My nephew lives with me and he either has no idea or is lacking any realisation of how much things are costing these days. Last night he came downstairs about 9.00, bare footed in T shirt and shorts, saying he was cold and he was putting the heating on. Sometimes I come in from work and the gas fire is on, when he runs out off credit on his phone he uses the house phone for mobile numbers and the food that gets wasted is unbelievable. It's a nightmare and there's no talking to him. My solution to spend less so far has been to cut back drastically on shopping, I've stopped fizzy juice, cut back on crisps, I'm down to one packet of biscuits a week and I've been making more economical dinners. I've stopped buying jars of sauces, pickles and beetroot and anything that is in the least bit 'treaty'. I feel there are more savings that ca nbe made with my shopping bills. I take my lunch to work and instead of getting the bus for shorter journeys I'm walking. I think my Sky might be the next thing to go. I have the full package plus multi room, it's over £70.00 a month. I'm also delaying cancelling my charitable donations but that's another option for me. Craft spending has been cut right back too. It's tough and I feel we are only at the start of these hard times. Life is so boring without ant treats.

I've also been buying larger packs of soap powder, toilet rolls etc as it works out cheaper and I try to do the buy one get one free on tolietries too. My nearest Asda is miles away. The Co-op is the only supermarket in my village, Tesco is a few miles away and Lidl is in the next town. The Co-op is quite expensive but the good thing is that they have so little choice so my food shoping works out relatively ok. !