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

Flugelhorn

JingsMyBucket said:

@Toonie how much would a photo ID cost? This is a genuine question. I just moved to the UK as an immigrant and have various photo IDs already including my biometric ID card that immigrants need to have. My husband always states that I have easier access to photo ID than him. 

there is a driving licence - provisional £50, passport (more than £50) or Citizencard £15

joedenise

Most places won't accept a provisional driving licence as ID - it needs to be a full licence!

Not heard of a Citizencard but that at least seems a bit more affordable than a driving licence or a passport at £75.50 (apply online) or £85 if you do it through the post.

ZsaZsa

London_1 said:

I think back at time to when rationing was king and things were bought by availability . NOTHING was ever wasted or binned, my late Mum would be horrified by the amount of food thrown away today. Perhaps its time for a TV series or cooking programmes ,maybe run by Ms Monroe, to show people how to make the most of what we have in our cupboard, instead of the fancy cookery programmes shown on TV at the moment It would be a hit with many cash-strapped Mums I bet. I have never seen the point of cookery programes that use expensive ingredients as is it just egotist chefs showing off their skills ?.
The majority of recipes you couldn't get an average child to eat anyway  Teach people how to make the most of basic foodstuff that they can afford to buy, not stuff that is above and beyond tha majority of hard up peoples lives .

I have been cooking and feeding myself and then my family for over 60 years and have learned a good few ways to extend my food and consequently my purse when times are tough .
I lived through the times of rationing, post war austerity, the dreadful days of the 1970s when the mortgage rates hit 16% and the electricity blackouts when you only had three hours at a time to cook food for your family
(I made a 'hay box' from my childrens toy box and used pillows and a duvet in it)
its surprising how you can adapt, and this present high inflation will be a great time to reinvent your way of living, by perhaps not buying and throwing away food ,or just thinking how you can make it streetch a bit further.
 I know it won't be easy for many people having grown up in the land of take-away and instant gratification when it comes to food ,but it really is the case today for returning to some older ways of managing
Not relying on the supermarkets to provide this instant food all the time

 I am a great avocate of cooking from scratch, and with the internet and YouTube its possible to find almost anything you want with a few clicks.
I look at stuff in the supermarket and think hmm I could make that myself for half the price and get twice the quantity. I think the more expensive stuff I saw yesterdays in Dobbies food department was one of those fancy fish pies Charlie something,  priced at £8.50 !!! its white fish in cheese sauce with mashed spuds on top,cost to make if bought and cooked yourself about £1.50 at most and twice the amount ! 

So OK maybe there are some who can't manage to cook very easily and the one pound frozen meals fro Iceland is Ok and very useful (my DDs ma-in-law is 85 and loves them) but if you are in reasonable health and able, cooking is just a case of research .

I grew up without the internet to help, today its possible to find out how to do things with just a quick google search. I am a single widowed pensioner who manages to live reasonabley well on my income

I don't have any extra private pension (my late husbands one went over the side with Robert Maxwell off his yacht )so I too live on a restricted income ,but by golly am I a carefull shopper when it comes to food stuff.

I shopped twice in January and only bought essential and basic stuff and I am slowly working down my freezer and using up surplus stuff in my cupboards. I have a food budget of £60.00 per month and had around £11 to roll over into Februarys food budget, so for February I will have around £71.00 to last me 28 days. its more than doable and I will eat a cooked meal every evening and cereal or porridge for breakfast and soups and cheese and craskers or an omellete or some small snack for lunch

I don't eat 5 or 7 portions of fruit a day its really nor necessary I will eat at least two portions of veg and maybe two of fruit and I am quite healthy and haven't seen a Doctor for over two years. I have frozen blackberries picked for free in my freezer. I have a good few frozen bags of home made soup in the freezer as well I use every scrap of food I get and either cook and eat it or cook and freeze it for another day I make my own cakes and biscuits and find that I can make almost anything edible with the help of my herbs and spices even the blandest food perks up a bit  

Energy is foremost on people minds at the moment I know, but agaain thinking back we never had CH or double glazing in the 1950s and we survived to better times as hopefully we all will this time.

So sit and think this morning what you can make that will extend your food .Even if its only a saucepan of soup. A 40p bag of carrots will make, with a few herbs and spices and that odd couple of sprouting spuds in the spud bag a good two litres of spicy carrot soup for pennies to feed at least 8 people with some crusty bread, rather than the tin of soup from the shop at 75-80p that will only feed one person.

See what you can come up with today thats a new recipe of something you have never tried to make. Why spend £3.00 on a quiche when, make a bit of pastry,line a tin,bake it 'blind' for ten minutes, and fill with odds and ends from the fridge, a sausage cooked and sliced up,a quarter of and onion diced up, a few herbs .fill the case with a couple of beaten eggs and pop the bits in, finish off with a tomato sliced thinly across the top and bung in the oven. this is delicious with a few chips and maybe a tin of beans as a side dish or cold with some salad. be inventive

I chuck almost anything into a quiche (it was called bacon and egg pie when I was little ) Cooking bacon from the supermarket is your friend, you can cook the odd shaped bit to a crisp and in a bacon sandwich you won't know any difference, the fat you drain off ito a dish to use to make fried bread, cut a hole in the middle of the fried bread when cooking and throw an egg into it Kids would love a 'dragons eye ball' as my kids called it for breakfast .
Its thinking outside the box as is said, give it a go, you never know you may come up with something else

JackieO xx

I’m so pleased you’re back- I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been stood in front of the fridge or pantry and thought “what would Jackie O” do 😊

London_1

Oh bless you ,thank you so much I'm glad if I can help anyone to think twice and save a few pennies ,no matter how small the amount ,its better in your purse than someone else's

Living_proof

It’s not so much the money in your purse as the peace of mind and a good nights sleep. Nothing wrong with being poor but awful having to worry about it in my opinion. 

skogar

JackieO - Love the "dragon's eyeball" - great name.

Your quiches sound like our pizzas. I do like proper homemade quiche - the ones that you buy just aren't the same. Of course the fact that different pizzas are made for one meal and shared is for the excitement of the different flavours - nothing to do with using up an odd slice of ham an odd mushroom and other small amounts of things that need using up. ;-) Even cheese isn't essential - in Italy we've had cream ones, ones with tomato and no cheese, ones with no tomato or cheese (olive oil and herbs), raw ones with a cooked base and then things like rocket, tomato, cured ham and some parmesan flakes on. All sorts of gourmet pizzas are produced.

Rosa_Damascena

Living_proof said:

It’s not so much the money in your purse as the peace of mind and a good nights sleep. Nothing wrong with being poor but awful having to worry about it in my opinion. 

This is so true, and millions will be having sleepless nights. Where are people supposed to find the extra money from?! It's brought the French Revolution to mind, people were not only starving but had the odds stacked against them.

Happy_Sloth

We are really struggling... its a perfect storm in our house at the moment, the rising fuel/electricity prices rising food prices and my husbands out of work with mental health issues so we are struggling to upkeep the house on one income even without rising prices.

53% rise in gas/electric is around an extra £150 a month for our house taking our monthly bill to £450 a month. So the one off £150 rebate hardly touches it.. i have to admit i was presently surprised to find my house qualified, as i was sure we would be in a higher band. So yay for small wins... In addition the change in food prices is noticeable.

We've done some re-jigging cancelling luxury bills such as netflix.  Last month we used some of our savings to replace an old inefficient freezer to try and save money but it's apparent we simply can't afford to run it either way. I've turned all the smart home heating thermostats off except for the main 3 rooms and those I've turned down to 16 so they only come on if it's very cold. 

The plan at the moment is to eat our way through our freezers, as we have 3.  Once empty we are going to turn them off and just use the small one in the base of the fridge, until we figure something better out.  it feels dumb as we only just bought one,  but we where trying to be optimistic and hoping things wouldn't be as bad as it is.  

On the upside,  those freezers are currently full so there is plenty of food in the house at the moment,  good job really as i've worked out we now only have about £100 a month for food for the foreseeable future to feed 3 adults. 

Can you feed 3 adults with £100 a month with the current food prices? i guess we will find out.  

SIRENS

I confess to be very worried, I have had so much change in the last few months that this is just one more worry. I lost my husband very suddenly last August, so myself and our kids (17 & 14) are now on my part time salary, once the insurance pays out I should be able to pay off the mortgage but that's just the one bill (admittedly the largest). I get the widows pension until next feb but then that will stop and my child benefit will reduce in March when my daughter turns 18. My daughter is trying to get a part time job, but I want her to concentrate and enjoy uni once she starts. But I still need to find travel fares for her and me, I have sold my car as it wasn't really been used much.

We don't have any central heating in the house just a gas fire in the living room so plenty of layers and blankets. I don't put the fire on if I'm home until the kids are in from school. I cook from scratch every day and luckily I have a good store cupboard and my freezers are chock a block. I am on a fixed rate on my g&e until next August thankfully and I'm in credit. I think it's having the worry of it on top of everything else and the sole responsibility is very intimidating. But I shall be stalking this forum and stocking up on tips! x

Floss

Sirens did your husband have any work pension at all? If so your children may be entitled to a pension from that, as well as yourself.