make do and mend for tougher times

kidcat

Thanks for the duck recipe Mrs C its in the oven smelling incredible as we speak. The cats are all sniffing the air and smiling - its put them all in such a good mood in fact that girly cat has sat next to her brother for the first time since she arrived here almost twelve months ago, usually she tries to kill him. Trouble is that whilst they are all the same litter, we gave her away to a friend ten years ago and she didnt have the best of lives when they got a dog that attacked her constantly.
Both our boys that we kept are so laid back and friendly where she is much more high maintenance and its on her terms, hates the boys and attacks at will.

Pooky I do hope your cat comes home soon, we had a neighbour knock last week and she had lost her five month old kitty, I was with neighbour at time and we both recommended dreamies as a future incentive - all mine will do anything for dreamies. The rattle of the packet brings them home and a few others besides!!

fuddle

Ah, no I haven't . will do that now Thanks kidcat.

Sunshine4

Pooky Love the lap quilts you made
You have given me some ideas as I have lots of fabric and a few duvet covers I dont use.

So Thank you:T

fuddle

I'm covered for £500 worth of freezer contents but the excess £100. There's not £100 worth of meat in there. No go.

Possession

Oh how frustrating Fuddle. But well done for quickly thinking up alternatives. And I agree, freezers are always coming up on Freecycle in our area.
In fact we have both given and collected a freezer on Freecycle.

Mrs_Chip

Glad you liked the recipe Kidcat - hope it tastes as good as it smells!

If you cats are anything like our one they will be eyeballing you for titbits - chicken curry is the favourite here

We don't eat duck (as Mr C's favourite animal they get preservation status, sad to say my fave animal is piggies, but I love to eat them too!), but I love the similar crispy lamb which I make with breast of lamb. Dead delish.

kezlou

I know its ridiculous, as if it costs that much.

I never abroad anywhere with our school or anywhere in primary school it was too expensive. All the other trips i've managed to scrape together but not the Paris one its just too much.

OH is still out to work, i've been doing accounts all day so i'm sick of looking at figures. But needs must as we having to re-apply for housing benefit, fingers crossed it will go in our favour and we might be entitled to some.

£2000:eek: thats ridiculous :eek:
I know what you mean, first day at school came back with a £220 bill for a residential in the lakes which was supposed to be voluntary, turned out to be compulsory. Luckily i had some money saved up so half of it. I was quite fortunate as the school gave me more time pay.But still its ridiculous.

DS2 hasn't had any school trips this year due to budget cuts.

Pooky its seems that i'm not the only one. I decided to take up sewing and knitting to try and alleviate stress, very surprised but it really helps.

Well thinking of taking the boys to an athletics run, not sure whether we should go though as its wet miserable and blooming freezing out there at the minute.


Great alternatives fuddle!

shegar

born_blonde wrote: »

Cake one of my old girls just curled up under a rose bush and didn't want to come in. It was a warm evening so we left here out.
Next morning we found her still there, still curled up but dead.
I'm sure she knew.

Arhh so sorry to hear youve lost your cat, at least it was a peaceful way to go...xx

kidcat

Pooky - the one benefit of high school was kids on free school meals qualified for reduction on certain trips, they had to be educational and in this country and residential. It meant that DS was able to go on his yr7 residential and it cost us £70 instead of £180. If you are entitled to HB it may be worth looking into whether you can also get free school meals, we qualified for about six months years ago and it was a real help.

Shegar - how are things with your hubby? Did his results show anything?

valk_scot

DS is off to New York for ten days in October. :eek: It costs over £900 but they had over a year to fundraise for it and DS really put some effort in, he raised over £400 towards his trip. And he's saved up most of his spending money from pocket and birthday money and his rather lucrative neighbourhood odd job round. I thought it was worthwhile, I've never been to the US and we'll never be able to afford it as a family so I felt it was an opportunity for him.

The real bargains are the trips the Scouts go on, actually. £100 for a week in the Netherlands or Switzerland for DS because he's an Explorer/Young Leader, £16 or so for two nights of straight camping here in the UK, longer trips cost somewhere inbetween. They've done sailing, canoing, mountain biking, rock climbing and all the rest and it usually costs less than £15 a day including camping and food which is considerably less than any of the opposition. I get a lot of letters back from both kids' schools about Council sports and activity courses but they always cost two or three times what the Scouts ask for, like £60 for four two hour sessions of water sports, eek!

My two are sporty and we camp a lot so they've got all the outdoorsy kit already but if I needed to start from scratch my top tip would be Decathlon, it's dirt cheap for kids' outwards bound clothes. For mucky trips though I raid the charity shops. DD is off with the school in November for an Outward Bound week, it costs more than a Scout week but it's still not bad at £100. But some mums are spending at least as much again on clothes, eek! Waterproofs and boots are provided, all they need are a few scruff outfits and something clean for the evenings.bYet some kids will go with five new pairs of tracksuit bottoms, new jacket, new smart gear for the evenings... Though that reminds me of one mum who spent £400 on clothes for her 14 year old DD for the school trip to France.....the trip "only" cost £200! I think I bought DS a new pair of supermarket jeans for that trip.....

One other thing about the trips...the spending money. Usually the school recommend an amount, typically £100 for a week or so. Most kids spend it on rubbish like fizzy drinks and sweets but DS is wise in the way of OS, he takes a bottle to fill with water and tries to find local shops or supermarkets for his snacks rather than wait to pay tourist prices at the historic monuments. He usually comes back with most of the money, bless him, and I let him keep half of it usually. He knows it can double the cost of a trip if he asks for fancy new gear and pockets ful of cash to spend and as he says, he wants to go on the trip to do things, not buy tourist junk.