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

Frugalista

Katiehound said:

The big bonus yesterday was that I got my very fruity tea loaf baked in the s.c. whilst I was out and solar panels were working. A very yummy 2lb fruit cake.....delicious with a slice of Shropshire blue.

Would you post the recipe for this please - it sounds really nice.  Thanks in advance.

Pollycat

Auti said:

Wednesday2000 said:

Not a hat, but I took the rubbish and recycling outside early this morning and I could not warm up afterwards indoors. I put a man's XL hoodie on that I bought from a charity shop and put the hood up as well and it did help.

I am getting my husband to buy mince pies today as you all keep going on about puddings! I saw them by the till at Coop yesterday, but I had just paid for what I was buying and there was a queue behind me. I don't even really like them, but I do have some custard in the fridge and it is the time of year.

Mentioning getting hoodie from charity shop - I saw one that the lady had just put on a rack, it was just a large mans  jumper in hoodie fabric and was not new or as new so I went to buy it (I get cold indoors so would be ideal) but looked at price and they wanted £8.50 - way beyond my means. Has anyone else found the charity shops have put their prices up markedly - clothing now for grown ups is expensive (to me) where I live and it is only in a seaside, not affluent town.

Katiehound said:

charity shop prices have crept up a bit- in the main 

Sue Ryder still has clothes @ £1. if you go in there on a Monday morning the rails look very bare! Cheapest round here.

Prices in charity shops are sometimes discussed on this thread:
Charity Shopping - New to You in '22! - Page 159 — MoneySavingExpert Forum
I find British Heart Foundation and some Oxfam are very pricey.
We have 3 hospice shops near me (all same organisation) and the prices can differ wildly.
I don't think our Sue Ryder has the £1 Mondays but I might be mistaken as I don't often go in there on Mondays.
We have 2 Air Ambulances in nearby towns, both £2.00 per item except 'manager's specials'.
One is often quite empty of stock, the other always has bulging rails.

I always look for exercise/thermal tops to wear in the house and also for heavyweight tops/sweatshirts/hoodies.
I don't like the heating on too much as it dries out my throat and makes me sleepy.
I'd much rather be wrapped up with a blanket over my knees and the heating off.

joedenise

Our local Cancer Research sells everything, except electricals, at £1, £2 or £3.

Flugelhorn

I think charity shop prices can vary hugely - we mainly go for secondhand books and the variation is very noticeable. When it comes to clothes some only seem interested in vintage stuff they can sell to youngsters at £££

EssexHebridean

I think charity shops generally are having a hard time. We noticed that the Age UK shop - always one of our favourites - has gone from the precinct in town. As for BHF shops - I stopped bothering when they started wanting £3 for a paperback book. I can buy one in Tesco for that price! (or, more to the point, get 6 of them for £3 in several of our other charity shops locally!) 

One of our local charities has a separate "Vintage and Retro" shop where it sells stuff that meets that description. 

Katiehound

@Pollycat- sorry I didn't make it clear- nearly all the adult clothes in Sue Ryder are @ £1 all the time.
 If you go in on a Monday ie after a busy weekend their rails are almost bare. Stuff never used to sell that quickly. Has to be a sign of the times.

Katiehound

Frugalista said:

 

Would you post the recipe for this please - it sounds really nice.  Thanks in advance.

I'll post the link under here.

Without being disrespectful I call it it the Queen Consort cake- you'll see why
I use a large mug as the standard measure
This time I used half of raisins mentioned & substituted with glace cherries & walnuts- really you could use any fruit that you have.
Add sugar with flour
You only need half the quantity of sugar, or even less!
I also added mixed spice
I line my tin with a silicone tin liner- so easy!

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/good-housekeeping-uk/20170501/285808603288724

sarahj1986

Where I live is supposedly very affluent so maybe it’s reflected in the price but they seem expensive round here. Even in my hometown which is still reasonably affluent is expensive. I mainly look for things for my daughter. £3 for a plain pair of leggings. I can get a set of 3 brand new from Asda for £6/7. Even tops are £4-£4.50 each, again I can get a 3 pack for less than a tenner. Toys seem to be all over the place. I got some puzzles from one 75p and 99p each. A similar puzzle in another charity shop was £2.49

zcrat41

Thank you for the pudding ideas. We do love custard but have been eating an awful lot of it recently due to an abundance of eggs. 

Important point of clarity - there is no way that custard goes with Sticky toffee pudding. That's just wrong. 

Also, not sure I'm going to ever eat custard again without thinking of it being some sort of bodily fluid of a a 😈 devil. That had me snorting out loud. 

Been talking to the children a bit about things we need and want. We are all really quite intrigued what life must have been like in Tudor times for example. How flipping cold you would have been this week with just a fire in your little cottage.  Can you imagine going back and how hard most of us would find it now! And places like skara brae. How did they not freeze!!! 

ladyholly

When we first got married we lived in a cottage that had 13 century outside walls and only a coal fire which had to be lit when we got home from work. It was cold even in south Devon. Our daughters bedroom got ice on the inside of the windows.

In medieval times I believe that peasant brought their animals in to their homes to keep warm however not have a couple of sheep, a cow and and a pig we had to pile the blankets on.

In certain parts of china the bed are a hollow slab with pipes runnimg underneath it from the fire. I thought that was an excellent idea.