Getting to know you........

modern_millie_2

Hello all. I've been lurking on and off for awhile, and recently started posting on the Old Style board, but I'm finding it difficult to keep up with the 'regulars'. I'm 51, been married forever (!) and have one teenage daughter. We live in rural Wales. OH and I both have professional backgrounds but left those jobs about 5 years ago for a variety of reasons (stress played a part). Since then, OH has developed a small craft business and I work seasonally in a low paid but quite fun job. We don't have a lot of money but do have more time to enjoy the countryside, and don't miss the 9 to 5. I've picked up many a good tip on this forum, and it keeps me going knowing like-minded souls are out there.

Lou76

LolaLemon wrote: »

well, i decided its time to make myself known, as i have a funny feeling im goingto be here for the long haul.
I have depts, but they seem really small compaired to some i see on here, but then i dont add my mortgage as a debt although im now thinking that i should, as i am aiming to have that paid off as fast as i can.
I have a credit card that has nearly £3000 on it, around £2000 is interest!
My Mortgage was £64000, now £58000 after 3 years of living here, my aim was to renew my deal with any mortgage provider for another 3 years but bring down my loan time by 5 years , i.e mortgage m £58k for 15 years instead of 20, take the deal of say £300 a month for 3 years and then at the end of those 3 years get best deal for the next 3 years and have loan for 10 years etc etc BUT after i had my son, my work went funny on me, wouldnt help with family friendly shifts, blatant sexual discrimination (told me thier was no business need for me to be in on the shift i requested and told me thier was ONLY weekend and evenning work avialable, yet when a male in my team asked for weekend and evenings only, he got told no business need for him to be in those hours to just have office hours!!!) I fought them for a year and a half, off sick the whole time, severe depression hit, and im fighting with my insurance companies for both house and credit card, as they are saying i was able to work (erm yeah if a big company wasnt soo discriminatory). I also breastfed and was/is single, so childcare was left to me, i pointed out that i couldnt exactly leave my son on his own and their is no childminders who work nights and or weekends, my HR told me tough, if im not in they where sacking me, hence the sick line, (i was up till that point getting people to watch him and i would at least go into work to show that i still wanted to work for them!

anyways after i eventually left (witha small redundancy and comprimise package - not worth the paper its written on) i went back to college, done and access to university and social work course, i then applied for social sciences at uni as i can post grad into teaching or social work later. Im now finishing semester a of year 1 and loving it!
I hate the travelling, both the time (1 hour each way) and price (£160ish a month!)
i use the travelling time to either study or crochet - the looks i get for that! did i mention im only 27? so seeing a youngish person doing an 'old' persons thing, and out in the open? the looks are up their with people seeing a baby being breastfed, or worse, a toddler!

I first posted in the Crochet anyone? thread, and moved onto 'old style things that only you do' I try and be as chemically free as possible, which doesnt always mean its the cheapest, but im happy in knowing that our DNA is not slowly being altered due to the shampoo that we use or the food we eat.

I am a hoarder! always have been and i most likely always will be.
But i am making an effort to rid my house of all the unneeded stuff - by table top sales, gumtree and on occassions- ebay

Both my son and I are learning Scots Gaelic, him at nursery and me at an evening class, he is 3 nearly 4 and he is fantastic at it, me im struggling a good bit, but i blame that on uni, as im learning German just now too! (Glutten for punishment i think?)

We both have an allergy to cow milk, my sons makes him sick, spotty, rashes, high temp, cramps, diorreah, runny nose then dry horrible cough that can go into his lungs (all that is from eating a few quavors!) and the symptons from being sick till the end of the cough takes up to 6 weeks to go away! in me i get the runs itchy eyes with loads of stringy gunk (which is the eyeballs 'skin' coming off!) rashes spots high temp, cramps adn if its been 'pure' milk, my throat almost closes over! so we need to be verrrry carefull. we use goats milk and some alpro soya products, but cant eat the 'live' alpro yoghurts.

I dont go out - i see it as a waste of money, and really regret my younger, more affluent days where i would not think twice of spending over £100 on clothes to wear for a night out and spend over £100 on drink ( my bf would take £100 out aswell and we would put £10 away for taxi home-yeah us Scots can hold our drink! best is, a club we went to had £1 drinks till 10pm, and we would spend over £50 each on shots of tequela, sambuca,sourz etc!) Now if i have the money and someone invites me out, i generally decline as i cant justify spending £30 on a night for me when i could use that money on a day trip for me and my son or on shopping etc. Ive just spent £55 on a really good winter jacket (peterstorm trail jacket) this coat will last me at least 3 years so is a good investment, especially with our winters that are predicted to get worse. I have spent possibly £60 on clothes this past year, and i only buy when the ones im wearing are falling apart (my old winter coat is, but i am using the fleece for the new one, saved myself roughly £20-£30 for that!)

Christmas - I never borrow for christmas, ive never seen the point in it, if i dont have the money then i dont buy as much, although when younger i did 'go my dinger' on presents for my siblings and parents, not now tho, christmas is about spending time with my loved ones, hopefully without work taking anyone away. before i had a job, i always worked christmas, as it let others with children have the day off, although i was always finished for dinner. this year, more of my presents are homemade - crochet scarves and hats, and blankets too. i make a nice room freshner, bicarb soda mixed with food colouring (takes ages to mix) and an essential oil of my choice, put in a small kilner type jar, all they have to do is give it a shake and open to release the fragrance (u can also sprinkle on rugs and hoover off altho i havnt done with food colouring).

Anyways, i think ive rambled enough.... hoopefully get to know many of you as i integrate more on here

(im sorry i havnt read any of this post yet, as its taken me 2 nights to read another, but i will do at some point.)

p.s. Im dyslexic so please excuse any spelling/grammer mistakes.

Lola, firstly I just wanted to say; you're an inspiration. :T

Secondly, with regards to your insurance (don't even start me :mad: - turned down for my Mortgage insurance when I was 25 and diagnosed with M.E. &, subsequently, Crohn's, because I had been in a car accident when I was 16 and suffered whiplash. :eek: Sadly I didn't have the energy to fight it at the time, so they won ) surely if you have a Dr's note that overides any 'opinion' they have that you could have worked?

Thirdly, ahhh !!!!!! it, I'm not "counting" anymore, just replying. I'm jealous that you can crochet. My Mum is fab at arty/creative stuff, but I'm crap at anything that involves concentration/precision. I think I should've been a man; I never use an instruction manual, prefer to figure it out myself, I have a "bish bosh" approach to recipes, but at least I keep the toilet seat [and lid] down - when not in use, of course. :rotfl:

Jealous (again) that you're learning Gaelic. I'm struggling on at the moment to learn BSL, it's not easy to learn a language when you're an adult, I would love though to know my "mother tongue" but that'll have to wait another wee while.

Good luck with your battle, you'll get through it though and this site will help loads. :T

Just wish I'd found it 8 years ago...

littletinygem

hello there!
I'm another one of those long-term lurkers (I decided today to actually sign up for an account, but it appears that I'd already done it a year ago!- Hoorah for forgetfulness!)

I'm 28, getting married next April and following a somewhat ill-advised career-swerve into the world of radio dj'ing a couple of years ago, I got myself into a fair few k of debt- The world of regional radio presenting is ridiculously poorly paid, and I decided to couple it with buying a flat with the other half at the same time, back when 100% mortgages were still available, so cash has been pretty tight for the past few years

I'm back in a 'proper' office job now, as well as baking cupcakes as a little bit of a side project, so the debt's being chipped away at and I'm pleased to say I'm down to the last £1700- Which is why I've decided to make myself a fully fledged member of the 'old style' community- Reading the threads and thinking to myself 'oooh, thats a good idea' isn't cutting it anymore, and I need to actually put all these fab ideas into practice- I thought that by actually making myself known, I'd be more likely to stick at meal planning and the like!

Wish me luck!

quintwins

hi everyone thought i'd introduce myself in here i have been lurking but i'm gonna start a few of the chalenges in the new year so thought i would say hi

i'm 24 married mum to 3 boys (4 year old id twins and 16month old) thankfully we have no debt but we really wnat to build our own home as soon as possible, however we've had enought of the hosue we renting (horrible problems with mould) so for now my goal is to raise a deposit to move first, i'm acually quite thrifty as it is our shopping is £40 max a week and with 1 on nappies and a family who loves there goodies i don't think i could or even want to get that down further, my main problem is i can't resist a bargain, which now means i have far to many xmas gifts for people that will be going away for next year, i'm a sahm and my older to have just started nursery however i plan to stay at home until all my boys r in school as i don't se ethe point in payings someone else to look after them when i'm able to, think thats about it hopefully i'll get to know u all better

SonjaLiK

Hi all.
Well, firstly, I found this thread totally by accident but then again, this board is so massive it's hardly surprising.
I am not a lurker, if I find something interesting, I jump in.

This is not my first forum and I didn't really expect to stay here for long but it looks like I might be around for a while.

What got me here is, strangely enough, anger. At customer services at Dixons. But then again, if I hadn't had to deal with them, I wouldn't have come here.

I am 35, technically speaking, feel like I am about 27 and haven't got a clue how that horrible number happened.
I live in the North East with hubby and our two boys.
I am self employed, work from home, hubby has a normal job.
Sometimes I envy him (rarely though), other times I feel extremely lucky to be able to watch our kids grow.

meanmarie

Welcome Sonja....I know what you mean about the number problem....can I just console you that it gets worse with age? Some days I feel 35, others 95...I am in fact 65...don't know how that happened either!

Marie

rosieben

welcome to all our newbies, you've come to absolutely the best place for information, advice and support. Look forward to getting to know you all

daydreamer2007

Hi
Just finding my way around as I'm new on here
I work part time in a bakery and have a website selling handmade soap,candles nappy cakes and wash cloth and sock crafts and more. I attend craft fairs selling my makes.
I'm a mum to 2 (23 and 18) and gran to 2 lovely boys (18mths and 5) and a stepmum to a 10yr old boy ,so along with my other half and my dog they all keep me busy. I'm looking to sign up to some of the challenges just which ones not sure yet there are so many

SonjaLiK

Thank you Marie and Rosie.
The age really surprises me sometimes as I often forget the actual number and then get a shock when I work it out. :rotfl:

Gonnabeasiren

Hello, I recently found this site, and hoping it can help me to sort my life out!
Live with dd (20) and mental mutt. Have always loved cooking of all kinds, especially love baking (you should see the size of my derriere!), making soup, chutnies and in the past year have made a variety of flavoured spirits, hic!
I work fulltime as does dd, but wages don't stretch to luxuries, although I do have a car which I suppose could be classed as a luxury. Been single for 9 wonderful years, and as money has always been so tight have not had a holiday in that time, or even a short break!!! So in 2011 we are going to London to see Kings Of Leon (tickets already bought with a recent Tax refund) and hoping to stay for 3 days, hopefully this forum will help me to save some money so we can have a fab time! It may not sound too exciting to some people, but really is monumental for me.... sad cow eh?

Thanks for reading!