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

DebtFree2012

Thrifty85 wrote: »

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!

I would like to try this myself but have exactly the same worry. Do you put it in the drawer or the drum? How much etc?

Primrose

To somebody's earlier enquiry about eating young broad bean pods. Yes, you can, but they arn't particularly pleasant raw. What you can do is chop them up, fry them gently in a little butter with onions and mushrooms and add a little creme fraiche & parmesan. Stir into some pasta to make a pasta primavera.

greent

Shampoo in washing machines - just a small capful in the drawer. Basics/ value stuff is best - tends to have less of the foaming agents in than the more expensive stuff.

Using essential oils in cleaning - if that's all you're using them for then get them from somewhere like H0lland & Barrett or ebay. Cheap and cheerful. If you want to use them on yourself in any way (including a bath) then pay a more (not discounting ebay here, either - but just be more selective) (speaking as a qualified aromatherapist). ANother way of 'disguising' white vinegar is to make your own lavender vinegar - steep lavender flower heads in it for several weeks - will pick up the smell and be a pretty lilac colour.

Chillier here today and it has been spitting, so I have held off putting the washing out so far. Still have masses of ironing to do from teh last 2 days' worth.

A first for me today. Usually I buy canned chickpeas from A5da - cheaper than Te5co - but I so rarely go tehre now that I've bought from T recently. Anyway, I decided to buy a pack of dried and soaked them last night and cooked them this morning. I will have some at luch today/ tomorrow and freeze the rest.

Have eaten grilled grapefruit for breakfast today in my quest to use things up - we had 2 in our veg box 2 weeks ago and no-one else likes them. I do, but find that I still have to eat a normal breakfast on top of them, 'cos they're not exactly filling! Had a handful of cooked chickpeas to top it up today! I shall segment the last one and eat it with sweetened quark for dessert one night, I think. Have amended this week's box order to ensure we don't get things we'll find hard to use.

Am having a clear out of childrens things this week for the local NCT sale. I have 160 things to sell - hopefully half will go. ANy toys the children sell they get the money for, but any other money raised will be used as an overpayment on the mortgage. I'm still (slightly hopefully, I have to say!!) looking to pay it off by the time DD starts uni (she's 13) Still, every little OP helps to reduce our overall interest paid So far I've only labelled and priced about 40 things - so I've still got masses to do. Some of the unsold clothes will be charity shopped and any unsold bigger items will go on ebay on Sunday (free listing weekend!! yippee!!!)

Food banks - I donated stuff to our local one when the Te5co DTD promotion was on and I got lots of free food - pasta, beans, various other tins. I'm 41 and we bought our first house at 21. Couldn't begin to imagine 2 21 year olds in their first jobs managing to do that now. We bought when the market was going down too (the house had sold brand new 3 years earlier for £54k - we bought it for £42k) - but still had negative equity when we sold 5 years later (and that was after putting in central heating and double glazing) I remember the day when interest rates rose to 15% in the morning and reduced again in the afternoon to 12% (or similar figures) - scary. In the last 10 years OH has been made redundant twice, me once and we've lived on JSA for 3 months. This year he was out of work for another 3 months - he's now self employed, so it's the risk/ nature of his job now. We have a small cushion, no debts except the mortgage and manage fine. I see other people earning more (and with a smaller family) with car finance, credit card debts etc and just think that we are in a good place and that there will be a day (possibly) when they'll rue their excess spending. I'm not Mrs Smug, far from it.

Potatoes - I've been planting mine since March - last ones went in this week (only because I'd ran out of space and enthusiasm up until now) - should be fine for Autumn. Same as carrots - I did another pack of seeds this week - they'll be fine - smaller, probably - but we tend to pull them small anyway - so sweet, then (and the guinea pigs eat any really teeny ones and all the tops)

Right - it hasn't spat rain for the last half hour, so the washing is now going out!!

Seakay

JIL wrote: »

As others have already said they are the males, but the babies will soon appear and it easy to tell the difference. You can eat the flowers, if you are like me once you have grown it yourself it is extra special and you wont want to waste any of your harvest. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/allotment/2010/aug/19/allotments-gardeningadvice
My impatience got the better of me on Sunday, I had been growing some potatoes in an old black bin from some shop bought potatoes that had sprouted. I found a couple of little potatoes near the top and couldn't stop myself digging deeper. I got a total of 18oz of the best potatoes I have ever tasted. Is it too late now to set some more?? How long does it take to get the best harvest? I had read somewhere it takes 100 days, is there any truth in that or is it a gardeners rumour?
Thanks in advance for any advice.

if you can stop them getting frosted then you can grow potatoes at any time - they take about 15 weeks to grow to maturity.

there's a thread here discussing Autumn plantings:
http://chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=24281.0;topicseen

Just read the article about food banks, and of course it is appalling that anyone should need that sort of help in a supposedley civilised country; but I have to confess to an ignoble first reaction when I saw the picture of the woman who had not been able to send her children to school, because there was no food for lunch. I know that my Mother would have sold everything she owned to provide for her family; if it had got to the point of needing food parcels then she would have had some basic clothes left because her jewellery (possibly not wedding ring) her best clothes, the tv, the furniture etc would have been sold. My Father the same. I do have to fight down the Daily Mail feelings (that I never knew that I had) when people with houses full of possessions claim that they need they same help designed to alleviate the suffering of the homeless and completely dispossessed

Reverbe

Kimitatsu wrote: »

The issue with food banks is that they are under huge pressure and as you said CC in relatively affluent areas then people are in a position to donate. We have a food bank in S!!!!horpe which is struggling to get enough donations in to be able to pass out.



x

OH FGS MSE its a PLACENAME!!!

Reverbe

What a lovely post Kittie. One thing I have learned personally in the recession is that I am sad that I never had much of a good time when younger for one reason or another - never really went out much with friends (last bus home was 5.45 and I lived in a town!!) actually worked while at Uni and never did the social life thing... then spent many years isolated cos I stayed in my Uni city while ppl moved home etc.. I wish I had known that life was going to be so hard when older then I would have made a lot more of my youth - and also saved a lot more and not spent things like 4 quid on tea etc so I can have more for my old age. I posted here recently about how I never thought my life would turn out so bad in so many ways and this was brought home to me again as a friend of mine died on Friday..

laineyc_2

It is a bit overcast here. It was sunny when I was walking ds to school.

I have some courgettes that should be ready next week. I am looking forward to eating them.

I need a bit of a kick to get moving. I am about to make some courgette soup. I also need to bake some cookies and some soda bread. I have a bit of weeding to do as well. Since I have made a concerted effort to be more OS, I find I am very busy. There always seems to be something to do.

I picked some of my spuds yesterday. A bit to early I think, need to learn to be more patient.

I am going to see if I can get some reduced price cream to make some butter. I had 2 new books arrive today which I want to read. One has the instructions for making butter.

Just finished checking my finances for next couple of months. I love my payday at the end of July. I have no dinner money, extracurricular things or travel for the boys. I will use some of the surplus for stocking up the store cupboard.

I am determined to have no extra spending this month. I was going to buy another compost bin but it can wait. I have to buy eldest ds a suit, shoes, shirt, etc for his leavers ball. I vetoed his request for money towards a limo with his friends. Dh will drop him off.


Time to do some work. Have a good day.

GreyQueen

Reverbe wrote: »

What a lovely post Kittie. One thing I have learned personally in the recession is that I am sad that I never had much of a good time when younger for one reason or another - never really went out much with friends (last bus home was 5.45 and I lived in a town!!) actually worked while at Uni and never did the social life thing... then spent many years isolated cos I stayed in my Uni city while ppl moved home etc.. I wish I had known that life was going to be so hard when older then I would have made a lot more of my youth - and also saved a lot more and not spent things like 4 quid on tea etc so I can have more for my old age. I posted here recently about how I never thought my life would turn out so bad in so many ways and this was brought home to me again as a friend of mine died on Friday..

I'll join you in seconding that Kittie's post was lovely, Reverbe, and I'm sorry to hear that you lost your friend only a few days ago. You must be feeling utterly wretched. ((hugs)).

I think if I could have known what my personal future had in store for me (getting glandular fever at uni, developing ME as a result and never being well again) I would have studied less and partied more. I was a bit of a sober-sides a lot of the time, painfully aware of the sacrifices my parents were making to help me thru higher ed. I should have travelled the world and done unwise things with lairy people whilst I had the energy......

Still, hindsight is always clear sight, IYSWHIM. Ultimately, we have only one day at a time and can only get up, have a cuppa and put our game faces on, and do the best we can. Some days our best will truly rock, some days we'll feel like something the cat dragged in and struggle to put a cooked meal on the table.

I'm still feeling whacked out although last night was less disrupted than the previous night. I also forced myself to shop for the new glasses and got 2 pairs for £69 from S*ecS*vers. My current pair come from there and have been very good. Collect next week. Feel a powerful sense of relief that I will have a spare pair in my current prescription, something I haven't been able to afford before. When the new ones arrive, the older ones can go to the charity box.

I'm deeply envious that people are harvesting their strawbs. I had a truly bumper crop in 2010 and knew this year would be poorer as I divvied up and moved the bed but strange things have been happening. They flowered too early and then there was so little moisture it was as if the fruit hardly set and what did got swiped by birds and (I'm assuming) mice. I've hardly had a dozen semi ripe strawbs off about 60 plants. My next door lottie neighbour remarked on it and wondered if somebody (a person) had been swiping them, but I told him I didn't think so, think it's a case that they're not forming properly. Ah well, it's a freaky drought, and not everything can handle it.

My spuds are looking a bit stressed and the tops aren't as good as last years. I like to leave them in the ground until the tops have all died back naturally, so that they can get as big as possible.

I shall be up there after lunch with the sickle, performing my own personal haymaking, probably humming that old hymn with the chorus "Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves, we shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves......". Anyone know the title? I'm a nominal Christian (baptised as a babe) but wasn't properly brought up and never went to church or sunday school.

Actually, given reports of the rising costs of hay, I reckon I've got at least....25p of it. Shall I go into business.......?:rotfl:

Hope everyone finds something hopeful today and ((hugs)) to anyone who feels in need of one.

VJsmum

So sorry for those having hard times and regrets. Nothing worse than regrets.

I Partied!! :T:beer::beer::beer:

I did have to work too, and went to uni in the days of full grants so my (not very well off) parents never paid a penny (except to feed me when i was home) one day i only had enough money for either a pint of beer or a can of hairspray (i bought a small can and had half a pint ) and at one point when i first went to work wasnt sure how i would eat and pay rent. Luckily i got a bar job and the tips bought the food until i got paid.

The less well off childhood and the frugal times at uni have conditioned me not to waste a penny. My OH doesn't know what it's like not to have money, but I do and he keeps reminding me that, at the moment, we are not destitute. The result is that i save pennies while at times he spends tens of pounds.

He rather likes the food aspect of OS though! And we are both environmentally minded so it helps in that way too. I think i may see if there is a foodbank in our town and i will contribute.

Seakay

http://www.prayerfoundation.org/hymns_bringing_in_the_sheaves.htm

We just called in "Bringing in the Sheaves" as well.

Mu sister developed ME at a similar time of her life to you, GreyQueen, and more recently has found the FoggyFriends website and forum very helpful - don't know if you've heard of it?
http://www.foggyfriends.org/