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

suzid

Morning all,

Up at silly o'clock today after late night last night - ern 10pm Don't know why but when I wake in the night for the loo, I can't get back to sleep again. Also got an infection so on antibiotics. Feeling so tired but GQ's "ignore it and get on with life" made me think I'd better get a grip and stop moping.

Scotishminnie I also bought the marzipan yesterday and I've already made three Christmas cakes. I also looked at the icing but won't buy that unless it's reduced. The only thing I can do with Royal Icing is a snow scene with lots of peaks and troughs. I'd make a useless plasterer :rotfl:. As I was floored by a virus in the run up to Christmas last year, I decided to prepare well in advance this year. As soon as mincemeat appears I'll bake the mince pies and freeze them.

Good luck next week Larumbelle. Hope all goes well for you. DH ordered by HR to work less hours, so when he was told to do extra jobs by his boss he said this and that he has so much on. The response was 'well do it anyway'. What is the matter with employers these days, don't they realise that happy staff work better and have less time off sick etc. Where has consideration, kindness and loyalty gone? We seem to be going backwards to bygone days when the workers had appalling conditions and were worked till they dropped. So much is based on greed and what's in it for me, with no allowances for anyone going through a tough time.

On a more cheery note, the very strange runner beans are galloping up their canes (no I didn't swap them for a cow and my name isn't Jack), and both the apricots are starting to turn yellowish :T.

Off now to venture into the roof to find Gran's old velvet curtains. Going to wash them, and if they don't disintegrate (can't afford to have them dry cleaned as it would cost more than new curtains) will see if they need adjusting for the windows I have in mind for the winter.

Take care folks and may the force be with you!

greent

Grrrrr!!! Tax credits, Dollydaydream - I empathise! I'm an ex-corporate banker, have several finance qualifications and can deal with multi-million pound international companies - but tax credits do my head in!!!! We hadn't qualified for a few years and last year I filled in my paperwork (for all 4 children) and got my form back just quoting 2 children - which was what they used to do (a space thing, I think) Phoned up in April this year to amend some figures and they told me I only had 2 children on there. Tax credits were being paid at £10.xx/ week. With 4 children correctly quoted on there we could have been getting £90+/ week...... but they could only backdate for 3 months....... what???? To add insult to injury every piece of paperwork I've had since only quotes 2 children (but they assure me 4 are on record) - so I was meant to realise their error???? That's a BIG difference to effectively 'lose'

Anyway, aside from that, Greyqueen I know what you mean about voices. I'm naturally high pitched but every Winter I go all '0898' number voiced for a few months. Colleagues (male, of course!!) would phone me up just so they could hear me say 'hello' in their ear and also not answer their phones so I'd leave a message which they'd then play back all the time!! If only they knew the very uns3xy reason for my voice was chronic catarrh!!

Two of my 3 school age children are at home today because of strikes - grrr! I shall find them some tasks to do interspersed with fun things, I think

babyblooz

Yesterday I had a few plums fall off the tree in the garden so I quickly gathered them up. There was half a pound of them in total, so I added four ounces of sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice and made them into plum jam in the microwave.

Number one grandson had a sleepover at ours last night and had some of this jam on his sandwiches supper, then woke up this morning and asked if he could have some toast for breakfast with 'that lovely jam on'. He has just munched his way through two thick slices and there is still quite a bit left. So much nicer than shop bought jam and practically free!:j:j:j

dollydaydream07

greent wrote: »

Grrrrr!!! Tax credits, Dollydaydream - I empathise! I'm an ex-corporate banker, have several finance qualifications and can deal with multi-million pound international companies - but tax credits do my head in!!!! We hadn't qualified for a few years and last year I filled in my paperwork (for all 4 children) and got my form back just quoting 2 children - which was what they used to do (a space thing, I think) Phoned up in April this year to amend some figures and they told me I only had 2 children on there. Tax credits were being paid at £10.xx/ week. With 4 children correctly quoted on there we could have been getting £90+/ week...... but they could only backdate for 3 months....... what???? To add insult to injury every piece of paperwork I've had since only quotes 2 children (but they assure me 4 are on record) - so I was meant to realise their error???? That's a BIG difference to effectively 'lose'

What an absolute nightmare, i just don't think they have a clue at all!! my payments have reduce over the last few weeks - since i sent my renewal in but i still haven't received my final award notice that tells me what my payments are going to be for this coming year - i don't think i'd be so annoyed if i could actually see WHY my payments have been reduced!
we are on a very tight budget but can only just cope with out the £5 a week they've been reduced by, i can't imagine what it would be like if we depended on that money!!!!!!!!!!!

GreyQueen

greent wrote: »

Anyway, aside from that, Greyqueen I know what you mean about voices. I'm naturally high pitched but every Winter I go all '0898' number voiced for a few months. Colleagues (male, of course!!) would phone me up just so they could hear me say 'hello' in their ear and also not answer their phones so I'd leave a message which they'd then play back all the time!! If only they knew the very uns3xy reason for my voice was chronic catarrh!!

LOL, am croaking on. We've had a bunch of students invade City Hall and chant about the Tories. I know most of them aren't natives to our city but you think they might've noticed we're a Labour authority. Security was called to eject the eejits. I am unreliably informed that they have moved on to picket a branch of Boots (and we haven't a clue as to why, either). Up the workers!:rotfl:

ceridwen

GREYQUEEN

1. I agree that it does help if people "get their facts straight" before taking action.

2. I hadnt realised B*ots are tax dodgers until you mentioned that - but I just googled and they would appear to be:

www.ukuncut.org.uk/targets/tax-dodgers/boots

to the tune of avoiding paying the British exchequer £100million a year, ie 10 years worth of Swiss residence equals £1 billion tax avoided.

Or ...as I just put it talking to my father "I dont think the rich honestly realise that the rest of us are people too and some of us really ARE trying our best etc - they live in their own little bubble". I am crushingly aware of never ever ever having heard one single comment out of the mouth of any rich people I have ever mixed with about realising that, for many people, their poverty really really isnt a "lifestyle choice" or their own fault - even though they were mixing with someone they really MUST have realised was as well (ie me....).

lizzyb1812

It's someone's unlucky/lucky day. Was walking one of my usual routes with TB when I found a Barclays Visa Debit card - in date and UNSIGNED:eek: So some poor blighter has lost access to their account - dunno if it was dropped or stolen, but I found it at the edge of a wood that is next to the picnic site at the end of the road. It's a place that's frequented by quite a few dog walkers, picniccers (sp?), office workers having lunch outside, etc. And by teenagers and others at night.

Anyway their bad luck ended there cos I was the one who found it and reported it to Barclays who seemed nonplussed at first but then said to throw it away and they would block the account. I did cut it up as well. So no access to the account for a bit but at least I was not the sort of finder who would add a signature and go on a telephone shopping spree!

It's been good weather to be outside in so the plot and the garden have been weeded and I've potted up a few things. Just one or two more veggies to plant out later and then I'll be picking the first of the blueberries - instead of just popping a few in my mouth every time I walk past the bush.

I've joined the Grocery Challenge for July - need to stick to it as TB's booster is due in July as well and that will NOT be cheap! I'll be looking at the Challenge thread recipe list to help me plan my meals, although I still have a LOT of freezer/cupboard stuff to use as well and the garden should start delivering more and more next month - fingers crossed.

Hope all is going well today for everybody - hugs for those who are having a bad time

Lizzy

GreyQueen

ceridwen wrote: »

GREYQUEEN

1. I agree that it does help if people "get their facts straight" before taking action.

2. I hadnt realised B*ots are tax dodgers until you mentioned that - but I just googled and they would appear to be:

www.ukuncut.org.uk/targets/tax-dodgers/boots

to the tune of avoiding paying the British exchequer £100million a year, ie 10 years worth of Swiss residence equals £1 billion tax avoided.

Or ...as I just put it talking to my father "I dont think the rich honestly realise that the rest of us are people too and some of us really ARE trying our best etc - they live in their own little bubble". I am crushingly aware of never ever ever having heard one single comment out of the mouth of any rich people I have ever mixed with about realising that, for many people, their poverty really really isnt a "lifestyle choice" or their own fault - even though they were mixing with someone they really MUST have realised was as well (ie me....).

Hey, that's interesting about B*ots, didn't know that. I don't shop there because I consider that they're overpriced.

Students p*ss me off, too. We have an MP from the Coalition and who owes their tiny minority to the student vote. Doesn't seem fair to me that students have a choice of voting in their home town or their college town. They're exempt from paying council tax but they still consume our resources and, every autumn when they arrive, it's the start of a plague of criminal damage which just so happens to follow their routes home from clubland.

Plus I'm a grumpy moo because I have a lot of student houses near me and they're horribly antisocial little s*ds.

Rocking on, I have c*ke and tea all; will be well.

lizzyb1812

I didn't know that about Bo*ts either but I agree that they are overpriced. They can be good in December and January - 3 for 2 for pressies for my nieces and SILs and big reductions on same stuff in January so cheap toiletries for me. Last year though I sent hampers to families rather than individual people and it went down quite well - I did try and find ones that suited their different tastes. This year it will be homemade sweeties for all - luckily they all have a sweet tooth and I'll enjoy making the stuff now that I've got time to do it.

ceridwen

Well - I dont shop at B*ots either - for the same reason - ie I think they are vastly overpriced.

I make or make-do some of my own cosmetics (ie I regard body lotion as meaning "slap on cheapest olive oil I can get") and, for must-buy-from-chemist goods then I choose a discount chemist.

Believe me - quite a wide range of neighbours can do "anti social" besides students and I AM quite well aware that if things had been different:( then I would have been one myself <cough> number of years ago...now try for neighbours who havent even been brought up to know a "set of manners" if they see them....oh...so dont get me started....:(

We are all well aware that a much higher proportion of peeps are going onto University these days - some deserved, some <cough> not...and I feel sorry for those who would have expected to go anyway (ie even by the standards of some years ago) who dont get the grants/fees paid that my generation took for granted...(but "if ya slice a cake smaller - then everyone gets a smaller slice or none at all".....).