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

lora

Hope you are all sitting down--I've picked over 10lbs of strawberries from allotments plants I planted from runners last year--very very MSE. I even share some with the birds---sainthood coming soon I think.

mardatha

St Lora of the Strawberries?

lora

mardatha wrote: »

St Lora of the Strawberries?

Thanks for that. I still cannot eat proper porridge--Scottish by birth and a Heinz hound from family background.

jamanda

Sammy-kaye is on the preparing for winter thread - snuggling up her new house.

GreyQueen

freudianslip wrote: »

Good morning

Interesting read on food banks. I find it appalling that it is down to the churches that are recognising there's this need and not society.

I would hope to see The Big 4/6 supermarkets set up their own food bank charities, using their own 'waste' and putting it to excellent use. Yeah I need to wake up, that's never going to happen........ maybe they should have their arms twisted by the people at the top who are trampling all over our spirit as a society. (my opinion and I can't apologise for it)

At 30 this is the first 'struggle' I have encountered as an adult so I am very bitter about what is happening but at the same I'm pleased that this spend culture we have had is on its way out. It makes for a selfish, self-centred and greedy society, which we then pick up and learn that that kind of behaviour is the norm resulting in personality traits that are not desirable. IMO

I think you're bang-on-the money with this one. I'm about 2 decades older than you and am now on my 3rd recession as an adult so the "good times" always felt temporary and precarious to me. I used the inverted commas because they weren't particularly "good" for me personally but a lot of people seemed to be doing OK. The loadsamoney arrogance of the yuppie 1980s was vile, too.

It does seem that kindness and compassion decrease in inverse proportion to rising incomes. I have read that the highest per capital charitable donations come from the poorest areas of the country, with the poorer parts of Glasgow being especially notable for their generosity.

I read a book years ago whose title escapes me, about a man who fulfilled an ambition to ride across Turkey and the whole of Europe and home to Wales (he came in France at the same time as the 1987 hurricane). In Turkey, he was in desperately poor rural areas, and people couldn't do enough to help him, and his horse, and wouldn't accept anything in return (he resorted to hiding money in their homes, he felt so guilty that they had given more than they could spare of their resources). By the time he was well up into Europe, he had a seriously-ill horse collapsed and on the ground and a householder came out to berate him because the poor animal was lying in the shade cast by the house!

I think we sometimes have to be touched by hardship personally before we can truly empathise with others who are going thru hard times.

It's a unique situation at the moment because, in the space of a year or so, it appears that the steady upward progression of material standards of living which has been happening since WW2, has stalled, and started to reverse. For many younger people, moving out and setting up housekeeping, this will mean that they have far less than they grew up with, and than they expected to have themselves. That's going to be very hard to stomach.

jackieglasgow best of luck with your job presentation and redlady fingers crossed for your exam results and I hope that the fatigue caused by the noisy neighbour didn't blight your work. If you like classical, Carl Orff's Carmina Burana has lots of noisy bombastic passages alternating with the old quieter bit to lull them into a false sense of security........cackle cackle......

Thrifty85

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for all the tips I have picked up over the past few days. You were discussing the energy price hikes recently which spurred me on to check my tariff......I couldn't believe it when I discovered I was only on the standard tariff, I thought I was on the discounted online tariff! A whole year of overpaying, I'm so mad with myself. :mad: BUt thanks to you lovely lot the situation has been recitified. However I now need to scrimp and save even more and be extra careful.

I also read recently about the tip of using shampoo in the washing machine. I picked up a litre bottle of basic shampoo in Home BArgains for just 70p but am a little bit scared of using it! Do you just put shampoo in the drawer and nothing else? I have visions of bubbles and suds coming out of the machine!

catznine

Menu planning like mad today as we have a houseful of guests next week! Going to take a leaf out of Hesters book and start cooking now, finally have some room in the freezers to store it all!

Can't believe that the wedding is soooo close now!:eek::) Not going to say what my Mother of the bride outfit cost but I got it in the co- op (quadrant) off the rail;) Mother of the groom will probably outshine me as she is very glamorous, has unlimited funds and used to run a dress agency! She's a nice lady though, great fun and makes me laugh!

I've been getting a good handful of strawberries daily now but nothing else from the garden! The birds took the blackcurrants (not many) Rhubarb is looking healthy though. No courgettes yet, only male flowers here!

We have 3 foodbanks in nearby towns, none in my town yet, they all are run by local Churches! I don't remember foodbanks from last recessions but can see how they would be a lifesaver! So sad we need them but thank goodness for kind hearted people!

Kimitatsu

GreyQueen wrote: »

I think we sometimes have to be touched by hardship personally before we can truly empathise with others who are going thru hard times.

It's a unique situation at the moment because, in the space of a year or so, it appears that the steady upward progression of material standards of living which has been happening since WW2, has stalled, and started to reverse. For many younger people, moving out and setting up housekeeping, this will mean that they have far less than they grew up with, and than they expected to have themselves. That's going to be very hard to stomach.

I am inbetween the two of you :rotfl: but I agree GQ and FS with the sentiments. I have worked with lots of deprived and vulnerable people and families and their spirit, empathy and generosity never ceases to humble me. Conversely some of the wealthiest people I dont give two figs for because they have no perception of how lucky they are - interestingly though they are the ones who have the most negative outlook on life.

I have two step children who dont live with me, but their expectations are huge. We seem to have spawned a generation who expect to be given a well paid job, house, car etc without actually doing anything for it! I knwo they have been brought up differently to the two I have at home but I was really proud of my 14 year old the other day when out of the blue he asked the feed merchant if he could have a Saturday job please? He explained later that he wanted to earn his own money, not just the pocket money he gets :T For him he realises that he needs to work at school to get qualification so his options are open because he sees what things cost. Martin needs to come around to our house to see financial education on a day by day basis :rotfl::rotfl:

Conversely my stepchildren have truanted from school, think that they will walk into a job - the conversation with my step daughter as to why she wasnt going to accept the job offered was "because its ONLY an apprenticeship :eek:" but she has little chance of getting any real qualifications as she has missed so much school. She was looking at cars the other day in the belief that someone was going to provide lessons and one for her - that was a let down then.

I think that many sectors of society need to pull together more, have been biting my tongue this morning answering a post from someone who thinks its not fair that if he has 3 current accounts with £2k in each then that should not be counted as savings.....he still should be able to claim all the benefits. Society as a whole needs a shake down me thinks.......back off to my grumpy old woman corner now.

r.a.i.n.b.o.w

kidcat wrote: »

One of my bags of potatoes looks like the leaves are dying - have I killed them by moving them?

That usually means the spuds are ready - have a feel around to see


And I also have no flowers on me toms

[Deleted User]

I am thinking about recessions and just coping and how we got through since 1970, when we got married. There have been so many hard times and it makes you very wary of the good times. I remember camping then because I was never ever going to spend several hundred on a family holiday abroad but those camping days were some of the most family memorable of our lives. Sitting in a tent and oh so glad to have upscaled to a camp kitchen and folding chairs with backs and a groundsheet, sitting there when the 3 children were fast asleep and having our big big treat, a glass of wine and a shop bought cake. Oh simple pleasures

I don`t know how the world is going to cope, more and more people with fewer resources. I do know that in 1970, it took the two of us to work together to get a house and to bring up the children. Lots of marriages just happened and I wouldn`t say that lust was involved or even love, just getting on together sufficied and for the lucky ones, love grew and grew and the tapestry of life started to be made. Nice bits, dark bits and for us ending in the comfortable place that is now

I know for a fact that we wouldn`t be coping now if I hadn`t had a lifelong thriftiness, or way of living. So those of you who are finding thriftiness a daily challenge, it becomes habit and a satisfying pleasurable one at that. I would not have wanted to be born with a silver spoon in my mouth, I have loved every minute of earning my future and always have something challenging to look forward to, even now