when you reach breaking point

lostinrates

RAS wrote: »

We have a communal bonfire on the plots, overlooking a valley with a lot of posh houses on the other side. They are not blowing up anything like the amount of money they were 5 years ago but it is still a good show.

With shared food and a few cans/bottles and some sparklers, it is one of the best nights of the year.

The next day we bake potatoes and apples in the embers for lunch.

Ras, pop down to the dreamers thread and tell me what i should be doing with my pear pruning PLEASE:hello:.

I keep sort of paci g up and down, tying bits and stepping back, but haven't really cut anything. I know i should because RHS says its important in autumn with these trained trees, but there doesn't seem much to do

GreyQueen

Fruball wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Did you realise when you wrote that how funny it is?

Considering we prep for winter, prep for events which may never happen and buy things well in advance, that cracked me up!

Altho I do obviously see your point lol

Heh heh heh, never thought of it like that, but I see your point now!

S'pose if they only sold diaries for a very limited period, say two weeks in August, and then they were rare and hard to find and 3 x more expensive thereafter I'd be on here yelling GetchorecalendarsNOW before it's too late!

There's nowt so queer as folk, as my late Grandma said. She also used We used to have one of those but the wheel fell off as a random intejection. I guess it might be an old music hall gag but I'm beggared if I know where it comes from.

Anyway, there may well be a Zombie Apocalypse and I need to have enough tins of beans and FB pies to hand to hurl at them as I fight for my life, floor by floor as I retreat up to the top of Shoebox Towers. I can almost see it happening...........

laurel7172

I've just looked to see if there's a food bank in my small city.

Not yet-there's one on the way-but there's one already up and running in the considerably swankier small market town just a few miles away.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

gettingready

What is food bank????

gettingready

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jul/18/food-banks-on-hand-outs

Popperwell

In a way our stores of food are our own Food Banks and a safety net for the future...

sonastin

Grouchy wrote: »

Mr T ... £2 billion profits per 3 month period
B Gas profits up 20% to 3.2 billion
East Anglian Water (private water company) £700 million profit in 2011
Of course private companies should make a profit, but that is extortionate!

3. And don't forget the government has given taxpayers money to bail out private (yes privately owned by shareholders who take all the profits!) to the tune of £600 billlion.


I seem to be getting on a right hobbyhorse here so I'm going to shuddup now. It is just so unfair and wrong to see hardowrking ordinary people getting into terrible dire straits when I believe it doesnt hve to be like that is things were shared more equally around.

Don't forget. Those extortionate profits go to the shareholders. A significant proportion of those shareholders are personal and private sector corporate pension funds. With the advent of auto-enrolment into pension schemes, the ability of the majority of private sector workers to save for an old age is dependent on those companies making huge profits. We need to look at the whole picture when it comes to where the wealth is hiding.


I have no doubt that for some people, the wolf really is at the door and poverty is very real. Pension funding is irrelevant when it comes to working out where the next meal is coming from. But I also think that a lot of people don't really understand how bad it can get. When you think that a sign of poverty is that you can't afford a holiday or to eat out, when you feel that you should be helped out because you want to keep pets, when the answer to "wages aren't high enough" is to drop out of working altogether so that someone else can support you instead, that to me is not really understanding what real poverty is. Part of the problem is that we had it good for so long. Part of the problem is that there is so much more stuff to have that it is more noticable when you can't afford to have the stuff. Part of the problem is that everyone takes some of our privileges for granted and if everyone else is doing it, its hard to notice how lucky you really are.

There is a safety net in this country that we should all be grateful for. Yes OK the safety net might not be as comfortable as it once was and it might not stretch as far as it used to. We might be in a position where we compare what others get and feel like we're missing out. But the reality is that plenty of people have nowhere to turn, no one to help if/when the food runs out, water runs out. Life in the UK is hard for some people - really hard. But while there is any sort of handout coming your way, feel glad that you live here. It doesn't make it easier but it should put things into perspective.

GreyQueen

I find myself in agreement with most of Sonastin's post but we do also have to bear in mind that we're mostly contributing to the system which we draw on. Got my payslip yesterday and HMRC had run off with about a quarter of my salary before I got my hands on it, plus I work 1 month a year to generate enough net income to pay my council tax.

Where we have run into the wall is that there are people amongst us whose starting point is living on benefits, not the idea that they will be self-supporting and rely on social security in their hour of need, and hope never to need it. I hear people in the course of my work boast that neither they nor their partner have ever worked and they are expecting for the 6th time. It makes me a trifle cross, to put it mildly................

ETA, forgot to say that we should all be worried about the stock market's decline as so much is held by the pension funds. My parents are pensioners, with small company pensions. Nothing too exciting, they were only factory workers, but it makes life more comfortable and I wouldn't want to think of them cold and worried about affording the heat. Ditto for anybody on a pension. Heck, I hope to have one of my own, one day.

OrkneyStar

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

I have just started a thread on the food and grocery board, just to give people the heads up, so please let peeps know on other threads about the supermarkets removing some of the lower priced items from the shelves because of the christmas stock...

We really do need to give the heads up on things like this.....

I cant remember what items were targeted, but if anyone can remember from past years.. it would be nice to know which items to stock up on:T

But then we still won't be able to get any as everyone will be buying more than normal, only the lucky ones able to get in early enough will get the products surely?

COOLTRIKERCHICK

OrkneyStar wrote: »

But then we still won't be able to get any as everyone will be buying more than normal, only the lucky ones able to get in early enough will get the products surely?

I can see your point, but i was only trying to give people the reminder of what happens most years in the supermarkets...Should I have not said anything, and let people find out for themselves when their regular cheaper item isnt on the shelf? Iwould have thought that was mean and selfish