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

zaxdog

I'll admit I get a touch ratty with folk who lecture us about our 16 year old petrol estate car.

We don't fly, buy new clothes/electronics/furniture or well anything really. Buy as locally and seasonally as we can. Forage for wood for the stove etc.

BUT we need a car due to our location (thanks to the Highland Clearances forcing our house move) and we certainly can't afford an electric car.

Nelliegrace

I’m with you @zaxdog I shall run my reliable, 15 year old diesel Fabia estate until it dies. £30 road tax and I can get it to 80mpg. It carried all of the toddler stuff, bikes, various large bits of furniture, water butts and dalek compost bins, even three full beehives, and it only needs one parking space.
It is still low mileage, we think about every journey and walk where possible. I have a bus pass to go into the city. 
Changing it every couple of years would have caused far more pollution. 

I didn’t have to pay the £40 for retinal scans this week. The opticians is an NHS emergency centre, so they covered the cost. I would have preferred to pay rather than have had the eye problem.

I went to the hairdresser for the first time since 2019, having cut it myself all through Covid. Natural, long hair worn in a plait is fairly easy to manage, a single wash with SLS-free shampoo, no conditioners, dyes, serums, sprays or other gunk, or electrical equipment.
The prices have shot up in four years, from £11 to £14 for a trim! The hairdresser insists on cash. I save a lot by clipping DH’s hair. The barber was charging a search fee. 

-taff

zaxdog said:

BUT we need a car due to our location (thanks to the Highland Clearances forcing our house move) and we certainly can't afford an electric car.

What Highland Clearances were they?

millie

My son is annoyed by this too he will be in the charging zone where he lives in August and will cost  him £12.50 a day. There is nothing wrong with his car and the prices have all shot up too.

zaxdog

-taff said:

zaxdog said:

BUT we need a car due to our location (thanks to the Highland Clearances forcing our house move) and we certainly can't afford an electric car.

What Highland Clearances were they?

The original Clearances were for sheep. The modern ones are for second homers and retirees moving north. Add in Air B&Bs etc and there is no housing for local people or it's completely unaffordable. Direct result is that businesses can't get staff and start to close. There are SO many "ghost villages" now all over the Highlands/Argyll/Galloway etc.

Our landlord chucked all of his estate tenants out to sell his properties for second homers etc. Including one gentleman who had worked for the family for over fifty years.

YorksLass

Nelliegrace said:

I went to the hairdresser for the first time since 2019, having cut it myself all through Covid. Natural, long hair worn in a plait is fairly easy to manage, a single wash with SLS-free shampoo, no conditioners, dyes, serums, sprays or other gunk, or electrical equipment.
The prices have shot up in four years, from £11 to £14 for a trim! The hairdresser insists on cash. I save a lot by clipping DH’s hair. The barber was charging a search fee. 

Pre-Covid I had a very short, layered pixie style and, since I have very thick hair, used to have to go to the hairdressers every six weeks to keep it in shape.  I really missed the hairdresser visits during lockdown - by the time they resumed my hair had grown a lot and I was persuaded to try a new-to-me style.  It's now a chin length bob with no layers at all, not even a fringe.  It took some getting used to at first but it is easier to manage and I now go every eight weeks - just as well, since the cost has gone up from £26 to £30 for a wash, cut and blow dry.  It's my only vanity expense though, plus an hour's chill time - I'm worth it.     

Had to laugh at the barber charging a search fee!  I cut DH's hair too and have done for years.  He's happy with it and it saves a fortune.

Have finalised my next grocery delivery order and, as usual, there were some price increases.  I say "as usual" because I think it's got to the point where we expect there to be some every time we shop.  I hope it's a better experience than last time.  As it is, I'll be making yet another phone call to customer services since the e-voucher I was sent for a refund doesn't work - apparently it's expired, although I can't see any expiry date on it and it's less than 2 weeks since it was issued.  Expired or not, they still owe me £4.40.      

otb666

@YorksLass i dont accept e vouchers I go on resolver to get refunded on my debit card as that easier for me done it twice now for missing items 

YorksLass

@obt666 - I don't normally have problems with Sainsburys - for returns or missing items it's usually a full refund paid back to the original payment card (no quibbles) or for overcharges a refund voucher in the My Coupons section.  I'm not confident the customer service lady I spoke to knew what she was doing since I've never had an e-voucher before and was actually expecting the cash to be returned to the debit card which is what I'd asked for.  Grrr.   I just hope tomorrow's delivery isn't such a fiasco.

Quiet Bank Holiday here, a bit dull this morning but now the sun is out.  It would have been ideal drying weather but the laundry basket is currently empty - for now.  That's life.

I've been doing a bit of pottering today and have sorted out empty glass jars/lids (again), cooked a batch of mushy peas, blitzed up some bread crusts into bread crumbs and have made a pot each of potato salad and pasta salad for tomorrow's tea.  I've also chosen my two Co-op membership offers for the week - 50p off fresh fish (hope they have some this week) and 20p off a bottle of lemonade for DH.  They're not particularly over generous but it adds up to £30-£35 pa and every little saved counts.  

I'm about to start going through my button stash - there's far more than I'll ever need - and will use some of the prettier glass jars to make up "lots" that can then go in the CS bag.  I'm sure there'll be crafters out there who'll be able to use them.

Right, time for a coffee then I'm having a DIY pedicure - my poor old feet are crying out for a bit of TLC.     

euronorris

Another expense for us. The dishwasher has sprung a leak! 🤦‍♀️ Not a 'flood the kitchen' type leak, but a leak nonetheless. We narrowed down the source to wearthe inlet pipe connects to the machine, tightened it and that reduced the leak but didn't stop it. So we bought a new inlet pipe from Screwfix this morning and attached. Still leaking (slowly). Sigh.

I've sent a couple of emails to some local repair firms to get an idea of likely call out and repair charges. But it may be uneconomical to fix 😭

Siebrie

@littlemoney "Why is it you need to spend lots of money to save a little money and the world such as solar panels, air source heat pump heating systems are all beyond my finances."

That is exactly why we don't have solar panels; I've done the maths. We use very little electricity and gas, we use the average for a 2-person household for the 4 of us. It would take us 25 years to earn the money back, which is longer than the lifespan of the panels. Adding in the environmental disaster the panels and battery are to make and dispose of, I opted not to have them.