make do and mend for tougher times

Possession

PIC I think you need a word with your tenants, as they are breaking their tenancy agreement.
Pooky I'm much the same, coughing all the time. Am considering going to the doctors which is not done lightly, but it will only involve more blood tests so I keep hoping it will get better on it own.
DS has a friend coming round tonight so I must do some kind of cleaning and tidying. Luckily DS has requested pasta, and friend is fussy, so a jar of pasta sauce is the only acceptable topping!

Molly41

Getting nippy today x
Poor April - today we hear she has cerebral palsy and needs pain medication. I really feel for parents and friends but am even more horrified that a five year old was allowed out to play at 7pm. I apologise if that is judgemental but a whole life working with babies and children has really opened my eyes

SpikyHedgehog

ginnyknit wrote: »

I admit for the last 2 days I havent exactly been at my best so must apologise to stiltwalker as I missed your post re the haybox and it being safe for chicken - so Saving queen its well worth trying chicken or pork as long as your dish is piping hot when it goes in the hay box it will keep its temperature. Thank you stiltwalker, you know what you are talking about so I have no need to go searching :beer:

And poor spikey has been leaving messages and they had got lost in the glitch on MSE earlier but have arrived now, thank you hunny.

other than that hugs to all in need due to pulled backs, bruised joints and Me, Fibro - do you think its the miserable weather making every one feel lousy and having flare -ups?

No, thank you! It was scary when MSE was down - I felt lost!

Pooky wrote: »

Evening all

I'm not a dog lover but even I went "awwww" at him.

Lots of poorlies about on here, hope everyone is on the mend soon.

Possession - how you feeling today?

I have to admit to going back to bed at 11am, my head touched the pillow and I woke at 1pm feeling refreshed...must have needed it. DH had a bad night and we gave up trying to sleep at 4am and got up.

Won £50 on the premium bonds, first monthly draw since I brought them so very pleased. Half is going into the "living" account, half is going to the mortgage as an overpayment :j

DD1 started her new part time job today, was just an induction on health and safety etc and tomorrow evening she's off to shadow someone for 3 hours. She's getting £6.20 an hour which is fab for a 16 year old and can pick an 8 or 12 hour minimum contract. She wants to see the shift rotas first to fit in around college. We are taking half her money from her each month, half of that will go into savings for when she leaves home, the other bit (1/4) goes towards housekeeping. She's not best pleased but we did explain this is the way of the world and to realise now that the amount on the wage slip isn't all yours to squander is a lesson well learnt. (we will be putting some of that 1/4 into the savings pot too but we won't tell her that yet)

DD2 is currently on the treadmill, she wants to do cross country next month but she has a condition that squishes one of her lungs slightly, I've told her to up her exercise a bit in order to get herself as ready as possible so she's been doing 2k a night, slowly building up the speed. Oh to have that much energy!

I've made it clear to DS1 that when he gets a job, he'll have to give me some portion of it - I haven't set a specific amount yet, as he'll need some for his motorbike...

When I started babysitting, I got to keep all my money, but had to use it for school books, all my clothes, etc; then when I started work full time, I gave mum half of my salary each month. She needed it all as at that time I was the major wage earner while dad was out of work. It was good for me to be aware of where the money needs to go, and has helped me over the years.

paidinchickens wrote: »

Morning

DS has THE BUG less said the better.

Yesterday we went to open DS a bank account, well upgrade from child savings to one with a bank card. Was told I wouldn't need ID for him as he was logged on my account with a savings account when I went in on Tuesday. They fibbed and I did so ended up driving back home to fetch some. Passport pic doesn't look like him and they don't give national insurance cards out any more only a letter. Took two hours to sort it would have been easier to tell them he's Polish as they were flying through.

To make matters worse while I was there I checked my bank and the tenants haven't paid their rent again this month. I really can't work them out. They are always buying things for the house and re painting etc but they have often not paid the rent. I'm fed up as I only have £89 in my account now for the mortgage so I will be going over drawn. I don't know if I would have been so mad if I hadn't seen a brand new flat screen TV with sports channel when I went round. Don't get me wrong spend on what you like when you've paid your rent but come on, really ??? Did they think I wouldn't notice grrrrrrrrr

Charity shop morning so hopefully there will be some bargains

PiC x

My friend had a flat from before she got married, her husband had a house so they lived in that, but as she'd bought at the height of the market, they didn't want to sell the flat - there's no way it would have made enough to pay off the mortgage. So they rented it out, but like you had problems with tenants not paying the rent... So depressing, & people don't realise you need the money to pay the mortgage and keep the roof over their head!

RAS Quote:
Originally Posted by fuddle
Oh goody, thank you! Pittance in both of them but never mind

Council pittance is likely to be worth having. Can you transfer the other sum? Worth asking? it might also be worth asking about making additional contributions although these are not as generous as in the past.

(Close ears if you get upset)

Death in service grant is usually several times yearly salary, so not to be sniffed at. You may need to nominate beneficiaries as this keeps it outside your estate.

Most of these schemes are funded by investments, so they can go up and down with the stock market but nothing like as badly as priviate ones cos the fees are not stripped out each year.

(And keep closing them if this topic upsets you...)

It's worth reading through all the small print, especially about how much your beneficiary gets depending on how they are related to you:

Errant Husband joined his company pension scheme before we were married and before we had DS2 - DS1 is his step son. Should he have died then, I would have got nothing, but his parents would have got a lump sum payout. There would have been nothing for DS1.

When we had DS2, he notified the pension scheme; still his parents would have got the payout, but there would have been a small pension for DS2.

When he notified them we'd got married, it changed the beneficiary to me, doubled the amount payable as a lump sum, allocated me a widows pension, doubled DS2's child pension, and allocated the same amount to DS1 as his step son. The boys' allowance is I think up to their 18th birthday, which is fair enough.

And it's not that I want the money anyway, even with the affair, I'd still rather he was alive to see the boys and be their dad, but goodness me, he's not changed the amount he pays into the scheme and yet the scheme makes that much difference to what it pays out!

GreyQueen

:eek: Whoo! The forums disappeared. I was using my pooter to watch a rental DVD and when it finished, thought I'd just check into MSE and it wouldn't load the forums, after a lot of faddle got a msg saying they were down for maintenance and I'd not seen any banner warning that was coming.

OK, who broke the forum?!

So I had to go to bed.:( And now I have to go to w*rk and earn my crust.

Hope everyone has a great day, GQ xx

grandma247

Molly I thought the same about the time. My older kids would have been in bed by that time and so would their friends. My younger ones would have been in the house much earlier than that at this time of the year but they went to bed a little later than 7.

My sil said he heard she was over 400 yards away from her house. His kids would not have been even a quarter that distance at that age. They are very strict about playing near home and the youngest ones are not allowed out without supervision anyway as they live on a busy main road.

I had problems with mse disappearing earlier in the evening and later on it had a message saying it was down for maintenance.

D&DD

*hands in note*
I shall be absent today as I'm going to our OS meet :j
Will catch up with everyones news later if the girls don't wear me out too much :D

Its the first one in 6 years that I've managed to get to sooo excited can you tell??

Have a great day all

XXX

[Deleted User]

Morning Toughies, hope all are well and having the same glorious sunshine we have today, it's a bit nippy but crisp and bright so am enjoying muchly. Off to Chichester with a friend this morning, it's one of my favourite places, love the cathedral and the bishops gardens so we will have a wander and lunch and a little bit of retail therapy too.

DOCKY says 'fank yew veri muth' to all his messages and he's 'veri gladddd' that he made you smile. POOKY,ROSIEPP,MARIE and MRS CD stande back from respective computers as a big SSSSSSLLLUUUURRRRRRPPPPPPPPP!!!!!! is coming your way and MRS CD Docky says 'Yis pleez, eye wud lykse itt veri muth few yew ter beez mine vertul Arnty' how very kind of you to post such nice things, you're all great!.

Have a good day everyone and MAR I hope today you are feeling a bit better and brighter, thinking of you, Cheers Lyn xxx.

Molly41

grandma247 wrote: »

Molly I thought the same about the time. My older kids would have been in bed by that time and so would their friends. My younger ones would have been in the house much earlier than that at this time of the year but they went to bed a little later than 7.

My sil said he heard she was over 400 yards away from her house. His kids would not have been even a quarter that distance at that age. They are very strict about playing near home and the youngest ones are not allowed out without supervision anyway as they live on a busy main road.

I had problems with mse disappearing earlier in the evening and later on it had a message saying it was down for maintenance.

I agree about the distance. My dd recounted my very strict limits last night and ages they were allowed to play out. I am very grateful that my kids were able to play out but safety was the key consideration.

VJsmum

Mrs LW - enjoy Chi, I used to spend some childhood summers there staying with my uncle and aunt. I still dream about it, they were our only holidays in those days and I loved it. You know, those far off summers when it was always sunny. We went back a few years ago to East Wittering but it was during the foot and mouth crisis so I couldn't revisit alot of our places in the countryside. Must go again.

The plasterer is in - unfortunately he is playing Smooth radio at full volume. I may have to find a reason to leave the house for a while. It even has Simon Bates' "our tune". I am marking at home

Forgive me, God of OS, for I will be sinning. Tonight's tea is a ready meal each. I bought a load on offer for "just in case" but we never really eat them and they are cluttering up my freezers so they are going. Thursdays are usually busy nights for us with 3 of the 4 of us in different places at different times, so it will be handy. I am determined to defrost that freezer this year - i've been trying since christmas. Unfortuantely (or fortunately) our little Mr M had butter YS at 25p a block - there was tons so I bought 6 (it's been niggling me that that is a bit greedy) and pasta sauces at 19p so I bought 2. There were fruited tea cakes for 9p a pack of 6 - therefore, freezer is clogged up again.:o

Was it Monnagran who was talking poetry the other day? It is national poetry day today, I'll start

"There was an OSer from Hitchin" (go on - it's a gift:rotfl:)

katieowl_2

grandma247 wrote: »

Molly I thought the same about the time. My older kids would have been in bed by that time and so would their friends. My younger ones would have been in the house much earlier than that at this time of the year but they went to bed a little later than 7.

My sil said he heard she was over 400 yards away from her house. His kids would not have been even a quarter that distance at that age. They are very strict about playing near home and the youngest ones are not allowed out without supervision anyway as they live on a busy main road.

I had problems with mse disappearing earlier in the evening and later on it had a message saying it was down for maintenance.

I totally agree with both of you, I wouldn't even let my kids play out when they were little, because we lived one house down from the corner of the street, and they could have been gone in seconds. Mind you it was a dodgy neighbour hood which just got dodgy-er!

It's really hard to imagine though how quiet and 'safe' these little towns are unless you are here, everyone knows everyone else, and all their business Someone said to me the other day that there is absolutely ZERO crime in Machynllth, apart from the odd altercation in the pub. It's a bit like stepping back to the 50's. Which of course is not to say that bad things didn't happen then, because they did!

The villages on the A487 have the main North Wales to South Wales coastal road running right through the centre of them, so the fact that a stranger can appear and disappear at 60mph you would think would make them a little wary.

Just hope they HAVE picked up the right bloke, because otherwise they are wasting a lot of time following that up. Zero crime rate sometimes means they are not very used to dealing with something 'happening'

Kate