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

scrabbles_2

:j Yay for Mr. Veg Patch! :beer:

Well waddya know. Crisis over. No hassle from work whatsoever. In fact, I'd go so far as to say they worked hard at being un-hassle-y! I guess the stink the union kicked up last time really did sink in. In moderate amount of pain and major amount of brain-numbness. Still glad I went back today though. It's a very quiet time for our business and TBH my job isn't very taxing even when it is busy. If I'm going to feel that way I may as well be getting paid at the same time.

I had some good news as well (not quite so good as the Veg Patcheses though!) I've won the lottery! :T Kind of :rotfl: We play a bonus ball game at work and I won it three times while I was away (including twice in a row over Christmas apparently!) The girl who organises it took out my January and February subs out and still handed me over £65! It was very honest of her as well, as I didn't have a clue. I do check the results when I remember, but that's not too often

mama67

lizzyb1812 wrote: »

Seems like a bad time for many on here - I wish you peace and hope you find at least a bit of brightness in the day.



I don't know how old your son is, but when my oldest brother was going to college my mum had the same thing with him. So one morning she went into his room when he was "asleep" and took his bedclothes - pillow, duvet and blanket. When he stomped into the kitchen moaning all she said was that they would discuss it that evening. The discussion amounted to her telling him if he was old enough to go to college he was old enough to get himself up and she was no longer responsible for waking him - if there were consequences to him being late (which she described in great detail) then they were his responsibility. She finished off with something like "you keep telling me you're an adult now - so prove it". He was the perfect timekeeper for a week then slipped but she stuck to her guns, he got a telling off at college and never missed again. She did feel guilty to start with but that soon passed as it became clear that brother liked being treated like an adult and responded well to it.

Think I'd better go and put another layer of clothes on - I'm off dogwalking now and it's freezing here!

We've had to do this with DS1 now he's at college, as he was always rushing when at school to get up and catch the bus; this was after being told from 7.15am to 7.45am, bus went at 8am.

We have just said he needs to set an alarm and make sure he is out the door on time, and he will have to catch the later service bus if he misses the proper college bus, as i'm not running him to town for college.

Byatt

scrabbles wrote: »

:j Yay for Mr. Veg Patch! :beer:

Well waddya know. Crisis over. No hassle from work whatsoever. In fact, I'd go so far as to say they worked hard at being un-hassle-y! I guess the stink the union kicked up last time really did sink in. In moderate amount of pain and major amount of brain-numbness. Still glad I went back today though. It's a very quiet time for our business and TBH my job isn't very taxing even when it is busy. If I'm going to feel that way I may as well be getting paid at the same time.

I had some good news as well (not quite so good as the Veg Patcheses though!) I've won the lottery! :T Kind of :rotfl: We play a bonus ball game at work and I won it three times while I was away (including twice in a row over Christmas apparently!) The girl who organises it took out my January and February subs out and still handed me over £65! It was very honest of her as well, as I didn't have a clue. I do check the results when I remember, but that's not too often

It's funny how when we are all prepared fora fight, nothing happens! Glad it went well, Scrabbles and well done on the lottery win. :T

Bobbykins

Brilliant news for the VPs - well done Mr VP. :j:j:j:j

Scrabbles - glad it went well for you today. Don't overdo it though hun, you don't want to be taking one step forward and two back.

Mrs_Chip

Evening Everyone

Congrats again Mrs VP, you must be chuffed to bits!

Well, I have felt totally carp all day, foggy head and no energy. Don't know what it is, does not feel like a cold just yuck.

So I have done precisely nothing today, which is terrible but tbh I could care less:rotfl:. Tomorrow is another day.

It looks like we may have sold the house in London, OH agreed terms today, so have got everything crossed it all goes to plan. Will be a massive wrench for him, it's pretty much the only home he has ever known. It will mean that I can stop being quite so stressy about finances - all totally in my head really, but I can't help mithering myself in irrational ways. We have a lot of outgoings and nothing coming in, not a position I have ever been in, and it's taking a bit of getting used to. I know we are very lucky, and so many people face situation this all the time with no prospect of a way out, and I count my blessings daily.

I hope the snow is not too bad tomorrow, Mr C is supposed to be driving home in the evening, I don't fancy his chances if there is any snow on the M4.

The PT article does make you think - god knows what things are going to be like in a years time.

Did anyone see this? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16812185

I honesly don't know what to make of it. If it was not the BBC I would think it was a bit of spin on behalf of the govt to prove their point about benefit cuts. If it is genuine, I cannot believe how naive the father is????

I would have thought they could have found a family that is genuinely living on the edge, there are enough of them about!

Byatt

I've made another bread pudding.

Mrs C, hope the sale all goes through ok. It must put you on tenter hooks just waiting. Maybe you feel blah because you are missing Mr C?

Hope there's no snow on the M4! I looked at the first link but not the BBC1 yet. The trouble with these cut backs is that you don't know just how they are going to effect you until they happen, because there are so many knock on effects. Coming off IB for instance and going onto work ESA means you are no longer considered to have a disability and so allowances are reduced. Plus occupational pensions are taken into account and benefit reduced accordingly. Also, you can't get the train card for disability or help with electric. It all adds up. Basically benefits are moving around. I do get more help with HB/CTB as a result, but still losing around £50pm.

I'm going to my DD's tomorrow for the weekend. It is so cold here I can't move around much and a duvet day is turning into a duvet week! :eek:

maryb

Nevil Shute wrote a book back in the 1930s called Ruined City where a City banker whose marriage has broken down has an accident on a walking holiday and ends up in hospital where they assume he is jobless and tramping the roads looking for work. While he is on the ward he sees first hand what it is like for the unemployed in a town that is clearly modelled on Jarrow. The hospital almoner explains to him that, yes, the dole is enough to keep body and soul together but allows for no extras whatsoever. He ponders this and it is probably fairly safe to say that he is reflecting the common view of his day when he says that the man in work can't be expected to keep the unemployed in cigarettes and beer but at the same time he recognises that it is a soul destroying way to live. He concludes that the only answer is to bring jobs back to the town and when he gets back to his 'real' life in the City he concentrates on trying to get the shipyard up and running again.

I read it again recently and I was struck by how contemporary it seemed

Mrs_Chip

Byatt wrote: »

Maybe you feel blah because you are missing Mr C?

:rotfl:Maybe so!

I would be interested to know what people think about the breakdown of that family's expenditure - would they honestly spend so much on mobiles???

katieowl_2

Oooh fingers crossed Mrs Chips!

The PT article is scary, sounds like time to sharpen the pitchforks! But I agree that the BBC article is odd...because as you say they'd have had no trouble finding a family who didn't smoke or drink or have sky that were struggling. Sounds to me like whoever generating this was intending to give the subliminal message of 'undeserving poor'

I took DD back to catch the train to uni, and checked out the other Bookers at Aberystwyth. Picked up a couple more reduced things there, along with a sack of spuds, and a big bag of peppers. I got a box of 12 packets of Hobnobs choc chip cookies reduced to £2 and 24 bottles of Drench - cranberry and raspberry flavour which had been reduced to three quid. If there are soft drinks here to throw at DS in the morning, he doesn't try and borrow a couple of quid off me, so that should keep him going for a bit. It was quite nice actually, I had one in the car on the way home.

I got the annual house insurance bill today and it's :eek: I wanted to pay it all in one go, but I hadn't remembered that I took it out in Feb, and then added the Public Liability for the B&B a few months later, and of course this is the whole lot in one go...I've saved about half of it, so I suppose that's better than nothing. I really will have to try and live off our 'hump' for the rest of the month. But at least it's a well padded hump :rotfl:



Kate

smileyt_2

Well done to Mr VP! :j:j

Mrs Chip, I have just read that bbc article you linked to and I have to agree with your assessment of it. I'm not sure about the giving up smoking because that is genuinely so difficult to do, but they could cut down, and cut out the cans of lager. I bet if they posted on the debtfree wannabe board they'd get plenty of advice!

Talking of cigarettes - well done, PAH, a week without cigarettes - go you!

My hoover has gone kaput. I washed the filter, emptied it, cleaned the brushes and it still smells of burning when I switch it on. So I have reserved another one from Argos and will pick it up tomorrow. I would have loved another dyson but don't have the money so I am getting a Vax, at half-price (and about a quarter of the price of a dyson).

Mardatha, that article is scary. This government will not be satisfied until it has implemented scrooge policies to the max (let the poor die and decrease the surplus population).

On a more cheery note - only 51 days until the clocks go forward :T. Hang on in there!

ETA I got my approved food order today. Lots of 'luxury' items like bags of you are what you eat dried fruit, nuts and dark choc for 10p/bag. It means I have something nice to take to work for lunch and I couldn't possible afford to buy such things otherwise. I also got some basics, like lentils, rice etc. £170 worth of food for £50. And all thanks to you toughies for introducing me to it! xxxx