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

DdraigGoch

Happy Christmas to one and all from a snowy :jWales and a longtime lurker :beer:

SFT, I am fairly sure that many of us have differing amounts in our budgets and that the £4K is what :ANYK is working to, the rest of us fit in where we can! Many of us can't do £4K, but we're still on here, plugging away at whatever we can.

Hoping everyone has a lovely time this Christmas and a calm and enjoyable [and thrifty! :money:] 2010.

DG
Duchess of Frugonia :rotfl:

cw18

Spent a while trying to track down DS's flight on the B'ham airport site, with no luck

Sent him a text asking for flight info (which he hadn't given me, despite orginally asking me to pick him up from B'ham at 10 o'clock - before he changed his mind and asked me to collect him and a mate from a local train station). Turns out he's flying from Hannover (so Army must have shipped them back to Germany before sending them home on leave), and his flight isn't until tonight !!!

Means I have an extra 12 hours to try and clear a room for him (great news), but also means I'm going to be up until all hours so I can collect him (bad news).

At least I've no voluntary work tomorrow morning (due to schools having broken up last Friday), so I can have a bit of a lie-in (subject to dogs not insisting they want out) before I have to start work at 1pm tomorrow.......



Not sure I'm happy about the drive to the railway station though! We had rain yesterday evening, which was turning some of the snow to slippy ice. And then we've had snow again overnight, and it's still snowing now - though it's more the 'miniature snowball' grainy stuff than soft flakes in the last hour. I don't even know some of the roads I'll have to use coming back, as I rarely venture into the area where his mate lives - and have certainly never done part of the route before


ETA: Just checked trains for the station he planned to come into (Wigan), and there's nothing! Well, there's one at 00:08, but it doesn't get to us until 7:37am. Off to check M'cr, but doubt there'll be anything there - and I'm definitely NOT driving to B'ham in this weather :eek:

Nope, nothing to M'cr either. In fact, that route shows exactly the same times.......



Edit again : now 11:25, and I've just had a call from DS

DS: Are you working tomorrow?
Me (Knowing exactly what was coming) : Yes, 1 til 5
DS: Heaps of time then..... Can you pick me up from B'ham please?
Me: Sorry. No chance!
DS: If you don't I've got a 6 hour wait at Crewe
Me: Sorry, I'm not driving to B'ham in this weather......

Explained we've had snow, then rain, and now snow again. And I've once (NYE 2003) driven a 2 juntion stretch of m'way I knew like the back of my hand in a snow blizzard - and even knowing it I had to keep to 20-30mph and keep finding the cats eyes between the h/shoulder and the n/s lane to be sure I was on track. No way I'm risking that for any length on a m/way I don't know well. So he's now resigned to having to sit in a train station for 6 hours (or an airport for hours, waiting for a train tomorrow morning if he thinks about it), and has said he'll see me tomorrow morning. At least we didn't have a major fight over the phone, but I can see major sulks coming after he gets back :rolleyes2

the_cat

nykmedia wrote: »

The_cat, can you elaborate on the bingo 'thing', as it may be something we're already doing. I signed up to all the cashback ones and did OK out of them, I still do the Butl!n$ site maintaining a balance from free money and topping up daily with the free scratchcard. I have problems playing the bingo games as my Internet connection is slow. I had to give up on the free bingo for same reason.

It's www.bingobritain.com

There is no cashback available anywhere I don't think, so it wouldn't have been on that 'hit list':D
Basically you register and play through a minimum of £5. Then for every day for 30 days they give you an extra £5 free money to play through. Any winnings can be withdrawn as cash:T:T although for smaller wins you may need to top up your balance to the min withdrawal amount of £20. You can then withdraw the whole balance. They also allow you to pre purchase tickets which is ideal as you don't have to sit through the tedium and there is much less risk of 'getting hooked'. Might also help with internet connection problems Nyk?

As I said before I have been lucky and won over £320 so far (between me and OH;)). I still have my fingers crossed as I have about 4-5 days to go! I found the info on one of the other diary threads, but can't remember which one now to give a link.

Any questions give me a holler!

Blairweech

Hi all,

CW - That is completely understandable about you not driving in this weather, it is never worth it (even if you are ok, it only takes one idiot driving too fast and a split second to cause a major accident)

Still snowed in. It is starting to melt, but we had snow, then rain, then cold so everything is very very icy. OH tried to go to work at 10, could not even get out of my courtyard. Tried again at half 11 and is now stuck in the next village waiting for the snow to melt some more. I think he is now familiarising himself with the social club :rolleyes: It was the village party last night, and no one can get home so I expect it will be packed!!

My plans for today involve making a lentil dhal, pork dijonnaise for tea and wrapping presents!

grandma247

CW I'm with you on that one. We had a trip to Bury market yesterday and it started snowing after we had been there less than an hour so we decided to cut the visit short and pick up the boys from dd2 and go home. Had problems in the past with snow and ice on the motorway. We were once turned off the M1 at Nottingham on our way to Yorkshire and had to do a detour on unfamiliar roads.

Nyk I made the padding in two parts which you can't see in the picture. Fastened to the back seam is a pad which lifts up so it halves the drying thickness. Also I intend making extra pads which will just slip in so even if baby turns out to be a heavy wetter it will not matter. DD2 has a washer and central heating so she should be ok if I make lots. Also I am not sure that liners are easily available these days. I used to buy boxes of 300 from boots but I have only seen rolls of them online so far. I will make some possibly from thin fleece as they will act as a staydry liner.
I always had 3 doz. terry nappies for mine so had enough even when I did not have a washer or dryer. Because they are fitted I will need to make some larger ones too. I am not sure if she will use them all the time or only for emergencies including no money.
I have been toying with the idea of making some to sell too. I think I will see what the verdict is first.

DdraigGoch

Well, it seems to be snowy in quite a few places. Here though it's light snow and heavy freezing .... no water, so that's not a lot of fun.

wish me luck

shaz_mum_of__2

Great nappies grandma i have been toying with making reusable nappies and sanitary towels to sell on ebay but just not had the time.

CW dont blame you not picking him up we have a 4x4 and still won't make
unnecesssary journeys its not always your own fault and there are lots of idiots on the roads at this time of year already without the snow.


Working on essays today but my heads not in the zone today and i haven't relly got the right books so on hold for now.


I forget who asked about Bails said, i think she would be incommunicado for a while due to government internet restrictions and laptop being returned but not sure..............

cw18

Thanks to all for the assurances I've made the right choice in refusing to do the drive.....

It scared me to death last time I drove in a snow blizzard, and that was in a car I knew a lot better (had driven some serious miles in it over 10 years, but have only had this one - which is also a lot smaller and less powerful - for just over 3 years). And I have to add to this the fact that I can't now sit in the driving seat for more than 45 mins without taking a 5-10 min walk/stretch break due to my back !!!

lingojingo

CW I've just walked back from a friend's house just round the corner from me, and we watched a 4x4 slide across the road and shunt one parked car into another! Done quite a bit of damage, and it wasn't even going fast. You're 100% right to refuse a long drive in this.

Another strange thing that happened - it's snowing quite hard and there's just been a huge thunder clap! I never experienced anything like it before.

cw18

We had the single thunder clap with it about an hour ago, and a friend on another forum reported the same thing back on Thur or Fri....