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

ladyholly

Siebrie said:

My parents' energy bill just went from a fixed €150/month to a variable €600/month in the Netherlands. They are now planning to switch their front and back rooms around. The back room is smaller, and if they close the suite doors, just 12' x 15'. They continue slowly getting rid of items they no longer need, next up: the doll's house my father made from scratch. My sister's children and my children are too old to play with it, and too young to appreciate the craftmanship. I love it, but don't have the space for it, and don't appreciate the detailed dusting I've asked my father for a good picture.

My father (81) has 2 collapsed vertebrae (happened last month) and is in a lot of pain. He cannot help around the house anymore, and as he did most of the cooking, they are now living off of supermarket ready meals. Mum (86) can cook, she did the secondary school called 'household school' in the 1950s, but she doesn't enjoy it, and I think she's hiding that she can't really peel potatoes, etc anymore. My sister visited them yesterday and left some homecooked frozen meals (she's an institution chef, trained to cook for hospitals, etc.), and I will do the same when we visit them in 2 weeks' time (but I'm no chef ). They are adapting rapidly: their cleaner comes weekly now (from once every 8 weeks); the doctor makes house calls; shopping is either online or Mum goes to the supermarket, shops, and has everything delivered free of charge (they are just around the corner). They are and I am really happy they live city centre, with all amenities close by and everyone willing to help.

Anyway, they want to insulate their kitchen better. This has been a wish for some years, but as it's a difficult bit of work, it got postponed and postponed. We will now try to do it when we visit. They will try and come up with more chores we can do when we are there.

Are your parents in receipt of attendance allowance? It is intended for people who need help with personal care but if your mother is having trouble with peeling potatoes it is likely she also has difficulty with doing up clothes, bathing/ showering and other aspects of daily living. If nothing can be done to help you dad he may also be eligible after 6months.  If they arent have a look on the govenrment website and see if they may qualify. My one tip is that if they do apply get CAB, Age Concern or similar to help fill in the forms as they need to be filled using correct terminology.

Pollycat

ladyholly said:

Siebrie said:

My parents' energy bill just went from a fixed €150/month to a variable €600/month in the Netherlands. They are now planning to switch their front and back rooms around. The back room is smaller, and if they close the suite doors, just 12' x 15'. They continue slowly getting rid of items they no longer need, next up: the doll's house my father made from scratch. My sister's children and my children are too old to play with it, and too young to appreciate the craftmanship. I love it, but don't have the space for it, and don't appreciate the detailed dusting I've asked my father for a good picture.

My father (81) has 2 collapsed vertebrae (happened last month) and is in a lot of pain. He cannot help around the house anymore, and as he did most of the cooking, they are now living off of supermarket ready meals. Mum (86) can cook, she did the secondary school called 'household school' in the 1950s, but she doesn't enjoy it, and I think she's hiding that she can't really peel potatoes, etc anymore. My sister visited them yesterday and left some homecooked frozen meals (she's an institution chef, trained to cook for hospitals, etc.), and I will do the same when we visit them in 2 weeks' time (but I'm no chef ). They are adapting rapidly: their cleaner comes weekly now (from once every 8 weeks); the doctor makes house calls; shopping is either online or Mum goes to the supermarket, shops, and has everything delivered free of charge (they are just around the corner). They are and I am really happy they live city centre, with all amenities close by and everyone willing to help.

Anyway, they want to insulate their kitchen better. This has been a wish for some years, but as it's a difficult bit of work, it got postponed and postponed. We will now try to do it when we visit. They will try and come up with more chores we can do when we are there.

Are your parents in receipt of attendance allowance? It is intended for people who need help with personal care but if your mother is having trouble with peeling potatoes it is likely she also has difficulty with doing up clothes, bathing/ showering and other aspects of daily living. If nothing can be done to help you dad he may also be eligible after 6months.  If they arent have a look on the govenrment website and see if they may qualify. My one tip is that if they do apply get CAB, Age Concern or similar to help fill in the forms as they need to be filled using correct terminology.

Siebrie said her parents are in the Netherlands so GOV.UK isn't likely to be of use.

AA Eligibility:

you must also:

• be in Great Britain when you claim - there are some exceptions, such as members and family members of the armed forces
• have been in Great Britain for at least 2 of the last 3 years (this does not apply if you’re a refugee or have humanitarian protection status)
• be habitually resident in the UK, Ireland, Isle of Man or the Channel Islands
• not be subject to immigration control (unless you’re a sponsored immigrant)

Attendance Allowance: Eligibility - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

joedenise

@ladyholly - Unfortunately @Siebrie lives in Belgium not the UK so things will be very different to here.  

Siebrie

Thank you for your advice; they are aware of all systems, and not afraid to use them, but they try to not use them until really necessary, to not put too much pressure on the system. A nurse comes every morning to help get my father dressed and put his pressure stockings on. They have a subsidized stairlift, they use a taxi-share system that is common on the Netherlands ('deeltaxi'), where they can order a taxi within the city limits for €2,50 per person per ride, it's just likely that it needs to pick up or drop off other passengers as well.

sammyjammy

On the butter front M&S have 500g for £3.40, I got caught short and ended up paying £2 for 250g in Sainsbury the other day.

euronorris

Well, I have been very behind on the thread. A busy week at work, and then my parents came to visit for the weekend. Lovely.

I love a good McDonalds. Appreciate it's not everyone's cup of tea, but then I don't like fancy restaurant food which plenty of people rave about. Horses for courses.

BG will pay us our £400 'discount' by refunding £67 per month for 6 months. Apparently, this will happen a few days after each DD payment has cleared. Ours is taken on the 1st working day of each month, so the 'refund' should be paid in the next few days.

Someone asked about 'refreshing' a dishwasher after it's not been used for a while. You can use a dishwasher cleaner (you can get cheap ones in the likes of Home Bargains or B&M), or you could just do a quick cycle on empty, with a standard tablet in.

On Sat night, I said to my parents how I was worried about some of our electrical items all going at the same time, as we moved in here about 7.5 years ago and bought a lot of things then. Guess what happened yesterday? Kettle went! Blew the fuse. We checked it wasn't the toaster etc first, and found it was definitely the kettle, so had to go and get a new one! *rolls eyes*

Right, I won't be on much again this week as am off to Liverpool for a work thing. Leaving tomorrow (as strikes on Wednesday) and not back until Friday. Have a good week all!

Si_Clist

Just got another load of logs in from our usual supplier, who tells me that for the first time in 32 years he is concerned about his supply of round timber!  Until recently the biggest potential threat came from the firms clear-felling forests in the South to keep the woodchips going into Terminal 5 at Heathrow so it can continue the pretence that it's "Green".  But now it seems that wagons are coming down from Oop North and the drivers are buying up standing timber down here, then felling it and carting it back home 'cos there's not enough to go round where they are!  Needless to say, he's warning of yet another price rise, which will take the cost of a load past twice what we paid just 6 years ago ...

mandy47

I've just had to pay out £100 excess at the vets. Thank goodness our dog is insured. Full price was £1300.
Poor girl ate something she shouldn't and was very ill. Really thought we were going to loose her. So glad she's ok, ongoing treatment is covered by the insurance. 


On a different note, managed to find a large single door curtain online that covers my french doors. Only available in grey but actually looks pretty good at my kitchen door. Used a spring loaded shower curtain pole to hang it and I'm happy with the results.  That was the draughtiest place in the house. We'll definitely feel the benefit. 
Draught excluders out of storage and DH managed to saw up the last of the gifted wood ready for the winter.

I'm doing a freezer and cupboard list to see if I can recoup some of the vets excess on this months grocery. Also going to see if there's any overtime available at work.
wishing everyone well, keep up the frugaling .

[Deleted User]

I'm trying to be realistic (and not moan - more be grateful for what I have) but:  The way prices are increasing really does not make sense.  Many items seem to have increased by much more than inflation and I struggle to make sense of some of it.

This is just a very small example:  Today I went into my local £-land shop to buy my 'usual'  packets of Jakemans Honey and Lemon lozenges at 50 pence per packet.   In the space of just one week they had jumped in price to £1 per packet - 100% increase.  I (politely) mentioned this to the shop assistant and she said that 'everything' had gone up in price.

I didn't buy them and, when looking for something else in a big well known chemist, I noticed that they were on the shelf marked at 65 pence.   Although still an increased price I decided to buy just one packet as, at least, as I thought, not as much as a 100% increase.  At the chemist checkout they went through the till at £1.99 (ouch) for the one packet.  I struggle to understand how a number of items are increasing such a lot and so quickly.

I want to be fair but I could not justify paying £1.99 for a packet of lozenges now costing £1.99 when, less than two weeks ago (in a different shop) the regular price was 50 pence for one packet.

We understand about inflation, and the increased cost of living,  but I wonder if there are many more items where the price increases are  being 'set' excessively and much more than necessary.

It's not an easy time and I am grateful for what I have.  My heart goes out to people who really cannot manage at all, or maybe struggle with budgeting and who are becoming increasingly stressed.

YorksLass

Deleted_User: I'm trying to be realistic (and not moan - more be grateful for what I have) but:  The way prices are increasing really does not make sense.  Many items seem to have increased by much more than inflation and I struggle to make sense of some of it.

You're not on your own with that thought.  I have a grocery delivery coming tomorrow and, to be fair, it is a larger than normal one as I've been using up existing stocks that now need replenishing.  Five things I wanted are no longer stocked (these are all cheaper/basics items) and no less than 12 other items have gone up since I last bought them.  Will I get everything I ordered?  That remains to be seen.  So far, I'm managing to keep my grocery budget the same although it's definitely getting harder, despite all the economies I've been making, but I'm always happy if I have even a small surplus left at the end of the month.

I filled the oven this morning with a batch bake of 8 large fruit scones, Yorkshire Parkin (baked in a shallow square cake tin rather than a traditional round one as it bakes quicker that way) and 24 small peanut butter cookies.  Will have to be patient before eating the parkin though as it takes a few days to mature and become sticky.