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

shegar

scotsaver wrote: »

Has anyone tried their Local charity shops for Magazines, Charity shops round here sell them for only 10p and 20p each.;)

Yes ive done the charity shops and still do for books and mags, very cheap way to go about it, also car boots are another (outlet).!!........I do get some given to me and my neighbour now buys The Gardeners World, so I get that too......its the winter time when a mag comes in handy when you cant get outside but have half hour to spare...........Yea sods law about just getting into a informative page and Dr call your name !!!!..... s... springs to mind...

Ive never really bothered with the beauty/gossip/fashion mags/.....trying to keep up with all the fashion and latest wear, its not me, im a jeans/leggings/ and sloppy joe/and wellie boot gel..:D:D.......beautiful afternoon here now,

catznine

Well our belts are being well and truly tightened now! Dh has just had a letter from tax office saying he owes £8000 over the last 3 years! :eek: He is on PAYE so something has gone very wrong but they expect the money within the next 12 months! We just don't have it and anyway what little we did have has gone towards dds wedding so now we're in trouble! We will appeal of course as this seems so extreme, but in case its true (they could have messed up on his pension) we will have to cut back to the bone.

Amazing what you can do when you have to though. 2 extra shifts at work this week, collected all the coinage around the house £17.25 , living on food in house, leftovers for lunches, baking own bread, cakes and biscuits, even dog biscuits. Tonight we have meatballs in hm tom sauce with spaghetti (half of the M&S meats 3 for £10 deal £1.66 from bottom of freezer) tin toms (app foods 25p) slug of tom sauce and slug of leftover red wine, pinch of italian herbs and an aging onion softened in a little olive oil - worked out at about £2.30 so £1.15 each but if I serve up some hm soup first we should have some leftovers for tomorrows lunches. Tomorrow night we have leftover giggly pig sausages, which I will slice up in pasta sauce for a pasta bake. Lots of fruit so desserts sorted. Plenty of hm muesli/porridge for breakfasts.

My old car is being "gifted" to our son and his wife so we won't have tax and ins to pay on that anymore, just have to get it to him. That just leaves one car which we can downsize to a smaller more economical one. Have plenty of remnants and cotton thread in so can continue making dd's fabric hearts and bunting for her wedding - phew! Going to make a batch of cards ready for the next round of birthdays, anniversaries etc., Have collected up old phones to send off - not worth much but will help and once decorating is finished will start listing on amazon again - we have too many books and they are NOT all going back on the bookshelves again!

Well trouble certainly focuses you doesn't it?

Saying that my heart goes out to those with worse troubles especially those who have recently lost family members including babies (((hugs))) There are no words but you are in my thoughts and prayers.

Catz x

edited to say thanks to Greyqueen for the brilliant idea of boiling eggs in the bottom pan when using the steamer, I normally just cook potatoes but shall do that now as well!

scotsaver

catznine - Hope they have got the amount wrong, that's a lot of money to have to find.:eek: Just wanted to say that I love the positivity in your Post, it's so easy for us to feel negative these days and reading your Post has just made me feel totally motivated, thanks so much for that.;)

catznine

scotsaver wrote: »

catznine - Hope they have got the amount wrong, that's a lot of money to have to find.:eek: Just wanted to say that I love the positivity in your Post, it's so easy for us to feel negative these days and reading your Post has just made me feel totally motivated, thanks so much for that.;)

Ah your very welcome, I was feeling very down earlier on but have been reading frugal queens blog and also Rhondas down to earth blog and have picked up on their positive vibes! Got to get pro active! I love the saying weebles wobble but they don't fall down and I am a weeble! lol!:rotfl:def getting weeble shaped!:o

kidcat

catznine - both my mum and a friend have had similar letters - they both related to pensions, turns out my mums employer had done the sums wrong so it was them that was liable rather than my mum, and our friend is more complicated and does have to pay it back, however they have agreed a three year payment plan. He said the girl he spoke to was very honest and told him that they were "incentivised" to get the agreement back over one year but that three was possible too.
I still argue that if you are PAYE I fail to see how you can be held accountable for an underpayment when you have in fact never been in control of said payment! There is several bits here on MSE to help you try to sort it.

Am very stressed and do not seem able to relax - its worrying me that I am so stressed, in fact I am getting stressed cos I am stressed!!!

Had a lovely morning when I went in to DD5 school to watch her special assempbly and all the class had special we love mum type songs to sing, was lovely, then I dashed to DS7 school to catch the end of his assembly - where he collected three awards - made my heart fit to burst - when I think where he was just over a year ago and how much the school have done - so hats off to an incredible bunch of teachers.

Have done my own searches on house purchase (well some at any rate) has saved us £100 and all are exactly what the solicitor could have done. And am being very strict on shopping again this week with a meal plan based on freezer/store cupboard stock.

Have started selling bits on ebay - i am selling one cooker - its gone way higher than I expected and still five days to go!! Just hope the rest of the stuff goes as well.

ceridwen

maryb wrote: »

But it's worth remembering that whenever dramatic events have happened in the past, people have always looked back with astonishment at how quickly and totally the landscape changed. We are programmed to expect the future to be a continuation of what we know. I think one of the best things about this thread is that it encourages people to think laterally and plan ahead. Even if things in general chunter on much as usual, there are plenty of individuals facing life changing transitions

Very true comment:T

Also a valid thought re "thinking laterally" - I decided long ago that if thinking laterally is good enough for management at work, then its certainly good enough for me:rotfl:.

I always bear in mind the phrase "A week is a long time in politics" and I do think thats a truism.

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

Anyways - on the topic of lateral thinking:

GREYQUEEN
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1371736/Insomnia-our-analysis-mothers-sleep-patterns-wake-exhausted-women.html

ie an article about effects of sleep deprivation (which, I would hazard a guess, would be a lot stronger when said sleep deprivation is something being inflicted by someone else and not at all to do with yourself - ie Idiot Boy). I would imagine one could easily add "risk of high blood pressure" to the effects noted by the women in the article - because of the open-ended length of time this could go on for (ie weeks/months/...) and anger because the circumstances causing it are nothing to do with you. I know that personally I would be very concerned in case I got high blood pressure or heart problems because of suppressed anger from this noise being imposed on me and causing the sleep deprivation...

The more I think about it - the more I favour the Fallback Plan (in case Idiot Boy isnt evicted for non-payment of rent as we hope) is that doctors letter stating what effect the sleep deprivation he is causing is having on your health - coupled with a mention to the Council about peoples' legal right under the Human Rights Act to "peaceful enjoyment of their home". The Council could be breaking the law if they let him keep disrupting your right to that "peaceful enjoyment"....:cool:..hence very much the easiest way out for them to solve that would be to move one of you;)

fedupfreda

GreyQueen wrote: »

Magazines used to be a major feature of my life as a young woman and if I could have every penny I spent on them and chocolate bars in a bank account right now I'd be one happy bunny.

OMG Me too - when I calculated the amount I had spent during the 7 years I was commuting to work by train, I nearly fainted .... £7280:eek::eek::eek: ... and that was at a fairly modest £20/week and takes into account a couple of magazines a week, a weeks worth of newspapers and oooooodles of chocolate (I've always loved my chocolate, could eat it for England ......:o ... my excuse is I was hungry after work and waiting for a train so it would be another hour before I was back home for my tea ;):o) add in the make up and hair products I used to buy on a regular basis and you could nearly double that figure :eek::eek::eek: Had I had the sense to put it in the bank, it would have been worth a pretty penny now.

Mind you, with my luck, I would have picked a bank that failed:cool: - so its probably just as well :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Keep well everyone

modern_millie_2

Evening all,
lots going on at the moment
Catznine, hope that figure is wrong but well done for facing up to it so positively
Annie - if you are able to find work, I would say go for it because I don't think we're out of the woods yet, better to have a job which you can later give up if need be
Charis, know what you mean about escaping FROM the country - it can be beautiful, but sometimes you just need people around you - I feel the same
GQ, hope you are not in too much pain withv the tooth (or the other pain who shall be nameless)
Kidkat - sorry you are stressed, but no wonder - hope things go smoothly and speedily with the house
Sunshine Bear - going to try the potato curry, sounds great.
Gailey - thinking of you - surely baby must be on the way!

I had a form from my bank with a budget planner on it yesterday, and decided I would fill it in - shocked me by initially coming out with a negative figure - decided I could tweak it slightly on food and entertainment budgets, but made me realise there is no room for manoevre really - can't justify any extra coffees out or clothes spends (don't buy magazines anymore!) but I am more determined not to go over. Know my weaknesses now and will be applying the 'do I need it ' test.
Glad to hear you managed to avoid the extra overdraft Dolly - well done you.

Larumbelle

Hey all :hello:

Well, I had a shocker when I went to the GP last Friday. She sent me straight to A&E :eek: with a letter. They basically dosed me with morphine and sent me home again. Come Monday I was back at the GP who sent me straight back to A&E with another letter. Turns out it wasn't just post-surgery pain, I had an abscess behind the wound and also I have too much scar tissue or something, so I have to have another operation, but not until everything else has cleared up. So I'm a bit miserable really, I'm in quite a lot of pain and this is the first time I have been able to sit up in a chair all week. I'm on my third megadose course of antibiotics in four weeks. Oh, and to top it all work are being horrid.

Sigh.

Huge hugs to those who are poorly or having a bad time of it. :grouphug: I wonder how Gailey is?

I know it's a bit late but:

jumblejack wrote: »

I've started saving my margarine tubs!!! All the same size and FREE!

I have also been saving my 4pt bottles and cutting off the tops for plant pots to start off my seedlings.

If you thread a hole in the lid, push a rag through the hole then put the upside-down top into the bottom, you'll have a brilliant self-watering pot. I use ones made from big water bottles to grow salads on my window sill. Ugly but functional. This site explains what I'm on about.

Charis wrote: »

What a lovely expression. If I was into cross stitch, I'd love to make a wall hanging that said "Welcome to my modest but perfectly adequate home". (

I love it! I would make one that says "it's not perfect, but it's mine and I like it" A friend of mine has quite a collection of subversive samplers, but she cheated and bought them off Etsy. If I didn't find cross-stitching so tedious, I would be selling them on there.

ETA: Just clicked that linky for SuperScrimpers, and seriously, HOW can you spend £24k per year more than you earn?????? I am going to have to watch to find out I guess.

Larumbelle

Forgot to say, I was very impressed with my Building Society today. I called to ask if I could transfer some money over the phone. They said no because I wasn't set up for it. I explained the situation - just had surgery, can't walk etc - and that if the money didn't get from my main account to my bills account before tomorrow I was going to end up with three bounced direct debit charges that I can ill afford. I asked if there was anything they could do. He put me on hold for a few minutes then when he came back he said he'd spoke to a manager and they'd do the transfer for me, as they could see I transfer money between the two accounts at the end of every month and also that the last time I'd made a card payment or used the ATM it had been at the hospital. He gave me the manager's name and extension number and said if for any reason the transfer didn't go through to call and they'd refund any charges. He also sent me the forms to get internet and telephone banking set up if I want to, just in case there's a next time.