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

sammy_kaye18

gran3 said:

That was the year I got married and guess what, it rained. Lol

That would be just my luck too! 

EssexHebridean

arnoldy said:

Saw a lady ask the checkout worker to stop at £40 the other week. I insisted on paying for the other £12 of shopping for her, she had a young child with her.

The checkout worker said this is not uncommon scenario now

Why can't she have added up the cost as she went along to avoid handling all the food? She has potentially wasted chilled and frozen food that can't be put back, quite apart from adding work and cost to the supermarket which will ultimately have to be paid by the other shoppers.

Very self centred and anti social behaviour to take what you can't afford and ask others to put it back (if it can be). 

A rung below shoplifters, and on a par with those who put fresh food in the frozen compartment or vice versa. Which will also have to be paid for by the other shoppers.

This may well be the most ableist post I’ve ever seen on here. There are so many reasons why it may not have been possible, and only the tiniest bit of thought and compassion was required to think of some of them. 😡

Auntycaz said:

Maybe logging in to the store online and adding their shopping list and then taking an extra few pounds just in case they forget anything or their child/husband adds something extra to the trolley might be helpful for them. It's so sad it must be so embarrassing for them.

If they had “a few extra pounds” then the problem might never have been there in the first place. There are genuinely people out there now budgeting down to the last penny piece. I think a lot of people are still convinced that the headlines explaining this are being alarmist.

sammy_kaye18

@ladyholly said: I do wonder if those people who have open plan homes will regret it now. They must be more expensive to heat. I wonder the same - RE: Open planned living - I have quite a few friends who want big joined living and dining areas but it always makes me wonder how they heat their homes and they are usually the ones who are complaining that its coldest first. My sister has a large living room in a new build and its 4 bedrooms and all last year she was saying how cold it was. 

@Frugalista - I am the same - always have my phone on me or a pad and pencil so I can use the calculator or write down prices to add up as I go. I failed maths miserably in school too but working in retail for over 22 year I have managed to add up without a problem and am pretty confident with most my time tables! Although I do have to concentrate a bit harder with the 8s! 

@frugal_lass I am the same as you. I am very no frills now. I don't buy books anymore unless they are second hand - I wonder if MSE has a book club where we could review and swap books - it would only cost postage then and be a nice way of sharing. 

I have invested in another pressure curtain pole to fit between the back porch / bathroom (bathroom is downstairs at the back of the house) and the kitchen - there's no door there but the draught that comes through is quite noticeable. I already have a pressure pole and curtain that I hang in the doorway from the living room to the kitchen and it kept out so much heat last year that it really did make a noticeable difference so I'm hoping if I put one between the back and kitchen it will work well as well. Plus if the heat from the cooker cooking can be contained it should help keep the house snug for a good while too. Plus Im busy making lists of winter prep etc and looking at ways to heat the person this winter.  

Well my newsfeed on FB today was mainly filled with Martins predictions for the upcoming price / fuel hikes again that are expected in the autumn and winter. Not looking forward to that but seeing as we are on meters I think now is going to be the time for me to start saving and building up credit on them or having money aside to keep them topped up - especially since we aren't using a lot of gas at the minute with heating - its only then the water for OH baths that we use it for. 

I did have some good news yesterday though - some of you will know the palaver that my husband had with changing jobs then being made redundant two weeks later so going back to his old job but as basic staff and not back to his management role - well we updated tax credits the other day since there is going to be a £5K difference (losing that a year) in his yearly pay and they have put our tax credits up by almost £100 - so going from £216 up to £302. Now I know its not a lot to some people but that is a large amount to us. So with that little extra it now means I can keep on top of my winter preps, make sure our stock cupboard is full and the freezer and hopefully put some aside into building up the gas and electric ready for winter. 

I've been following a preppers group on FB as well and they have some great ideas for ways to cut costs etc and alternative ways of cooking as well to save energy so I'm looking into that too. Currently sat watching doomsday preppers on YouTube whilst typing on the laptop! Hiding from the sun but I really do need to go and repot some veg on later when its a bit cooler! 

Hope your all having a good day 
x

EssexHebridean

Ahh Sammy that’s great news about the tax credits - what a difference that will make!

Noticed with some alarm in Morrisons yesterday that their own label block butter was priced at £1.99 - assume this was an increase as it’s been £1.75 everywhere recently hasn’t it. 

Auntycaz

EssexHebridean said:

arnoldy said:

Saw a lady ask the checkout worker to stop at £40 the other week. I insisted on paying for the other £12 of shopping for her, she had a young child with her.

The checkout worker said this is not uncommon scenario now

Why can't she have added up the cost as she went along to avoid handling all the food? She has potentially wasted chilled and frozen food that can't be put back, quite apart from adding work and cost to the supermarket which will ultimately have to be paid by the other shoppers.

Very self centred and anti social behaviour to take what you can't afford and ask others to put it back (if it can be). 

A rung below shoplifters, and on a par with those who put fresh food in the frozen compartment or vice versa. Which will also have to be paid for by the other shoppers.

This may well be the most ableist post I’ve ever seen on here. There are so many reasons why it may not have been possible, and only the tiniest bit of thought and compassion was required to think of some of them. 😡

Auntycaz said:

Maybe logging in to the store online and adding their shopping list and then taking an extra few pounds just in case they forget anything or their child/husband adds something extra to the trolley might be helpful for them. It's so sad it must be so embarrassing for them.

If they had “a few extra pounds” then the problem might never have been there in the first place. There are genuinely people out there now budgeting down to the last penny piece. I think a lot of people are still convinced that the headlines explaining this are being alarmist.

I totally agree with you regarding the first post you quoted. I found the last sentence particularly offensive.
My own post was trying to suggest something constructive that might help them. I am on a low income myself.

Bluegreen143

@EssexHebridean eeek! I love and always bblock butter. But £2 a block! 

Re the supermarket checkout behaviour, in general I try to assume that most people are doing the best they can with the resources (time, energy, money, skills, health, confidence, how they were brought up etc) available to them. Not sure though that this discussion is going to come to a productive end as it’s clearly polarising.

On another (more relevant?) note, I’d love to hear how those of you feeling the pinch are getting fun into your lives frugally. I’m making a wee list of cheap summer fun (we’re in Scotland so the kids are already off). 

So far I’ve got:

With the children…

- crafting/painting because we have tons of art/craft supplies in

- chilling out in the garden with the paddling pool out

- walking over to local playpark

- having picnics

- going to the library 

- having friends over instead of going out (both in terms of playdates for the kids and our adult friends!)

- was thinking maybe doing a family Lego building team challenge? 

- making a garden treasure hunt?

- board games (though DD is three so not quite there yet with proper games, and the ones aimed at 3yos are dull for everyone else 🤣)

And for adults…

- putting a fire in the chiminea and having a drink with DH and playing cards in the garden 

- last night I had a craft night at my sister’s - my mum and I did our knitting, sister did embroidery and I made a veggie curry from stores and HM naans (instead of getting a takeaway)

- meeting friends at the pub but just having 1-2 soft drinks (saves on alcohol but also taxis)

Any other ideas for summertime frugal fun?

Flugelhorn

I am so glad we swapped our large, high ceilinged, 5 bed  edwardian house for a 10 year old, half the size, well insulated  5 bed house - the bills are a fraction (actually less than 1/3) in the new house and I've stopped wearing woolies all the time

elsien

I’m doing spectacularly badly at economising, mainly because the local charity shops have had some good deals of late, and I can’t resist a bargain. 

Think I just need to stop going in the blasted things for a while. 

newlywed

@Bluegreen143

be a tourist in your town…. Look up a bit of history and visit somewhere you ignored before!

I have done some history of surrounding villages and just go walk around and match up the new things I found out about.  Most villages have some history on their web page.

I also went to two fishing museums recently…. Both of which were free and I have walked past many times!

Bluegreen143

@newlywed good idea! I live quite centrally in a city so there are a gazillion things to do and it’s almost overwhelming to try to decide. Maybe we need some day trips to smaller towns and villages nearby though to explore a bit more widely.