A frugal life is an easy life!

Day fourteen:

I don't go out with the intention of Christmas shopping, but when a real bargain comes along, not just the old "Now half price" offer thats been doubled in price the month before and returned to it's original price in the "sale," then it can save a fortune.

I ask myself these questions when buying Christmas presents, more so if it is for kids:

• Can it make noise without the need for batteries or be turned off?
• Can it make a mess?
• Is it something they would not normally get?
• Is it clearly well below its regular price?

If the answer is yes, then I will buy it.
I picked up a selection of acrylic paints, different size brushes, plastic mixing pallets, for just £3 - put it together with a pack of cheap printer paper, alibongo! One Christmas present all ready to go.
Think back to last Christmas - how much would it cost for an art set of various brush sizes, acrylic paints, mixing pallet, all presented in a snazzy box? £10 at least I bet!
Not only do I get to give Christmas presents to annoy the parents of children, but I save money... little victories people!

Around the house, seeing as it is raining still, we have progressed on to lifting floor boards, to check the heating pipework, ready to cut into it and move the radiator in the back room. Just got to measure up for some lats and then fit them in so I can run the pipes along them, then lay a new floor, so it's level with the old floor in the main room. Sounds complicated but it really isn't.
The van's not available this weekend, I've lent it to our neighbours, who are moving to the other side of town (saving them £80) they are attempting to lift a suite out of a first floor window without ropes... the wife (who is a riot) thinks they'll be able to have one person lowering it from the top and one person stood on the ground to support and lower it down. It's clearly not going to happen, but it would have been fun watching hehe.

Sprog2 and I are on the road tomorrow, or maybe even tonight.
A two and a half hour drive to Sunderland, then a brew and eats, then a four hour trip down to Derbyshire, then a two hour drive back home.
The wife will be off work for two weeks after Sunday, so I'm hoping for better weather and the chance to go places and get things done.

I have always wanted to visit the Lowry, I've been once but didn't manage to see a single painting. They have an exhibition on at the moment, showing his most famous works.
I've got a plasterboard to cut to size and place on the false wall, so I can hang a radiator in the kitchen, ready for the new boiler coming (which once in, will mean I can take all the old pipework out of the front room, move the cooker into it's new position - ready for the range to go in - remove the fire and back boiler and get the fireplace bricked up and the chimney swept, so we can put in a coal fire, in time for Christmas hopefully?)

I have two kitchen wall units I picked up off a neighbour the other day, they are having a new kitchen fitted, but I wanted the two hardboard cupboards for our "utility room" (for some reason I keep calling it the outhouse hehe) to fit in, moving the old plyboard units to the shed to store my plant stuff in, that is currently living under the sink.
Add to this, two doorframes to build and two doors to hang and mixer shower pipework to put in, there's always something to keep me busy.

Have fun in the rain gang...

Day twelve:

I will check the outside of my windows today, I'm sure that someone came round about four weeks ago and put grey tinted film on my windows, as everytime I look outside it's grey!
Where has all the sunshine gone?
Wondered into a travel agents on Saturday, just pottering as you do, as I browsed the racks for a brochure on Germany and Austria, I over heard the travel agent say, "Right, that's your details entered, let's see what bargains our computer can find.. "
As if by magic, "Oh here we go, El Sheik in Egypt is great value at the moment..."
She then went on to reel off how she had been there, lots to see and do, lovely beaches, etc.
All complete bull of course, the couple gawped at a teletext screen with their gobs wide open in amazement. Another fool and their money...
(I went to Los Angeles once, specifically for a beach holiday - the travel agent said she had been to Annehiem several times and it was ideal for the beach and quiet - when we got there it was next door to disneyworld and over an hour through the city centre to the nearest beach.)

Top five jobs that happily tell you lies:

1. Estate agents
2. Travel agents
3. Car salesmen/women
4. Bank staff
5. Call centre staff (The one's who answer the phone first)

I think sprog2 and I will be getting rickets soon if we don't get some sunshine.
Wellington boots are the way forward, hoods up and splash city here we come!

Todays chores for those thinking my day is filled with nothing but fun - three loads of washing and drying to get done, hoovering out the front room (daily chore this), bathroom and the carpeted area (sounds posh but isn't) in the kitchen.
Two lots of washing up, Winburies and apples want putting in a pie and a crumble.
Sprog2 needs a bath, she's back in her own bath as she turned over in the normal bath and stopped breathing, frightened the life out of me (I also require my daily bath which will be grabbed when sprog nods off in her chair - which will not happen as it never does).
Sprog2 will also require feeding and changing at least four times today, as well as entertaining.
I have to pick a loaf up "whilst I am out" (even though I may not go out - which means I now have to go out) need some new collars for the moggies, I am hoping the market in the next town is open today as I need birthday and congratulation cards, I can pick the collars up there almost half the price of the supermarket ones.

Have to run now, another load of washing has finished and I can hear sprog2 starting to wake up... chow dudes

Already two weekends gone of the school holidays... where do the days go?

Driving back home after food shopping on Saturday morning, in the rain yet again, I was already grumpy from lack of sleep, I thought about a holiday.
With money being tight and the arrival of sprog2 (wouldn't change her for the world of course) it's been years since we last had a holiday.
A nice long slow drive down through Germany, to the Austrian border. From there we can easily visit Switzerland, more of Austria and even northern Italy.

I landed back home and carried the seven carrier bags of fresh meat, fruit and veg inside.
As I unpacked them all and stocked up the cupboards for yet another week, this has been the routine for what seems a lifetime.
I am tired, I have way too many jobs to do and always find myself waiting for other people or things before I can do them, in the end, I get very few finished.
Luckily, the wife was on a rare day off, (she's another one who grafts too hard) so I had cover for sprog2 for when I went shopping.

As is the "norm" in our house, once I've got the sprog all sorted, the wife comes along and the sprog falls asleep.
Everywhere I go shopping, there are tales of holidays, so I was getting into holiday mode.
The wife informs me that a parent can no longer put their sprog on their passport!

I checked it out, not only must sprogs have their own passport (a five year one) but applications take anything up to three weeks to get processed, longer if at busy times, ie, when I need one!
There is also a charge of £49 for it!
Fast tracking is available, if you make an appointment and drive down to Liverpool to get it, this increases the price to £96.
Why, when we have people coming into Britain from everywhere, does it cost so much and is so complicated, for us British to get out of the country for a holiday?
We all know how much a baby changes looks, eye colour, etc. So surely any passport picture would show little resemblance after a year or two?

So with the holiday idea shot down, I slumped in the chair and chilled out.
The wife made us her own burgers, made from fresh braising steak, with fat cut off and some silverskin pickled onions, a perfect way to end yet another day.

I know, I know, what happened to days 3 to 6?

You tell me!
Everything's upside down here for one reason.... teeth!

Sprog2 has had no bother at all with her front gnashers, they through no problems with a bit of calpol and some gurning, we have been really lucky.
Her back gnashers are starting to come through, her sleeping routine normally changes every two weeks, it's been all over the place. Up at 2am, sleeping in until 10am, then back to midnight playing and being wide awake. My body clock is not adapting as fast as her routine changes!

I'll probably get slated for this, but I have upped the number of advanced feed bottles I have been giving her. She is chewing everything in sight, but struggling to eat solids, so I've gone back on to the smoother jars of baby food and given her an extra couple of bottles.
Calpol of course, eases the pain and this cools her down, but I have not seen much in the way of slavering.
She appears to be happy enough with it, until she wakes in the night and the nappies have gone back to rocket fuel, but I can handle that if it means she maintains her weight and she continues to eat regularly.
I am not a fan of rubbing medicines on her gums, or giving her various drugs to sort things out unless it is essential to her health, I don't trust what is in them.

If I bump into you around the markets or in town and I am not the happiest of campers it is because I'm having to grab an hour in the afternoon and then nothing until 2am.

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

As of June 2011, it has now been confirmed that Little treasures children's trust have secured a license with our local council for carrying out doorstep collections.
Frugal ways welcomes this, as it was the whole purpose of the original post.

There are of course, other companies/charities making collections on our doorsteps, that are not legitimate and have no license to do so.
It is essential that our local councils, even in times of cutbacks, operate to protect the people who elect them. The licensing issue is a hotbed for all concerned, are the profits made per tonne excessive? Is the charity genuine?
These are questions that are asked prior to council's giving licenses out. It is therefore the local council's responsibility to answer to us and make sure that the proper checks are in place, to verify those who post bags and ask for our donations are who they say they are.

I will continue to believe that those businesses collecting on behalf of charities should not take any profit whatsoever from the money made from the collection.

A huge thankyou to all the site visitors who took the time to post regarding this issue. I hope at the very least we were able to make people aware of what was going on at the time.

Little treasures children's trust (charity no: 1119024) are having a clothing collection to raise funds, by a company called East London Textiles Ltd (ELT).

BE WARNED - IT IS EITHER AN UNLICENSED SCAM OR INVOLVES THE THEFT OF CHARITY BAGS!

ELT's representative posted a collection bag through my door yesterday, and everyone elses letterbox on our street, completely ignoring the "No cold callers/leaflets/flyers" notices in all our windows.
I immediately ran out and threw the bag back at her, into the street, questioning wether or not she could read!
I just got a dirty look for my trouble, after I went back inside, the representative picked up the bag and threw it into my garden and walked off.

I phoned the licensing officer at my local council, to see if they have a license to do household collections - (you can search your own council licenses at the lalpac website here) - both ELT and the little treasures childrens trust, do not have a license for household collections in my area.

I spent this morning double checking that they didn't have a "National license" with the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) - Once again, they are not licensed nationally.
All licenses are given out by local councils I was informed.
I was advised to report this to the Charities Commission who told me unless they get a large volume of complaints about them then they do not normally investigate!
However, if I was to visit their website and put the complaint in writing, it would be filed along with other complaints about their practice.

I then rang little treasures children's trust up, directly and spoke to a lady in their offices.
She told me she was disturbed by ELT collecting in their name in areas of England where they did not have a license - which is most of the country - and would be contacting them urgently to sort the matter out. The lady said she would ring me back with information about what had gone on and what would be done about it - this was about 6 hours ago and still no callback!

I grabbed some dinner, then phoned my local council's licensing officer to let him know what was going on, as he requested.
It cannot have been more than an hour from when I spoke to the lady at the little treasures childrens trust.
The licensing officer informed me that out of the blue, someone from East london textiles ltd had contacted his office, he was about to ring him to find out what was going on.
The licensing officer rang me back 30 minutes later, telling me, "a bloke calling himself Ivan admitted that ELT didn't have a license for our area."
He continued, "He told me that east london textiles ltd have had thousands of their collection bags stolen and they were being posted through people's letterboxes all over the country, but he did not know who had stolen them!" - conveniently, this "theft" hasn't been reported to the police either!

"There will be no collections made in our area tomorrow, as stated on the bags posted through letterboxes" - which was a token statement at best, according to our licensing officer.
As three people have informed me today, often they find that the people making vast amounts of profit from these clothing collections are also involved in setting up charities they claim to represent. It will be a case of trying to spot them collecting tomorrow, and reporting it to the licensing officer, so that the local council can bring a case against ELT for household collecting without a license (as they have now admitted).

I rang the little treasures childrens charity back, armed with this information, to find that the lady I spoke with this morning (who didn't call me back), had been "called away to an emergency meeting" but I could leave a message if I wanted to.
The lady phoned back - "I spoke with the director of the company and passed your details on, he will speak with the delivery team."
When I replied that a man called Ivan, from ELT had contacted our licensing officer, stating that no collection would take place and that the bags will have been stolen, I was told "There is a turf war going on in the north of England, we had 3000 of our bags turn up in someone's house not connected with anything!"

I have reported the case to trading standards officers in my county, if they get their act together, in our area tomorrow they will catch ELT in the act of household collecting without a license, or at the very least, catch whoever stole their bags.
What are the odds of that?

UPDATE:

It would appear that trading standards cannot be bothered to catch illegal, unlicensed scams in our area.
Gave them all the information via consumer direct yesterday, they haven't even bothered to phone back! (Remind me again why we pay so much in tax to fund them? What exactly is their job?)

I spoke also, with a community officer regarding what these people were doing - it was a bit vague about posting through letterboxes and household collections, despite pointing out that if I personally trade house to house without a license, I would be in front of a judge, yet these people are allowed to get away with it.
I was told it was "a civil matter" and as such down to the local council to bring a civil case against them.
After further reading up on it (I'm sad like that) it appears it is indeed a criminal offence to do house to house collections, in a licensing area, without a license. This was confirmed this morning by the licensing officer himself, in person.

At 11.40am today, a van pulled down our street, with "Little treasures children's trust" plastered on the side of it!
I phoned the van reg in to the licensing officer (he told me he would be out on the road today to try and catch them at it - which he was) then I rang the police and told them that the licensing officer was out looking for this van as they were committing an offence.
The officer told me they were out on patrol and the local bobbies would stop it if they came across it.
Then a knock at the door, it was the licensing officer himself, out trying to catch them at it, confirmed details and reg of van, off he went.
Then a phone call from the police, to let me know they stopped the van and warned the driver about posting sacks through letterboxes (why?) but that posting things was a civil matter to be taken up with the council (if it's not licensed then it's a criminal matter!) they then let the van go.

I repeated to the officer on the phone, that the council's licensing officer was trying to catch them and that he confirmed that it is a criminal offence to have a household collection without a license. The officer informed me of where they had stopped the van then ended the call so she could notify officers to stop the van again and call the licensing officer (Why don't these people work together?)

If there is anymore information I will post it.. just goes to show how easy it is for people to be misled and deceived for money!
What was it that little treasures childrens charity told me yesterday... ah yes there was a turf war going on and their bags have been stolen by other doorstep collectors!
Maybe I'll ring them and ask, exactly why one of their own vans is doing collections around my area today then.

UPDATE - As of September 2010, It has been brought to my attention, the little treasures children's trust charity are seeking to have this website removed (at least whilst their claims are investigated) by employing a solicitor to recover my personal information for the purposes of a legal action that this post is "defamatory" towards them.

Little treasures children's trust have not contacted me via this website, rang my phone number that I gave to them when reporting what their collection agent or van collection did, nor have they contacted me by mail at my home address which they have had from the outset as they said they would give this to east london textiles directors, so they could "stop this kind of thing happening again."

I can only guess, but it appears from their solicitor's letter, they would rather have the website and the information on it, removed from public view altogether, or at the very least, cause enough panic for a domain registrar to make this website "unusable."

You can view the full legal post here

UPDATE2:

It would appear that more areas are being targeted in this scam. Not my view, it is the view of Warrington trading standards:

 http://www.tswarrington.co.uk/pdf/ican/188littletreasureschildrenstrust.pdf

 Related posts:

Little treasures children's trust threaten Frugal ways with court action

Charity commission respond to our little treasures children's trust complaint