The Cost of Living Increase
Ok, so like everyone else, I can see the cost of living increase.
We are affected most by the rise in the price of fuel for the car. We only do essential journeys and have lived that way for the last 7+ years, so it is really clear how expensive petrol is.
The next thing that has affected us most is the cost of energy - I say has affected us, but it will affect us in the winter. We are putting away a little more in each summer month this year to have a buffer come the winter.
We are spending out on loft insulation in the next month as it was pretty nippy last winter at times (although we are made of pretty tough stuff and have plenty of jumpers and homemade quilts for the evenings). We will lay the insulation ourselves rather than pay someone to do it for us.
As for food - well, I've just placed our online order for the next month. Some items have increased in price, and I use the handy website Trolley.co.uk to search our local shops for cheaper alternatives. If something has shot up a lot we just simply don't buy that any more. Simples! There are so many recipes available online that use what you have in the pantry that stopping one or two regular items is not a massive burden.
We always stock take before I shop, and always plan our meals for the month. I know this sounds very regimented, but it is still flexible. It is always discussed and agreed on.
I'll post our meal plan in my next blogpost.
How has the cost of living increase affected you?
FMxx
Back in the 1970’s we had a new build, we noticed a difference in the house temperature, the builder had installed loft insulation when we were out.
ReplyDeleteWe are trying to use our car less and are relying on food from our local 'free fridge' more than we used to at the beginning of the year. We are very busy house-clearing, so that we can sell my father-in-law's house to pay for care fees, which has prompted us to look around our own home to see if there are rarely used/unloved items that we could sell to raise a bit of extra cash for ourselves. We are also making sure that we claim any special offers and freebies that will help to stretch our budget just a little bit further.
ReplyDeleteWe're incredibly lucky as the increase in prices hasn't really impacted on us very much yet.
ReplyDeleteHowever, last week we went into our closest town and it was quieter than I've ever seen it. There's one main, enormous car park, which was probably more than 75% empty, which was previously unknown.
The shops were SO quiet, even the A**a superstore which is enormous, on two floors and normally very busy. I couldn't believe how empty the place was, the shelves were all full, well stocked, just very few customers in there! Those people who were buying, seemed to have just food in their trolleys, whereas there used to be other things too, toys, books, DVDs etc.
I think the price increases are really starting to bite now, it was eerie seeing how few people were actually out and about and spending.
We fully appreciate how lucky we are, and after speaking to a friend who helps out at a food bank, have doubled our donations as they are now helping more people, yet donations to the food bank have dropped.
If people are struggling to make ends meet, they can't afford to donate to a food bank too, so those of us lucky enough to still be okay need to step up and help as much as we can!
A friend's Grandson is at a junior school which is now a Co-op Academy, and twice a week the school minibus takes six children around all the local Co-op stores collecting donations of 'yellow stickered' foods. These are all placed on two trolleys within the school grounds for parents/carers to help themselves to a few things. It absolutely infuriates me that more often than not, food is left there until it rots and the school Caretaker throws it into the bins. My friend told me that a few weeks ago, she counted 24 perfectly good bananas on the trolley, and four days later 16 of them were still there, but going distinctly 'off' and the next day they were in the bins. What a bloody awful waste of fresh fruit! She said if she'd known that they were going to be ignored she'd have taken them all to the nearest food bank herself, where they would have been used!
If every person who visits a shop where there is a food bank donation point puts just one item in the trolley/box, no matter how cheap, it will help enormously.