make do and mend for tougher times

thriftwizard

I was once driving down a straight country road lined with trees all of the same kind which were shedding a snowstorm of bright yellow leaves which were driven diagonally on the breeze with the sun shining right through them. It was stunningly-beautiful.

Not our famous Beech Avenue, was it? It's just like that at the moment - but sadly without any sun - it's been grey & drizzly here for about a week, with no let-up. But not cold... still warm enough for me to go & pick some more blackberries later on. After I've found & re-installed the conservatory curtains; DH doesn't like his "view" impeded (all 50' of it) so removed them last December. Whereupon several of my houseplants froze to death... I'd had some of them since we got married in the 80s! Luckily the birds (2 cockatiels & one Zebra finch) were OK, but I'm not putting them at any risk this winter.

PipneyJane

Possession wrote: »

Well really can it get any more complicated?! Now DH has an interview on Thursday too, that's 4 interviews this week and poss a 2nd interview on Friday. Crazy. Poor guy is brain-dead from so much prep and lack of sleep too. He's going to be so pleased that we have to spend Saturday cleaning the house ready for my parents coming to stay on Sunday.
BTW I'm not moaning, great to have so much interest in him, hope something finally comes of it!

Fingers crossed, Possession! (ETA: And congratulations on the temp job. I hope they extend it!)

And for those whose jobs are precarious.

Having been in a similar situation with my DH, it's really hard when you can only watch from the sidelines. In my DH's case, he hasn't worked in his field for nearly 3 years. He's a design engineer, currently contracting in IT. Has done everything to earn money: bus use surveys, the census, worked in a shop, etc. Every so often, an agency will find his CV on the internet, pursue him for weeks about a job, he'll have a great interview and then.... Nothing. Or he'll be told "You're great. We really like you, but you don't have management experience".:mad:

Uniscots97

fuddle wrote: »

Also, nightmare. With all the rain recently my bag is beginning to smell... fishy It's a disgusting smell that no matter how long it sits on the radiator or feels dry the smell just will not go away. I'm afraid this in one thing that I can't make do or mend.

I think I need a PVC bag.

In the interim can you wash the bag? If you can give it a really good hot wash in stardrops and let it dry thoroughly. Once dry, spray it with hairspray (cheaper the better) let that coat dry then do the same, repeat 3 or 4 times. It helps coat the bag.

Uniscots97

PipneyJane wrote: »

Or he'll be told "You're great. We really like you, but you don't have management experience".:mad:

I got told this as well a few years ago and went and volunteered for a charity. It helped boost my CV and didn't cost me anything except some time.

Popperwell

Morning all,
Don't know if there are any tickets but a small town approx 5 miles away has Richard Digence appearing at their small Town Hall next month and the tickets are only £6. I'm a bit surprised he is playing there. I'll see if I can get one...

See Olivia Newton John is touring the UK next year, only big venues and charging somewhere in the region of £35-£45...missing the North East out altogether...

Even if I could pay my money would stay in my pocket....

fuddle

I'll try that, thank you! I have nothing to loose really.

Onsdag

I love that we have a welfare state but I don't love what it has turned into. I agree that it needs a radical shake up and yes, the national minimum wage is a joke. If people earned more than they would want to work. Growing up I've heard time and time 'we're going to make work pay' but I'm yet to see how.

If our welfare state supported our sick and our needy I'm sure, sure, sure we could afford it, we've got too - all that tax money we pay. Just somehow we've got to the stage where nearly every household in the street gets some money from the state.

I put my hand in the air and say that what we got in tax credits before I worked was a joke. We got far too much, even with DH working... and on top of child benefit. I've said before we're down now because of my job but I don't at all care, I see it as experience and a chance to get a good reference when I can go back and do what I'm qualified for.

I know so many mums out there (DH's working) that have no motivation for getting a part time job because it takes them over the threshold and they'll lose their tax credits.

For me, I feel it's the tax credit system that needs hitting not the benefits system for the real needy.

I guess it's easy for me to say because I have the skills, I compromise and make do all the time, I do with out my car, I do without drink and fags (not that I want or need them ) I do with out much socialising. etc etc I'm interested in rationing.

I can make our money go far enough and stretch it when it's getting tough so yes, it's easy for me to say.... but what kind of a culture are we in when I'm in the minority of mums/housewives that can do that.

You cut your cloth, you make do, you mend, your husband supports you. The tax credit threshold is still very high in my opinion. I feel like it needs to gradually come down.

GreyQueen

thriftwizard wrote: »

Not our famous Beech Avenue, was it? It's just like that at the moment - but sadly without any sun - it's been grey & drizzly here for about a week, with no let-up. But not cold... still warm enough for me to go & pick some more blackberries later on. After I've found & re-installed the conservatory curtains; DH doesn't like his "view" impeded (all 50' of it) so removed them last December. Whereupon several of my houseplants froze to death... I'd had some of them since we got married in the 80s! Luckily the birds (2 cockatiels & one Zebra finch) were OK, but I'm not putting them at any risk this winter.

No. I think they were limes, and I've never been to Dorset nor heard of the Beech Avenue.

I should go to the county, though, as my Mum's people moved to London from Dorset in the 1800s so I have roots down that way. I should get the skinny from my Dad (our family's amateur genealogist) and get the place names and plan a visit. Don't expect to find tombstones as we've always been poor and most of the rellies generations back don't have headstones, but it'd be nice to see what those villages are like.

Perhaps that's a project for summer 2013. Presupposing there will be something approximating summery weather of course. I could camp...........

ETA Fuddle, I've seen Child Tax Credit letters (not WTC, these were non-working households) for £13,000 and £11,000. And most of the HB assessors at work are p/t partnered women with children whose income is lower than that of people they are assessing. Pure madness.

manchestermargo

VJsmum wrote: »

"A woman is like a tea bag, you never know how strong she is until she's in hot water" Eleanor Roosevelt

Not posted for ages but just had to say, love this quote!

westcoastscot My ds has this condition. He is on strong medication that requires a monthly blood test but it certainly helps him. He and his wife emigate to Australia in 5 weeks so hopefully the sunshine will also help.

Love reading all your posts.

best wishes MM

maryb

Grey Queen I get so cross about NMW. It's subsidising profits which are then used to pay huge bonuses to senior management as if they had actually done something clever. If you accept that households have to somehow have enough money from all sources, what it boils down to is that people in the middle are paying for those bonuses and getting nothing like it themselves. Or we are subsidising foreign profits, since so many companies are owned from abroad now.

I can only assume the government is playing chicken with these companies when it is proposing to change the rules on WTC so that people have to work a minimum number of hours. Companies like that like to employ more people on short hours to keep the NI cost down. It would make more sense to change the rules on employer's NI to create a level playing field, but then they would be accused of imposing a tax on jobs - and there probably would be fewer jobs in total. But tackling it this way puts low paid working people right in the firing line

GreyQueen

maryb you're so right.

I come across a lot of people who are desperate for a proper full-time job, or even a reasonable amount of p/t hours such as 20+ but all they can get are mickey-mouse contracts such as <12 hours per week. Fine if you're a teen living with Mum & Dad, not good for an adult trying to run a home.

Yet the cheeky employers even want to have first-dibs on the non-contractural hours so that they can maximise their flexibility, and this inhibits the employee's ability to take additional work. One of my pals once cobbled-together a life out of 13 p/t jobs at once and the logistics of running that meant she could have probably done air traffic control blindfolded on the grounds that it'd be easier. They never seem to think about the poor p/t employee who still has full-time bills to pay.:(

I think the Gubment needs to grow a set and remove any NI or other benefits to employers for employing 3 people x 8 hours rather than 1 x 24 (as an example).

I realise that this might be controversial to some readers who work very p/t hours for very good reasons, but for a lot of people it would be an improvement and if the employer only wanted people to cover a couple of hours for a specific time of the day, they could still find takers, I'm sure.

I am myself p/t (60% fte) but would love to be f/t if the health permitted it. As it is, what I get in disability tax credit is about what I pay in income tax, so I'm sort-of paying for myself. If the tax credits were taken away for any reason, I wouldn't suddenly be able to work more hours, I'd just have to manage on what I can earn and cut corners somewhere.

It was never the intention that a social welfare system subsidise the profits of businesses.