From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

EH - I can see the benefit of cutting the queue down - our local centre is abysmal for queuing at the weekend, the access/manoeuvreability around the site is dire, and then of course you have people (an increasing number) who won't wait..........  However, I can also see the flipside that if you live in a home without a garden, why do you have to pay a charge for green waste collection in your CT bill.  As ever, no simple answer for all situations, but I don't believe that fly-tipping won't become more of an issue where we are, I think our local representatives are being, at best, naive.

Shopping done.  I spent..... have had to work it out as I did buy a dry sack from the 'aisles o'jumble' 😱 for £7.99...... £35.46.  Given that I'd already made food purchases this week, it was a bit disappointing.  But I honestly can't believe how much prices are going up in MrL - specifically on things that I no longer purchase.  I noticed that their curly crisps made out of lentils have gone up to £1.39 a 6 pack - when we first started having them, they were 79p I think.  Their version of....... I think they are either p-p-pengwings or r0cki bars are now ... was it £1.29 a  6 pack  Again, last time I bought, they were 99p.  Thank heavens they are items that we can do without (they were definitely 'treat' items when we did buy them anyway).  The one 'splurge' (?) item was a net of red peppers which were £2.49 for 1kg in the PotW.  They were cheaper by about 4p per 100g than the nets/bags of mixed peppers for £1.69 (600g), so I thought they were worth a splurge.  Otherwise, not alot in my basket to warrant 35 quid 🫤

Off to amend siggie.   


EDIT:  Forgot to add - big river parcel turned up just after midday - so I can tick that off the 'pending' pile.  


Ta for popping by.  Greying X

EssexHebridean

Wait - so your LA is intending to charge the green waste collection across the board whether people have a green waste bin (or even any outdoor space?), or not? That seems like a pretty sure fire way to lose votes next time a local election comes around, to me! Here it is an "opt in" - so not even everyone with a garden will choose to take up the service, but equally some folk with big gardens might choose to get two bins and pay for two collections.  We've just got the one obviously - and as said, think it will work quite nicely to pay for (probably) half the year. Ours is £4.50 a month and that means you get access to fortnightly collections - more than enough for us! Obviously in your first year you have to buy the bin as well, but that's a one-off. I have to say when we were in the flat we would have been objecting quite strenuously had we had an added charge in our CT to subsidise other people's garden waste bins - not least as the council did everything they could to ensure that even our little patch of garden was interfered with as much as possible!

It was the queuing and associated aggravation that was the reason our council opted to bring in the booking system. As you say, there are always some folk who don't think they should join a queue aren't there - I have my suspicions that they are t same people driving all the way down the outside of a line of patiently queuing traffic and then try to push in at the head of it, too. We also suspected that fly tipping would become more of an issue as a result of the booking system, but so far, it hasn't, that we have noticed anyway.

Greying_Pilgrim

Morning!

EH - what I meant was, at the moment, we all pay CT and in theory, "waste collection" is included in what each household pays for - so irrespective of whether you use the green waste bin, you pay.  The new system here will be an 'opt in' as well - although I haven't seen full details, so don't know if it will be as flexible as your system.  So householders that don't have a garden, now won't have to pay - although I don't know what will happen to their food waste - if if they have any. The new system will benefit non-garden owners, as they won't have to pay it.  My point was there are pros/cons and winners/losers whatever the system. 

I'm in the horns of a dilemma as to what to make for tea.  I didn't pick up any tatties yesterday, as there weren't any British tatties in the 'general' bags.  You could still get Scottish Maris Pipers in the varietal bags and specialty bags, but of course they are more costly than the 'white potato' bags.  So we could have oven chips with pizza, rather than wedges.  Will have a think on.  I need to make more curry as DH and I had curry plate for tea last night, so now the freezer has no curry nor dhal in it.  

Need to get a wash on today as I've got behind with the washing pile this week, due to sullen weather conditions.  

DH and LG are planning a trip out to a local event this weekend.  It's a relatively low entry cost affair, and they will take a pack-up lunch with them.  Ice-cream costs will be met from their own pockets as they vie to treat each other!  😁

Right, snap to prep and the school day to get ready for.  

Greying X

badmemory

I think with council tax, like income tax, it is swings & roundabouts.  I have been paying council tax for 55 years now & never used police fire & ambulance or social care.  Smaller properties are normally in lower council tax bands so pay lower council tax anyway.  If most of us list what we haven't used that we have paid for via income tax, the list would probably be horrendous.  I haven't used the council tip for years but remember what it was like before ordinary people had access when fly tipping was pretty much the norm.  I don't like councils charging for collecting recycle bins as it discourages people from recycling & that cannot be good.

rtandon27

GP & all - I'm so fascinated by the discussion on council tax!  I know I've lived here for yonks now and pay council tax myself, but the whole concept feels so "foreign" to my brain!🤣🤣🤣

Across the pond, our tax situation is so very different.  The owner of a house pays a property tax & this then is trickled down to the appropriate services.  If you are a landlord, the property tax is still your responsibility, not the tenants. (Water and electricity are also paid by the property owner.)

Waste collection for houses is usually limited to one black bag a week, and one very small box of recycling - contents of which depend on where you live.  Anything over the quota you have to pay extra for or drive to the recycling center to dispose of.  For instance my mom who lives in the residential part of a large city, purchases a book of bar coded stickers once every couple of years that she then affixes to the extra bags on the rare occasion she needs an extra one.  She's constantly moaning about having to diarize 'recycling' days as she makes use of the mobile units that visit her area about 3 times a year.  They park up at the local school or leisure centre which is easier to drive to than the actual centre.  She has to go round the house and gather up batteries, paint, lightbulbs etc, then fill up the boot of the car and drive to dispose of them.  Fly-tipping in urban areas is mostly unheard of as it is culturally unacceptable and reinforced from a young age via schools.

Re-use & recycling have been around since I was a kid (and that's starting to be a long time ago) - I remember my grandfather letting me return the glass jars and bottles for the 5 cents due back as well as helping him to bail the newpapers & cardboard which we sold back to the recycling people by the pound.  No bit of cloth ever went to waste, the were repurposed in patchwork cloths/blankets or cleaning rags & when finally done were given to the rag man who came round a couple of times a year.  I also remember learning my times tables while fixing the picket fence and using rescued nails we had straightened to visually illustrate how to multiply!

Thanks for the discussion prompt that took me down memory lane.  Made me really think about some of my Canadian habits that the OH still laughs at all these years later!  His view is often along the lines of saying, why the flippin' heck are you bothering doing that, it's not like we can't just buy new!  If we argue, it's usually about exactly that, the cultural differences resulting from upbringing and environment!

Watty1

Loved reading the different systems for waste:  here you can opt in for garden waste and get a special bin and it is emptied fortnightly. Or not.  Often missed. Lots of grumbles about that.  I have two because I have a really big garden and currently two full bins have been outside for a month whilst stuff piles up inside.

I live between two councils one has a booking system for the tip one does not.  The booking system one often have a queue because the men are very clear about what goes where and making people pay which in theory I do not object to but having had to pay because my garden waste had soil on and therefore had to go in the soil one was very irritating and a recent visit led to a lengthy debate because a piece of electrical equipment i was putting in the electrical part (a printer) was deemed business waste and I was there a full 5 minutes discussing this!  The non booking system one in contrast has staff that are always cheerful and often pop over to help unload the cars (they probably pick up tips if anyone has cash, I know I've been grateful for their help) and of course the speed makes the whole thing quicker. 

Actually any bin collection in this area is hit and miss as most of Kent has changed contractors and the new ones apparently "do not know the routes" and so miss bins LOL

beanielou

When I go to the tip I often take the staff some sweets or chocolate. They go out of their way to help & I really appreciate that. 

teapot2

My LA has just started charging for garden waste [brown bin rather than green which is our landfill one].  They will collect fortnightly which is better than the monthly 'free' collection we had previously.  However the system seems very inflexible in that if you miss the deadline to apply, you have to wait a whole year till the next round.  If you move home there is no refund and no option to join the scheme mid year.  Mucho complaining on Faceache about all this but I guess it may become more flexible as the system beds in 🤔 .

badmemory

But who is going to pay extra when you can stick it all in the landfill one free.  At a time when peoples finances are already stretched that does not seem a good time.

redofromstart

The last two times we went to local tip (pre-lockdown!) we came home with a puncture. The green waste bins are cheaper and easier for us, especially as we can fill one with the grass cuttings through the growth months. 

GP, the DM Pineapple chunks in juice are 435g, 260g drained weight. I went to the other local MrM (to collect my £5 of 'won' points) and same offer in that one.