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

lambanana

Ohh charlie's aunt I really hope your DD gets good results, that's such a fantastic achievement

Primrose

Perhaps somewhat irrelevant to this thread, but for anybody cooking more at home now and giving up the Indian takeaways, did you know that you can easily cook poppadoms in the microwave instead of having to deep fry them? So much lower in calories too, and they can be used to subsitute for crisps (which have VAt on them) and used with home made dips. Just microwave them singly on full power for around 1 minute (varies according to your microwave power).

kezlou

elona - i'm trying to build up my winter stock now, so next week going to buy some more flour, tinned food ready for it. Still need more blankets, hot water bottles etc so going to car boot sale at the weekend to see what else i can get.

School dinners are just under £20 a week here for both of my kids. But i'm seriously contemplating paying for them this year as it was awful providing them with hot dinners in the middle of winter and after. Its just the expense of them all.
In our school the children have to decided at the beginning of term so we can't change our minds half way through. So its either home, pack lunch or school dinner.

sammy both of mine were tiny with ds2 even the prem baby nappies were too big for him, he was only 4lb 2 and half ounces. I found boots prem baby nappies to be the best and the cheapest. you can find them on the bottom shelf.

kidcat sunburn how? the sun isn't anywhere to be seen! sounds like you all had fun though, how is your little one now?

jamanda i'm glad you gave and she accepted the bag. I'm sure she really appreciated it.

hi stars and moons and joannesaphine welcome to the thread!
crickett glad to hear you dad is doing well, brill news.
charlies aunt hope all goes well for your DD, don't think your bragging, its great when something you know achieves something great! good luck!
Good luck to those awaiting there results, fingers crossed!
fingers crossed for gailey's OH!
taplady hope all goes well at the dentists.

Went out for the day yesterday with friends and their children, all of us had a fab day, but i was so tired. Started out out cheap but in the end it cost a firtune. I managed to lose my railcard and all the trian tickets,£20 and the year pass to the musums So had to re-buy them all. Stupid leg causing me to fall over grr. But we all had a lovely, all the kids were chuffed to bits looking at the prisons, climbing on the interactive. It was really good. Came back to reduced pizzas and omeelte. Oh and i've a stone and a half ayayaya! So i was so chffed i ate half a pizza to myself lol . Great way to keep the weight off eh? lol

Going to go and start on with the pasta for tonights dinner.

taplady

Kezlou - thanks re the dentist. It went extremely well, didn't hurt and he didn't charge so a good result for me:T:j

JOANNESAPHINE

Thank you for all the welcomes folks. Did something positive today in light of there not being much chance of getting an even small part-time job and I've applied for an application and information pack to volunteer for Surestart. Could really do with a paid job but in the meantime would like to volunteer and feel useful plus I feel I have something to offer. To those looking at paying for school dinners as a previous teaching assistant and relief dinner lady I would say where I worked the £2 just wasn't worth it. They had meals brought in from outside but the quality and quantity was poor which a lot of other staff agreed with and I saw a lot of children throwing a lot of food away which was gutting. I wouldn't have paid for that but obviously some schools do lovely meals on the premises but I would do research first particularly if you have to commit yourself for a long period. You could do a much better packed lunch much cheaper. Pleased dentists was ok Taplady I hate the dentists,he's lovely but I'm such a coward!

365days

Have to agree with Joannesaphine. Worked in schools for years and school dinners aren't great!!

adouglasmhor

Primrose wrote: »

Perhaps somewhat irrelevant to this thread, but for anybody cooking more at home now and giving up the Indian takeaways, did you know that you can easily cook poppadoms in the microwave instead of having to deep fry them? So much lower in calories too, and they can be used to subsitute for crisps (which have VAt on them) and used with home made dips. Just microwave them singly on full power for around 1 minute (varies according to your microwave power).

Crisps have VAT yet strangely tortilla chips do not (as they are classed as bread). Never try to find sense in the VAT system (Cakes are a staple food so no VAT, biscuits are a luxury so VAT is paid on them ).

mardatha

We decided a few weeks ago that Marie Antoinette obviously runs the VAT dept. I like that woman. I also like cake :rotfl:

lilac_lady

Haven't caught up with all the posts yet but glad to see so many of you are still here and soldiering on regardless.

Remember to stock bottled water and matches when you're stockpiling for the winter ahead of us.

Hardup_Hester

Thanks for that Primrose