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

penelopedee_2

DH and I do have steak sometimes, when the rest of the family are out and I've normally gone without something else all week to pay for it. He loves it but I'm not keen so I just get enough for him and then cut the end off it for me. Its the mushrooms and pepper sauce that I like :rotfl:

parsonswife8

mardatha wrote: »

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1310942/Shoppers-facing-10-rise-food-bills-wheat-meat-costs-soar.html
****************
Next step, the workhouse. Just you watch. :mad:

I have been reading this article..what more do we have to endure? I am so glad that we have stockpiled groceries....my DH is now too although he was a bit dubious when I started doing it.

Now he appreciates it, so does his wallet.

sammy_kaye18

Wow the last time I had steak was.............. 1st September 2009 --- it was our 7th anniversary and we had gone out to dinner. We only ever go for meals on special occasions as we simply cant afford it. We didn't have a meal this year as we were skint.

***********************RANT ALERT***********************


God I hate my sister. She really can make you feel !!!! with only a few words. I mentioned using the leftovers from last nights meal to make another one today and was met with the response of 'why not just buy more today'. This is someone who has recently just had to move in with my mum again because she couldn't afford to look after herself and her daughters, youngest daughter now lives with her daddy, and my sister and niece share a bed at my mums. Plus my sister has just gotten a full time job and palms her daughter between friends and my mum so she can work till 7pm. So now shes saving to go and visit her army boyfriend in the states in December although she has just got back form a holiday to tenerife and is in £3K worth of debt at 23 .

Whereas my boyfriend works his bum off 6 days a week and takes Sunday to be with me and his children, he supports his son from his last relationship, Im on maternity but looking to go back full time after Xmas and we stretch food/money etc within an inch of its life and have never had a family holiday other than visiting family. We have £3K of debt between us. His will be paid off in March 2011 for good (it started at £15K) and mine is paid in small chunks monthly so once one is gone the other debts get more.

Feeling ever so !!!! about my situation now though. and my mother keeps saying well now your sister is paying me rent etc I'm in a position to help you out more because I know your struggling. :mad::mad::mad: shes the one who has maxed out three credit cards and struggles so my sister moving in is a god send more than anything as its putting extra pennies in her pocket.

I'M NOT STRUGGLING!!!! I MANAGE!!!! My debts are paid, my bills are paid, my little family is fed, clothed and warm. Im a happy bunny. :D:D:D plus I have better money management skills than the pair of them so I'm landed so once debts are done and bills are paid any money I eventually am left with is mine. Dont get me wrong it would be nice to be able to spur of the moment decide to take the kids out for the day without worrying that I'm going to be cutting into debt money etc but I have no credit cards, debts are being sorted and I'll be debt free long before them! Ok so I may have £5 in my purse to last me 5 days but I have a freezer full of food, and cupboards are stocked, babe has a full unopened box of baby milk and two big packs of nappies and ben has a stocked lunch box bits cupboard plus I have plenty of baking stuff. :T:T:T We'll be fine.

My sister if off out buying lots of pre-made junk for her youngest daughters birthday party tomorrow which she will no doubt bin the left overs from. :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

**************************RANT OVER*********************

Anyway, thoughy I'd share the meal I made last night recipe - which is very much making two meals

Its chicken thighs with root veg casserole.

Basically de bone some chicken thighs, and brown off.
Remove from pan
Chop an onion and gentle cook in pan.
Then layer up the following in the pot
(bearing in mind the onion is in the pan already)
some whole new potatos (or half them if they are fairly big ones)
2/3 medium sized chopped carrots
then add the chicken thighs on top again
then add enough chicken stock to cover

bring to the boil and leave to simmer for about 20 minutes, then add peas and sweetcorn if you wish)
simmer for 5 minutes and serve with crusty bread and butter.

Well I made this last night and have plenty of the stock and root veggies and peas left over so Im planning to attack it with my stick blender later and make some nice soup form it. I guess to the above meal you could add dumplings too if you fancied but all in all its relatively cheap to make being that a pack of 6 decent sized chicken thighs from Mr T costs about £3.50 and you can add any veg you have knocking about to it. Its nice and filling and warming though. x

PS Sorry about the rant at beginning

JulieGeorgiana

sammy_kaye18 wrote: »

Wow the last time I had steak was.............. 1st September 2009 --- it was our 7th anniversary and we had gone out to dinner. We only ever go for meals on special occasions as we simply cant afford it. We didn't have a meal this year as we were skint.

***********************RANT ALERT***********************


God I hate my sister. She really can make you feel !!!! with only a few words. I mentioned using the leftovers from last nights meal to make another one today and was met with the response of 'why not just buy more today'. This is someone who has recently just had to move in with my mum again because she couldn't afford to look after herself and her daughters, youngest daughter now lives with her daddy, and my sister and niece share a bed at my mums. Plus my sister has just gotten a full time job and palms her daughter between friends and my mum so she can work till 7pm. So now shes saving to go and visit her army boyfriend in the states in December although she has just got back form a holiday to tenerife and is in £3K worth of debt at 23 .

Whereas my boyfriend works his bum off 6 days a week and takes Sunday to be with me and his children, he supports his son from his last relationship, Im on maternity but looking to go back full time after Xmas and we stretch food/money etc within an inch of its life and have never had a family holiday other than visiting family. We have £3K of debt between us. His will be paid off in March 2011 for good (it started at £15K) and mine is paid in small chunks monthly so once one is gone the other debts get more.

Feeling ever so !!!! about my situation now though. and my mother keeps saying well now your sister is paying me rent etc I'm in a position to help you out more because I know your struggling. :mad::mad::mad: shes the one who has maxed out three credit cards and struggles so my sister moving in is a god send more than anything as its putting extra pennies in her pocket.

I'M NOT STRUGGLING!!!! I MANAGE!!!! My debts are paid, my bills are paid, my little family is fed, clothed and warm. Im a happy bunny. :D:D:D plus I have better money management skills than the pair of them so I'm landed so once debts are done and bills are paid any money I eventually am left with is mine. Dont get me wrong it would be nice to be able to spur of the moment decide to take the kids out for the day without worrying that I'm going to be cutting into debt money etc but I have no credit cards, debts are being sorted and I'll be debt free long before them! Ok so I may have £5 in my purse to last me 5 days but I have a freezer full of food, and cupboards are stocked, babe has a full unopened box of baby milk and two big packs of nappies and ben has a stocked lunch box bits cupboard plus I have plenty of baking stuff. :T:T:T We'll be fine.

My sister if off out buying lots of pre-made junk for her youngest daughters birthday party tomorrow which she will no doubt bin the left overs from. :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

**************************RANT OVER*********************

PS Sorry about the rant at beginning

I am so glad I am not the only one who rants about things like this!!!!

I think you hit the nail on the head... and have the right to rant!

My mum got herself into trouble... but spends every spare penny she has on my sisters children... and wonders why she can't get out of debt!!!

We are now debt free and I lost my job, but we are fine, healthy, happy and that's what counts :j

sammy_kaye18

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

My mum got herself into trouble... but spends every spare penny she has on my sisters children... and wonders why she can't get out of debt!!!

We are now debt free and I lost my job, but we are fine, healthy, happy and that's what counts :j

Yeah my mum gets phone calls from my sister of 'can you just pick me up X Y Z please' and she is never given the money back.

I begrudge having to ask anyone for money. I hate it. A few years back my OH woke up and had gone blind over night (he had a scratched lens in his eye from about 16 years old and it chose then to go bad. He had to leave his job as a mechanic and was put on a waiting list for surgery. I went out and found a 16 hour a week job. Then was told at the beginning of December that boyfriend couldn't claim incapacity as he was still capable of working, couldn't claim disability as he still had vision in his good eye, tax credits had overpaid us so we had nothing until April. That was the worst Christmas ever and was so hard physically and emotionally. Our Christmas dinner was 'given' to us by his mum, Ben had hardly any presents, boyfriend was suffering depression and I was exhausted from being wonder woman. My dad visited a few days before Christmas and had just bailed out my sister for £200 overdraft that she had and asked if I was ok and needed any money. It took everything I had to ask him to borrow £10 to put into my gas meter and I hated it. Then he said he'd come see me the next day before going home and when I got home I realised I had no bread, no milk no sugar so I wouldn't even be able to give him a cup of coffee before he left so I had to ask to borrow another £10. That was really hard for me to do and I paid him back within a week much to his annoyance but I cant stand owing money or having to ask for it whereas my sister will openly ask for handouts.

God I have a strop on now. :mad::mad::mad::mad:

Hardup_Hester

Oh to have looked flash at a wedding, when my DD married 2 years ago I wore the same outfit I'd worn to my other DD's wedding 6 years before that, my ex's new wife had on a £700 outfit, I felt & looked like the poor relation, on the up side & was & looked happy with my hubby, the ex & his new missus looked bloody miserable, lol.
My ex also spends a fortune on the DGK's, best I can do is buy them blueberries (their favourite) when they visit.
Hey ho, as my dad used to say, money doesn't make you happy, but at least you can be miserable in comfort & I wouldn't change a thing about my life.
Hester

sammy_kaye18

I just found this quote online

The easiest way for your children to learn about money is for you not to have any - Katherine Whitehorn

I think that's fairly true. Ben sees how hard me and his father work and I know hes going to be money concious as he gets older. He already has his savings doing well and treated himself to new games the other day from his savings account. Have told him if he saves the money he can buy what he likes with it. Granted it might take him a while to get a new xbox game or something but i want him to learn the importance of saving etc.

His brother (boyfriends from last relationship) gets £10 pocket money a week and a new toy every time he visits his other grandparents as well as collectable sticker things with every food shop his mother makes.

Ben gets £5 a month pocket money and only since he was 5 but he has chores already - Im not a slave driver honest!. His jobs are to get the dogs bowl each morning and put it on the kitchen side ready for his food to be done and then give the bowl back to him (we have a JRT and Ben is supervised doing this) . Make sure his room is tidy and his toys are put away each night before bed. Plus if he brings home a certificate from school he might get an extra few pennies for doing well. His £5 does him well though he likes a wrestling magazine which he buys from that which is £3.99 once a month and the other £1 he might buy some 3 for £1 sweets from my work ( a la coop) or if I have a few pennies saved over I'll buy his magazine for him as a special treat but even then he might buy a few sweeties then asks for it to be put in his savings account.

He is already financially more secure than me and his father - he has almost £700 in his trust fund! which reminds me I had hollys starter cheque the other day so should get down and open that asap!

EstherH

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

I agree... My husband and I married in Scotland in June, and including our honeymoon and spending we paid £3k all in!!

That includes hotels for family, a lovely sit down meal in a 4 star hotel, a lovely cottage on the coast...!

We are happy, and when we married we had no expectations of anything changing, so we are still happy!

Ps. We were engaged for 2 1/2 years... we saved and paid for the wedding in full... at the same time as paying off all our debts!

6 weeks after the wedding we became debt free :T

Well done and congratulations. The extra stress of all the debts on those couple who 'must have' the 'perfect day' and spend £18,000 or so on it, can't do their relationship any good in the long term. I am sure you will be much happier and will have lovely memories to look back on, plus a sense of satisfaction.

charlies-aunt

penelopedee wrote: »

We are both just around our forties. When we got together we had nothing
.

We are in our fifties and when we got together (1981) we had nothing...and we still have most of it left!! :rotfl:

We managed to scrimp & scrap a deposit together and moved in as newly weds with a 2nd hand coffee table, a couple of 2nd hand 'interestingly patterned' (vile) curtains & a 2nd hand three piece vinyl suite - got a bed as a wedding present . . . . nothing else - gradually acquired 2nd hand fridge, TV, washer, carpets, chaits & table and replaced some of the 2nd hand stuff.

Hard up but happy - much happier than when our careers took off and we were earning & spending big money but never saw each other . . .the wheel has come full circle and we are hard up but happy again. . . . . I am grateful for what we have especially for the things that money can't buy.

Two 'thank-you-for-your-application-but' rejection letters in the post this morning ehh! they don't know what they're missing! :rotfl:

Lindy_-_Loo

sammy_kaye18 wrote: »

I just found this quote online

The easiest way for your children to learn about money is for you not to have any - Katherine Whitehorn

I think that's fairly true. Ben sees how hard me and his father work and I know hes going to be money concious as he gets older. He already has his savings doing well and treated himself to new games the other day from his savings account. Have told him if he saves the money he can buy what he likes with it. Granted it might take him a while to get a new xbox game or something but i want him to learn the importance of saving etc.

His brother (boyfriends from last relationship) gets £10 pocket money a week and a new toy every time he visits his other grandparents as well as collectable sticker things with every food shop his mother makes.

Ben gets £5 a month pocket money and only since he was 5 but he has chores already - Im not a slave driver honest!. His jobs are to get the dogs bowl each morning and put it on the kitchen side ready for his food to be done and then give the bowl back to him (we have a JRT and Ben is supervised doing this) . Make sure his room is tidy and his toys are put away each night before bed. Plus if he brings home a certificate from school he might get an extra few pennies for doing well. His £5 does him well though he likes a wrestling magazine which he buys from that which is £3.99 once a month and the other £1 he might buy some 3 for £1 sweets from my work ( a la coop) or if I have a few pennies saved over I'll buy his magazine for him as a special treat but even then he might buy a few sweeties then asks for it to be put in his savings account.

He is already financially more secure than me and his father - he has almost £700 in his trust fund! which reminds me I had hollys starter cheque the other day so should get down and open that asap!

I agree Sammy, our boys understand that daddy goes to work to earn pennies to pay for food and treats. There 5 and 3 and thay dont get pocket money, never really thought about it.

They get £1 each a week of mum or a scratcard! (shes done it since Jan when dad died). They save for DS or Wii games, DS1 has recently traded one of his games and used his money box money to get another one. They love car boot sales and have no problem with stuff not being new!

have listed some items on ebay - toys and DVds the boys dont use. They are hoping that if they sell they can have some new army stuff (tanks+soldiers). The deal is they get one thing each of ebay and then any left money will be used for xmas this time although they have had extra spends on holiday using ebay.

Their trust funds are doing good and they have a bank account which they used money to buy their bikes last year. Hopefully next year we will be able to pay £5 into each trust fund a month as we had to stop about 12 months ago.