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

Hardup_Hester

Hugs to Charlies-Aunt.
Re food prices, last week my beloved gave me extra money, he's been working Saturdays at the school for a while & the money from that pays his fares to work, he was giving me extra towards the wedding, but has carried on giving me an extra £50 a month. He's seen the news articles about food & energy going up & has said he will rejig his budget. This is a big help as in June not only did I pay for the wedding, but also had to tax my car & then on the first of this month British Gas upped my DD to £200 from £100 a month, ouch.

ceridwen

Larumbelle wrote: »

Evening all. Mad developments at work - beyatch boss is no more. She left 'by mutual consent' half an hour before my shift. :eek:

Hope it all wasn't all because of me - much as she was a beyatch she also has a kid. Though I think that I'm not the only life she made difficult, and I have only told the truth about what happened. So - mixed feelings I suppose.

The desk adjustments were perfect, isn't it funny what they can do when they put their minds to it? I'd forgotten how much I love my job when I'm not in absolute agony and I'm not being beyatched at!

.

Well - theres a turn-up for the books...re the beyatch boss. I wouldnt have thought she would have had her marching orders just because of one person - I think yours was more likely to be a case of "the last straw" and if you hadnt been that "last straw" then someone else would have been. If she was that bad - and the firm are reasonable (as it sounds like maybe they ultimately are) then she would have been "on borrowed time" anyway.

So - all's well that ends well:D Hadnt realised you love the job - so its fortunate that things HAVE turned out well. Bad enough to move on from "any old job" - but it would have been really galling to have to do so from one you love (will now sit here and try to visualise what it must be like to have a job one loves....:cool:..that will be my "get the imagination going" task for the day..as its something I've never had personally...but am envious of/pleased for people who DO have that:().

lora

charlies-aunt wrote: »

Not caught up yet...but just popping to say 'Hi!! remember me!'

After a several appointments at hospital, two lots of MRI scans and lots of waiting around - I finally got my results...

...the awkward moment .....when you sit down in the chair at the doctors office .... he rings Reception to tell them not to put any calls through .... takes hold of your hand and says that he's very sorry but......

The good news is that its not a brain tumour, cancer or motor neurone disease, the bad news is that it's MS.

Oh b*gger!

Just got to get my head round this and I'll be back!

Thinking positive for sure!

Best wishes to you. DD has this--now aged 30. As my brother died from a brain tumour she assumed the worst. Like a lot of medical problems---lots of variation in MS. Hugs.

ceridwen

kidcat wrote: »

Can I ask are the monkey nuts you are planting just normal in the shell type you buy at Asda? Our hamsters love eating them and if the kids could grow some for them it would thrill them to bits.

yes.

What I read about a person doing was just growing them to sprouts (as I recall - that way one harvests the plants at a few inches long and uses them in stirfries - a la mung bean sprouts). If I've got that wrong Larumbelle please put me right on that - but thats the plan.

I presume one can eat them raw too? - same as other bean sprouts?

EDIT: now finished reading posts:

CHARLIES AUNT
So sorry also that its turned out to be M.S. As a previous poster said - do feel free to come on and rant about it. Its a heck of a shock to be told one has something like that - I knew someone with it reasonably well for a while (as I used to help her out a bit with various things) and the unofficial side of it was she and I would talk about how it was affecting her as a person and her life sometimes - and even developed a line in black humour about it.

Take care ((( )))

modern_millie_2

Charlies Aunt, you sound like a very courageous person. Now you know what is wrong, you will get help and support. I hope you have family and friends around you.

Larumbelle, glad to hear things have turned out so well - excellent news. Have great sympathy for those with job troubles - have been there myself, had to get out asap as I was fast turning into an emotional wreck. Now very happy but on a small fraction of the pay! rather have it this way though.

Kidkat, hope there were no problems ensuing from the party your daughter attended. Mine is now 17 and is at a camping sleepover - am gradually letting her do her own thing, but would not have let her go if I'd had bad vibes. Was quite reassuring that she baked cookies to take with her! Your daughter sounds very sensible.

I'll be going to our nearest town today en route to picking up DD, so charity shop browsing and a few bits from Mr M.

Cooked a huge pan of butterbeans yesterday, decided I am going to have to do this with pulses now to save on energy. Froze some and mashed the rest into a big bake with onions, tomato puree, chutney and herbs. Was really not bad and a good way of 'disguising' the beans - OH not keen on them.

Right, must go and get some clothes on (!) and more tea. Hope everyone has a good day.

ceridwen

Another one here who cooked up a big batch of dried pulses yesterday - kidney beans in my case. Now duly bagged up in several ziplock bags and in the freezer.

Note to self - DUH! Why havent I always done that - rather than cooking up whatever-the-recipe of the time required only? <slap head smilie>

********************8

One experiment so far today - having successfully made popcorn yesterday (the first time I managed to burn it:o) I bethought myself "Right - got that worked out now" but the rest of the packet of popcorn is RATHER old by now and a bit past it. So - not all of it popped. I did read somewhere or other how to "refresh" old popcorn before using it and cant recall the method - so does anyone know please?

Anyways - todays experiment to date was "I think I'll try that popcorn cereal recipe from the Benefits Cookbook". All she does is just make the popcorn and put it in a bowl and scatter sugar and milk over as per normal breakfast cereals. Having adapted that to "make that honey instead of sugar - and I'll have to just heat up a tiny bit of the milk enough to mix the honey in with that to un-solidify it" - it was actually okay (bar those bits of popcorn that hadnt popped properly because of being so old - ahem:o).

So - if I fancy a bit of "breakfast cereal like wot other people have" in future then I have got that as one way to do so. Cor - if peeps complain about the price of branded breakfast cereals - they should just see the price of the type I would buy (hence I usually dont...) - I think I'd have to hand over more like £4/£5 to get a packet of something like "several types of cereal, sweetened with honey, etc" (ie the type I would get). But popcorn cereal sweetened with honey is a lot cheaper than that - so I CAN afford to have "breakfast cereal" after all.

littlecal

Charlies aunt - your positive outlook will help enormously with the MS,ranting is definitely encouraged;)

mardatha

CA, thats a scunner pet but not as bad as it might have been eh ? A few things are worse. So now you know your enemy, you can fight xxx
HH, if you pay that £200 you're off yer head. Tell them what they can do with it.
Everybody always says paying by DD is the best/cheapest tariff on the planet. But it's not always !! I went right into this and for us it def is not cheaper.We're on the standard tariff paying quarterly bills cash when they come in .
I just got my letter from Scottish Power saying it was going up, and I phoned them. Had a long discussion with a nice lady who tried her hardest to get me to change to DD payments. I got her to work everything out to the exact penny and this is how it went- cos I wrote it down. These figures are the new rates after the rise on 1st Aug.-

on the monthly variable DD tariff, capped for a year -
standing charge per day is 28.36p and unit price is 13.73p
On the standard tariff that we're currently on, after the increase -
standing charge per day is 27.1p and unit price 13.1p
So I said well its not cheaper for me then is it and hung up !

[Deleted User]

ahh, yet another thing to do after logging on here, doh you lot!! I`ll be soaking, cooking and bagging a whole load of beans but later, says I

Up early today and dh away for the day so no meals to think about, well I`ll eat on the hoof. I have taken the plastic covers off the outdoor tomatoes at last and they look great having been sheltered from the rain and battering wind, those haxnicks ones with holes in them have done a fine job and they stay anchored as they tuck in at the bottom. I am on a roll, as usual, honestly I never get up knowing what I am going to do that day, it just happens. I have just been cutting my tomato leaves away to expose the tomatoes to more sunlight. I started this weeks ago as soon as I got the first truss and it seems to have helped development of tomatoes and today I have enough leaves to stuff a bag bigger than a black bag. So that is all my toms done and dusted now apart from feeding every 2 weeks. There are some beauties coming along and I have taken a bowl full of sungold. I will need to write my tomato plans down for next year and I am going to be drastic as I want to use my pop ups that they outgrew.

Sitting down for 5 minutes now after pulling stuff out of 2 kitchen cupboards and just wondering where to put various foodstuffs so I remember to use them, also thinking cap on for various bits that I want to use up.

Washing load 1 is finished and 2 will be in on a longer wash now, we might get some sun but I can see this being an in and out day

A load of wine making bits came yesterday, bottles and demi johns, by golly some of these ebay sellers are good. I have 2 lots of wine in PET jars ready for bottling, well I`ll probably bottle one and pop the other into a wine box. It`ll be red next for winter and I`m only using kits this year until I get familiar again ready for the rhubarb explosion on my allotment. When I think that I used to make all sorts of wine from scratch whilst looking after a home, 3 small children, a dh and a dog. I just got on and did it but the skills have gone rusty so I`ll have to re-learn. Maybe I`ll catch elderberry this year, I`ll try I think

Love and hugs to those who need them, you might be virtual but we all breathe the same air

CRANKY40

HH I agree with Mardatha about the direct debit. The last time Eon sent me one of those letters I rang them and told them they were my energy supplier, not a savings scheme and we agreed a more modest increase from £97 to £100 per month. Maybe they've heard about the drug dealer parking outside your house and decided you will be busy growing "stuff" this winter

Charlies Aunt I agree, once you know your enemy you're in a better position to fight it.

Larumbelle Glad that the work thing has turned out ok, and child or not if your boss hadn't been so horrible then things wouldn't have turned out the way that they have.

Take care all of you