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

starsandmoon

Jelly - where has all the cheap jelly gone? I have searched everywhere and no value jelly anywhere. Cheapest I found it was 29p in Home 7 Bargain. Whats going on? Its a conspiracy to drive me insane:mad:

Bargain this week was a pack of 16 Kinder choc sticks in Poundland, £1.65 in Lidl and £1.85 in Tesco.

Sammy -congrats on your new house. You'l soon have it up to scratch. Took me 15 months to get my house sorted after renting a flat. Worth it though for the space and although I only have a yard its so nice to be able to hang washing out and sit in the sun (when we have any that is) :beer:

ginnyknit

Just witnessed NHS cutbacks, car park in the middle of nowhere gone up to 2.00 for 2 hours, we were there 20 minutes! Appointment in a portacabin, had loo's but not even a water fountain - luckily I took water with us. Happy it was short and sweet but concerned about people who had to visit poorly loved ones and pay upto 5.50 per day parking and pushing a wheelchair so far in a very rough car park was difficult. The only disabled space had a lorry in it!

Its still wet and cold here and my veggies look like they need some warmth, greenhouses sealed up again in hopes of spurring my babies along.

jediteacher

Waiting for hubby to come home to see the consultant so fingers crossed we'll know more about what is happening with baby later today.

Popped into tesco after picking up my little girl from nursery to pick up the little swiss rolls she has as a treat. I bought some on Monday this week but hubby ate the all. Then came the shock. On Monday they cost 75p for six today they cost £1 for six!:mad: This is the only real treat my little girl has and has gone up by 25% in less than 2 days! And yet on the radio today I was listening to some twit who said that inflation was good for us - all I can say is that he must have enough money to not have to worry about these things and yet us 'normal' people are really feeling the squeeze.

We bought a plastic bath for £2.99 from Ikea when my daughter was born 4 years ago and I have to say out of all the baby stuff we bought this has proved the most used. We still bathe her in it every week in the front room. It uses less water, it's warmer in the lounge and she gets to watch some telly. The only trouble is getting her out of it as she does love her baths. The only time she goes into the big bath is when I have a bath and she hops in with me.

When I was little we did't have an inside toilet until I was 11 years old. We lived in Surrey and the toilet was in the garden in a brick hut. In the winter it was freezing until my granddad connected the hut with electricity and we had a heater. We also did not have a car at all (we eventually moved to London and didn't need one) when I was young - infact I didn't get to have a car until I learnt to drive myself and buy my own at the age of 22. Now I couldn't live without it as we both work and there are no buses to where I work that early in the morning or the time I would be coming home.

At the moment I am trying to use up wool that I have by knitting cardigans and jumpers for my little girl and for the new one (when he decides to make an appearance!) for winter. Hopefully this will save some money as jumpers as so expensive and hard to find!

Must get back to doing some tidying in the front room and reclaim some of the baby stuff that my daughter has taken back! At the moment she is watching The Fox and the Hound whilst sitting in her old pram (minus the wheels!).

On a last note I WANT SOME RAIN!

valk_scot

I've got painted floors in most of my rooms. Half of them were done before I arrived, the rest were due to me ripping up the ghastly moth eaten carpets without having the £££ to replace them. I use proper hard wearing floor paint which is expensive for paint, but one heck of a lot less than carpet. I just paint them plain colours (white, black, terracotta etc) as it's easier to touch up the worn bits at the door every couple of years or so.

Painted stairs too. White possibly wasn't the idea choice there as they show the dirt but you can scrub proper floor paint.

THIRZAH

We didn't have a car until I was about 11. My Dad had a van which he used for work. If we went on trips we children would sit on sofa cushions in the back. No wonder we all suffered fromcar sickness.

Our firstproper car was a Morris traveller as Dad could put the back seat down to make room for his tools. After that we could go a bit further afield for holidays.We always went self-catering and would take a weeks veg from the garden.Usually the only place left for these in the car was under our feet in the back.

Butterfly_Brain

We had cars when we were little because Dad needed to have one to get to and from work. He was a builder (7 years apprentiship in those days) and travelled all over to get to sites.
We lived in a one bedroom flat in London and there were five children, We had one gas fire in the kitchen/diner and an open fire in the living room.
Every floor had lino and we had a few rugs - In the winter we had wincyette pj's , extra blankets and hot water bottles plus plenty of hand knitted woolies which are so much warmer than shop bought.
It was luxury when we moved to a 4 bed house with a parkray fire central heating system ( Wish I had one now) and we actually had carpets in every room.

sammy_kaye18

Afternoon all

Just wanted to let you now that we had the council woman out today again - she has ok'd the ceiling and the doors and made us an appointment to go and sign the tenancy agreement tomorrow at 1pm.

Already rung sw@lec which said the electric is still being supplied to the new house so if we can get everything done then we will be in there by tomorrow night hopefully. :D:D:D

Bens rooms packed
Our room is practically packed - owen is half way through dismantling our bed as I type so just hollys cot to go really.
Airing cupboard is cleared
Bathroom/toilet is cleared
Kitchen is half done - mainly food/microwave and bigger stuff
Living room - all little odds and sods still to do but I'll finish them tonight afterwork.

Owen is going to pack the van tonight with as many boxes as possible, then we will take little miss up to grandma's, and go to council to sign for keys, then up to the house and unpack the van - then Owen will come back down for another run whilst I get sorting bits out in the new house.

so sammy kaye may be absent for a day or two until we are in, settled and reconnected! x

shouldn't be long as have already arranged the NTL man coming out to connect us!

Butterfly_Brain

sammy_kaye18 wrote: »

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!

I thought that the council /HA had an obligation to make sure that you have adequate heating especially if you have children under five or are elderly or disabled. See if you can look into this.
All Council housing here has had new boilers/rads and insulation put in so badger the council
This site will tell you all of your rights as a council tenant
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/yourrightsas

redlady_1

I am sorry to tell you all that the Old Blind Boy has finally lost his battle today. If anyone had 9 lives then he certainly did. I feel pants. :sad:

LannyLee

redlady_1 wrote: »

I am sorry to tell you all that the Old Blind Boy has finally lost his battle today. If anyone had 9 lives then he certainly did. I feel pants. :sad:

So sorry redlady - thinking of you, it's horrible when one of our pets passes away they are just like members of the family {{{HUGS}}}