Improving my life during Summer 2010

Shoe_Gal

Have just read your diary all the way through - you're amazing :j Have subscribed now, have a good week

Mags30

Shoe_Gal wrote: »

Have just read your diary all the way through - you're amazing :j Have subscribed now, have a good week

Thank you so much , glad you enjoyed reading but I certainly don't feel amazing. Will start a new 2011 diary sometime soon. For now I'm off to boil the kettle for a hot water bottle Night X

butafli

We were watching X-factor and thought Mary out sang Cher by loads but guessed which way the judges would vote. Loads of stuff in the papers about it should have been purely public vote (Dermot said so on Saturday night and in previous serious always has been into final) and so loads of people have been calling Ofcom to complain.

Christmas fayre sounds lovely (even if just to look at) and you had such a good deal on that meal. Have promised myself a trip to one in Europe when (eventually) am debt free.

With the phone deal - the arguments you put there it sounds a good deal for you. Loving the image of you with a massive trolley hitting, roller skates, with arm at just the right angle to knock off parcels from shelves in Boots for the 75% sale :rotfl:

Bx

butafli

Have heard of people losing posts so thought I'd better split.

My tooth/sinus/whatever is getting better thank you. I actually managed to go the night without getting up for more painkillers - result!

Slow cooker - I use mine for curries and casseroles. I have had a couple of dishes that were a bit bland - I put in too much water - it is surprising how little it uses. I usually use root veg, potatoes, shin beef, pork shoulder. Oh and turkey leg is brilliant. It is very good with cheap meats. :T

Have a great Monday.

Bx

Souk08

Hi lady, hope you're keeping warm and safe X

Mags30

butafli wrote: »

With the phone deal - the arguments you put there it sounds a good deal for you. Loving the image of you with a massive trolley hitting, roller skates, with arm at just the right angle to knock off parcels from shelves in Boots for the 75% sale

Bx

I probably will get the phone. Offer is on until Christmas so I didn't impulse buy. As for the trolley dash at Boots--I'm serious One of the branches of Boots around here is the 2nd biggest in Ireland and they stock everything. 75% sale isn't as popular in Ireland, you wouldn't have a massive queue outside at opening time so I'm fairly confident of getting some good value that day:)

Provided there's no ice/snow of course. Can you imagine trying to carry Fearne Cotton hat-boxes on an icy footpath :rotfl:And I'd need to have the car to hide the stuff in. I'd be mortified to be carrying loads of those huge gift-sets on a bus in January in a recession. Non MSE people would never understand that they were actually very cheap!

butafli wrote: »

Slow cooker - I use mine for curries and casseroles. I have had a couple of dishes that were a bit bland - I put in too much water - it is surprising how little it uses. I usually use root veg, potatoes, shin beef, pork shoulder.

I did that too, was lurking in the slow-cooker threads last night. I put the amount of water (with a stock cube) that you would use in a saucepan. Going to buy some ingredients to make a chilli today but I need some help so I don't mees up.

· Do you need to brown the meat in a pan first?
· Do you put any liquid in with it? There would be a tin of tomatoes and some olive oil which is as much liquid as you have making it the regular way
· Do kidney beans not go in until near the end?
· Can you roast things in the slow cooker without using water? As in things you would put on a tray in the oven without water?

Souk08 wrote: »

Hi lady, hope you're keeping warm and safe X

Thanks hun, looked out this morning, no snow, everything looked normal again, then I saw a girl fall in the car park--black ice so no driving for another bit. Still no water at my mothers, she has some huge water containers from B+Q from last time this happened so she's managing but it's really inconvenient. Are frozen pipes a problem in Scotland or England at all? I haven't seen anybody on the Matrix thread moan about water issues.

Here's my latest good idea regarding To Do lists from a magazine article I read at the weekend. It said a To Do list should only have 3 priority things on it. It suggested not including things which you will definitely do anyway like wash hair, wash clothes, go to work, walk dog, feed cat....

Things like look for a new job, move house, retrain shouldn't be on the list either. They go in a separate list (or a mind-map:)) at the back of your diary because they don't get done in a day. You need to allocate an afternoon to working on those every now and again.

Irish Budget is today:(

Be back later, have a good day everyone x

Souk08

Pipes are ok for me love, just icy and chuffing freezing!

butafli

Never tried chilli so checked my cookbook and it had only had a veggie version so not sure. But hopefully you found a good recipe online.

How you doing with the budget (Government)?

Bx

Mags30

butafli wrote: »

How you doing with the budget (Government)?

Bx

I think Irish people must be in denial or something because it was as busy as ever in the local shopping centre today, coffee shop packed, etc :undecided

The budget was pretty awful:

·Taxes appear to have been increased by 10%
·Petrol is up by 4cent a litre and diesel 2cent
·No increase in alcohol or cigarette
·All social welfare payments down by €8 a week, including disability allowance. Only exception is old age pension which remains unchanged.
·Minimum wage reduced by €1 an hour which is a reduction of around €40 a week for people on minimum wage.
·People with children fairly badly hit. Childrens’ allowance reduced by €10 a month, for 1st child, €10 for 2nd child, €20 for 3rd child and €10 for 4th and all subsequent children. So that’s €50 a month for people with 4 children.
·There is a new payment of €50 per child to travel on the school bus where this would previously have been free

I do agree with the argument that welfare payments in Ireland are way too high and need to be reduced. But with all the talk of a General Election after Christmas it’s possible that a new Government might change some of this again. Any changes would be minor though because most of it comes from the IMF now :undecided

What’s most depressing about all of this is that there will be more reductions every year for the next 3 years. Everyone aspires to things improving all the time but now we know that everything will get worse every year for the next while

As expected I'll be down around €30 a week from paying extra tax, the new "universal social charge" whatever that might be :huh: and of course the increased petrol prices.

I do have a MSE plan to deal with this. I figure I can make up the shortfall by:

·doing some mystery shopping
·surveys
·cutting back on the cosmetics
·internet shopping to get things cheaper
·less coffee and lunches out
·No spend days (NSD's)
·being very,very fussey about where I spend my money in general. I'm going to shop where I get good value and service as opposed to where's convenient

Mags30

I’m not happy about this of course. When I started mystery shopping the whole idea was to make extra money. But now cutbacks and extra income sources will be necessary just to maintain present standards.:mad:

It would of course be easier to live on €30 less if I wasn’t making a weekly minimum repayment on my debts of €35

Looks like 2011 won't be much fun _pale_

In other news Louis Walsh says Mary Byrne or Tesco Mary as you guys call her will be recording an album of songs she did on the show and doing a solo tour of Ireland after the X-Factor tour.