If things get tougher?

moneysavingfamilycomp

anyone know how to build an igloo :rotfl:

Pandora123_2

moneysavingfamilycomp wrote: »

anyone know how to build an igloo :rotfl:

Sure, it's easy...

Eskimold

zarazara

:rotfl: LOL

katieowl_2

Pandora123 wrote: »

Sure, it's easy...

Eskimold

LOL Now SURELY somebody can come up with a recycled OS mold.... ??? Old Milk Cartons??? 1/4 of a car tyre??

Regards

Kate

[Deleted User]

I am tentatively introducing a very beneficial spinoff to our good habits re switching things off etc

I know that anything carrying electricity has a magnetic field around it called an emf. Last night I decided to switch our bedside light/clocks off at the wall, the cables run under the bed. I have been waking up at stupid hours for goodness knows how long, every day. Last night I had a full quota of undisturbed sleep, the first in about 3 years. This is no coincidence.

We are being absolutely bombarded with emfs and radio frequencies, wi fi, dect phones and baby monitors etc. Obviously the more we turn off the better for our pocket but our health will get better too

I sent my jl sheets back and will do without any flannel replacements as I would rather get a special emf (low freq) and rf monitor, which I will lend around my family as I am absolutely convinced that mobiles, dects etc should be off or as far away from us as possible

ceridwen

You may well be right Kittie - I too feel concerned about EMF's - hence I was wondering a bit about your induction hob that you use a lot.....I get your point as to why...but its not on my list of things to buy...because I am wondering about it from that viewpoint.

I'm not happy about the fact that I have the meter cupboard underneath the floorboards at the top of my bed - but I guess its on the "back burner" to deal with that at the moment as I've not got any major health problems (cancer or whatever). Fingers crossed...it can stay on that "back burner" - as have got rather a lot to deal with anyways...but it is all a part of why I'm trying not to use any more electric stuff than I can help (says she sitting on a computer right now) - but I'm not at all happy that "wireless hotspots" are cropping up everywhere right now...and living in a city...I'm forever inadvertently walking through them...wish people would read up the research on this and then forget that idea:mad:

....if only everyone read all the same stuff as I do...no new generation of mobile phones...no wireless hotspots....no microwave ovens.....etc....etc.....well I can wish cant I?:cool: (Just wish I had a good memory - so I can retain all the information as to why I've made all the decisions I have.....but then remember that a lot of people wouldnt listen to me anyways....so what would be the point?)

sunflower76

I've been preapring for the tough times for about a year or so now; I was a doom and gloom monger when the Northern Rock crisis happened and am now saying 'told you so' to MrS at every opportunity. :rotfl:

I finally talked him into getting a wood burning stove fitted in our dining room where it's always a bit chilly and am now trying to convince him that we can get free wood from the local joiners if we go and ask; his gripe is that we don't have time for such things. I keep reminding him that we can't have the heating on and it'll get through to him eventually, probably when his fingers drop off through frostbite! I've just had the last gas bill and it is 50% of what I was expecting, even for the summer months, so I'm really impressed with our efforts. I just need to hope the elctricity bill is the same as this was horrendous last bill and I won't be happy if it is really high. We now turn off most sockets at the wall when we aren't using them and I really do think before I switch things on now.

The two biggest things I need to do are replace our halogen lamps with LED / low energy versions, although I don't want to do this until they go pop as they were £5 each and I know they aren't moneysaving as they suck juice from the meter like a kid with a milkshake, but I can't bear to throw them away when they are so useful.

Cutting shopping back was an easy one for me, I just have to cook better meals from local ingredients at a good price. I'm now very oldstyle and spend around £250 - £300 per month which I'm comfortable with for the two of us and my our mutt and kitty. I'm trying to decide whether to buy a breadmaker. I am utterly rubbish at homemade bread - I just can't do it (and I've been cruely feeding MrS the heavy, tasteless results for over a year now on and off). I can't even make it from a packet and I'm so desperate for bautiful hm bread. I'm just concerned that the outlay + running costs will be more expensive than going to the bakers once a week

We also make hm cider and lager which is much cheaper than going to MrTs and I have a good quality wine delivery once a quarter which has to last me - no sneaking to the offy!

Other than that I don't think we can cut back much more, or maybe I'm just not prepared to. I guess the next thing to go would be alcohol and eating out - we're already 'tight as a ducks whatnot' as my Mum would say!

Ceridwen - you're one of my top posters, almost everything you say I agree with whole heartedly :beer:

mardatha

I agree. I always notice a lovely relaxing slump during power cuts, and my neighbour says this is what it is.

katieowl_2

Ceridwen and Kitty I HAVE to tell you this story.....

My upstairs neighbour (who's been there about a year, I've lived downstairs for 22 years...) asked me a couple of months back if I'd ever heard that the flat was haunted??? (Well I had heard a couple of reports...but I'd not picked anything untowards up and I do sometimes - but she knew I was 'that way inclined' which is why she asked...) I asked her why and she said that she'd been sleeping really badly, and that it got worse at Xmas, and some nights she has this sensation of voices in her head, lots of churning movement (in her head if you KWIM) I asked if anything new was brought into the house or changed at Xmas - and I did go upstairs for a quiet moment and still didn't sense anything in particular. SHe remembered that the old fashioned metal bedstead went back together at Xmas and that they'd been sleeping in it ever since. It's a metal frame top and bottom, with four posts - a bedknobs and broomsticks bed.

I came back downstairs, then had a random thought pop into my mind and I and looked up EMF's on the internet and went back into her room with a compass. Over the bed the thing went haywire....swinging round madly, revolving completely all sorts of very uncompassly behaviour. I called her and her OH upstairs to look and as I moved around the room to show them I realised that the bed was in DIRECT line of sight to the BIG Transmitter at Crystal Palace (only about a mile and a half away up the hill) I then thought to ask her if it had got WORSE since she went and had her dental surgery about six weeks before, and it had....she'd had a whole series of dental implants done, basically a row of metal pegs into her jaw!!! We think she was picking up TV transmissions all night, in a very low grade way, but with the EMF's too enough to disturb her sleep and make her feel quite poorly the next day!

She did send off for a gadget to measure EMF's afterwards, and has also taken the step of unplugging everything at night - I personally would have moved the bed, or stuck a wooden screen over the window at night. So ghostly happenings in this instance possible have an explanation (doesn't explain why the last owners au pair wouldn't be in the house alone though, or what the guy before who rented it reckoned he'd seen in his room LOL!)

Regards

Kate

katieowl_2

sunflower76 wrote: »

I finally talked him into getting a wood burning stove fitted in our dining room where it's always a bit chilly and am now trying to convince him that we can get free wood from the local joiners if we go and ask;

They would probably be over the moon to get you to take it away - my OH is a joiner/cabinet maker and at £140+ for a skip to get rid of the waste I can tell you we burn all we can.

Just a word to warn you that it's best to burn only hard woods (like oak, cherry, ash, etc) and not to burn soft wood like pine, redwood, as they tar up the chimney badly and can catch fire.

They may be especially inclined to oblige if you turn up armed with your own bags (plastic builders bags) and are prepared to cut bigger offcuts down yourself to fit the fire opening as it won't cost them anything then in materials or labour to pass it on to you!!!

Regards

Kate