A new 'tougher' thread... and so it continues

Hardup_Hester

GQ, I think Old Meanie is referring to your post about immigrants living rough in nearby woods.

kidcat

Morning all, have woken in a cheerful mood. Obviously the time off worked even with the stamper incident. All in all.it could have been worse. Off to buy some paint in minute, there is still doors left to do from the building work before we moved in so its given me a kick to get organised.

OH off for four days now so seems ideal to prep today and paint as soon as kids go to school tomorrow.

GQ - I wonder if the post refers to the discussion a few days back?

mardatha

Morning everybody. RV wee bit better today after a row and smack yesterday. (ok well after I lostit and yelled!) His diabetes is going haywire again and it gets him down, he hates it. So I've sent him off out a walk , I'm still stuck on the couch with lead legs
Wish I could get more organised re cooking - one thing you cant do with bad ME is organise nice meals. It always ends up a sandwich or bacon & egg.
Wanted to ask, if you have to soak salty bacon before using in soup, does that not make it totally flavourless?

Mrs_Chip

Morning Campers!

GQ - I think OM was referring to your post about camps of the dispossesed popping up in towns and cities?

Kidcat - I has to smile at your story of the Buzz stamps - must have been terribly frustrating for you, but I remember when I was a kid, I painted my bedroom wall with proper paint - graffiti stylee, to my parents horror.

Why not leave the walls - let him choose what they look like?

Spent a bit of time up in the garden yesterday, hacking back at brambles and nettles at the margins. At least now we are down here most of the time I can keep the weeds under control, it's funny, but from month to month they used to just grow back???:rotfl:.

My plan is to grow those things we use a lot of, and that are more expensive or a pain to get hold of. Not having a great deal of space I wont be growing things that need a lot of room. So lots of tomatoes (hopefully), cut-and-come again lettuce, carrots, some runner bean as we love them, and lots and lots of herbs. If there any space left I will stick in some seeds from the hundreds of packets I seem to have collected .

ETA: Ooops, that'l teach me to get sidetracked mid post!

VJsmum

Carissa wrote: »

I'm fairly new to money saving, and am cutting corners wherever I can, so today I almost had a fit when my mam was going to throw away a huge pan of rice (she'd made far too much for her and my dad). I managed to rescue it and take it home.

Right, I thought, I'll make a rice pudding with that for afters.

LOL

But do be wary of left over rice - it needs to have cooled down very quickly otherwise all sorts of nasties lurk in it.

trifles wrote: »

I would love to see some programmes on TV showing how to cook basic,nourishing food frugally.I enjoy watching celeb chefs cook,but find that most of the recipes are beyond the budget of everyday cooking in terms of expense and hassle.

If the programme makers had some sensible,non celeb demonstrations of easy recipes using wholesome,cheap ingredients maybe the demand for expensive,processed food would go down and people would benefit in terms of health and money.

I guess Jamie's "Ministry of food" programme was a bit like that, but did go to extremes - well, TV does that doesn't it?

GreyQueen wrote: »

I've been TV-free for 25 years and whenever I have the run of a set I could scream with boredom; frankly I learn more from forums like this, the odd book, other places on the interweb and conversation and experimentation than any TV wallah can teach me.

Well, my library book hasn't yet come in but I did find an armful of household tips style books which I shall enjoy browsing thru.

I do have a TV but find there is very little I want to watch. I confess to watching the Strictly factor on ice type programmes as escapism and they get me through winter Sunday nights which I loathe with a passion. I think the rest of the time

That reminds me, there is a book I want to order from the library - a family saga me and mum started reading 30 years ago that is nearing it's end. Mum isn't around to finish it so I have to do it for her.

Off to the flicks later - Iron Lady - I loathe Maggie and all her doings (I hold her responsible for these tough times - though not alone of course), but am intrigued to see how they portray her, and i hear that Streep is marvellous (darling, simply marvellous )

GQ i am jealous of your allotment activity, I really must get my !!!!! in gear and start on the garden. I also need to list a load of items on ebay today in my ditch 100 in January challenge.

Have a good one all.

Minihauk

kidcat wrote: »

Just had to share this one -
He has then totally covered his door,walls, furniture, tv etc with bright blue buzz lightyear stamps!!! A whole bottle of nail varnish remover later and its still faintly visible and will have to be painted again!! :rotfl:

Kidcat, next time try hairspray instead of nail polish remover. It is great for getting permanent ink from surfaces, not sure about emulsion, but def works with hard surfaces.

meme30

I have given myself a good talking to this morning! For too long now I have ignoring our real need to save some money. We need to have a bit of a nest egg. I am guilty of sometimes just buying things because I just want them! This covers bars of chocolate to clothes. If I sat myself down and worked out how much money I could have saved this month alone, I know I would be horrified! So am not going to beat myself up over the past but am going to try to do better. My biggest problem is that I buy, then get home and wonder what I was thinking of! :eek:

I am joining the saving £2012 in 2012 challenge. if I can just learn to stick to a list and not veer off into 'Ooh the grandchildren would like that. and oh that looks nice LA LA land' I will be able to spend less money. I am going to do some surveys (used to but got lazy!) and yes pick money up in the street :eek:
Smacking myself over the head and telling myself 'Could do better!' is not working. I need to grow some will power! Any will power seeds donated will be gratefully accepted. I have a lovely garden I just need a firm shove along the Path of Thrift. (freakily John Bunyan!!)

gardenia101

LavenderBees wrote: »

Still on the quest for the ultimate loaf of bread, and am thinking of trying a half and half loaf this weekend. Naturally my BM recipe book doesn't have anything in it like this - do I just literally use half white & half wm flour? Do I do the same with sugar?

I tend to use 1/3 "nice posh" flour (I love Doves Farm Barleycorn & Wessex Mill 6 seed), 1/3 strong white bread flour & 1/3 normal plain flour to try & bring the cost per loaf down. I haven't noticed any difference in rising with this mix as aooposed to using all strong bread flour. As my machine is mixing I have a quick look & see how sticky the dough is & add a slosh (never measured sorry ) of water if it looks too dry. My mix uses 2 tbsps sugar, so I might try cutting this down as it does seem a lot . It's good fun experimenting (unless you need a loaf quickly...)

Many thanks in anticipation. Yum! Yum Can't wait...may have to walk a few miles this weekend or next week's weigh in may be a problem...does weighing yourself with one foot off the scales help? :rotfl:

xx

Never helped me sadly.

westcoastscot

Morning all,

Am standing here tea in hand watching the rain (again), would so love to get out into the garden but its a swamp - its a huge problem when you put the garden over to veggies, it looks awful over the winter when it's empty. Nothing I planted for winter has come to anything at all, so I'm rotating my chucks around it to dig/manure for me. It's been raining her steadily, and then heavily, and then back to steadily, since before christmas.

Thinking of just putting my coat on and seeing what i can do - must be something!! I still have bulbs to plant as it was so wet in the autumn.

For anyone who has been reading my long-running quandry, have def decided to prioritise money saving before making extra - question now is what to do with a mountain of craft stuff???? I shall still make for us, and for pressies etc, but really have tons of stuff. Shall have to find a way to store it that takes up as little space as poss and keeps it in as good condition as poss. Don't really want to get rid of it as I shall find a use for it over time i'm sure.

Have a good day folks -
ooh forgot to say Mar, I bring my bacon to the boil and throw the water, then start again, to get rid of salt - youngest has to avoid as much salt as possible due to high BP.Still very tasty, I find.

WCS

ginnyknit

Finally got Oh home from Hospital yesterday and after 4 days on lousy food he is at the 'you know what I fancy to eat stage' So its big breakfast day, sausages bacon and egg. Am cooking a full pack of sausages and bunging the rest in a casserole. Living off whats in the freezer is going well, its just worrying me that I will have to fill the bu**er up afterwards.

DGS is on his way so am off to remove anything he can mess with. Managed to fix the DVD player :j not had one for years and mainly got this one off a friend so DGS can watch a Pingu DVD that friend downloaded for me - 130 episodes :eek: but we limit him to watching 3 at a time, although he now can switch it on and climb on my lap to watch it :rotfl:

Apart from a mercy dash for coffee not been near a shop in days and really only spent money on petrol so quite cheap week. Dd's OH had our car for the week and has been driving me back and forth so unlike last time Oh was in for an op I haven't spent £75 on taxis and bus passes.

GQ I am also looking at the garden and contemplating plans for the new growing season. I will definately soak my broad beans as you do this year. But I have my new plastic walk in greenhouse to play with this year :T:T:T I can spend hours in their, snug and warm marvelling at my rows of seedlings. Lets just hope we have a better year this year as I was very frustrated last year