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

CKhalvashi

Longwalker said:

Ive applied for my NHS pension, I will loose about 10% but its swings an roundabouts, Ill be claiming for two extra years

I'll message you about this (hope you don't mind) as I've hopefully got some information that may be helpful to you that I don't want to share on the public forums.

mandy47 said:

euronorris said:

I love the idea of Olio, but in practice I find it hard as they often have collection time of 10pm round my way.

Same here. I start work at 5am so I'm usually tucked up in bed by 9pm. 

That's the problem with many places. In Poland the other week I saw a sign that said if arriving in the final hour of opening there's 50% off the food. This is a good way to do things (except in this particular place food was priced by weight, I'd have gone for more meat if I'd known that originally).

If OH is on earlies I'm in bed by 8pm generally, if she's on lates we'll go to bed at 3-4am (meaning I'm sending final e-mails for work as clients are starting their day), on her days off I'll generally lay in more and sleep far better too .

Fully agree that budgeting is becoming a lot more difficult though as many price rises are unpredictable. We've stocked up on many things when there have been offers (a Co-op I pass regularly have some really good value yellow sticker stuff late evening sometimes, they also had some bacon dated mid-February for £1 a pack on clearance a few wees ago for 5 double rashers, the freezer has several packs of those currently.

On a personal front, I've been surprised at how fussy charity shops are becoming. We've tried to take some records in this morning, the first wanted only about 1/3 of what they'd agreed to take (a medium-sized car boot full was a rough approximation, there was quite a bit less than this). A second has taken some after not thinking they could take them, a third took a handful. I've put the remainder on the end of a skip and have put a post on the local Facebook group saying if anyone wants them, please send me a message and I'll give the address. It seems a huge shame to see perfectly good items go to waste.

Also surprised (pleasantly this time) at the cost of van hire. We'd called 2 man and van style services (taxi van is the latest wording apparently) asking about 2x 5 mile runs with neither willing to do this for less than around £120 (for about 2 hours work). Rented a van for the day on Saturday for £65 from a local company (2 drivers included) and they're even happy for one of us to leave a car there.

slm6002

With Olio have you asked if you can collect the next day.  I used to help and had half of the people come that night but others asked for the next morning.  Might be worth a try

Auntycaz

I would love to use Olio or a community larder but unfortunately, there aren't any near me and I don't drive. There is a food bank a couple of mornings per week but there are families who's need is greater than mine and also they are a decent walk from the nearest bus stop which I would struggle with.

elsien

Florenceem said:

euronorris - We don't have a car - I don't fancy walking the streets in the dark to do Olio.

I find it depends what you are asking for. Anything (eg dairy or packs of ham) with a use by date of that date have to be picked up the same night. Which is generally up to 11 pm as they don't start listing till about 9 pm.
The veggies and bread (which is more what I go for) they are usually happy to hang onto for collection the next day so I quite often pick stuff up at 8 am. Obviously that depends on the person and their lifestyle, and you may find that people who can pick up earlier are prioritised.

YorksLass

I use a local Co-op for certain items and occasionally their promotions (sometimes good, sometimes not) and also use their weekly  membership offers.  You can only choose two of the eight offered each week and, to say they are supposed to be "personalised" based on what you normally buy, I think that's a bit misleading - usually about three of them are not products I've bought before and probably wouldn't despite the offer.  That said, some are useful eg a couple of weeks ago I had 50p off a tin of sardines so paid just 5p and I can sometimes get a couple of bananas for "free" since the offer covers the cost.  The timing of their ys offerings seems to vary from one day to the next (probably depends on staffing levels) and are probably cheaper at the end of the day.  Swings and roundabouts.

Hairdresser appointment this morning for a cut and blow dry, price has gone up £3 - although, tbh, I'm surprised it hasn't gone up before now.  I used to go every 6 weeks but reduced it to every 8 weeks last year.  Any longer between appointments leaves me looking bedraggled and decidedly scruffy, as evidenced during lock down.  Since it's the only beauty luxury I indulge in, I'll have to see where else I can economise - not sure where as yet, but needs must.  

Just reading about water bills increasing for 2023/2024.  Our region will be a £30 pa increase but I'm assuming that applies to those who pay the full amount.  We're on an assessed bill (can't have a meter fitted) so I'm hoping ours will be a smaller increase.  We'll see.

On the subject of charity shops and what they will or won't take, I blame the Mary Portas effect.  A lot of the bigger nationwide charities now run their shops as a business thanks to her intervention.  I find I'm using them less and less (too expensive, soulless) and prefer to stick to smaller community led ones or our local Hospice shop.

luvchocolate

YorksLass said:

I use a local Co-op for certain items and occasionally their promotions (sometimes good, sometimes not) and also use their weekly  membership offers.  You can only choose two of the eight offered each week and, to say they are supposed to be "personalised" based on what you normally buy, I think that's a bit misleading - usually about three of them are not products I've bought before and probably wouldn't despite the offer.  That said, some are useful eg a couple of weeks ago I had 50p off a tin of sardines so paid just 5p and I can sometimes get a couple of bananas for "free" since the offer covers the cost.  The timing of their ys offerings seems to vary from one day to the next (probably depends on staffing levels) and are probably cheaper at the end of the day.  Swings and roundabouts.

Hairdresser appointment this morning for a cut and blow dry, price has gone up £3 - although, tbh, I'm surprised it hasn't gone up before now.  I used to go every 6 weeks but reduced it to every 8 weeks last year.  Any longer between appointments leaves me looking bedraggled and decidedly scruffy, as evidenced during lock down.  Since it's the only beauty luxury I indulge in, I'll have to see where else I can economise - not sure where as yet, but needs must.  

Just reading about water bills increasing for 2023/2024.  Our region will be a £30 pa increase but I'm assuming that applies to those who pay the full amount.  We're on an assessed bill (can't have a meter fitted) so I'm hoping ours will be a smaller increase.  We'll see.

On the subject of charity shops and what they will or won't take, I blame the Mary Portas effect.  A lot of the bigger nationwide charities now run their shops as a business thanks to her intervention.  I find I'm using them less and less (too expensive, soulless) and prefer to stick to smaller community led ones or our local Hospice shop.

The biggest problem for charity shops is the cost of disposal of unsaleable items 

Not clothing as rag man pays per kilo but rusty tins  chipped chipped bric a brac content of pedal bins include used nappies. Yes I've dealt with it all 

greyteam1959

@Longwalker
I am sure that you will not be able to claim Carers Allowance if you receive a pension.
I could be wrong of course.
Can your Mum claim Attendance Allowance??

Florenceem

luvchocolate - when I said about donations of out of date food and unusable items to the SA - someone almost said that I was making it up. I sort through donations so see what we get sometimes. Don't get me wrong - we get a lot of very useful stuff as well.

euronorris

greyteam1959 said:

@Longwalker
I am sure that you will not be able to claim Carers Allowance if you receive a pension.
I could be wrong of course.
Can your Mum claim Attendance Allowance??

Carers allowance is not affected by receipt of a personal or occupational pension. It is affected by receipt of state pension though. However, I don't think that @longwalker is state pension age.

JIL

greyteam1959 said:

@Longwalker
I am sure that you will not be able to claim Carers Allowance if you receive a pension.
I could be wrong of course.
Can your Mum claim Attendance Allowance??

I read that's its a private pension so is not counted as income for carers allowance purposes


Apologies cross posted with euronorris