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

elsien

New financial year resolution. Stay out if the charity shops unless looking for a specific and necessary item. “But it’s a bargain” has added up to rather more than expected when I looked over my spending diary.

I was doing quite well with OLIO on the fruit and veg front, but I think there’s so many people now that are aware of it that  I seem to be getting offered  less each time. And the current people are further away. I don’t want to travel to them because that defeats the object, particularly if it’s for a couple of bags of salad or something like that. So I am spending more on food at the moment just because of having to buy it instead of getting it free. It does make a difference.

YorksLass

Nelliegrace said:

The heating is off most of the time as the thermostat says it is warm enough. B Gas has reduced the estimated amount for the year a bit more. We have increased the DD from £140 to £150 a month to reduce the arrears from the Winter usage before BG decides to increase it a lot or sends round the thugs. We are spending as much on heating a small semi as we are on food, even with the heating at 14°C just in the day, which isn’t extravagant. 

I noticed in an article on state pensions that the gap between the old state pension and the new one is increasing. If you are over 71 you will get nearly £48 a week less state pension. It has gone up from £141.85 to £156.20 a week. 

We're in the pretty much the same position, spending more on energy than food and we're not extravagant either (with energy use or food - in fact, not with anything!)

We're both on the old state pension and I've often thought the gap between the old and new schemes seems disproportionate.  Pension Credit helps some on the old scheme but somehow we're always just over the qualifying criteria.  Maybe we shouldn't have been so prudent during our working lives!      

Elisheba

Oh yes. Thinking about it, I now pay 20% more on energy than I budget for a month's food. Before my last deal ran out and all the rises it would have 50% less on energy than food. 

euronorris

Another one here who does not enjoy meal planning and cooking all the time. I long for just shoving something in the oven and then being able to enjoy it 20-30 minutes later. Alas, that is not a healthy option for us, nor cheap. So planning and cooking it is. I do try to batch cook to make the busy/tired days easier.

Had a good, and frugal morning. Went into town, managed to park for free. Paid into some coins (mostly coppers) into the bank account, got a free sausage roll from greggs to share with DD (from O2 priority) and then headed down the pier with DD. Locals can get a free pier card giving free access to the pier. And for April, soft play on the pier is free for all pier card holders for the entire month! So that's what we did (I took a bottle of water with us for a drink).

Then collected a shop from morrisons on the way home. There was a £5 off a £25 spend on click and collect orders via an offer from hotukdeals. So I ordered some stuff I needed which was either same price as aldi or cheaper (milk, butter, teabags etc).

Longwalker

Meal planning?

Nah

I tend to work with the reverse meal planning. - plan on what to make with the left overs

Ive more chance of moon walking then I have of meal planning

Nelliegrace

I made a batch of leek and potato soup for lunches for a few days. I can add some beans or other leftover veg for variety, or blitz it up with the hand blender. 

One of DH’s old jokes, “My wife has been serving up leftovers for the last forty years. I can’t remember what the original meal was.”

YoungBlueEyes

Not a meal planner here either. Whenever I've bought something to go in the freezer, another something will have to come out to make room, so we have that something for dinner. Keeps it varied

CKhalvashi

YoungBlueEyes said:

Not a meal planner here either. Whenever I've bought something to go in the freezer, another something will have to come out to make room, so we have that something for dinner. Keeps it varied

Same here.

I tend to find some YS bargains on veg (put them with some potatoes and some meat (also normally YS purchased) in the freezer and go from there. Last night was peppered diced potatoes with onion and tomato which was made from scratch in about 30 minutes and served with chicken breast, breakfast will be bacon sandwiches (bacon was 63p for 12 rashers a few days ago in the Coop, divided into 3 sections of 4 in the freezer and removed the night before).

I'm lucky to generally be available at about 3pm at least a few days a week, which is when I've noticed the YS stuff seems to be reduced to reasonable rates. This has the advantage of being one of the first to get to them and honestly at the moment makes the 4am starts worth it.

The only extravagant thing I've bought in the last week was a £15-ish 3 coffees and a sandwich (colleague with health issues who came with me wasn't feeling 100%) in a coffee shop in a lovely village. This has netted a probably quite lucrative contract, so definitely should be viewed as an investment rather than a nasty expense. Free parking too was quite nice.

YoungBlueEyes

3am? I'm an early bird and I love a bargain, but bladdy hell!  

CKhalvashi

YoungBlueEyes said:

3am? I'm an early bird and I love a bargain, but bladdy hell!  

Well spotted!

Now corrected, I haven't had the 2nd coffee yet