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If things get tougher?

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  • astep70uk
    astep70uk Posts: 338 Forumite
    I can't believe that people have to think twice between giving up a bottle of wine, or giving up meat! Each to their own I suppose, but if it was me I'd give up the wine, as meat benefits my 3yr old, wine doesn't! One pound of smoked bacon from my butchers cost £3.23 (about the same as wine?) and we had 3 meals for the three of us out of it.
    Also, make my own sausages, bread, butter and pasta and bake my own cakes/biscuits - not necessarily making it any cheaper, just cutting out all the nasties.
    Would get rid of Sky - currently £46pm.
    Don't drink or smoke, but OH does, so he'd pack in.
    Get rid of a car - we live in a very rural area, and both work so need 2 cars, but I could probably work from home.
    There again - could always go to work on the horse I suppose!
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  • BWZN93
    BWZN93 Posts: 2,182
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    Hopefully ill have cleared my debts by the time price rises hit fully so that would help. If that wasnt enough, id have to reduce TV & broadband costs by going on to basic packages. After that, the car would go. If it still wasnt enough - id emigrate!

    Jo xx
    #KiamaHouse
  • VickyA_2
    VickyA_2 Posts: 4,533
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    I'd give up wine. Not that I spend much on it, but it's better than nothing.
    We're already wearing a couple of layers, with the heating turned down.
    There are only lights switched on in the room where we are at that time and each bulb is an energy saving one.
    We already meal plan and use alot of value products, within reason. Most toiletries are bought on BOGOF.

    I couldn't give up my car, as public transport is near useless and I need to get to work. I couldn't do the same work, without a huge stroke of luck, in the town where we live. OH needs his car for work too.
    Sealed Pot Challenge #021 #8 975.71 #9 £881.44 #10 £961.13 #11 £782.13 #12 £741.83 #13 £2135.22 #14 £895.53 #15 £1240.40 #16 £1805.87 declared
  • It'd be a toss-up between getting rid of DH or the pets .. and considering the pets cost less to run than DH does - I think I just heard a coin fall. :D

    I'd also turn my mud-patch of a garden into a little 1940's plot. I've made a start, in that I've had a composter going for 6 months now - and the dogs have done the rest by using the grass as a racetrack and now we've not got any grass. Come to think of it, if I let DS loose on it with his little toy shovel, I won't have to do that much digging, either.

    Sorted! :D
    :hello: I'm very well, considering the state I'm in. :hello:
    Weight loss since 2 March 10 : 13lbs
  • whitty999
    whitty999 Posts: 4,024 Forumite
    I am struggling so very much,Cut back on what i could but still struggling,I am going to start growing my own veg which is the only thing i have not yet done,Hope i successed in this as i have tried in the past but failed.
    Lucky No27
    .D.E.F..H..J.K.L.M.N.O.P.Q.R..U..X.Y.Z
    V,T,B,S,A,C,I,G,W
  • Becles
    Becles Posts: 13,163
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    I remember from Home Economics at school, we had to compare fresh meat to TVP (textured vegetable protien). I made bolognaise for my project. I remember the TVP bolognaise wasn't very nice tasting, however mixing it half and half with the mince tasted just as good as the mince only version. As the TVP was a lot cheaper, one of my conclusions was that it could be used half and half with meat to cut meal costs if you were on a low income.

    I don't know how prices compare these days, but thought I'd mention it in case anyone wants to investigate!

    I couldn't turn the heating down. I really feel the cold, so much that my fingers and toes go numb with it, then I go shivery all over. It's on 18°C, and I keep hearing adverts saying that if you turn it down a degree, you don't notice it. Well I did! I stuck it for a week, but most of the time I felt really cold and miserable, so I put it back to 18 again!

    I think I would cut back on food by buying supermarket value lines, and shopping at the market more. I also like using semi-luxury toiletries - not designer brands but things like Boots Botanics. They could go and I'd use cheaper ones instead. I'd only buy clothes/shoes when things were worn beyond repair or outgrown.
    Here I go again on my own....
  • tootles_2
    tootles_2 Posts: 1,143 Forumite
    We would have a great deal of trouble cutting down as we are at rock bottom now.
    I do not have a dish washer, we have a condensing boiler so only heat the water as we use it..... in the summer or if it is very dry we use the washing up water to water the garden, the heating thermostat is set at 17o and we put on extra jumpers on if it gets cold, we have lap quilts to wrap ourselves in.... the heating is on constant...... it is cheaper to run that way.......we do not have an electric blanket but use hot water bottles to warm the bed.

    We do not go out so Tv or DVD's are our entertainment, the thing we would have to give up would be holidays..........we use the library for books to read, and I cook from scratch. I have a mobile as does OH but they are PAYG, the house telephone is BT using 1899

    We have a car, visitng the children would be impossible without, I put £25 a month fuel in it, that has to last us........

    We eat very little meat, chicken is cheap so we eat that, we have a good Sunday supper, either pork chops, or may be a shoulder of Lamb joint, prefer it to leg, its cheaper and we can get 3 meals out of it.......and chicken......I buy mince each month which gives us 2 meals and sometimes braising steak which again will do us for two meals. The rest of the time its veggie, pasta, pizza dishes made with cheese, eggs or tuna, I buy 8 links of good sausage for either toad in the hole or sausage and mash. My housekeeping budget is £25 a week. We have an allotment where we grow things that are expensive to buy as well as soft fruit for the freezer, apples, pears, strawberries, raspberries, rhubarb and tayberries.

    We do have an occasional day trip to France to buy wine, I guess that would have to go.........I would rather keep warm......

    We recently changed our fuel supplier, it will be interesting to see if they put up their prices too, we pay £30 for dual fuel, but I do know from the last bill that we are going to have to increase what we pay, the last bill was £8 over what we paid in the first month.....I am still waiting for the gas bill...........

    As a member of the older generation it worries me that the time will come when it might be a choice of heating or eating, I know that for so many this is already the case.........



    Living in the sunny? Midlands, where the pork pies come from:

    saving for a trip to Florida and NYC Spring 2008

    Total so far £14.00!!
  • I think the problem with Rip Off Britain is the British themselves. If tax goes up, they grumble a bit, tighten the old belt and pay up. In France or Italy they'll burn the tax office down. If they are going to charge us 25% more for gas, we shall use 50% less gas. We can keep warm from the smouldering tax offices and the Danish embassy.
    Small change can often be found under seat cushions.
    Robert A Heinlein
  • Not sure what else we could cut back on after moving from London to Yorkshire and losing my wage plus a drop in Hubbys wage. My biggest expense is petrol :-( taking son to school. In london school was 1 mile away so could walk if I was off work but here school is 8 miles away so its a 32 miles a day just on school run - boo hoo! Don't drink, don't smoke but cannot cut meat out Hubby wouldn't stand for that! Salad is rabbit food in his book!!!
  • D&DD
    D&DD Posts: 4,405 Forumite
    Would it save money to have the heating/hotwater on constant?I have heard people say this.. is it true with all systems? (sorry if this is a dumb question!)
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