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

oldtractor

I'm sat here with a hat on a hot water bottle and wrapped in a fleece blanket......in May! no heating on though.

scottishminnie

oldtractor wrote: »

I'm sat here with a hat on a hot water bottle and wrapped in a fleece blanket......in May! no heating on though.

Thought it was just me - I'm sitting here with my feet in woolly socks and resting them on a hot water bottle. The laptop is on my knees so it's generating some heat too:)

My only money saving effort today was some tealoaf so I'll have to try harder tomorrow. Although I did get a gift today of a Hummingbird Cake book from someone who didn't want it so that's a bit of a bonus.

ginnyknit

ChocClare, I am so envious of you having your own honey, and all those little ingots of beeswax. I have a very nice recipe for lip balm which I will post for you. I used to make it years ago but got out of the habit.

Yes guys its cold here too, I resorted to a hot bath ( I hate my new bath ) and am off to snuggle in bed and work on my plans to move to somewhere where I can keep bees - well I can dream can't I.

made 6 mini top hats for on the table decorations and they look really cute. getting my self geared up to make 60 favour boxes tomorrow and eating homemade peanut brittle - terribly addictive! Took Oh to see the psychologist and he came out feeling very calm, may have to kidnap her and keep her in a cupboard :j

sammy_kaye18

Hi all

RE : the toilet roll - thank you for letting me know they had changed packaging - I will look when I go in later today.

Welcome to any new comers that have joined.

Ammonite - this thread is lovely. People on here are so supportive, if not a few nuts thrown in the mix for good measure. I think this is by far my favourite thread on MSE.

Floss2 - that certain competition was on facebook. But if you have a look on MSE there is a whole forum dedicated to competitions. x

Objective for today is bill paying. I need to start looking at bits for Bens birthday too but after my sister in law just spent £300+ :eek: on her 9 year old for his birthday I amd determiend to be money savvy with Ben's. Got him two little games so far that cost me £1.99 each, have seen a few other bits that are about £3.99 each (which are mini skateboard things but he loves them) and a few other games.

IDEAS NEEDED : Ben is determined to become a zoo keeper - he gets very upset when the 'losing animals' ie the polar bear advert or the jaguar one - comes on the TV and did originally want to be a vet but decided he wanted to save and help animals, not put them to sleep or give them nasty jabs. So I wanted to get him a present related to that but I really cant think of anything! I have promised him that he can have a new pet when we eventually get into a house, but fair play he has researched it to the hilt and back and now is a little fountain of knowledge on them (bearded dragons btw) and next year he can have a zookeeper experience (age restrictions for obvious reasons) but for this year Im stuck.

Reminds me I must look on freecycle for a bookcase - he has so many books its ridiculous! :eek: although I cant complain - he obviously takes after mummy!

Was discussing with my friend yesterday - her childrens birthdays have just been so now shes free to start planning christmas told her I don't manage to get that far until at least the end of July.Think some winter prep would keep my need to plan urge in order

Not much else planned for today. Cleaning, possibly a bit of baking and the bills.

Hope you all have a nice day.

Love

Sammy
x x x x x x x

ceridwen

oldtractor wrote: »

I'm sat here with a hat on a hot water bottle and wrapped in a fleece blanket......in May! no heating on though.

Oh dear....and I was thinking in response to your earlier post that "Make that more thermals, etc than you think" - because I saw in your signature that you are trying to lose a bit of weight. You will likely feel a bit colder once down to normal weight (ie your signature says going from 10st 7lbs to 8st 12lbs) - hence part of me senses a reluctance to get back down to my normal weight, as I know I will need to keep the house that bit warmer again (with losing a bit of "padding" I am currently carrying - darn it!).

But - I am still proceeding with that getting back to normal - as I hate being at all overweight and cant fit into most of my clothes at the moment with that (and I refuse to buy any new ones I dont need - just because I need them right now iyswim).

So - dont let me discourage you from getting back to normal weight - but its just a point to be aware of (ie that you will likely then feel the cold a little bit more than you currently do). I shall keep on myself - because I can only do "Scruff Mode" at the moment and I do like to know that I can get into those of my clothes that equal "Wave a magic wand - and ceridwen has gone elegant" if I want to.

claudiac_2

Hope you don't mind me joining in, but on the subject of Whoopsies/mark downs. I get some great bargains at the corner shops. We have a Co-op and another one Scotmid I think it's called, and I got about 40 pounds worth of chicken, stew and mince for less than 10 pound this week. Also got three bags of new Jersey Royals for 30p pack (were on at half price 1.50). Would have bought more if there was room in the freezer! I think they had stocked up for BBQ weather which didn't happen, so got left with loads of stuff. Worth a try if you have similar type shops nearby. I go in quite early for mum's paper ( could be the oldest papergirl in town, me!), and also in the evening after tea as that is when they mark down fruit, veg etc. BTW, my cheapo keyboard has no pound sign on it only dollar.

Have a lovely day everyone.

sammy_kaye18

claudiac wrote: »

BTW, my cheapo keyboard has no pound sign on it only dollar.

Have a lovely day everyone.

Is your keyboard set to UK as language - because the pound sign on mine wasnt showing because it was set to american settings.

Plus if you hold ALT and type 156 - you should get a pound sign. x x x

claudiac_2

How would I check please?

sammy_kaye18

claudiac wrote: »

How would I check please?

Down near the clock on the right hand corner there should be a little picture of a keyboard?

If you put the cursor over it it should say English UK

Or you should have the letter EN - if you have letters click on them and see if it says EN English (UNITED KINGDOM) or EN English (UNITED STATES)

GreyQueen

Morning all! It's bright, it's sunny, the sky is flawless blue, it's probably gong to be 21-23 again today and still no rain (it's about 2 months now and I'm trying to get a crop in).

Got wildly excited yesterday about 3 pm as I glanced out of the window and saw grey clouds, proper rainclouds, all curdled and purposeful looking, the temperature was dropping, all looked like RAIN was about to happen. And, guess what? They blew away without a drop being shed and by late afternoon you'd never have known that they'd been there.

I've been busily being trained on a new computer system and my head hurts and thank goodness today is the final day of it this week then back to the callcentre to do what I do. This week seems to have gone on forever; getting soft as used to the short Bank Holiday weeks.

I have re-newed my appreciation of Bio-Tex as a pre-wash soaker. We fell out as it was playing hard to get and I couldn't find it anywhere, but we bumped into each other at a chain chemist the other month and it was just like old times. I have a lightish man's shirt, picked up for 20p from a jumble sale in completely unworn condition. This is my "gardening shirt" as I have fair skin, I need to have my arms covered, but being a man's shirt it's sleeves were to ruddy long and I CBA to shorten them so the cuffs got engrained with dirt which wouldn't shift with regular laundry and shamed me, but after 48 hours percolating in the Bio-Tex and a 40 degree wash, garment is as new and cuffs are off pending sleeve-shortening operations. Don't know if it strictly needed 48 hours but I was waiting to make up a washload so that's what it got.

I strolled up to the lottie yesterday evening carrying 3 x 4 pint milk bottles of ex-bathwater (it's part of a fitness regime, too) and watered the strawbs. I was astonished to see that 2 plants have berries starting to turn PINK. In mid-May, did you every hear the like? They're normally ripening in mid-June and over by end of June.

I also watered the contents of the wee plastic greenhouse with water from the butts and both my french and runner beans are starting to hook up out of the compost. I love growing things, I've never lost the childlike thrill of seeing things germinate. Got to get some more stuff sown in open ground to keep successional cropping but it's so parched out there that it hardly seems worth it. The only good thing is that the weeds are barely growing either. At this time of the year I'd normally be seeing some serious hoe-action.

iris hello and thank you for the tip re the sultanas at Sainsbugs, I'm going to scarper up there after work and stock up. Grocery inflation is shocking. I can recall buying Mr M's cheapest line of sultanas at 22p/ 500g and it wasn't that long ago. The annoying thing is that you can bet the producers don't get that much more, it's all going in transport and packaging costs and what I suspect is profiteering.

Yesterday, I popped into a L!dl and got 3 mixed peppers in a pack for £1 and a cue for 49p whereas earlier that afternoon I'd seen the same items at £1.65 and 89p in Mr T. When I think that I saved over a quid by going to a different store, and that was only on 2 items, it really makes me think. If you multiply that over the course of a year, it makes a big difference, even more for those of you who are shopping for families than it does for singletons like me.

Mrswive on the subject of TVs, I gave mine up in 1987 and, can say that I've never regretted it. I have a desktop PC with DVD drive and 17" CRT monitor and good speakers and it plays movies rented from the library just fine.

A lot of people have found giving up TV, or at least seriously limiting its use, a great and life-enhancing change, but we are each to our own and you know your needs. If you don't want to commit, perhaps you could put it away for a few months/ chuck a cloth over it, to see if you really do miss it?

On the subject of raindances, I think it may come down to that. Or sacrificing a virgin to some pagan deity. Brief pause while I grin and consider the rough estate which surrounds my lottie......nah, can't see that as being feasible!

Whoops, better go, off-colour sense of humour peeking thru.......:rotfl:Have a great day everybody and ((hugs)) to anyone feeling a bit low.