I think we do live in RIP OFF Britain

[GabbyLoggon]

I look at prices in the shops and think: How do poor people live.?

We're on a gas card meter. If we put the hot water and the central heating* on all day 8-8 it cost £15! So we don't.

My DH is self employed so we are always looking for ways to keep costs low, but are finding the new higher prices for things like gas and electricity really tough.

I do feel ripped off especially when you know that these companies are still making massive profits and paying themselves multi million pound bonuses.

*Our heating doesn't work if the hot water isn't on too.

We do go out as a family for dinner but always look for coupons/vouchers before we decide where to go. I love taking my girls out for cake and hot chocolate, it's when we catch up and I get to hear all their funny stories. Some friends seem shocked how often we eat out but we don't smoke or drink and don't spend a fortune on clothes.

Different families spend money on different things. Will all change for us in May when dh is made redundant from DPW. Severe cut backs will be needed and I'm dreading it.

OOPS...dont worry about it, good beds are pricey. I need a new one.

I dont do credit; and that will seem unusual to some of you young mumsnetters..

In some ways I am living as we used to live years ago

Yes, mummy, I have heard Ireland is expensive.

I dont use tea bags more than once.

good to see you back Durham

I was born in the 60s and for my parents living 'carefully' came naturally. They grew, made and baked everything they could. They also did all of the household maintenance tasks. I think we went out to Berni's Inn (ooh the luxury - chicken and chips in a basket and Neapolitan ice-cream!) once a year perhaps. As time went on we had a little more money but it was always taken for granted that we took our lunch with us on days out and we never had 'shop-bought' if we could avoid it. Come the 80s when both DB and I had left school mum and dad had more money to spend. I think that in the last few decades everyone has got so used to luxuries that we feel deprived when we can't have them anymore.

We live fairly frugaly here too, but have some special treats. 5 DC's (although 1 at Uni now) keep our living costs up.
We used to do cinema on a saturday morning, £1 kids club films. They're not the newest but DC's loved going regularly. we took our own drinks and snacks.
Pizza hut do happy hour or kids eat free for a treat out, or we trade up our Tesco clubcard vouchers for special treats. Bella Italia, bowling English Heritage membership etc.
I buy most of the DC's clothes from Tesco or sainsburys, but twice a year have a little splurge in the Next & Monsoon sale.
A sack of spuds from the local farm shop does bulk out all our meals cheaply also.

Waves to Gabbyloggon

Stick with the new bed!! It's worth every penny and you won't be buying another for ages and you'll 'enjoy' it loads more than the £90 shoes . cheap meals out (easily £70 for us) are such a waste of money (kids don't agree though)! and DH and I can cook better than that. Keep it for birthdays.

Stick with the new bed!! It's worth every penny and you won't be buying another for ages and you'll 'enjoy' it loads more than the £90 shoes . cheap meals out (easily £70 for us) are such a waste of money (kids don't agree though)! and DH and I can cook better than that. Keep it for birthdays.

Oooops- £800/ 19years = 42p per week
or 6p per day
or 12p per bonk!

That's a bargin in my books

Stick with the new bed!! It's worth every penny and you won't be buying another for ages and you'll 'enjoy' it loads more than the £90 shoes . cheap meals out (easily £70 for us) are such a waste of money (kids don't agree though)! and DH and I can cook better than that. Keep it for birthdays.

Gabby waves back Durham keep your ruddy snow

Haha...it was snowing in Rowlands Gill when I left work and it looks like it's trying to snow here in Durham. Oh Joy!!

Oh OOPs wasnt trying to put you off, just priorities, no bugger seems to sleep in this house, i could sell the beds and no one would notice bloody kids.

You sound as if you are truley a Martin Lewis Gal. Good on you for making the money stretch and still maintaing some pleasure like trips to the cinema.

I don't waste much, never have. I know some people who were in the good ole days did not move furniture to new house but bought new and had it delivered on move in day. The "old stuff" was collected by a charity. Well, all this on low wages and partly funded by government. I was appalled! Where is this family now.......no better off for having new stuff that has to be paid for. I guess next time round they may have to ask father, brother and neighbour for a hand to move.

I have seen some waste in my area, if this downturn does anything it should be make people stop and realise there is no such thing as a free lunch.......its paid for by someone. that goes for our NHS too. All our wasteful ways need to stop. It's time to take a step back and turn every penny before we spend it.

Grimma - yes I agree about pizza at home etc. We just thought we would take the DSs out for a simple treat. I was stunned at the cost - it was at least 25% more than I had expected.

Have had a similar feeling about restaurants for a while. We used to eat out a lot up and down the price scale but really had some bad experiences of rip off prices recently. Restaurants trying to get profits out of fewer customers, cheaper cuts of meat, higher prices, etc. The pizza place we went to had clarly quadrupled the wholesale price of the wine whereas the standard mark up used to be to treble the wholesale price.

Going to be a lot more careful in future.

I bought a secondhand bed 13 years ago. It finally (after numerous repairs) gave up the ghost 6 months ago. I was aghast at having to find £299 to buy a bed in the sale. WTF sort of bed costs £800 and who the heck can afford that?? Is it gold plated??

We go out to the cinema twice a year, it is saved up for as a special treat for the dc. And always on a Wednesday, as one ticket is free with orange wednesdays.

We don't do restaurants, too expensive.

Holidays we don't do. Clothes for the dc I will admit to spending a bit more money on, but only because DD is in adult sizes, and what I buy for DS1 is handed down to DS2 so needs to be of a reasonable quality to last for 2 dc.

£90 on shoes makes me pull a 'scream' face. But then again, after today, cheap shoes are DEFINATELY a false economy. Eight weeks ago I spent £20 on a pair of winter boots for myself from crappy shoezone. Today in the pissing rain...the bloody sole fell off. But DD needs new school shoes, which will cost me £35 from Clarks, and she also needs a new school jumper (£14 from the school, not allowed cheapy version) AND new shirts AND a new PE sweatshirt (£16 from the school, not allowed cheapy version). So there is no way I will have the money to buy myself a decent pair of shoes that might last at least some time, as DD's uniform must come first. But by the time winter is over, I've probably spent the same amount of money on crappy shoes in dribs and drabs as I would have if I bought a £90 pair in the first place!!

Bloody false economy that I have no choice over. .

Bus fares (can't drive due to epilepsy, disabled pass can't be used before 9.30am, have to travel by bus to get dc to school as closer schools have no spaces, but not quite 3 miles, so no bus pass) are CRIPPLING, as we have to pay 2/3 fare (not half fare) for dc over 5yo here, and from 14yo it's full adult fare. Now that is RIP-OFF BRITAIN.

I agree things seem to be getting very expensive, petrol, clothes, shoes (esp. clarks kids shoes), fuel.

The Vue Kids AM cinema for a £1 is fab, we do that often, and take our own drinks and sweets.

We are not skint but DH self employed so our income is not secure.

Our heating is on for 2 hours in the morning, as we get up then I try not to put it back on until we get back in from our final school run if I can. The small 2 (3 and 4 yo) don't seem to feel the cold, if really chilly I have the log fire on and I wear thermals, which are fantastic and keep you really warm. Only problem is visiting people who do heat their house all day - I'm sweltering and can't really strip off my undies!

I buy big sacks of potatoes too, they last for ages, plus have a few veggie meals each week - omlettes, baked potatoes and so on.

I think £800 for a bed is sensible, it's likely to last much longer than a cheaper one.

go to spain, or italy

they are FUCKED, its sooo expensive

poor people in the UK go to asda/morrisons/poundland

YABU

Loudlass- don't know if there's one by you, but we have a Clarkes warehouse type store which sells off all their old stock really cheap. Might be worth asking if there's a similar thing near you next time your in a High street shop. Ours mainly do adult shoes with some kids. Another option is TK Maxx if you have one. I got a great pair of Hush Puppies for £20 once and regularly get trainers for my heavy footed DS, but spend no more than £20. He is a 9-10 adult size! But it is pot luck.

Coming from Italy and going there regularly I would say this;

You can get fairly good quality cheap clothes and food in the UK and you can't in Italy at all.

Medicines are also a rip off in Italy and so is anything baby related.

HOWEVER, days out are much cheaper, and thanks to the weather you can take your family out for free!

Here however, taking the family out anywhere, especially in winter, can take a fortune. Themeparks, soft play etc are absolutely extortionate in my view, and so is public transport, which is less than half the price in italy.

I guess you can survive by never going anywhere, but it's a grim life innit.

We are looking at the possibility of moving to California... I can't tell you how many things will cost mind boggling more amounts than they do now (for us in UK).

3 sessions preschool/week, goes from FREE at point of delivery to 50+ quid/week.
Housing: 2x (or more) as expensive
Gymnastics, Swim and martial arts clubs: double what we pay now.
Broadband, utilities, Groceries: About the same
Quality 2nd hand clothes: Difficult to source
Medical + Dental: hard to describe, because it comes out of taxation, but definitely costs more there.
Orthondontics for DC: FREE here, will cost $000s there.

BeenBeta's example of eating out + movie isn't that useful, that would cost 14 quid (max) if you did it at home. 86 quid saved for better causes.

Having travelled a lot to many countries, I can honestly say that Britain is not a rip off. Quite the opposite actually.

The press often tell us how much extra we are charged above our US cousins but they almost always fail to account for their sales tax and our VAT rate.

My partner is from eastern europe and her family travel here when they can to shop. The reason? It's cheaper and you get better quality.

The difference seems to be expectations. Abroad and esp in the poorer countries, its the norm to buy second hand stuff. A car is still considered to be "new" if its < 5 years old. You are considered "lucky" to be able to afford to buy new clothes every month.

People also still have much more of a make do and mend mentality. For example, if my oven broke I'd be looking at either getting an engineer out or buying a new one. Often abroad you'd simply figure it out yourself and fix it. Or you'd know someone who knew someone.

Trust me as a nation we have it cushy.

Energy companies are robbing bastards, end of. The profit they make, and the blatant way they increase their prices at the beginning of winter is disgusting.

Council tax is a laugh as well.

Littlewoods - I had never bought from them before but I could not believe how many bargains I found in the sale.