It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

chrisbethany

Thanks Nanna - sounds scrummy :T !

My heart goes out to all you girls struggling with money-wayward partners. I remember, when kids were small I had several p-t jobs on the go at the same time(only earned peanuts for the lot of them but it kept us going). I knew things were bad - I was married to an ostrich. He never told me what our situation was - didn't stop him going to the pub every night I wasn't working - but one day sheepishly said I would have to ask for a bank loan as he couldn't :eek: . The only time I ever stood up to him, I agreed on condition he handed me all his cards. It worked for a while but then things lapsed again.

My girls dreaded going shopping with me - how uncool to have a Mum with a shopping trolley :rotfl: - they should have tried lugging all those tins on the 1/2 hour walk home! Can still remember going round Q Save with my calculator, praying I'd have enough to buy the essentials. But JC is good, and He saw us through it - try it for yourself!

Menu included 'waste not, want not' soup (def not DDs favourites although nourishing and wholesome ) made with yesterdays leftover veg etc. More popular were Yorkshire puds that I served with many sorts of meals, to pad them out. Then developed toads with bolognese or stir fry veg on top - both family favourites.

The silver lining - glad to say that life is on a much more even keel these days. DH (no 2) lost his job in Nov but we manage - I work, and we don't have any secrets. And DDs? They now use bargain and charity shops with the best of us :T - their shame over BeWise carriers and cutting out uncool labels now a distant memory in their late 20s :A !!

Love to all - keep smiling

Chris :dance:

ubamother

glendam wrote: »

Just a query re plastic bag in mug for soup. I have tried this and find you cant just add the frozen block back to the mug as pieces of plastic bag have folded and frozen in the liquid. By the time its defrosted enough its messy to get out of bag or you leave bits of it behind. What am I doing wrong?

Glenda

I do this for casseroles etc so I don't have all my glass dishes in the freezer. I freeze the casserole/soup directly in the container. When it's frozen solid I tip it out (like a very big icecube!) and then put it in a plastic bag - that way you can take it out of the bag frozen without the 'fjord' look round the edges where the plastic bag gets stuck

Bargain_Rzl

glendam wrote: »

Just a query re plastic bag in mug for soup. I have tried this and find you cant just add the frozen block back to the mug as pieces of plastic bag have folded and frozen in the liquid. By the time its defrosted enough its messy to get out of bag or you leave bits of it behind. What am I doing wrong?

Glenda

Pull the bag of soup out of the mug while still frozen, run under the hot tap for 5 seconds or so which should be enough to loosen the bag away from the soup, and "tease" away the bits where the bag is stuck in crevices. Then tip the block of frozen soup out of the plastic bag and back into the mug

fedupfreda

chrisbethany wrote: »

My girls dreaded going shopping with me - how uncool to have a Mum with a shopping trolley :rotfl:

lol! Me too - I dreaded being seen by my schoolmates, I used to help my Mum do the shopping on a Thursday night after school and we would have to push 2 fully laden bikes back home (it was a 20 minute walk of shame:o )

Funnily enough I do the same with my kids now.... :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

mummysaver

ubamother wrote: »

I do this for casseroles etc so I don't have all my glass dishes in the freezer. I freeze the casserole/soup directly in the container. When it's frozen solid I tip it out (like a very big icecube!) and then put it in a plastic bag - that way you can take it out of the bag frozen without the 'fjord' look round the edges where the plastic bag gets stuck

I'm going to give this a go with lasagnes, think I'll put a silicone liner down in the bottom of the dish so that I can actually get it out, but it'd mean that I could just put the lasagne back into the dish when I was reheating it, and my big dishes wouldn't all end up in the freezer.

Thank you so much! Ohhh, I can't believe how much this idea has made me smile

Bitsy_Beans

I do my shopping in Sainsbury's as it's the closest. I buy pretty much everything in their Basics range (I don't like Mr T's Value range). However over the last month or so with their instore drive to "drop a brand" the sneaky barstewards are increasing their prices on the basics range eg a bag of 500g pasta was circa 20p but is now 43p :eek: (was 49p a week or so ago :mad: ) and so on.
I don't shop at Aldi as there isn't one close enough so I just wondered if you Aldi shoppers have noticed whether they are slowly increasing their prices as more people are shopping there to save money? Just wondered if was worth switching my allegience (although I have to say I would definately miss fast track - especially with 2 kids in tow!!!).

mummysaver

NannaC - brill idea about using the steamer for suet puds, will make some up at the weekend and do that! My steamer lives out in the utility and generally gets used when the hob is full, so about once a week, but the rest of them time I forget it can be used for anything but veg!

And your cheese and onion soup sounds scrummy, now thinking that I'll make up a pan of it for my lunch, when really I should be eating some of the soup from the freezer to make some space!

Fedupfreda and Chrisbethany - loving the stories about your children and their embarrassment! Mine used to be the same about what they saw as my eccentricities lol! Now they've started to realise that actually there is no difference between all the bargain veg and the expensive stuff, dd1 was found laughing at the price of carrots in Mr T's the other day, and saying why would anyone pay that price! They've become pretty wise to the ways of the marketing bods, and are becoming adept at checking out the labels on things to find out the contents - amazing how much value stuff has the same or better nutritional value than the "posh" stuff, and doesn't have the amount of additives to boot!

My favourite moment about shopping recently came last night, dd1 has roped me in to take her and her mates shopping, I thought they just wanted a girly trip out, giggling and wandering around the town, nope they want me and dd1 to show them how you can get an entirely new outfit for next to nothing! Guess some people haven't come across charity shops and Primark! Then they want to come back to learn how to bake Twinks hobnobs! These are all 14 year old girls!

Cinny91

NannaC- That recipe sounds lovely! Printed it off to slot into my recipe book.

I used to love going shopping with the drag along trolley (was the mid 90s!) and going around netto, and going to this big warehouse with bargain everything in it (went back a few years ago and it hadn't changed at all!). I never really got embarrassed about that kind of thing. I remember once when I was in year 7 we parked in netto carpark to get to another shop in town - a kid in my class saw me and spent the next day loudly telling me how he saw me in netto car park the day before. I honestly couldn't care less. I guess I've always been pretty shameless when it comes to bargain buying!

cw18

My younger son (the only 'child' still at home - he's 17.5) was horrified when I bought myself an "old biddy's trolley" last year -- it's one of the 4 wheeled, bag in metal cage, push-along types -- even though I don't expect him to accompany me to the shops !!

But he changed his mind when I said the alternative was for him to do the shopping :rotfl:

I can't afford to use the car for trips out just milk for and potatoes, but I have a bad back. This means I can't carry those items, and also have problems with a 'tow-along' trolley that he would have seen as more acceptable :rolleyes2

But my GDs actually love coming out with me when I use it (they're 5.5 and almost 4), as they get turns at pushing it

kidcat

mummysaver wrote: »

NannaC - brill idea about using the steamer for suet puds, will make some up at the weekend and do that! My steamer lives out in the utility and generally gets used when the hob is full, so about once a week, but the rest of them time I forget it can be used for anything but veg!

And your cheese and onion soup sounds scrummy, now thinking that I'll make up a pan of it for my lunch, when really I should be eating some of the soup from the freezer to make some space!

Fedupfreda and Chrisbethany - loving the stories about your children and their embarrassment! Mine used to be the same about what they saw as my eccentricities lol! Now they've started to realise that actually there is no difference between all the bargain veg and the expensive stuff, dd1 was found laughing at the price of carrots in Mr T's the other day, and saying why would anyone pay that price! They've become pretty wise to the ways of the marketing bods, and are becoming adept at checking out the labels on things to find out the contents - amazing how much value stuff has the same or better nutritional value than the "posh" stuff, and doesn't have the amount of additives to boot!

My favourite moment about shopping recently came last night, dd1 has roped me in to take her and her mates shopping, I thought they just wanted a girly trip out, giggling and wandering around the town, nope they want me and dd1 to show them how you can get an entirely new outfit for next to nothing! Guess some people haven't come across charity shops and Primark! Then they want to come back to learn how to bake Twinks hobnobs! These are all 14 year old girls!

My 14 year old is the same, volunteers to come "whoopsie" hunting with me, and was bragging to all her mates before Christmas how they has been shopping at big shopping mall spending hundreds and coming home with one little bag of stuff, whereas we went shoppinh a few days later and she got loads of stuff for £30, her mates were really jealous!