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

ladyholly

I am in the westcountry and strawberrys are nowhere near ready but it is a new plant so not expecting much anyway.

greent

I'm at the top of the South-West (Gloucestershire) and I already have several kilos of strawberries from the garden chopped and frozen and 4 more punnets in the fridge - and I know there are still more ripe ones out there but I got tired when picking them this morning so will look again tomorrow. The morello cherries are beginning to ripen, too - I picked 2 off the tree - still a little tart, but Monday should see a good punnetful ready - assuming the pigeons don't get to them first! Both (tiny) apple trees look to have a reasonable crop coming, too

I'd rather use aircon in my car than open the windows - the drag caused by the open windows isn't fuel efficient, and the actual fuel consumption used by aircon in modern cars is tiny now, compared to what it used to be. Plus the car is effectively cooled - warmer air through windows isn't as cooling (and messes up long hair! ). Fuel prices are shocking and seem to be rising every 2-3 days!  

Florenceem

I have a menu written out for dinners until next Thursday with no spending needed.
I do plan to spend on a couple of bits for my kitchen - my washing up brush needs to be replaced and I want a new nailbrush for on the sink. Bigger spend will be an attachment for my new toy - Magimix food processor.

skogar

First few ripe strawberries found yesterday, although the morello cherry now seems to have started producing there weren't enough to be worth netting and the birds have eaten most of them already long before they are properly ripe.

euronorris

I have had a few ripe strawberries, others still ripening and some still flowering 🤷‍♀️

I also use the airport, because, well hay-fever. Which was absolute hell yesterday and woke up with swollen eyes this morning. Pharmacist said nothing more he can do, and even GP would be limited as I'm on a lot of the stronger stuff already. Sigh. I resent paying £5 for a tiny bottle of eye drops as it is, and that will probably go up.

Farmfoods had some good bargains again this week. Including fruit offers, but I wasn't fast enough to get them. I did, however, get 2 loaves of Kingsmill for 69p each. Saved DH putting the oven on to make a loaf in the heat. And some ice poles to go in the freezer. 20 for a £1. Great for thw kids after a hot day at school.

The rest of my weekly shop I split between aldi and sainsburys (lucky enough to have them virtually opposite each other). Some things same price as each other, others cheaper. Both seemed well stocked yesterday mid morning. I was impressed that Aldi had custard creams at the same price as sainsburys, but double the quantity. 

I'll be glad when the tomato plants start providing. I bought two bags of cherry tomatoes yesterday and DD has already devoured one!

The mange tout plants are now providing. A few every other day. It will soon be handfuls everyday 😁

Onebrokelady

QueenJess said:

Wow, lots of topics going on here! On the subject of children, I would never ask anyone as they could want them but not be able to have them or not want them - either way it would be irritating to them. I think I always knew I wanted them, but wasn’t totally sure. I thought about looking back on my life whether I would regret not having any and decided that for me I would. I then promptly had DS!

I absolutely love books too and have a whole wall of them in my house. I am loving introducing DS to books. I just finished reading him Roald Dahl’s Georges Marvellous Medicine. He loved it and was giggling at the fantastic language in there.

I hate people asking what I do as much as I used to hate people asking about my degree as both were an absolute conversation killer. You got “oh” and then they can never think of anything to say. I find other people’s jobs quite interesting though and someone I spoke to recently volunteered that they worked for Lego. I hate to bite my tongue a bit as I was so excited and really wanted to ask a million questions, but I didn’t want to annoy him!

Sorry but I now want to know what you do 😀

QueenJess

greent said:

I'd rather use aircon in my car than open the windows - the drag caused by the open windows isn't fuel efficient, and the actual fuel consumption used by aircon in modern cars is tiny now, compared to what it used to be. Plus the car is effectively cooled - warmer air through windows isn't as cooling (and messes up long hair! ). Fuel prices are shocking and seem to be rising every 2-3 days!  

I think it depends on the speed. If you are going slowly you are better off with the windows open, but if you get to about 40mph you are better off with the air con. This is very rough.. I have not calculated or verified this information!

QueenJess

Onebrokelady said:

QueenJess said:

Wow, lots of topics going on here! On the subject of children, I would never ask anyone as they could want them but not be able to have them or not want them - either way it would be irritating to them. I think I always knew I wanted them, but wasn’t totally sure. I thought about looking back on my life whether I would regret not having any and decided that for me I would. I then promptly had DS!

I absolutely love books too and have a whole wall of them in my house. I am loving introducing DS to books. I just finished reading him Roald Dahl’s Georges Marvellous Medicine. He loved it and was giggling at the fantastic language in there.

I hate people asking what I do as much as I used to hate people asking about my degree as both were an absolute conversation killer. You got “oh” and then they can never think of anything to say. I find other people’s jobs quite interesting though and someone I spoke to recently volunteered that they worked for Lego. I hate to bite my tongue a bit as I was so excited and really wanted to ask a million questions, but I didn’t want to annoy him!

Sorry but I now want to know what you do 😀

Lol. I’m an accountant who did a physics degree. End of any conversation 🤣

Bluegreen143

Onebrokelady said:

I went looking for videos on being frugal just now and came across someone living on a low income showing people how to live on not much money but she was earning over £1,300 a month 🙀 that's £400 more a month than I earn,I would feel me I had won the lottery if I earned that much money 

Depends on what their fixed expenses, family size, where in the country they live and other circumstances are though (especially if they have tons of debt), just looking at income doesn’t tell you if someone is better off. 

Do share if you find any useful vloggers, I’d be interested 🙂

London_1

Bluegreen143 said:

Onebrokelady said:

I went looking for videos on being frugal just now and came across someone living on a low income showing people how to live on not much money but she was earning over £1,300 a month 🙀 that's £400 more a month than I earn,I would feel me I had won the lottery if I earned that much money 

Depends on what their fixed expenses, family size, where in the country they live and other circumstances are though (especially if they have tons of debt), just looking at income doesn’t tell you if someone is better off. 

Do share if you find any useful vloggers, I’d be interested 🙂

Indeed I was listening to LBC this afternoon and one chap said he was struggling on £40 k a year, and was finding it hard to make ends meet also a young woman who earns around £33 K a year as a researcher in Oxford and says her parents help her out with the tax and insurance on her car. I guess it depends what you class as priorites
Mine is a roof over my head and food on the table and being warm anything on top of that is a bonus