It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

beingfrugal

We lost our home last year. I had a good career but wanted to stay a home and look after my children. DH and I decided I should take the leap and be a stay at home mum and a childminder to help pay our bills and mortgage. I was earning £22 for 6 hours minding a week and subsequently we lost our home last year. We now rent. I feel like it can't get any worse than it did last year but I also fear i'm deluding myself.. I worry we might not be able to cope with groceries/petrol/fuel/insurances/council tax as the whole country is forced into tightening our belts.. therefore I'm assigning myself a new role as my job as Mum, that's to make every single penny count.

Hi everyone, newbie person here eager to learn all you know. (starting with a search on what to do with a few slices of near stale bread I have.. yes I am going to be THAT frugal) This is a way of life I'm looking to embark on not just a quick fix. I feel our society has lost it's way, I yearn to be back as a child sitting with my grandma in front of the open fire with my hotwater bottle - it wasn't that long ago

Larumbelle

beingfrugal wrote: »

Hi everyone, newbie person here eager to learn all you know. (starting with a search on what to do with a few slices of near stale bread I have.. yes I am going to be THAT frugal)

Hi Beingfrugal and welcome Sorry to hear that you lost your house. OH and I rent, and it's not that bad. Even now we couldn't get a mortgage for our house for what we pay in rent, and if something goes wrong we don't have to fret how to pay for it, we just call the landlord. Sure, it's "dead money" but it always will be anyway - unless you can trade down (and trade down to what? Terrible area? Shoebox?). And a financial bequest to pass on is, I'm sorry to say, a luxury not a necessity or a right, despite what some people think. The things you really need to pass on don't cost any money and can be passed on while you're still very much alive

Anyway, what about breadcrumb cookies? (from thriftyfun.com / tightwad gazette)

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/3 cup baking cocoa
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2/3 cup butter or margarine *
2 cups breadcrumbs
Instructions

Preheat oven 350 degrees F. Melt butter or margarine and allow to cool. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, cocoa, and sugar. Combine milk, egg, and vanilla. Add to dry mixture. Mix. Add melted margarine or butter and breadcrumbs. Mix well.

Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 15 minutes or until done.

* NOTE: OK to substitute 1/3 cup butter or margarine + 1/3 cup applesauce

beingfrugal wrote: »

This is a way of life I'm looking to embark on not just a quick fix. I feel our society has lost it's way, I yearn to be back as a child sitting with my grandma in front of the open fire with my hotwater bottle - it wasn't that long ago

I agree. In some ways it was just a few years ago, but in others it was further than just time. We are all part of society and we are all part of the problem or solution, depending on our actions. When I mentioned yesterday about my neighbour, a few people commented that they'd like a good relationship with theirs, but don't know their names. And part of me thinks, well, take a couple of HM cupcakes round and say hello then! Not always that simple, I know, but it's easier to have faith in the future if you know that you and others are doing something constructive, and lots of tiny actions is what leads to social change IMHO. What I do know is that the older generation are taking a lot of valuable information to their graves with them because they don't realise that anybody still values it.

Skint_Lynne

Hi being frugal,

I am mostly a lurker on this thread but read it most days. I think that a nice bread and butter pudding would be a nice use of your stale bread. If you don't have a recipie, there will be one on old style somewhere, someone who is more knowledgeable than me will be along to help soon.

Good luck with everything, keep reading and posting on here and you will be kept on the right track. x

mardatha

Some of us still sit at an open fire and use a hot water bottle And there's nothing at all wrong with renting a house - you get rent rebates if you hit hard times & repairs are covered. I've been in council housing all my married life and my house is just as much my own as any bought one. So keep grounded pet and think like your granny would have. Never mind status and the hyacinth bucket brigade Our main job as mums is to look after our families and we do whatever it takes . Our job is not to have more stuff/possessions/gadgets/foreign holidays than the people next door !
Somewhere on here I read that you should keep bread and use has HM breadcrumbs to coat stuff in for frying...but there's also apple charlottes etc that can be made with bread and syrup.

Larumbelle

Mardatha is right. The most important frugal lesson to learn is the one where you tailor your aspirations to the things that YOU find important. Home ownership was more or less bred into me, and the idea that owning my own house is a key measure of my success as a human being. Took a while to shake that out of my system, some days it's not completely gone, but hey... I'm getting there

While I think of it, NEVER chuck stale bread out, Beingfrugal! You can

...eke out mince with it
...use it as a pasta topping instead of parmesan
...use it for crumb for the million and one recipes that require it
...bread and butter pudding, as Lynne suggested
...making HM stuffing (mmmmm yes!)
...put it in the freezer for later I always make crumbs first, you only need to take stale out thinking it's fresh once :rotfl:

smileyt_2

Hi beingfrugal

Sorry to hear you lost your home

I've never been able to afford a house of my own, due to mental illness. The stress of having to cover a mortgage every month would completely do me in. In some ways you are better off renting. I feel guilty about claiming Housing Benefit when I can't work ( I work when I can) but I try to 'pay my way' in society by doing voluntary work and 'treading lightly on the earth'.

In some ways that last thing is the most important thing. So by being frugal you will be helping others too, not just yourself. Good luck. You will find loads of tips on here to help you, and the majority of people here are lovely. There is an occasional troll but they don't get fed so they tend to wander off looking elsewhere :rotfl:

lauren_1

I have been quite fortunate to find some really good bargains for baby (had a scan yesterday at EPAC clinic due to some abdominal pain, all is good thankfully and even got a freebie pic of the 'smudge' the pic was zoomed in so much it just looked like a chalky finger smudge)

The gods of ebay have been kind over the past week, got these little gems

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280525769074&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT#ht_500wt_1154

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170507793076&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT#ht_500wt_1154

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250656796081&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT#ht_500wt_928

northwest1965

beingfrugal - what about bread pudding? (not to be confused with bread and butter pudding. Keep reading this forum, its invalueable.

Can you make bread? Homemade bread is a lot more substantial than shop bought and will keep the kids fuller, longer

ginnyknit

We lost our home during the Thatcher years and it was a real blow (as I have mentioned before) but as my Dh says in rented if the roof blows off tomorrow they will fix it. I long for a cottage in the country and a bit of land but have had to face up to the fact lately my dream retirement ain't going to happen due to Dh's ill health. So I have thrown myself (literally on a couple of occasions, foot over elbow in the garden) into making and baking and growing. If I ignore the world outside my door and wander off to the seaside to recharge my batteries sometimes,I can be happy here. The main thing, which was brought home to me again yesterday is I have my kids and my extra gift of my grandson. This came from a friend recently widowed who couldn't have children and is now totally alone except for a very elderley Mum who she has to care for.

as for the recession I have you guys to keep me laughing and am inspired on a regular basis by the ideas here. And of course by the random acts of kindness this site seems to generate - Mardatha especially has become a good friend. So shoulders to the wheel guys and lets ride out the storm!

taplady

lovely posts from Mardatha and ginnnyknit:T

beingfrugal - goodluck with making every penny count!

we too lived in a rented house - housing association, its in very good condition and resaonable rent. We've never been able to afford to buy mainly due to DHs poor health. Its our home as much as if we owned it and at least it wont be sold to pay for our nursing homes!

we've eaten peas, potatoes and strawberries this week from our garden - tomatoes will soon be ready too!

I thought we'd paid our last debt repayment but have since found out there's one more to go! the next 2 months are going to be very tight for us - DS2 is 18 next week and its cost us £75 for his present(ticket to a music festival) - I shall make him a cake but there's no party - have to wait till he's 21!
I've been going round the supermarket with a calculator the last few weeks to make sure I keep to my budget. next week we've got free sainsburys delivery to use!:T

Ginnyknit - I like your signature!:D