make do and mend for tougher times

Sunshine4

Morning everyone,
It is a lovely morning here been for an early morning walk. The sun is out so I am going to do some more washing, some of the heavier items so hopefully they will get dry on the line.

OH was very pleased with his leather elbow pads.I also made eight napkins.Have finished two scarfs,so I have two more to go.
Have been given some cotton yarn so after I have finished the scarfs, I will knit some dish clothes.

My food delivery came so my cupboards are starting to fill up.
Friends daughter is coming over this afternoon to cut my hair.
Friend is coming with her ,so I will make a cake or slice to have for afternoon tea while they are here.

OH is going to clean all the inside windows,then after lunch hes going for a bike ride with the over 60s club he belongs to.

mardatha

I'd be doing something as well. If they offer free compulsory education to kids then its a sneaky con trick to make you pay to get them there. Here is the tv thingy sorry I missed the date out -


TWO TV INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE WCA
Two programmes about the WCA both being broadcast on Monday 30 July.

Dispatches. 8pm, Channel 4
“Using undercover filming, reporter Jackie Long investigates the shocking processes used to assess whether sickness and disability benefit claimants should be declared fit for work.”

Disabled or faking it? 8.30pm, BBC2
“Panorama investigates the government's plans to end the so-called 'sick note culture' and their attempts to get millions of people off disability benefits and into work. In Britain's modern welfare state, millions are being paid to private companies to assess sick and disabled claimants but is the system working? Or are new tests wrongly victimising those who deserve support the most?”

mardatha

Fuddle, check your own council pet - Scotland might be different.

fuddle

I checked. If you live under 2 miles under 8's you either have to walk it or pay up. If you live under 3 miles 8-16 you have to walk or pay up. I have 0.7 miles to play with in 4 years time. At the minute we can walk to school no problem.

If I have to pay, I won't be. It takes 1 hour 20 minutes to walk there (it's just past the butchers I go to on the 6 miler I talk about) If we're still living in this house I will drop my youngest off at school at 8.45 and walk to Secondary school and will arrive at 10am. My legal responsibility to get her to school isn't on time is it? I will then go down at 1.40pm to collect her to make sure I'm back to collect my youngest at 3pm. I'll protest but in my own way, within the rules. I think missing over 2 hours of schooling because of transport issues is "exceptional circumstances" don't you? I'll just have to wait and see. One thing is good though, and that is if we do move into town, it will be over 2 miles to DD's Junior school and that will be funded so she doesn't have to move schools

paidinchickens

Morning

My daughter had to get two buses to school and the blood sucking bus company charged ALL kids adult prices before 9am :eek::eek:

Tried all sorts including sending the kids to school after 9 but it didn't make a difference.

This cost me more than my gas and leccy a month.

The boys get a free bus because we now live in a village and the nearest school is a "pick and choose if we think your good enough school" so are local is two villages and 6 miles away.


Hope they don't take ours away but we have thought for a long time they will soon.

PIC x

Cheapskate

Morning all

mar - thanks for the date for those programmes, spent ages looking through tv mag for them!

Lots of councils get you coming or going, some things they give you then ask for it back some other way, or make you jump through so many hoops it's untrue! We qualify for our council's special permit which gives us (amongst other things) an extra hour's parking in council car parks, slightly cheaper swimming, etc. When I renewed it last year the lady asked if I was receiving housing or council tax benefit, having this permit means you're on a very low income, so we should. I duly applied, but DH works for himself, although he pays himself a wage, not drawing from profits. Even though I showed all the right paperwork, and we were well under the limit for getting help, their computer programme couldn't process some of it (didn't fit the profile!) so it said no. Reckoned we had "assets" of over £20, 000 - I wish!!! Didn't bother arguing - the staff there were good, and fully agreed that I should have got help, but couldn't explain why "computer said no"! :rotfl: How do people scam these systems, when it's so convoluted?

DS infants' school is starting "Try Friday" from September, where packed lunch kids can have a school dinner on Friday, so am doing this for him. He knows it's a compromise - he wants school dinner all week, but no way I can afford it, so he's having a piece Mon - Thurs and hot dinner Fri. Nephew's school does this, too, there's been a good take up, even just for Fridays. Hope that when DS gets to juniors he can have a flask of warm soup or something in the winter.

Trying to save as much money as I can, think this winter will be expensive - car needs service in October, am expecting a dear do, and I think this winter will be bad again, like the one before last, so dearer heating etc!

A xo

meme30

fuddle wrote: »

I saw Byatt post somewhere else yesterday on OS so she's ok. Hi Byatt

mardatha wrote: »

I have looked and it is 2 miles but 'as the crow flies' I live 3.7 miles from the secondary school, going by road so should be alright, thanks I can rest, till the next goal post changes :cool:



It was the glass blown fish for me



Brilliant Grandma, bookmarked and will be well used.

I'm on Pinterest so will have a hunt for fairy gardens, thank you.

A morning of housework for me. Kids going to have to occupy themselves because I'm way behind on my jobs. DH has said that I need to pull back from trying to entertaining them because I'm going to burn out. He has a point. He said they're bright kids, get them in the garden with a box of odds and ends and they'll make up a game or imaginative play. He's right, I've gone in too heavy handed :rotfl: Still, we've enjoyed these last few days and going to do the fairy garden. Off to see the police dogs with my sister this afternoon though.

Meme I struggle with outside play. Youngest is nearly 4 and she will not be out for a good few years. We live on a main road but my friend lives over the road on a quiet road. My eldest is nearly 8 and has only recently been allowed to play on their quiet road. I can see from my window but had I not been on the anxiety meds, I couldn't have rested. It's been a slow gradual process for me and just last night I allowed her to go over there on her bike. The screams and laughter made me feel so bad for keeping her indoors for so long. The park is just through the houses. I can't let her go on her own, I follow, sitting myself down with a book to read, just so I'm there. I wish I could let go but I just don't think it's safe with the amount of traffic and high climbing frames It's not even stranger danger with me, it's physical injury or freak accident - in reality, stranger danger is probably more prevalent.

DH said that we could claim some tax back for years of uniform washing and that the info is on MSE. Someone from work told him. That's on my list today. Try to suss it out. If we could that would be a little lump to go towards the heating room thermostat.

Off to go sort out my house and set some bread dough off. Making lunch for sister and neice of pasta and cheese and some flapjack.

Yes I would feel the same about the park

SpikyHedgehog

fuddle wrote: »

They would like that MrsL I could get my scraps of material out for them, felt tip the the face on them and varnish it. Wilko's in Hartlepool so when I go I will hunt them out. Thank you

Just catching up on turn back time in the 70's. They're talking about the 3 day week. I had no idea that it occurred.

Also some really bad news for mums in my area. The school bus is no longer being subsidised by the council. Mums have to pay for the use of the school bus. So many of my friends have to find £30 for one child, £60 an month extra if you have 2 children and one has 3 so has to find an extra £90 a month just to get her children to school. She can't walk it because her smallest child is still in the infant school and wouldn't get walked up to the Junior school till about 9.40am.

It will hit me in 4 years time when DD goes to senior school. We will be moved by that time we hope, into the town but I fear it will mean I will have to move my youngest DD into the town's Primary school. It's depressing having to think about so far ahead.... who knows I might have a car again by then. Worrying though, that it's just bliddy expected that families can take a hit like that. I'm already worried about forking out £30 a month for DD to have school dinners. I can't afford for my youngest to go on them too so she will stay on packed lunch.

I feel like my tightly controlled finances are not going to cover our very basic overheads. I don't know how to claw back any more money now. What else are we going to have to fork out for....?

In Suffolk, transport is subsided if its the catchment area school or nearest alternative as allocated by the council (if catchment area is full) only for children of compulsory school age (term after 5th birthday to 16). Under 8s have to live over 2 miles from school, over 8s, 3 miles, as the crow flies. Then there are other schemes, for Catholics attending Catholic school, children with learning difficulties, disabilities...

I have to say, if I had been using a bus to get the children to school & was now faced with £90 a month to get 3 children to school & the youngest would be late if I walked... She'd be late. & there would be a nice letter to school copied to the LEA & anyone I could think of saying ' sorry youngest child will be late after I've walked elder 2 to junior school but I can't afford to pay this.'

Can any of you parents start a car pool/walking pool to help get the children to school?

Evie74 wrote: »

Phew! What a lot of catching up I had to do to get up to date!

Evening all and (((hugs))) to all in need.

Busy day back at the coalface today - the phone was ringing non-stop which was fine except I couldn't get anything else done :mad:. No doubt everyone will be back on the phone tomorrow demanding to know where the things they wanted are - answer: get off the phone and I'll be able to get on with some bliddy work!

This afternoon I went to pick my DDs up from my mum's house (they've been staying there a couple of days while the worst of the kitchen destruction has been going on). They've had a whale of a time but my poor parents looked shattered! We all went to a charity tea-and-cake thing and I won a lovely jar of lemon curd (with lavender, apparently - not tried it with lavender before, but I'll give it a go) in the raffle. All for a good cause too

The kitchen is starting to look a little more like a kitchen again now. Yesterday was stressful - the electrician took up floorboards all over the upstairs and then the kitchen stuff itself was delivered and they couldn't get the oven through my front door!:eek: The door had to come off its hinges and it was still a close thing - they were talking of taking the window out at one point!:eek:

Today, however, some of the units have been built and the wooden work tops cut roughly to size so it's looking a bit better. The house is still in chaos though.

On the bright side I managed to dig a new veg plot and massacre a million-or-so slugs and snails. Am aching somewhat today though (from the digging rather than the slug slaughtering I think!) - I had to retreat to the garden as I just couldn't sit around in the house watching people working all day!

I've had a rather annoying email this evening from BT moaning at me about my broadband use. Apparently I have exceeded my allotted 10GB for the month yet again. We haven't watched much on the iPlayer (maybe an hour's worth?) which I know normally cranks up the usage so I'm a bit baffled. I don't really understand how much 10GB is - could I have used that much just from having the PC on every day? I do have the internet on quite a lot through the afternoon/evening, but only for MSE, Facebook and checking emails really.

I will have to do some research to see whether an unlimited package is very much more - I feel like we are already paying a fortune to BT every month and I am a bit cross that they are being snarky about the broadband, especially when our broadband speed is so rubbish.

I watched that BBC programme about 1970's family life last night - it was a real nostalgia trip for me! The yellow flowery wallpaper! The stringy-thing picture! The painting of the lady with a green face! The swirly carpets! It was like they had raided my family photo albums for inspiration.

Although I was v. young in the 1970s (born 1974... bet that wasn't a surprise given my name!) I remember the power cuts as we had an electric cooker and I remember my mum cooking on a camping gas ring in the kitchen rather a lot. I don't remember the 3-day-week (I don't know whether my dad would have been affected as he was office based, or maybe I was just too young at the time to realise), or the rubbish piling up in the streets. I did have a chopper bike though - it was purple and I absolutely loved it!

Fascinating programme - not sure I could have brought myself to vote for Mrs T at the end of it all, although I'm sure my parents did (they probably still would; neither of them can understand where my socialist leanings come from!).

On which note - another cuppa before bed, I think.

Evie xx

We used to get emails from BT saying we were exceeding the allowance, this is when I was at uni, then-DH here & both the boys using the computers & we had 4 computers! So, 4 updates etc... I kept wanting to upgrade the package & DH would say no, just cut back...

So when he & his 2 computers left, I upgraded to BT's home hub 2.0 (i think its infinity) & it is a nightmare & hardly ever works without fiddling around, re-setting, loosing signals for the wireless connections... One of my projects for the summer is to change it!

meme30 wrote: »

I wondered about your thoughts about children playing outside. We live in a semi- rural area where most children play outside mostly unsupervised. I don't mean that they go out in the morning and don't come back till tea-time like we did when we were young.:rotfl:
I mean playing in the street on bikes and scooters. This week my 5 year old Grandchildren have played in the street for the two days I have had them.
We live in a cul-de-sac, with very little traffic, I, another Grandma and a SAHM all allowed their 5-6 year olds out to play. None of us stayed in the street with them but kept the front door open so they all, and us too were very accessible. No one was allowed past SAHM's house so the children had half of the street to play in. (end furthest from the main road) All the children have been trained to watch for cars and to get themselves and their bikes off the road when one enters the street.
I know there are many places where parent's cannot let their children do this. I know there are many dangers involved in allowing children more freedom. I don't think I am daft either!
I have been thoroughly taken to task by a friend for allowing the children to play out on their own. She feels that it is too dangerous and that they should be more supervised. My comments on them learning street rules and safety and gaining confidence were totally dismissed as irrelevant. I was quite deflated at first, but on reflection I think I am right, this is a big step but one all children and parents need to tackle sometime.

Kids play out in my cul de sac, & I know it is good for them, but DS2 doesn't - he will blindly follow any other childrens bad ideas & I've seen other children in the area implementing bad ideas :-/ as their parents don't keep an eye on them. DS1 didn't play out when younger as we lived on a busy road.

GreyQueen

fuddle wrote: »

What happens to a potato if it has got blighted?

The blight caused soft spots which are then colonised by other rots and the blighted tattie rots and contaminates the ones it touches, they rot and so on until you lose the entire sack. Yeuch.

Kittie, I had a bad year with blight in 2007 and kept shooting out and picking over the tatties- 2-3 times a week, then eventually once a week then once every couple of weeks. The blight wasn't in every tattie, not by a long shot. What Dad is dooing with my tatties, and I'm doing also, is putting aside anything which looks a bit dodgy for immediate consumption. In the early stages, blight can be ambigious, so it's best to keep picking thru and pulling out anything suspicious. After 2 months, I'd got the lot and there were no further problems. I had a bumper crop in 2007, grown on a cleared bramble patch, and they kept beautifully until the following year's crop was ready.

monnagran wrote: »

Fuddle - you want dandelions? I know of a garden very, very close to my house where it looks as if dandelions are being cultivated.
Query? Why don't slugs decimate dandelions and bindweed and earn their place in the scheme of things?
Answers on a postcard please.

I'd love to know the answer, too. Mine wander straight past the fat hen and the dandelions and head straight for the runners (RIP) and into the broad beans and peas. Oh, and the strawberry patch, naturally.

I found a couple taking an early-evening stroll yesterday and they aren't going to be going anywhere in a hurry in the future.

Fuddle, random factoid for your little ones; dandelions take their name from the French dent de lion (teeth of lion). Hold up a leaf and look at the saw-toothed edge.

It's horrific to hear about how much money parents are expected to pay in school transport. My cousin, who is and always has been, a stroppy mare, was furious when she learned that her middle-school age daughter and her peers were expected to walk 2 miles along the bypass to get to and from school (no footpath). She and the other Mums kicked up such a media stink that it got changed. Horrible to think what kind of perv could have been lying in wait for the youngsters, knowing they'd be going up and down that stretch of A road twice a day, in the dark some of the time in winter.

Ooofff, time's a-pressing, got to get ready for work. Catch you laters.

Pssssttt Bonnie, I'm not at all adverse to taking one of those hunky blond men off your hands, should there be a surplus......:rotfl:

fuddle

Re: packed lunches.

I bought a little flask for DD so she could have soup or warmed rice pudding in the colder months. I was told no, it had to be a cold packed lunch as warmed stuffs is a health and safety issue. I'm no fool, I wouldn't supply my child with scalding hot foods. I despair sometimes! Grumbles off muttering but I can see their point