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

Floss

slm6002 said:

Floss may I ask which energy supplier you are with.  I hear British gas are going to be doing something but I couldn't see anything on their website as yet.  I may be being too impatient

Octopus 🐙 

elsien

Octopus did the trials. 

Katiehound

timehastoldme said:

Anxious introvert, and big fan of self scanners, wish Aldi did them. Small talk is exhausting. 

Aldi has self scan tills in our local store. They've been in for at least a couple of months. However, they are not patient! If you hesitate for even a moment the wretched thing has some kind of message for you.  If you have 30% stickers on anything you need to leave them to the end as an assistant puts in the discount code.
There are cash ones & cards ones- 6 or 7 in total and I think have replaced 2 traditional tills. If I have a very full trolley I would use the normal till.

Katiehound

Gosh, been away for 5 weeks and it has taken me the better part of 2 days to read thro' the thread since the funeral!

Just checked my Shell account & for some reason the £66 was paid in so they reduced the DD considerably- next month's DD has gone up by £25. I can't see the logic. Why didn't they take the DD as planned and then not increase the new one. Perhaps I have more brain ...!!!

Cold calling. One of my friends said' Just come away from the script for a moment... ' and the phone was slammed down.

Pages way back there was a comment about shampoo & conditioner.
I have managed to buy the following in cheapie shops here, Dealz in R o Ireland-(owned by £land) and an Irish cut price chain called Mr Price: 1 litre bottles of shampoo & conditioner around £2.50 a bottle, made by a firm called Eight Triple Eight. I really like their caffeine, their lavender and have just bought the arnica variant . They also have Tee tree, Argan oil and a couple of other 'flavours'. Looks like RRP is around £10 per bottle! Lloyds Pharmacy has a couple @£2.50. Worth looking out for IMHO

Rosa_Damascena

CKhalvashi said:

Haven't been able to post as this may have gone legal, looks like it won't now so I will post something.

Mom had a severe car accident last Friday, ended up in hospital until Tuesday (it was raining, she was planning to enter work through A&E but didn't have quite this scenario in mind). She's very bruised but ok.

I went somewhere close to Cambridge to collect her belongings from the car yesterday (if you end up doing this, take a suitcase, it will save you a lot of time when doing this, even with arriving and leaving in a vehicle). It's quite sobering seeing a vehicle you know quite well in that condition. The dashboard has been forced backwards by 5-10cm (looking at the position of the air conditioning dials and gap in the dashboard, this is the best guide I have so may not be accurate).

Please everyone wear a seatbelt and make sure your passengers are doing the same as well. Also make sure there is as little as possible behind you that is heavy. Some gardening tools in there have actually pushed half of the rear seat out of the bracket, but luckily didn't fly forward.

Can anyone here recommend something Fiesta/Corsa/i20 etc sized? Manual gearbox is preferred and preferably not more than 3-4 years old, but all brands will be considered subject to budget (preferably about £7k, but can be stretched to possibly £10k).

Thank goodness your mum is ok! The suitcase tip is a good one, when you are stunned following an accident it doesn't occur that the car will be impounded miles away and it is unlikely you will have a vehicle to get you to that location in the middle of nowhere. So empty it out asap before that happens, or better still leave the bare minimum in it.

If there is one thing I will take away from this is the need to empty out my car boot this weekend.

Rosa_Damascena

The ONS has a data calculator to show how inflation is affecting you personally: 
https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/articles/howisinflationaffectingyourhouseholdcosts/2022-03-23 . I thought this would be a handy tool but in retrospect, those of us intent on moneysaving will find ourselves spending less than the average similar household and so it offers little other than affirmation of our thrifty habits.

YorksLass

I woke at my normal time this morning so didn't get an extra hour in bed   but instead put the time to good use while I was waiting for DH to get up.

First, I cleaned out the fridge and have made a large pan of tomato & red pepper soup, enough for two, maybe three, lunches for us.  Grated up the last apple into what's left of the yogurt with a handful of sultanas - with a sprinkle of cinnamon that will do today's pudding.  

Now I have no potatoes, carrots, peppers or fruit left and just half a head of broccoli, two onions, lettuce and tomatoes, so the next job was to do an online order for Tuesday.  It's a much smaller than normal one since the freezer and cupboards are well stocked and I didn't order any cheese either as there's enough in the fridge for now.  Even so, no doubt when it arrives I'll be thinking "there's not much there for the money".  As is usual for these days, some price increases - milk (again), eggs, carrots, onions, peppers, tinned tomatoes, lemon juice, tomato puree and oatcakes.  It certainly focuses the mind on not letting anything go to waste!     

I also made a list of what I want to bake this week (using what I already have) - just need to decide which day to do it so I can have a full oven!

Rosa_Damascena

I was verging on a NS weekend because I have been busy working for most of it. And then I decided to blow a load online at M&S (shoes and advent calendar ) that I definitely don't need, and a tank-full of petrol that I do.

London_1

I think I might make some of that tomato and red pepper soup as I can use either tinned tomatoes or fresh as I have plenty of both, and I have a red pepper that's starting to look a bit sad,so it will do for a couple of lunches this week..I'm out tomorrow for lunch and also Tuesday, but it will easily do me wed/thurs/fri with some crackers and cheese. And youve reminded me I have some greek yogurt that should be used up and I have apples and cinnamon Thanks YorksLass no shopping for me for a few days which is good as I've a really busy week this week catching up with some old friends.

Definitely be using up some stuff from the fridge this week, I know I have some wensleydale and cranberry chesse to  use up as well.
JackieO xx

strawb_shortcake

Katiehound said:

timehastoldme said:

Anxious introvert, and big fan of self scanners, wish Aldi did them. Small talk is exhausting. 

Aldi has self scan tills in our local store. They've been in for at least a couple of months. However, they are not patient! If you hesitate for even a moment the wretched thing has some kind of message for you.  If you have 30% stickers on anything you need to leave them to the end as an assistant puts in the discount code.
There are cash ones & cards ones- 6 or 7 in total and I think have replaced 2 traditional tills. If I have a very full trolley I would use the normal till.

I remembered when a local Asda introduced the self scan, and I was stood in queue to pay when the two ladies behind me fed up of queuing said aloud "let's go to the self scan, it's cheaper". I remember thinking it'll never catch on if the shoplifting is going to catch on! 
But many years later its still going, I guess the reduction of staff compensates and additional costs from thievery.

I did inform a member of staff of what I'd heard