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

[Deleted User]

Looking forward to it, if I get it wrong, please forward to either the Isle of Wight or the Cherbourg Peninsula!!!!!!

mardatha

Would it be really really bad if I said that we've had no rain at all for a few days..?
Yes. yes it would. So I wont say it then. :A
Re these floods, this is why you should never laugh at preppers ! Because they will have a bag ready to lift as they are helicoptered out of the roof skylight, and that bag will have all the important papers and insurance docs and spare cash in.... maybe a good time to sort that out ??

ginnyknit

Fuddle chicken and rice stops tummy trouble apparently, thats what the vets suggest so Mrs Lurcher is right about the turkey, just as good as chicken with kibble you should be fine. Hope you dont mind me suggesting it:)

Evie74_2

Hello everyone

Seriously foul weather here too - I don't think the rain has let up all day.:mad: Very busy at work today too - I have hardly had time to pause for breath all day! So glad to be home, snuggled up in a fleece with my family safe and warm at home too. It feels so autumnal today, I can hardly believe it's the middle of June.

Not much OS to report really - I have to strain the elderflower cordial and bottle it later but I'll wait until the DDs have gone to bed I think. I've just made microwave treacle pud for everyone (see, I told you if felt like autumn!) which has gone down well.

Hope you've all had good days

Evie xx

fuddle

ginnyknit wrote: »

Fuddle chicken and rice stops tummy trouble apparently, thats what the vets suggest so Mrs Lurcher is right about the turkey, just as good as chicken with kibble you should be fine. Hope you dont mind me suggesting it:)

Thank you ginnyknit. I have been reading that, as he's had diarrhoea, chicken and rice will help settle it so thanks for that. I have defrosting some chicken thighs and will cook up some rice. I'll be up early in the morning to do it for his breakfast.

DH has agreed it would be nice to get him on the raw meat diet if it was a cost effective way of doing it. I'm off for that 6 mile walk to the butcher warehouse tomorrow (I need my trolley early!) to price up the offal and turkey.

I'm off to go read about it but I know that I will have to cook all the meat up. I know I shouldn't give him cooked up bones though so need to plan this carefully.

This way feels much more OS.

Mrs_Chip

We have had sun today - sorry!

I must admit we spent the best of it cleaning out one of the fryers - a horrible job but necessary, but it has been lovely all day. High cloud piling in now so I expect tomorrow will be rain. Good job we grabbed an hour or so in the garden, never know when the next time will be .

Possession

Do you guys have any wise words of advice for me? Things are very tough financially at the moment and as we've taken a huge cut in the money coming in each month (ie it's a third of what it was) we have our own set of austerity measures. The trouble is, the kids are finding it hard. Not that they were ever horribly spoiled, but if we wanted to go to the cinema for example, we had the money to do it and now we don't. Just wondered if anyone had any ideas/experiences to help make it a bit easier for them. They are age 7 & 10.

fuddle

My VUE cinema does cinema screening for £1.25 each for kids in the school holidays. They aren't the very latest latest films but a ggod day out... box of own popping corn. Etc. Days out at a park with a picnic, ok not great with the weather but still a good day out. The library is a great place to occupy my kids although mine are 3 and 7 so younger than your 10 year old. Games on the PC via CBBC, Disney Junior or lego ninjago. Mine play on metoyouplace as they're girly girls too. You can acess angry birds and petville via facebook (your own account though) all free. Digging for minbeasts or making bird cake for the birds. Lend 1001 things to do with your kids from the library etc or the usborne craft books or science experiments are great. Save some recycling to build models etc. Homemade paints and play doh with cookie cutters. Bake or even let the older kids bake themselves following instructions. I can cook on cbeebies have some child proof recipes that are healthy. Get he clothes horse out and a load of blankets to make a tent. HTH, it is hard but kids only need the basics and their parents attention to have a ball. Enjoy letting your mind run amock with fun ideas

mcculloch29

Hello Possession. My marriage broke up 20 years ago when my children were 8 & 13, not too different in age range from yours. I was overseas, but had a pt job and managed quite well, then I came home to no job, a house to run and endowment payments to meet... it was scary but we got through. My daughter has said that looking back she's not sure how we did it, but we did.
The children understood that there wasn't the money for all that they would like but we were all in it together.
We became top class foragers (I know what elderflower looks like...) and it was fun, going out into the countryside locally.
I scoured charity shops for clothes for us all.
It's impossible to live on benefits (you just exist) so I took up childminding again, although I also did some courses to improve my employability prospects.
Re the cinema. We used to arrange the furniture in rows of chairs, pop popcorn, draw the curtains and have a home cinema experience with a video. Locally around here, quite a few community halls do family film sessions.
Toys and games... I entered every competition I could get my hands on and encouraged the children to do this too. We were very successful. These days most competitions are on the net and skill in slogan writing is rarely needed.
The children both joined local organisations such as the Boys' Brigade, which gave them a lot of experiences that I couldn't have afforded to give them in weekends away. Other parents helped out with SH uniform.

Try Freecycle for bikes for the children - or yourself - or other toys, jigsaws, books, games etc.

Please do ensure you are claiming every benefit that you can - I made sure I did. I got the house insulated too. Make sure you thoroughly investigate anything else that claiming a benefit entitles you to.
Good luck!

GreyQueen

It's a tricky one, hun, as you don't want to deny your littlies anything but you can't go on with business as usual with such a big hit to your income.

My cousin and her OH had to think laterally to cope with her three and a low and erratic self-employed income. Here's one few of her strategies.

Kids were invited to draw up a wish list of places/ things they wanted to during the summer holiday. They were told there would be 3 outings. Each drew their personal wishlist, then the kids negotiated among themselves to choose the 3 outings they could all agree on. They were 2 lads and the youngest was a girl, span of nearly 6 years from eldest to youngest.

Another Mum found out that it was cheaper for them to have a family membership of a private health centre (they only used the pool) than to swim in the local authority pool using their "low income discount card thingy" from same council. Try making lateral enquiries about things - the answers may surprise you.

One pal of mine, lone parenting in mid-life when her eldest were grown and flown, had arranged for her child's godparents to be a lovely, affluent and childless couple. Her kid went places and did things with the godparents that Mum could never have afforded.

What sometimes happened in my childhood, and I know my pals have sometimes done, is one parent has gone into a fee-paying attraction with the kids while the other has loitered outside, just to save the second adult admission.

If going out for the day, always take a picnic and try to limit food out. It chews thru the budget like nobody's business. If you need to buy icecreams and are in town, nip into an Iceland or similar store and get a pack for less than the price of a single lolly.

A devious trick I heard was that one frugalista spent her childood believing that the chimes on the icecream van meant that it had run out of icecreams, because this is what her wily parents told her.........:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Hie ye off to the carboots and be astonished at how far your £ss will go there. A lot of stuff is like new, but for a pittance. Good kids' stuff abounds.

I'm sure the rest of the gang will have lots more, so ta da for now.