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

[Deleted User]

Reverbe wrote: »

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..

That is so sad, condolences from me

Looking back, again, I never made the most of my youth either. I was happy to get any job anywhere on a saturday and in all the holidays and also week nights, when I should have been studying. I worked 3 school nights a week and saturday and sunday in a chemists and that snookered my hopes of studying medicine. Well it was needs must as I was the oldest of 7. I was pretty then but I didn`t know it, no-one told me, although I don`t know that knowing would have made any difference.

I was just thinking that it would be nice to have the chances all over again and then I thought, well would I really want to be born now and go through everything again? tbh the answer is no and maybe that is why I live in the present

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

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. .

lol that reminds me when being daring was to buy a pint of beer and a packet of cigarettes. The pint lasted me the whole night (honest) and the cigarettes 3 years

GreyQueen

Seakay wrote: »

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/

Hey, thanks for that website, I have grabbed it onto my Favourites and will study on it later. It was very kind of you to take the trouble.

Really must have just one more cuppa and a little more internet then climb on the old pushbike and up to the lottie. I'd like to go to sleep right now but that's not terribly productive, is it?! I can only do about 2 hrs gardening per 24 hrs max, with frequent rests, so even on the weekends and days-off like today, I can only peck away at the lottie (or anything else) so having ME is like living as if you were much older than your chronological age.

Still, plenty of people are far worse off with ME than me, or with other things, so mustn't grumble but, dammit, I could really go for a choccie bar right now with my cuppa.

anguk

Kimitatsu wrote: »

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.

She should snap the apprenticeship up because she'll struggle to find another job without decent qualifications. My DD is currently doing her A levels, never missed school and works really hard, she's been looking for a part-time or Saturday job for ages and there's just nothing out there. She wants to be an accountant in the future so she even emailed 15 accounting firms offering to work for free over the summer holidays, none of them were interested!

I agree that it's all about how children are raised. My DD gets her £30 EMA and she asks me for absolutely nothing, I pay for her bus fare to 6th form but she buys everything else including her clothes. She's going on holiday next weeks with her friend's family (for £50) and she's paid for that plus saved up the spending money. On the other hand I have a friend with a daughter the same age and she expects everything to be just given to her, she's always getting new clothes and they have to be named brands. But then her mam is daft enough to buy her everything, yet this girl is never happy, drifts from one college course to another and seems to have no direction in life.

Kimitatsu

anguk wrote: »

She should snap the apprenticeship up because she'll struggle to find another job without decent qualifications. My DD is currently doing her A levels, never missed school and works really hard, she's been looking for a part-time or Saturday job for ages and there's just nothing out there. She wants to be an accountant in the future so she even emailed 15 accounting firms offering to work for free over the summer holidays, none of them were interested!

I agree that it's all about how children are raised. My DD gets her £30 EMA and she asks me for absolutely nothing, I pay for her bus fare to 6th form but she buys everything else including her clothes. She's going on holiday next weeks with her friend's family (for £50) and she's paid for that plus saved up the spending money. On the other hand I have a friend with a daughter the same age and she expects everything to be just given to her, she's always getting new clothes and they have to be named brands. But then her mam is daft enough to buy her everything, yet this girl is never happy, drifts from one college course to another and seems to have no direction in life.

I agree anguk that was just the conversation that was had, that she will have a job before everyone else gets their results and so she will know that she has something and it will give her money in her pocket! Personally I was shocked at the attitude so I sat her down and explained that she will not be entitled to anything because of her age so unless she wants to go back to college and resit all the exams she has avoided going to lessons for the last year she had better think hard.

It is the way they are brought up, teenagers are a breed apart we all know that :rotfl: but they can understand what is financially possible and what is not and how they can make their own pennies yowl (love that phrase CBHM!) Personally I think it does them good to have to work for the things they want, it makes them value the time and effort that goes into it, and ultimately its a life skill.

mardatha

the only regret I have also involves ME - my OH would never go on holiday and I just left it, thinking that when I stopped work then we would go everywhere and have a great life. Didn't reckon on getting ME and being so bloody tired that I can hardly leave the house !! But at same time it made me slow down and smell the flowers in life. Sometimes. LOL

Former_MSE_Andrea

Hi everyone

Could you have a read of this please?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/44473606#Comment_44473606

There's no need to let it take this thread off topic though. Just remember, please always be nice to other MoneySavers and if you feel someone's causing issues then just report to forumteam@ without replying.

Thank you!

Andrea

ChocClare

Kimitatsu wrote: »

CC -whats the difference between a pressure canner and a pressure cooker? An american friend of mine was telling me about pressure canning, and I had a quick look but the prices were eye watering and that was before shipping! Looks great but any info would be fab!

A pressure canner cooks at a far higher temperature (and is usually large enough to fit a small child in). It is the only way you can be sure to have killed any botulism spores in VEGETABLES as they are not acid enough to kill the spores on their own. Fruit is. This is why vegetables were always pickled or put into chutney in ye olde days.

Of course, you COULD decide that your grandma always did it without a pressure canner and decide to risk it. The only problem is, food contaminated with botulism doesn't smell or look "off". It tastes perfectly lovely. Botulism affects your muscles, so you would only know you had it if you found yourself paralysed or unable to breathe (worst case scenario, admittedly). It is VERY rare, but probably not worth the risk when we have freezers available!

I do not know why pressure canners are not available here. I am sure if we all wrote to Lakeland or somewhere we might get a result. However, as you say, they are expensive otherwise - and you have to have the shipped over from the States, which doesn't help. Canning seems to be a national pastime in the States - as it is in France, but they don't sell canners there, either :mad:

I famously bartered for mine (or DH did - he swapped a load of Star Wars clips for them ) and one of his clients went out, bought me one, took out all the guarantees etc, battered the box and posted it to me as a secondhand gift in the hope of avoiding import duty to keep costs down. He then sent guarantees and instructions separately. So it was "free" - not really, but I couldn't get one for much under £180 including shipping if I'd bought it on ebay, for example. It was DH's present to me to forego the profit on his clips to buy my pressure canner. Aahhhh!

Mind you, he uses it for making up sugar solution for his bees as it's the largest "saucepan" we have (it holds 20 quarts, ie 40 pints, ie 5 gallons, people!!!!!!!!!) so he uses it too.

It is tempting to be able to bottle veg in theory - but do you want your lovely French beans to taste like they've come out of a tin? I think they're nicer frozen...

lizzyb1812

Charis I know what you mean about using the car in a social/enjoyment sort of way and I certainly do that. I was just trying to work out a way to get me to have more NSDs. Calculating the cost of going to a supermarket more often than I needed to - and buying stuff I could do without - has motivated me to go to the shops less. But I'd be stuck for a social life without the car as I don't live in a town.

anguk/Greyqueen I'm about the same age as GQ and can remember several recessions. I think it feels harder now because we've got more to lose. My friend's son has been looking for a flat or houseshare. He does have a job but doesn't earn much so he can't afford anything grand but has turned down a couple of house share offers because there was no dishwasher or Sky!

Had a few raspberries with the strawberries for breakfast. Ninja the cat sleeps under the raspberry canes so no thieving birds in my plot. Not as sunny today but still very dry so watering will have to recommence.

OS - started off a five gallon batch of wine and later today I'm going to attempt to darn a sock. Plus I'm trying a new starter for yoghurt as the last one made the yoghurt sort of slimy You have to be a jack of all trades don't you if you're OS :rotfl:

Back to the coalface

Lizzy

Petlamb

I was going to ask if anyone else sometimes feels like they're trying a lot harder / doing more than their OH in the way of trying to improve finances or generally stop themselves going down the fiscal pan?

I'm guessing I'm really not the only one, judging from other posts...

I love mr Mr to bits, but while he's out I'll have odd lunches that are cheap and use what we have - whereas it sometimes feels like his motto is "i'll just buy it". Makes a change from "ah, it'll all work itself out" - I appreciate the optimism, but not in lieu of action, IYSWIM?

On the bright side, I seem to have got him to take in a sandwich (made by me) and some cheapy crisps to work each day now... cheaper than the fiver on subway or £2-3 in a deli near his work that he was spending!