Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

slowlyfading

LolaLemon - so pleased about your news!

Aril

Evening all:j
Have been away from the forum for a few weeks as real life keeps getting in the way- pah! However, am still following my frugal principles. Have already bought most of the bits for Easter as my lot decided that they'd far rather have bars of choc as you get more for your money as there's not the packaging to deal with either! We also have a free range chicken that we bought on offer which has been put away and I am planning to make a lemon meringue cake for a change as usually do a batch of lemon biccies.

Not a great deal of news although did strike lucky with 50 books off freecycle that will keep me away from my purse for many months to come I hope!

Hugs to all
Arilx

23rdspiral

gosh! Thank-gate! i'll just ditto what others have said: i 'thank' if i find the post helpful, if someone says something funny or heartwarming, if it's a recipie i like or a idea or hint, if i they say what i'm thinking, if it gives me pause for though, if i feel soladarity for what the person is going through...

Erme wrote: »

...but I will not be held to ransom over least little purchase (think Ironing board/washing machine)...

we are all very supportive of each other here, and i'm sure no-one has judged you for buying a new ironing board. in one post i wished you and the ratties well, and you then quoted me and said you weren't ill just peeved. i think you were a little quick to judge me unfairly there. i wasnt going to say anything but it's been bothering me, and is quite a good example of how we can all read into things that maybe the poster didnt intend, and how our posts can affect people without us realising sometimes.

enjoyfinancialchallenges wrote: »

... we all have our own opinions which we and are entitled to express and just proves what an exciting mixture of people we have on this thread. Love you all whether I agree with you or not cause together we are all a great force. Whoohoo! up the frugalites.

I've had my ups and downs, and sometimes feel i've burdened you lovely peeps here a little too much.
thank you for the support you all give everyone, whether their frugality is to make ends meet or to pay off dept, or to save for redundancy or mortgage payments... it's a beautiful and rare thing these days.

23rdspiral

midwinter wrote: »

Gutted to find outcasts has finished, and no plans for a second series and left on a cliffhanger.....

Seems the BBC is going down the route that the US have taken, ditch if not getting mega viewings..... even when the series is obviously written as one of several series.

Wonders if one should start watching new series. After all, who would read a book with the last few chapters removed?

Sigh ....

nooooo!!!! that's aweful! we were loving it!what's going to happen... who are the people on the new ship... will her-with-the-hair ever kiss him-with-the-stubble?!?
(one friend who loves sci-fi refused to try it because he said 'hyperdrive' was bad... wierd logic there).

Kerry_Woman wrote: »

23rdSpiral - Congrats on the house move.

thank you! your adventures sound really interesting, have fun, and please do report back and share them with us!

LolaLemon wrote: »

...congratulations on the new house (sorry cant remember who it was) - i find the english house buying system really strange.

it's such a relief to finally be through the process, no one can pull out now. we get the keys on friday, though renovations for Health and Safey means we can't move in for a couple/few weeks.

redglass wrote: »

And Spiral, I seem to have missed your house move as a result of Thanksgate, so congratulations on that.

thank you!!

23rdspiral

i'm sorry for cluttering up the thread.
i think i'm hiding in reading and replying to all these posts... i dont want to face my SoW... it wont like me. i must have gone over budget for food and petrol already this month. it's gonna tell me off.

SandraScarlett
- i'm so pleased to hear your family is doing well. safe recoveries all round we hope. congrats on all your efforts with your budget, even with the horrid Williams's / s' / 's or however you end that word with the right grammar. i'm a child of the 80s and have no idea as it wasnt taught to us!

inspire spirit - :T congrats on finding some woopsies! and benefiting from freecycle (thou please humour me and, if you havent already, closely check none of the housing or inside bit of the microwave is cracked or burnt looking (my dad was a quality inspector for a while, and i've heard horror stories). good luck with the job search. i tried googling ' autologous stem cell transplant' but failed to figure it out, best wishes for everything though. i have a friend with osetoarthritis a little younger than yourself and she has just been persuaded to go back on meds after breaking a rib simply rolling over during accupunture. *hugs* to you and yours.

Lola - i'm so pleased for you! i had such similar problems, but uni weren't much help and i never got the kit. so i'm so glad the system has actually worked for you!

rubytuesday wrote: »

We ended the night with a moon bath which was rather fun if not somewhat ridiculous!:rotfl:

eek! i hope you mend soon! (can i ask what one of those is?)

tumptyteapot wrote: »

I know people who honestly think I am rich and should pay for them because I own my house (at least the mortgage company do), they don't see that I own it because I spent years working and saving to get it. I earnt this house.

er, ditto! i (well, the bank) have a house because i save my money; why can't some people understand that?

tumptyteapot wrote: »

If you want it properly vegan you can make it with yeast flakes - http://www.goodnessdirect.co.uk/cgi-local/frameset/detail/579698_Marigold_Engevita_Nutritional_Yeast_Flakes__125g.html which is expensive to get initially but lasts ages, stuffed full of B12 too.

i was going to recommend 'nooch' sauce too! costs pennies, so very healthy, nothing dead in it, takes minutes to make, fab for Mac Daddy (vegan style mac&cheese) and any leftovers is nice on toast!

redglass_2

Great news, LolaLemon! Lovely feeling to get something you've been needing...
Whoever it was that asked if ScottishPower was the same as Scottish and Southern - 'fraid not. I have a feeling this is going to be tricky....

tumptyteapot

23rdspiral wrote: »

i was going to recommend 'nooch' sauce too! costs pennies, so very healthy, nothing dead in it, takes minutes to make, fab for Mac Daddy (vegan style mac&cheese) and any leftovers is nice on toast!

please enlighten me :-) what is nooch sauce?

rubytuesday

23rdspiral wrote: »

eek! i hope you mend soon! (can i ask what one of those is?)

Thank you 23rdspiral seem to be hobbling a little less already!

Basically it's basking in the moon's beams opening the crown chraka and sending up a violet beam, asking a question blah, blah, blah and feeling somewhat silly! :rotfl:

I wasn't paying too much attention as I was in pain and needed to get home!

Here's another version.
http://cosmicgemslanka.com/blog/2010/01/22/tips-for-moonbathing/

rubytuesday

ceridwen wrote: »

The "thanks" button is a bit of a moot point - as people view it differently.

Personally - I thank posts that I agree with or have made me laugh or have taught me a useful hint or make a positive mention of something I said. That is - to date this morning - I thanked Lesley Gaye's post for mushroom bhaji because I have added this recipe to my collection to try - so the thanks was for a post useful to me.

GreyQueen (a poster elsewhere on Old Style) gets thanked for making me laugh - as we have the same "black sense of humour".

******************

I guess, by and large, that other people have much the same ideas as to who to "thank".

I get very confused by people who automatically thank everything written by their friends.

I get even more confused by people thanking every post to mark that they have read it (though I DO understand that some peeps need to have a physical "marker" of this for clear reasons). I "struggle" a bit with that one - as there have been times on MSE as a whole where I have seen a friend of mine "thank" a post that was downright nasty about me and realised that they werent ACTUALLY thanking the post - they were just "place marking" and hadnt agreed with the nasty comment iyswim.

Definitely with you on this Ceridwen. I've had the same experience myself when someone was particularly nasty about me and my good friend thanked her posts. She can't help herself she is the Thanking Queen!:rotfl:

rubytuesday

glendam wrote: »

I realise this post is not going to go down well but I think the time has come for someone to say that we must realise that Erme is a very troubled person who with all the will in the world can not be supported by us on an open forum. Most of us are ordinary people who for whatever reason need to reign in the spending. We do not have the training to handle the problem and we are ending up feeling as if we have failed her.

I know there is not enough help for people who suffer like Erme does and my sympathy goes out to anyone in the same situation.

Without face to face dialogue whatever is written can be read over so many times with emphasis on different words that it will alter the meaning of the message. We can all do this depending on our mood at the time. Not saying that I have an answer to the problem, part of her problem does seem to manifest itself in spending and maybe we can help there.


Erme if you have read this I hope you can get the help you so desperately need.

Glenda

Erme has an illness and although we are not qualified to support her in a professional capacity we can still offer general support and kindness and make sure she is as welcome as anybody else on this thread.

That does not mean however that we should 'p ussy foot around' or not say what we think.