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

Kimsmum

Another one who uses the libary alot, also amazon and CS.
Have two large bookcases and they are full.
Love nothing better on a cold night to snuggle under a throw on the sofa with a good book and cup of tea.

Have been very forunate this week a friend came round on sunday, with some bedlinen ( she didnt like the colour) Brand new
Halogen Oven(she cant be bothered with it too much hassle) 4 weeks old.
Toaster and kettle ( colour doesnt suit her kitchen ) Brand new still in box
Then this afternoon she called in for a few seconds with a slowcooker still in the box
I am not the only one she gave too she also gave her mother and sister as well.
I asked her why is she giving it all away she says dont like it or dont like the colour. Then in the next breath tells me she got a loan to get all the things she needs for the house in the colour she wants:eek:
I am very grateful that she though of me, but I told her she was mad to do what she doing she just laughed.
Told me I was mad as I am the one who never seems to buy any thing unless I need it. Said she couldnt live like me always being careful with my money, trying to clear the debt I have.:(

Mrs_Chip

Both OH and I love books, to be honest, too much as the house is full of them, shelves in the living room, and boxes in the spare room, bedroom and loft! My cookery book collection alone must be over 200. I recently took loads and loads of books into work and sold them for Comic Relief and collected over £100.

So whilst there is no chance that we will stop gathering in books, I do use the Kindle for reading downloads of free books that are out of copyright from the Project Gutenberg site, and I can tuck a whole library of books in my handbag!

And for readers with poor eyesight the ability to set the text size is a great thing - my 92 year old neighbour has been able to read a lot of his favorite books again on his Kindle.

ceridwen

More "try not to feel envious" challenges here then - re the thought of being able to buy books from charity shops. It can be done - and we have a good range of charity shops hereabouts - BUT the prices charged boil down to approx 50 charity shop books bought here covers the cost of a top-of-the-range Kindle here (and I'm planning on basically only getting those one million free books from it). I've only got a handful of e-books that I'm planning on "buying" this way - and they come to round about £15 for several of them.

I guess it depends, to some extent, on the area one is in - as in many things. Until I came onto MSE - I honestly thought things were very much the same in different parts of Britain and thats been one of my learning experiences from this site to find just how different they are as to prices we all have to pay for different things and how outlooks can be shaped by the area of Britain/generation we are in...I guess most of us arent aware JUST how much where we come from/what generation we are in/etc shapes how we look at life/what decisions we make...

MrsChip - thats another valid point there re eyesight and being able to adjust the sizing on the Kindle. I hadnt even realised thats possible - wont need it myself...but it must be a blessing for some..

smileyt_2

Katieowl my heart would break into a million pieces if I couldn't afford to feed my dogs and I would be grateful to anyone who offered to help. So do buy this man some dog food. Does he have any skills he could 'swap' with you which may make it feel less like charity? If he lives nearby, could he take in parcels for you when you are out at work, for example?

I remember a long time ago one of the local drug dealers knocked on my door. He wasn't a very organised drug dealer and had run out of money. It turned out he had rescued a cat but had no money to feed her with. He asked if I could give him some of the dogs' food, which I did. A couple of days later I found a squashy ball (for the dogs) and two second-hand books pushed through my letter box as a thank you from him.

It's terrible what some people in this country are going through and how they are being treated by the people reviewing their disability benefits.

I want to ask Kittie and Suki since they seem to be up on these matters, is it really going to be so bad that we should withdraw our savings from the bank? Not that I have much (sadly!). I don't understand quantitative easing. What's the point in printing more money? If it was that easy, couldn't they just print off a few million quid and give everyone a share? It doesn't make any sense to me, but then I've never studied economics. I don't understand this push for growth, growth, growth at any cost - we live in a finite world so how can things keep expanding?

Thank you everyone for your kind words about the hens. This is my favourite thread because so many lovely people inhabit it, people who really know what is valuable in life and are willing to share words of comfort or even secretly some practical help. Methinks the 'toughies' are really big softies at heart :rotfl:

It's just started thundering and it's very chilly. Can't believe that only a week ago we were swelteringly hot. Ginny did we really have sleet today? I've been slaving in a lecture theatre all day so I missed it, thankfully!

catznine

Not sure how long I will have my little cleaning job at our local, like everyone else it is a struggle for them, nearly 40 small pubs are going out of business a week now!:eek: They are friends of ours so I'm very worried about them! Worry won't help so I'm trying to be positive and take each day as it comes.

I have just been given a free bag of granary flour so am experimenting with a recipe using 9 oz granary and 5 oz white bread flour and it is making a lovely light loaf! DH loves it anyway so I will be making more! I would buy some more but it was a "faulty run" so given away!

I've made 2 large batches of soup, potato and leek and cream of vegetable and stashed them into the freezer in managable portions, half for us and half for our friend, he has started chemo now and needs to eat something nutritious and easy to get down (throat cancer:() If anyone is lighting a candle please could you add him to your prayers/positive vibes?

Much cooler today but I managed to put some more of the garden to "bed" so less stressed now. I have fleece jackets and blankets and will resist as long as I can before turning on the heating.

Did anyone else manage to get some of the 5kg bags of pasta that app foods were selling for £2.49 ? I managed to get 15kg and now have to store it somewhere! It looks ok though, I got a bag of tomato penne for £1.49 :j Just need the tomatoes etc to go on it now! For once DH didn't make any comment other than "That was a great price, well done!":eek::D

I had seen a twinpack of romper suits in the boden catalogue that I wanted to get for our new grandaughter for Christmas and nearly ordered on the 15% offer but thanks to Haribos post, I held off and waited and sure enough in todays post I received a £10 money off voucher, so now ordered at less than half price! Thank you Haribo! :A dil loves boden stuff but it is usually so expensive!

Big (((hugs))) to those who have lost pets recently! I love my little dog and when all seems so bad in life, one cuddle from her and I feel so much better! We have lost furbabies in the past and it hurts so much we always say that's it but eventually we caved in and got another and it's the best decision we ever made.

Re books or kindle, we love our shelves of books and could never get rid of them but a kindle would be great especially for dh when he has to go away for meetings/conferences, we are seriously tempted but trying not to spend!

Stay warm everyone and safe!

Catz x

rachbc

cbrown - re the ongoing cost of buying books for the kindle I was shocked that a book I bought new on amazon was MORE on the kindle - -how can that possibly be justified - they don't even have to print it!!

rachbc

all this talk of cs for books - today I got some great cs karma after donating 3 big bags last week - a jigsaw woolcoat, a silk blouse, M&s autograph top and a pure wool blanket!! Blanket is already under dd's bottom sheet, just need some new buttons to perk up the coat!

maryb

I love ebooks. I have a Sony ereader and a Kindle. I have completely run out of room for any more books but whenever I have a clearout I always regret it. This way I can keep all my books and still get rid of the tatty paperbacks. The text size is just right for me and you can never lose your place as it always opens at the point you left off at.

It's no good for reference books, though. I bought a Kindle version of the Takeaway Secret (brilliant book - there's a whole thread on it) because it doesn't have any illustrations so I thought no point in having hard copy. But to my extreme irritation, Amazon make it very difficult to print extracts from it so I can't just print out the recipe I am using. There is a way of doing it but it's a bit laborious.

Rainy-Days

catznine wrote: »

I've made 2 large batches of soup, potato and leek and cream of vegetable and stashed them into the freezer in managable portions, half for us and half for our friend, he has started chemo now and needs to eat something nutritious and easy to get down (throat cancer:() If anyone is lighting a candle please could you add him to your prayers/positive vibes?

Catz x

Catz, also he might want to consider smoothies, even if you have to buy them!!! I know they are expensive but the vitamin and nutritional content is worth considering. My late mum had osophageal cancer and she couldn't swallow whole food, my last memory of her was having her at home and I made her a cup of tea which she loved shortly before she went into a deep sleep. You can puree loads of things down. Also think yoghurts as well if he fancies those. Toast and anything dry is a no no. Even somehting soothing like having a hot chocolate or Horlicks is helpful. The problem is that Chemo beggars up your taste buds so anything meat tastes metallic apparently and chocolate never tasted the same for my mum afterwards either and she could demolish a whole bar of Cadburys (the big family size one) on a Saturday night watching Blind Date - remember that!! It's a kind of trying to think it through, you can puree down a stew as well and he may get on okay with porridge. I found the Tesco Value porridge very good and also Ready Brek too because it so heavily crushed that it is quite a sloppy consistency.

Just a few thoughts and I hope that helps all round - yes my thoughts and prayers are very much with you and all those who suffer from this truly awful condition!

catznine

Thank you Rainy days! :A
Some good ideas there for us to try! So sorry you lost your Mum to this disease! (((hugs))) As you will know yourself sometimes the food that was managed one day just won't go down the next! This seems to be such a cruel cancer! I lost my Dad to it 12 years ago. Our friend though is much younger, the cancer hasn't spread and he is being so positive in his attitude to it! He still has the big op ahead of him and needs to keep some weight on. His wife is ill with MS so this is a double whammy for them!