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

KxMx

It's a great way to save taking your own hot drink/packed lunch, but supporting the economy is important too, if you can afford it like me I usually buy a lunch somewhere twice a week as it's something that I enjoy, breaks up the monotomy of preparing all meals myself at home (single person household).

Usually just a sandwich/salad/roll and maybe a cake too. 

I tend to split my business between national and local businesses. All support local jobs.

CKhalvashi

ladyholly said:

I, for one, dont understand the need of many people to need drinks all the time. You never used to see people carrying coffee, bottles of water etc. Ok I can understand the water when it gets hot but otherwise it just seems a huge waste of money. What I find even worse is the number of parents wh round here take their children to a well known restarant who do unlimited breakfasts before school.. My DGD works there not to mention the queues at Maccy D about 9.30 am.

Can anyone enlighten me?

I often have business meetings in cafes, but that is more about mutual convenience in location than anything else, especially for local (to where I live) clients. I can be doing more valuable things with my time than driving an hour into the office each way.

My current water bottle is branded but actually has been refilled about 10 times since Thursday (travelling on a cheap-ish airline ticket with some heavy equipment didn't leave room to bring my metal one) Definitely I wouldn't want to be buying freshly bottled water all the time though.

There actually now are adverts on buses/trams in English, Polish and Ukrainian advertising the water is clean to drink. This to me is a good way to encourage re-use of bottles in this way.

Toonie

I always carry a reusable water bottle with me and fill up where possible, it's a habit my Dad got me into when I was young and has stuck. I see having lunch out as a treat, not something to be done everyday, but when you do have the disposable income, I can undestand why people decide to eat out more often.

Today I have leftover roast beef for lunch, so will be making a pile of veggies to go with it as there are no leftover spuds. It's also feeling rather chilly today so I am going to make a fruit crumble for later (I have a few apples and some frozen blackberries).

sammy_kaye18

Rosa_Damascena said:

Wednesday2000 said:

ZsaZsa said:

Wednesday2000 said:

I spend quite a lot on books on Amazon and thought I would try to cut back on that as it can work out quite an expensive hobby as I read very quickly.

I have 11 books on my kindle left at the moment and I was going to read them but then use the local library after that instead.

Someone told me about Z-Library which has loads of free ebooks. I just thought I would put it on here in case anyone else was interested. This will save me a lot of money over time.:) Z-Library. The world's largest ebook library.

Have you heard of BorrowBox? It’s an app that most libraries are linked to (if your library isn’t, there’s bound to be something similar) and you can borrow ebooks via your library. Your library website should have the info. Ours also has “Libby” to borrow magazines too

Oh thanks. I have put that app on my phone.:)

Back to the mention of hot food as a warming mechanism: I used to love cornflakes with hot milk, they would taste delicious and malty

I find most places that have donation shelves of books for small fees always have Mills and Boons books in it so I use an online one I found with an app and with PRIME I think you can get free books to to read on devices. Audiobooks too. Ive just set myself a new health challenge to try and lose some weight and improve overall health so hopefully I wont catch as many lurgies and have no doctor visits etc so I have one to read (Little Women which Ive never read shockingly) and then I have 12 years a slave as an audiobook.

RE : Warm cornflakes - Im sure there use to be a cereal that was a cornflake type cereal with fruit added to it like sultanas etc that you made up with hot milk or added milk then cooked in the microwave and I loved the stuff. 

Currently researching soup recipes and trying to find a microwave.  

sammy_kaye18

ladyholly said:

I, for one, dont understand the need of many people to need drinks all the time. You never used to see people carrying coffee, bottles of water etc. Ok I can understand the water when it gets hot but otherwise it just seems a huge waste of money. What I find even worse is the number of parents wh round here take their children to a well known restarant who do unlimited breakfasts before school.. My DGD works there not to mention the queues at Maccy D about 9.30 am.

Can anyone enlighten me?

No idea. 
It always boggles me too tbh but I have had comments because I suffer from severe social anxiety - a weird thing to help me is to carry a bottle of water. Its a refillable water bottle but I find I cant drink and hyperventilate at the same time so it helps me immensely. 
Sadly I know parents though who feel the need to drive through restaurants just to get fizzy drinks etc for kids, or who are giving their primary school children energy drinks / sports drinks etc. Absolutely no need. I dont think mine have ever had them (sports drinks) and husband only ever drinks one if he has an early morning start (he sometimes leaves at 5am to do 3hr drives to cover stores) but even then he would much rather take a coffee or pick one up with a breakfast deal somewhere. 

sammy_kaye18

Afternoon all 
Currently looking for a microwave - even a second hand one as smallest person in the house (shes 12) has decided that she would like to have porridge for breakfast and seeing as winter is fast approaching - knowing she has a quick, easy and warming breakfast before I send her off to the bus stop will be good. I have plenty of oats so I can just make sure I have a variety of cheap topping available and leave them to it. Plus, it will be more cost effective than having to turn the cooker on! 

The £20 I put on the gas last month ran out a few days ago which I'm quite happy with as I know with it just being used for water it will last quite well and it now means if I can focus on winter proofing the house etc then I should be able to keep gas usage down.
Main thing for me is putting the curtain back up between the kitchen and living room with the pressure pole, that worked really well last year and I think putting a curtain between the kitchen and the back porch will help too because although the door is double glazed, it has two big panes of glass in it which tend to keep it quite chilly and then there is a vent in the bathroom too which I am convinced is on wrong because it seems to pull air in as opposed to pushing it out, so that in theory should make a big difference for us. 
Then I think I will add some curtains to the kids windows - they both have blinds but I think if I can double layer them then that will help too. Our room is ok, plus we have the two dogs who like to sleep on the floor of our room but who will cuddle on the bed if it gets too chilly. 

I did find some gift cards the other day which I have been slowly using up - some have £10 on them and the biggest amount is £22 I think. I found 5 cards in total but only 4 were working. So I have used one to buy myself a new pair of trainers as mine were broken and Im hoping they will help the getting active and therefore healthier.  Second giftcard I have just used and brought myself a small flask. It hols maybe 2 cups of tea in it but it will go a long way to helping me not use the kettle as much and Im thinking that if it does get really cold I can put hot chocolate in it for my daughter to take to school so I am contemplating buying a food thermos for her to save money on school dinners too! 

Garden seems to have had a sudden burst of energy and is producing some more runner beans so I have been chopping and freezing them ready for stews and soups so fingers crossed I can get the last few bits out before I start to downsize it ready for winter. I have broken my greenhouse cover though so I think I may have to try and either make this one work or lose the cover completely incase it catches any high winds and ruins the greenhouse altogether. 

kethry

TheBanker said:

KxMx said:

Winter does become two loads for a few reasons: my clothes increase in size,  big fleece dressing gown needs doing once a week (I practically live in it) and I do usually change pyjamas twice a week due to how much I wear them. 
Also my drying space decreases. 

Yeah, I am expecting my washing loads to increase in winter. For the last few months, I've been practically living in shorts and t-shirts. The only time I've worn jeans is the few days I've been in the office, and occasionally in the evening when it's got chilly. That means a pair of jeans can go weeks between washes. It sounds a bit gross but if you air them overnight instead of leaving them in a heap on the floor (as I used to do) then they're fine to re-wear. An additional benefit is that less washing means the jeans will last longer. I suspect that since I started actively trying to reduce the number of loads, I've saved a small fortune in electric, water, detergent and damage to clothes. Not to mention time - less time spent hanging things out, bringing them in, folding them and putting it all away. 

Old, old MSE-er here, from the old forum, revisiting this forum in the light of the impending financial doom and gloom! Interesting to read these comments about clothing. I like to watch youtube videos by historical costumers, especially the ones that work to more historically accurate methods and there was recently one that talked about the damage that modern laundry methods do to clothing, about how modern clothing (esp fast fasion) aren't made to cope with modern laundry methods, and how hygenically gross modern laundry methods really are. She was talking from an American point of view, which has different rules re: chemicals than Europe and also top loading tubs rather than front loading, but still, some of what she said still applied. (If anyone's interested, have a look for Abby Cox, its a video dated 18th September this year).

Anyway, long story short, she pointed out that our ancestors would wear linen or cotton shifts - think long, large t-shirt style items - which would be changed daily, between our skin and the outer clothing. Outer clothing would not be laundered that often, only when it became stained, and people would wear linen or cotton aprons etc. to try to protect the outer clothing as well. Linen has particular antibacterial properties that effectively also cleaned the skin as it was worn, and which - like cotton - could then be boiled to clean it. So a woman from the 18th Century would wear, in order, her shift (or chemise or whatever - same item, different name), then her stays (older term for what most would call a corset), then some would wear a corset protector (another item of thin linen or cotton), then the outer clothing, and then an apron, which would cover a lot of her outer clothing, so waist to hem, wrap 3/4 of the way around her waist, and a lot of her front as well. If she was involved in a particularly mucky job she might also wear coverings over her arms as well. Naturally when she left the house, arm coverings and apron would be removed, or replaced with a cleaner one.

Its an interesting topic, understanding how our ancestors made the most of everyday clothing and if anyone is at all interested in this I definetly recommend watching her video. As for me? I'm currently hand sewing a full length petticoat to go underneath an existing full length skirt to help keep me a bit warmer this winter! I'm not the world's best needlewoman so this has come out of my stash (was given to me by a friend, so costs nothing but my time) but if it works I'm planning to invest in some linen and wool and start making more of my own clothing. Old fashioned maybe but if it means less laundry and being warmer (and cooler in summer) then fashion can go hang!

keth

kethry

sammy_kaye18 said:

...or who are giving their primary school children energy drinks / sports drinks etc. Absolutely no need. I dont think mine have ever had them (sports drinks) ...

 

Agreed! the only time I ever had them as a child was when I was ill (as in vomiting) And then it was boiled lucozade, boiled to take the bubbles out and then Mum would let it get cold and give it to me warm (her reasoning was replacement of fluids and salts). Regular lucozade might be okay, drunk the way it's meant to (If you like that kind of thing) but boiled? Horrible stuff, do not recommend!

YoungBlueEyes

Any sign of being I’ll or at the first whisper of a complaint, we were given mugs of boiled lemonade (which is quite nice actually).  Only once an illness is in evidence were we given lucozade (which we all called puke-o-zade). 

Made my stomach flip just typing that! 

kethry

YoungBlueEyes said:

Any sign of being I’ll or at the first whisper of a complaint, we were given mugs of boiled lemonade (which is quite nice actually).  Only once an illness is in evidence were we given lucozade (which we all called puke-o-zade). 

Made my stomach flip just typing that! 

Yes, quite! puke-o-zade.. love it! Wish I'd had THAT name as a kid!