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Last edited by: VxFan on Fri 5 Apr 13 at 17:01
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LOL Pat. £130 pm for your utiliities? What planet are you on? I live in something rather considerably larger than a studio flat, and I spend less than £1200 pa on utilities. Buy them a jolly-well jumper or two and stop encouraging sponging.
>>Try it and see how you get on.
Delighted to. In fact, if you ignore eating out and delicious wine and expensive holidays, the ballet, the opera and the other expensive things I do, I doubt I go much beyond the stated budget above, and I'd be quite happy not to. And I don't think that the State should be subsidising your sponging eating out, delicious wine, expensive holiday, ballet or opera habits - any more than you do.
Sponging? Theft from honest, hard-working taxpayers more like.
This post is rather more polite than the first draft. Pat, you effectively encourage theft from hard-working taxpayers. I am extremely happy with the budget I propose above, and think beyond rent and council tax then a single person should be perfectly able to survive on £2000 p.a. And I'd do it myself.
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Wed 3 Apr 13 at 00:07
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I remember these discussions years ago as a youngster in Holland,how some people could live on very little money.My mother used to shake her head that she could never manage like they could.We always had good homemade food everyday and in the winter the big coal fire was on full blast to keep us warm
I hate poverty and having to count every penny what is live for.
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Mapmaker
I think we need to get a few things straight.
I don't encourage sponging or theft from the taxpayer....indeed it would be theft from myself.
I have never claimed benefits in my life, and I'm still working despite being retired.
I do it because it's something I've done all my life and pays for me to be able to set the thermostat in my house at a lofty 17 degrees in the winter, and run a small tubular heater in my greenhouse.
Despite that, my electricity and gas are £125 per month, my water rates are £35 per month.
This whole issue isn't about living on £53 per week for food.
It's about doing it week after week after week.
It's about balancing the odds of getting that job you'd happily apply for against trying to find the money to go for the interview.
It's about having to buy a pack of 2 toilet rolls instead of a hugely discounted pack of 12.
It's about replacing those basic items you take for granted that aren't food but nonetheless still have to be replaced. Light bulbs, batteries, kettle, bedding towels all wear out. Try replacing any one of those after being on £53 per week for a few months.
Then, if by chance you manage to get that job how do you find the money to travel to work, pay the bills and eat when the benefit stops immediately and the first pay cheque doesn't arrive for a month?
I do really think it's you who are on another planet, and I don't mean that in a nasty way, it's so true of so many people who have never had to sustain a house and a home on a very small income.
While I don't advocate anyone sponging on benefits or thieving from the taxpayer, neither do I want to see anyone so far down at rock bottom that there is no way out for them.
First it's the financial ability to find a way back up, then it's the hope that things will get better that goes away and finally it's the abject acceptance that there is no way, nothing you can do to help yourself.
It's the constant worrying about paying the utility bills, however small, feeding your dependents and keeping up the morale of a family unit that takes it's toll.
....something you will never experience trying to live on £53 for one week only.
Pat
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Top post Pat!!
Real world points well made. I fear that MM theorises from the same perspective as members of HMG.
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Thanks Bromp, I know you and I don't always see eye to eye over cyclists but we're never a million miles apart on the basics of life, are we?:)
Pat
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Oh gawd, she's angling for a trip on his crossbar now.
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Could we try to have a day without mentioning the "C" word? That would be really good...
:-)
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There speaks a lady living in the real world that many of us occupy.
Well said, Pat.
BTW 17C is far too cold: 22C min. for me! Our gas & leccie run out at around ninety quid a month.
Funnily in Spain we used aircon in the bedroom to reduce the temperature to 22C for comfortable sleeping: now we use the gas CH to increase it to 22C for comfortable day-time sitting!
Last edited by: Roger on Wed 3 Apr 13 at 09:27
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Well said Pat. I'm surprised your electric and gas is £125pm though - ours is nearer £80 for both and I work from home a lot so use more electric than I would otherwise.
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Pat
Good post, very good post!
Z
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For order-order.com , here is his take and that of a good few commentators.
I'm not necessarily taking sides here, but would be interested in your comments.
order-order.com/2013/04/03/welfare-state-was-evil-philpotts-accomplice/#comment-1657061
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Phillpot was a manipulative bully. End of.
His wife and mistress had both worked. Were their employers complicit too?
The headline in today's Mail is an utter disgrace, but hell will freeze over before any apology emerges.
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Of course he was a loathsome manipulative bully but the fact remains that we have created a welfare system that is so easy to manipulate and with so little check that an element of our society will always take advantage.
As far as I can see the government has gone a very small way to introducing a system with more checks where those in real need get more and the fairly large numbers of those who aren't in real need get less. I don't see any problem with that at all.
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>> Of course he was a loathsome manipulative bully but the fact remains that we have
>> created a welfare system that is so easy to manipulate and with so little check
>> that an element of our society will always take advantage.
>>
>> As far as I can see the government has gone a very small way to
>> introducing a system with more checks where those in real need get more and the
>> fairly large numbers of those who aren't in real need get less. I don't see
>> any problem with that at all.
>>
Absolutely correct.
Welfare is for people in genuine need, it should not be a lifestyle choice. I live in a fairly respectable little road and I can show you two near neighbours for whom it is, along with scores of people throughout my life who have learnt to play the system.
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I dont think Fred West was on benefits.
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>> I dont think Fred West was on benefits.
>>
Genuine serial killers rarely are. Philpott was an incompetent one off psycho, but most of the ones who get away with multiple murders tend to have respectable jobs.
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@Bromptonaut
Daily Mail readers are just as entitled to their opinions as you are to yours.
Last edited by: Roger on Wed 3 Apr 13 at 13:42
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>> @Bromptonaut
>> Daily Mail readers are just as entitled to their opinions as you are to yours.
It's not the reader comments or opinions Roger. It's the editor's decision to use the headline Vile Product of Welfare UK.
Like the headline last week about the Bedford Bus Lane it's frankly a lie. Phillpot is what he is, a manipulative bully.
He'd still have been one in a world devoid of benefits.
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>> Vile Product of Welfare UK.
The poisonous little moron was certainly that. But he was also a product of tabloid TV which made him feel even cleverer and appeared to sanction his turdish behaviour with these ghastly women and all those poor little nippers. Thought he was a star who could con anyone.
Why do people watch that kind of TV? Perhaps they enjoy wanting to be sick.
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Proof positive that you cannot polish a turd.
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"He'd still have been one in a world devoid of benefits."
He certainly would. Whether he would have had a family of ten is open to doubt.
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>> family of ten
17 children. 6 now deceased, 5 with the ex-live-in-mistress, 6 from previous liaisons.
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The editor's decision no doubt reflects his target audience, though.
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I've seen the figure of £60k quoted for Phillpot's benefits.
Has anyone seen a breakdown of how that was arrived at?
I suspect Tax credits for, in effect, two very large families.
One wholly exceptional and egregious case is not a good foundation for sweeping conclusions or rushed changes.
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No of course its not but I hardly think the governments reforms have been rushed and they certainly aren't based on that odious creature's abuse of the benefit system.
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>> No of course its not but I hardly think the governments reforms have been rushed
>> and they certainly aren't based on that odious creature's abuse of the benefit system.
I wasn't suggesting a link between Phillpot and current reforms. But I'd not put it past them to let a few Mail headlines generate an ill thought through announcement in time for the Queen's Speech next month.
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>> I suspect Tax credits for, in effect, two very large families.
>>
>>
Tax Credits are only for people in work, surely? Maybe his women were claiming them as they apparently had jobs, but Philpott himself was a one man drain on the rest of us.
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>> Tax Credits are only for people in work, surely? Maybe his women were claiming them
>> as they apparently had jobs, but Philpott himself was a one man drain on the
I think that's probably the answer RR. The women were in (low paid?) employment topped up by large tax credits. Philpott forced them to get the money paid to his bank account.
I think however tax credits replaced the Child Premiums in Income Related out of work benefits during the last government. Comittment to end Child Poverty and all that.
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Mick Philpott has got life with a minimum tariff of 15 years while his wife and the other guy get straight sentences of 17 apiece.
Presumably that means, with good behaviour, they'll be out in about eight.
Mick won't get a look in for parole until 2028.
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>>It's about having to buy a pack of 2 toilet rolls instead of a hugely discounted pack of 12.
God you know how to live.
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>>I don't encourage sponging or theft from the taxpayer....indeed it would be theft from myself.
I know; I made that point above.
>>This whole issue isn't about living on £53 per week for food.
>>It's about doing it week after week after week.
My budget above includes a ski holiday, a month in France, an iPhone and membership of a London Club. Year after year. It's not about hardship.
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>>Despite that, my electricity and gas are £125 per month, my water rates are £35 per month.>>
My house is set at 22 degrees and I pay less than you. Close a window or something :-)
>>It's about having to buy a pack of 2 toilet rolls instead of a hugely discounted pack of 12<<
False economy, a pack of two in Tesco is more expensive than buying 4. The cheapest packs only come in large numbers.
>>It's about replacing those basic items you take for granted that aren't food but nonetheless still have to be replaced. Light bulbs, batteries, kettle, bedding towels all wear out. Try replacing any one of those after being on £53 per week for a few months <<
I manage just fine. When I saw Morrisons selling lightbulbs at 40p each I grabbed a handful and I still have loads. Living on a budget is about planning and it requires discipline but we get by on £35 a week, every week, for the two of us - we have an emergency budget which takes that down to £23 with a meal planner attached.
I bought a new kettle recently, it was £7. I had that £7 because I stick to my budgets and I have a fund for things like that.
Some people do far better on low incomes than others and that is all about discipline and planning. Perhaps it is easier for those who have never had alot of stuff to live without it.
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If you only have two quid to spend on toilet rolls and the best value, because of buying a bigger pack, are four quid, you don't have a choice.
It's about cash flow.
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>> If you only have two quid to spend on toilet rolls and the best value,
>> because of buying a bigger pack, are four quid, you don't have a choice.
>> It's about cash flow.
>>
Toilet rolls are not about cash flow. they are about micturation flow.
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That's not what I use them for madf, I use them to wipe me bum. I have used newspaper cut into squares and hung on the back of the outside privy door with a bit of string but I like to think working for a living has afforded me some benefits.
>>My house is set at 22 degrees and I pay less than you. Close a window or something :-)
Well done to you Stu, if that's what makes you happy then go for your life boy!
I prefer to work as much as I can whilst I can and allow myself to sleep with the window open and have a couple of pond pumps working all year round.
It's horses for courses, but my childhood was spent living as you say you do...and I never, ever intend to go back there, if I can avoid it.
>>It's about having to buy a pack of 2 toilet rolls instead of a hugely discounted pack of 12<<
False economy, a pack of two in Tesco is more expensive than buying 4. The cheapest packs only come in large numbers.<<
Stu, if you haven't got the £3 it costs to buy a pack of 9 or 12 then you have no option but to buy the small pack at a greater price......currently almost double the price per sheet at Tesco.
When I claim benefits and stop working altogether I may well have to reduce my utility bills but until I do I intend to enjoy the money I earn in the way I choose to spend it!
I have worked every weekend since the start of this year until Easter weekend...that entails working to 8pm on Friday night and starting again at 5.30 on Saturday morning, and again at 7am on Sunday most weekends. That's when the works available so I grab it with both hands and I'm grateful for the opportunity.
>>Don't even dare to start on what I spend on ciggies!!
Pat
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>>Stu, if you haven't got the £3 it costs to buy a pack of 9 or 12 then you have no option but to buy the small pack at a greater price......currently almost double the price per sheet at Tesco<<
Pat, your sums dont make much sense. A 2 pack is £1.22, a 9 pack is £1.99 ( not £3 ). That is 77p difference, which if your budget is a 4 week one ( my working tax credits were paid 4 weekly so my budget is spread over that period ) you are getting 4 weeks ( at 2 rolls a week ) worth at less than 50p a week. Actually it is easier to do it long term because you can avoid short term purchases. Finding 77p on any given week in order to save £2.89 over 4 weeks is not difficult, even on a tight budget.
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Here we are, same product and price for quantity of 2, 9 and 18.
Tesco Luxury Soft 9 Roll White
Special Offer SAVE 99p Was £3.99 Now £3.00..
valid until 21/5/2013 £3.00 (£0.14/100sheet)
Tesco Luxury Soft Toilet Tissue 18 Roll White
Special Offer SAVE £1.69 Was £7.69 ...
valid until 21/5/2013 £6.00 (£0.14/100sheet)
Tesco Luxury Soft Toilet Tissue White 2 Roll 482 Sheet
Special Offer SAVE 7p Was £1.29 Now...
valid until 21/5/2013£1.22 (£0.25/100sheet)
£0.14 per/100 sheet as opposed to £0.25/100 sheet
Taken from the Tesco website today!
Pat
Last edited by: pda on Wed 3 Apr 13 at 17:26
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thanks for the heads up ..wouldnt want to get the thruppenny bob bits...cheap at half the price
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>>Here we are, same product and price for quantity of 2, 9 and 18.<<
Which rather ignores the fact that, as I said before, the cheaper packs only come in larger numbers of rolls. A toilet roll is a toilet roll Pat and the Springforce 9 pack is 11p/100 sheets - I know it doesnt suit the way you want to frame the argument but brand is irrelevant, price and value is.
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>> price and value is.<<
Not if your fingers poke through it....
Been there, done that with Springforce.
Bet you spend more on soap:)
Pat
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If you eat healthily there is no need for toilet paper. It comes out solid enough not to leave any residue.
Last edited by: Robin Regal on Wed 3 Apr 13 at 19:05
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>> If you eat healthily there is no need for toilet paper. It comes out solid
>> enough not to leave any residue.
>>
Not sure a dietician would agree with you there, particularly if one consumes the recommended amount of fibre.
Anyway, too much information, RR.
:-)
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>>Not if your fingers poke through it....
Been there, done that with Springforce.
Bet you spend more on soap:) <<
Never happened yet, maybe you are just too rough with it :-)
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>>Living on a budget is about planning and it requires discipline
Exactly correct.
Its not about standing on your rights and saying "oh, well, I like it this [more expensive] way".
It is about understanding your priorities; and if you're living on state benefits, than those priorities must (and should) be oriented around what you need, not what you want. That in itself provides a driver for a return to productivity.
And £35 for two per week is do-able. Not pleasant, not fun, but do-able.
And someone who both understands that and proves it by doing it when it is necessary has my respect.
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It's do-able but not sustainable for any length of time.
It's also worth remembering that thos living on state benefits are not all there through their own fault and so need to be given hope and help to get back into work. Self respect is very hard to get back once lost and I may be female but I have a pretty good idea of the self esteem of a man who cannot provide for his family.
By providing I don't mean feeding them the basics....I mean standing in front of your children and telling them time and time again that they can't go on that school trip/ after school club which all their friends go to.
I accept school trips are not a necessity (I never went on them) but anyone who has had to face the look of disappointment on a child's face will know it has far more effect on the parent than the child.
Pat
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>>It's do-able but not sustainable for any length of time
Why not?
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All true Pat but did not this discussion start about how much benefit a single person needs to live on? I'm very much of the opinion that a single fit person without ties is unlikely not to be able to find some wort of work if they look hard enough. There is certainly work round here if it wanted albeit mostly at a minimum wage.
I'm not sure that we should be providing any long term benefit to people in that category.
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The problem is that at first glance there does always appear to be work around at a minimum wage...and there's nothing wrong with that (I've done enough of it).
The problem comes when it starts at 5am and public transport doesn't start till 6am and so you need to Un Sorn (De Sorn!) your car, tax it and insure it to get there plus find the fuel for the first week or so until pay day.
The work you refer to, I imagine, is the same as is available around here in pack houses and on fields, but the shift are not conducive to travelling by bus and are usually too remote to be do-able on a bicycle.
Pat
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Yes there are always problems but you are either the type of person who finds a solution to their transport problems or like or the sort of person who says - the state will pay me x amount that will do. Is it really too much to think that a fit single person with no ties should be expected to fend for themselves.
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>>It's do-able but not sustainable for any length of time.<<
Sorry but I have had a £40 a week budget for food for all the years we have been married ( 4 this year ) and I now aim to go in at £35. Any change I have from one week goes into a tin and is rolled over into the next week - the tin currently has £14 plus change in it.
The idea that it is not sustainable is utter rubbish, I know because I do it each and every week, nor do we live on rice and beans either.
There are plenty of people, like me, who dont claim any benefits and still have food budgets like this.
>>I mean standing in front of your children and telling them time and time again that they can't go on that school trip/ after school club which all their friends go to.<<
My sons school provides financial assistance in such cases. Even when I was at school it was quietly offered and meant I got to go on school trips in the early days of my dads business when money was sparse. You are great on the theory, less so on the reality :-)
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>> You are great on the theory, less so on the reality :-) <<
Reality for me Stu was standing with two other children, every Monday morning, at the front of a class of 36 other children to get my free school dinners.
Then facing the pointing fingers...
Pat
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Ah, but it made you the woman you are now.
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Never thought of it like that Z, but you are right......once again!
Pat
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>>Reality for me Stu was standing with two other children, every Monday morning, at the front of a class of 36 other children to get my free school dinners.<<
When I was at school everyone ate school dinners and there was no way of knowing who did and didnt contribute. There is no point looking way back into history and applying outdated experiences to the current day situation though.
I am quite sure that in todays world of hyper sensitivity, no childs economic siutation would be revealed to the rest of their class.
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>>Exactly correct.
Its not about standing on your rights and saying "oh, well, I like it this [more expensive] way".
It is about understanding your priorities; and if you're living on state benefits, than those priorities must (and should) be oriented around what you need, not what you want. That in itself provides a driver for a return to productivity.
And £35 for two per week is do-able. Not pleasant, not fun, but do-able.
And someone who both understands that and proves it by doing it when it is necessary has my respect.<<
The thing about shopping on a budget is that you give up a great deal of choice - you buy what you can afford which often means either value ranges, things on offer and making a list which you stick to. When I go shopping, the day before shopping day my fridge/freezer is virtually empty, which I regard as a success because it means I havent bought more than I needed.
I dont find it unpleasent, I find it a challenge and over time I have got better and better at saving money, hence ive dropped from £40 a week to £35.
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I admire your ability to live on £35 per week for two FoR but I do not envy you...
What happens when you have a problem with your computer , boiler or car if you have them and you have not got the money ? You have no security and that is what money gives you.
I was brought up in a household where every penny counted and I am still very wary of overspending even though by most peoples standards I am quite well off .
I still look for the special offers on loo rolls and buy books in charity shops - and I am not too proud to take state benefits such as heating allowance and bus pass if the state sees fit to hand them out , heaven knows I have paid enough in tax in my lifetime.
I have worked now for 46 years solid and have been made redundant three times in that period but have never gone without work for more than three months and even worked as a self employed motor cycle courier to keep money coming in ....and it really gets me going when I see workshy layabouts collecting money for sitting around the house watching Countdown...
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>>I admire your ability to live on £35 per week for two FoR but I do not envy you...
What happens when you have a problem with your computer , boiler or car if you have them and you have not got the money ? You have no security and that is what money gives you.<<
No matter what my income has been over the last 4 years, I have always had the same food budget as I do not believe in spending money just because I have it.
I do have security. What I have spoken about is my food budget, nothing else. My wife earns minimum wage working full time and I earn some more on top of that. Part of why we live with such tight budgets is to be able to save for rainy day money. We could live a slightly better life, but we would have no fall back and personally I sleep better at night knowing our ISA has money in it - blowing it on booze, entertainment etc holds no interest for me and my wife considers her ISA money to be damn near sacred.
There will be many men out there who pay CSA money that struggle though, they actually have some of the hardest to hear stories on financial woes - I have child support to pay which takes about 20% of my personal income so in 10 years time I will get a break :-)
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>>I admire your ability to live on £35 per week for two FoR but I do not envy you.
I have always reckoned that what I spend on food, for two, is about £25 per week; and I consider that I eat exceptionally well. Wine, gin, champagne etc. are extra and I spend considerably more than that on them. But I'd much rather have a twice-cooked pork belly than a fillet steak, every time.
>>The poor dears cannot go out on state benefits. [to misquote somebody above]
Well, I can afford to go out, and do. But I'd like to feel I could afford to eat in the Ritz regularly; I cannot. So why don't I get state subsidy to upgrade my eating experience?
Anybody who cannot make £25 feed two people for a week extremely well is too stupid to be allowed to continue living. Like this woman. "Perpetually hungry and eating [expensive] biscuits.'
www.dailyshame.co.uk/2013/03/satire/mp-lives-on-18-a-week-food-bill-and-we-love-her-for-it/
(And the £30 per week for utilities she mentions!?!?!) Pat, quite. You can afford to overheat your house and leave the windows open; do it and enjoy it. I do not however think the state should subsidise people to live like that though, and I don't think you do either.
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I certainly don't think the state should subsidise some people like that.
However there are others who are ill and on benefits and tend to get lumped in with the scroungers and workshy.
These cuts affect them too and shouldn't.
Don't knock the biscuits MM, I provide a huge tin to be nibbled during my training sessions and without fail there's never more than a couple left after 7 hours. What they don't realise is they are Tesco Everyday Value Gingernuts and Digestives at 23p and 28p a packet! I hide the wrappers:)
Pat
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>> I certainly don't think the state should subsidise some people like that.
>>
>> However there are others who are ill and on benefits and tend to get lumped
>> in with the scroungers and workshy.
>>
>> These cuts affect them too and shouldn't.
>>
>> Don't knock the biscuits MM, I provide a huge tin to be nibbled during
>> my training sessions and without fail there's never more than a couple left after 7
>> hours. What they don't realise is they are Tesco Everyday Value Gingernuts and Digestives at
>> 23p and 28p a packet! I hide the wrappers:)
>>
>> Pat
>>
>>
>>
I can recommend Aldi's version of Cadbury's Chocolate Digestive.
Half the price ( 59p iirc) and better tasting.
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Have builders in at the moment. Went down to the local Co op to buy some biscuits along with builders grade tea as we don't we don't normally eat the things. A few brick layers in there from the adjacent site so I asked what the preferred biscuit of the moment was amongst the building fraternity. Caramel Hob Nobs seemed to be a clear winner I bought a couple of packets. Tilers fell on them. Hoping for a good job!
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as an ex brickie..i always preferred lionels with my brew,
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I suspect Lionel Richie = Rich Tea
From my biscuit eating days I found they lacked the wet strength of a ginger nut. :-)
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>> Don't knock the biscuits MM, I provide a huge tin to be nibbled during my training sessions and without fail there's never more than a couple left after 7 hours. What they don't realise is they are Tesco Everyday Value Gingernuts and Digestives at 23p and 28p a packet! I hide the wrappers:)
>> >>
>> >> Pat
>> I can recommend Aldi's version of Cadbury's Chocolate Digestive.
>>
>> Half the price ( 59p iirc) and better tasting.
Lifted from Which?
Supermarket chocolate digestives
McVities was the top scorer (73%), but doesn't get a Best Buy award as the biscuits have been reformulated since our test. In close second place (71%) came Best Buys Lidl Tower Gate, Essential Waitrose, and Sainsbury's Milk Chocolate Digestives.
And they're all cheaper than McVitie's. Lidl's are 59p per pack - that's a third of the cost of McVitie's £1.75.
The Lidl Tower Gate digestives had 'well-flavoured, rich and milky chocolate' and a light base with a crispy texture.
If you like a 'crumbly, wheaty' base and a good crunch, the Essential Waitrose Chocolate Digestive Biscuits, at £1.10 a packet, might appeal. Sainsbury's Milk Chocolate Digestives, £1.10, were praised for having the right balance of chocolate to biscuit.
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norfolk man wins the lionels prize
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>> can recommend Aldi's version of Cadbury's Chocolate Digestive.<<
Now look here, I may be bottom of the entry level working class on that stupid list in another thread, but I would starve before being seen in Aldi or Lidl. I do have some standard.:)
Pat
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Having seen the customers in both Aldi and Lidl in Peterborough, I support your stance.
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on all accounts if you view walmart customers on youtube... they really take the biscuit
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Nowt wrong with Lidls , as I said above I am not too proud to go anywhere the price is right -
SWMBO and I particularly like and always buy their Strawberry jam and Marmalade and they tend to have some good special offers .
SWMBO has a Lidls within 100 yards of her office so she pops in to pick up the odd bargain....but the main shop is done at Sainsburys .
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>> >> can recommend Aldi's version of Cadbury's Chocolate Digestive.<<
>>
>> Now look here, I may be bottom of the entry level working class on that
>> stupid list in another thread, but I would starve before being seen in Aldi or
>> Lidl. I do have some standard.:)
>>
>> Pat
>>
>>
:-)
My general - and true reply - identical to the Status thread..
Frankly my dear, I could not give... etc..
:-)
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Yeah, a "could not give a damn" tried to push to the front of the queue for the (only one open) till at Aldi. A hefty hand on the back of his collar dragging him back and a scowl worked.
Its funny they built the Aldi near the scum area (and opposite Witherspoons) in Walton.
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the tills at aldi should just have a hole at the end of the conveyer belt so the till operator can just let it all drop on the floor ,or better still an extended conveyer straight onto the car park and make them wear steel toe capped boots to kick up up the jacksy when youve dobbed in the readies
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>> Yeah, a "could not give a damn" tried to push to the front of the
>> queue for the (only one open) till at Aldi.
I thought you didn't go into Aldi?
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He watches from across the street in John Lewis.
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>> I thought you didn't go into Aldi?
Not for shopping. Just to fight crime...
:o}
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>> >> I thought you didn't go into Aldi?
>>
>> Not for shopping. Just to fight crime...
>>
>> :o}
>>
>>
Can we see you in your tights an' that, zero?
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>>>Can we see you in your tights an' that, zero?
I think those that caught a glimpse of Z in those rail videos already have.
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but you all go there to shop for your bargain spanners and cheapo garden hoses ( in zeddos case green hoses)
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>> ( in zeddos case green hoses)
It was truly a privilege for those
Who saw Zero in Hamlet-like pose
When from Aldi or Lidl
He'd managed to wheedle
A pair of quite fetching green hose.
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Lidl UK head office is in Wimbledon.
Nearest shop is at least two miles away in the poorer parts of the borough.
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Love Lidl. Do a lot of shopping there for basics and their 'luxury' type goods.
Love Waitrose, buy almost everything else there.
Detest Tescos and Sainsbury's, both down-market but expensive. Lidl choc biscuits aren't a patch on McVities; and McVities are really £1 per packet; not £1.75. In so far as they're constantly on offer at £1, and pitch up at prices between £1 and £1.75 regularly, across all shops.
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>> Love Waitrose, buy almost everything else there.
>>
>> Detest Tescos and Sainsbury's, both down-market but expensive.
Nearly everything like for like brand in Waitrose is more expensive than at Tesco/Sainsburys.
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If you haven't seen it, there's this site (below). You add your shopping to a basket and it tells you how much it would be if you swapped supermarkets. Covers some of them anyway. It also pops up and tells you if there is a special offer appropriate or whatever, and gives you vouchers.
Tried it myself and it looks quite good, but crashed my Firefox after a few items, so I abandoned it.
www.mysupermarket.co.uk/
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I agree VX - Waitrose is expensive .
After seeing above posts from FoR , I did a bit of checking with SWMBO last night as regards the 'food shop' cost and she reckoned she spends roughly between £50 & £55 for the two of us per week .....
Sainsburys also price match against other supermarkets , I believe Asda, Tescos and Morrisons and if she could have bought cheaper elsewhere they give a voucher against the next weeks shop.....
I do not view them as down market at all and they are backed by the same Arab money as Harrods and ambitious to expand their market share .
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>> Sainsburys also price match against other supermarkets , I believe Asda, Tescos and Morrisons and if she could have bought cheaper elsewhere they give a voucher against the next weeks shop.....
Tesco are now doing something similar.
www.tescopricepromise.com/
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>>Nearly everything like for like brand in Waitrose is more expensive than at Tesco/Sainsburys.
Agreed. Moreover nearly everything like-for-like in Tesco/Sainsburys is more expensive than at Lidl. So why shop at T/S? (And I'd rather die than queue in Asda, by the way.)
Waitrose on the other hand is good value (for the quality) and enjoyable to shop in for meat and other luxuries.
The whole "price matching" con is just too confusing. I call it "deceitful pricing" - the McVities chocolate biscuits example being in point here. When you never know what the price is, you never know what you should be paying.
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Fri 5 Apr 13 at 11:17
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>> Moreover nearly everything like-for-like in Tesco/Sainsburys is more expensive than at Lidl.
Really. In my experience the most of the branded stuff is approx the same price in LIDL as it is elsewhere. It's only their own named stuff (or "made/packaged for LIDL") that's generally cheaper.
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>> >> Moreover nearly everything like-for-like in Tesco/Sainsburys is more expensive than at Lidl.
>>
>> Really. In my experience the most of the branded stuff is approx the same price
>> in LIDL as it is elsewhere. It's only their own named stuff (or "made/packaged for
>> LIDL") that's generally cheaper.
How do we disagree?
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Not true. Waitrose price match with Tesco
www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/home/groceries/waitrose_brand_pricematch.html
Even if you do pay a little more overall the experience of shopping in Waitrose, scanning your shopping as you go with no queue at the check out is so superior to Tesco that I would gladly pay a small premium for the privilege.
The stores are well laid out devoid of superfluous advertising and the staff are well trained. Not something that can be said for most of their competitors.
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>> Even if you do pay a little more overall the experience of shopping in Waitrose,
>> scanning your shopping as you go with no queue at the check out is so
>> superior to Tesco
A lot of Tesco stores have self scanners too.
I can get 99% of my weekly shop from Tesco, whereas my local Waitrose only 50%, and pay a whole lot more at the latter. Makes sense for me to do my weekly shop at Tesco, and if I need something small midweek pop into Waitrose.
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"A lot of Tesco stores have self scanners too."
I mean the hand held variety. Put your goods in your bags as you shop. No unpacking, no checkout as such, no queues, just pay and go.
No other supermarket seems to have adopted these. Not sure why. It's a brilliant system.
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>> I mean the hand held variety. Put your goods in your bags as you shop.
So did I.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19810924
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>> "A lot of Tesco stores have self scanners too."
>>
>> I mean the hand held variety. Put your goods in your bags as you shop.
>> No unpacking, no checkout as such, no queues, just pay and go.
>>
>> No other supermarket seems to have adopted these. Not sure why. It's a brilliant system.
>>
Seems to depend on locality. Waitrose have them in Daventry and Towcester. Sainsbury offer them at Fosse Park in Leicester but not, unless I've missed them, in the newly extended superstore at Northampton Sixfields.
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Can hand scan in Tesco Wokingham. Had a few teething problems especially for us Clubcard Plus customers wishing to pay with Clubcard, and I was nearly put off it because I had spot checks made in four of the first six usages, but has been good since. Very handy when trying to reach but not overegg the £50 spend required for the 5p off fuel token - that used to be a mental arithmetic exercise, or just go way over with cases of wine :-)
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>> Can hand scan in Tesco Wokingham. Had a few teething problems especially for us
Very Very late to that game. Still they have been way behind every retail technology advance (in store) tho they were up front with customer data manipulation and analysis through the club card.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 5 Apr 13 at 16:07
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I've seen the hand scanner in a Tesco as well. Must just be rolling it out.
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>> I've seen the hand scanner in a Tesco as well. Must just be rolling it out.
Been in operation since mid 2012 in some places.
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>> Love Lidl. Do a lot of shopping there for basics and their 'luxury' type goods.
The problem with Lidl is that it does not carry everything I want food wise. So meaning you have to go to another supermarket kills any savings in extra travel costs.
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I think ALDI in the UK is better than LIDL, unlike Spain, where LIDL was good & ALDI just terrible.
We get at least 95% of our needs at ALDI.
We have not found much we don't like. Their coffee however, is awful, their brown sauce is gloopy, their jams/marmalades and toilet paper are not as good as LIDL's and they don't stock dried pulses, so Sainsbury or Tesco are our second tier shops. If we pass a LIDL we pop in for their two items mentioned above!
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Depends which ALDI coffee you buy. I get the ground Ethiopian "Specially Selected" one. It's delicious. Their boggo "Alcafe" instant is, however, rotten.
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>> I think ALDI in the UK is better than LIDL, unlike Spain, where LIDL was
>> good & ALDI just terrible.
>> We get at least 95% of our needs at ALDI.
That's my experience too. All the basic repeat weekly stuff comes from Aldi. Very little in that range is lower quality than Tescburys, Mrs B rejects their smoked mackerel though.
A few bits they don't do (dried pulses, leaf tea, tinned chick peas, LF Greek Yoghurt) come from Waitrose. Usually shop in Daventry where both are in walking distance of the free car park. Otherwise Towcester where it's a short swing through the streets from one to the other.
Aldi meat is variable though. We prefer to use the monthly Farmers Market in Towcester to stock up on quality stuff.
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Yes - we buy ALDI small chickens which last us at least three meals for the two of us, plus chicken stock for home made soup.
ALDI cooked lamb shanks are nice, though!
For the rest of our meat we tend to use a "real" butcher in town, which by the time you consider the price/quality/lack of added water, scenario is, we think, much better value than ANY supermarket.
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benefit changes - Mapmaker
