make do and mend for tougher times

Popperwell

My tickets have arrived for the theatre...one week in September I am out Weds-Sat, a different show each night!

I have to laugh they written telling me I can use my mobilty allowance(DLA)to lease a car, wheelchair, motorised scooter, fine if you have no bills to pay and lots of income coming in, as DLA is to be scrapped and you probably won't know how the assessment goes when they happen that seems pointless.

I would want to try and buy one rather than lease but...it says you have to have at least 12 months remaining to qualify...no one knows if they have 12 months remaining. Mine is supposed to be ongoing...anyone think that will be the case?

Popperwell

meme30 wrote: »

I am an advocate of changing and washing clothes frequently. An old relative, very active in the 20's/30' Labour movement was always well turned out in a suit. As he got older his shirts were always washed and pressed but his suits never got cleaned. In time he began to smell, not because he was not clean in himself but because of his clothes. Eventually it began to be a 'wee' smell. It was a really hard subject to broach with this very respected and very proud man. He lived alone so had no one to say, "perhaps it's time to get your suit washed/cleaned." It's has always stuck in my memory so I am determined not to become one of the Great Unwashed! :rotfl:

Suits I can agree with, jackets too. Maybe coats...I think a shirt can be worn for a couple of days(certainly underwear and trousers I think especially probably need regular washing...)

The charity shop has such a selection of jackets washed and cleaned and all for 99p that's probably easier than washing them

dragonette

I thought the point of underwear (bottom half really) was to keep the outer clothes clean. If knickers and socks are fresh, trousers go by feel/smell test for me and OH. I keep a pair of site trousers on for a week with no problems. Only changed them everyday when working in the tropics when trousers were washed every night along with everything else.

Tops need changed much much more often due to sweat, trousers should be protected from the same amount of sweat its worth checking whether they can be reused before washing

Pops - if you use the money to get things sorted now, there's less big stuff to sort if money goes down. Savings might count against you but a home in good repair won't.

Fuddle - re-washing clean clothes would drive me daft too. Depending on ages I would leave them to do their own washing. They will either learn to not drop them or do more chores, either way it could cut down on your washing piles

Ps. I promise we don't stink!!!

quintwins

Me and hubby wear trousers for 2-3 days and change tops everyday, i will wear the same jumper twice if it smells ok, the kids are awful it's a realy fight to get them not to wear the same t-shirts (and socks!!!) everyday even tho they have loads to choose from.

smileyt_2

I have a feeling that left-over stock from Julian Graves might be ending up on Approved Foods - there's currently lots of 'wholefood/healthfood shop' type stuff being listed on there. Will be keeping an eye out to see if it's worth doing another order for £5 delivery before tonight.

Just taken delivery of 27kg of dog food. That should keep my two going for a while. It's expensive stuff but I worked out that I need less of it to feed the dogs as it's high quality, so it works out about the same as the brand I was getting before, in fact I think it's a bit cheaper. This lot should last about 18 weeks, maybe a bit longer. So that'll be half-way through December. The dogs look fantastic on it and are glowing with health at age 13 and 14 so as far as I'm concerned it's worth every penny! This is what OS is for - cutting where you can so you can spend on what you think is worthwhile, and for me, that's a high quality dog food for my babies.

Off to a fun day this afternoon. I'll hopefully be collecting addresses of people who are interested in attending my budgeting club. This is a club I hope to run with some other tenants on the Tenants' Panel, lasting six weeks. It will cover stuff like budgeting, best value for money from supermarkets, calculating annual fuel usage and then looking online for best utility deals, setting up a credit union account (instead of using loan sharks) and a basic bank account, doing a financial statement, meal planning, and hopefully we will be able to get the CAB to do a spiel on dealing with debts and on welfare reforms. I'm hoping people will form friendships and do BOGOF's with each other, too. There's a lot of work to be done getting the content ready. I know a lot of you will know all of the above back-to-front and upside-down, but I bet there are many who don't. So I'd better get my factor 50 on (good grief yes it is actually sunny!) and make myself look presentable for a change.

Did I tell you all that I've given up my allotment? I have handed it over to the community allotment people here and have become part of that group. I will keep half a dozen small raised beds for myself and the rest the group will cultivate. I will actually get more produce out it, new friends, and the relief from having the nagging voice in the back of my mind telling me I really should be spending my life digging. It will free me up to do other things (like the budgeting club) and I think I will therefore have more mental energy. It's a win-win situation.

Right I'd better go and get some lunch so that I am full of energy to bounce up to people and convince them that they do really need to sign up for the super-duper budgeting club!

Possession

quintwins wrote: »

Me and hubby wear trousers for 2-3 days and change tops everyday, i will wear the same jumper twice if it smells ok, the kids are awful it's a realy fight to get them not to wear the same t-shirts (and socks!!!) everyday even tho they have loads to choose from.

Quintwins my problem is getting DS (10) to change his pants!
When he went on a school trip he was away 3 nights, had 3 showers, but still came back with 3 clean pairs of pants in his suitcase! :eek:
Saves on washing I suppose.........:rotfl:

ginnyknit

HJ so pleased for you with the business doing well, lovely to hear that all your Oh's hard work has paid off - with your support of course. :beer:

I have to go and check the blackberry bushes now up the road, must remember to stock up on sugar too.

Smileyt am glad you are coming out the otherside of your bad days. I seem to remember some cream that combats pmt, will have a look on another site where the girlys tried it and were amazed - wild yam cream, have a goggle and see what they say hunny.

Washing by hand is back breaking work, maybe a pre-soak on grubby stuff then wring it out and chuck it on a quick wash would save some money. I have tried many ways of washing but still find nothing beats the whole kit and kaboodle of the washing machine.

My DD and I were talking about this yesterday, we went for years with a washing machine that kept breaking down and no money to fix it. In the end a friend lent us her caravan washing machine, it was a pressurized ball that you turned with a handle and it worked very well especially the rinses ( thats the secret of a good wash I think) but I will never have bingo wings as it tightened up my muscles beautifully, all that handle turning.

Then I taught myself how to fix a washer, usually its just bunged up with a sock,. Once though it was 22p in change and my OH's wedding ring that were working as a valve in the outlet pipe thus stopping the machine from emptying.

Right off to feed the men, Ds is wandering round cursing the fact there's no one to sign his passport - our friend with the liqour license is away and Ds goes abroad on Sept 5th. GP won't do it so he is trying to think what to do next!

quintwins

Possession wrote: »

Quintwins my problem is getting DS (10) to change his pants!
When he went on a school trip he was away 3 nights, had 3 showers, but still came back with 3 clean pairs of pants in his suitcase! :eek:
Saves on washing I suppose.........:rotfl:

:rotfl: my boys are still little but i think we've told them enough times to change pants now that they do it, our youngest is really bad for running about with no pants and trousers on so i have t chase him to his room if we have visitors :rotfl: to be fair he's only 3 and they always had odd clothes habits at that age.

When i lived on my own my uncle gave me a washer but it wouldn't spin, so i had to drain the water out manually and my granny gave me a wee spin tub thing that drained the water out, i also couldn't afford a dryer so i hung stuff on the line or radiators- but i also couldn't afford heat for 3 years, the amount of times i ironed my work uniform dry (with my value iron which was pants) they were def tough times.

kezlou

Hi all,

We've had a total nightmare in our house.
Lets just say its got to the point where our landlady is about to b0llock Br!tish Gas and maybe even sue them. Yes she's that annoyed.

We've got a major leak in the downstairs bathroom which is spreading into the kitchen. We have to switch the boiler on and off every time we want to wash up, shower etc

So right now my OH has had to rip down part of the ceiling down to re-route pipes to stop the leak. I'm waiting on phone calls back from builders to see when they can come round ad give us a quote for the down stairs bathroom. As its completely needs completely rebuilding as its falling apart.

Whilst all this is going on we have to get prices sorted so that we can have a shower and toilet fitted upstairs. Luckily my OH is fitting that so we can just invoice the Landlady.

So the children have just told to build a den outside near the little park and amuse themselves. Cue two very bored and furious kids being kicked out of the house.

We ended up broaching the subject of buying the house the landlady but she's not willing to sell. Instead she asked me view a brand spanking new house which is going to built in the 6 months and is 2 minutes walk away from our house. If she can get a deal shes on about trading the house we live in for a new build one with the intention of us moving into it.

The new build is lovely, 3 bed, garage and garden. I told OH about it and he said well if does buy it then we'll move in. Our rent will probably go up but if shes willing to buy a new one for us. Then great we won't have to live in this damp place.

But on the flip side i'm thinking of going back to univerity to finish the last year of my degree. So been on the phone chatting to student finance and it looks like i may be granted finding for one year. So i've advised to write a letter stating why i left, hand on medical letters etc and apply online for funding.
So fingers crossed it will happen.

I haven't been on the forum for a fw days so i hope everyone's all right xx

fuddle

Plenty of black and pink in Bratz possession.

Well I hand washed the first load and stuck it in the washing machine for a rinse and spin - 20 minutes, instead of an hour and 20 minutes. It was time consuming and a faff and I was sweating and thought heck is this worth it. Decided to wash the next load in WMachine until I watched the hairy dieters. I have to say I enjoyed the programme abou how to alter good home cooking to lessen the calorie content. There was a piece about how we don't move as much as our grandparents etc and it's then I thought, yip I need to work in the house and not just push stuff around.

So going to make the kids cheese on toast and wash the next load of washing by hand.