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

Auntycaz

When I put my details into the MSE soft search function I found there were only 2 high interest cards I had a snowball in hell chance of applying for as I'm over pension age and never had a credit card in my life. Luckily I only checked out of curiosity, but good job I didn't really need one. When my daughter applied to a bank I had banked with for years for a student loan when she first went to uni they turned her down as I was credit invisible. Fortunately, Santander who I'd only banked with for a short while and only used as a back up to my main account trusted her enough to give her a loan

CKhalvashi

Well, this morning's been interesting. On getting out of bed this morning the mattress sank about 15cm. I've been able to work out that the glue holding the wood that holds the slats to the bed frame has given way on one side.

Need to go and get some screws (apparently some £9.50 for a big pack ones are suitable for wood) and waiting for OH to get home so a drill can be borrowed (she took my car keys to work with her this morning as she had my car yesterday, just entering Austrian airspace now on the way back so should be 2 and a bit hours), thus not being the worst that could happen. The bed frame is about 20 years old (but still solid) so even if that only holds another 5 years it's still cost less than £10/year at that point.

Tempted to move the slats up by 5-6cm to avoid the bottom pillow falling down the hole in the headboard but not sure if that will damage the structural integrity of the bed. Anything is good news though as it's still significantly cheaper than I thought it'd be when it went.

in_my_wellies

CKhalvashi said:

Need to go and get some screws (apparently some £9.50 for a big pack ones are suitable for wood) and waiting for OH to get home so a drill can be borrowed (she took my car keys to work with her this morning as she had my car yesterday, just entering Austrian airspace now on the way back so should be 2 and a bit hours), thus not being the worst that could happen. The bed frame is about 20 years old (but still solid) so even if that only holds another 5 years it's still cost less than £10/year at that point.

My local hardware shop sells individual screws so I can just buy the number I need. It works out a lot cheaper.
Good on you mending the bed rather than rushing out to by a new one straight away

CKhalvashi

in_my_wellies said:

CKhalvashi said:

Need to go and get some screws (apparently some £9.50 for a big pack ones are suitable for wood) and waiting for OH to get home so a drill can be borrowed (she took my car keys to work with her this morning as she had my car yesterday, just entering Austrian airspace now on the way back so should be 2 and a bit hours), thus not being the worst that could happen. The bed frame is about 20 years old (but still solid) so even if that only holds another 5 years it's still cost less than £10/year at that point.

My local hardware shop sells individual screws so I can just buy the number I need. It works out a lot cheaper.
Good on you mending the bed rather than rushing out to by a new one straight away

I'll take a look, to be honest I've checked Wickes website only so far but find Homebase far cheaper. I may be able to 'borrow' a few screws from where the drill will be borrowed from (at grandparents old house, we are just finalizing the sale now), so best case is that it will be free

There's no point to me putting something perfectly decent to landfill, this is a minor repair needed and not a split main frame.

Pollycat

YorksLass said:

luvchocolate said:

YorksLass said:

On the subject of charity shops and what they will or won't take, I blame the Mary Portas effect.  A lot of the bigger nationwide charities now run their shops as a business thanks to her intervention.  I find I'm using them less and less (too expensive, soulless) and prefer to stick to smaller community led ones or our local Hospice shop.

The biggest problem for charity shops is the cost of disposal of unsaleable items 

Not clothing as rag man pays per kilo but rusty tins  chipped chipped bric a brac content of pedal bins include used nappies. Yes I've dealt with it all 

Yes, I quite understand that.  When I donate something I always make sure it's clean, in working order, complete etc and always ask myself "Would I pay for that?" but can well believe that not everyone is quite so conscientious.  

I only donate good quality items.
I put a pair of Asics that had only been worn in the house in the recycling bin as I'd almost made a hole in the uppers with my big toe.
No chipped or broken bric-a-brac.
No scruffy books.

I agree about some charity shop pricing.

I was once in a Barnados and the manager refused a suitcase full of books because 'they had too many'.
I can see no sense in refusing donations of books 'because they're not selling' when you've priced novels by authors such as John Grisham, Dan Brown etc at £1.99 and another charity shop less than 50 feet away are selling similar books for 50p or 75p.
How is that good business sense?
How does that help the charity?

This shop would have room to have a table of books priced at 50p each or 3 for £1.00 and it might encourage someone to pop in the shop and buy something else.

A £1.00 rail would bring people in.
And save things from being 'binned'.

I think it's the higher management who set targets for shops without understanding the area who are at fault.

Bluegreen143

There’s an Oxfam bookshop near here and it has a lovely selection but the normal paperback books are £3-4 each. I have no idea why but it’s always busy. All the other charity shops sell paperbacks for about £1 round here, yes the Oxfam one has a much better selection and I can understand unusual/rare/academic books having a higher price but for fiction paperbacks… you can often get them new as cheap as that.

YorksLass

Every so often our CRUK shop has books on sale at 2 or sometimes 3 for £1 - it's always busy then and yes, people do look round and sometimes buy other things as well.  Their prices for everything are quite reasonable and they seem to have a quick turnover - just as well since it's quite a small shop with not a lot of room but they've managed to squeeze in a little changing room that's very useful if in doubt about clothes sizing.

Good point Pollycat, about higher management setting targets whilst not understanding the demographics of the local area.

Still pulling things from the freezer for meals and, whilst I shouldn't complain since it means my purse can stay firmly closed, it's getting a bit repetitive!  It's not so much using up Xmas leftovers as the fact that DH is in the meat & 2 veg brigade whereas I like a bit of variety.  Tbf, he isn't as bad as he used to be but the minute I mention a pasta meal I can see his eyes rolling heavenwards!  To keep us both happy (and fed) I have the pasta meal and he has whatever the sauce is with a jacket potato.  Where there's a will .....      

Longwalker

@YorksLass, Im in the same boat regarding the freezer use ups. Seems to me my two cant cope with having something different

Last night I had 4 fishfingers and 2 sausages. Mr L would usually be complaining for a month if I served him fishfingers , mum usually eats them. TBH I may have well defrosted them and fed them to the animals 

Humans can be totally unthinking and totally selfish. I was more then happy with a fishfinger tea. Its not every day, !!!!!! they were given a roast TWICE this week 

If I had said, come on Ill pay for a take out, would they all insist on the same meal? Not a flipping mission. She would have had fish, he would have had chicken or beef and I dont really care as long as its edible 

Families !!!

EssexHebridean

otb666 said:

I have cancelled my veg box as gone up in price I will have to get off my butt and walk to veg shop going forward. You might want to check on benefit board whether you mum pension credit (if claiming) wont be effected by you claiming carers allowance first Better safe than sorry. We look after an elderly rich relative but dont claim as only works out 3 mornings a week so even though we both combined do 30 hours its only 15 hours each so not applicable

We're doing the same with the veg box - at £15.99 fortnightly it was a bit more than we'd spend just buying in the SM but we were prepared to deal with that due to liking the ethos of avoiding food waste. £17.99 is a step too far though so we'll have one more before the price increases and then that will be our lot - as a regular thing at least. It's a shame, but it would add up to a big chunk of our food budget in the average month and my money can just be more wisely used right now. 

As for checking for availability for balance transfer deals (Longwalker that was you I think?) the MSE Credit Club is your friend there! Go and take a look - select the options for no fee as you don't need the facility for long. Far better than paying interest!  (And if any show you even a 10% chance - apply - remember that is still 1 in 10 people who will get the card - you might be that 1, and have nothing to lose!)

I really enjoy fishfingers from time to time - preferably in a sarnie - yum! 

I've blown the grocery budget this month - with trying to juggle meals between MrEH being about and him being down in Devon it's been challenging and I've probably done more "convenience" shopping than usual - not ready meals, but things like needing chicken portions so I could easily have a roast dinner for 1 last weekend, the loaf of sourdough that made up part of most of my meals this weekend, etc. There has been a bit of stocking up of stuff too.  I'll start afresh with a better handle on it for next month. (I'm in my new month from next week's shop) I have done a decent job of using up of things we have too - but that in itself comes with a price tag as I'll need to buy some tins of soup next time I'm in T's for example. 

YorksLass

Another vote here for fishfingers.  

Meal plan done for the week - freezer diving (again), very little shopping needed.  This morning I made a dozen rich coconut tarts using cupboard stores and have a tub of celery & bacon soup defrosting for tomorrow's lunch.  Not many bits or leftovers in the fridge at the moment other than some carrot batons and half a yellow pepper.  I'm sure I can find a way of using those up easily enough.