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

RAS

lambanana wrote: »

Thanks ginnyknit! Annoyingly it's hubby's system as much as mine that is the problem and they can't kick start his BUT we're going to use natural supplements and diet to attempt to at least help before the treatment starts.

Hi it may be useless but a friend found that feeding hubby zinc had miraculous results after 7 years. No ther changes either was aware of.

She was using it as a cold remedy.

Just a point though, since I use it myself, do not take took much or all your mucus membranes dry up, including the rear end.

kidcat

Hugs to those who are struggling to conceive, it makes me weep at the thought of people who would love and cherish a child yet cannot have on.

As for peppercorn sauce, I make one but isnt the cheapest of recipes but nice for special occassions:

150ml brandy (or whiskey )
100 ml water
beef oxo cube
half small onion
tbsp crushed peppercorns
tbsp dijon mustard
tbsp white wine vinegar

throw all into pan and simmer till reduced to quarter of original, stir in 250ml cream, warm gently then serve.

XSpender

lambanana wrote: »

The weather is grim and I'm feeling dreadful after finding out yesterday we have almost no chance of achieving a natural pregnancy and will need IVF, fortunately we're eligible under the NHS but it's only 1 go at our PCT so we'll see what happens. I'm just trying to get my head round the whole thing.

I was just lurking but had to post to wish you all the luck in the world with your IVF. I had my first cycle of IVF last July and gave birth to a beautiful baby boy in May, three months before my 40th birthday. IVF was our only hope too due to our age as nothing specifically wrong with either of us.

I hope it all works out for you xxxxx

BB1984

Evenin' all, hope everyone's ok and hugs for everyone who's not. Another good few days since I've managed to post on here but I've been reading every day as usual.

My hubby (who normally works up in London during the week and is home at weekends) isn't coming home this weekend as Tuesday is his last day in his current job! He wanted to have a proper leaving do tonight and play one last game of cricket for the work team, so there wasn't much point him coming home for one night. Really excited, as from next Tuesday, he'll be home all the time, for the first time in two years! Yay! So anyway, I'm home alone this weekend, but quite looking forward to chilling out, spending some time gardening and sorting bits and bobs out.

Unfortunately that means the "real" belt-tightening has to start, what with an extra mouth to feed, extra showers, extra electricity etc, along with an 18% drop in his salary at his new job....eek!

This spell of autumnal weather has got me thinking about winter (Shudder) and being ready for it. I've re-read the "preparing for winter" thread and started making a list of things I need to do. I think this year I will invest in one of those oil-filled radiators. In the evenings we pretty much spend the whole time in the lounge, so it seems silly to be heating the whole house. Any particular recommendations?

I'm also considering buying a pressure cooker. My nan's being saying I should get one for years, but to be honest I've always been a bit scared of them!! (silly I know) I saw one is Asda, Kenwood Chef I think, 4 litre(?) for £20, which I thought sounded reasonable. I have a slow cooker, but only a 2-3 portion one, so I thought a PC would be good for making big vats of stew or doing a whole chicken etc. What do you think?

I think I might head to Lidl this weekend and stock up on bread flour. Now that hubby's going to be home more, we'll get through more bread, and I'm not paying £1+ for a loaf, that's for sure! And if ceriden et al are right about flour prices...

Anyway, that's enough wittering from me! Have a night evening everyone.

BB

p.s. meant to say - the co-op have Heinz chopped tomatoes on offer at the moment - a 4-pack for £1.85. I think that's cheaper than most other tinned toms I've seen lately, and they're quite nice and tomatoey!

gailey_2

northwest1965 wrote: »

I a new shopper at Farmfoods aswell, I love it. Its so reasonable.

I always find farmshops very expensive. Cant afford to shop at them I'm afraid.

OH came to Aldi with me in the week, I was amazed, he was walking around looking at the prices so we could compare. I'm normally a Morrisons shopper but when you start looking around they can be expensive on the basics.

Still more rain in the Stockport, we had the flash floods yesterday. I'm now starting to think about planting rice!!!

All I wanted was giant bags of spuds in big brown bag but supermarkets dont stock those.

You would think direct from farm should be cheaper, its alovley place, lovley stock but sadly we too poor to buy much from there.
The other one we go toos better as daughter likes to look at pigs and they have reduced cabinet and cafe. But its still pricey.

Weekly farmers market in city centre equally pricey.

The only way we can cut back more on grocery is to shop around and in several different places.

We normally do sainsburys as close by some of their own brands, offers and basics cheaper than lidls we do lidls at same time as opposite each other.

We like aldis but its further away so normally pick lidls for tinned stuff and fruit and veg/flour ect.

The co-op super pricey but has good reductions so might go thur and see.

Im ok buying meat from butcher but buy chicken at supermarket as buy freedom or free range just fussy with poultry so try to eat more fish.

Morrisions fishcounter seems good value slightly cheaper than sainsburyst quality of fruit and veg not so good.
Grocery and frozen deals good.

Tesco find quite pricey on normal things and either too huge or too small.
Local asda is hell.

hubbys got phonecall for another job interveiw next week:j

Looking after 24years old this afternoon wrecking the house has worn me out.
Looking foward to kids in bed and steak and chips for dinner.

northwest1965

BB1984 wrote: »

I'm also considering buying a pressure cooker. My nan's being saying I should get one for years, but to be honest I've always been a bit scared of them!! (silly I know) I saw one is Asda, Kenwood Chef I think, 4 litre(?) for £20, which I thought sounded reasonable. I have a slow cooker, but only a 2-3 portion one, so I thought a PC would be good for making big vats of stew or doing a whole chicken etc. What do you think?

I think I might head to Lidl this weekend and stock up on bread flour. Now that hubby's going to be home more, we'll get through more bread, and I'm not paying £1+ for a loaf, that's for sure!

p.s. meant to say - the co-op have Heinz chopped tomatoes on offer at the moment - a 4-pack for £1.85. I think that's cheaper than most other tinned toms I've seen lately, and they're quite nice and tomatoey!

I have a really large slow cooker but still need to get the hang of doubling up and freezing some meals.

Just out of interest, how much are you all paying for bread flour, shops own brand?

Morrisons tinned chopped toms, are 35p

Princess_kate

I picked up a 2nd bag of asda bread flour today as it was rolled back to 50p, got a tin of yeast, much cheaper than the sachets! Havent made bread since i was little but id give it a go if required!!

Lindy_-_Loo

checked bank balance earlier, it not good especially with chester zoo and going to see 'show me show me' at theatre next week.

had a bad day argueing with OH so I dont care (i will tomorow!).

Got lots of fruit and veg in aldi today - forgotten how good the super six deal is just shame we dont live closer, cost us £7 in bus tickets and spent £6 in there!

lambanana

RAS wrote: »

Hi it may be useless but a friend found that feeding hubby zinc had miraculous results after 7 years. No ther changes either was aware of.

She was using it as a cold remedy.

Just a point though, since I use it myself, do not take took much or all your mucus membranes dry up, including the rear end.

Thanks, I had heard this. We're going to go ahead with the treatment as planned but I've also got him some good zinc and selenium supplements as both are apparently meant to help...considering some sort of cooler pack for his lap when he's using the laptop but fear that's just cruel :rotfl: I've also heard organic produce is a good way to go as pesticides and the like can cause problems but eek ££££ am looking at a veg box though so we're at least partly eating organic and it's all healthy and local so has to be a positive.

Also thank you XSpender for your success story, we've got youth on our side which apparently does increase the chances of it being successful but it's still difficult when you hear how low the success rates are. It's always good to hear of people it has worked for, I just really hope it works for us

DH is out with work, I've got a wash on now and will put another one on before bed to be hung on the airer in the morning. The current weather makes me long for a tumble dryer but the environment and my electricity bill thanks me for not having one

grandma247

I got some bargains this week from our local asian supermarket,special prices because I spent £80 over the last month on baking stuff,sacks of rice and sacks flour (most of the flour gone into the chest freezer) . 4 trays of eggs for 99p each,25kg sack of medium chapattie flour (which is great for breadmaking) £5.00,10kg Potatoes99p,2x2kg marge for emergency fat supply99p each,6 x 2ltr milk £1.50 for 2 and a case of 15 t&l sugar for £7.79. I could have had a lot more bargains but decided to save the money for other things such as toiletries and toilet rolls,plus cocoa for baking.
I have stocked up for the year now on rice,flour,tin tomatoes and chickpeas. I tried the fine chapattie flour in some cheese scones and they were delicious also tried a victoria sponge and that turned out well. Just have to tweak the recipe a little as the cake was a little flatter than usual. I think I used a slightly larger tin.
I need to find a cheaper source of meat now because our mr t is closing in two weeks and it will not be cost effective to go to the next one as often as we visited this one,3 x a week normally for the whoopsies, due to fuel prices.