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

Charis

Emptynester wrote: »

Trying to think of ideas for next winter to save on heating. Thinking about using the smallest living room with just the gas fire and turning the CH off. Will that be cheaper, we already only heat the room we use and bathroom and hallway?

According to my gas fitter it costs as much to run a gas fire as it costs to heat the whole of my bungalow with central heating. There is no thermostat on our gas fire, it has to be turned up and down manually. I tried an experiment the winter before last and although I have to acknowledge that it was a colder winter than the previous one, we had the fire on very low during the day instead of putting on the heating. Our gas bill did go up. It's hard to do a real comparison because prices rise every year but no two years are the same for temperatures. The cold spell last winter began in November, the winter before the snow was on the ground in February.

Annie56

Your so right Sammy-Kaye its still hammering it down but not so heavily well this will test out the ditches round the cottage....sandbags were begining to enter my head, and Montys muttering damn weather in the corner lol ...

Grey Queen it surely must be heading your way soon hopefully though hopefully not the downpour we have had...

Night all x

jackieglasgow

Sammy I just showed OH the pic you put up of baby last week, and told him what the HV said about you not feeding her enough, he wants to know if you had her snowsuit and gloves on at the time, and the HV couldn't see her wee chubby fingers and cheeks :rotfl: HE says that you've to tell her, he says she's an idiot.

We have a thing for chubby babies in this house He also says she's gorgeous!

bertiebots

Evening ..erm knickers (mine get washed then binned) never used them as dusters as they arent big enough !
I have been very naughty this evening and called into mr m after work to buy some dog food..and baught a cake :eek:(the shame!:o).. but it was chocolate ,filled with fresh cream and reduced to 69p! How could I resist?:rotfl:I also got 2 packs of instore baked large sausage rolls reduced to 99p from £2.20 each so they have gone in the freezer . All I will need to do this week is buy fresh supplies as I did a big shop last week:D Another week and my lettuce should be ready to harvest so no more searching for whoopsy lettuce at mr s (got some last week for 30p;)).
And a little tip if you buy the morrisons value coleslaw at 20p...its yummy if you mix in a teaspoon of dried dill .

susyrosy

smileyt wrote: »

Jackieglasgow and Ginnyknit, thank you for your sympathy. I have brought Mavis Hen home with some pain relief, and she is now eating by herself (I have had to tube feed her for a few days) so it is obviously working. Basically she has tumours on her nerves so it is terminal, but I will let her have a couple of days on the pain relief to have a last henny fling before I take her back to the vets Oh dear I'm filling up as I type this, I am so soft. Her nickname is Mavis Shouty Mouth because she was always 'singing' (LOUDLY!!) but she hasn't sung for a while now and I guess she won't again.
Anyway, at least she's had two years of freedom out of the battery farm and experienced sunshine, and snow (lots of snow ..... :rotfl:)

On the plus side, I got three loaves of bread whoopsied down to 10p each at Asda; two loaves are in the freezer and one is being used, some of it is already in my tummy ...

Going to look for thermal linings for my curtains for winter. I can't use any less gas than I already do or it won't be worth having a supply at all!

I hope people are ok, I often lurk on here but don't post much but I do think about your situations. I just wanted to warn people that chickens are not the money-saving panacea they are cracked up to be unless you are hard of heart or have exceptionally healthy chooks! Although the fresh eggs are fantastic, and the hens are so pleased with themselves when they lay and like to let everyone know about it :rotfl:

I'm so sorry to hear about your hen - I had one the other year which we thought had Mareks and she was put down. We later realised she probably had scaly leg mite or something curable, but had relied on the vet, and we were all ignorant. It's always sad, but ex battery hens are fun to have. I've got three and they peck my toes if I don't wear boots ... Having hens is definitely not the cheap/cheep option - but I know the eggs I get are free-range and the hens are enjoying their lives. Over winter, when they stop laying, I have to buy free range (ONLY EVER free range PLEASE people - they're not much more expensive than the cheap ones) and they're never quite as good as the hm ones. I use mine as a USP with the B&B. And I love digging over the veg garden with the helpful weeders. Not so helpful when they get there and it's been planted - they destroyed half my future red onions ... oh well ..

jackieglasgow

smileyt wrote: »

Jackieglasgow and Ginnyknit, thank you for your sympathy. I have brought Mavis Hen home with some pain relief, and she is now eating by herself (I have had to tube feed her for a few days) so it is obviously working. Basically she has tumours on her nerves so it is terminal, but I will let her have a couple of days on the pain relief to have a last henny fling before I take her back to the vets Oh dear I'm filling up as I type this, I am so soft. Her nickname is Mavis Shouty Mouth because she was always 'singing' (LOUDLY!!) but she hasn't sung for a while now and I guess she won't again.
Anyway, at least she's had two years of freedom out of the battery farm and experienced sunshine, and snow (lots of snow ..... :rotfl:)

Although the fresh eggs are fantastic, and the hens are so pleased with themselves when they lay and like to let everyone know about it :rotfl:

I would imagine the two are possibly linked too. I am not ashamed to admit that reading that made my eyes leak - not that it takes much this weather - and want to thank you for saving your chooks from battery hell. Its my worst nightmare, and if I win the lottery, a big giant free range chicken farm will be my first purchase.

sammy_kaye18

Annie56 wrote: »

Your so right Sammy-Kaye its still hammering it down but not so heavily well this will test out the ditches round the cottage....sandbags were begining to enter my head, and Montys muttering damn weather in the corner lol ...

Grey Queen it surely must be heading your way soon hopefully though hopefully not the downpour we have had...

Night all x

Annie - it was coming in waves for us yesterday - started as a hammering down with a few rumbles of thunder, then a brief hail storm, then more lightening and thunder but the thunder continued all day, the rain came in beatings and seemed to be with the lightening and at one point it was right over our flat. But there was a horrid mix of thunder/lightening/rain and hail. Thank god Owen took the car yesterday and not the motorbike though! Needless to say I didn't enjoy the school run very much!

Bruno (our pooch) was pretty good but the poor little yorkie who was left in next doors flat all day sounded terrified. Plus I think she has separation anxiety as she was howling most of yesterday too.

SMILEYT - I'm sorry to hear about Mavis. I hope she enjoys her few days at home with you. x

Well Owen sprung on me this morning that he is off work today so he can have munchkin and I can go and do a very much needed Mr T shop although I do think I will be having a bit of a walk round town first to compare prices as just had my LIDLS newsletter and it says they have I Cant Believe Its Not Butter - 500g for 89p - whereas tescos are charging £1. PLus they have weetabix at £3.49 for 72 whereas if I brought 72 in Tesco's own brand it would cost me £3.97 so ok I know I'd only save about 60p but thats a pack of coop loo roll in an emergency! .

still will fine tune my shopping and then go and get it done. Friend is taking me into town to cheer me up after my bad news yesterday so will get a chill on my own for 5 minutes and then can look at pricing up Benjie's birthday.

Plus I just realised - I have a £2 pampers voucher - her wipes are on half price offer from £2.49 down to £1.24 so with my £1 voucher on each it makes them 48p. = ) not exactly extreme but its a start!

GreyQueen

Well, I've been up since 5 am, the sky is a flawless bright blue and there is still no rain!

Last night after tea I biked to the lottie and took 3 x 4 pinter and 1 x 5 litre cans of ex-bathwater to do the strawbs. The only thing in the water was me and soap and I don't think I'm toxic......:rotfl:That's a lot of weight to handle in the baskets fore and aft and made the tyres flatten out a bit. Of course, it has nothing at all to do with my personal weight......

It was very companionable as the worker shift of allotmenteers was arriving en masse at the same time and we all had a quick gossip about the rain (none) and the strawbs (1 month prem). I'm dead chuffed with the three strawb beds (2 feet wide strips) which I created last Sept from a horribly-congested bed which had started off as a 5 foot square and had a "left wing" and a "right wing" (and probably a communist party for all I know) added until it was far too wide and deep to weed without actually having at least one foot inside it.

I took what I wanted for the new beds and issued open invites to other lottie neighbours to come with a fork and help themselves. It seemed just and proper as the beds had started with half a dozen runners donated to me by a guy on the far side of the site back in summer 07. I still have a few strawb plants which haven't been taken around the edges of the old bed plus the escapees who got out under the frame in the form of runners and were too small to spot until they flowered, so will look at having a 4th bed come autumn. Can one have too many strawbs?

Ceridwen re tea towels......I have been known to sides-to-middle them as well as darn a hole in an otherwise good towel or teatowel with a maching darn like an (*). Sometimes, I think I do it just because I can........:rotfl:

Re prepping for winter, I think it's an excellent idea and would have been common practise years ago. Because most of us get our power at the press of a switch, we've got out of the habit. When I was the the mountains of northern Sloevenia (Julian Alps area) about 3 years ago, we were in lovely trad villages, alpine, steep-roofed wooden houses and barns and each house had a sort of staging around it's walls, about 3 feet high, and underneath it was stacked very very tidily with logs split into triangular logs and set to season (this was June). Plus they had woodsheds and outdoor woodpiles neatly stacked in oblong rows about 4 feet high with "roofs" of tarp or corrugated tin.

They also have the most immaculate veg patches in these villages and we had some fascinating "conversations" with mime about why things were so (the tomato patches have to be roofed with polythene as they have summer hailstorms up there).

I liked it a lot; these were people who have their heads screwed on right plus one third of the population are active members of their equivalent of the Ramblers. And not a bit of graffiti or litter to be seen. I'd recommend a holiday there if you like walking in hills.

As you may have gathered I was impressed by the people and the country and would go back like a shot. They bolt troughs of bright red geraniums onto every building, even the outbuildings, and the scenery is lovely and so is the beer........;)

Back in the day when they used to have coal, Mum and Dad would buy some of it during the summer, as if they waited until winter to buy it as it was being used, the budget wouldn't stretch to all which was needed. I guess keeping your DD in credit is the modern equivalent. I have heard that it is cheaper to keep a whole home to a modest temperature than to have one room hot and the heating off in the rest, plus it is better for your building and your belongings. It was a c.h engineer who told me that but I have also seen it in books on low carbon living etc.

Yesterday, I was poking around in my accounts (back of diary) and thought, waitaminute, I haven't had a gas & electric bill since late January. 15 weeks, whatever are they thinking? Once I'd realised it was straight onto the blower with the readings. My leccy will be higher because of being hooked on MSE forums since I joined in January but I don't buy mags or newspapers so it all pans out in the end.

Well, knackered knickers was an interesting subject. I was reminded of a few years ago when the parents sold their last car to a colleague (pre-retirement obviously). It was elderly but lightly-used and well maintained and a colleague of my Dad's had long said that if they were selling could she have first refusal? As I have valetted cars for a living, I offered to give the motor a good clean and found, under the passenger seat, a pair of Mum's Harvest Festival Pants (as in "all is safely gathered in"). They'd been demoted to cleaning cloth, you see. Good job I got them before the car went as Mum and Dad worked at the same place and Mum knew the buyer too.

On that note, I better put the kettle on. My first brew-up at 5 ish went a bit wrong; I was so groggy I forgot the teabag! :rotfl:

valentina

GreyQueen wrote: »

:

... a pair of Mum's Harvest Festival Pants ([as in "all is safely gathered in").


Love this :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

I am really enjoying reading this thread- its the best on MSE. Have got so many tips from you guys- thank you.
Great idea about preparing for winter, got my thinking cap on ready to make some lists!!
Have started making a winter quilt, its going to be a nice big, cosy one that we can snuggle under during the winter when watching TV. Would love a wood-burner but no chimney so think the pipe to go outside would be expensive but we do live in a bungalow so might be ok. Need to clear the debt first.
Have loved reading 'knicker-gate' - if only mine WERE too small to use- lucky girls!!!