make do and mend for tougher times

Popperwell

I don't really have the room(I have a halogen oven, microwave oven, microwave combi oven, slowcooker, steamer, toaster, toasted sandwich maker, mini chopper, smoothie maker, food processor, juice extractor, mini deep fat fryer, nicer dicer)

Some things never used yet...I have a spare toaster and two kettles...

I do wonder for grilling and ease if I should get something like a george forman grill or whatever the equivelent is or if its un-neccessary expense...any good?

Are they good energy wise? Or can i do more or less what I'd cook on it, in the microwave, halogen oven etc...

I assume you mainly do items like bacon, sausages etc...?

kidcat

Popperwell we have a george grill and i use it for sausages, burgers and toasted sandwiches!! Dont like bacon on it, but you can use it for chicken, steak, kebabs etc. Its quick, alot quicker than my grill. Word of warning, ours is one my mum bought and my dad hated everything cooked that way - you either like it or not apparently. Its great if we plan a BBQ and it rains as between george, the grill and the oven we manage fine.

kidcat

Today I am off to buy a hedge trimmer as our hedge is now 12 foot tall, the covenant on the house says no more than 3 foot is allowed. Last time OH cut a hedge he nearly killed himself twice by cutting through the line. Am buying a cordless one to stop that issue but can see trouble ahead!!

Mrs_Chip

Kidcat - the cordless tend to be bit less powerful - have you thought of an extension lead with RCD (I think) which is safety cut
out device for such circs.

Pops - I grill all my bacon/ sausages etc in the halogen oven. It does toast too.

Popperwell

Thanks kidcat, I may consider it then...

Then again...Mrs Chip my halogen oven may work too. So to save on cleaning can you put foil in a halogen oven(as long as it's away from the bulb?)Can you use roasting bags?

I have all the accesories and a spare bulb but I will be guessing times initially as I have misplaced the instruction manual but they they say that they are quite easy to use...

May have to invest in a good recipe book or see if there is a good site on line...

sammy_kaye18

Morning all

Im just catching up with you all this morning after I had to help Mother In Law list things on Ebay and then go to town to get some packaging for my Ebay stuff. Seems I missed all the bubble wrap in the coop by a few days but have asked my supervisor to keep hold of it for me as I have a few more things I can list and sell in the loft.

I watched the opening ceremony last night and whilst I dont tend to watch things like that - I didnt watch the wedding or the jubilee concert ~ I did watch last night though as my friend Helen is in the Olympic squad running in the triathlon on August 4th and Andrew Selby is also my bosses sons spa'ing partner and lives literally two minutes from my house and hes in the boxing.
So I really will be watching them like a proud mummy :D:D:D

Sat here at the minute going through bills, what needs to be paid, whats coming in this month, what's going out etc......nightmare. I thought I had this all figured out but things seem to be going up and my wages are being put so I am having to shuffle a fair few things round about to make ends meet and its doing my head in

Not to mention my washing line is caput and I am making do with two airers so I have now brought one of these 99p sock drying contramptions that you hang up - oh well at least it helps.

Also had a text from my MIL that father in law has indeed lost his job but was luckily accepted for another one which means he leaves tomorrow to work away in Surrey for the week and then he should be home on weekends.

I really do think we will have to get more on the OS wagon again and watch what we are buying/using etc.

My boyfriend works down the road from a meat market......does anyone have any experience of buying meat in one of these? are they any good or reasonably priced etc?

right Im off to see what's what bill wise and I will report back.

Right I have sat and worked out my bills.

Between tax credits/child benefit/wages etc coming in ~ after I have covered all my bills, including the rent mess up (thank you council) which should get us back up to date, and done a food shop which I have put at £130 for me ~ I barely eat and cant remember the last sit down meal I had which wasn't something cooked for me in work, Owen who is only here for tea and possibly something for lunch, Ben my 8 year old, Holly my 2 year old and Bruno my Jack Russell Terrorist.

Anyway after all that I am left with the whopping sum of £..........91p. only plus to this is I purposely left £20 in my paypal account when I withdrew the money from my guitar so I can still take the kids a few places.
I have already paid for mine and Bens day trip to Tenby - it was £5 for me and £3 for him so we will take a picnic and enjoy the beach and I might let him get a couple of postcards if we go.
The local council is offering a free playscheme twice a week too which he can go on two afternoons a week for Den building etc in the park across the road from my house and he has just learnt to ride his bike so the local forest park will get some use too.

Plus if I know Wales it will be piddling it down the remaining holidays he has left so I will dig out some craft stuff to do in the house as well.

Mrs_Chip

Pops, yes I line the bottom of mine to catch drips. Not sure about the bags as I have not tried, but can see no reason why not as long as bag is away from element/bulb thing and the temp is ok for the bag.

Really, although I like gadgets in the kitchen, I think it is sometimes easy to buy just because they are there.

I thought halogen was one of those but actually is very handy for us as I don't have full size oven (by choice) I can use it in conjunction with mini oven. It actually does oven chip/potato things better for some reason.

mardatha

I didnt watch the olympics but if the queen truly did parachute in then I'm sorry I missed that bit I used to like watching it but now the RV's on an economy kick and the tv stays off.. I could watch on here though. If it doesn't put me off my sock :rotfl:
I had a Foreman grill but never used it and gave it to my son, it was big and took up space.
Our council are terrific and so are the housing !!!. We can do what we like as long as we tell them first. They even got a local builder to put in our new multi fuel burner when the old one died - and he gave us a choice of stoves and surrounds. If we had lived in Edinburgh or somewhere like that it would've been electric storage heaters-take it or leave it. One of the benefits of living in a very rural area I suppose. When RV had his heart attacks and had to give up work and go on pension credit they sent out a housing visitor to help us fill in the forms - and he was even older & more decrepit than the hubby

smileyt_2

Pops before I say this I will tell you that I am not 'anon'! I wouldn't dream of having a go at you. However, I am wondering if there are any social groups nearby you could join in with. Having cared for your Mum for so long you wouldn't have had time to explore this option, I know that. But there may be something close by that you could attend. It could be anything - the folk music group someone on here mentioned a few pages back, a card games club, a knitting group (yes, men knit too!), a reading group at your local library, an 'armchair' exercise group .... why not ask at the library or any community centres to see what is on, and see if anything takes your fancy? Many such groups are free or have very low charges. You could also probably do a search on google. Even if it's only once a week. If it's in the daytime maybe you could do your shopping on the way back from whatever group. I know the church I used to attend has an ' over- 50's friendship' group that meets on Tuesdays. People pay a couple of quid and can have a hot meal, play cards or bingo or just chat. Sometimes they hire a charabang and go to a garden centre for a coffee and a pootle around, or go to the seaside for a day.

I know it takes a lot of effort. I'm going through a similar thing myself at the moment as all my friends are either gay men or straight so I am trying to find other lesbians who don't just want to go out and get drunk but want to do things like drink tea, knit, visit art galleries etc. So far I've been to a couple of lesbian tea parties which have been fun because they're low key and I didn't have to sparkle madly. I was still exhausted mentally from making the effort but because they were relaxed groups I could cope.

It's just a thought. Also I imagine a lot of groups will be starting back in September (hey! what about an Adult Ed course in something? Often free if you're on benefits!) so if you start looking now and building up your courage you will be ready to go. And if you start getting into the habit while the weather's good (well, OK, not freezing and blizzarding) you will still have some motivation to keep going in the winter.

Have a think and a google. If you want to pm me and tell me the name of your town I will have a google for you if you want.

Right, I've swallowed the last of my tea so I AM going down the lottie for an hour. Then I am going to the park with my dogs because there is a knitting workshop going on. I was in there earlier and they have decorated some of the trees with knitted snakes, really cute knitted bees and pom-poms. Bruno lay down on their picnic blanket and didn't want to leave, so I am taking that as a sign from him that I should be going back this afternoon :rotfl:!

[Deleted User]

Afternoon all, I thoroughly enjoyed the Olympic Opening Ceremony last night, it was very well done in all respects. I loved the Doves of Peace on thier bikes, especially the one that 'flew' at the end of the sequence and the Queen and Daniel Craig were superb but the star for me was the corgie who did the 'roll over' - Docky is 8 and still only goes half way over!!!!!

He who knows has been to the lottie and we now have another pound and a half of broad beans and a pound of blackberries in the freezer. I have made the decision that we will freeze all the produce that will freeze, and use up the other stuff. I think prices will be sky high this winter and I want a head start. He also lifted some more of the maincrop potatoes and they are drying on the lawn. I'll sort them later on and sack up any that look like keepers, the rest will be cooked and frozen. The polytunnel yeild this morning was 4 courgettes, 5 large beetroot, half a colander of sungold tomatoes, 3 lettuces and a handful of climbing french beans. The beetroot are cooling down and the rest will be tonights supper with some bolognese sauce I made yesterday.

We are all feeling a bit jaded this afternoon, staying up so late and then it was really warm last night so I'm off to walk Docky in a minute and then home for a nice cuppa and perhaps a snooze, at the very least half an hour with a good book. Take care all and have a good day, Cheers Lyn x.