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

bluebag

ceridwen wrote: »

That makes US the responsible ones then doesnt it?:D

Yes indeed it does and for that I am thankful, there will be a lot of financial hangovers in the new year due to irresponsibility.

Personally I like to have a clear conscience, I can sleep at night and don't fear the doorbell, the phone or the postman.

This site has been a massive boon, with hints and tips as well as moral support.

Sometimes you can feel a bit of a freak when you think it's outrageous to pay £15 for a flippin candle!!

flowertotmum

Ceridwen..thats soo true..at least what i do have is mine...and no-one can take it away from me...my poor brothers are almost drowning in debt..trying to out do each other well that should be the SIL'S trying desperately to out do each other..its quite funny to watch but ultimately very sad coz my brothers are going to have to deal with it...
Well i went and did some xmas shopping yesterday and wow what a trip it was...every shop i went in when i got to the tills it was less than i thought..and what a shock in mutalan..i got fern a dress for her xmas party and a dotty wotwot reduced to £8.99 so it should have been £18.99 altogether..the total came to £14.49..i was confused but he said it had been reduced fair enough..then i gave him £15 and should have got 51p change..the till went completely haywire and started spitting out the reciept...he had to scan them again and this time i gave him the money and he gave me £12.51 change.. i tried to tell him it was wrong but he said thats what it says on the till...still shocked i went to customer services and said it was wrong but the girl said if thats what the till says then it must be right...so i got an outfit for £1 and a toy for £1.49...i have got my reciept just in case...my daughters thought i was mental and kept saying come on mum..but i felt guilty..when i knew it was wrong...i have put the money in a seperate bit in my purse..hubby thought it was funny..am i wrong to feel bad?..i don't want him to get into trouble..but i did try twice to correct it...
Well we have had no post since wednesday as they won't deliver to our road because its dangerous..really come on..i got up and down it with my pushchair twice..how hard can it be to walk slowly...
Big hugs to all of you that need them and love to everyone...
ftm
xxxxx

bluebag

charlies-aunt wrote: »

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Serious subject but your way with words made me smile!

I think that many of us are blessed (or cursed) with a deeply ingrained sense of decency, honesty and fairness. We pay our bills religiously and view debts as shameful.

Plenty of people, who are deeply in debt, have gone mad this Christmas buying electronic games/toys to "save" on the VAT :huh:

Yet the same people seem not only to manage ...but to prosper...

Intriguingly these same people will be booking a fortnight away in the sun next year and will be passing us in our old jalopy with a wave and a smile as they motor in their new car to have their regular Sunday lunch at their golf club...nicely dressed and shod . . . .

Does anyone know their secret?? If yes, please tell as I would love to know what I'm doing wrong!

During the last recession, I almost lost my home,

The bailiffs were persecuting me, I was geting bin bags full of red bills, the phone rang all day and half the night, they were ringing me and OH at work.

Cheques for food were bouncing and I was taking stuff to the pawn shop. I had so little food in the house, was walking 3 miles to work and 3 miles back. It was a nightmare!!! utterly.

I will eat straw and shiver before I go back there.

A freind of mine lost her home and the family ended up in a dingy bed and breakfast with one bed for them all, a bare lightbulb and no curtains.

The day of reckoning can be very, very harsh.

bluebag

Anyone heard from sammy-kaye and gailey?

Bit worried about gailey as she sounded really fed up the other day, hope they are OK.

Primrose

I just feel very sad when I hear of people who can't afford it, spending on Christmas as if there were no tomorrow because after the recent credit crunch crisis I find it hard to believe that people have still not learnt the lesson that nobody can thrive if they spend more than they earn. When you read all the desperate stories on the Debt Free thread and the heartache caused by people struggling to pay off debts when they don't have enough money for housing, food and heating, I wonder why anybody would think that the latest 'must have' gadgets are so important, even if it means their children being disappointed.

As bluebag has said, the day of reckoning can be very harsh.

starsandmoon

ceridwen wrote: »

Oh yes you can...win that is.....that boyfriend is a "keeper" obviously...I wouldnt let one like that go if I were you:D

He's an angel.:A Took me to get some shopping for next week (and the pub for a medicinal half) and is currently roasting a chicken and fixing a duff light! We have the same attitude to money/debt and both love charity shops and whoopsie bargains. Have a happy arrangement where we live in our own homes all week then meet up and stay in each others over the weekend.

Rosanna79

Charlies-aunt
Don't you find that the type of people you describe seem to have pounds that seem to stretch three times further than the rest of us?? My oldest friend always says that. Obviously they are up to their eyeballs in debt..

A cousin of mine and her husband always seem to be going on really expensive holidays like six grand for a -3 week cruise in the Carribean. The kind of jobs they've had simply don't logically cover that kind of expense and a completely new wardrobe has to be bought each time! It's not really anyone's else's business but we can't help being curious as to how they find it so affordable..?! surely must be a credit card somewhere. Occasionally makes us feel like stick in the muds but we've never had expensive holidays, preferring instead to be sure of paying our London mortgage which ultimately helped us tohave the debt free life we now enjoy up here in North Lincs.

Strappped up with all my walking gear , poles and rucksack I've been making 'shop foraging' trips each day. This has been do-able up our high street at the end of our road. I've been getting much needed exercise and with the desire to conserve food supplies as much as possible I've found myself refraining from nibbling or eating anymore than I've needed. Interestingly my home scales show a further loss of 1.2 kg this morning which I hope will be replicated on the dietitian's scales on the 16th of this month.

After several successful walks of around a mile I decided to set off for Mr M yesterday. This was a 1.5 miles each way but I felt the need of a change of scene- silly moo!!!

It was tough going but I kept cheerful and saw cars taking nearly half an hour to get into the car park. A I can't carry a basket AND two poles I had to take the only trolley free which was a great big one just for the few bits of fresh stuff and some cheese supplies for my night owl OH ... Couldn't credit the animal behaviour of people who were pushing, shoving and fighting over bread and milk!!

I'd forgotten to bring my water bottle with me as I thought I'd get a coffee at the cafe there.. No such luck... it was getting on and I wanted to be back before dark.. Queues from the front to the back of the store even for the automatic checkouts!!!

So I headed home with my few bits and being thirsty I remembered what one poster had said about eating clean, white snow I grabbed a handful which certainly sorted that problem out!!

The walk back after seeing the worst behaviour believable was rather difficult.. I found myself keeping my spirits up with a few songs.. ! Reminded me of when I used to go hitchhiking around rural Ireland with my friend in the 1960s. Her mother always used to know we were coming back from a trip by the sound of our singing up the lane as we walked! I've rarely been so glad to see the end of my road as I was yesterday afternoon.

Was so exhausted I fell asleep yesterday evening but nothing daunted was up and out to the local 9:30 service today. Only 4 of us turned up but at least I got to light an Advent candle and nip in to see t'vicars wife who's in the same horrendous arthritic pain as I was this time last year. Seemed a good use of time to cheer up a lass who's more or less stuck at home at present.

Further 'forage shop' on way home at Aldi with idea of maintaining supplies in the current climate- extra sugar for OH, bread and milk - only skimmed left but at least it'll do for tea at a pinch. and there was no fighting going on.

Girl on the checkout was telling me that the local Iceland shop was the scene earlier in the week for one of their sales women getting crushed by aggressive grabbing shoppers as she tried to put out loaves of bread. They wouldn't wait and ran at her grabbing all the while. Honestly this reminds me of someone trying to feed livestock on a farm?? perhaps that's an insult to animals?

Has anyone else experienced this very unpleasant sort of behaviour?

I blame the media who always seem to create this hysterical panic buying selfish conduct. It's always over reported it seems and so totally unnecessary. We should be creating the kind of community spirit in our local communities that we find online here.

lauren_1

I am cream crackering it over my heating DD, its on for about 6-8 hours a day but we are only heating the upstairs, we spend so little time downstairs its not really worth it. All the insulation in the world hasn't helped so its rather pointless

I had a letter from my power supplier (E.on) to say that they will be raising my DD by £30....i logged on to change the date as i wouldn't have any money that day, so its coming out 10 days later but has reset itself to £35 less than they told me they would be taking, i will change it after christmas.

I have £12.40 worth of milk and veg tokens to be used by the 19th december, might use half to stock up the freezer with 1pt cartons of milk.

I set the breakfast table up hotel style for the kids at 2am when i have my midnight snack, saves on arguments about what they want to eat, i dont get woken up at stupid o'clock and leaving a 1pt carton out each is far safer than a 2 or 4pinter as ds will drink it empty....another favourite of theirs is to put some milkshake powder in the carton and then shake it (my lounge is pretty damn cold so no risk of it going off in the 4 hours its there for)

ceridwen

Chances are that many of us OS'ers make our own bread anyway - and have sufficient flour in to keep us going for a few weeks - so no worrying about bread stocks in the shops.:D

Re supplies of milk - I expect a lot of OS'ers have in a supply anyway of summat like UHT milk or dried milk.

Personally - if t'worst came to it - then I'd get out my recipes for rice milk and nut milk and have a go at trying them out..

Primrose

Rosanna79 wrote: »

Charlies-aunt
Don't you find that the type of people you describe seem to have pounds that seem to stretch three times further than the rest of us?? My oldest friend always says that. Obviously they are up to their eyeballs in debt..

A cousin of mine and her husband always seem to be going on really expensive holidays like six grand for a -3 week cruise in the Carribean. The kind of jobs they've had simply don't logically cover that kind of expense and a completely new wardrobe has to be bought each time! It's not really anyone's else's business but we can't help being curious as to how they find it so affordable..?! surely must be a credit card somewhere. Occasionally makes us feel like stick in the muds but we've never had expensive holidays, preferring instead to be sure of paying our London mortgage which ultimately helped us tohave the debt free life we now enjoy up here in North Lincs.

Strappped up with all my walking gear , poles and rucksack I've been making 'shop foraging' trips each day. This has been do-able up our high street at the end of our road. I've been getting much needed exercise and with the desire to conserve food supplies as much as possible I've found myself refraining from nibbling or eating anymore than I've needed. Interestingly my home scales show a further loss of 1.2 kg this morning which I hope will be replicated on the dietitian's scales on the 16th of this month.

After several successful walks of around a mile I decided to set off for Mr M yesterday. This was a 1.5 miles each way but I felt the need of a change of scene- silly moo!!!

It was tough going but I kept cheerful and saw cars taking nearly half an hour to get into the car park. A I can't carry a basket AND two poles I had to take the only trolley free which was a great big one just for the few bits of fresh stuff and some cheese supplies for my night owl OH ... Couldn't credit the animal behaviour of people who were pushing, shoving and fighting over bread and milk!!

I'd forgotten to bring my water bottle with me as I thought I'd get a coffee at the cafe there.. No such luck... it was getting on and I wanted to be back before dark.. Queues from the front to the back of the store even for the automatic checkouts!!!

So I headed home with my few bits and being thirsty I remembered what one poster had said about eating clean, white snow I grabbed a handful which certainly sorted that problem out!!

The walk back after seeing the worst behaviour believable was rather difficult.. I found myself keeping my spirits up with a few songs.. ! Reminded me of when I used to go hitchhiking around rural Ireland with my friend in the 1960s. Her mother always used to know we were coming back from a trip by the sound of our singing up the lane as we walked! I've rarely been so glad to see the end of my road as I was yesterday afternoon.

Was so exhausted I fell asleep yesterday evening but nothing daunted was up and out to the local 9:30 service today. Only 4 of us turned up but at least I got to light an Advent candle and nip in to see t'vicars wife who's in the same horrendous arthritic pain as I was this time last year. Seemed a good use of time to cheer up a lass who's more or less stuck at home at present.

Further 'forage shop' on way home at Aldi with idea of maintaining supplies in the current climate- extra sugar for OH, bread and milk - only skimmed left but at least it'll do for tea at a pinch. and there was no fighting going on.

Girl on the checkout was telling me that the local Iceland shop was the scene earlier in the week for one of their sales women getting crushed by aggressive grabbing shoppers as she tried to put out loaves of bread. They wouldn't wait and ran at her grabbing all the while. Honestly this reminds me of someone trying to feed livestock on a farm?? perhaps that's an insult to animals?

.

Makes you wonder how some people would cope if ever rationing was introduced again, on the severe proportions it was during the last War. We've had such a long period of having all the foods we want available on demand that people seem to think the end of the world has come if there's no milk for their or they have to eat porridge for breakfast because there's no bread.

Perhaps it might be interesting in the New Year to set up a new challenge i.e. Every week we name one food item that we all have to manage without for 7 days , i.e. milk or bread or butter, cheese, egg, etc. I suspect that even for OS'ers, doing without some of these items might be a little difficult. ( I can just see my OH's face if I told him he had to spend 7 days with no milk in his tea or forego his usual cooked breakfast :rotfl::eek::eek:)