a bit of a rant, as no one else to tell, I just answered my door to a very well spoken, dressed man, he apologised for disturbing me and explained that he was a gardener looking for more customers. I was very pleased as I am not too well and am struggling
to keep on top of the garden, so asked him to quote for mowing my lawn (tiny) and pruning a couple of Hydragas. Nearly fell of the step when he said, quite seriously he would do it for ONLY 120 pounds. Naturally I refused he then kept asking me how much I could afford, despite me saying several times, No please go away. He was quite insistant that he would give me a bargain, how much did I have. Was there anyone else at home he could talk too, I was by now really angry
and upset and said just a minute, I closed and locked my door and out the chain on, I then said to him through the gap, I am phoning the police and you can talk to them, looking out of the window I saw him departing rapidly. What a RAT I live in what are obviously old peoples bungalows, help signs etc. so I think he must have thought easy pickings here, but I am old style born and bred and 120 is two and a half months grocery bill for me.

OK rant over I am now going to get the mower and clippers and do it myself.

Hi, Meg

Well done for fending him off. That must have been an upsetting and unsettling experience for you. Very dodgy! I'm just wondering if it's worth you ringing the community police (we have a 101 police number for non emergencies) to ask them to keep an eye out for this chappy.

Take care of yourself

LB xx

meg72

Florenceem wrote: »

These sort of people make me sick.

Dont they just, I am now keeping an eye on my neighbours, some of them 90 years old in case the so and so comes back.

abitofhelp

meg72 wrote: »

Just come on for a bit of a rant, as no one else to tell, I just answered my door to a very well spoken, dressed man, he apologised for disturbing me and explained that he was a gardener looking for more customers. I was very pleased as I am not too well and am struggling
to keep on top of the garden, so asked him to quote for mowing my lawn (tiny) and pruning a couple of Hydragas. Nearly fell of the step when he said, quite seriously he would do it for ONLY 120 pounds. Naturally I refused he then kept asking me how much I could afford, despite me saying several times, No please go away. He was quite insistant that he would give me a bargain, how much did I have. Was there anyone else at home he could talk too, I was by now really angry
and upset and said just a minute, I closed and locked my door and out the chain on, I then said to him through the gap, I am phoning the police and you can talk to them, looking out of the window I saw him departing rapidly. What a RAT I live in what are obviously old peoples bungalows, help signs etc. so I think he must have thought easy pickings here, but I am old style born and bred and 120 is two and a half months grocery bill for me.

OK rant over I am now going to get the mower and clippers and do it myself.

Meg 1'm so sorry, how awful for you. It may be an idea to phone the local police to inform them. I deal with the police quite a lot with the job i do & i'm sure they would be happy to have it on record just in case. A well spoken/dressed man looking for gardening jobs sounds quite dodgy to me. I thought it was illegal for a business to cold call now. Well done for standing up to him.
Right i've not logged on for a few days and had the misfortune to spend £60 in tesco last night as i needed some recordable cd's for work It was oh who spent the money so its not coming off the grocery budget but the rest of it was just treats how bad is that!!!
Back to it now though.

System

meg72 wrote: »

Just come on for a bit of a rant, as no one else to tell, I just answered my door to a very well spoken, dressed man, he apologised for disturbing me and explained that he was a gardener looking for more customers. I was very pleased as I am not too well and am struggling
to keep on top of the garden, so asked him to quote for mowing my lawn (tiny) and pruning a couple of Hydragas. Nearly fell of the step when he said, quite seriously he would do it for ONLY 120 pounds. Naturally I refused he then kept asking me how much I could afford, despite me saying several times, No please go away. He was quite insistant that he would give me a bargain, how much did I have. Was there anyone else at home he could talk too, I was by now really angry
and upset and said just a minute, I closed and locked my door and out the chain on, I then said to him through the gap, I am phoning the police and you can talk to them, looking out of the window I saw him departing rapidly. What a RAT I live in what are obviously old peoples bungalows, help signs etc. so I think he must have thought easy pickings here, but I am old style born and bred and 120 is two and a half months grocery bill for me.

OK rant over I am now going to get the mower and clippers and do it myself.

Meg72 I agree with the other posts, well done for fending him off, I hate people like that and you're probably right he's looking for easy pickings. The police will take it seriously I think if you contact them, and it might ease your mind about your neighbours being vulnerable to this con man too?
abitofhelp: you're allowed treats sometimes you know! Don't beat yourself up, we all have different needs and priorities don't we
Rx

Coxy11

Hi everyone,

Please count me in for June. In true Virgoan, competitive, and stoical style, I will stick with £450 as my budget. Will keep this in my sig thanks Helen.

Bring it on

Off to read through previous posts.

jumblejack

Whole fresh cucumber 39p @ Lidl

dexter2012

Meg72
Some people are rubbish- well done for getting rid of him. I know I'm new here, but could I also suggest giving trading standards a call? Doorstep selling isn't illegal but pressure tactics and a potential scam artist are things your local branch may want to know about. It could be that someone else in the area has already been a victim so any extra info you could give might be helpful. You should be able to find contact details on your local council's website.

Happychick I think I'm the same as you- I know how to cook from scratch it's just reorganising my lifestyle to not cheat when I'm tired/haven't sorted something out in advance. I've found in the past that Sunday evening cooking is a good way forward. You can make a batch of noodles/pasta salad and box it into five containers and then lunch is sorted for the whole week.

My month started on 22nd May and so far I've spent a massive £24.78.:eek: A chunk went on cleaning and laundry supplies and I also had to buy some snacks for an impromptu day's sport- but still going to have to do loads better if I'm going to make the end of the month in budget!

PS: could somebody tell me how to do a signature on my posts? Am rubbish with computers!

Possession

Meg72 well done for getting rid of him. I had a fairly persistent 'tree lopping' caller in the past, had a quote as we did need trees lopping and we couldn't do it ourselves, rejected the quote and he kept coming back. Anyway 3 days later I saw him on Rogue Traders! mind you he's still driving a van round with the same signage, I've seen him around a few times so it obviously didn't damage his business too much.
NSD here, and will be eating the roasted veg pasta I couldn't face making last night after spending 2 hrs getting vinyl off the van we are selling. My arms were shaking so much I didn't think holding a sharp knife was a good idea!

Coxy11

meg72 wrote: »

Just come on for a bit of a rant, as no one else to tell, I just answered my door to a very well spoken, dressed man, he apologised for disturbing me and explained that he was a gardener looking for more customers. I was very pleased as I am not too well and am struggling
to keep on top of the garden, so asked him to quote for mowing my lawn (tiny) and pruning a couple of Hydragas. Nearly fell of the step when he said, quite seriously he would do it for ONLY 120 pounds. Naturally I refused he then kept asking me how much I could afford, despite me saying several times, No please go away. He was quite insistant that he would give me a bargain, how much did I have. Was there anyone else at home he could talk too, I was by now really angry
and upset and said just a minute, I closed and locked my door and out the chain on, I then said to him through the gap, I am phoning the police and you can talk to them, looking out of the window I saw him departing rapidly. What a RAT I live in what are obviously old peoples bungalows, help signs etc. so I think he must have thought easy pickings here, but I am old style born and bred and 120 is two and a half months grocery bill for me.

OK rant over I am now going to get the mower and clippers and do it myself.

Hi Meg72 - Just wanted to say that I am an RHS qualified gardener, working mainly for elderly people (via Age Concern). I charge £15/hour and I can tell you that this is the going rate. From what you describe, it wouldn't have taken any more than that to do the work you needed. So sorry that you felt under pressure and well done for fending this idiot off. If you are anywhere near me I will gladly come and do your garden for you! Take care x

kj*daisy

meg - well done for fending him off - if people came to our door like that I have phoned non emergency police no to report them as we have vulnerable neighbours, they were always happy to have the information.

I have just done first shop of 39.83 at Ald* - happy with that as stocked up on washing powder, dishwasher tablets and loo rolls! Off to do meal plans as have fallen by the wayside a bit - but having added up may and Aprils spends from the credit card bills, neither we're as bad as expected anyway!