It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

cw18

I have very little in my "first aid kit" in the house these days, but it was always pretty well stocked when the kids were little.

As to the car -- Ummm.... no! Only time I had one in a car was when I drove to Germany (legal requirement) in 1990. It stayed untouched until it went to France with us (1995/96?) After that it got amalgamated with the one in the house.

[Deleted User]

olbas oil doesn`t work for me unfortunately but neti pot does the trick. I am sinusitis prone and can stop it in its tracks with a neti pot. If I try any other way then it gets into my head and stays there for weeks

I am going to do a bit of make do later today. I have a massive silk duvet (ebay china) in my airing cupboard and have bought 2 comfy guest beds at last. ( I can hear our guests cheering) as I decided that I wouldn`t sleep on what I have and anyway we are expecting older guests later in 2009

The beds are 3` each and one goes under the other. I reckon that my massive duvet will make 2 large single duvets so I am going to cut and sew. Wish me luck!!!

Is anyone else eating fairly normal food at the moment? We are but with the odd snack or two. My christmas store will last for weeks at this rate.

I took my aldi turkey crown out of the freezer last night and it will defrost in fridge for 2-3 days so I have decided to wake up my sourbread starter as my oven will be on for the first time in about 6 months and I am soaking butterbeans and chick peas, ready to do a bulk cook and freeze in packets. I am also making a litre of hm yoghurt as I tried some bought and it is no way as nice and anyway rachels and yeo cartons are only 2/3 full these days and the yoghurt in them is thinner than it used to be

I must have a real os mood on me at the moment

happytails

Im having to eat up my stock pile as there isnt enough kitchen space at my mums, nor space in the bedroom we will be using. Might store the tinned stuff in the garage in plastic boxes - that will suffice wont it?

Ive offered to help out with the cooking at mums so will rustle up something tasty and cheap and try to convert them Unfortunately cant batch cook as there is only 1 freezer and its usualy full as its only small

Sarah x

Pitlanepiglet

happytails wrote: »

I cant pay my overdraft with a shopping voucher can i . OH bought me the WII out of his Xmas bonus as it is the last thing we will ever be able to buy that is 'luxury' and its something we can do together that only costs the electric it will use and the whole family can play it when we've nothing to do (which i can see being quite often when you have no money to go out and spend).

Sarah

You could have bought loads of other stuff with your vouchers though couldn't you? I guess it's up to you, it just seems like an exceptionally strange thing to do to me given your position. I'd love a Wii and we'd all play with it as a family as well and it would be great exercise for my Dad but the idea of, as an skint adult blowing 200 quid plus on a computer game + accessories leaves me cold.

It worries me that you haven't got to grips with not spending money, the idea of the "last luxury you'll ever be able to buy" is silly. We went through life like this for a long time "ooh we've got a bonus let's spend it on something that we think will make us happy" before realising that actually what made us happy was not having "stuff" that we felt guilty about buying but having enough money to buy what we needed and some money in the bank as a security blanket.

*Maya*

Pitlanepiglet wrote: »

You could have bought loads of other stuff with your vouchers though couldn't you? I guess it's up to you, it just seems like an exceptionally strange thing to do to me given your position. I'd love a Wii and we'd all play with it as a family as well and it would be great exercise for my Dad but the idea of, as an skint adult blowing 200 quid plus on a computer game + accessories leaves me cold.

It worries me that you haven't got to grips with not spending money, the idea of the "last luxury you'll ever be able to buy" is silly. We went through life like this for a long time "ooh we've got a bonus let's spend it on something that we think will make us happy" before realising that actually what made us happy was not having "stuff" that we felt guilty about buying but having enough money to buy what we needed and some money in the bank as a security blanket.

I agree. I really don't think that Happytails has hit her lightbulb moment yet.
I feel so bad for people who lost their jobs over Christmas after they had spent alot of money on presents, thinking their job was secure, which is why I struggle to understand someone who KNOWS times are getting very hard, blowing money from a bonus on a luxury that most cannot afford. I don't mean to cause you offence Happytails but I think you have an uphill battle ahead and need to get yourself emotionally prepared.

Icemaiden

I've been thinking, yes I know thats dangerous for me:D . As some of you know Iam now a single mum of 2:j and still getting to grips with adjusting my budget for things. I have always followed, if not participated in, the monthly grocery challenge in order to keep my food spending in toe but quite often found I was either over my budget one month due to grabbing bargins or stocking up, and then under another another month due to using up etc...so not really giving me an acurate figure of what I was spending. In the real world I would of course carry the excess over but that never happened:rolleyes: So what do people think about setting myself a annual food budget and deducting my spends off it as I go along. I thought about £50 per week @ 52 wk been a total of £2600:eek: for the full year. Iam quite shocked at this amount but thought I'd start slowly.

Is this a good idea?

Thanks
Ice
x

Pitlanepiglet

Ice-maiden I do something slightly similar to this...I run a monthly amount for normal groceries but I then spread the cost of my Costco shopping over a period of time. I only started in July so I run an Excel spreadsheet and add the cost of all my Costco food shopping to that and divide it by the number of months covered since then.

By doing it this way I still keep a handle on monthly shopping otherwise I'm a bit prone to going off the rails and thinking "I've blown it anyway so I'll just keep spending" but the bulk shopping gets apportioned on a monthly basis which reflects the fact that it is used over a period of time.

It's easier for me as most of my "bulk" shopping comes from Costco so it's easy to separate off, it would be harder if it was all supermarket shopping without going through the receipts item by item. I wonder if there is merit having a bulk "fund" and somehow adjusting that each month?

Lots of folks are doing the £4,000 challenge so you could set yourself a reasonable figure for your grocery shopping to include your bulk shopping and then shop to that amount each month but then having a monthly total defeats what you are trying to do I suppose? I think my concern with that for me is that with an annual figure I would get to September and discover that I'd spent everything because I didn't have a proper budget to work against?

Pitlanepiglet

sparrer wrote: »

I thought everyone had a first aid kit in the house, don't they? And in the car too if they've got one. Thanks rosieben, that's just given me an idea of what to buy my 17 y/o DGD when she passes her test

I've got first aid stuff at home and I travel with a couple of mini kits that always amuse those around me until they need something on a Sunday afternoon in rural France when nothing is open....then they don't think it's quite so funny

Icemaiden

I have thought about the September thing myself, but having a Bulk budget is interesting, maybe I should have one? I don't use supermarkets very often maybe one every three months or so then its online which is usually for my bulk purchases like flour, baking stuff, washing power but every wk do use the local shops for my main buys. I do grow my own veg so the spending does decrease over the summer months and also make use of the free foods from the hedgerow. What I could do (thinking aloud again) is see how I get on for say the first quarter with keeping the budget as it is and if I feel I need to adjust the figures I could, but does that defeat the object of a budget I will also pop across and have a look at £4,000 challenge, I guess its on the DFW board. Does anyone else factor in their bulk shops?

Thank you
Ice
x

oystercatcher

I was especially glad of my well stocked first aid kit when I was making an OS style casserole for the first time and almost took the end off my finger !
It amazes me how unprepared some people are but maybe it's just years of nursing/midwifery have taught me to always be aware of what 'might' happen.

Oystercatcher