It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

thriftwizard

Speaking as a small trader, cash is king for me too. I do have a card reader & usually take between a third and a half of my earnings on that, but from time to time I'm trading in places with no mobile or wifi signal, hence no card reader! These can be inside a building with lots of breeze block (often under a mast!) or in farmer's fields in in the "dead" areas between towns & cities. I do keep a float of coins, but to be honest most people pay me in notes, although my stock is very much priced to sell. Doing away with cash would be the end of trading for me, and many like me. Also, no tips for waiting staff in restaurants that haven't gone through the management (who may have firm views about passing them on) no treat money for the grandchildren, and no limits on what banks may choose to charge you for use of cards & card readers...

YorksLass

freyasmum said: It's funny you should say this; I find that I'm buying less treat foods as I just won't pay the money for them. I've not bought Cadbury for years as it's so expensive. 

That's not to say we don't have anything nice, but it tends to be homemade more now than ever before. It's amazing how much you can elevate a 33p bar of aldi essentials with a bit of caramel (and a handful of nuts if you can stretch to it), or in a sweet dough.

I'm the same and, since I like baking, it's no hardship.  Tbh, I think homemade tastes better too plus you know what's gone in it.  You've just reminded me that I have a small bar of dark chocolate in the cupboard to use up - the next time I have the oven on I think I'll do a batch of chocolate chip cookies with it.

weenancyinAmerica

In a cashless society, what would happen to church jumble sales, boot sales, the bookstores set up along the back alleys in Hay with the Honesty boxes for payment. How would you buy a painting from an artist painting outside like I did in Ireland? You wouldn't be able to sell your eggs and other farm goods with Honesty boxes for payment either. So much of the frugal buying and selling activities would be gone completely.

London_1

newlywed said:

This may help those asking about water tariffs 
https://www.ccwater.org.uk/households/help-with-my-bills/#social-tariffs

Well done newlywed I hope this helps some folk get a reduction, no matter how small, is better in your pocket than anyone elses at the moment of rising costs.

I'm home from my break tomorrow and normality will resume hopefully

JackieO xx

cinnamon123

The most destitute, like the homeless, also do not fare well in a cashless society. 

linz

cinnamon123 said:

The most destitute, like the homeless, also do not fare well in a cashless society. 

Agreed. There's a lovely man I pass almost every day outside the train station on my way to work and I feel sorry that a lot of people (including me) probably don't carry cash anymore. I buy him a brew or make him some sausage sandwiches sometimes and i've seen others get him food. He's a lovely chatty man, I hope he gets himself sorted.

Rosa_Damascena

Scrimps said:

A few of my frugal plans seem to have been thwarted. The airfryer I ordered of amazon never arrived and the order was cancelled by the supplier, I guess they miscounted and ran out. 

Now I find this quite intriguing! I had to listen to a conversation about the worthiness of Ninja's yesterday, how amazing they are - really? - the energy saving and how they flew off the shelves at Tesco when on ?1/2 price offer recently. Yet in looking to save money the easiest and most prominent change I can make is cutting down on food.

elsien

You may be able to/wish to do so.
For people who do not overeat, are happy with their weight, or don’t like feeling hungry for longer periods of time, or who have very physical jobs, that’s not a particularly helpful suggestion to be making. I think we’ve previously established that your eating habits aren’t what many other people would want to do. 

Rosa_Damascena

Wednesday2000 said:

I have never found any yellow stickered food in a Coop! I must live near stores that don't do that. I usually go in there around 6 in the evening too. :'(

Have you tried their magic bags? There is one available this evening. I suppose the risk is it won't all be vegan though: 

Pollycat

Rosa_Damascena said:

Scrimps said:

A few of my frugal plans seem to have been thwarted. The airfryer I ordered of amazon never arrived and the order was cancelled by the supplier, I guess they miscounted and ran out. 

Now I find this quite intriguing! I had to listen to a conversation about the worthiness of Ninja's yesterday, how amazing they are - really? - the energy saving and how they flew off the shelves at Tesco when on ?1/2 price offer recently. Yet in looking to save money the easiest and most prominent change I can make is cutting down on food.

We are considering buying an airfryer.
We never buy anything without first deciding if it will actually benefit us and which brand/model is best for our needs.
I'm not yet convinced that it's for us.
I do a lot of batch cooking and reheating in the microwave and also use my slow cookers a lot in winter.
I'm happy with how we do our home made wedges (tossed in olive oil and herbs/spices) and cooked in the oven.
We usually have something else in the oven at the same itme.
So I'm not sure I want something that makes 'amazing chips' and 'delicious fried chicken'.

Cutting down on food is not something we would do.
I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and a lot of time checking out recipes and meal planning.
It's something I enjoy.
We eat at the table every lunchtime & every evening and the table is always set nicely for dinner.
I appreciate that not everyone has that 'luxury' but to simply cut down on food would negatively change our lives.