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

csarina · 8 October 2010 at 7:18PM

OOOOOHHHHH I found you again.

Now the visitors have gone I have to knuckle down and get to grips with the debt we ran up to move back to Scotland. According to Martins Snowball calculator its going to take me 3 years!! OMG........I badly need to do a freezer audit and also check the store cupboard, we have a bigger likelyhood of getting cut off where we live.

We are well stocked up with wood, I had to put the stove on today, its been a real dreich day here.

Regarding Christmas, we give all the grandchildren money till they are 18, then they can give us money, not that they do. Our chidlren give us vouchers for either Tesco or M & S. which helps with the food budget. I might smuggle the odd bottle of wine in, although I tend to get it from Aldi these days. They have gammon steaks on offer just now 2 either smoked or unsmoked for £1.49. I cut them in half, half each is enough for us so with grilled tomato, mushrooms and either chips or a jacket potato it makes a decent supper.

zarazara · 8 October 2010 at 7:21PM

i bought afleece blanket today

Kitcaboodle · 8 October 2010 at 7:33PM

Thank you for the new thread! I too felt lost without it!

Just did the most traumatic cooking/baking of my life. Trying to use up some apples I decided to have a go at apple dumplings. Trouble was, DS wasn't napping (fingers crossed he is now, eventually!) and I had to do all the finicky prep of coring & peeling the apples while he gradually worked his way up from fussing to screaming in his chair, even when I rocked him and spoke to him. I was at my wits end by the time I got all the apples peeled.

I had checked he wasn't wet & knew he wasn't hungry as he'd just been fed. However, I missed the fact that he'd managed to do a stealth poo that was obviously bothering him. Poor little thing!

Anyway, didn't have enough pastry and knew I couldn't make more with DS fussing like he was, so I just stuck the four I managed to do in the oven & now he's asleep I'm trying to make apple puree with the left-over apple. The dumplings have split and created a cinnamon, apple, butter & sugar syrup in the bottom of the dish which should hopefully be fairly yummy!

In fact, better go supervise the finishing stages of the apple stuff!

P.S. For Christmas when I'm broke I agree with friends not to buy each other gifts & for the people I need to give gifts to I bake stuff & look in places like TK Max, The Works & Poundland for bits & bobs.

ginnyknit · 8 October 2010 at 7:35PM

Mardatha, all you need are 4 planks and four stakes to bang into the soil, nail the planks to the stakes in a square or rectangle and bobs your auntie. Fill up with hm compost if available or bags of topsoil or compost, you can build them 2 boards high or more and fill up a bit more each year - does that make sense? I noticed on all the gardening programmes that nearly everyone is growing in tubs, bags and boxes now as they are easier to control and you have less room for weeds. I have a huge variety of containers that I have begged and borrowed including an olive oil can from the local restaurant, Ikea shopping bags (you know the blue ones) buckets and tubs. As long as you can make drainage holes or they are woven like the bags they work very very well. Even the people who grow giant veg for competition use this system and stand them on their normal beds.

Ps nice shiny new thread, I havent been around all day so it was a suprise. :beer:

greengoblin · 8 October 2010 at 7:53PM

I've only been gone for 5 hours and there is a new thread! Hurrah!
My money saving for today - rescuing a bundle of punk/alternative cassettes from mum's friends. I must be the only 20 year old I know with a cassette player! (I do like listening to Cadfael - shall I just put my slippers on and do some gardening as well while i'm at it?) Nothing quite like bouncing round the house to Jilted John and doing some washing up.

On an another awesome note I have 2 job interviews on Monday and i'm terrified. I usually speak 19 to the dozen anyway but when i'm nervous i'm like a machine gun. One interview near Stanstead airport (another residential placement but with free flat and weekend work so I can eat at the weekend) and an actual FULL TIME job (what's one of those lol) with like a proper salary and everything in Northamptonshire. I have a ridiculous number of scenarios running through my head along the lines of what if I don't get both, what if I get offered both? Getting one or the other is pretty much problem solved, i'm not really in a position to be picky lol. But both? I badly want the volunteer placement at Hatfield Forest as its more in line with what i'm after but a FULL TIME SALARY JOB would be so helpful with savings and some plans I have. Christ. I hope they make the choices for me. What if one job gets back to me before the other offering? *panicpanicpanic*
On the brightside though if I get neither I still have a vaguely countryside related p/t job and am volunteering with Natural England on a couple of reserves (their grazing regime involves Asian water buffalo - they are so cute but massive haha).

Re:reading above: isn't my mind a jumble of thoughts lol.

gailey_2 · 8 October 2010 at 8:06PM

Hi

dident realise old one closes, have no idea whats gone on.
This conversation sometimes did digress to topical issues mainly econonomical like the cutrs which for some will make things whole lot tougher.

Anyway nice to see so many familier faces, this is the only thread on whole of mse I reguarly contribute on so would be sad to see it go.

Went to co-op today got 2elmwood chickens as my c0-op hiuge always gets forcast wrong and were reduced to 2.09 each .

we had roast chicken for dinner

boiling crcass now for soup
remaining meat in bowl in fridge to make 8corbish pasties tommorow.

other chicken in freezer be roasted for sandwich meat next week then carcas boiled and maybe rissoto for a change.

Roasted last of tomatoes from garden.

made some fairy cakes but they not turned out great think bit too dry.

Bit tight until payday fri.

rang barclaycard up today and sorted repayment plan so can finally answer my own phone.

telling mam about baby no 3 sunday. shes cooking lunch so one meal sorted.

meal planned to do

pizza and sausage casserole tommorow.
Wasent feel too sick this afternoon so rearranged the freezer and stocktaked what we have so next week will have

qourn spag bol
fish and wedges
qourn curry.
something with chips

so thats mon-thur planned.
got tuna and chicken for lunch boxes plus pasties for earlier part of week.
if I can get some cheap ham might do quiches.

my coca cola addiction and now satsumas costing me small fortune.
Need nto see what aldi super six is as hubby works next door.

skipped butchers today hes there every friday.

Might be doing small dinner party friday not sure what to cook yet.

Hubby still not heard about job been going on since july.
hr say they would ring this week just gone with news but no calls.
told hubby its not harrasment chase it up again next week as been 4weeks since they postphoned his second intereveiw he was very succesful with first round.

really annoyed at other one he went for never heard anything back of them so rude.

baby asleep eldest still up.

thankgod its friday got up at 8.30 today had 10mins to leave house get all 3of us dressed and got to school in nick of time.

not planning much tommorow as so tired.

forcing hubby to watch movie hes protesting but know he will enjoy tonight.

worrying about xmas as not ready at all as morning sickness been awful.

booked to see midwife 2weeks time cant belive im nearly half way already.
hopefully will go just as quick.

still need to research what veg we can plant now if we not too late.

Hubbys dug over most of garden now and mowed lawn.

started decluttering house but will take a while.

Hope everyone else doing ok.

seasalt_2 · 8 October 2010 at 8:11PM

Mardatha, my suggestion would be to borrow one of ginny's ideas and fill eg ONE bag with compost (not too much to ask someone to do for you if it's only the one bag - you could put your own compost in the base and just top with bought stuff to start things off/minimise weeds - and plant it up with eg salad leaves or tatties, whatever you most want to eat, then once you're on top of that one you could start another - and could probably leave it all until the spring now anyway. That way you might be surprised at what you can manage with minimal work instead of doing what I did and working out how many onions/taties etc I thought we'd need in a year (there were 10 of us at the time) and marking out an area of field accordingly...have cut back considerably now! You might want to think about how you're going to water it too - watering cans are heavy. Some kind of home made drip watering system? (A reservoir of some kind and plastic tubing with holes in.) Or use a hose to fill upturned sunken plastic bottles (with cut off bases) so water goes to the roots and doesn't compact the soil in the bag. Have also heard of people growing things in those wheeled under-bed drawers - easier to move around? Although probably not deep enough for a lot of things, would need drainage holes, and tiny castors/wheels might not up to the job.

suzybloo · 8 October 2010 at 8:17PM

I read the old thread often so hope you dont mind me joining in. I am finding things quite tough just now compared to even last year. The cost of living has risen, wages have frozen and my hubbys business is not doing too great, but at least we have a job, warm house and food in the cupboards, plus our health. The debt is not getting any worse, but in all honesty its not getting any better, hopefully if I keep to budget by the end of the year we should have turned the corner.
Its raw here tonight, with quite a bit of drizzle, and a sharp wind so it is really cold. Warm blankets at the ready!

Primrose · 8 October 2010 at 8:26PM

I recently bought myself a thick body warmer from a charity shop. I've always avoided them previously because I'm a really chilly person and thought that if my arms weren't covered with something thick as well, any sleeveless type of garment wouldn't keep me warm. But in actual fact it has kept me really toasty and I'm trying to figure out why my arms haven't felt cold at all. I think I'm converted - at least for the moment.