Simplifying Life - Mark II

mary43

ceridwen - glad you seem to have got sorted out. Well, wish I could clear my head a bit - as if my own health problems weren't enough to deal with, Mum's very poorly and to add to it Big Bruv just sent me an e mail asking me what I was doing about going down to the care home and would I think about it over the next 48 hours and let him know !!! He knows I've an appointment at the hospital on Wednesday and can't do anything before thats sorted out.
Talk about cluttering my head up ..................:eek:
Oh well, on to other things - I've got a charity bag to fill up and this one actually wants household stuff as well as clothes -thank goodness ! Maybe I'll be able to see a bit more much needed space around the house.
Then OH might feel more inclined to do the re-decorating in the front room that he mentioned .................:rotfl:

firework

hello everyone - just wanted to say hi and hope you are ok mary.

just seen a thread on the os board about rationing - will it come back???? ... thoughts here anyone...?

on that topic i read rhonda jeans blog re stocking up and got onto another link from here i think about stock cupboards and decided to pull a bit of money away from my christmas fund (lol! - it never makes it to christmas so who was i kidding ?!) and i have started a canny little stockpile of the best offers from my local netto - which does a very good rotation of offers on stuff i use anyway. had the offers on beans, spaghetti and ravioli also loo rolls (always good offers on these) waiting for spag bol tinned to appear ! (oh + ds like it with toast for lunchys), also stocked up on bin bags !!! my favourite thing to forget EVERY shop and stardrops which is now my all purpose cleaner - yay! glad to see the back of those other endless bottles of mr muscle, dettol etc. (and works out about a twentieth of the price - kept a mr muscle bottle and refill it with a bit stardrops and water at about 5p a time).

so i'm well on my way with the stock cupboard thing - was going to wait till i got a proper space/new wardrobe/redesigned the house to accomodate etc etc but just thought ... nah, sod it - i'm doing it now and shoved it in a plastic box at bottom of my wardrobe for now.

firework

and when i say shoved i mean lined up neat and tidy and then smiled (a wee bit smugly) to myself when i'd finished .... i need to get out more lol!

ceridwen

Hi Mary

Thinking of you re your mother right now - sending positive vibes. Hope things go smoothly with Bruv whenever it comes to it. I can sympathise with your problems with him - I have a brother myself and he is a very different person to me - with a very different set of values. Put both me and my brother in the same room together and not mentioning to anyone that we are brother and sister - and no-one would ever guess - as we are so different. We don't have anything whatsoever in common - apart from sharing a set of parents we are strangers. We have "polite" minimal contact with each other and even that will go once we no longer share a set of parents - I have been told too much about him to want to continue to know him even at that level. So - for now - we are polite and vaguely "friendly" to each other - so as not to upset my parents.
So - I have some idea where you are coming from.

On a different tack - re the "do we think there will be rationing?" topic. Well - there's two forms of rationing - rationing as per ration book (a la 2nd World War style) and rationing by price (ie everything is still, in theory, available - but in practice those on poor incomes are prevented from having it because of not having sufficient money to purchase it). Do I think World War 2 style rationing will come again? Answer - I dont know - I feel I cant say definitely either yes or no to that one. Do I think rationing by price will come - answer: I think it has already started. When I last studied it (a few weeks ago) - then it seemed to me that food prices were probably pretty much at 1980s levels and obviously there then feels like "room to manoeuvre" to bring them up to equivalent to 1980s prices (which would be quite a bit higher than what we have been used to for the last few years). We do know that food suppliers have been pushed/shoved/positively bullied into keeping their prices artificially lower than the "real" price by the muscle of the supermarkets - so some revision is due, put like that.

What do I think will happen? Hmmmmmm.....I think the next few years will be "interesting" shall we say....as, for a variety of reasons, I think food will become noticeably dearer (the weakness of our currency is the first one that springs to mind) and yes, in the slightly longer term, then the decreasing availability of oil.

Right now - I think we have been given a temporary reprieve of sorts - to allow us all some time to transition over to thinking in terms of other ways of producing our food (growing as much as possible ourselves/Community Supported Agriculture/Gardenshare) and, of course, not wasting any food and not consuming excess food. There are a few people in the Government who CAN see whats what - and these are the ones telling us to use up leftover food for instance. There are other farsighted people who are giving out money to local food initiatives.

The question is will enough people see where we are heading in time for us to change direction? I dont know the answer to that myself. Just how many people need to see this for us to reach the knowledge Tipping Point in this respect?

As with anything - it is always possible to see at least two ways things could go. I can see that we could end up going down the "ostrich" route and yes then we could well have W.W.2 style rationing for a while - it does scare me just how many people are "ostriches" in many aspects of their lives. I can also see that there is another route available - which is the "enough people see in time how things could be" route and start doing the home foodgrowing/Community Supported Agriculture/Gardenshare route. Which of these two routes do I think we will actually take? Its not yet clear. The only thing that IS clear is that the "current" route - ie "business as normal" and expect all the food we want/all the time and at a cheap price in the shops is not possible. That route is closing - there is a landslip ahead and a pile of rubble in front of us if we try to continue down that route. We will come to that pile of rubble I estimate in about 1-2 years time. Therefore - my proposal that we start diverting down the path entitled "Grow Your Own" etc. We have enough time - just. Otherwise we will be well into "rationing by price" territory. In any society there is ALWAYS food available - but it depends if one has the money to buy it (hence the "rationing by price").

Lula-Hula

Hello everyone,

Mary - an increased amount of positive thoughts for you . sorry to hear your mum is so unwell too & that your borother is not being very supportive at all. Just remember that your health is your priority, any amount of worrying will have no impact on anyone elses health other than your own. Look after you first & then if you have the strength think about others.


Ceridwen - I have a bank account with co op & apart from the obvious ethical attraction the staff are fantastic too; I would heartily recommend them. Both my DD & I have a small amount of savings elsewhere & I think it's now time to simplify & move these accounts to the co op or other ethcial building society. As to food rationing, yes it's already here in terms of price vs quality. Again we are very fortunate to have a local co op grocery store within 5 minutes walk & my only complaint is that I am unable to buy in large quantities for washing products.

Charis - thanks for the links about buidling societies ... I shall investigate.

fiirework - well done on the stocking up & simplifying simlutaneously

I've had my hours at work reduced dramatically in the last week so am very grateful that i already share an allotment with friends & can grow a good proportion of our food. Much as I do prefer organic furit & veg, I'm finding it increasingly difficult to afford :rolleyes: .

We decluttered DDs room at the week end & I have yet more bags for the charity shop. I'm also on a detox programme at the moment so I'm simplifying on the inside too

lula
x

mary43

Thanks for all your kind thoughts.
Sadly. Mum passed away on Monday, late afternoon. It was expected but still not that easy to deal with. But I've had a mountain of paperwork to deal with plus numerous phone calls to arrange things so that's stopped me dwelling on anything. Most things are sorted now.........brother just has to collect death cert. and take it to undertakers. We have 3 months to sort the flat out so no pressure there. Brother is back tomorrow evening and badgering me to go down as soon as possible - I'm thinking more like going next Wednesday as the funeral is on Friday.......that would give ample time to sort out anything if I stay till the following Tuesday. Think he's gone into a sort of 'panic mode' and not as in control as he'd like me to believe.
On a brighter note...........phone call from the hospital to say my biopsy was clear :T What a relief that was.............I needed that particularly now.
So, all those vibes must have worked...............thankyou all:j

2cats1kid

Mary, sorry to hear your one lot of news, but very happy to hear your second. Not sure what else to say, so I'll leave it to the more eloquent folks on the thread to fill in the blanks...

Patchwork_Quilt

Just to say I've been reading this thread intermittently but I'm sorry to hear about your Mum, Mary

Just take it one day at a time.

Gigervamp

Mary, such bittersweet news. I'm sorry to hear about your mum, you have my sincerest condolances.

I'm so glad your biopsy was clear. You must be so relieved.

ceridwen

Mary - I'm sorry too to hear about your mum...I never quite know what to say in these circumstances.....but thinking of you....and <hugs>. I guess - just to take care of yourself. As you say - you will be preoccupied with sorting things out for a bit - so I guess its a question of first things first in that respect - and then I guess you will have the time/space to grieve.

I'm glad you had that bit of good news anyways on your biopsy - so thats one positive thing and one thing less for you to worry about.