P&O Cruisers - What are things like where YOU are?

[twotravellersLondon]

43 minutes ago, Splice the mainbrace said:

One strange thing that I’ve noticed from food shopping is that the price of big pot natural yoghurt has actually gone down, it is actually half the price of a pint of milk. At 2 supermarkets that we use where a pint of milk is 90p the equivalent size yogurt  own brand is 35 and 40p. When I saw the price online I thought that it was a mistake.

 

I’ve also noticed that price rises have slowed and that there are more ‘special’ offers around now on food stuffs. Hopefully the lower energy costs will feed through to producers and shop shelf prices. Gas price markets are around 70% less than a year ago and oil 20%.

 

We now do all of our grocery shopping online and find that it's a brilliant and effective way to compare prices. We buy offers in bulk, take deals on things or alternatives that we would buy anyway and batch cook things like bolognaise sauce. Like most folk we have a policy of waste not want not, seasonal ingredients and cooking from scratch. 

 

We've also been a bit pedantic for well over forty years and have a very detailed set of accounts... once on paper and now an all jumping spreadsheet... that lets us track exactly what we've spent since 1981.  (We both hope to get a life one day!) It even gives us a running annual estimate, sets a budget for things from month to month... one day we hope that it will cart the bags into the kitchen, unpack the groceries and put them in the right place... but we can dream!

 

Result?  In the last year we've managed to keep our grocery costs for food, drinks and household necessities down to what they cost in the year previously. 

 

We believe that there are people in this world happy to attempt to make extra profits by using inflation as an excuse to bang their prices up when in fact their own production costs are more or less the same.

 

Our reaction now... we don't give them our hard-earned money.... more and more people seem to be doing the same sort of thing.

[Josy1953]

I also use a spreadsheet to keep track of all of our financial information.  Strangely when I said this recently when out with my sisters and we were talking about rising prices they were surprised, one of them said "You are as bad as mum was with her little accounting book".

[twotravellersLondon]

5 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

I also use a spreadsheet to keep track of all of our financial information.  Strangely when I said this recently when out with my sisters and we were talking about rising prices they were surprised, one of them said "You are as bad as mum was with her little accounting book".

 

Bet your Mum made sure that you were all well fed and looked after to the best of her ability. The account book was really an act of love. Wonderful memory!

[Josy1953]

It has been busy morning, I took the niece's birthday present and card round, then volunteered to drop her off at school to save her mum getting the car out.  I was glad to push her from the car just to get rid of the ping of messages hitting her phone.  Why do they text each other when they are going to see each other in 5 minutes time?

I then went shopping to get an outfit from a wedding that we are going to 5th August, I managed to get something that is suitable for the wedding and for my next cruise.

[Harry Peterson]

20 minutes ago, twotravellersLondon said:

 

We now do all of our grocery shopping online and find that it's a brilliant and effective way to compare prices. We buy offers in bulk, take deals on things or alternatives that we would buy anyway and batch cook things like bolognaise sauce. Like most folk we have a policy of waste not want not, seasonal ingredients and cooking from scratch. 

 

We've also been a bit pedantic for well over forty years and have a very detailed set of accounts... once on paper and now an all jumping spreadsheet... that lets us track exactly what we've spent since 1981.  (We both hope to get a life one day!) It even gives us a running annual estimate, sets a budget for things from month to month... one day we hope that it will cart the bags into the kitchen, unpack the groceries and put them in the right place... but we can dream!

 

Result?  In the last year we've managed to keep our grocery costs for food, drinks and household necessities down to what they cost in the year previously. 

 

We believe that there are people in this world happy to attempt to make extra profits by using inflation as an excuse to bang their prices up when in fact their own production costs are more or less the same.

 

Our reaction now... we don't give them our hard-earned money.... more and more people seem to be doing the same sort of thing.

 

4 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

I also use a spreadsheet to keep track of all of our financial information.  Strangely when I said this recently when out with my sisters and we were talking about rising prices they were surprised, one of them said "You are as bad as mum was with her little accounting book".

Delighted to learn that I’m not the only freak in here! Confirmed Microsoft Money (a souped up spreadsheet still with a huge fan base) user since 1998 and account books before that!  Absolutely essential when we first got married, but still extremely useful for tracking items purchased. 
 

Good to know that two people could eat tolerably well on £5 pw in the early 70s! With a LOT of eggs, cheese, bread and baked beans.

 

Basic: Egg on toast.

 

Luxury: Egg on cheese on toast 

 

Supreme luxury: Eggs on cheese on toast, with beans.

[Josy1953]

19 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

 

Delighted to learn that I’m not the only freak in here! 

I think a lot of us of a certain age were brought up by parents who had to watch the pennies so follow their ways.

I remember that @Vampiress88 is another person who loves her spreadsheets, though I would include her in those of a certain age 🙂

Edited July 12, 2023 by Josy1953

[Harry Peterson]

2 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

I think a lot of us of a certain age were brought up by parents who had to watch the pennies so follow their ways.

We were the ones watching the pennies when we first married. We managed to buy a 2-bed maisonette near Bromley a few months after the wedding, but it absolutely cleaned us out - and the mortgage repayments were only just affordable.

 

Still much easier for us though than the equivalent couple today in their early 20s. £9500 for that maisonette, £400,000+ now.  Maybe 6 times average salary then, but more than double that now. And we had tax relief on the mortgage interest.

[yorkshirephil]

55 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

 

 

Basic: Egg on toast.

 

Luxury: Egg on cheese on toast 

 

Supreme luxury: Eggs on cheese on toast, with beans.

And not to forget: egg and spam; egg, bacon and spam; egg, bacon, sausage and spam; spam, bacon, sausage and spam; spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon and spam; spam, spam, spam, egg and spam; spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, spam, spam, spam, and spam; or lobster thermidor aux crevettes with a mornay sauce garnished with truffle pâté, brandy and a fried egg on top and spam.

[brian1]

I got my camping chair for Silverstone from Go Outdoors,do they sell spreadsheets in there.We just spot the double reduce sticker lady with her trolley in Sainsbury and stick to her like glue.

[pete14]

1 hour ago, brian1 said:

I got my camping chair for Silverstone from Go Outdoors,do they sell spreadsheets in there.We just spot the double reduce sticker lady with her trolley in Sainsbury and stick to her like glue.

Where about were you at Silverstone? Obviously not in one of the stands where chairs are provided (at a cost).

[pete14]

Just now, pete14 said:

Where about were you at Silverstone? Obviously not in one of the stands where chairs are provided (at a cost).

And it anyone can tell me why a huge bank of  seats for sitting in is called a stand, I would like to know.

[brian1]

25 minutes ago, pete14 said:

Where about were you at Silverstone? Obviously not in one of the stands where chairs are provided (at a cost).

On the grass with my nose pressed against the fence in the rain.A bargain at 225 bloody quid,lol.

[Jennizor]

Not long to go before our Iona cruise to the Fjords on Saturday. Just looked at the weather forecast and it shows rain every day. When we last went to the Fords on Arcadia in June 2019 it was sunshine all the way. We will make the most of it, our waterproofs will be packed and we will enjoy just being on the ship, on the balcony or deck when we can find shelter.
 

We will be relaxing as much as possible as my daughter is moving house the week after we return and we will have her two youngest boys for a couple of days. Happy days, but sad as well as they have lived up the road from us for the last 17 years (630 steps door to door). They will only be a 15 minute drive away from us but I will miss the close contact. The three boys are 10,12 and fourteen and all need there own rooms and space. They are no longer my little ones who loved baking with Grandma when mummy was working. Happy memories though.

[kalos]

25 minutes ago, pete14 said:

And it anyone can tell me why a huge bank of  seats for sitting in is called a stand, I would like to know.

Maybe going back to the days of the football stands when that's what most of us did but I 

think they were called terraces back then ?

We do have a band stand in our park but most brass bands would be sat down in there as well🤔

I dunno ...Off to check my standing orders 🙃🥴🙂

[grapau27]

Good afternoon.

We went to Lumley castle today for lunch.

[grapau27]

[yorkshirephil]

47 minutes ago, pete14 said:

And it anyone can tell me why a huge bank of  seats for sitting in is called a stand, I would like to know.

One of the great mysteries of life. 

If Cinderella's shoe fit perfectly, then why did it fall off? 

If Cinderella's shoe fit perfectly, then why did it fall off? 

[Ilovemygarden]

21 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Good afternoon.

We went to Lumley castle today for lunch.

Looks delicious but a bit downmarket for a castle.  😂

[terrierjohn]

29 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Good afternoon.

We went to Lumley castle today for lunch.

Was Joanna in attendance?

[happy v]

7 minutes ago, Ilovemygarden said:

Looks delicious but a bit downmarket for a castle.  😂

That's what I was thinking. I thought the menu would have been a bit more upmarket 

 I

[happy v]

Actually I thought it said Langley. I certainly can't remember fish and chips at Lumley. Is it just for lunch Graham?

[Adawn47]

5 hours ago, twotravellersLondon said:

 

Bet your Mum made sure that you were all well fed and looked after to the best of her ability. The account book was really an act of love. Wonderful memory!

I keep an account book. I have done since the first pay packet (remember those) Frank recieved after we were married, and I was designated the accountant. It worked well then and still does 58 years later.

Avril

 

 

[pete14]

2 hours ago, brian1 said:

On the grass with my nose pressed against the fence in the rain.A bargain at 225 bloody quid,lol.

Not wishing to make you envious but pete14 junior was trackside wearing bright orange overalls, for free.

[Adawn47]

3 hours ago, pete14 said:

And it anyone can tell me why a huge bank of  seats for sitting in is called a stand, I would like to know.

Because when you're told how much they are, you won't stand for it?🤔

So stand instead😁

Avril

[Josy1953]

2 hours ago, grapau27 said:

The last one reminded me of when I was ill and  had been forbidden to walk around by the surgeon so DH had to do the shopping alone.  I gave him a list and he went Tesco, he came back with everything from the list except a bottle of juice but he had a jar of jam.  When I asked why he a bought jam when neither of us ate it his reply was that I only wrote blackcurrant on the list so he ask my sister,  who wahappened to be in Tesco what I meant by blackcurrant and she told him to buy blackcurrant jam.

I couldn't  decide who was the stupidest, me for assuming that he knew what we kept in the cupboards, him forgot knowing that we never had jam or the sister who had spent the first 20 years of her life eating daily with me.