It was getting tough in 2006 and the workhouse still threatens us in 2011

kersplatt

Biding my time before going on night duty - I've found about £7 in change around the house this afternoon so I'll aim to get to Mr T for about 6.30 to run the 'whoopsies' gauntlet - there are some oddballs where I live who will literally buy gluts of reduced lettuces and pineapples - what they do with them I have no idea since I can't imagine how you would preserve them, all I know is that you need sharpened elbows to get past them!!!

Just eaten the last of my homemade gnocci - absolutely rank but I needed to use up the leftover pasta sauce so needs must. Haven't even got a drop of milk in the house to make tea and sluice the vileness out of my mouth, water it is!!!

In the meantime I can see the dark clouds gathering for even more rain - at least it means that no one will be out getting drunk and coming to visit me at work tonight!!! The joy of A&E on a weekend!

mardatha

They're saying on another forum that there's 2 rises in fuel duty planned for next year. One in Jan and one in August, both for 4p PER LITRE :eek:

kersplatt

Crikey Mardatha!!! Think I'll be getting my cycling legs on!!! 10 miles each way to work should be doable with some practice!!!

SDG31000

Hello everyone

Well done ftm, that is a huge achievement. Enjoy the cake and wine.

redlady_1 I hope your back is feeling better.

I've had a few non-moneysaving days, as DH has been off work this week. So he and DS1 went to The Doctor Who Experience on Monday and spent more than I want to know about in the gift shop. Then on Tuesday I went for a date with my DFIL to the V&A. It was the first time that just the two of us had gone on an outing, so I brought him lunch. It was a very, very good chicken and mushroom pie, but at £9.95 each + £3.10 extra for veg they should have been.
Yesterday I got to see my family and got lots of cuddles and sloppy kisses from my 6 month old nephew. That was sort of money saving, as it reminds me that I don't really want another baby, no matter how cute and gorgeous they are.
DH is now off on mysterious errands that are apparently something to do with my birthday. Everyone knows what is going on but me. Family and friends are in on it and are refusing to even give me the slightest clue. Oh well, only 6 days to go until I find out.
I am hoping that the weather improves over the weekend and that I can find some blackberries to make vodka with as c-word presents. Also a neighbour has told me about an apple tree on public land that he is keeping an eye on and will pick me some for me when they are a bit more ripe.
I might have to resort to putting the heating on for a bit if only to get the pizza dough to rise. It is so miserable and damp here that I think the yeast is sulking.
That is enough waffling on by me. Take care and be well everyone xxx

Rosanna79

Hi FTM we live near S!!!!horpe & a lot of the rural areas seem to have been stripped of forageable produce- wonder if professional foragers ??freegans the cause? As for my misspent youth it was more about winding up my mother (an evangelical fundamentalist) than anything else-nowadays rebellion seems to be more about getting a criminal record than anything as harmless as causing a relatively mild stir among one's elders! It was more about asserting one's individuality & in a world without social media this was much less important. As my late brother who livea in Western Ireland used to say 'In England everything is either compulsory or forbidden.' I might add that in rural western Ireland there always seemed to be plenty for everyone to forage- I do wonder if we've become so selfish in the UK? The vicious way local people had physical fights over bread & milk during last years snow appalled me. It's a very thin veneer of civilisation we have it seems

ceridwen

kittie wrote: »

GQ you are one lovely neighbour!


Now two questions: why is porcelein so good as a receptacle for salt and a holder for my garlic bulbs?

Why has the uk gone so far away from the very old ways of preservation? Several euro countries still do it, so why not uk?

1. Agreed - ie that GreyQueen is being a lovely neighbour to SuperGran - tho 'tis true that SuperGran has also been a lovely neighbour to GreyQueen as well. So - all is well...:)

2. I'll hazard a guess re porcelain as a holder for salt and garlic - as in I would imagine porcelain as a material absorbs damp (ie possible ruination to the food) better than some other materials would??? Someone else may know whether this is indeed the case - but sounds like it might be the case to me...

3. UK going away from the old ways of preservation - again I'll hazard a guess and that is to do with our high level of overpopulation. One of the results of this is that many of us have to buy smaller/"cheaper level" housing than we decided on/expected and, with this, comes smaller gardens. Many of us have to make do with non-existent or matchbox or pocket handkerchief size gardens - because of land being so expensive in this country - and therefore dont have the space to grow much (if anything) and therefore dont actually HAVE that much to preserve. The cheaper parts of our country tend to be those that are coldest and therefore, though we might be able to buy "big enough" houses/gardens for ourselves there - then its that cold the growing season is rather shorter and/or they are unemployment blackspots so we cant move there for that reason (assuming we arent there anyway).

Thats my guesses as to why...and theres probably all sorts of other reasons to do with our history (like I think??? the Industrial Revolution and its cramming workers into tiny back-to-back houses maybe came sooner to us than to other Europeans???).

Anyway - thats my thoughts - for what its worth.

EDIT: Have now finished reading the latest posts - and Charis indeed makes some very good points re this. Re Kittie's later post - re those who are single householders and working full-time finding it impossible to find the time - well...in my experience...not impossible...but certainly not easy either....and just as well I dont want to spend time watching any tv programmes other than those I actually WANT to watch IYSWIM (ie I dont do watching tv for the sake of it personally - that Protestant work ethic - I'd feel FAR too guilty to do that.....LOL).

************************

It DOES help to see three other posters here commenting about everything forageable being gone before they get to it....as I did wonder if I'm in the only bit of the country where its often all gone before I get a "look-in" - even in circumstances where I'M obviously the "local on the patch" and therefore with "first foraging rights" (and indeed obviously respect other peeps' "first foraging rights" in reverse if I'm even a walking distance away from my own "patch" and that I have to share anything thats left after those in immediate environs have been in first). It REALLY REALLY does depend on exactly where one lives in the country as to what the situation is like in that respect.

Obviously - there are all sorts of aspects as to just where in Britain we live exactly as to how much things vary. In my own area, for instance, I struggle to "get my head round" just how bad unemployment is in some parts of Britain (ie because we arent hit as badly by it hereabouts - and I would still expect to be able to go out and get a part-time job any day of the week no bother) - but I am well aware that, in some parts of Britain, people would struggle to even get a few hours a week at NMW. It is very easy for us to think the way things are in our particular part of the country (for good or bad) are how things are for everyone else in Britain - but there are still vast differences between different parts of Britain (even without taking account of the difference in Government finances according to whether we are in Scotland/Wales on the one hand or England on the other hand). Our area will vary - for good or bad - in relation to other parts of Britain. In my own area, for instance - unemployment isnt as bad as in some areas/food is dearer/bills are dearer/housing is dearer/its England (so no help for being Wales/Scotland from the Government)/VERY built-up/etc/etc. We really really DO have to take account of how much the locality a person is in affects them financially - and I wont even go there re the difference there might be in other respects...NO chance....

Mrs_Veg_Plot

Thanks for the concern re hubby. He was back to work today and all is well. He might be th ereason that we are in the financial mess we are in right now but I love the very bones of him.

smiley t hope you are well enough for the carnival float tomorrow. I remember boing on one many years ago. I think it was with the girl guides but can not be sure now.

flowertotmum woohoo congrats on being debt free. Well done you thoroughly deserve it. I am really pleased for you.

Ok spicy courgette chutney
2 chopped onions
500g chopped toms
500g courgette dice small
300ml white wine vinegar
2 medium cooking apples peeled and diced
250g brown sugar
2 teaspoons of mixed spice
1 teaspoon of mustard seeds
thumb sized piece of fresh root ginger grated
4 garlic cloves crushed

Put it all into a large pan and bring slowly to a simmer stiring to stop the sugar sticking to the bottom of the pan. Simmer uncovered until thick and chutney like.
Put warm mixture into warmed sterilised jars and if possible leave for 3 weeks to mature before eating.
I sometimes add some chilli if I want a really spicy chutney.

This one smells so tasty when it is cooking.

I like it with cold cuts, on sandwiches, with cheese and especially quiche or sausage.

ceridwen

On a very different tack - I spotted the Daily Mail article on plastic bags a few days after our discussion re supermarket chains having different policies according to which part of the country the particular shop concerned is in:cool: and thought "Well - howdy-doody to whichever journalist is reading this thread then....:rotfl:" and congratulations on an article that made a good point there.

Thatsa my assumption anyways as to why that (very constructive) article appeared - I may be wrong...

I think this "Times are tough" thread (in all its various incarnations) is actually a pretty good 21st century variation on the Mass Observation project that happened around the time of the 2nd World War - only this time its interactive.

They wont get the "full picture" if anyone is viewing this as a dispassionate observer at any point in the near future - watching all the interaction going on. Reason - because they wont see the various posts that have had to be deleted over the different threads and have read through all the other threads on the Forum to follow why the deleted posts came up in the first place...but it will still be a very interesting/useful sociological study for someone somewhere at some point as to how early 21st century people (if mainly women) dealt with the "interesting times" they lived in.

I've often wondered if peeps living in previous "Interesting Times" had an objective/outsider view of the circumstances they were living in...eg those of our counterparts who were living, say, 100 years back.....and I read those books like "Round about a pound a day" wondering just what proportion of those women "just got on with it" and thought it was all "personal" etc and which ones were sitting there thinking "In 100 years time we will be freed from a lot of the factors that are dragging us down now". That is the one thing that just isnt there in these historical accounts that will be there - to a large extent - in a thread like this. That is historians of the 22nd century will be able to look back and see how we thought and felt about the circumstances we are in now.

shegar

mardatha wrote: »

They're saying on another forum that there's 2 rises in fuel duty planned for next year. One in Jan and one in August, both for 4p PER LITRE :eek:

Phew me....I cant see how they can know if it will rise in 12 months time.......it has been slowly rising a penny a litre a month over the summer , so if that keeps up there will be 12 rises in the next year to come...:eek::eek: Mardather dont look at other forums, less worry that way...!!:)

hornetgirl

Well done FTM on being debt free. What a lovely feeling

Ceridwen, I'm afraid I don't get this "first foraging rights" thing. I can't see how someone can have any more right than someone else to something growing freely in a public place. My friend up the road lives marginally closer to the local brambles than I do. Does that somehow give her a greater entitlement to pick them? How many can she take? How many can I take? And how does someone a bit further away in the next road know whether either of us has taken our "entitlement" yet? I'm all for the don't be too greedy thing, but don't think you can start talking about rules and rights.