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

ceridwen

polka_purpura wrote: »

Hi pitlanepiglet,

I've not read the previous posts yet so I hope I'm not duplicating things that have already been said.

Disaster planning...the middle east thing is certainly scary and so are the problems with wheat, Russia losing a lot of their's in the fires and China and Australia I think experiencing floods. I think the bit that might concern me is if more and more people can't afford our own produce. For example if the far east can afford to pay more for our food where would this leave us? I see china has expressed an interest in more salmon from the UK as they can't get it from Norway anymorel.

I've been reading up a little on the 1920's and 1930's and think we have an awful long way to go but I can't help thinking the state we'd be in if the food markets took a perfect storm. There is too much dependancy on oil, international markets and an oversized population compared with even 80 years ago. that world trade took nearly a decade I think to recover sufficiently to end war rations really makes me concerned for our present population size and the price of oil.

I've just hired a book from the library called 'good work' by a E.F Schumacher who warned in the 1950's and 1960's we were overdependent on oil. It has been in storage since the 1980's.

I really shouldn't read about these things but on the plus side we do have an awful lot of luxuries that we can learn to do without.

I could certainly do with stocking up but it is difficult to know what to stock up on and when.

I'm not sure how to balance the risks as money can lose value in the banks, food and energy can go up.

polka purpura

Good post:T

Quick check - yep the book "Small is beautiful" is another one Schumacher wrote and do recall reading/thoroughly agreeing with the basic message there many years ago now. Didnt realise he also did one called "Good Work". Will have a look for that....

Guess thats along the lines of only doing socially conscious work? having work one enjoys? (ohmegawd - that concept feels like such a "luxury" in an era where people are being told "Lucky to have a job - and just suck it up that we've cut your pay/conditions:(:mad::(").

shegar

mardatha wrote: »

Lovely and sunny here again today, I thin gawd has mixed up our weather with yours. Only 6 C but nice in the garden with a coat on. We were out getting the run ready for the hens and tidying up in general.

Wow how exciting getting the run ready, id be out there whatever the weather when you get to the "making the run stage"......:D can I come up to yours to help you please.?How many hens have you decided to get now???:D

ceridwen

Mardatha has called them Hinge and Bracket - so, at a quick count, there means there will be two of them:rotfl:

ChocClare

Welcome, suzid :beer: You sound like you'll be the one giving us all hints at this rate!

Congrats on your son getting into the grammar school, bertiebots. Does the PTA not run a swap shop? They do at my DD's school on the first Tuesday of the month (or something). Also, they have a supplier who comes to parents' evenings etc who does new uniform at a reduced price. She works from home and you can ring her and pop round to pick up whatever it is you want. I bought DD her (only) new blazer and it was a good six or seven quid cheaper than the uniform shop.

Failing that, if it is a distinctive uniform, remember that there are only so many distinctive uniforms. Unless everything is covered in the school crest, chances are that another school will have a very similar uniform. My own school uniform was royal blue McDonald dress tartan pinafore with pleated kilt skirt; BEIGE blouse; tartan tie; BEIGE socks :eek:; royal blue cardigan; royal blue all wool coat; royal blue corduroy beret with navy band in the winter; navy blue and white checked cotton zip-front dress and navy cardigan, navy blue wool blazer with pale blue cording and boater in the summer.

Mmmm-mmm - bet you all wish you could have worn that.

My point is, with the exception of the blazer, which had the school crest woven into the pocket, versions of all the bits of that uniform were worn at other schools. How do I know? A trip to John Lewis (well Peter Jones actually but you get the idea).

I do not own shares in John Lewis, but their uniform sections are really good - and they are never knowingly undersold, which means they will refund the difference if you can get it cheaper elsewhere.

Just a thought.

maryb

I was at university during the three day week and living in college so we didn't actually have many power cuts but my sister was at home and remembers rushing home to try and get something done before the scheduled power cut. When I came home for the holidays I remember television going off at about 10pm. But we had a gas fire so we weren't cold (bedrooms were a different matter but that was nothing new) and we had a gas cooker so we had hot water and the means of cooking. We also managed to get a Calor Gas camping light which gave enough light to read by. Radio was a tranny so worked on batteries.

I suppose it didn't really impact me because I wasn't working. My sister was working and they just went into the office early and went home early to make use of daylight - old fashioned typewriters didn't need electricity. But the workers in factories (many more of them in those days) were on short time - no work, no pay.

I remember being quite shocked after it ended to see the shop windows all lit up again and left on all night long. It seemed so wickedly wasteful especially as the situation in the Middle East wasn't at all stable. I think my interest in energy saving probably dates back all the way to that time. The Yom Kippur war started the day I went up to university and life was never the same again

maryb

ChocClare
Our uniform was brown pleated skirt, brown cardigan with yellow and royal blue stripes on the band, yellow striped shirt and a blazer with brown, royal blue and yellow stripes. It would have made a LIFFE floor trader look muted!!

charlies-aunt

GreyQueen wrote: »

"It isn't eating anything." Meaning it's not running up a bill by existing, I guess.

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:

Sisters under the skin! very familiar for the expression "Won't eat owt" for stuff that you can get cheap and will eventually use. . . . . I have approx 30 rolls of BOGOF loo roll not eating owt at the back of the cupboard :rotfl:

Snap! I work on a Housing Association call centre - some of our tenants are outraged when we won't send an electrician to change a light bulb! Our customer service is good but not that good

Oopps . . . . showing my age . . . I remember the three day week, sugar/bread shortages, the threatened petrol rationing, frequent powercuts . . . the 'I'm backing Britain' campaign . . . .

Just thinking back to my childhood - grew up in a house with no central heating, rooms had a carpet in the middle and polished boards all round the edges, a bath once a week, bread and jam for at least one meal a day, hand-me-down clothes and shoes, walking two miles to school and back, parents both working two jobs to make ends meet and being left 'home alone' for hours on end . . . it sounds really deprived nowadays but it was pretty much the norm in our neck of the woods. Vividly remember the beautiful heavy swirls of ice on the inside of the bedroom windows during winter - couldn't see out for weeks on end at times :eek:

Remembering those days helps me keep perspective - times are tough but compared with then, I have a life of comparative luxury :rotfl:

mrswive

I've just realised what a really cheap, tasty thing a pancake is!
I'm staying at DD's, looking after my grandsons who are 3 and 5, while she and SIL are having a few much needed days away (after 3 days, I'm realising just how much they need it - gosh those boys are exhausting!!!!!!!!!!!!) Before she left DD told them that it was Pancake Day today and that Nonna would make pancakes and I only realised today that it's next week - too late though, so pancakes it was! They went down a storm and cost practically nothing; made me wonder why we don't have them more often.
Now that the little angels are fast asleep and I've got everything prepared for the ordeal that is getting ready for school in the morning, I think I'll collapse in a heap on the sofa with tea and chocolate!

bellaquidsin

I lived through the three day week but was not personally affected by it i.e. DH had a job throughout.

I do however remember the powercuts, I was expecting my second baby at the time and knitted tiny garments by candle light.

I remember walking miles to try to buy bread flour. Bread making was not very popular in those days so it was not widely stocked but what little there was soon was snapped up by ardent bread makers.

Sugar was rationed to just one or maybe two bags per customer. Lots of panic buying took place and I'll sware half the nation's sugar stock were under MIL's bed.

Bella.

Primrose

maryb wrote: »

I was at university during the three day week ....

I remember being quite shocked after it ended to see the shop windows all lit up again and left on all night long. It seemed so wickedly wasteful especially as the situation in the Middle East wasn't at all stable. I think my interest in energy saving probably dates back all the way to that time. The Yom Kippur war started the day I went up to university and life was never the same again

We seem to have gone full circle again on the energy crisis / Middle East oil crisis, don't we? I too am shocked at the amount of electricity being wasted by shops and offices being lit up all night when they're empty. I wonder if the owners ever work out how much this is costing them, quite apart from the sheer waste of energy. I can understand the odd light for security reasons but some places just go overboard.

Does everybody know about the "Earth Hour" international project where for one hour on a certain night, people around the world are asked to switch off all their lights for one hour from 8.30 p.m? This year it's on Saturday March 26th. If you Google this link you can get more information: http://www.earthhour.org/Homepage.aspx?intro=no