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

sammy_kaye18

pickledonionspaceraider said:

We really are starting to feel it this month

Me and OH both work full time but we are skint two weeks before pay day.  All our bills are paid and we have grub in the house, but it's not a comfortable feeling

I have eyeballed overspends and done the yearly call around to try and bring bills down etc - however not a great deal of joy there.  

One area i have fell down on massively is meal planning.  About a month ago, our freezer broke.  They day after it was filled up - and I had such backlogs of things in there that helped, a store of frozen veg and other bits that I have had to replace this month

We have one of those £15 hols booked for next month but dubious if we shall go on it as the petrol costs are astronomical.  Considering a staycation instead.  Our accomodation is paid but we will end up spending money whilst there

We were exactly the same this year too pickledonion (love the name btw) 
We had a trip to haven booked but we just decided to cancel and not bother as we werent financially in a place to be able to afford it and we wanted to be able to go there and treat the kids but we knew we couldnt so we cancelled and used the money for other things and had a staycation and days out instead. 

We are the same too - our last week before payday is always the worst. Thankfully we have my MIL who lives nearby who is always willing to help us out with bread/milk etc if we need them since I check her house when she goes away and feed all her pets/collect mail and parcels etc. 

sammy_kaye18

Deleted_User said:

I confess I treated myself last night to two books - for anyone who hasn’t heard of it, World of books is a great site that sells new and used books. Free delivery at all times, better for the planet than the big river company by far. I bought one of Mark Boyle’s books, I adore him, look him up if you haven’t heard of him.

Anyway I am rambling now, off to squeeze a rather large chicken into the slow cooker xx

I have never heard of World Of Books.... I will have to have a good look at that later. 

I have never cooked a chicken in the slow cooker! How do you do it please? I would love to try. Does it go by size or weight? 

sammyjammy

My heating is never set to a timer, its all to easy to let it kick in even if I don't "need" it.  Biggy this year for me will be WFH, currently two days a week but space pending in the office might need to step that up a bit!

If I'm going to work I don't even turn the heating on, it seems so pointless to put it on before I wake up if I am then up and out of the house in 20 minutes.  I usually shower at night but if I do in the morning I just shiver 

joedenise

@sammy_kaye18 -I just stand the chicken on 4 balls screwed up foil.  The juices/fat/water just falls into the bottom which you can use as the basis for a gravy or you could put some chopped onions and carrots in the base to stand the chicken on and then whizz that up to make a gravy.  Personally I just drain into a basin and then get rid as can't stand the greasy gravy!  The chicken will just fall apart once cooked so you could make a sling of foil to lift the chicken out with.  You will be amazed at home clean the carcass is once the meat is taken off.

You can make stock from the carcass if you wanted by adding more veg into the juices and cooking overnight.

sammy_kaye18

Well I have had a semi productive day. 

Watched the bike racing which I enjoy whilst googling how to pickle cucumber, and also found out I can freeze them in slices for using in things like smoothies etc as they lose their crunch but I wont mind that in a smoothie plus its a bit of a vitamin / fibre boost. 

Then visited the in laws when they returned from their caravan and had a good chat with my mother in law who said if we wanted a weekend away we were more than welcome to go up the caravan and just to give her a few days notice. Where her caravan is has RSPB walks and lots of honest boxes etc so I love visiting there. 

Then home to sort the blackberries I have been slowly freezing. I have 400g in the freezer now with another 200g in the freezer on a baking tray. 
Then son came home from work and we went for a walk with a big popcorn tub that we had emptied (the big night in from Iceland tub) and have managed to get it half full with blackberries. Most of them are out of reach but we came away with a good haul. I plan to keep going out over the next few nights as there are a lot ripening and green ones on there. Plus I only went to one patch and have a few more to visit. I do think next year I will invest in a fruit picking stick so I can reach the fruit in the middle of the bushes! I am planning to freeze them all and then before Christmas turn them into Jam to give some as gifts and to help give us a vitamin boost in the darker months. 

Main focus for me is to get a blind on my bedroom window. I'm hoping that if I get one that sits within the recess then it will help with the cold weather. I have a day / night roller blind in my living room and it has made a noticeable distance as any heat does not get lost in curtains. 

Also starting to stress as I am on payment meters for my gas and electric and Im worried about making sure there is going to be enough gas / electric on there to get us through the winter. Its only heating that uses gas so the less I can use the better!

sammy_kaye18

I have also just found these on amazon whilst I was looking at ways to keep heat in since we dont have any doors downstairs. I was actually looking for folding doors and stumbled across these by accident. I think I might try these in my living room / kitchen doorways if I can measure there and there is a suitable size! 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Magnetic-Reduction-Internal-Conditioner-Brown-80x200CM/dp/B0827WCBVN/ref=sr_1_17?crid=3HI7IJYU45XMW&keywords=folding%2Bdoor&qid=1661103828&s=diy&sprefix=folding%2Bdoo%2Cdiy%2C146&sr=1-17&th=1

YorksLass

In winter our central heating thermostat is set at 18C and we use the TRVs for each room.  The living room is on 3, our bedroom on 2, as is the bathroom, but we turn that up to 4 before we go in for a bath or shower and back down again when finished.  The radiator in the hallway doesn't have a TVR but the heat rises up the stairwell so no need to turn on the radiator on the landing.  We don't use the radiators in the two spare bedrooms unless we know someone will be staying overnight.  If it's exceptionally cold they do go on at 2 though, just to keep the rooms aired and damp-free.  No radiator in the kitchen at all (south facing and quite warm anyway).  Cold weather timings are usually an hour in the morning, half an hour mid afternoon and a couple of hours in the evening.  Other times we play it by ear and turn on/off manually as and when needed.  Obviously not on right now!     And it will stay off for as long as possible.

I normally re-assess our annual budget at the end of September but I'm bringing that exercise forward to next week as this month our current (relatively cheap) G&E fixed plan comes to an end and we'll be moving onto a much more expensive fix.  Somehow I have to magic up an extra £165 pm.     It's doable but it will be tight and I honestly can't think of any other ways to economise - we've already done everything we can.

Nonnadiluca - I love your idea of Aggregation of Marginal Gains.  I think I've been playing that game for quite some time without realising it!  Our latest is to use less milk in a cup of tea and only use butter on things where you want to be able to taste it eg crumpets or toast.  Any small savings can only be a good thing.  

linz

Nonnadiluca said:

I've been having a think about how to save a bit more, times being tough 'n' all. There's nothing major I can think of to cut down on so I'm moving on to the Aggregation of Marginal Gains. I currently have 5 cups of tea a day and, if I cut down to 3 a day I'll save 60 tea bags a month, 720 in a year. My preferred tea isn't cheap, (although I've never paid full price, only buy when on offer), so that's a saving. Also will save about an hour of kettle boiling a month, 12 hours a year. All things considered, worth the effort and it's not going to make my life drastically worse.
Any more ideas?

Also possibly think about re-using your teabag for your 2nd cuppa. I always do this. You'll double your savings that way

ladyholly

I always have a cup of tea in the eveing and then re use the tea bag in the morning and usually get a mid morning cup as well but I prefer weak tea and as I us skimmed milk it works for me.

[Deleted User]

@sammy_kaye18 I just stuck it in the slow cooker this morning with salt & pepper and a bit of oil. Put it on low, then popped it in the oven at about 3pm to crisp the skin up. No precise timings, but saves a fortune on having the oven running for 90/120 mins. I don’t put anything under it at all xx

Central heating isn’t used at all just the fires xx