Its tough, it will get better and guess what its freezing brrrrr!

jackieglasgow

Bayleighs_Nanna wrote: »

Hi,
I have just joined, i have large amount of debt which tonight i will sit down and work out my budget.My husband had a nervous breakdown recently, so i will be doing this alone as he would not cope.I have been reading alot on here since yesterday, and have got alot of good ideas. A few days ago i was feeling down. But after being on here and reading i feel a little more positive.
I Thank you all for the suggestions that i have read so far.Now i dont feel so alone.

No you won't you'll find lots of help and support here. Well done for facing up to and coping with what must be an awful situation.

Hippeechiq

lovelife wrote: »

Feeling very down at the mo............not so much 'LoveLife' more like hanging on in there........

Suddenly...........no energy, motivation,enthusiasm, i feel like a lead weight, tired, tearful, full of self doubt and a bit of a failure really......

I can't bear the cold........ was going to write more but need to give myself a kick up the backside and get up, dressed and on with it........ sorry for being a miserable cow.........

Aw hun - We all have days like that, especially me (you may have noticed )

The reduction of daylight hours, the drab, grey, November days don't help, and - for a lot of us - the added financial hassle of Christmas and all that that involves, and the pressure to be "happy, happy happy" because that's how everyone is supposed to feel at Christmas........in Never never land, maybe.

Sometimes, you just have to go with the flow of how you feel instead of fighting it, but have no fear....you will come through it in a few days. You just need to cut yourself some slack :grouphug:

How did your friend get on? Has he had his test results back yet?

LannyLee

Bayleighs Nanna, if it makes you feel any better 3 years ago I owed almost £35K & now I'm on to my last £1000 to pay off by January, so it can be done!

Hippeechiq

:wave: Welcome Bayleighs Nanna

Sorry you're having such a rough time of it hun :grouphug:, but you've come to the right place for advice and support

Well done you! LannyLee :T

BB1984

GARRRRRRRRR!!

I just made some flapjacks for the Children in Need cake sale at work, and they're rubbish! Far too crumbly - they literally fall apart when you try to pick them up
I did make a couple of banana loaves as well, so they'll have to do - the "flapjacks" will have to be crumbled on top of icecream or something! I'm annoyed because I tried a new recipe rather than my tried and tested Mrs Beeton one - serves me right.

Not a very MS evening coming up - going round to a friend's house for an indian takeaway. They've just recently had a baby so can't really go out, and I wouldn't let her cook for us. Next time I'll suggest that I take a lasagne or something round (mind you, I do like a curry!)

I'm a bit worried about my kitten, she's had diarrhoea for a couple of days and has been sick too. Thing is, she seems absolutely fine apart from that - bouncing around all over the place like her usual nutty self.

DH set up a new savings account for us this morning with the Post Office. We found out that our ING savings account was only earning 0.5%! So that's being closed sharpish. We don't have much money in the savings, but I'll take whatever interest I can possibly get, thank you very much! We also switched energy suppliers as we'd been on the same one (Southern) for ages and it seems we can save money (hopefully). We did that a few weeks ago so I hope it happens soon - also we should be getting some free wine, would be good to get that before xmas!

My little sister (22) has just finished uni and is looking for a job. She got a First in an engineering undergrad degree, followed by a Masters in engineering management, and hasn't yet been snapped up.....just goes to show how hard the job market is (and how uni certainly isn't a golden ticket, even if you do a "proper" subject, LOL!) However, she did have a phone interview this morning for what sounds like an amazing graduate training scheme - the pay is more than what I earn! I so hope she gets it, she's worked so hard and really deserves it. I did a mock interview with her on the phone last night, was quite funny but she said it helped.

Hello Bayleighs Nanna, great advice here, some very sensible ladies (and gents). You'll be alright.

Sorry about hubby's job Gailey, a real shame. I'm sure something will come up though, hang in there.

BB

Kitcaboodle

Good luck and best wishes to all who need it.

---

I'm going to be having a fairly un-frugal weekend as my oldest friend is coming down for a visit. This means we'll be splurging on wine and treating them (and ourselves) to the local (excellent) Chinese take-away. It's expensive but it's a rare occasion as she lives miles away, plus they are paying petrol to come and visit us (and doing us a favour by bringing some of my stuff down) so it's the least we can do! I normally don't spend money apart from on necessities so it's nice to share a treat (that we've budgeted for) with people close to us.

I had a successful week food-wise. As well as my regular qunioa with garlic olive oil, salt & pepper - I made vegi fahitas which have lasted me pretty much every night for dinner! I got a bag of wraps on offer, some frozen quorn chunks (also bought when they were on offer) and a medium sachet of fahita spices (again, on offer!) Added a load of cheap cooking onions and frozen peppers & the results were yummy! I think I could have got away with using half the sachet of spices as it went a long way and was quite high in salt. Will definitely make that again.

Currently resisting the urge to make chocolate viennese biscuits (as they don't need eggs so I can make them even though we don't have any) but I have a bag of pears I bought (on offer...) which I need to get inventive with. So, if DH is back early enough I might throw together some pastry and make a tart with them. Or alternatively I might just sleep as I only had 5 hours last night!

NualaBuala

I am so tired this evening - fell asleep on the bus home from town and am fighting off sleep right now! I was very pleased cos I got 2 good brand bras half price - only a couple of euro dearer than what I paid for a rubbish one (wasn't really bad, just that I need a LOT of support) a while back. Then I went to Marks - was queuing to pay for lovely thermal socks when a poor woman at the till started crying. The staff were kind to her and brought her away to sit down and have a glass of water. My heart went out to her - who knows what she was sad about but I'll bet there are many more like her.

Am sending hugs to all of you feeling low. Do something nice just for yourselves, however small it is. One thing I know from experience is the bad times don't last forever.

Kitcaboodle, your recipes sound gorgeous! I have quinoa but never know what to do with it - could I have the recipe please? And I have quorn in the freezer, I've been putting off using it because I've never eaten it before and it sounds a bit yuk but I will definitely try the fajitas with it I don't have proper fajita spice, I wonder could I improvise? I'm fed up with eating the same old things all the time so am glad of the ideas.

grandma247

NB
Here
are lots of links
you did well with your shopping. Not got time to reply much but I do read.

Kitcaboodle

NualaBuala wrote: »

Kitcaboodle, your recipes sound gorgeous! I have quinoa but never know what to do with it - could I have the recipe please? And I have quorn in the freezer, I've been putting off using it because I've never eaten it before and it sounds a bit yuk but I will definitely try the fajitas with it I don't have proper fajita spice, I wonder could I improvise? I'm fed up with eating the same old things all the time so am glad of the ideas.

When I make quinoa I rinse it in a sieve before draining it and putting it in a dry pan over a heat suitable for a simmer. I stir it round until the grains dry out from the rinsing, separate and start to pop, this can take a few minutes.

After that I add twice as much water as quinoa, also a sprinkling of salt (this step seems to be crucial, I forgot it once and the resulting quinoa tasted awful, doesn't take much salt but it makes a huge difference, as, I believe does the dry toasting in the pan before hand). I then cover and leave to simmer for ten mins before taking the lid off and letting any excess water evaporate while stirring and tasting a grain now and again to check it's still al-dente.

You can store the results in the fridge and do all sorts to them depending on taste.

I add a generous glug of garlic olive oil, more salt & some black pepper. Green veg goes very well with that too.

Another quinoa recipe that I haven't tried but plan to is this: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spiced-Quinoa/Detail.aspx it looks yummy!

Not sure about improvised fahitas as they use lots of different spices, including lime, which most people don't have knocking around the place!

catznine

(((hugs))) to all those feeling down! I have had depression in the past and make sure I get out into the daylight every day (walking little dog) to try to allieviate it. On a bad day (cfs/me) I can't always manage and notice the difference very quickly.

Can I ask a quick question of the young mums and mums to be here? Money is tight here with a wedding next June, mortgage to be paid down and a grandchild on the way,:j Would some hand knitting for the baby be appreciated do you think? My ddil buys everything new (she has earned a high wage up to now) might have to change if she has to give up work though! Just not sure how it would go down, I can't do fancy work so it would be very simple in style but would love to feel I am contributing. We are saving up so that we can contribute enough for the cot/crib as well. All very different from when I had my two and had no choice but to buy second hand clothes, got terry nappies from a friend and her old pram and cot, but they survived all the same. Just don't want to offend much loved dil.