AIBU to buy instant coffee for the builders.

[IloveConkers]

I’ve been giving the builders nespresso coffee and it’s grating on me and my pocket a bit! Is it super tight if go out and i buy them instant?

@LizziesTwin

I’d lend them a kettle and put it on a tray with some mugs, sugar, a carton of milk & a jar of instant & let them get on with it.

This is correct.

If you don't give them access to a sink, collect the tray at the end of the day and wash up the mugs on it. It is not your job to scour the site looking for mugs they have abandoned.

Don't give them your best mugs or any you will miss when they are lost or broken.

And get a pack of teaspoons from the pound shop.

p.s.

give builders a box of sugar cubes. If you give them granulated sugar, it will go stained and lumpy from wet spoons being dipped in, and it will be spilled and trampled into the floor.

i bet they turn up with their own Gaggia and a Barista

DH put "builders' tea" on our shopping list for tomorrow. Not sure anything M&S sells would cut it. is this OK?

the-tea-artisans.com/products/forests-of-bulang

PG tips will do

Or "English Breakast" from Lidl or Aldi

@Thatswhatmamasaid

The thing is they have been happily drinking your Nespresso, surely you can't take it away from them now? It would be a bit mean to start offering instant and it would only demotivate them.

Personally I would happily offer my builders my own coffee from my bean to cup espresso machine.

A simple, "Oh shit I've run out of pods, but I've got instant" will cover that easily.

LOL at it being MC, I live on a council estate with a dodgy reputation.

I may have also made bacon butties for one electrician and given (non alcoholic) beer to the bin men in the middle of a heatwave.

Oh no, not the naice coffee for the trade. They'll have to do with the muck that the peasants drink.

Jeeves, nip to the local establishment those sorts frequent and buy something more suitable.

Mellow Birds and 1 bourbon each

@Pazuzu

Oh no, not the naice coffee for the trade. They'll have to do with the muck that the peasants drink.

Jeeves, nip to the local establishment those sorts frequent and buy something more suitable.

I can hear Audrey Fforbes-Hamilton in there......

@Therealrealitystar

I have to bring my own lunch to work or go to the cafe and buy something. I never buy provide lunch or drinks to builders. Bring a flask if you have a hot drink habit. I don’t get why or when this this started. My dad was a labourer and always left home with his fuel for the day

I spent the first 9 years of my life in Yorkshire, it is a strong cultural belief that you offer people a hot drink if they cross your threshold.

I would not be suprised to find a law from the Vikings that hot drinks must be provided, preferably with fruit cake and cheese.

Builders, bricklayers, plasterers etc etc are busting their asses out there for work which just isn't there because (wakey wakey) we're in an almighty recession tsunami right now. I am glad that you are lucky enough to discuss coffee beans rather than bailiffs but considering the benefits of their skills in your life, perhaps be grateful enough that you don't have to actually sweat for a living and consider how useful you would be if washed up on a desert island with no money to hide behind.

Surely an early contender for Mumsnettiest thread title of the year..

@Mudday Don’t know where you are based but where we are all the tradesmen are fully booked for months, some for the whole year.

@LizziesTwin I'm in the SW. From the home counties originally. My DM swears by looking after the trades because its so difficult to get reliable ones but I did wonder if she was just showing off.

I cringe at the suggestion that it's ok to give tradesmen something you wouldn't drink yourself.

I give our builders the same as me as they get a cuppa when I do as I work from home - so that's Douwe Egberts instant and Yorkshire tea. To be fair most of the guys on our build drown it in so much sugar I'm not sure you could taste what kind it was.
Most site offices on bigger builds will be a jar of cheap instant and if you are lucky a cleanish mug, up here they tend to be fussier about tea.

@Mudday

Builders, bricklayers, plasterers etc etc are busting their asses out there for work which just isn't there because (wakey wakey) we're in an almighty recession tsunami right now. I am glad that you are lucky enough to discuss coffee beans rather than bailiffs but considering the benefits of their skills in your life, perhaps be grateful enough that you don't have to actually sweat for a living and consider how useful you would be if washed up on a desert island with no money to hide behind.

Are they? The builders around me are already booked up for most of the year. We had to pay a consultation fee for most of them to even come around and look at the work as they’re so busy

I drink Instant Douwe Egberts and offered it to my builders who all laughed because they had some kind of fancy Columbian roasted coffee (complete with french presses) lol. So there’s no guarantee you won’t piss them off. Lol just keep up with the Nespresso until it runs out and then then they’ll probably just arrange their own anyway - if they ask make up an excuse that you can’t get to the shop.

Good grief it must be costing you a fortune!

Dh has a Nespresso machine (I don't drink coffee only tea) but he generally just has one cup in the morning, at weekends when he's home all day he might have one in the afternoon too. The rest of the time he drinks instant.

Nespresso/dolce gusta etc is a luxury, an occasional treat. Not an every day, every drink thing (unless you are minted)

@Mudday

Builders, bricklayers, plasterers etc etc are busting their asses out there for work which just isn't there because (wakey wakey) we're in an almighty recession tsunami right now. I am glad that you are lucky enough to discuss coffee beans rather than bailiffs but considering the benefits of their skills in your life, perhaps be grateful enough that you don't have to actually sweat for a living and consider how useful you would be if washed up on a desert island with no money to hide behind.

They really aren't in a recession at the moment - there is more work than tradespeople. Most construction trades are booked up wayyyyy in advance atm especially at a domestic scale. There are difficulties in the industry at the moment mainly with supply logistics but finding work is not an issue. I'm an architect and I'm currently doing my own build as well as managing several other peoples projects. It's not only the trades that are booked up but also professionals we are all running a backlog.

I work in the construction industry and confirm there is way more work than tradespeople at the moment.

@ShirleyPhallus you actually PAID a consultation fee? Seriously? They saw you coming a mile off, mega oops, like really... and as for architect, construction etc mafia bells, keep running your rackets, because you know full well that your chronically underpaid desperadoes will always be the restless whisper in the shadows that remind you to keep watching your backs you unscrupulous dogs.

Are you drunk Mudday?

@Mudday there's an awfully big chip on that shoulder.
I have really good relationships with all the trades I work with (and I work with them regularly) and lots of them earn more than I do.
Architects especially in the domestic sector don't, despite popular belief on average earn that much. There is no racket, mafia chronically underpaid desperados or anything of the sort. Frankly your comment is a bit weird.
There are, as I said issues in the sector at the moment mainly due to logistics, material costs and massive demand that is making life for us all much harder and that is impacting on business for all of us but there is no lack of work.