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

JIL

Spendless said:

JIL said:

My old neighbours privately rent their house and have done so for the past 16 years. The landlord used to live there but got married and moved into his new wife's property. He said at the time there was little profit so not worth selling.
The tenants have looked after the house, done the garden and always paid their rent. Now property prices and rent prices are shooting up and the tenants had a big rent raise last year and now another this year to double what they were paying 2 years ago.
The tenants are refusing to pay the increase, the estate agents are saying theres such a shortage of properties that they have prospective tenants queuing up to pay over £1000 per month.
The tenants in the house are asking if they can buy the property, the owner is wanting as much money from it as he can get. He wont sell to them, without a bidding war.

What is happening in our country, when people are being priced out of their homes? 

I've heard similar stories re rents. They've gone mad. I'm seeing posts on local groups where people have lost their rental property but need to stay in the area as they have child/ren enrolled at local schools and can't find anything.

For some reason it won't let me tag you, but what nuts do you use in your roast. I'd like to give that a try.

I use any nuts, usually a bag of mixed nuts from lidl. I have even used flavoured peanuts. 

Its really quick and easy and a good way of using stuff up, any nuts, any bread, any cheeses, even cream cheeses. You can add spring onions, herbs  and spices, different vegetables.

You can also make burger shapes with it.  It freezes really well, I usually cook it, portion up, wrap in foil and just reheat in the foil in the oven for about 20 ish minutes.

sammy_kaye18

London_1 said:

Been a productive afternoon as I got all my loose covers on  my sofa washed, dried, aired and back on again, then I tackled one of my 8 kitchen cupboards which I knew had some well out of date stuff in.

A jolly good throw out of odds and ends, and one cupboard sparkling clean and tidy, bit of a very late spring clean but well worth the effort.

JackieO xx

I made the most of the few days of heatwave that we had and did my sofa cushions then. I have a cuddle seat and a 4 person sofa with a built in footstool so the covers are bigger than usual but with the heat we had they dried in no time and then I just had the cushion covers to get done but at least it was one of the bigger jobs off my list to get done and I dont do them often because I dont want to fade the colour etc. 

I am making the most of the wind here today and will put a load on at the minute to have a good airing outside. 

I have been suffering with cold / hayfever type symptoms but realised I have had the windows and doors wide open so today I have purposely left them shut and I don't feel like my symptoms are so bad today so wonder if it is pollen related. 

Have been awake since 6am with husband going to work in Swindon today and my niece had a hospital trip last night. Shes only 3 and is being diagnosed with adenoid related sleep apnea so that worried us all a bit but she is home now and has been checked but she will be having her tonsils and adenoids out as soon as possible .

Im sat at the minute thinking I need to go through my cupboards and make a list of what is in there. I have run out of eggs but have plenty of oil and mayonnaise as alternatives but Im getting a bit to the stage where meal planning is going to need some thinking about. Plus my cupboards need a good clear out so I can rehome and make some space in them. I have a cupboard that Im using as a spares cupboard but I had it set up as more a temporary one so I want to make a more permanent one. 

London_1

sammy_kaye18 its a bit of a pain at first but its so well worth having a good sort out of cupboards, and clearing out stuff you honestly will never use again,and certainly not eat.

I found a half used packet of dried herbs that were so dried they were almost powder and just be firm and think will I ever use this or will I be devasted if I bin it if the answer is no to both them dispose and walk away I found so much more room in the cupboards yesterday when I turned them out. Trust me its soooo liberating its not a watste if you are freeing up space and its just cluttering the cupboard up.

JackieO xx

Florenceem

Been out since 7.30 am at the SA. Came home to find - 8 jars of jam and 6 of mincemeat in my porch - not the cheap stuff either. More unsold stock from the local farm shop.

YorksLass

I love cupboard sorting but, out of the 9 I have in the kitchen, only 3 are for food storage.  The other 6 are for crockery, glassware, pans, baking tins, cleaning materials and kitchen fabrics (tea towels etc) but I'm lucky enough to have a small walk-in pantry too and use one full wall length shelf as a permanent grocery "spares" space.

Tucked away with recipe books in the space next to the MW I have a notebook that I use to record what I have in each food cupboard, their BB dates and current prices for each item.  It took a fair while to set up but now I find it so useful when it comes to meal planning and making shopping lists.  It's changed the way I shop and has saved me no end of cash as I no longer buy extras I don't need and reminds me of things that need using up first.  

I'm just about to do an online order for delivery on Tuesday so it will be interesting to see what I can and can't get, as well as keeping an eye on prices.  There are some "must haves" (have run out altogether), "would like" (on promotion or Aldi price matched or price locked for 8 weeks) and "would like, but can wait if out of stock".  Honestly, it sometimes feels like a military exercise!    

Spendless

DH went to Scotland and cleared DD's student digs. He fetched back her grocery cupboard contents, and I've incorporated it all into mine, so we have additional porridge pots (DH takes to work), pasta, oil, beans, soup, laundry and cleaning products. She moves away again in October. I was thinking didn't need to buy for her again till then, as we always do the first grocery shop, but thinking about it, who knows what the cost will be by then, so maybe better if I just use up her already opened stuff and then allocate an area where I start to buy her items gradually to take away. 

YorksLass

That sounds like a good plan, Spendless.  I've just done an online order for Tuesday delivery and noticed four items I need are going to cost a total of 90p more than previously (teabags, bread flour. dripping and tomato puree).  However, I've also ordered a few store cupboard items that have gone on the Price Lock list until early August and are a bit cheaper than before.  One of those is sugar that I use mainly for baking rather than in tea or coffee but the extra will be used soon once I've - hopefully - foraged some blackberries and crab apples.

London_1

Popped to my local Tesco Metro for 2 pints of milk. as I went in by the door there was a large rack of reduced bread and rolls. two women were almost coming to blows over them. This was 2.30 this afternoon.

 1st. woman " I need this bread and rolls for my childrens packed lunches " this was said as she was shovelling them as fast as she could  into her trolley 

2nd. woman " Leave some for the rest of us " 

1st woman "My kids need it for their packed lunches more than you do"
 
2nd .woman  "I need some for  packed lunches as well"

1st woman "You look too old to have kids at school, so jog on, my need is more than yours "

What has the world come to where women are argueing over bread and rolls because they are reduced  !!! I could hardly believe it I left as the security were being called It looked like it was going to develope into fisticuffs

Is this what we shall  be looking forward to come the winter, ?  folk fighting over bread ,its absurd and extremely sad they were two fairly well dressed women as well and didn't look as though they were short of cash but who knows.

I only wanted milk for my cuppa's this week needed nothing else at all

JackieO xx

cuddlymarm

I popped into our local Sains for a couple of bits and I noticed any areas with reductions had people spreading themselves across so others couldn’t look until they’d finished. What selfish behaviour 

timehastoldme

We've got Covid for the first time, did an online order as soon as my husband noticed his persistent cough. I've not ordered online for a good while and  it was an eye opener. We're good at meal planning and budgeting, but the Rona is so unpredictable I thought I'd get extra fluids and easy to cook stuff. The basket total took me by complete surprise. Expensive being ill.