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

ladyholly

Virtually all social care is privately run and only partly paid for by the public purse. Ask the many families who are paying large sums of money for their elderly parents care. In fact many of the fees they pay are higher than those who are supported by councils so they are subsiding  less well off pensioners. 
Many providers are now in the position they cannot get the staff so have to reduce the numbers they care for or close because they cannot make a profit. Yes profit is a deciding factor in care as in the wholly private economy. 
As I said it doesn't always work although I do accept social care is odd as a hybrid business. 

Spendless

Decluttered another couple of cupboards. I always like doing this and discovering something in there which means I don't have to buy another for a while. Today was no exception with a couple of liquid hand soaps. No idea why they were in there. I suspect Mr S puts stuff anywhere he thinks of because in clearing another cupboard I have found 4 opened pots/tubes of mustard and I can't abide the stuff so would definitely never think oohhh must get some! 

Also went through all the plastic containers and discarded those that didn't have lids. Now it's all stacked up neatly, I am far more inspired to keep on top of packed lunches. I had this down to a fine art when I was working a few weeks back, but once I lost my job didn't see the point. Now I'm going to go back to preparing a salad for my lunch and then it's ready when I want to eat it and I'm not adding to any costs by making hot food during the day. 

ladyholly

I think cold food is going to feature with  a lot of people in the next few months or years. 

Happy_Sloth

i think it's a sorry state of affair's when decent people are actually making cold food because they don't want to spent the fuel to have something hot... it really should be a basic thing that everyone can do.  

Had a mini meltdown this morning, did a meter reading because im sadly becoming obsessed with how much energy we are using to find out we have used 210 KWH more than we usually do v's our normal usage which works about to be about £59 extra. Now normally i wouldn't worry about it but things the way they are i just had a meltdown. Not because of the £59 because im blessed enough that i can find that extra money, but it was more about not understanding why/how we'd used it given how careful we've been. 

After running around the house like a nutter questioning people DS1 admitted he'd had a heater incident... he'd gone into one of the rooms we don't use often and turned on the electric heater. Now i have no issue with him using the heater as a rule.. i hate them, they are old and inefficient but he said the room was like walking into a fridge... so fair enough.. that room has a radiator but it's a big room and it takes ages for the radiator to heat the room up, so yea occasionally i use the heater, normally just until the radiators kick in fully. 

Sadly DS1 ... did not turn the heater OFF again when he left the room, leaving it on for a full 24 hours ! I suppose i should be grateful he didn't burn the flipping house down! 

Clearly the heater isn't the only contributing factor to the extra usage but it does at least explain some of it.  the rest i think is to do with the workmen we've had sorting out the house, but still... its all so stressful.  I shouldn't need to panic every time someone turns on an appliance.  

*Sigh* 

Spendless

Happy_Sloth said:

i think it's a sorry state of affair's when decent people are actually making cold food because they don't want to spent the fuel to have something hot... it really should be a basic thing that everyone can do.  

Had a mini meltdown this morning, did a meter reading because im sadly becoming obsessed with how much energy we are using to find out we have used 210 KWH more than we usually do v's our normal usage which works about to be about £59 extra. Now normally i wouldn't worry about it but things the way they are i just had a meltdown. Not because of the £59 because im blessed enough that i can find that extra money, but it was more about not understanding why/how we'd used it given how careful we've been. 

After running around the house like a nutter questioning people DS1 admitted he'd had a heater incident... he'd gone into one of the rooms we don't use often and turned on the electric heater. Now i have no issue with him using the heater as a rule.. i hate them, they are old and inefficient but he said the room was like walking into a fridge... so fair enough.. that room has a radiator but it's a big room and it takes ages for the radiator to heat the room up, so yea occasionally i use the heater, normally just until the radiators kick in fully. 

Sadly DS1 ... did not turn the heater OFF again when he left the room, leaving it on for a full 24 hours ! I suppose i should be grateful he didn't burn the flipping house down! 

Clearly the heater isn't the only contributing factor to the extra usage but it does at least explain some of it.  the rest i think is to do with the workmen we've had sorting out the house, but still... its all so stressful.  I shouldn't need to panic every time someone turns on an appliance.  

*Sigh* 

Well it's more like you're explaining. I was more than happy to eat a salad each day whilst I worked. We've lost an income though and there's going to be increased costs due to me being in the house all day. At the minute I'm unsure of what the increased energy costs will be, what we're using and where we can make changes, when I find them some will be big some will be small, some will be so negligible that I won't continue with the change if I find I dislike doing it. 

  We have a summerhouse that was a godsend over the past 2 years as DH worked from home. He still does a couple of days a week but he does put a heater on and I describe it as working into a swimming pool with the temperature he has it at. I said today that if he continues to do this then I think he should return to the office instead and let work pay the heating bill. Wouldn't increase petrol costs as he has a company car and doesn't pay. 

Rosa_Damascena

Am just watching the Press Preview and feeling pretty incensed with the headline claiming that Rishi Sunak will will cutting our council tax bills. If it doesn't mean less civic amenities for us at a local level (and I fear for public safety) it will be a case of removing the adult social care precept because of the additional revenue raised by the NI hike. It's all sleight of hand!

If only this government had the guts to hold the big tax-dodging corporations to account.

London_1

I had a coffee with my granddaughter on Saturday morning (it was a freebie with a voucher I had)
Now she is married, and a primary school teacher of almost 29. Her husband is a water engineer so they are both in full time work. No children yet although, I know she want to start a family eventually .

She was telling me how she had been economising because their food bill had gone up by about a third since Christmas. They now apparently no longer have take aways, or many meals out as they once did.
She said she was really worried about the cost of living rising so much This is a lass who used to think shopping was a hobby .Suddenly she has realised that food, energy fuel etc has to be paid for and budgetted for as well. 

She said "How on earth do you cope Nanny as I know pensions aren't very big".
To which I replied its just another time of belt tightening honey I've done it before many times and no doubt will do it again. I budget carefully for food ,rarely buy clothes , make sure the bills are covered and keep out of debt and save up for things I want. 

Its the first time I have ever know her to even think about money let alone worry about it. They have a small rescue dog and when he is at home they used to leave a radio playing for company during the day. But she said now she has been switching it off and also telling her OH not to leave the TV playing if he's not watching it .

It was quite funny hearing her tell me her small economies as this is a lass who, until she married, when living at home had a small fan on every night whilst asleep as she liked a feeling of coolness in her bedroom. Who showered at least twice a day. Who constantly left her radio, tv, phone charging with no thought to what it was costing her parents
Surprising what having to pay your own bill makes you change your mind about whats important. 

These rises have certainly made her have a 'light bulb' moment at long last She even told me she is shopping around for food and how she streetches her meals out and was telling me that to make ends meet I must do the same like I hadn't been doing it for the past 65 plus odd years but I just said "Oh thats a good idea sweetie " Bless her she means well. But I'm glad she is taking these things seriously at last .

Its something we all will have to do. I have cut down quite a bit over the past three months by useing up stuff from my freezer
 (I want to defrost by Easter ) and also using up quite a bit of stuff from my store cupboards as well.
 I've been finidng stuff I had forgotten about and been rearranging my food cupboards and finding forgotten treasures in there.

Its been a time of ....interesting meals  to say the least and using up odds and ends has meant buying less.
I have more than enough to use before I go for a major shop on Friday of this week. I managed to have a good bit of cash left from this months budget to rollover to next months and by buying only essential needed stuff its meant I am utilising the stuff I already have in store.

Onwards and upwards chums  

Spendless

I must admit i need to find an alternative to having the fan on at night as I find our bedroom far too hot, even with the heating off overnight. Due to the room layout positioning the headboard under the window isn't an option. Grateful for ideas.

Your granddaughter could do with getting one of those energy monitors @London_1 that tells you how much you are paying per hour in monetary terms (think ours came from our energy supplier) to see if it's a sacrifice worth making leaving the radio on for her rescue dog just in case it starts suffering from separation anxiety. Not a problem if the dog is fine though. When we very first got a monitor some years ago, I noticed that the hourly rate had shot up and went racing upstairs to yell at then teenage son and his mate wanting to know what on earth they were doing on the Xbox. I discovered the culprit was actually Mr S having a shower. That's when I noticed that it's the electric items that give the most heat that up the cost, think along the lines of oven, kettle, iron, vacuum cleaning, shower, WM, TD. 
I've just put this to the test again after your comment. Checked the amount showing, went round the house seeing what could be turned off, sure enough found an upstairs light left on, turned most downstairs ones off and opened curtains wider and the rate dropped slightly, so went to the kettle and switched it on. Went back and checked and sure enough cost per hour showing had around doubled. 

Slinky

We've ended up being put on Economy 7 rates after our fix ended. It's an inherited old setup which with other stuff going on at the moment I can't change. However with the clock change yesterday, I now get cheap rate until 08.34bst, so this morning I was up early doing my ironing. Had my shower which is gas heated water but with an electric pump. Dried my hair, also plugged in my mobile to charge at cheap rate....... then I got downstairs to find OH had forgotten to turn off the under cupboard lights in the kitchen. Ho hum.

London_1

I found that using my wall light behind my armchair instead of the main middle light which has 5 bulbs on a chandelier type holder is far less expensive when sitting in the evening. Its often small things that can help save some cash on electric bills.I boil a kettle of water frist thing in the morning for my cuppa and the remainder goes into a thermos for the rest of the days cups of tea. As I live alone an am retired I have found a 30 minute wash is fine for most clothes as I really don't get very mucky at all I do a longer wash for bedding or towels which I do together. if my drink has gone cold instead of chucking down the sink a quick whizz in the microwave soon warms it up. I bought some reduced PG tips extra strong tea bags last month and found I can easily get two mugs from one bag I fish it out the first time before adding milk. or if I use my small tea pot it works really well My DD bought me a teapot cup and saucer combined as one of my Christmas presents so one bag easily does two cups in the morning. a glug of white vinegar and a table spoon of washing soda plus half the recommened amount of detergent gets my clothes clean and soft without a need for conditioner . I whizz up ordinary granulated sugar in the blender for caster sugar, ideal for me as I make my own biscuits and cakes as well. Block stork arg instead of the soft spread one means just getting it from the fridge and let it soften in the kitchen before using may only save around 15-20p but its still a saving of sorts .I now only iron things that really need ironing and have cut back no end on using my iron result really as I find it very boring to do. Small economies but useful in the long run.