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

fiftyeighter_2

Icelandic Queen, Claudiac and everyone else who commented on my post. Thankyou so much for all the kind thoughts. It really does mean a lot to me. But then whenever i have posted, which isn't too often, all you ladies have been very kind. Yes it really is the best thing for us to part and i am glad. Just get cross with myself that this is the second time i have picked the wrong person. But then again my friends have always told me i'm far too soft. Cant change an old dog now though. ha ha. Really i'm not as bad off as some folk though. I live in a rented housing authority home. so no battle for the sale of a house.I lost my own home after the divorce from my husband. I too walked out or rather ran out with just the clothes i stood up in. He was an alcoholic and quite violent. But i have no regrets and i have none now. Good luck to everyone else on the road to a new life.
Well i havn't been able to get on here for a couple of days. i was up to date and on paage 15. it is now page 21. Grief you can all gossip. Well just wanted to say thanks, so now i'll go and catch up with all the news. Have a great day everyone. x

Softstuff

This might give all you OS'ers a laugh:

Yesterday hubby had his annual review, and yay got a bit of a payrise. In todays paper there was a voucher for a local restaurant offering your meal at half price if you try 2 courses of the new menu, so this afternoon I dressed up nice, and when he got home whisked him out there. It still wasn't excessively cheap, but a nice restaurant.

We'd been there once before - our wedding anniversary a couple of years previous, and it had been a talking point for a while. Our starters had arrived, but we were getting pretty hungry waiting for a main course when we heard a crash. We joked that it was our dinners getting dropped, and it turned out it was :rotfl:

Anyway, this evening we arrived, were seated quickly and our orders were taken. Starters arrived pretty quickly, they were ok, but not that spectacular. So we waited for the main. And waited.... and waited. After an hour and a half waiting, and watching people who had come in after us finish their main course I inquired where ours were. Turns out the kitchen had had a mix up. Shortly after that they arrived. Unfortunately hubby and I had waited so long we were beyond hungry so we wolfed it down (hubby has such a fast metabolism he felt a little rough), decided dessert was off the menu and went to pay.

The manager knocked a sizable chunk off the bill, and home we came.

Moral to this story - we would have been better off with a takeaway from the local chippy in our PJ's. And even if we were told it would be free, we sure wouldn't eat there again.

mrswive

Thanks to the_cat for the Eat Less book recommendation, I've just been down to the library and ordered it and it got me to thinking about the books that have changed the way I look at things, the most notable being 'How to Survive Without a Salary' by Charles Long. I got a copy the libary was selling off several years ago and it was the best 35p I've ever spent!
There's a lot of practical money saving, but the general philosophy is what really struck a chord with me, and although I have the 1996 edition, it still holds true IMO. A brief quote to give you an idea:

"Perhaps the most direct answer to an economy that has abandoned its workers is for workers to abandon the economy, seceding one by one to make smaller, independent economies, family arrangements, neighbourhood co-ops, alternatives to the consumer machine.....If the global economy has lost its way, let it go. Declare the larger economy a big mistake and start anew. This time make it small enough to work for you."

I know it's not for everyone, but it really made a difference to my outlook and the way I live.
Trouble was, I always felt that I was out of step with everyone I knew, still do in RL, which is why finding you lot was such a relief!!

flowertotmum

DebtFree2012 wrote: »

Comgratulations on paying your last payment - not long now. I can't wait until I am but I am just starting my journey

Well done! x

Thank you..its been hard going at times..but i am soo proud of myself for doing it..keep going hun its worth it..
love
ftm

flowertotmum

mrswive wrote: »

Thanks to the_cat for the Eat Less book recommendation, I've just been down to the library and ordered it and it got me to thinking about the books that have changed the way I look at things, the most notable being 'How to Survive Without a Salary' by Charles Long. I got a copy the libary was selling off several years ago and it was the best 35p I've ever spent!
There's a lot of practical money saving, but the general philosophy is what really struck a chord with me, and although I have the 1996 edition, it still holds true IMO. A brief quote to give you an idea:

"Perhaps the most direct answer to an economy that has abandoned its workers is for workers to abandon the economy, seceding one by one to make smaller, independent economies, family arrangements, neighbourhood co-ops, alternatives to the consumer machine.....If the global economy has lost its way, let it go. Declare the larger economy a big mistake and start anew. This time make it small enough to work for you."

I know it's not for everyone, but it really made a difference to my outlook and the way I live.
Trouble was, I always felt that I was out of step with everyone I knew, still do in RL, which is why finding you lot was such a relief!!

Mrs wive..thats a great quote..and its true i was soo happy when i found this place..sometimes it takes something small to make a vast difference..i feel so out of step with other mums at school..they think i'm mental because i bake things and sew things..when i could buy it like they do..not on your nelly..if i can make it ,bake it,sew it then i will..and be LMAO all the way to debt freedom...
love
ftm

juliethemuse

Softstuff wrote: »

This might give all you OS'ers a laugh:

Yesterday hubby had his annual review, and yay got a bit of a payrise. In todays paper there was a voucher for a local restaurant offering your meal at half price if you try 2 courses of the new menu, so this afternoon I dressed up nice, and when he got home whisked him out there. It still wasn't excessively cheap, but a nice restaurant.

We'd been there once before - our wedding anniversary a couple of years previous, and it had been a talking point for a while. Our starters had arrived, but we were getting pretty hungry waiting for a main course when we heard a crash. We joked that it was our dinners getting dropped, and it turned out it was :rotfl:

Anyway, this evening we arrived, were seated quickly and our orders were taken. Starters arrived pretty quickly, they were ok, but not that spectacular. So we waited for the main. And waited.... and waited. After an hour and a half waiting, and watching people who had come in after us finish their main course I inquired where ours were. Turns out the kitchen had had a mix up. Shortly after that they arrived. Unfortunately hubby and I had waited so long we were beyond hungry so we wolfed it down (hubby has such a fast metabolism he felt a little rough), decided dessert was off the menu and went to pay.

The manager knocked a sizable chunk off the bill, and home we came.

Moral to this story - we would have been better off with a takeaway from the local chippy in our PJ's. And even if we were told it would be free, we sure wouldn't eat there again.

oh dear , sounds abit like the debacle at our local restaurant the other week we had, it was a little like a carvery, with chinese/indian and italian all in one, when i went to try and get some spagetti carbonara the chef shouted at me to wait, so i went back to the table and eventually got sick of waiting and decided to go, but we had to pay the fixed price as OH had had his food, which he didnt even like!
would have been cheaper and better to have gone to the chippy, when will we learn?
i have been very mse, no spending , although i did go to chuck some old clothes in the clothing bank nearby, there was a youth hanging round acting a bit suspicious so i decided to watch him discreetly,
he proceeded to try and get inside the clothing bank to get the gear i had just chucked in! i dont know if he managed it because he saw me looking and stopped, so i walked off, but thought it was a pretty low thing to try and do,

ginnyknit

:j:j:jIts raining in Manchester! Hopefully it will carry on for a while and give my veggies a good soaking so their precious little roots can travel - well it made me happy:T

Got mac and cheese in oven and am contemplating a pear crumble - 8 for 19p yesterday. Been in and out of the garden since 9 am potting on and pootering about.

I wish my library had interesting books like yours Mardatha, must give them a list. I think I have read everything of any use to date. I guess because its in the middle of a few huge council estates that people like me are rare Goes with what mrswive was saying and its true - I am out of step with my neighbours, I guess a veg growing, moneysaving , make do and mending goth is rare :rotfl: although I have known a couple

ceridwen

Kleopatra wrote: »

I have started to dilute wine and am now at the same ratio as you use with milk or maybe slightly less. I don't seem to miss the alcohol so it may be just having a wine glass full of coloured liquid that is the habit.

Good idea:D. Are you using soda water for this, ordinary water or summat else?

It IS a bit the thing of "cook dinner...have wine" sometimes if not quite a la Floyd that just tends to feel "civilised/relaxed" - so maybe a bit of substitution would have the same effect??:cool:. Hmmm...maybes "civilised" could be done in other ways as well - candles/Mozart to accompany dinner for instance?....

Hmmm...you've got me pondering on this as well now...as I think part of the "civilised/relaxed" thing I like is that its an "antidote" to "Cut Throat Territory" (which is what a day at work sometimes feels like - and I HATE that...).

ceridwen

wrinkled_english_rose wrote: »

Just wanted to say Thank you GreyQueen re the moles and brambles. I hope to go and see my friend next week and will pass on your old time solution. I'm sorry I didn't aknowledge your reply before but my got up and go seems to have got up and went and I haven't been near the computer for the last fews days.
I do love reading about you all even though I don't post often.
WER

I have been reading recently about Victorian gardening methods - and one way they dealt with moles was to place green leaves of common elder into their tunnels (which apparently smells so offensive to them that they go walkabout rather than have that:rotfl:). That I can understand - as recent encounter with ground elder resulted in me thinking that it smells like varnish:eek:

Another Victorian method of dealing with them was to set fire to a paraffin-soaked rag and put this in the opening of the run:cool: (I think that may not meet with modern-day health and safety requirements:rotfl:).

I wondered whether the leaves of common elder method might be one that is still usable by us though???

Certainly I have in mind to try one of the Victorian methods of dealing with slugs though - ie to strew fresh cabbage leaves on the ground in the evening and then go back and search for slugs underneath them in the morning.

mardatha

I might try that to collect some nice juicy slugs for the hens !