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

YorksLass

Yippee, the bins were emptied this morning.    A fair bit of paper and carrier bags littering the ground   but hey ho, you can't have everything.  EH - I hope yours get emptied before Xmas.  Our little street is scheduled for Thursdays but, because it is such a little street, the binmen usually combine it with the houses on Wednesdays.  Didn't happen last week though - perhaps it was a new crew.

G & E bill arrived, OMG!  Despite all our efforts at economising (and being low users), we've been charged £60.46 for E (was £34 last December) and a whopping £221.58 for G (was £70.86 last December).  Units of E used are a little less than last year and G units only slightly higher because of the cold snap, so it's all down to increased prices.  And that's after the EBSS and EPG have been applied.     Needless to say, I'm wearing my energy police hat.  Top temps here today of 8c but it felt much colder outside thanks to the cold breeze.  Roll on the warmer weather.

Grocery delivery order has been amended with some things taken off and others added on.  Hopefully, there'll be no oos's.  If there are, then we'll manage - I'm not planning on going out again until after Xmas.

Doom_and_Gloom

London_1 said:

luvchocolate said:

London_1 said:

As I am away for most of next week, I  just sorted my fridge out, and peeled the last of the spuds, and they are in water, on Friday as I will be baking most of the day I will boil and mash and freeze them for the New Year.

The three large carrots I had left in the fridge I peeled sliced, blanched and froze in a small bag to use when life gets back to normal after the holiday.I hate to waste anything. 

I had a couple of the last of the sausage rolls I made on Sunday heated up with some diced tomato and shredded ham and beetroot salad for lunch.

I have dug a bit of steak from the freezer for dinner tonight, and will have it with the left over boiled salad potato from last night and some frozen mixed veg.

I have some roquefort cheese left in the fridge, which I will have on crackers perhaps for tomorrows lunch with some soup.

I still have a sweetheart cabbage wrapped in foil to use , so on Friday once I have some room in the freezer I will shred it and freeze it in some small dump zip -locked bags to use after the New Year. I will also peel and dice the three onions in my veg box and freeze those as well

Zero wasteage, and I will have plenty of bits to use up in January, but my fridge will be empty  

I have started my January 'big shop'  list, and I will use the spare cash I have stashed away over the past 6 months ,left over at the end of every month from my monthly budget.
I have around £119 tucked away which will cover washing up liquids, loo rols, detergents toothpaste and any dried good I can buy to stash away in my upstairs book slefs that I cleared a couple of months ago for the overspill from my kitchen cupboards.

January will be the start of the New Years budgets, and this coming year it will be belt tightening all round to keep solvent. I have a good amount in vouchers to use up both with nectar, Waitrose and tesco vouchers ,plus some left over cash on some M & S cards as well. So I maybe using vouchers during January to keep the cash in reserve for any large heating bills.

I usually check all my outgoing DD and see what I can haggle down I have EE ringing me on Boxing Day with hopefully a decent discount on my sim-only account. I spoke to a delightful lady last week to advised me to hang on until then as the Boxing day deals were usually not too bad and she will ring me to let me know how much she can get it down to
Every little helps as is said. trimming a few pounds here and there can soon mount up

JackieO xx 

Hi on the EE sim only deal..I pay £8 a month unlimited texts and calls only 2gbt data but have WiFi with plusnet. 
Fingers crossed for a good deal 

Hi I am paying £8.76 for 6 GB and unlimited calls and texts at the moment but rarely use 1 GB a month, she said when I phoned she could do it at £7.00 but suggested that I wait until Boxing Day for a better deal, which I thought was really nice of her My existing contract for the SIM runs out on 14th Jan so I have time to sort it out fingers crossed  
JackieO xx

I'm on ID mobile. Text and calls are unlimited. I get 24 GB for £8, it was a black Friday deal it is usually 20GB for that price, it's a 2 year SIM only plan. I know you say you don't use a huge amount of internet but I like that what I don't use gets rolled onto the next month.

ID mobile do a 5GB for £6 SIM for a 2 year plan again text and calls are unlimited. Keep that in mind for the deal EE mention as even if you don't want to move provider if you make out you would to save the money they may try and keep you for the same price.

sammyjammy

London_1 said:

luvchocolate said:

London_1 said:

As I am away for most of next week, I  just sorted my fridge out, and peeled the last of the spuds, and they are in water, on Friday as I will be baking most of the day I will boil and mash and freeze them for the New Year.

The three large carrots I had left in the fridge I peeled sliced, blanched and froze in a small bag to use when life gets back to normal after the holiday.I hate to waste anything. 

I had a couple of the last of the sausage rolls I made on Sunday heated up with some diced tomato and shredded ham and beetroot salad for lunch.

I have dug a bit of steak from the freezer for dinner tonight, and will have it with the left over boiled salad potato from last night and some frozen mixed veg.

I have some roquefort cheese left in the fridge, which I will have on crackers perhaps for tomorrows lunch with some soup.

I still have a sweetheart cabbage wrapped in foil to use , so on Friday once I have some room in the freezer I will shred it and freeze it in some small dump zip -locked bags to use after the New Year. I will also peel and dice the three onions in my veg box and freeze those as well

Zero wasteage, and I will have plenty of bits to use up in January, but my fridge will be empty  

I have started my January 'big shop'  list, and I will use the spare cash I have stashed away over the past 6 months ,left over at the end of every month from my monthly budget.
I have around £119 tucked away which will cover washing up liquids, loo rols, detergents toothpaste and any dried good I can buy to stash away in my upstairs book slefs that I cleared a couple of months ago for the overspill from my kitchen cupboards.

January will be the start of the New Years budgets, and this coming year it will be belt tightening all round to keep solvent. I have a good amount in vouchers to use up both with nectar, Waitrose and tesco vouchers ,plus some left over cash on some M & S cards as well. So I maybe using vouchers during January to keep the cash in reserve for any large heating bills.

I usually check all my outgoing DD and see what I can haggle down I have EE ringing me on Boxing Day with hopefully a decent discount on my sim-only account. I spoke to a delightful lady last week to advised me to hang on until then as the Boxing day deals were usually not too bad and she will ring me to let me know how much she can get it down to
Every little helps as is said. trimming a few pounds here and there can soon mount up

JackieO xx 

Hi on the EE sim only deal..I pay £8 a month unlimited texts and calls only 2gbt data but have WiFi with plusnet. 
Fingers crossed for a good deal 

Hi I am paying £8.76 for 6 GB and unlimited calls and texts at the moment but rarely use 1 GB a month, she said when I phoned she could do it at £7.00 but suggested that I wait until Boxing Day for a better deal, which I thought was really nice of her My existing contract for the SIM runs out on 14th Jan so I have time to sort it out fingers crossed  
JackieO xx

Worth considering Giffgaff if they don't come back with a better deal, £6 for free calls and texts and 2GB, SIM only no contract

Longwalker

Basically a not a brilliant day

I always buy a boned and rolled turkey from lidl - about £18 and it suits us all, me for the ease of cooking, Mr S as he gets leg meat and mum as theres a lot of easily carved breast.  They were due instore yesterday and today - sold out by time I finished work yesterday so manager told me to get there before 10am today. Which I did, in nightdress and joggers with a coat ( oh the shame ). And nope, not one had come in

So shot around to Tesco to see what they had, not an awful lot, the Turkeys were on an end fridge - that was it. A Norfolk bronze was going to set me back £50+ so in the end I settled on a free range crown out of lidl. Not happy as no dark meat but we all do like Turkey and the budget isnt stretching to goose ( our preferred choice ). However I did pick up a good lump of ham to cook for just £14 - outdoor reared , only £3 dearer then the equivalent weight in the normal range with the club card discount

Actually thinking about it all a bit more, the Christmas shop has come in about £40 more then my usual shop, so pretty happy with that. I did take advantage of the half price lamb and beef joints so have 2 of each in the freezer for later in the coming year 

Opps, I tell a lie. We had a new butchers opened last week, they done a meat back for £25 which I took advantage of.  I got 2lb of steak mince, 1lb of steak pieces, 4 chicken fillets, 4 pork chops, 1lb of pork and cranberry chipolatas,.1lb of pork and leek sausages and a stuffed pork fillet which came in a tin with roasting veggies, so I have no need to buy meat for at least a month. Total retail price was £42 so a bargain and its all stuff we will eat  - you could choose from about 12 different items 

Unfortunately there was a bit of food waste from the fridge, half a punnet of tomatoes, a bottle of squeeze lemon, a tub of pate that had been hidden and half a bag of grated mozzarella that was more blue then white. Hate , hate, hate food waste but this is the busiest time of year in work and Im cooking easy cooked meals when I get home, not concocting out of what needs to be used 

I dunno, but this year has been the first year I have really thought about prices and have put things back.Not so much that I didnt have the money, but more to do with the "how much" factor. I haven't gone all out for the "nice things" - a box of mince pies, a tub of double cream instead of at least 3 different flavours of extra thick, 1 box of shortbread, the only choccies are those that are gifted and only stilton alongside the normal cheddar 

Its a very pared back spend on food this year, not that I was outrageous before, but I really did think about everything I purchased, do we really need this? Will we eat all this? Will this be dumped?

And there hasn't been a mince pie in lidl as yet !!

Onebrokelady

I was in Sainsbury's this morning and they had 19p veg, they were really well stocked too 

London_1

My youngest granddaughter has sadly parted with her OH, and as a teacher is on her Christmas break at the moment.She texted yesterday and asked if she could come round and make some sausge rolls tomorrow morning.

So I've just whizzed up to the large Tescos to get extra puff pastry and some sausage meat. No blocks of pastry left, so had buy some ready rolled stuff which will have to do, and the tiny trays of sausage meat at £3.50 were not really enough and no way was I paying £7.00 for two trays so, I bought instead 12 Cumberland sausages for £2.60, and 8 Lincolnshire sausages for £2.00 so more than enough for her to use to make some sausage rolls as we can strip the skins off, with bangers left over for our lunch

I used to make my own puff pastry but with the price of butter ,plus all the faff of rolling and folding it, I decided to buy ready-made as it does save a lot of work DGD Holly won't mind ,I think she just wants a bit of 'normality and cooking time with Nanny as she did when she was a little girl. I shall make her laugh  and fill her up with lots of coffee and TLC.

I was in there before 7.00 and back home by 7.30am. nice to shop without all the pushing and shoving. Only have to pop to the library later to return my books All shopping done and dusted until the New Year thank goodness

JackieO xx

JIL

@jackie0
Your post was so full of love, it's shines through just how much you mean to your grandchildren and how much they mean to you.

London_1

JIL said:

@jackie0
Your post was so full of love, it's shines through just how much you mean to your grandchildren and how much they mean to you.

Oh bless you yes I adore all of my seven grandchildren, and when they are hurting I am as well. But bless her she is such a dear little lass, and was totally astounded when he announced he wanted a divorce as they had been together 6 years and were only married a year last August.
They had had three cancellations because of covid and lockdowns and she has for the past few months been under the hospital having treatment for PCOS as as far as she was concerned they were trying for a child  
Right out of the blue he's decided that he wishes to be single. Apparently he has been texting someone else  She is devasted as she adores him.
But I will always be there for her and try to keep her spirits up bless her. 

JackieO xx

EssexHebridean

Jackie you might not need/be able to strip the skins off the sausages - they are SO thin now it's the devil's own job - I always bought chipolata for pigs in blankets then used to twist them into two and cut apart before wrapping i stretched streaky bacon - last year the sausages were just squishing everywhere as I tried to twist them, so I ended up having to use them whole and make bigger ones which worked OK. I thought I'd rescue the two squished ones by shoving them in sausage rolls but I actually couldn't get the skins off - being so thin it just proved impossible - I shoved them in skins and all in the end and they were fine! 

That's awful for your GD but it does sound as though she is well rid of him as he's not exactly coming across as the honest type. One to keep your own counsel on though I'd imagine! 

I did a quick tally up yesterday of our last three weeks electricity costs - £85-ish plus the SC I reckon. Ouchy but not so bad as I feared allowing that our night rate has more than increased since last year. Thankfully it's dropped back a bit now - we were on a shade under 18kWh first thing this morning and that included a load of washing last night. I'll read the meter tomorrow (and ask MrEH to do the gas one) and then pop the readings through to the Octopods I think - it'll only be a whisker before my usual date and otherwise I'll forget with christmas in the way. 

Pollycat

Had a fairly pleasant shop in Aldi.
In and out in 15 minutes.
But I only wanted mainly veg plus a few bits.
Bought sprouts, parsnips, carrots, potatoes and swede, all a great price.
Bought a leek and a Savoy cabbage yesterday from Tesco so that's all the veg I need and enough to freeze some.
All tills manned and small queues.
Even though I'd only got a few things I let a chap with just a sandwich go in front of me.
Out tonight with friends and that's it until 28th December.
Pubs will be far too busy and silly tomorrow and Saturday.