Latest Moan From You and Me 2025

That's extortionate, I can get a flight to Bangkok for that amount with one of the middle eastern airlines, even cheaper with Norse Air and that includes food and drinks.

When we go to Leeds for a few nights, we get the train. From Whitehaven to Leeds via Carlisle, then on the Settle route it is roughly £70/80 based on 2. Going by car it is a 3 hour journey and then parking in Leeds is roughly £20 for 24 hours, so probably a little bit cheaper going by train, but roughly 90 minutes longer each way going by train though.

 

My fridge is an under the counter affair so the salad drawer environment will be rather different from yours.

 

Salad leaves are often packaged with nitrogen. Some green veg packages are just puffed up with ordinary air though because it protects the leaves and stops them getting bruised in transit.

 

I was only going on what happened when we had the carbon dioxide shortage a while back, they said at the time it was causing problems with packaging veg.

I thought nitrogen was for car tyres.

 

CO₂ is used too, though it seems in smaller amounts for veg and in larger amounts for meat, dairy and bakery.

What is Modified Atmosphere Packaging? | EMCO Technology Ensuring Freshness in the Food Industry

 

If I have some spare salad leaves I put them in a plastic ziplock bag and breathe into it to puff it up then close it. Keeps salad leaves very well for a few days.

 

I water my lettuces, give them a shake and pop them back in the bag they came in. They stay crisp for ages. In the fridge of course.

 

I only ever buy Little Gem, that stays good for at last a couple of weeks with no special treatment.

 

@gks I updated my post after you had quoted from it. If you think the price I originally quoted was bad, that figure was actually with the 'Two Together' discount. Full price is £832!

 

Train prices aren't usually that bad if you buy separate Advance tickets (booked seats on a specific train) for the outward and return journeys, for off-peak times. If you want the flexibility to get on any train on the given day, or if you want to travel at peak times, it's a lot more expensive. And if you want dates where there's an event going on, supply and demand pushes up prices. Prices might also vary depending on whether and where you change trains.

I tried the following for Gloucester to Edinburgh for a long weekend in January and it came in a smidge over £150 with the two-together railcard selected (but not including the price of the railcard).

 

The cost of electricity to increase due to laying of more undersea cables and building more pylons. It would appear that customers will bear the cost rather than the utility companies. No change there then.

 

Apparently the APD for passengers flying on private jets will increase in 2026 and again in 2027, they say it will bring in an extra £1.2bn annually for the treasury. They are also looking at putting a fuel tax on private jets, which will bring in another £1.5bn annually, but nothing was mentioned in the budget when or if the government would put a tax on fuel for private jets.

 

That so called £150 knocked off our energy bills announced in the budget will probably now be a pittance. Give with one hand, while taking from the other, so not exactly £150 off our energy bills after all.

 

@JennyJB thanks for that. I have managed to enlarge it enough to make out the details. When I originally checked, there was only one advance ticket available for the dates I wanted, at about £58, with nothing for the return dates. Required dates were pretty rigid as we were looking to get away for my birthday.
As you say though, if you have plenty of flexibility it is possible to get the price down.

 

The seeds for those are listed in my new catalogue. I've never tried that type but now I'm excited to try growing them. Thank you!

Oh, forgot to moan... the price for mailing seeds is ridiculous. They weight what? Not even an ounce?