Live on a tenner a week ???

FunBrum

GreyQueen wrote: »

Yup, that's me, I really hate buying things new and although the food is 'new' it tastes sooooo much better when it's heavily-reduced.

At the moment, I have plenty of food in and am using up some leftover italian hard cheese for cheesy things rather than buying any more cheddar. I caught up with the cheddar mountain laid in last Sept (and frozen) when Liddly had their brand heavily-reduced.

I adore a bargain, and food is one of the few bills where I don't have costs beyond my control (biggest chunk of my income is rent and council tax). I don't eat rubbish, tho, but I do like to make £1 do the work of two.

You must be my twin GreyQueen.....my monthly out-goings are £606, and £400 of that is rent and £68 is council tax! :eek:

GreyQueen

FunBrum wrote: »

You must be my twin GreyQueen.....my monthly out-goings are £606, and £400 of that is rent and £68 is council tax! :eek:

I work 7 months a year to pay the rent and the council tax, takes one month's net each year to pay the CT and I'm Band A and have the 25% off for being single, too.

Utilities are collectively pennies per day, but those two big bills are bleeding me white. Which is why the clothes come from the Everything 50p chazzer/ other people's cast-offs.

Tonight's supper will be ready shortly; a three-egg omelette with YS spring onions, served with YS spuds and YS carrots, steamed and a garnish of h.g. beetroot and half-a-YS-tomato. Oh, and the cooking oil was both reduced and bought with a £3 off £20 clubcard spend last year.

I may have a YS apple for pudding as made a bit of pig of myself earlier with a YS chocolate cheesecake.............:rotfl:

VfM4meplse

GreyQueen wrote: »

Yup, that's me, I really hate buying things new and although the food is 'new' it tastes sooooo much better when it's heavily-reduced.

I agree! I can afford to spend a lot more on food than I do, but I choose not to. I can please myself and am happy to make do with whatever - I certainly wouldn't be spending on ready meals or processed foods with abandon - but often make purchases that others might consider to be extravagant (like good quality make-up). It's just that for some reason, I really don't believe it should cost a great deal to feed myself.

[Deleted User]

VfM4 I heartily agree I too could spend more than I do,but old habits die hard and as their is only me to cater for I can easily feed myself without too much effort very reasonably I like to use what I save every month to go towards my family holiday in August with my DD and son-in-law and four DGS.We have a fortnight every year on the IoW complete with two dogs and the hamster very OS as we like the beaches and I sit and read and guard the picnic stuff or play french cricket with the boys.We take their kites and they go off with their dad flying them, they have the sort of holidays my DD had as a little girl on the IoW where her grandma lived.DD and the boys go fishing out on the Solent and I am happy to sit in the garden relaxing and reading or knitting.We have a couple of nights out, to perhaps the theatre or the cinema if its raining and always the last night we eat out as by then all our holiday food has gone :):) not very exciting for some people but its what we enjoy doing.I don't smoke and rarely drink as I drive quite a bit.
I'm not a clothes horse at all (far too old to be fussed about what I wear) ,as long as I'm clean and comfortable :)

I do like my favourite perfume and will treat myself to that when I run out,not fussed about make-up, at my age scaffolding would be of more use :)
But to me being warm,dry and having sufficient food in the cupboards are more important than luxuries.

Spendless

Ilona's article back in the DM today. I think a lot of the writing has been set up to (gently) mock. I am certainly not as 'hardcore' as many on here, but some of the stuff written seems common sense to me. I tell my kids that their clothes need putting in the wash if they are smelly or stained and think that is a preferable method to deciding what needs laundering that my t(w)eenage daughter's which goes like this, grab clean, pressed outfit out of wardrobe, put on, gaze at self in mirror, take a selfie, look at pic, possibly post to instagram to see how many likes/comments it gets, decide against wearing, pull off and add to floordrobe, when asked to pick everything up by irate parent put in laundry basket as it's been worn - repeat at least 3 times per day, more in school hols!

The using up 'out of date' veg to make soup too made me smile. If it hasn't gone off then it's edible, what else is she meant to do with it, bin it?! Makes more sense to me than my ex-colleague who was once going to throw a punnet of plums she had at her desk as they were out of date at the end of that day!

Upsidedown_Bear

As mentioned by Spendless above - the article about Ilona is here.

HOWMUCH

Spendless I used to work with a girl who would quite happily throw all her veg away when it went out of date. I explained that a lot of food never used to have a use by date or best before date. And thing from the fruit and veg shop still don't. And tins if they weren't blown then you ate it.
She was only 23 bless her and though the dates were set in stone I also taught her how to make soup too from things past their best.

Spendless

HOWMUCH wrote: »

Spendless I used to work with a girl who would quite happily throw all her veg away when it went out of date. I explained that a lot of food never used to have a use by date or best before date. And thing from the fruit and veg shop still don't. And tins if they weren't blown then you ate it.
She was only 23 bless her and though the dates were set in stone I also taught her how to make soup too from things past their best.

My ex colleague wasn't much older, but she was married and a Mum of two! We asked her what she thought happened when the fruit fell or was picked from the tree. Did a label suddenly appear at the same time telling you when the fruit went off.

krlyr

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Errr...nope....imo.

Black is an extremely common colour for women to wear these days and it shows up animal hairs a lot and add if they are wearing a material that picks them up a lot (eg wool jumper or dress). Its not always possible to think "Going to pet-owners house - so must wear coloured clothing and suitable fabrics" and I always end up covered with hairs in those circumstances and looking a mess for rest of day and then putting the clothing for washing immediately when I get home.

What would be very easy to do imo - if the animals have gone beyond "training" not to get onto the furniture would be to keep cheap thin duvets in covers to place over the furniture just when humans are sitting on it and then the hairs couldn't transfer themselves onto peoples clothing. I would think leather furniture could easily have hairs brushed off it with a quick flick of the hand also.

Good luck in my house! I could hoover 10 times a day and you're still going to leave with hairs on you, part and parcel of owning two large, double-coated shedding breeds (and just to be really annoying, one is white and one is black - so no outfit is safe!). I could even shut them in another room, but somehow you will end up with a temporary fur coat..

Anyway, fortunately all guests are well-aware and not fussed at all. And if they are, I have numerous de-furring brushes and tools for them to make use of on their way out. They can't be that bothered, as they do keep returning despite the hairs

Ilona

I was interviewed for the latest DM article over a week ago, I was surprised to see it this morning, I thought they might have binned it by now. She was here for over two hours, but it's strange that they haven't used any of the photo's they took, opting to re use the previous ones.

All this publicity has been sending my blog page views sky high, they have just gone over the 17,000 for today, and still an hour left to go. Amazing.

I am booked to be on the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 on Wednesday at about 12.30pm. Also on Radio Coventry on Tuesday next week. It's all go here at Tightwad Towers.

Ilona