What has this bad weather taught you?

booter

Some other things I've learned - my "grippy" boots are not so good on wet supermarket/ceramic tiled floors.

The "ice-walk" (where your butt sticks out and you try and place your feet flat to the ground rather than leading with the heel) is soooo unattractive, but works the thigh muscles brilliantly.

I'm obviously a shopaholic - I'm suffering withdrawal!

If I haven't got it by now (whatever "it" is), then tough - it doesn't really matter!

And the dog learned last night about the perils of snow on ice - he slipped up a step in the garden (on way to chase foxes) and bashed his mouth - I had a horrible thought it would mean emergency trip to the vets - but he's just scraped his bottom "lip" and has a small cut to the inside of his mouth. He's still eating and drinking fine, barking at the postie (who, bless him arrived this morning looking like a snowman - obviously after a Christmas bonus!) etc. So now he looks like he's pouting, wearing pink lippie. (The dog, not the postman!)


To all - keep warm, stay safe and Happy Christmas!

pinkmami

I finished my Christmas shopping weeks ago (apart form a gift voucher I needed on Thursday & got it!!!) also have my UHT milk in the cupboard & 4 loaves in the freezer!!! Food shop I also did on Thursday so we wont starve! Got a few things I'll need over Christmas so I hope next week I'll only need the veg for the big day itself & I can get that in my local shop!!

cottage_retreatist

From being a secret stalker this thread has taught me to say thank you to everyone's hints and tips i've been reading up on for the past few months on Old-Style moneysaving so I am coping alright at the moment and to make my first post! Hello!

It has also taught me:
1) not to let the OH touch the heating - a few days of leaving the heating on 24 hours a few weeks back has left us being only able to put heating on for a few hours every other day to keep the house warm till i can afford to buy some heating oil at the end of the month, eek! :mad:

2) that I should have bought a 4x4 instead of a low-slung coupe, but i'm already saving up to get one in the summer when they're cheaper (hopefully!)

3) to secretly stash chocolate and tobacco for the OH - him whining and cranky at lack of smoking paraphenalia is worse than not being able to get anywhere!

4) that hot water bottle should not be under-estimated and how warm a room can get with the tv and computer turned on!!! they pump out the heat!

5) that as well as home-made jam and chutney some home-made wine right now would be lovely so I'm already looking at demijohns on eBay

I will be sooo well prepared for this weather next year it will be unbelievable! I just have to keep my head up until then!!!! :rotfl:

apple_mint

kittie wrote: »

brilliant apple mint. I liked your post a lot

Thank you Kittie - I enjoy reading everyone's posts so much I really ought to post more myself.

cottage_retreatist wrote: »

From being a secret stalker this thread has taught me to say thank you to everyone's hints and tips i've been reading up on for the past few months on Old-Style moneysaving so I am coping alright at the moment and to make my first post! Hello!

It has also taught me:
4) that hot water bottle should not be under-estimated and how warm a room can get with the tv and computer turned on!!! they pump out the heat!

5) that as well as home-made jam and chutney some home-made wine right now would be lovely so I'm already looking at demijohns on eBay

I agree about hot water bottles. I wouldn't be without one. We've been filling our 2 big flasks with hot water each day in case the power goes off and using the hot water to fill the hot water bottles in evening (and refilling the flasks with a fresh batch of hot water).

Home-made wine is very good and it's interesting to see what you end up with. It does take some time though. I'm talking rows of demi-johns under the stairs for months and years. We don't want to store demi-johned wine in this place (we are renting at the moment) so we are using 7 day wine kits which don't need demi-johns (just the large bucket, syphon kit and wine bottles to store the finished wine). A bit more expensive but still a lot cheaper than buying wine (just over a £1 a bottle). For us it lasts ages and provides wine for some recipes as well. We got most of our demi-johns from car boot sales.

Edited to say Hello and welcome Cottage_Retreatist :-)

Fruball

booter wrote: »

Some other things I've learned - my "grippy" boots are not so good on wet supermarket/ceramic tiled floors.

The "ice-walk" (where your butt sticks out and you try and place your feet flat to the ground rather than leading with the heel) is soooo unattractive, but works the thigh muscles brilliantly.

I'm obviously a shopaholic - I'm suffering withdrawal!

If I haven't got it by now (whatever "it" is), then tough - it doesn't really matter!

And the dog learned last night about the perils of snow on ice - he slipped up a step in the garden (on way to chase foxes) and bashed his mouth - I had a horrible thought it would mean emergency trip to the vets - but he's just scraped his bottom "lip" and has a small cut to the inside of his mouth. He's still eating and drinking fine, barking at the postie (who, bless him arrived this morning looking like a snowman - obviously after a Christmas bonus!) etc. So now he looks like he's pouting, wearing pink lippie. (The dog, not the postman!)


To all - keep warm, stay safe and Happy Christmas!

Love it :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

cottage_retreatist

hehe thank you apple_mint!

It sounds like a mixture of the two wine-making techniques may work well - for instant satisfaction!

Am currently looking out at the snow wishing I'd listened to my own bad weather ideas and am wondering how long it will take to walk in the snow to buy that drasted tobacco tomorrow! eek!

look out for me doing my thigh-burning ice-shuffle tomorrow!

Fruball

cottage_retreatist wrote: »

hehe thank you apple_mint!

It sounds like a mixture of the two wine-making techniques may work well - for instant satisfaction!

Am currently looking out at the snow wishing I'd listened to my own bad weather ideas and am wondering how long it will take to walk in the snow to buy that drasted tobacco tomorrow! eek!

look out for me doing my thigh-burning ice-shuffle tomorrow!

Ahhhh so that means I have learned that, altho it broke my heart, buying 200 cigarettes in one go has saved me from having to make that calculation :cool:

Same goes for wine - I have enough of everything (except milk which we can live without) for 3 weeks if necessary Altho I do have MrT delivering over Xmas... if they can get thru :eek:

Fruball

I think I will have to have a go at this 7 day wine making..... Can anyone point me in the right direction for getting it, and let me know exactly what I need and how to do it please... I am thinking "Idiots Guide" as I have never done it before

apple_mint

Frugal wrote: »

I think I will have to have a go at this 7 day wine making..... Can anyone point me in the right direction for getting it, and let me know exactly what I need and how to do it please... I am thinking "Idiots Guide" as I have never done it before

I'm probably not the best person to explain but I'll do my best. I've just been into the kitchen to look at the empty box which is sitting on top of the big wine bucket It's a Cellar7 30 bottle kit. I go to the local wine making shop (sells beer and wine kits) and bring it home and give it to OH to make :rotfl:

There is a smaller kit (6 bottles) but not as good value as the 30 bottle. I pay £29.99 but it is probably cheaper on line. We used to get a cheaper one but this was recommended and it is a lot nicer. We normally make a merlot, but at the moment OH is making the Italian white wine version. The kit comes with all the ingredients - it's a just add water version and after so many days you add some sachets to clear the wine. 7 days later we have the task of bottling the wine. It improves with age - so I'm told

This is the one on Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002ZYXNOE/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=103612307&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00373JVUW&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1APS4A94ZG67SN9VB0XY

The product detail on this page tells you to have 2 brewing buckets (we've picked these up at car boot sales), airlock and syphon tubing (plus bottles or demijohns to put the wine in). Our wine shop occasionally has a wine makers starter kit which works out cheaper than buying everything separately.

The most important thing is to sterilise everything well.

The Merlot makes a brilliant beef in red wine casserole

Fruball

apple_mint wrote: »

I'm probably not the best person to explain but I'll do my best. I've just been into the kitchen to look at the empty box which is sitting on top of the big wine bucket It's a Cellar7 30 bottle kit. I go to the local wine making shop (sells beer and wine kits) and bring it home and give it to OH to make :rotfl:

There is a smaller kit (6 bottles) but not as good value as the 30 bottle. I pay £29.99 but it is probably cheaper on line. We used to get a cheaper one but this was recommended and it is a lot nicer. We normally make a merlot, but at the moment OH is making the Italian white wine version. The kit comes with all the ingredients - it's a just add water version and after so many days you add some sachets to clear the wine. 7 days later we have the task of bottling the wine. It improves with age - so I'm told

This is the one on Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002ZYXNOE/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=103612307&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00373JVUW&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1APS4A94ZG67SN9VB0XY

The product detail on this page tells you to have 2 brewing buckets (we've picked these up at car boot sales), airlock and syphon tubing (plus bottles or demijohns to put the wine in). Our wine shop occasionally has a wine makers starter kit which works out cheaper than buying everything separately.

The most important thing is to sterilise everything well.

The Merlot makes a brilliant beef in red wine casserole

Ooooooh sounds like a New Year Project to me :T

Thank you