make do and mend for tougher times

Popperwell

Hardup_Hester wrote: »

Hubby & I got married last year, we had a handfasting in our back garden, we invited family & friends & spent £400, most of it on food & drink. We had about 40 people including 12 children. We all had a wonderful day.
Pops, you are lucky to have the choice of whether or not to move, hubby & I will have no choice, when we retire we will have to move as we have a mortgage & we both work in low paid jobs.
Hester

I hope that I have the choice but I may not have...we shall have to see...I do realise there are many who do not.

greent

kidcat wrote: »

Byatt thank you, I am looking into a chiropractor and an osteopath next I think, but will keep accupuncture on list. I managed to do some research on the problem yesterday and apparently its rare that women are affected after pregnancy but not unheard of. The two falls during the pregnancy I think have probably contributed. I do at least have a name for it now its SPD - symphis pubis dysfunction.

Oh, I feel for you

I had SPD with pregnancies 3 & 4. With pregnancy 3 it took about a year after DS2 was born until I was ok. DS3 is now 3 1/2 and I still have flare ups, complicated by sciatica at times and dodgy walking at times with plantar fascitis (sp?) My hips and lower back are sore every day, with varying degrees of soreness/ pain. Sometimes I can be fine after 'walking it off' after a while (I'm a sight to see getting out of bed and walking to the bathroom on a morning - I'm a right crock!) and sometimes it needs painkillers of varying strengths. I don't like codeine based ones, I get very 'spacey' on them and feel as though I'm walking a foot in the air and so am certainly not safe to drive on them, but nor could I walk the 3 1/2 mile return trip to school 3x a day when I'm like that. I cope better on voltarol (prescription strength) and physio and massage. But I was told it would go away soon after delivery, and then within 12-18 months. I just deal with it, (as we do) but I don't have the added stresses and challenges of autism to cope with at the same time!;)

We have self referral available to our hosp physio dept, who are quite good on some helpful techniques. Might be worth checking if you have a similar facility, perhaps?

kidcat

Thanks Greent - thats exactly how mine has been since the birth, always there but manageable with flare ups occassionally - lasting a few days, this is by far the worst though and has been much longer. It has not been this bad since the pregnancy - DD laughed earlier and said maybe you are pregnant then mum!! OH nearly fell off chair. We cant do self referral and GP has said I have to do the chest xrays and bloods first they will tehn look into other stuff. I did have physio after the birth but it did no good whatsoever.
I can claim the cost of physio back (well a few trips anyway) from OH healthscheme and the same with chiropractor and osteopath so its worth my giving it a go I suppose.

Byatt

westcoastscot wrote: »

Kidcat letters about the bedroom tax have gone out to everyone here - we're supporting folks to visit welfare rights to discuss but even though there are no smaller houses for folks to move into should they agree the tax still stands. What is particularly worrying is that the advice to take in lodgers puts the most vulnerable amongst us even more at risk. It's a very worrying time for a lot of folks,particularly coming on top of the recently revamped charges for care , struggles to maintain benefit levels and the general rise in the cost of living.

Edited to add good luck with the interview :-)

Stiltwalker your wedding sounds lovely - I recall reading about Hester's wedding on her blog (which I love!) and seeing pictures of her in a beautiful red dress.

WCS

Hester has a blog? Off to have a look! :T

meanmarie

Congratulations Fuddle, hope the clearance comes through soon.

Sunshine.....you were perfectly correct, many people would not have bothered to phone, she is in the wrong.

Good luck with interview Kidcat.

Night all

Marie

grandma247

Hello to all those who have delurked the last few days.

well done with the job fuddle.

Peony I had one of those little grill ovens and I saved loads of money for four of us. It did either 4 baked potatoes or four chicken legs plus lots of other meals. I found one of my pyrex dishes fitted in without the shelves so I often did lasagne and cakes too. Great if you just want a small cake or fairy cakes. I never did try them but you can use it for those refridgerator cookies. The ones that you form the dough into a cylinder, wrap and keep in the fridge. You just cut slices onto a tray and cook as many as you want. The rest goes back in the fridge.

re mr s teabags ,come on folks it's only an extra 2p it could have gone up to 40p

These days people put a lot of effort into the wedding and virtually no thought to the marriage. A wedding is one day.

Scary reading. Thankfully we don't claim anything from the council but my heart goes out to those that do.

I will be stocking up even more for my kids. I will not see my grandchildren go hungry if I can help. They don't know what i'm doing and I am not telling them till I see them really needing the help.

kidcat

grandma - I am aiming to do the reverse I want to have enough stocks in to help my parents if needs be, my mum refuses to have any sort of extra supplies in at all - she says they dont need to as they shop weekly

ginnyknit

Fuddle well done on the job, one more step on the ladder to your independance. Shame it wont help financially but there are other things to think of.

Stiltwalker the wedding sounds fab.

Kidcat, good luck with the interview tomorrow, I vote for smart casual too.

Smileyt, lousy flipping benefits agency, wish they would start helping people instead of just causing stress. Im so envious of your bat walk, I love bats but as I cannot see well in the dark Im guessing I would not acheive much if I went with you :rotfl:

Had a lovely quiet day of pottering and achieved lots. Hoping for more of the same tomorrow. Dd is taking DGs to see my Mum tomorrow as she has been down in the dumps and DGS will fill her with joy. I too am trying to help Dd with her shopping but have decided to buy her SM stamps as her and her partner are chefs and though they shop very wisely they eat differently to us and I would get the wrong things. She does well but has so little time with working and trying to help DGS who has been diagnosed early as being on the autistism scale. Proper diagnosis will come at 3 ( he is 2 1/2) but she is doing well as he has been a lot calmer the last few weeks, quite noticably too. He is also saying 2 new words a day which is amazing, in fact he corrected me today when I asked if he wanted a bic-bic, he said 'biscuit' as in 'no grandma we call them biscuits, im not a baby' :rotfl:

LavenderBees

Popperwell wrote: »

I totally agree Westcoastscot...it will all work out in the end I am sure...and I am a believer of counting your blessings...

I'm afraid I've not seen much evidence of this, so perhaps you could show it.

To be honest, for weeks now I have tried to ignore your posts about spending MY hard earned cash (as a tax payer who works 40-50 hrs a week in a job I dislike that makes me feel ill to keep a roof over MY head, and I also contribute to keep the roof over your head). I have been constantly dismayed to see that you appear to think it acceptable to spend MY money in place of your own.

I have tried very hard to keep quiet for the sake of the thread. This thread has been closed down before for less, but I'm not at all sure that you've got the message that others are trying to give you. You have had much positive advice from some lovely people on here, and yet I distinctly get the impression you are just not listening. That's your perogative, but it's also mine to say how I feel, too.

I've been very heartened to see that others on this forum are also dismayed at you saving your own money to spend "ours". That isn't real life, and nor should it be. You are not owed a living by any of us, especially if you have funds to fund your own way. For a while I thought it was only me who was thinking like this, but thank goodness there are others who feel the same way.

I do feel you are in a very lucky position to have any savings at all given that you do not work, and you should be grateful that you will never be destitute, thanks to people like me who work to keep the roof over your head.

BTW, I wouldn't want it any other way. I'd hate to live in a country that doesn't provide for those who are not able to. But I do feel that you have been taking it to extremes. I suspect on any other forum, you'd have been taken to task long before now.

I have been very close to dropping out of MSE for a number of weeks now as I have been quite depressed by some posts, and also, I have to say, by a feeling that I shouldn't speak up (hopefully wrong) but as I say I have been heartened by last night's posts. I don't intend to say any more on this subject, but I do hope you take heed.

charlies-aunt

Been out and about over the last few months doing leaflet drops, roadshows, clinics and attending community events trying to inform the tenants of the Social Housing Association that I work for about changes that are going to happen as a result of Universal Credit and the Bedroom Tax being introduced.

Its been an uphill struggle to generate any interest tbh - most people think that it isn't going to affect them -or- they can opt out -or- if it does affect them, they have no interest in making plans to manage the changes.

We offer help with budgetting, HB & benefit claims, downsizing, setting up basic bank accounts, Welfare rights etc . . . . but the uptake has been virtually nil.

There is a majority opinion that believe that if they run into arrears and are evicted that the council will have to rehouse them so they ain't bothered.

Local Police are bracing themseves for an upswing of ASB and crime next year as they predict that some people will resort to crime to bridge the gap and pay their way.

Worrying times