It's STILL tough and not getting better - so how are we coping?

calleyw

Gigervamp wrote: »

Oh, diddums! Poor? Huh, they don't know the meaning of the word! Gosh, that article made me angry. :mad:

They need to wake up and smell the coffee and live in the real world like like the rest of us. Me and my husband bought a small flat and then upgraded to a 3 bed house when we could afford it.

I find it amazing that these people earning all this money are not saving or have insurances in place.

We where stupid enough not have critical illness/income replacement insurance. And it came to bite us on the bum

But due to keeping our bills low and saving we have managed to keep a roof over heads after my husbands stoke.

Yours

Calley

mardatha

This is what I thought too. Imagine earning that kind of money and not saving at all - in face borrowing more. Some people never have enough !

Charis

ceridwen wrote: »

Private schools is something else I would sympathise with - as if I'd got children at private schools I would "bust every gut going" to try and keep them there - unless they themselves wanted to go to a State school anyway AND I could find a State School nearby that I felt okay about sending them to...

I wouldn't. (This is coming from someone so unimpressed with schooling that I home educated for some time) I'm delighted with my son's 6th form college, funded by the local council. It consistently comes at, or very near, the top of the national league tables, yet because it's in a rural area yet is one of the worst funded per pupil in the country. I reckon I'd be saving £28,000 a year in private school/boarding fees, if I had it in the first place :rotfl:

It also must be hard to lose the "social life" one has built up - and that would clearly be necessary if one associated with wealthy people with a "flash" lifestyle. It does very much depend what one's social life is like anyway.

If my friends like me, it's not because of the labels I wear. Who needs friends who turn their backs on you because the cut of your coat is last year's? I feel sorry for the woman if she is really straining to keep up with such shallow people. As me muvva would say 'my heart bleeds for her'.

So - I think its reasonable to show a bit of compassion - even in those circumstances.

I doubt she would show the likes of us compassion if she could still afford to pay for her country pile and her pad in town, her designer jeans and her expensive holidays. She admits that they borrowed, and borrowed, then borrowed some more. In other words they (the self appointed upper class) have been living above their means for years, which is what got us all into the excrement we are in now. The kind of compassion I would like to show people like her is to show them that our way of life is more genuine, more fulfilling and you know who your friends are. I'll teach her to knit. You can teach her how to grow veg

No-one EVER thinks "bad stuff" will happen to them - until it does..

Then they find out the hard way.

Frankly I'm surprised that someone with such impeccable taste who has had the benefit of the finest kind of education hasn't even got the gumption to work out whether she can afford her outgoings. Or is she biggin' it up for the tabloids?

lambanana

I popped into Mr M's on my lunchbreak and picked up their buy 1 get 2 free pasta so that's 3kg of pasta for £1.95, the offer is until 15th August so I'll probably pick up a few more packs whilst I can. They also had dolmio sauce, 3 jars for £1.37, generally I do make my own sauces from scratch but like to have a couple of jars in for emergencies (nothing in the fridge or feeling poorly and not wanting to cook) when I just stir it through cooked pasta and if I have any shove some grated cheese on top. I'm going to Mr.Ts after work for milk and cheese as Mr.Ms did not have as good offers on these at the moment. I feel lucky to have access to three different supermarkets close to work (plus home bargains, poundland and poundstretcher) and I can easily get to all of the supermarkets in the car from my house, the only one we don't have is a Waitrose and I wouldn't be able to afford it anyway

short_bird

kezlou wrote: »

Not sure if anyone wants to know but i've just posted some recipes up on the august grocery challenge.

The recipes are for vegetable samoas's and onion bhaji's.

There's a variation on onion bhajis: leek, brussels sprout and onion bhajis. I can hear the :eek::eek::eek::eek:from here!

One third finely shredded leek, one third finely shredded brussels and one third onion; IF you can get it, use black cumin seeds. The sprouts are really nutty when cooked this way. Really moreish.

kezlou

we had them at christmas last year, we used ot get a veg box delieverd and we got about 5kg of brussel sprouts. So they went in everything from salad to curry to bhaji's.
No one realised they eaten till they found the empty bag .

But the sprout bhajis were nice as i think the crunchiness of them adds a lovely texture. Or maybe thats just me.

Lindy_-_Loo

lambanana wrote: »

Is that just contents? I think barclays must be really expensive as we pay just over £15 a month for our contents with halifax and get a lot covered with that cover includes lost key keyrings which have a special number and if our lost keys are handed into the bank we get the key back and the person handing it in gets £10 reward which is pretty good (I am VERY careful with my keys but the thought I may get them back if I lose them as people would want the money is comforting!)

the quote is just for contents as we rent our house. Went to mums today and brother was visiting asked him how much he pays and he has just changed to churchill who he pays £168 for contents and buildings - think we gonna go with the qoute we got for £56ish for contents.

My neice very kindly took me to tesco home plus last night and I exchanged our vouchers, got £10 worth of night time nappies for DS2 and £50 worth of toys, mainly lego, hot wheels, spiderman and ben 10. Made up christmas is officially started!

OH has gotten boys some school shoes to try fron netto today Ben 10 for £8 they also had dora ones. For anyone who needs a lunch bag for their little ones they have them in at £3, there was peppa, ben 10, toy story and disney.

DS2 asleep, Ds1 on the Wii game - im shattered didnt sleep well and oH snored!

alec_eiffel

Charis wrote: »

If my friends like me, it's not because of the labels I wear. Who needs friends who turn their backs on you because the cut of your coat is last year's? I feel sorry for the woman if she is really straining to keep up with such shallow people. As me muvva would say 'my heart bleeds for her'.

It happened to me.

When we decided to get out of debt and live the good life a fair few people fell away. And then when we moved to a very unfashionable area of the country from the nice city we lived in before, some people weren't so keen to come and stay for the weekend and they gradually disappeared too.

It is very true that you find out who your friends are, and I found it wasn't necessarily who I thought it would be. Still, now we live somewhere nice again some of the old "friends" want to come back and I'm nice to them but that boat has sailed. If my spare room wasn't good enough for you when I lived in the mill town it's not good enough for you now I'm at the seaside. :beer:

mama67

Broomstick wrote: »

The Abel&Cole vegbox site has a really good section of recipes indexed through ingredients:

http://www.abelandcole.co.uk/recipes

Brilliant for seasonal gluts of veg (I am being taken over by cabbage atm and I've just discovered that they have 37 cabbage recipes :rotfl:)

Anyone know of any other vegbox companies doing recipe collections like this?

B x

www.woodlandsfarm.co.uk

hth

BigMummaF

Jumping in here quickly--haven't caught up with the day's posts but wanted to say Yew-Hoo MAR? A wind up radio! Be back when I've had a read...