As The Workhouse Approaches....How To Do Everything To Avoid It, the Old Style Way

jackieglasgow · 4 April 2011 at 2:57PM

As suggested by Mardatha!

Times are still tough, and getting really hairy for many of us, and although the thread title was suggested in jest, it was only just over a hundred years ago that many people in our situations would have been unable to avoid the workhouse. We have used this thread as an emotional sounding board, a place for advice and support and we discuss how we are coping, emotionally, financially and practically and about how we get through these tough financial times, with increased inflation, fuel prices, food prices and redundancy and Zero contract hours!

Links to the previous threads below, please let me know if I've missed one

If things get tougher?
Its Tough NOW so how are we coping?
Its STILL tough and not getting better - so how are we coping now?
Its still tough....and guess what its freezing brrrrr
It May Be Tough for six years. The survival thread.
Times are so tough - the Old Stylers have gone down the pub!
How To Get Through The Tough Times The Old Style Way!
As the workhouse approaches

Pink. · 27 April 2011 at 11:41PM

Hi everyone,

As the previous 'tougher' thread has become very long Jackieglasgow has asked me to re-open this thread in it's place. I'll close the old one tomorrow. Good luck to everyone going through tough times at the moment.

You can find the last thread here:

How to Get Through The Tough Times The Old Style Way.

Pink

ginnyknit · 27 April 2011 at 11:49PM

Thanks Pink, shiny new thread guys :T:T:T Love the title and the description of what its about. Lets hope that by post 4,000 this thread is more about the end of recession

, ahh well I can dream can't I, cos I will still pinch pennies, thrift and forage. Off to knit a fish in bed.....

ceridwen · 28 April 2011 at 6:37AM

WELCOME TO THE NEW "ITS TOUGH" THREAD

...and a welcome from me to the latest version of Kittie's "Its Tough" thread...which has become one of the longest-running and most popular threads on this Board by now.

So - welcome all...and let's hear it for how we are all coping with the Tough Times.

So - Kittie started this thread back in February 2006 (the "If things get tougher" version of this thread). That makes it now (in its various incarnations) 5 years, 2 months old....

Let it roll....
*******************************************************

JACKIEGLASGOW

- could you amend the title at the top of this thread to include "Its Tough" - to make it clearer that this is the "Its Tough" thread (eg "As the Workhouse Approaches - its Still Tough Times"?)

Thanks.

Butterfly_Brain · 28 April 2011 at 7:32AM

:DGreat stuff.
I think that as the year goes on the thread will have to be resurrected many times

Anyhoo I got my free RHS seeds yesterday (Beetroot, Pumpkin,Cayenne peppers and tomatoes) :j and have planted them into seed trays already.
DH is building another raised bed this weekend so that I can plant more broad beans, runners and peas. All the salad plants are doing well so I won't have to buy any in the summer

He wasn't too chuffed when I pried the tyre off a wheel that he had stuck in the garden so that I could plant my spuds in the middle ( Get a great crop doing this) but tuff he shouldn't have left it there (6 months no use = me using it for veggies)

Got 6 boxes of reduced mushrooms in the coop yesterday (30p a punnet

) froze 2, dehydrated 3 and used 1
I made a huge amount of stock from the turkey we had last week so that will be used in soup's, risotto's or casseroles.

mardatha · 28 April 2011 at 7:38AM

LOL jackie, great! ANd yes true. In 1911 there were no credit cards or overdrafts and half of us in here would indeed be in the workhouse :eek::eek::eek:

silvermaid · 28 April 2011 at 7:43AM

G'day folks
Lovely new thread. Thanks Pink.
Looks like we might have a drizzle here today. Getting greyer and colder in the last hour.
I must have a go at earthing up our potatoes. Think I'll try doing a container and compare with DH's ones planted straight in the ground.
Ceridwen it was medicinal uses of willow herb for skin that I was interested in - I don't do cosmetics 'coz of my skin.
Cheers m'dears

Pazu · 28 April 2011 at 7:48AM

Hi all

Love the title as I had been thinking along the same lines and ofcourse "The Big Society" is just another way of saying Victorian philanthropism. It didn't work then and won't work now.

Scarey thought for the day. Although the Poor Laws were repeald in the 30's supposingly closing the work houses they weren't actually closed until 1948 by the Atlee government introducing the Welfare State because there was no where for the poor sods to go.

Oh well, off to the hospital to have a camera put down my throat. I'll take my cynicism with me. lol.

Pazu

GreyQueen · 28 April 2011 at 7:53AM

Morning all!

I dunno, can't take my eyes off this thread for a few hours without everything changing.

:T sammy_kaye, many congratulations on getting out of your debts. Hope the next good news is about a house.

(hugs)) 7 week wonder and kidkat and anyone else who's having a rough time at the moment.

Annie56 good tips for people in Wales re the sleepers etc but my rellies who are trained horticulturalists say not to use sleepers to edge veg growing areas because of the preservatives but OK for flowerbeds, building steps etc etc.

Well, went to the allotment last night with a rucksack of salvaged water from the homestead and carefully eked it out on some strawberry plants, which are little babies as I had to bust open the previous strawberry bed last autumn as it had been there 3 years and had got incredibly congested, not to mention infested with couch grass. I'd also made the classic newbie mistake with edged beds and made it too wide to comfortably reach across.

Lesson learned, I made 3 strawberry beds in long skinny strips on what had been the 2010 potato patch and transplanted the strawbs, teasing the biggest clumps into smaller plants. I planted them quite widely and am looking after them better. Although they're just infants and won't be full-sized until next year, they're sending out runners which I'm snipping off as I want the plants to get strong. They're flowering well and setting berries already.

The "old" strawberry bed had been plundered to form the new but there were still too many so I have issued open invites to several lottie neighbours to come around with a fork and help themselves to plants from the old bed. I can't bear to waste anything, particularly anything which is living. The heart of my strawberry bed was 6 plants given to me by someone on the other side of the lottie site back in 2007, so the gift keeps on going around, which is as it should be.

Loads to do on the lottie, so will be very busy this Bank Holiday weekend. And a blasted mole turfing everything up; better stay out of my seed beds or he'll get the benefit of an old country trick of brambles down the run.

My first call in the LA call centre yesterday was from a Mr Angry demanding to know why we (the Council) hadn't got any bunting up for the Royal Wedding. I passed him to another operator as it was too tempting for a joker like me to handle........:rotfl:Could've said cos we've got no blimmin' money, cos we're rabid republicans, cos we're miserable g*ts......probably best not to go there. Mind you, we tend to do something silly for April 1st, so we can be bothered if the mood strikes.

Have a good day, everyone.

ceridwen · 28 April 2011 at 7:55AM

mardatha wrote: »

LOL jackie, great! ANd yes true. In 1911 there were no credit cards or overdrafts and half of us in here would indeed be in the workhouse :eek::eek::eek:

That'd be me leading the protests against conditions in there then would it?:rotfl::rotfl:

mardatha · 28 April 2011 at 7:57AM

Have fun Pazu, it isnt nice but doesnt last long ! And the govt can say what they like ..but the folk in here can see behind the fancy words eh .

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As The Workhouse Approaches....How To Do Everything To Avoid It, the Old Style Way

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