Live on £4,000 for a year - 2009, Part 3

cw18

Day 2 at pre-school done - and had quite a fruitful day.....

I'd spotted bags of carrots and bags on clementines on the side, so asked which I should be getting ready for home time. The carrots were (apparently) meant to be the '5-a-day' item to be sent home yesterday - but the staff didn't think they looked very nice and they still had plenty of apples so sent those instead. So I was told to do the clementines (todays delivery), and I then asked what to do with the carrots. This was greeted with a "you don't know someone with a horse do you?", to which I responded "no, but I have a dog who thinks he's one" So I'll let the dalmatian have some (he adores raw carrot), but plan to spend some time this evening dicing, blanching and freezing the bulk of them :T

Plus the teacher asked after younger GD, and said she assumed GD was in for the mornings this week with me being available to help. I said yes, but it was a nuisance as it means I have to miss week 1 of a free 'working with children' course tomorrow afternoon - with no guarantee they'll let me join in at week 2. So the pre-school teacher has told me to have a word with GD, and if she's happy I can arrange with her Reception class teacher to pass her over to pre-school when I should be collecting her - and then I can collect her from pre-school when I go to collect elder GD (course runs 1-3pm, younger GD pick up is 12:45 and elder GD pick-up is 3:15pm). So I just need to find the pamphlet about the course now.....

shaz_mum_of__2

Well done on your haul Cheryl and on your forays into school .:T

Busy preserving the harvest here ................runner bean mountain is about conquered the apple sack has had it's back broken too.:j

shopping done, washing too,dinner prep done and its only lunchtime i have even set the table ready.:T

Local show here so been planning my baking activities for the next few days ..................i won quite a few prizes last year and have a title to maintain:rotfl::rotfl:

Ds is entering a few things too so need to help him with that i hope he has the biggest sunflower head or he is going to be gutted.............

Lunch break is over so back to it

Shaz

chika

Cheryl, your school sounds lovely, I like the way how you describe how they act. They are so cute!

SF are you doing a PGCE? Don't worry about the shared house thing - Its normally good fun and having a chat about cleanliness normally works wonders. Otherwise a rota works quite well. There are eight people in my uni house and its not too bad. Have fun!

slowlyfading

chika wrote: »

SF are you doing a PGCE? Don't worry about the shared house thing - Its normally good fun and having a chat about cleanliness normally works wonders. Otherwise a rota works quite well. There are eight people in my uni house and its not too bad. Have fun!

I am doing a PGCE - secondary level! I'm sure it'll be fine, and I'm probably worrying about nothing xx

Frugaldom

Hi guys, I am really sorry to have been AWOL so often but I'm still trying to catch up with the aftermath of the wedding plus keep up with work, housework, cooking, jam making, poultry keeping and gardening. The days are shortening too much! (And I spend too much time online anyway.)

Hope all went well for Aeb, well done with the classroom work CW, good luck with the new study year SF and I hope Everest is as great as you're anticipating Bails. Must dash again as I have bramble & apple jelly on the go plus apple crumbles baking then going to be nosy and see how workmen have progressed next door.

Back later

Brighton_belle

Sounds like you're settling in already CW - and great experience for future options:T. An:beer: for the carrot haul.
Shaz - sorry you have had more pain. The 40th planning sounds great.

I haven't been posting much as I'm not gardening or preserving so not a lot new on the frugalling front at the mo compared to many of you. I think as the nights draw in the forum will get busier.

I'll be busy soon as my lovely lodgers hope to exchange on their house and move in 9 days time - one of them has been wih me for 7 yrs so boo hoo. I need to decorate and carpet their room and get an ad in with the week. I'd really love not to have to get another lodger (the room is for 1 really, but her partner moved in a for a few weeks and stayed for 2 yrs:D) but I just have to financially. We are only in a 2 bed house so we could really use the space ourselves but needs must.

Any teachers out there with advice - my mum is giving a talk to 10yr olds at a school on the 21st , about her experience of being evacuated in the war. I'm taking her as I always loved her stories. Any advice or suggestions on how to fill 30-45 mins not just 'talking'? The teacher has left it up to her, so maybe just talking is ok but any tips welcome. Is there a particular curriculum remit that is being met here?

LOL SF - bails isn't aiming to get to the top of everest, 'just' base camp (in itself a great achievement but I couldn't help but giggle at your ref to her trying for the top).

skint_chick

Shaz - we're going to Bruges in December too:T for a short break, some Christmas market shopping and to see the sights - have you seen the film "In Bruges" - Colin Farrell is really funny in it.

BB - I'd love a talk on evacuation during the war - does your mum have any items from that era to take with her - gas mask/ ration books etc, I used to talk to my grandad who was from the east end about when they got evacuated to the country - where his family ended up moving after the war and still live even now. That kind of social history really interests me - have you read Nella Last's diaries?

I haven't been on much except to lurk because I haven't been doing anything creative or frugal the last few weeks:o It's been a year since I went "frugal" and I think's it been one the best years of my life:D This thread is the best on MSE:beer: and has quite literally saved my life. When I joined I was in a bad way both financially and emotionally and the change in just a year is amazing.

Don't forget it's European Heritage weekend this weekend so lots of historical buildings are open and FREE:D I'm going to a local cemetery tour (not as creepy as it sounds) and on a steam train ride and hopefully out to a lighthouse. Check out what's in your area at http://www.heritagedays.net/

Brighton_belle

Yes - we've read hers and a number of others from the mass observation project held here at Uni of Sussex. Mum was caught up in the Plymouth Blitz and the children weren't moved out til that was over: ended up on a farm and loved it. No - no items to take unfortunately.
Facinates me too. I've typed up over 30,000 words of mum's childhood so I've always got it.

It's wonderful to read of the impact this forum has had for you, though you have shared the changes as they happened through out the year.
It has made a big differnce to my life too: given me a sense of shared community that I had long felt lacking in my life

Thanks so much for the reminder about heritage weekend - managed not to picke up on that this year. I love cemtry tours too - friend and I are planning to do Highgate soon.

cw18

Brighton_belle wrote: »

Facinates me too. I've typed up over 30,000 words of mum's childhood so I've always got it.

Oooooo..... I wish I had those kind of family memories on record

I'm starting to develop quite a fascination for how people lived and coped in previous generations - especially during the wars - and I'm not totally sure why.....

• Could be there's no-one left in my family to ask (though from what little I've managed to glean it sounds like they weren't impacted much anyway compared to many others), and my Dad (born in 1936) shares very little about his childhood in general
• Could be that I'm getting 'old' :eek:
• Could be that elder DS is in the Army, so kind of more relevant....
• Could be that (for the first time ever) I can see myself having to watch the pennies for longer than the last week of a pay month :rolleyes2
• But it all seems to have kicked off in the last 8 years since the WTC disaster - which I think was the first time I've avidly followed what's happened (rather than picking up bits and pieces about disasters the rare time I've had the news on or picked up a paper) and spent hours worrying about people who could have been involved (took hours to get a phone call through to NY - s0d the fact it was in peak rate hours for International calls - but thankfully my friend, his family, and all their friends were far enough away from it). And then again after the Tsunami in 2004 (took a while to tactfully try and find out if any of our neighbours family members had been caught up in that one, but thankfully after many days of trying to get calls through they managed to locate everyone).

savingfortravel

SC-Thanks from me too regarding heritage days. Sunday is my dad's 75th birthday and I am sure that there would be something he'd love to do.
BB-My mum was telling me recently of a family who were evacuated from Plymouth to another part of devon and lived in a lean to on the side of the house, from which they could see all the dreadful bombing that went on there. (I'm not sure if the house belonged to my great aunt) I'll have to ask Mum again. I must write down some of my parents' memories as well. Being 2 war children they've got plenty to share!
First day back at school today. Worked until 8.20pm tonight, wading through all the holiday homework!
Tomorrow I have to attend a meeting at school until 7pm. I hope to get my prep/marking done beforehand so I don't have to continue after getting home.
So much for better quality of life!

SFT