How to Get Through The Tough Times The Old Style Way.

dollydaydream07

Lindy_-_Loo wrote: »

Dollydaydream - Im a stay at home mum after working full time as a store manager when I had DS1. We had a huge drop in salary as I earned more than OH, he works full time and gets around £13000 so its not classed as high income.

Im glad I chose to stay home - I want to be there for the boys. We dont have spare cash, I try by doing surveys and then use the points for christmas and birthday presents. If I returned to work it would have to be term time only and then what would I do if the boys where sick? I volunteer 4 mornings a week at school so sometimes it feels like work! I was offered a kitchen job at school 5 hrs per week but the cook thought DS2 was full time and he isnt until September.

I hope you get to stay home with your children I share your views x

Thank you Lindy-Loo, i also do surveys, only started in January and already on one site i have over £10 i also volunteer in DD class and it is great fun
DH is a store manager and we are quite lucky as the company he works for has some great perks....... he gets every sunday off, all bank holidays, gets expenses back, and actually gets back any time he is owed(the last company he worked for he was doing 6-7 days a week and getting no thanks for it) he also gets some good bonuses which all helps but it's still a struggle........ well it is at the minute as we are trying to pay off our debts, if we were debt free, then we could quite easily live on DH's wage alone

right off to go and have my soup i made with leftovers, might even get my spuds peeled for tea so i can have some baked peelings with my soup

greent

bertiebots wrote: »

Had my e mail today confirming ds2 has got into the high school of my choice! I am very happy and its probably going to be here very soon with the speed this year is flying:j. The only down side to my 3 going to a very good school situatated in a posher area than I live in(:o) is the uniform cost! Its discraceful and I am just going to have to start gathering bits now if I am going to kit all 3 out with new stuff for september. One blazer costs £48 in the school shop, or £39 in the uniform shop but the quality isnt as good , a rugby shirt is £18 and so it goes on:mad:..cost me over £300 last year:eek:and that was mostly just dd! (it was her first yr).
Any tips on stunting childrens growth would come in handy at this point:rotfl:!!!!

COngrats to your son! :T:T I know the feeling well - DD is at a girl's grammar & DS1 will be going ti a boy's grammar in Sept. Both have slightly unusual colours and some crested clothing, meaning little choice in where to buy things from. DD's school jumpers are £18. Blazer appx £40 - although that's an improvement - I went to the same school and the blazers were heavy wool with braiding back then and cost £48 foor my first one in 1981!!:eek::eek: The amount of different PE kit required for different sports is also :eek:!

budgetboo

DS will shortly need his 3rd school uniform in 3 years - aaagh! Hopefully he won't start the new school in the last fortnight of the summer term, before his holiday growth spurt(with my LEA nothing would suprise me).

Ring worm was doing the rounds of my son's school, one of his friends got it first on her eyebrow, v. dangerous unless caught fast and treated so do be careful. It seems to have replaced nits as the bane of primary school life in this neck of the woods. I suppose that's a reason to be glad he's at home right now, but I'm still keeping an eye out. Individual towels etc are a must.

I vaguely remember the 3 day week, mostly being ever so grateful my Mum could cook as some of my friends Mum's 1st attempts at making bread were terrible (I was only little). Also remember her maiking soda bread, which she's never made since as there was a shortage of yeast. My BIL has just copied me and invested in a breadmaker - he's made up with the taste and shocked at the savings on their grocery bill already. He's grillng me for other tips now when we chat, which would NEVER have happened even a year ago. He now shares my dream of owning a Kenwood chef 701 someday, my sister still thinks I'm nuts but her corruption to the old style lifestyle has begun even if she doesn't yet know it

I invested last week in some enamel pie tins last week, at the lakeland store. I've had one round one for years and it is so useful. I got a large rectangular on and four individual tins. The left overs from lots of meals will be going into a pastry crust from now on. I had considered getting foil disposable ones, but decided that the enamel would last a life time.

The lifetme of all purchases has become more and more important to me as time goes on, from silly stuff like replacing paper towels with napkins to saving for a cabin bed that will last my son to adulthood, rather than one that lasts a couple of years. It's because I'm trying to mitigate Murphy's law, when things break down, or you run out just when you at your lowest financial point. I'm also convinced that sooner or later rubbish collection will be charged by weight and want to minimise my liabilties when that comes in.

In recent months I've been glad of my 2 tabbard aprons - they are preventing the old cooking/bleach spills that used to wreck my tops and lengthening the life of my wardrobe. I originally had them for running kids craft events. I'm going to ask for a girly retro one for Xmas to add to my collection.

Have the opportunity of a weekly market stall from the end of the month. I am trying to work out if selling cupcakes would be legal/cost effective and whether it would affect my benefits. It would have been a great money spinner a couple of years ago, but now I'm not so sure people can afford to buy treats like cupcakes any more. I'm not used to not working so need to do something home based or go crazy while DS is out of school.


It's an independence thing as I went back to work when he was 6 weeks and frankly feel very exposed and uncomfortable relying on benefits as I've always been economically self-sufficient. I've had my own earned money in my pocket since I was 14 and am having real trouble adapting. Also I hate the gap appearing on my CV - I don't think benefits is a safe long term option for anyone anymore as the gaps in the welfare state are widening into chasms.

maryb

budgetboo, I think macaroons are the 'new' cupcakes. Or whoopie pies. I was looking round a lovely cookware shop in Tunbridge Wells last week (just about got out intact) and they had whoopie pie baking tins next to the cupcake tins

suzid

Hello all

You all seem so friendly, may I join you? I've been lurking a while and taking note of your tips. A tip about turning shirt collars reminded me how my MIL used to do that and my Gran sewed sheets 'sides to middle' when they got worn. For the past few months I've been wondering what happened to my old cot sheets which I need soon as I'll have DGS some days when DD returns to work in April. Then it stuck me - I'd turned them into pillow cases when I'd finished with the cot. I'd never have remembered if not for this thread having me reminiscing. :T

Interesting about the cost of school uniforms and reminds me of when DD was at school. A new headmaster brought in stricter rules on uniform. Previously it had been black or grey trousers and so DD was wearing her brothers which he'd outgrown but had plenty of wear in them. All parents then got a letter which we had to sign and return saying we would replace black trousers with grey ones as soon as possible. We had very little money at the time so I inserted the word 'not' after the 'would' - replace and sent that back. DD said the teacher grinned when she read it and we received a revised uniform list saying grey OR black soon after, so I evidently was not alone. Black trousers were so much easier to buy and cheaper half way through term especially when the kids become young adults and outgrown everything. Sorry I have no idea how to stop them growing, if I had DS4 wouldn't have size 14 feet :eek:.

maryb

:wave:Hi Suzid

GreyQueen

Afternoon all! It's grey and drizzly in my city and I have just finished a call centre shift and am touching base before doing a little charity shopping and hitting Poundland. Gotta keep on top on the bargains; I have a rep, y'know. My favourite cashier-man at Mr T gently teases me if I take something thru the checkout that doesn't have a yellow sticker......:rotfl:

Suzid :wave: Pull up a chair and pass the teapot. Welcome!

Grandma247 Thanks for the tip about the ringworm. Yes, I do have an allotment so think it must have come from there as I haven't any close contact with ankle-biters, whoops children. I have a steriod cream on prescription so hopefully that will be the end of it. Yuck!

bertiebots Congrats on your DS2 getting his high school place, you must be made up. Something which I see on my Freecycle group is people asking for/ offering specific school's uniforms, perhaps it might be possible to get bigger ticket items like blazers there? I well remember in seventies when I got a grammar school place my parents had to shell out for the uniform from a specific shop and it was nearly 2 weeks' income for them . It was navy with white shirts and the very next year the blasted school changed the navy parts for black or grey. Mum was livid. A lot of us made it a badge of honour to keep on with the navy wool blazers from the "old " uniform and managed to squeeze into them, darns and all, until we left. I know a lot of parents who struggle with buying the official kit with crests and badges and I think its past time that schools had a reality-check and looked at cheaper options like picking a basic colour and having cheap movable badging which can be moved from one garment to another when it wears out.

Budgetboo I so agree with your lovely, thoughtful post. Especially about making consumer choices with the long view.Recall something a friend a generation older told me about an older couple who were her aunty and uncle. She said that when they had a little extra money in the budget, a bingo win or a bit of overtime, they would try to buy something useful to put away, like sheets or blankets. It wouldn't necessarily be something they had need of that week or even that year but it would stop the extra just disappearing with nothing to show for it. My family has as saying for such things; "It isn't eating anything." Meaning it's not running up a bill by existing, I guess.

Mind you, Mum has enough yarn to open her own yarn shop but it's all extra insulation in their loft...........

Today's funniest call; woman from a town 25 miles away rang to get us to raise a repair on the heating system of her housing association home. Seemed to be gobsmacked when I explained the council only repairs its own council houses........Demanded to know who she should call, then? I suggested the landlord.......:rotfl:

karren

morag1202 wrote: »

dreaming wrote: »

This is the easiest one to understand for me because it gives a chart of actual dates.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/SpendingReview/DG_192159

Not good news for me

sob sob i looked up my retirement age and im going to have to be 67!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:rotfl:

budgetboo

Actually for the older members - just thought of the crafty trick my 1st landlady had. She'd been a single teenage Mum back when most were sent away, so had a very self reliant view of life. Anyways for years when she was working she'd collected stamps for her retirement. By the time she had retired a few years if she needed a new washing machine or other unplanned for purchase she'd flog a few stamps to pay for it. When she was working she'd found it quite easy to buy the odd stamp here and there & had collected 1st day covers.

She said she'd considered gold jewellery or antiques but felt both were to attractive to burglars. She made me chuckle as she no interest in the stamps themselves whatsoever.

She saw them purely as an investment that the average burglar or nosey government official wouldn't have a lcue as to the value of. She remembered the days when a gov. official would tell you to sell your furniture before giving you money for food. She also felt banks could go bust, tell an unfriendly gov what you were worth etc so she saw her stamps as an iinsurance policy.

I always thought a hard life had clouded her views, but now I'm starting to see the sense in a lot of her "eccentricities".

kidcat

budgetboo you are a genius - you just reminded mme that I have my grandads stamp collection and his coin collection hidden in the depths of my mums loft - must have them valued - with any luck they may help with house deposit.