Qvc cost of living winners and losers

[Vienna]

My Dad used to pour left over hot water from the kettle into a flask and then fill his hot water bottle with it at bedtime. His house didn`t have central heating so he wore more layers than an onion during the day and thermal underwear under his pj`s at bedtime plus his hot water bottle. He refused to entertain an electric blanket because when my Mum was alive she`d plug one in every night in Winter and one night it burned a hole through the bedding and into the mattress. Mind you I`m going back many years, she died 34 years ago and I suppose electric blankets have become safer since then.

 

[Patsy]

Patsy how lovely - I’m envious- have a lovely time.

Thank you. We saw Swan Lake in May that was really lovely.

 

[Patsy]

My grandparents also did this and I will be doing it too. I use the washing up water to water my tomatoes - we're not on water meters here yet, but give it time.

CC

We have had a meter for 22 years and prior to the meter we paid over £400 a year water rates. The most we have ever paid since then was £240 and the average is just under £200.
We have a jug and fill it from the shower before the warm water starts to run. We have 4 water butts and storage tanks but still ran dry awhile back.
We had to water some mature plants when the temperature was 40 degrees due to the fact we had a very hot wind.
We've lost a few plants and vegetables went to seed due to the heat.

 

[Patsy]

I was reading an article earlier about how to save money on the cost of living. Some of the ideas were pretty good and worth thinking about but others bordered on the ridiculous IMO. One person suggested just simply lowering your standards, ie. bathe less, don`t wash your clothes until they smell, eat less and heat or light your home less, share a bed with someone, get the whole family under the shower together (hell of a squash) buy all gifts secondhand from charity shops, give up meat, dilute shampoo and other toiletries, give up buying cleaning products and just use vinegar instead, put washing up water in a bucket and use it to flush the loo, take your phones, laptops and tablets to a library or other public place and charge them there and so on and so on. Be ready for more smelly people in unwashed clothes and riding that bus around your home town for hours on end.
On a serious note, yep most of us will be tightening our belts one way or another but I draw the line at not showering daily and wearing my clothes until they smell.
One good idea was someone suggesting instead of paying the likes of car insurance, pet insurance, home insurance etc monthly and with interest added on by the companies, apply for a credit card with 0% interest for 12 months, pay all your insurances in one go using that, then pay the card off over 12 months interest free. I guess unless all your insurances are due around the same time, then the timing of such an arrangement might be difficult.

Vinegar can damage some surfaces as it's an acid. I use the large size anti bac gel from Lidl 99p.
Talking of Lidl I found a receipt from 2019 tucked away in a handbag and we checked prices from last week against it and there was barely any difference. We were very surprised because one or two things were now cheaper.

 

[stratobuddy]

We have a jug and fill it from the shower before the warm water starts to run.

I forgot to mention that I run the hot bath tap into a bucket until it gets hot.

As my boiler is downstairs and a long way from the bath (the oppostite side of the house in fact) I get a full bucket of clean water before it starts to run hot.

Also, without doing this, if all the cold water runs straight into the bath before it heats up, it then needs loads of hot water to get it hot enough to get in.

I am on a water meter and save water as much as I can. The above also saves gas because I don't have to heat up a bath of cold water before I can get in.

 

[AndiK]

I forgot to mention that I run the hot bath tap into a bucket until it gets hot.

As my boiler is downstairs and a long way from the bath (the oppostite side of the house in fact) I get a full bucket of clean water before it starts to run hot.

Also, without doing this, if all the cold water runs straight into the bath before it heats up, it then needs loads of hot water to get it hot enough to get in.

I am on a water meter and save water as much as I can. The above also saves gas because I don't have to heat up a bath of cold water before I can get in.

Exactly what I do but with a washing up bowl and for the same reasons, not so much in summer but in winter..

In ‘76 when we had the drought, my dad (who loved his big, colourful garden and greenhouse and grew every fruit and veg imaginable) rigged up a hosepipe trailing out of the bath, through the bathroom window and over the garage roof to syphon used bath water onto the garden. A passing copper (remember those?) spotted it, or had it pointed out to him, and knocked on the door, assuming it was connected to the bath tap. He tried to argue that as there was a “hosepipe ban”, it was still wrong. Dad did manage to persuade him that he was being too literal and it was permissible for used water.

God, I miss my dad with his practicality and brilliant solutions for everything. I’ve inherited his principles but not his skills, unfortunately.

 

[donna255]

A Tory minister said the other day people should not be so fussy about having sewage in their drinking water.

 

[stratobuddy]

A Tory minister said the other day people should not be so fussy about having sewage in their drinking water.

I've just had about 50 tons of sewage dumped just outside my garfen wall (which has been partially knocked down for access) and a 9ft deep hole in next door's garden next to our garden fence.

It was there for about a week and stank, then it took almost 2 days to cart it away as it could not be put back in the hole. Access was dificult so they couldn't use their 3 ton dumper truck but only a 1 ton, hence taking 2 days.

Then they had to do the reverse process to fill up the hole, another 2 days.

The soil where they dumped the sewage was contaminated and smelly, so they had to cover it with new topsoil. My neighbour and I are now waiting for our dry-stone walls to be rebuilt.

 

[stratobuddy]

In ‘76 when we had the drought, my dad (who loved his big, colourful garden and greenhouse and grew every fruit and veg imaginable) rigged up a hosepipe trailing out of the bath, through the bathroom window and over the garage roof to syphon used bath water onto the garden.

I was going to do this too, but they made it quite clear that it was a HOSEPIPE BAN, however you used it. You were allowed to carry the bathwater in buckets, but not siphon it through a hose - - ridiculous. I suspect it is the same now.

 

[AndiK]

I was going to do this too, but they made it quite clear that it was a HOSEPIPE BAN, however you used it. You were allowed to carry the bathwater in buckets, but not siphon it through a hose - - ridiculous. I suspect it is the same now.

It’s ridiculous. So you could traipse up and down with 50 buckets of fresh water from the tap but not reuse bath water with the aid of a hose. It needs a bit of joined-up thinking. I suppose the only good reason for being so strict, though, is that they would have to enter and inspect where the water was coming from in order to fine you or whatever they do to transgressors. Is it firing squad now?

 

[Vienna]

Exactly what I do but with a washing up bowl and for the same reasons, not so much in summer but in winter..

In ‘76 when we had the drought, my dad (who loved his big, colourful garden and greenhouse and grew every fruit and veg imaginable) rigged up a hosepipe trailing out of the bath, through the bathroom window and over the garage roof to syphon used bath water onto the garden. A passing copper (remember those?) spotted it, or had it pointed out to him, and knocked on the door, assuming it was connected to the bath tap. He tried to argue that as there was a “hosepipe ban”, it was still wrong. Dad did manage to persuade him that he was being too literal and it was permissible for used water.

God, I miss my dad with his practicality and brilliant solutions for everything. I’ve inherited his principles but not his skills, unfortunately.

I miss my Dad too. He died 19 years ago aged 87. When I was a child he was one of the most practical people I knew. He tried all ways to save money because he never earned much money but we children never went short of anything. He built many of our toys, stilts, bogeys (wooden carts you steered ) repaired roller skates, built cycles from lots of different parts, and lots of other things too.
He turned his shed into a mini workshop and he had a cobbler`s last, on which he soled and heeled our shoes. The neighbours were all as hard up as we were and they`d bring their shoes or boots and ask Dad to repair them. He never charged a penny even though he had to buy the leather for soles, the heels and the tacks and glue.
One day the local cobbler`s wife turned up at the front door in a heck of a temper. She`d overheard someone asking my Mum at the school gate could Dad fix her child`s shoes for her as they were hand me downs from an older sibling and needed new soles. Mum said yes.
Anyway the cobbler`s wife went ape at my Mum and accused my Dad of taking food out of her childrens mouths because my dad was taking paid work from her husband. To be fair my Dad was doing the cobbler`s job for free but we lived in a small street and he only did it for people who either lived in the street or were Mum`s friends.
He did all his own DIY and was very inventive with old wooden pallets he got from work. He built me and my sis a set of bunk beds, dog kennels, coal bunkers, bin stores and lean to for storing cycles under. He was a dab hand at decorating too and he was regularly pressed into decorating for other people and never charged anybody.
We didn`t have a garden just a backyard but we had the poshest outside toilet which he`d painted and decorated, built a new door for it and covered the floor with lino lol. A man in a million.

 

[maymorganlondon]

I was going to do this too, but they made it quite clear that it was a HOSEPIPE BAN, however you used it. You were allowed to carry the bathwater in buckets, but not siphon it through a hose - - ridiculous. I suspect it is the same now.

Utterly ridiculous when they are doing different things

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

My dad was totally useless at anything DIY but Mr L’s family were really good at cobbling things together despite not being short of money. Mr L is quite good at DIY but he spends £80 on a saw to build a £20 shelf!,

 

[stratobuddy]

Just an aside, I am listening to the Goon Show and Ray Ellington is playing the music. I once went to a dance with him playing, but I mistakenly thought it would be Duke Ellington!

I was desperate to invite a girl to that dance who I had a real crush for, but was too shy to ask her (too much to lose). I later heard via the "friend grapevine" that she would have come if I'd asked her. That could have changed the course of my life.

 

[AndiK]

I miss my Dad too. He died 19 years ago aged 87. When I was a child he was one of the most practical people I knew. He tried all ways to save money because he never earned much money but we children never went short of anything. He built many of our toys, stilts, bogeys (wooden carts you steered ) repaired roller skates, built cycles from lots of different parts, and lots of other things too.
He turned his shed into a mini workshop and he had a cobbler`s last, on which he soled and heeled our shoes. The neighbours were all as hard up as we were and they`d bring their shoes or boots and ask Dad to repair them. He never charged a penny even though he had to buy the leather for soles, the heels and the tacks and glue.
One day the local cobbler`s wife turned up at the front door in a heck of a temper. She`d overheard someone asking my Mum at the school gate could Dad fix her child`s shoes for her as they were hand me downs from an older sibling and needed new soles. Mum said yes.
Anyway the cobbler`s wife went ape at my Mum and accused my Dad of taking food out of her childrens mouths because my dad was taking paid work from her husband. To be fair my Dad was doing the cobbler`s job for free but we lived in a small street and he only did it for people who either lived in the street or were Mum`s friends.
He did all his own DIY and was very inventive with old wooden pallets he got from work. He built me and my sis a set of bunk beds, dog kennels, coal bunkers, bin stores and lean to for storing cycles under. He was a dab hand at decorating too and he was regularly pressed into decorating for other people and never charged anybody.
We didn`t have a garden just a backyard but we had the poshest outside toilet which he`d painted and decorated, built a new door for it and covered the floor with lino lol. A man in a million.

Oh my goodness - our Dads were so similar!! Anyone wanted something doing, they would be straight round to see ‘Tony’ and he always obliged, even when he didn’t really have time. My brother and I used to call him Mug (only in a teasing way because we loved him and absolutely admired him really). He had a workshop but it was an area inside the back door before you reached the kitchen, which neighbours (similar houses) had converted over the years into posh kitchen extensions, utility rooms and/or downstairs shower rooms. My poor mum had to put up with a big old work bench, tool storage, proper lathes, etc off her restricted kitchen! He did install central heating in the house (obviosuly had to have British Gas sign-off) to appease her, though! Like your Dad, he built us toys, bikes, go-carts, a really intricate and detailed dolls house for me and a similar fort for my brother, etc. I’m getting really sad now thinking about it so I won’t go on. But yep, this is why we miss them.

 

[stratobuddy]

I've just received this, but haven't checked it myself. The prices are after the October rise.

I have recently started turning off most of my Alexas when not in active use, with the result I still talk to them but get no response until I remember they are off.

 

[maymorganlondon]

I came to the conclusion my dad made us stuff because he wasn't someone who could say "I love you". He made my mum's kitchen. MDF, Formica and a sheet of stainless steel. Measured, cut and entirely unique to his design and mum's needs.
I got a custom wall-mounted desk incorporating bookshelf and a blackboard.
My brother got a unique custom skateboard, made with a roller-skate and a piece of wood.
My gran was another who made things rather thsn say them. We grew up largely in one of a kind trousera, tops, jumpers and (for me not my brother) dresses. Typically we hankered after store bought clothes! Now I look back and relish that I could never cite brands or shops where most of our stuff came from.
At the weekend my brother, or more often me, would be a sparkie's assistant; a chippie's assistant or a brickie's assistant... be painting or pasting wallpaper strips... or finding a spanner or wrench to help dad with some plumbing.
Then there were the cars. Helped with fibreglass repairs to rust bucket cars, or prepping for painting them.
With gran it was baking. With mum it could be cooking or ironing (but only ironing if I got paid, even then!).
We both got a ton of practical skills that also meant we spent quality time with mum, dad and gran...though dad never showed us how he fixed transistor radios.
Nobody said "I love you" but looking back it was there in all the time, care and attention we got resulting in one of a kind gifts, furniture and clothes.
Dad also did the cobbling thing for us, but more basic so some stuff still went to the actual cobbler.
Good memories.

 

[Patsy]

It’s ridiculous. So you could traipse up and down with 50 buckets of fresh water from the tap but not reuse bath water with the aid of a hose. It needs a bit of joined-up thinking. I suppose the only good reason for being so strict, though, is that they would have to enter and inspect where the water was coming from in order to fine you or whatever they do to transgressors. Is it firing squad now?

I had to ring our local water company for some clarification a few years ago and was told it was the hosepipe that couldn't be used for any means

 

[stratobuddy]

. or finding a spanner or wrench to help dad with some plumbing.

You should get this joke then, many don't - - - -

 

[maymorganlondon]

You should get this joke then, many don't - - - -

You just reminded me of his tool board (ooh-err matron!)...