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

Floss

I keep my veg in a basket in my bin shed - the 19p veg last well into January!

linz

I make butternut squash soup & add some curry powder for a bit of a kick. Its lovely in the winter especially 

London_1

Definitely don't bin your veg ! ! !  turn it into soup, buy a pack of soup bags in Poundland or B&M and make vats of veggie soup , and freeze in the bags easy to store in odd corners of the freezer as semi- frozen you can squash them around a bit to fit (techy term  

I never bin anything I've bought to eat , if it's not used, its frozen until it does get used .or make a curry, chilli or lasagna using veg instead of meat, and once cooked portion up when cold and freeze then you have lots of ready meals to whack into the microwave when you feel like it.

 I am looking forward to the cheap 19p veggies in the supermarkets just before Christmas as they will make lots of cheap healthy meals to freeze for the cold January/February months.

I have a stash of rectangular take away boxes that I snaffled from my two DDs but you can buy a pack in any of the Poundland /B&M or Home Bargains shops, at I think about 8 for a pound and their lidded, and stack nicely in the freezer..A nice warming veggie curry or chilli with rice is a cheap meal when its cold and you want to save some pennies

JackieO xx

Katiehound

OK my idea will cost a bit because it uses power! but if you  are short of freezer space you could turn your leftover veggies into pickles and chutneys which would then give a bit of pep to a bland meal.

Longwalker

elsien said:

Just took a watch in for a new battery and a new strap. Unfortunately, my local independent chap has retired. Quoted price £17.99. I can get a new watch for less than that.
Have to be honest, it’s less about the money and more about it being not economic to repair things. I think I mentioned before that my barely used iron had died after four years, during which time  it was probably used once every couple of months.
Took it to the repair café and it has built-in obsolescence because the repairable bits are firmly sealed where you can’t get to them.
We really need to be moving away from the disposable culture that we are living in at the moment. 

All this “you are now eligible to upgrade your phone” when it’s working perfectly and got a few years life in it yet. Yes it’s the money but it’s also the environment and how can we protect that when everything is disposable? I know people who bin perfectly good clothes because it’s not on the radar to take them to the charity shop.
Or people who post furniture Facebook and say “need gone today or it’s going to the tip.” They knew they were getting new furniture. Why make sure that no one’s got time to come and fetch it?

Rant over. As you were. 

Year and years ago, Mr L treated me to a designer watch, a Gucci, its beautifully elegant ( never wear it now its too small for my eyesight lol ) and a good few years ago it needed a battery. Timpsons wouldn't touch it and sent me to the Jewellers. They wanted £100 + and were sending it to England

Mr L went online, looked up how to open it , got the battery and opening kit for £10 and did it himself    The watch was well out of warranty so it was worth the go.

Now I have a huge Garmin fit watch which I can actually see, but still use my phone to find the time

YorksLass

As per JackieO, I never bin food - freeze it to use later, cook and freeze it for home made ready meals, pickle it, be prepared to swap planned meals around so stuff doesn't go to waste.  I've paid good money for that food so, if it were binned, I'd feel like I was holding my purse over the bin and emptying cash into it!  Many is the time I've found odds and ends in the freezer that I can use for meals; sometimes those bits and pieces end up being very tasty too.

We don't have a food waste bin (our council has a very limited food waste home collection service) but, even if we did have one, ours would be permanently empty!  

Just learned the other day that in January we will be losing our last remaining bank branch in our local shopping area.  Whilst it doesn't affect us (it's not our bank and we adapted when we lost the ones we do use), it's going to cause problems for the local businesses that do use it.  Our once thriving shopping parade is full of charity shops, beauty salons and coffee shops.  We haven't had an independent bakery, greengrocer, butcher, fishmonger etc for years and it's unlikely they'll ever return.  

Sneaky price increase on the TV guide that we buy.  It always goes up at the beginning of the year after the double Xmas issue but it's gone up this week already, a good 2-3 weeks earlier than usual.

On the brighter side, we've both received our winter heating allowance and the £10 pensioner Xmas bonus.  And I've received the annual interest on my savings too.

ladyholly

My food waste bin is usually full of tea bags and banana peel.

YoungBlueEyes

I've been thinking of asking this for ages - what ends up in your food waste bin? Or on compost heap or whatever? 

Mine is about the same week after week. Banana/orange peel, apple/pear cores, olive stones, tea bags, seeds and green top bits of peppers, the very ends of cucumbers, veg scrapings. Like that.

Auti

YoungBlueEyes - we do not have a food waste bin, we have to put any in the general waste bin. 

MingVase

 Many thanks for all welcomes and tea need to catch up now. I was shocked this last few weeks by the price rises in Sainsbugs. I get an online order every Sunday and can see the prices going up almost daily -  the olive oil I get used to be £6.75... then £6.95.....on Monday it was £7 .... and last night when I was checking the order for delivery tomorrow, it's £7.15 Multiply that over the whole shop and it's no wonder people are toiling.