make do and mend for tougher times

GreyQueen

Possession wrote: »

Take care GQ, I think you should be staying home but I understand why you're not.
Softstuff, hope your Dad is OK.

PS I don't think throwing the cup of tea at the zombie would kill it, you need something more satanic like celery soup
PPS The end of the world has been averted, DH has bought milk and I have a nice steaming hot cup of tea.

Or a celeriac? Surely those things have to be included in international treaties governing weapons of mass destruction?

I'm no hero, hun, I have a sitting-down job and will only be doing 4 hours as its a Tues.

Glad you've got a cuppa.

FairyPrincessk

Clearly, its the butter beans needed to kill a zombie.

So sorry to hear about your illness GQ

In a foul mood this morning so just going to try to get on with it. Have had my porridge (slice up an apple, add brown sugar and cinnamon, half milk/half water and a few sliced almonds then into the micro for 3-4 minutes, very pleasing).

I love Aldi supersix, I only wish they would publish them the day before they change as we shop on a Sunday and it makes it hard to do the menu plan around them. I too buy up bits on Supersix for the freezer--currently there are several bags of blueberries in there for when I fancy them for pancakes or porridge in the winter and they're dead expensive. Also have one bag of chopped peppers, hope to get a few more as they're almost double in price over the winter. I planned to grow those, but my pepper plant has succumbed to evil forces and I'm not sure I'm to be trusted with growing my own food at the moment. I've got flowers blooming in my window but anything more serious and its a disaster. Will give my tin can flowers a go first.:D

I don't have a shopping trolly, OH and I both take our rucksacks once a week and I do an order two to three times a year for things like flour, sugar etc. that are very heavy. Seems to work, and OH is so vain he'd never be seen with a Trolly. It was a struggle to convince him he could get more in a rucksack than his messenger bag.

Hobsons_Choice

Loads of people have trollies in my town, and not just the elderly.
No-one takes a blind bit of notice tbh and it certainly wouldn't stop me going out with one if I needed to (and I feel that need coming ever closer)!

maryb

I can't believe anyone even thought of wasting a cup of tea by throwing it over a zombie:eek:

Rolling pins all the way

Possession

maryb wrote: »

I can't believe anyone even thought of wasting a cup of tea by throwing it over a zombie:eek:

Rolling pins all the way

Good point Mary. And actually you could use the rolling pin as a kind of baseball bat for firing celeriacs at them. I'm sure that would stop them. Zombie Apocalypse averted. Just need a good supply of celeriac now.

grandma247

smileyt wrote: »

It's nearly midnight here so I think you're going to be lonely as we are all off to bed! Popperwell might stay up, he sometimes burns the midnight oil, but I don't know of anyone else on here who regularly posts in the wee small hours!

I'm a bit frightened for this winter, actually. I was using Martin's excel budget sheet earlier on. I need less than £11,000/annum to cover absolutely everything - insurance, dog stuff and vet fees, travel to work, utilities, food, rent, Christmas and birthdays, everything - but I find myself in a position where I can't get a job to pay that much as I can't work full-time due to my health. I do bring in some money from the supported lodgings, but my current lad should be going at the end of November and I think I will need a few months' rest and recuperation before I get the next one! My GP was asking today if I'd applied for DLA, but I have no chance of getting that. I'm not disabled/ill enough for benefits but I'm not well enough to work enough hours to make ends meet. I would still do the supported lodgings even if I had a good job, I just wish I wasn't in a position where I need them as much as they need me. At the moment the future looks quite bleak. I could save money if I didn't have the dogs but I would rather live in a cardboard box under a bridge first!!! In fact it's safe to say I wouldn't still be here if it wasn't for them.

I'm sorry, that's a depressing post, but I'm sure there must be others on here who face the same dilemma. WestcoastScot for one, I know! Anyway I will go to bed, things will no doubt look better in the morning, tiredness always casts a grey haze over everything!

It could be worse - I could have an attack of the damsons ..... :eek::rotfl:

Greyqueen I'm not surprised you were feeling poorly. I'm thinking just where did that nurse put that spatula before or after its intended destination!

I will be more cheerful tomorrow - it's my friend's birthday so I will be making her a card, a teapot design with 'Happy Brewday' on it, and a box of Earl Grey teabags (her favourite) to go with it .

VJsmum, have a safe flight home xx.

(((Hugs ))) Smiley and I hope you feel a bit better this morning.

I wonder if you could write a loose meal plan for the twelve weeks of really bad winter and see if you could live off those all winter? I don't mean stretch them but if you have all the main ingredients in whatever form then maybe just knowing you will eat well to keep warm will help a bit. Lots of soup and stews.

Also seriously think and research about heating your own personal space up as opposed to the whole house. I liked the ideas in this article especially the kotatsu but unsure about exactly how safe it might be but if you had maybe a halogen heater or an tiny oil filled heater it would work. I did a search for pictures and some very interesting ones came up with what looked like a halogen. There was one with a fan heater type thing but not sure how safe that would be. Even a box of heated stones like the ones mentioned in the link someone posted would help in a crisis. We have a paved back yard but I could light the barbeque and heat stones on it.


Smears cause damage which is why there is bleeding sometimes. The bugs will then get into the bloodstream and settle somewhere to cause infection.

Softstuff

Possession wrote: »

Take care GQ, I think you should be staying home but I understand why you're not.
Softstuff, hope your Dad is OK.

PS I don't think throwing the cup of tea at the zombie would kill it, you need something more satanic like celery soup
PPS The end of the world has been averted, DH has bought milk and I have a nice steaming hot cup of tea.

Thanks Possession. I know it's a matter of time with him, but it seems so stupid that what's giving him issues now isn't even what he's terminal with.

We could make a zombie killing celery, celeriac and butter bean soup. That'd kill em.

I'd use my rolling pin, but I like the one I have, it's the first in a while not to go mouldy quickly.

I'm sorry Smileyt, I missed your post somehow. Your budgeting story reminds me of when a "man from the pru" came round to see my mum. He swore he wasn't trying to sell her a policy and just wanted to see if she was doing as well as she could with what she had. At the time mum was a single parent and both grandma and grandad had moved in with us, trying to keep the house. He fed all the info into a computer (very spiffy to have a laptop at the time) and was agog when he realised things simply didn't add up. Yet mum was coping, and continued to without debt. I have every confidence you will too.

fuddle

Stop talking about tea I've been to the docs with my 5 day dairy of what I eat (IBS) and he has suggested that I cut right back my tea consumption as my 8-10 cups per day is seen as excessive in his eyes. He thinks it's worth seeing if it's the caffeine that is upsetting me. And as I have the constipation IBS I have to have a small bowl of fruit and fibre daily and he agreed that a small glass of prune juice daily would be a good idea.

So very little tea, in favour of herbal and fruit teas (he suggested peppermint to help soothe the IBS tummy ) for one whole month. I'm to keep a food diary too and see the dietician next to see if there is anything glaring at her. but a cuppa tea. I need my tea

maryb wrote: »

Fuddle, I remember Shirley Goode who wrote a series of frugal cooking books in the 1970s used to extend bought baked beans by draining them through a sieve whenever she opened a tin. What was left clinging to the beans was enough. She then took the left over sauce and added cooked haricot beans to make another tin's worth. Because the sauce was the same, her fussy family never guessed and it saved a lot of money.

Oh I adore this idea. I must look up Shirley Goode

Possession wrote: »

Interesting.....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2204760/Delivery-fee-online-groceries-hit-15-Experts-warning-shoppers.html

That will hit me with my monthly shop. If it does happen then they'll lose my custom. Simple. As it stands it's an easy and cost effective way for me to do my shopping. If it becomes not a cost effective way I won't do it and begin the buying in bulk process, which to be fair, I'm seriously thinking about that anyway.

Off I go to take the pup (Alfie Pops ) over the fields and hunt out some blackberries.

When I get back I'm setting the SC away with the casserole and cleaning the bathroom.

Possession

Hmm, I have a lot of issues with that article on Japan, the main one being that is relying on memories of life in Japan that are way way out of date - and that's coming from me, and I last lived in Japan in 1994! Yes, many people still have a kotatsu, but that's because they are used to sitting on the floor on tatami mats rather than on a sofa - all but children would very soon feel their joints complaining if they tried to do that with any regularity here. The majority of Japanese homes are not old traditional houses they are new build apartments. There is virtually no second hand housing market in Japan. So very few people will have a hibachi, so seriously few it isn't even worth mentioning.
Nobody under the age of 70 would be seen in a haori, for quite a few years now.
Ofuru just means bath. Japanese baths are just like ours except shorter and much deeper. You are meant to have a shower first to get clean, the bath is for relaxation and yes warming in the winter, but very few public baths still exist and the vast majority have a bath in their own home.
In addition the majority of homes don't have central heating it's true, but their air conditioning unit is also generally a heater, most homes will have some form of heating in at least one room - and since the rooms generally have sliding paper doors rather than wooden ones it will do a good job of heating more than one room.

Sorry about the tea Fuddle. : (
I gave up tea while pregnant with DS and only had peppermint tea. You can do it!
I don't think they would ever put the delivery charge up that much - they might as well stop doing it in that case. They might well introduce more 'delivery savers' to try to tie you in to shopping with that particular SM for a period of time though.

kidcat

Smileyt - Is it worth your applying for DLA anyway? You never know you may get a little which would make things easier for you. ((hugs))


GQ - Having worked with a kidney infection in a busy call centre I would never do it again, please take care, my boss understood that he needed me in(he begged), and that he had to accommodate my needs. He set me up in his office with en suite to allow me good access to toilet facilities - which was vital, especially as I was drinking gallons of barley water (which he kindly supplied).

Its no surprise that online shopping costs more than they charge, realistically if you assume that they pay £9 per hour for a staff member and they take 30mins to pick the order, that accounts for the delivery charge. However supermarkets still push online, I assume there are savings in other non direct areas for them. If prices rise then I would never bother at all.

Worrying as I think alot of people would stop rather than pay £15, and thats an awful lot of peoples job at risk.

Have had very little sleep as my tooth was horribly sore, thankfully the antibiotics seem to be starting to work this morning as I am not writhing on the floor in agony which at 2am I was doing. Taking the painkillers and praying it stops soon.

Nipped into MR A earlier and I cannot believe the prices they are charging in the reduced section, I wouldnt pay that for full price never mind a reduction.