Miserable News

[Deleted User]

I think we will all have to tighten our belts in the coming months .I am preety frugal anyway and have been for most of my life I just hate to see waste of anykind. I will have to spend around a hundred pounds over the next four weeks for petrol getting to and from Maidstone hospital daily for my radio-therapy .There is no public transport available from where I live and its a 35 mile round trip so I will definitely be watching my pennies .As a previous poster said how daft is it asking low income folks to save when they haven't any money left over anyway This world seems to be getting dafter by the day.
I am a widowed disabled pensioner and I am lucky that I have sufficient to live on, but there are thousands of folk who are dreading the coming winter and the rocketing fuel bills . I can always make food streeetch a bit, but I cannot bear to be cold as my joints will just seize up. But I have lots of jumpers and wooly things to keep me warm and a hot water bottle under my cosy blanket which I have over my knees will help stave off the cold. I think in the coming months there will be more and more folk logging on to this site for money saving tips and recipes.Thank goodness for Martin, make him Chancellor of the Exchequer I say

liz545

Bitsy_Beans wrote: »

he's proposing a savings scheme for low earners - like that's what they need. People just want more disposable income not a saving scheme for money they don't have to save in the first place

I don't know, before I started using MSE I would've said that I didn't have any spare cash to save, but being here has opened my eyes to where I can make savings, and I'd think that's the same for a lot of people in the UK. They may think they have no money left to save, but if they tried cooking from scratch, using coupons, being more OS, they may well do. I think a lot of the economic problems we're facing at the moment are due to the availability of cheap borrowing, and people forgetting how to budget and live within their means. Painful though it may be, as a country we need to reduce our personal debt (over £1bn!) and save more of our incomes if we want to weather this storm.

Olliebeak

JackieO - would the Hospital/Health Authority not provide you with some kind of transport for your appointments? I know that in our area transport would be provided especially for that kind of treatment.

Bargain_Rzl

liz545 - that's all very well (and I agree with you) but I know that for a lot of people on this board, these savings have ALREADY been made, and there really isn't anywhere else to cut corners without really significant reduction in quality of life. Many have large families, fixed incomes and ever-rising basic costs - I fully believe that many, perhaps even most, people in the UK are still spending more than they absolutely need to, but many people on here are doing it all "right" already and are still barely scraping by.

sammy_kaye18

Well its finally happened - my grocery budget is no more. I went shopping last night with my bog standard basic list for two weeks worth fo food and my cupboards were run down along with the fridge and freezer and what would normally cost me £40 cost me £65! (£64.96 to be precise) and that included whoopsies of two large puff pastry chicken an dmushroom pies (from £4 down to £1.70 each) so had two, a pack of chicken kievs (from £3.50 down to £1.25) a whole chicken (£5.03 down to £3.79) and a pack of 7 chicken drumsticks that had to be used yesterday (from £2.03 down to 50p). needless to say the drumsticks are cooking now to be used later and im plannign on cooking the chicken too to carve up for sandwiches and to go into roast dinner/casseroles/chicken tonight/pasta later

i cant cut down prices anywhere else - ive started trying to grow my own veg but since all the prices are going up i can afford to buy stuff to continue the growing on process! (need tubs and more compost) and i know its only a few quid but i cant squeeze it form my already tight budget!

ive just been nosing around the using less gas and electric this winter thread again, figure i can get a head start on saving money for them but hoping the nice weather will hold out a bit (even though its raining today).

No pay rise for me or the boyfriend either and petrified cos little one starts school in september and no idea how im going to afford school uniforms, packed lunches and everything else he needs. Its his birthday this month and thanks to the kelloggs cornflakes box we have a free trip to a zoo for him (my dad has offered to pay our entry and petrol becasue we are travelling up to his house practically - its like an hour from him) so we are saving him money but ive been saving for my little boys birthday since just after christmas!

Olliebeak

Hi Sammy_kaye - school uniforms are a bit of a bind - can you start looking out for some bargains now? A pair of pants one week, a school shirt/polo shirt another week - soon adds up. Keep your eyes open for packs of socks all the same - that way it doesn't matter when one gets lost and you don't have to think about 'pairing them up' when they've been washed - cos they all the same . Also worthwhile checking out the charity shops in your local area - ours often have outgrown (as opposed to outworn) items.

My eldest used to go to a school that was very stict on uniform, they used to hold a uniform swap/sale day - very helpful when trying to get 'official school tie/cap/badge' which always cost a small fortune for that particular school.

[Deleted User]

Our local primary school often has a PTA uniform sale for the new little ones .My youngest Grandson starts full time in September in Nursery and we are already buying odds and ends for him.Luckily my DD also has two other lads only a little older than him at the school already, so when he gets into reception we will have a few sweat shirts for him to grow into.It is a problem for mums though.My DD has four lads and they seem to go through shoes so quickly.

moanymoany

I think it will not be long before there are fewer cars on the road and perhaps it will be safer to get the old bike out.

When dh started work where he still is, there were three huge cycle sheds - over about ten years first one went then the others. This was only 20 - 30 years ago, so it was not that long ago that people still didn't have cars. A family near where I used to live have two daughters. When they first moved in 10 years ago they had one car - then two - then dd1 got one and then dd2 got hers. Now this family have 4 cars. The new rented house we are in is in a cul de sac. There is an average of three cars for each semi.

As everything goes up, how can they keep it up? I'm sure 10past6 has a point, shops are jumping on the bandwagon. However, there is certainly a worldwide problem. Oil prices are certainly going to keep increasing and that will affect everything we buy.

Olliebeak

It's payday for me - dreading getting into Asda this evening - wondering what else will have gone up! I'll be looking for the 'woman with the gun' and stalking her this evening for my whoopsies! Still got a well-stocked freezer at the moment but will need to make a list before I go out, to make sure that I don't get stuff that we don't need.

the_cat

Sammy Kaye

Re the school uniform - go and have a word at the school now. My local school always had a HUGE amount of 'lost property'. At the end of the school year anything which was unclaimed got chucked out, even though it was often perfect quality! If you could arrange to go and have a rifle through in the last couple of days of school, you might get lucky!!