As The Workhouse Approaches....How To Do Everything To Avoid It, the Old Style Way

ceridwen

bertiebots wrote: »

But I am very worried about the fact that I am actually spending more on petrol at the mo than I am on food!!!!!...just how high can petrol prices go?

Errm.....<cough> and I DO have to say here that my own personal analysis of the situation is that yer "ordinary person in the street" is right now in the process of being priced out of having a car <cough>:o

The way it looks to me is that - right NOW - said "ordinary peeps in the street" do seriously have to think about "Life after cars". Its not just petrol - but I recall a recent article talking about the amount of insurance theft that is going on right now (as in false claims for car-induced accidents) and that car insurance for yer average guy/gal in the street is about to average £20 per week on its own.

Cue - cars are now rapidly becoming non-viable for most people and by (at my guess...) about 2 years from now - one will have to be pretty well-off (or have a company cover the costs thereof) to run a car.

~Sorrees - I know its not what folks wish to hear - but thats my take on the situation...:o

Please don't "shoot the messenger".

CRANKY40

kidcat wrote: »

ETA - our lab has learned to open our kitchen bin today (Its the pedal type) I got rid of the flip top bin as he used to stick his head in and then walk around with the lid trapped round his neck. So all suggestions of dog proof bins please:) I did point out that in my eyes its showinghis intelligence - OH doesnt agree nor did DD16 when she had to clean after him this morning!!

I didn't think that a lab proof bin existed. Our lab could open the fridge too, which is how we found out he didn't like lettuce. It was all that he left. We didn't have a kitchen bin once we had him as no food was safe unless locked up or in a tin or jar. We took rubbish straight outside to the big bin.

Smileyt I should have known that labrador was involved somehow. Ours was a black lab and he was a menace. My friend had a black lab guide dog....and had to walk round the park for two hours one day as it refused to "find the way home".

ginnyknit wrote: »

So we are all, making, baking, pickling, dehydrating and planting. We re-use, waste nothing and have no spend days.... so how come we are still broke???

Imagine our standard of life if we didn't do all this stuff? I am happy to settle for broke as opposed to "up to my eyeballs in debt". I have one facebook friend who is always posting about what new things her and her husband have bought. I know for a fact (she told me) that it all goes on a credit card. If you go round to their house there is no food in the cupboards, and usually very little other than a loaf of bread in the freezer....

ceridwen

r.a.i.n.b.o.w wrote: »

Thanks for this!:j

Does it cost much to run? How long does it take to dry food? And can you dry tomatoes in it?

Err...have never worked it out as to how much it costs to run - but would imagine its so low as not to need considering.

How long it takes? Well - that depends on the particular food concerned. But - try reckoning on somewheres between half a day and a day (day as meaning - 8 hours or so...).

It really does depend on the particular foodstuff concerned - and anyone buying a dehydrator will be told the estimated time per type of foodstuff on the one hand - but check on the other hand.

I guess it boils down to "How moist is the food concerned to start with?". The moister the original product - then the longer it will take to dry seems to be the rule of thumb here. That is - tomatoes are pretty darn moist - so will take a pretty long time.

The rule is "Dry it - and then maybe add a bit more drying time - as you need to be sure that every last bit of moisture has been dried out from it, so it doesnt go mouldy subsequently". Voice of experience - eg from not having dried lemon slices for long enough...:o

candygirl

My late lab Milo also opened all the doors, bins, he used to step on the pedal bin, and cupboards:D:DMakes the staffys look easy:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

[Deleted User]

http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=MSE

another candle is lit

Hippeechiq

iris wrote: »

Another sharp rise in price I noticed is on jelly. I normally buy Mr T's value jellies at 6p each, however they seem to have disappeared from their shelves. The only jellies they now stock are 36p each:eek:
Anyone know where I can buy cheap jellies? .

I'm having the same problem. Value/SmartPrice jelly seems to have disappeared about 2 weeks ago, but I don't understand why own brand isn't available either - all I can find anywhere (in a block) is Hartleys, which as you say, are 36p each.

In the last month, my local Te$co have also now stopped selling "value" Iceberg lettuce, so it now costs a quid if you want to buy one fgs!! Luckily, £idl are only another 5 minute walk and they usually sell them for 79p. WHY on earth are they so expensive these days?

And a cheap(ish) (compared to others stocked) fish sauce I used to use to make Thai Green Chicken Curry. Seems to me that not only value/smart price/basics food, but low priced food in general is gradually being phased out.

ceridwen wrote: »

Cue - cars are now rapidly becoming non-viable for most people and by (at my guess...) about 2 years from now - one will have to be pretty well-off (or have a company cover the costs thereof) to run a car.

Personally Ceridwen. I think you've hit the nail squarely on the head.
Mine failed it's MOT last year, and I can't afford to get her fixed or to get another one, but even if she had passed, we would no longer be able to afford to run her.
It's the first and only time I can remember (even going back to being a child) that I've ever been without one. I'm fortunate, in as much as I live in a town, and have all the amenities I need within walking distance, & my OH goes to work via public transport.
It does mean however, that I am now no longer able to visit my friends, Brother, Daughter and 78year old Father who live 220 miles away from me in deep countryside that isn't accessible by train or bus

ginnyknit

Cranky40 thats very true, yes broke is better than upto your neck in debt - positive point of view thank you. I have been trying to find an angle on it.

Ceridwen unfortunately we have to have a car as Oh cannot walk. No I wont shoot the messenger hunny. Many people on here live in the middle of nowhere too and have to have a car so i guess we will have to analyse our useage even more and only use them for necessities. Of course living in a built up area right near the bus routes we would have to take to the bus and even though wheelchairs take priority its very difficult as technically they would ask a buggy and Mum to get off I guess,which would upset us no end. Bus fares in Manchester have shot up as less people are travelling on them nowadays so something will have to give. Maybe these car share set-ups will extend but you have to get to a pick up point to use them and I cannot see them leaving cars lying about round here - we had a cash point for 48 hours before someone ripped it out of the wall!!! All in all I can see some of us staying home a lot more ( if thats possible) and just doing a mornings running about for everything at once.

sammy_kaye18

Afternoon all

Jesus what a palarva!

Had our house inspection and were told we needed to replace two doors and fill a hole in the ceiling but if we just got the doors they would hang them for us.

Sorted - managed to track down the doors at a local hardware store and am now £85 lighter :eek::eek::eek::eek:but housing officer is going to write up our tenancy agreement tonight for us, and then pop out tomorrow afternoon to check we did get the doors/fill hole and then ring to make us an appointment to go and sign the agreement. so fingers crossed we should be down there signing it tomorrow afternoon.

Also we are not allowed our decorating grant until we have cleaned our flat. Our decorating grant is £130.

Went and saw our new house too.

Living room/diner is wooden floored and the council are leaving the two roller blinds there so we dont have to worry about the windows now. We can close off a door between the kitchen and back door to create a sort of cold pocket - only downfall of that is the bathroom is out there. There is also a handy alcove between back door and bathroom which looks perfect 'dog bed' size Apart from that it looks lovely and first time I'll be able to keep my fridge/freezer in the kitchen - my next purchase now - is a new proper size fridge freezer!

Bathroom is more a wet room with a seated shower in it - told also we are bottom of the list for bathroom being redone as it had just been redone for the last tenant. Is very nice, very clean, brand new shower curtains and a new blind on the window.

No carpet on the stairs.:(

No loft insulation :(:(

Our room is pale pink with a wee cubby hole cupboard thing at the end - possible storecupboard? away from kitchen for supplies?

Boys room is thick 1980's wallpaper which is white with a hideous blue flower border

Hollys room is a very pale yellow with said wallpaper.

No carpet in any bedrooms :(

Although - we were told by the council men today take what we want to take with us, and what we dont want they will scrap. So we have decided that the carpet in our bedroom is big enough it will do the boys bedroom in the new house, and that Bens current carpet - which is purple - is big enough it will do hollys bedroom so they will both have carpet at least in their rooms and we will make do at the minute.

So I am now looking at ways to

a) save us money - thinking veggie plot, learning some crafts so I can gift them etc

b) save our heating/electric bill - We do have a small gas fire on the wall in the living room - but not sure if this will be an expensive thing or not - anyone have any ideas? obviously I know we can put that on to warm us up but I'm wondering if I use that as a main heat source and leave our door open so the warmth rises upstairs would it help? Not unduly worried about Ben as he has the water heater in his room which should supply him with a fair bit of warmth. A re-read and notemaking of the save gas/electric thread is in order I think.

c) storage for a stock pile - am very aware that now we will not be next door to the shop and the nearest one is a good 15 minute hike down the valley for us so I think keeping a stockpile will be a necessity in this house - just wondering where!

Right off now to find and bookmark threads I need to re-read and perhaps start note making!

ceridwen

Hippeechiq wrote: »

Personally Ceridwen. I think you've hit the nail squarely on the head.
Mine failed it's MOT last year, and I can't afford to get her fixed or to get another one, but even if she had passed, we would no longer be able to afford to run her.
It's the first and only time I can remember (even going back to being a child) that I've ever been without one. I'm fortunate, in as much as I live in a town, and have all the amenities I need within walking distance, & my OH goes to work via public transport.
It does mean however, that I am now no longer able to visit my friends, Brother, Daughter and 78year old Father who live 220 miles away from me in deep countryside that isn't accessible by train or bus

Well - I have to say I never got used to having one and was fortunate in some ways that I never really wanted one that much. I do pine to be able to get to nearby countryside whenever I want to (rather than knowing that public transport often doesnt even go there AT ALL:mad::() - but that has always been the case for me. I'm easily able to get on a bus to go and see my parents whenever I choose to (though there have been many times where I have had to think twice about whether I had the money to be able to cover the cost of the fare for that even - as public transport is also more expensive than average in my dear part of the country). These days - now I dont have to worry about the cost of our dear bus fares so much anymore I end up having "discussions" with said parents about my paying out the busfares and we are "fighting" about who covers the cost sometimes. I usually win in the short term - but then find they are giving me foodstuff...(which probably about evens out overall...).

Taxi fares are expensive - but I long ago worked out that it was worth my while to cover the cost of the odd taxi fare on those (short) journeys where public transport wouldnt suffice - rather than try and cover the cost of running a car. I still save loadsa money - even compared to the (previous) cost of running a car.

I DO have to admit though that part of the (non-financial) reason for never having had a car is that I can turn round and think "I'm doing reasonably well here;
- I've never had a car
- I've given up flying
- I bought a house that is old enough that it was built BEFORE Britain became over-populated (ie I dont have to feel guilty that it was built on countryside/someone else's garden/etc) (....errr...and a right old dump it is too...but thats another story.....:().

ceridwen

[QUOTE=sammy_kaye18;43

Bathroom is more a wet room with a seated shower in it - told also we are bottom of the list for bathroom being redone as it had just been redone for the last tenant. Is very nice, very clean, brand new shower curtains and a new blind on the window.

No carpet on the stairs.:(

No loft insulation :(:(

Our room is pale pink with a wee cubby hole cupboard thing at the end - possible storecupboard? away from kitchen for supplies?

Boys room is thick 1980's wallpaper which is white with a hideous blue flower border

Hollys room is a very pale yellow with said wallpaper.

No carpet in any bedrooms :(

Although - we were told by the council men today take what we want to take with us, and what we dont want they will scrap. So we have decided that the carpet in our bedroom is big enough it will do the boys bedroom in the new house, and that Bens current carpet - which is purple - is big enough it will do hollys bedroom so they will both have carpet at least in their rooms and we will make do at the minute.

![/QUOTE]

Wet room - instead of conventional bathroom - errm....actually I know I'd love a wet room instead of bathroom as such. Got used to wet rooms abroad and not keen on British style bathrooms ever since....So - that sounds okay to me I have to admit. My ideal would be a bathroom (with bath in) AND a wetroom (with my preference being on wet room). But - it will work anyways....

No stair carpet - well...am now wondering whether I still have a book I specifically bought "for future consultation" on painting floors (ie rather than carpeting them or putting vinyl or - these days - laminate on them). One can buy really hardwearing paints specifically for painting floors and I do recall seeing a description in that book about how to paint a "runner" up the stairs in cases like this. I think that would work perfectly well until such time as you can afford a staircarpet.

Other thoughts re carpet - errrm...well it maybe depends on the type of carpet shop one looks at - but I do know that mid price range carpet shops still put out odd rolls of smaller pieces of carpet with the rubbish just to be carted away by the dustbin men (as I've noticed this - even quite recently - from one of my carpet shops I've used). No reason why not to ask nicely for these small offcuts and then I seem to recall reading somewhere about there being strong enough/thick enough tape to make a "patchwork quilt" of carpet pieces on a floor to do to cover it up for the time being if wanted.

Freecycle might also yield carpet being passed on by a previous owner. There are certainly still peeps passing on perfectly decent room size pieces of carpet - just because they fancied a bit of a change - but there is literally years of wear left in it. Ask me how I know - I made do with "patchwork" pieces of carpet from my parents' house for years before getting my "final" carpet here.

Loft insulation - there might well still be a grant to cover the cost. Thats how I got some more years ago - ie when I bought B.H. (aka "Blimmin' House"). I'm reasonably sure there is still grants available towards this.

All sounds do-able to me...:)