The cost of living?

mummytofour

Everything is on the up food, fuel debt repayments and so on. I have noticed it more and more I feel that the cost of petrol is my biggest annoyance at the moment as we are a family of 7 we have a fairly thirsty car, alto I mainly use it for the nursery run I am spending £30 a week and being as careful as I can. This is added to our £130 per week in train fares... I have no real way of getting more income alto I do do quidco the motivation for much more than that and the odd ebay is nor really there, nor if I am honest the time.
So its a case of making the money go further.. Dh is a slight problem as he thinks i am tight, I really am not I just dont have much money!
Sooo what I am wondering is, with the recent interest rises,food and fuel increases what have/are you doing to keep on the level?

I am looking at buying a tiny car which will be cheaper to run .
Secondly I am toying with growing veg but this takes motivation which I am not sure I quite have yet.

So peeps hwat are your best tips for a lazy person ( other than not being lazy

Uniscots97

I make sure my car's tyres are kept at the pressure they're supposed to be (checked once a week). I too can't believe the price of fuel and by no means do I have a gas-guzzling car. I can't remember the exact figure but if your tyre pressures are out by even 10% it can increase the amount of fuel used and make each journey more expensive than it needs to be. I think I worked out my last car was 10p per mile but if I let the tyre pressures slip it rose to 12-14p a mile. The difference soon adds up.

ltm07

I think that many of us are feeling the pinch & luckily through finding this site & forum we are able to deal with it better than the other people out there who are struggling. We have changed our regular shop to Aldi & Farmfoods instead of the big supermarket chains. We only buy bits & bobs from the major supermarkets now & mainly things that are on offer,BOGOF's etc. I too would love to grow our own veg & keep meaning to get round to asking my Dad to help me,as he used to grow his own spuds,as to be honest,I wouldn't know where to start or have the patience to have a go at it without the help of someone:o ! I also need to check tyre pressure,as as unixgirl says those few pennies make a massive difference in the long run.

debtbegone

:mad: Petrol :mad:

I recently bought a small old banger as I'd been using my boyfriends since last September when my last car died. His car is of course a boy racer stylee and I was pumping fuel in it, averaged about £30 a week for barely any miles and it was killing me as I need the car to get to work and the post office as our buses aren't very frequent at all.

I've had this "new" car on the road since Last Saturday, put £30 in it, have done MORE miles than I usually do and I still have about £20's worth of fuel left - definately recommend it! Mine's a 1.3 petrol fiesta (with four doors so no hassle with getting in and out!)

Due to the fact that the cheapest petrol I can get up here's £1.19 (probably £1.20 by now as it seems to be going up every day) I was looking through the main site last week and found http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheaper-fuel to be really useful, tips on how to keep consumption down and the correct tyre pressure as unixgirl said.

We used to grow our own veg and had chickens, that was going back a while now but I keep meaning to start a small veg patch but never seem to have the time It's something you could get the kids involved in too (if they're of the age of course) I used to love it.

Also started buying some stuff in bulk instead of regular small amounts and it's saving me quite a bit too.

Uniscots97

I too was shopping in Aldi's but its quite out of the way for me, so unless I'm in that area i go to Tesco's (next to my work) and I stick to my shopping list, mostly buy Value range (just as good), look for a yellow sticker bargain and get my petrol there as its the cheapest in our area. This means I get clubcard points on my fuel too. Worth working out how much it costs you to get to particular store and if you travel about then choose a day where you're close to an Aldi or Lidl to do your shopping rather than making a special visit.

Uniscots97

Mummytofour, why not sign up to YouGov, Valuedopinions, Toluna etc as well as Quidco? I'm signed up with these and although the majority pay in vouchers I use these for my shopping or for buying presents.

ltm07

unixgirluk wrote: »

I too was shopping in Aldi's but its quite out of the way for me, so unless I'm in that area i go to Tesco's (next to my work) and I stick to my shopping list, mostly buy Value range (just as good), look for a yellow sticker bargain and get my petrol there as its the cheapest in our area. This means I get clubcard points on my fuel too. Worth working out how much it costs you to get to particular store and if you travel about then choose a day where you're close to an Aldi or Lidl to do your shopping rather than making a special visit.

This is what we do. Luckily Aldi quite near to us. We used to go to Asda alot but it is quite a bit out of the way so we don't tend to go there much anymore. Luckily Farmfoods is at the shopping centre close to DD's school so this is very handy & their products are quite a bit cheaper than the bigger supermarkets. We also buy mostly economy/own brand products when we go shopping at the major supermarkets.

andan

Yes, went shopping today and couldn't belive how much bread has gone up! I'm really noticing the rise in food prices, so am making more of a conscious effort to eat the food we have in as we used to end up throwing away quite a bit. I'm also sticking to more store cupboard meals and using up the food weve got before going shopping. i'm also trying to cut down on portion sizes, we have such big portions, so this should do our waist and our pockets some good. I think i will also start buying more basic brands for things that i wont notice about.

Debtbegone, i also have an old banger, as am currently learning to drive, bus fare round here is so expensive. £10 of petrol fills my tank half full and lasts ages.

jak

Food has gone up loads. We are growing our own veg. as much as possible. We also write a monthly menu and a shopping list based on that, using up as much stuff from our cupboards as we can. Also we get at least 10 percent off our shopping through vouchers.Jx

Smirch_This

I noticed the bread thing. Thought I was mad at first. 59p -> 65p in Tesco.

I ride a bike - it cost me £600 second hand (it's a decent one) but it does more miles to the gallon I ride about 30 miles a day on it.

Uniscots97

ltm07 wrote: »

This is what we do. Luckily Aldi quite near to us. We used to go to Asda alot but it is quite a bit out of the way so we don't tend to go there much anymore. Luckily Farmfoods is at the shopping centre close to DD's school so this is very handy & their products are quite a bit cheaper than the bigger supermarkets. We also buy mostly economy/own brand products when we go shopping at the major supermarkets.

I don't know why some people turn their noses up at economy brand products. They're just as good if not better than some of the premium brands (less E numbers etc). I remember once bumping into a very snooty bism I used to work with in the supermarket. I was dressed in a suit and trolley had majority of Value stuff in it. Her comment was "oh, thought you'd buy better than that", my comeback? "I really don't like consuming some many E numbers, colours, bulking agents and high fat content that you get with higher level brands. I mean why pay all that money only to make yourself ill by not reading what goes into it. My health is so much more important to me than that". What I didn't say was its important to my purse too!!!!