It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

Nitha

I love the direction this thread has taken! There seem to be a lot of doom and gloom stories like that ridiculous rowntree study in the DM, people saying how poor they are etc. My OH and I have a combined income in the region of £27k and have a son, stepson who we pay child support for and another on the way. We live in a lovely and large ex council house and we eat very well. We couldn't afford a foreign holiday, nor a new car, nor regular purchases of new clothes, nor frequent evenings out. But we don't consider ourselves poor. As far as I'm concerned we can afford to live the lives we want - that of parents who feed their kids a good diet and have lots of fun with them. I got so sick of worrying about how to make ends meet I just stopped shopping which is so liberating and means that I now have the money for organic veg and nice Christmas gifts which is lovely

mama67

DH boss could not raise any finance at the bank so they are now on a 3 day week from next week.

It is the usual case of "if you have money you will be lent money". The bank wouldn't let him re-mortgage his house, as didn't feel it was right to do this.

The annoying thing is there are some jobs in the pipeline but no finalisation date has been agreed; so no money coming in.

The little jobs that are coming in and being immediately worked on will pay the lowered bills on a week to week basis, but there is no extra.

At least no redundencies have been discussed and if things pick up thenhours will increase.

Dh has opted to have Tuesday & Wednesday as his off days then we can prepare for the carboot sales; plus no-one else really wanted these days off.

AnnieG

A small piece of good news: petrol at my local garage (Sainsbury's) went down 1p a litre today. I know it's not much, but worth a mentionI thought!
And thanks for the advice about the Home Access Grant... we live in Wales, so wouldn't be eligible, and anyway, today I have been OFFERED A JOB!!!!! It's only temporary but hey, it's a job, it pays decent money and it's in my field of work. Hooray!!!!

Nargleblast

Well done AnnieG, nice to hear someone has some good news in these tough times! And it may be only temporary but it could lead to other opportunities, you never know. And if it doesn't then at least that's one more item on the CV.

Hippeechiq

AnnieG wrote: »

today I have been OFFERED A JOB!!!!! It's only temporary but hey, it's a job, it pays decent money and it's in my field of work. Hooray!!!!

Well done Annie :j really pleased for you :T

calleyw

I think when we are having a down day we can all get caught up in the gloom and doom. I know a lot of us have personal struggles I do I have disabled husband even though he can do a lot of care for himself is very hard work.

Today we had sun shine and I got a fabby £9.99 bouquet for 49p and the lillies are filling the kitchen with scent. Might be a tad over powering in the morning though :rotfl:

I have just stuffed down a (just the one)mini trifle that cost me 25p for a packet of 3 and a pain du chocolate which was 29p :j and the world is good.

I have food in my belly, a roof over my head and clothes on my back and nice comfy bed to sleep in tonight with clean sheets.

Granted I don't get a huge amount for some of the stuff I have to put up at work. But my boss lets me come and go as I want with reason and tomorrow is friday.

So here comes the weekend.

Everyone have a good friday.

Yours


Calley

larmy16

That's the spirit Calley. Onwards and upwards. Plus I am awaiting delivery of some carbolic soap. How divine!

ginnyknit

That sums it all up doesn't it, Larmy 16, celebrating another poster getting a job - wonderful, and waiting for your soap to arrive. We need to appreciate the good things and try not to dwel on the bad, we are rich in many ways :beer:

calleyw

ginnyknit wrote: »

That sums it all up doesn't it, Larmy 16, celebrating another poster getting a job - wonderful, and waiting for your soap to arrive. We need to appreciate the good things and try not to dwel on the bad, we are rich in many ways :beer:

That is it. I take great pleasure in small things like getting my reduced to clear.

Getting bargain toiletries I often buy more than I need and pass on to family members.

And even picking veggies from the graden to cook for my tea yum yum. Makes me feel rich.

Life is hard and it easy to get caught up in the woe is me and yes it is hard for some. I went through it 4 years ago when my husband had a stroke and was in hopsital for nearly 3 months with no income as he has been temping at the time. That was very hard, working and visiting the hospital every night. But I came through it and managed.

But hey lets hope it is a better day for everyone.

Yours

Calley

charlies-aunt

silvercharming wrote: »

Thanks! I go to our market regularly and there's nobody at ours who sells it BUT I am going to France myself in September :j taking my Mum camping so I can pick some up then! My poor old OH - he takes us camping to the same place each year, and each year we end up loading the car with more and more 'weird' stuff as he puts it. He says it's one thing wrecking your car suspension with booze, but one of these days customs in Dover are going to pull us over and wonder who on earth needs that many giant tins of chickpeas!!!! :rotfl:

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: You and your OH sound just like us - we used to get loaded up with some pretty strange stuff - the big blocks of soap are usually in the same aisle as washing powder rather than with the fancy soap/shower gel aisle.

I used to always squeeze a few boxes of wash powder in the car too - it used to be half the price of washing powder here - the french own brands are very good quality

If you haven't tried these already - you have got to make a bit of room for some tubes of concentrated fabric conditioner - they are sold in packs of 4 or 5 tubes and they have some amazing fragrances - fig flower, green tea etc although my favourite is lily of the valley - its a bit fiddly emptying them and diluting them down but they work out very cheap. You can smell them through the packaging and I used to split the packets and put a couple in each of our bedroom drawers until I wanted to use them, they made our clothes smell really nice

SuperU & LeClerc also do big cellophane wrapped packs of french toasts (bigger and thicker than the uk version) which also were a big hit with us as they were tasty and unbelieveably cheap - may be worth a look too...:)

Hope you'll post your french bargains when you come back!