It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

sammy_kaye18

Chipps wrote: »

However, desperation has meant that others beside myself have found the method for opening the cupboard and finding the toilet rolls!!!!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: that made me laugh but when needs must I suppose although I have learnt the hard way that a 5 year old will pick unsociable times to go to the toilet so if there's no loo roll at 2am in the loo then its mummy who has to wake up to retrieve it from the bathroom cupboard for him (separate bathroom and toilet i should add) so I now make sure there is a few on stand by in the toilet too.

Kidcat - thanks for the welcome back!

TapLady - thanks very much - its nice to be back on the O/S boards- I have missed you all.

I have also been hanging out the washing here in south Wales - its not been hot but its getting things dried which is nice. Have got two small airers too which I've managed to stand up and have put all of Ben's clothes on too so they are mostly dried - I hate winter and having things stuck on radiators.

Haven't really been doing very well O/S wise - was working a lot of hours for miserable pay and then discovered my holly bump on the way and seem to be watching the pennies again so Im back on the wagon although this winter things have kept cropping up all the time so as I caught up with bills, boyfriends pay and hours would take a major dip so we couldn't afford the rent for the month etc so it put us back at square one and now our gas bill hasnt helped matters - although in fairness neither has our flat!

Our flat is a council property, 2 bedroomed, and the living room has a huge window which makes it impossible to buy curtains/nets/blinds for and to help matters its single glazed. Plus we live in a dodgy area and we had another vent fitted to help with the mould and then builders were re tiling the roof and helpfully knocked the outside cover off effectively leaving us with a 4/5 inch hole on the other side of the vent so its freezing! and stupidly I gave an accurate meter reading which put it up by £120! so my nice bill of £429 well I was :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: needless to say I'm very thankful that my next statement is in 6 months time and not 3!

Fingers crossed hopefully I have managed to sort our finances out well enough though and we should have about £150 left over, possibly £160 but I'll take £100 as the minimum and keep the £50 as back up for boyfriends petrol (with the hope of going into savings for bumps stuff at a later date) so I will be back attempting to feed my mob on my £100 budget again but will be using a little extra money to get some new baking tins and hopefully stocking up on bread flour etc to get my O/S self back in gear - especially being now that I cant actually do many overtime shifts in work because of my bump (its lots of heavy lifting) so I have no excuse really! plus the contents of my freezer are as follows.
*4 small corn on the cobs
*half pack of smiley faces
*half a small bag of peas
*a piece of cod
*a cheap coop loaf of bread
*a portion of home made soup - although no idea when it went in there!:eek:
*400g of mince - again no idea when it went in there! :eek::eek::eek::eek: so am reluctant to use it and might cook it up for muttley with some rice!

so I have an ok amount of room (freezer is tiny) to fit some home baking/cooking in but think if things are neatly boxed I will manage to get lots in!!!

right - Im off to plan my shopping list. x

Pitlanepiglet

Sammy, what size is your window? I bought some really big lined, John Lewis curtains from ebay at a good price (around £18), might be worth looking at something similar over the summer....

westcoastscot

It's warm here on the west coast of scotland through the bay window, but freezing outside still - and the garden is still frozen solid. The washing is drying though as its really windy just now

Pitlanepiglet

westcoastscot wrote: »

It's warm here on the west coast of scotland through the bay window, but freezing outside still - and the garden is still frozen solid. The washing is drying though as its really windy just now

It was like that here last weekend, beautifully sunny and lovely an warm in the house inside the patio doors with the sun streaming though but the pond was still iced up!

westcoastscot

Yes, its lovely when you're inside but you need to keep moving outside:)

kidcat

Washing on the line again today thank goodness, as dryer broke on Friday!! Have never used the dryer so much till we moved here, it take forever to get things dry indoors (probably cos I have turned heating right down) so am using it to get uniforms etc dry. Typically it broke on Friday which is big uniform wash day.

sammy_kaye18

morning all

well today is mostly going to consist of pegging out washing for me, getting washing done, and ironing - the three tasks i hate the most but i guess i had better be thankful at least its not raining in Wales today which is nice. Have got my boyfriend and step son off today too as they both have the dentist so will be falling over the pair of them until about 11 and it means with boyfriend pottering about that theres little point in me doign loads of cleaning bar basic stuff as he'll no doubt want to work on the car so will be sanding and mixing filler half the day. :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: although no doubt he'll be quick enough to moan if i do no cleaning as we have different views on that subject - I like tidy and no clutter, whereas he wants immaculately clean but clutter is ok. :(:( you just cant win some days can you.

Think I might get my shopping list planned if not done and ordered today too to see if I can get it delivered for tomorrow night - that way then at least one task is done.

KIDCAT - our washing machine is a washer/drier and it always goes belly up on the days before a big event when i really need to clean/freshen up things. Drying seems to be its bug bear at the minute with things coming out wetter than they went in - I think its gone on strike personally.

ginnyknit

Made my gloop! Just done a trial wash, had to cos I had run out of shop bought washing stuff. My hands are really soft from making it - bonus. I couldn't find a funnel tho so sort of juggled it into the bottle :whistle: Just think how much I have saved again with gloop - ok guys whats next?????

BitterAndTwisted

I'll be following you quite soon ginnyknit. I have about half a dozen washes left in that bottle of liquid-wash under the kitchen sink so I'll be making some gloop in the next day or so. I have all the ingredients and containers to hand and I even found borax (not substitute) in my local Asian cash&carry. My only quandary, but a delicious one, is to decide which essential oil I'm going to scent it with.

taplady

more bad news here:( my car now needs repairs. I need it for work so got no choice but to have it done, luckily the garage is about 1 mins walk away and he's very reasonably priced. Hope it can wait till payday(25th)or that the mechanic can wait till then for his money!
Its the handbrake and brake-pads that need doing. I'm wondering what else can go wrong next?