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

catznine

(((hug))) to Reverbe, GQ, Softstuff, Larumbelle and anyone else in need today!

Haribo - Your journals sound lovely, I did do a recipe folder for my dd when she left home and she wants me to keep adding to it! Wish I had made mine more interesting with photos etc. I have my grandmothers recipe notebook from WW2 but it is mostly recipes with ginger in, think she must have really liked ginger or maybe had a huge supply?:)

Back to normality now after dd's wedding last week! Can't believe a whole week has passed, we seem to have been planning for ever and now it's over! They are so happy though so it is all worth it. My wonky fabric hearts were complimented and several were taken home as favours, we supplied "seconds" pashminas (from ebay) so people could sit out in the garden for longer and told people they could take them home as well. Still have 5 left!

Dd and sil donated money to breakthrough and gave guests pins to take home and another £56 was raised for breakthrough on a sweepstake for how long my dh's (father of the bride) speech would take! :rotfl:It wasn't that bad really! The winner kindly donated her winnings to the charity! We have lost a few special people to this cancer and this was a lovely way to remember them, dd and sil have worked together on a charity fundraiser show in the west end for breakthrough which raised over £500,000 each time (3 years so far) so this was very improtant to them.

I've joined the grocery challenge and need to find the store cupboard one as well. It is getting scary out there when the prices of things you buy have more than doubled! I found a pack of vege burger mix and used up an old tin of spicy mixed beans, bought for about 50p not that long ago! Last night in sains they were £1.39 :eek: Going to use up my stock of app foods kidney beans instead and spicy tom ketchup! I still have lots of boxes of the vege mix! 1 box made 12 burgers which are now in the freezer. Cost about 5p a burger!

Next challenge - Hummous - does it freeze well? I have a lot of chickpeas to use! :rotfl:

Good news - it looks like I have a few extra hours coming up so a chance to put some money back into savings!

Kleopatra

I live in a famous university city and there is at least one area which has been completely ruined by students. They are noisy, dirty and rude, some students(not all) seem to think it is a three year 'party'. A friend of mine is sandwiched between two student houses and sometimes you can't hear yourself speak for the noise and the behaviour seen in gardens is disgusting. There was an article in the paper this week about a huge increase in noise complaints.

I also know at least two 'students' who have had to move several times to avoid the noise and behaviour themselves - they actually wanted to do some college work. It does seem to be an increasing problem which should be tackled. It used to be a wonderful time of freedom and learning for students - now they seem to learn how to drink and spew all over the neighbours gardens and swear and spread bins about if admonished.

It was when I was a student that I learnt old style habits of living on a very tight budget and cooking etc. It was taken for granted that we would respect other people and their property and I suspect that if we hadn't we would have been sent down. Why is it so different now? It certainly isn't better.

laineyc_2

Hugs to all that need them.

I am a bit under the weather today so no tidy up in the garden as planned.

It is very warm here. My tomatoes are bearing fruit which is exciting. No sign of cucumbers or aubergines.

Youngest ds is off school with a tummy upset. Dinner will be some conconction thrown together at the last minute. I am behind on my menu planning. Dh is off to LA next weekend for a week so I am aiming to do a lot of vege dishes.

I still haven't sorted the front garden out yet. I seem to be time and energy poor at the moment.

I need to finish off packing for ds (12) who is off to Cornwall with his school next week. I wish I was off somewhere exciting.

Kleopatra

kittie wrote: »

wouldn`t it be lovely if the world was full of positivity from talkative people

so easy to be negative don`t you think?

Sorry for my previous negative post.

I do think it is a shame that students of today are not encouraged by their institutions to consider what they can do for their community. Young people have all the energy and zest and could manage to help out locals as well as study.

redlady_1

I have blight!!! :eek: So sunday will be spent sorting it out.

We have also found another house but who knows. We are up against all the others who lost out on the previous cottage. The road is busier than you would think for a village but it is a compromise for the dream home. It's down to the angels now. I would need to sort out more curtains and be super thrifty as its a thatch with single glazing. Luckily it isnt listed

7_week_wonder

scottishminnie wrote: »

When I got to the till there was a teenage girl packing bags, she was raising money for a trip to Bolivia. I was happy to give her a donation but I so wanted to say "here is a £1 but please don't pack my bags". Tins on top of fruit, newspaper rolled up and so on but when she was squeezing the life out of my bread to fit it in a corner of a bag I did have to say if you want to just leave it i'll finish it off.
Does anyone else really dislike someone else packing their bags or am I just a control freak??

If you are a control freak then there are a lot of us about: I know exactly what you mean, and have been known to give them some money and then say "But it's ok I'll just do my own packing".

I remember one time though when OH and I had stopped by at local supermarket to stock up on cat food - which was on special offer, and a young lad was bag packing. As the wee boy (I think he was from the local cub group) dutifully stuffed bag after bag with cat food pouches, dried cat food etc my OH turned to me and said "You know we really should get a cat". The look on the boy's face was priceless:p

kidcat

Softstuff - sending hugs - we all have really bad days and its great to know there are people who will listen and not judge,

Scottishminnie - I always ask them not to pack my bags - I had all my shopping ruined once and the supermarket had to replace the lot. The manager said he would rather have given the group the money he had spent on shopping that was damaged then have them in but he wasnt allowed to. I will donate if I am happy to give to the cause or otherwise head to a till taht doesnt have a bag packer - incidentally I always find the biggest queue is the one without the bag packer as everyone flocks to avoid poor packing!!

BitterAndTwisted

scottishminnie wrote: »

Does anyone else really dislike someone else packing their bags or am I just a control freak??

If you are just a control-freak then there are an awful lot of us about. I need to pack my own bags for all of the reasons you gave. What idiot would choose to put tins on top of tomatoes? I also put my shopping on the conveyor-belt in the order I want to pack them and it drives me barmy when the assistants choose to scan them in any old order they feel like. If those self-scanning wotsits weren't so troublesome I'd use them all the time.

Nit-pickers and control-freaks unite!

anguk

I'm another one who likes to pack my own shopping, I put the stuff on the belt in order and then pack them according to type, so veg all goes in one bag, fridge stuff in another, freezer stuff, cupboard stuff etc. My Oh thinks I'm a bit daft but I find it makes it easier to unpack when I get home.

Larumbelle

Sooo... I was right, there was something on my test results.

I have bile acid malabsorption and they're 99% sure it's caused by Crohn's disease. It's incurable, which means I'll be on a cocktail of drugs for the rest of my life, (including all these sachets I have to drink. I've just had the first one and they taste vile). They think I'll also need further surgery. Ick. And they think this is why I recovered so badly from the last operation, before the diagnosis. BUT it's totally controllable, and as long as I take the drugs and be careful with my diet and all the rest of it, it needn't be too bad.

I'm glad to finally have the proper diagnosis but I'm a little bit numb TBH. Especially since I thought they'd eliminated Crohn's a year or so ago.

Minnie Yes, I am a bag-packing control freak too I don't even like OH packing for me, truth told. He always over-packs the bags and just mixes things up any old how. Maybe we should start a support group :rotfl:

Redlady do you have horsetail growing in your patch? If you do, put it to good use. Pull up as much root as you can (but use the above-ground bits too), boil it up for ten minutes or so, then spray the liquid on your potatoes and tomatoes. It kills blight without using chemicals.