'supporting each other through really tough times'

katieowl_2

Morning gang! Hugs to all who want one! (((((Hugs))) Just help yourself.

House to myself today :j DS back at college, OH at work.

Have ZERO desire to do anything constructive...it's cold wet and miserabubble outside again. Still pottering to put away the last knockings of Xmas. I *may* tidy up the top of my chest of drawers where all my jewellery and stuff gets dumped, at least I would have actually done something on 'the list', oh and I need to hang my work uniform to dry, as DD asked me if I'd cover for her tomorrow, as she doesn't fancy making milky coffees all day while she feels so sick! But apart from that, I think I'll put the fire on, lounge about whilst on the internet, and watch whatever variation of 'bargain hunt in the attic' is on today :rotfl: Whilst doing that I'll work on my masterplan. Yeah that sounds good.

I suppose (sighs deeply) I could make something warming for the boy's tea...if I REALLY have to!

Kate

[Deleted User]

'Lo MAR - yes we have the oatmeal soup quite often, it really is so much nicer than it sounds when you read the recipe isn't it? It keeps you going until supper too! Cheers Lyn xxx.

kezlou

uni - (((hugs)))
Sent you a message

Had an argument with my parter last night, basically i'm over emotional at the moment and on the verge of tears. So been keeping away from posting as it seems i'm always ranting or raving ..

Regarding technology, well i think it depends on what your priorities are. As well as your interests and lifestyle as a whole.
For instance my eldest has a pc and a xbox in his room. We decided we would allow him to have these for both his homework and entertainment. The xbox he chats to his friends through, as he rarely leaves the house and was badly bullied when he was younger. He's not a fighter and prefers to walk away, also the bullies where we live are pretty horrible ad use weapons. So for me personally i'd rather him socialise with people who he likes and he feels safe. Its funny because you can hear him laughing his head off and he puts mates on loud speaker, so sometimes they's four of them all shouting and laughing at the same time!

My youngest has a wii in the living room, before we got it he struggled to play with other children. Since he started playing on it, his communication skills have came along. He now is able to have a conversation with another child. We also got him a tablet for christmas as it helps calm him down and gives him something to focus on when were out and theres too much going on around him. Also though we thought it would help with spelling and homework. To be honest it really has and he uses a keyboard with it to, so it is very multifunctional.

Myself and my do not smoke, we very rarely drink alcohol. We go on very cheap uk holidays and budget for them.
We both cook from scratch when we can, take our children to the great outdoors and visit lots of historical sites.

We have a landline and broadband, BUT we don't have any channels including terrestrial. If we want to watch anything we use 4OD, itv player and bbc iplayer. this is our personal choice, so whilst we have technology we also mix it with the traditional. We craft, make things, garden, go camping and we have a house full of books and board games. When my children's friends come round they ask how to play connect 4 as they have never seen them before. Some of these children are 13 years old!

Recently we bought a new 40" flat screen tv, it has freeview on it but we haven't tuned it in. It is essentially a monitor so we can watch dvd's and play games on. Before that we had a 20 yr old tv that died a death just before christmas 2012. I wanted a smaller one but all the 20" inch were than £250!!!!:eek:

We have mobile phones for business and personal but getting a contract was cheaper for us than PAYG.
This year our of al our christmas presents were budgeted for and never spent extra on credit cards. I had about £200 worth of vouchers / money which i earned from completing surveys. We used them to pay for games and gifts off amazon and ebay. the rest we paid from our budget. My OH was shocked that a Halo 4 game was £39.99, i bought ours off amazon using vouchers, in the end it was free.
My youngest wanted wii Lego batman 2 for christmas, priced at £25, i got it for £5 from argos. Using a mixture of nectar points and survey vouchers.

So really it does depend on your lifestyle, we don't buy designer labels, we sell / buy on ebay and hunt around charity shops for our clothes.

Right now were skint, our finances are poor, but thats not because of christmas, its through mismanagement and losing money. the last three years of my life have been a complete turn around, we went from withdrawing cash to pay for childcare and rent. To now , personally anyway, we have consolidated our cc debt onto two cards. I have probably paid over £6k or more worth of debt off on a very tight budget. Still have another £4k worth of debt on cc's but still it is slowly being paid off.

What i'm trying to say just because people have ipads/ tablets doesn't mean they haven't budgeted accordingly. It could they are doing from an educational / social point of view. Or they could have saved up for the item, and thought right we have saved £200 up, dads gave us £50 shall we treat ourselves. Its the end of the year and you know the coming year is going to be hard and you yes. Lets go buy the tv so we know if the weather is rubbish and we haven't got any money to have a day out. Instead we'll make some home made pizza's, juice and home made popcorn and have a film day / night.
Its fun and everyone enjoys it, that way you don't deprived and you can have a good time without spending a penny!

I hope what i wrote makes sense and hasn't offended anyone.
If you wish me to delete / amend my post i'm more than happy to just pm me and let me know.

2tonsils

well folks , absolutely freezing here today even though the sun is out. Only good thing is the dryness..I have just hung the washing out as the wind is due to get up later again. Athens and even Crete have heavy snow, I will share the link if I can so you can have a look, its a pretty rare event..

http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2013/01/08/athens-in-grip-of-snowflakes/

Have stayed home today to do a few jobs and stay warm. We seem to have developed a leak on one of the pressure washers on the water pipes from the boiler which we are told will mean we need the whole system de pressuring before they can fix it.....it's a good job we have the open fire and portable gas fire to keep us warm We haven't been using the heating much as the heating oil is too expensive to buy.

Had the lovely corn beef soup with veggies for lunch and it was delicious. Sometimes things taste better when they have stood in the fridge overnight. Having grilled belly pork with cauliflower this evening for dinner. My OH has an appointment for acupuncture and a physio session tomorrow but his back hasn't been so bad the last couple of days when it has been dryer outside.

The healthy eating is going very well for me and I am sleeping better as well. My weight is going down steadily and my clothes are fitting better than they did. I will be keeping it up until I get to my target.....it may be a while but I will get there in the end.

craigywv

KEZLOU that was a fantastic post and i for 1admire you ,i think you like many of us has faced their demons and got on with it, i sat for years in debt until i realised if i dont sort this out now myson will endup paying for my stupidity so roll the clock on 6 years we still a small way to gobutby jove we have cleared some dead wood and in the process have amore happy life through it,more simple needs and dont want orneed the high cost life anymore give me a hm pizza and a gameof tomb raider anyday!!!

shegar

Popperwell wrote: »

Thank you for that...mcculloch29. I'm trying Glucosamine so far I can't say if it is making a difference.

But Mum always believed in fish oils as did my auntie who reached the age of 103 so perhaps I should look at that again...then again Aldi's have some reasonably priced mackerel which is rather nice and I have some tins of sardines and markerel in the house that need using up and I'll replace it. I can always make some salads or sandwiches...

I try to eat a healthy varied diet but still have a suppliment here and there.

Hope to see you tonight. He may not be here this week but there could be a new recruit for the club :T

Remember that you do have to take at least 6 weeks of glucosamine to get into the system before you notice any difference if it is going to work, so dont give up too soon..........Sheila.....

meme30

Kezlou:- We had our lightbulb moment about four years ago. All our stuff is old or new paid by cash. We also have a way to go but this should be our break through year.:)
Our indulgence is the ground rent for our caravan, it's 16 years old but to be honest it's my DH's sanity saver from his stressful job.

Everything we replace is weighed up carefully, our focus today is our PC. It's old, getting slower and it's too expensive to replace. It's has had several bits and pieces renewed over time but now we are looking at losing it. We will put 'Word' on to my laptop and use that as our basic computer. I have the job today of moving all our photo's on to Sn*pfish and there are hundreds of them!
Then any CV's, stuff from my Dad's will etc will get moved to a memory stick.
The tower will go in the loft because we are concerned about data still on it. DH also cannot physically throw out technology easily. Today I managed to persuade him to take a monitor out of the loft and take it to the tip along with two broken tvs he had stashed in there. :rotfl:
Yes I have been reading the Hoarders thread!!:p

sevenup01

afternoon all! KEzlou that was a fantastic post - thank you.
Unixgirl (((hugs))) I dont really know what else to say.
The recipes everyone has been posting sound wonderful. I have the Margueritte Pattern books and i am now inspired to fish them out of the cupboard and choose next weeks menu from it. We'll see.
Work is done for the day and i have rainbows tonight followed by rainbow planning at a pub. I'm looking forward to it.

Uniscots97

kezlou wrote: »

uni - (((hugs)))
Sent you a message

Had an argument with my parter last night, basically i'm over emotional at the moment and on the verge of tears. So been keeping away from posting as it seems i'm always ranting or raving ..

Thanks Kezlou, I'll reply shortly.

mardatha wrote: »

Unixgirl have you read the cards for yourself? Try that? And yes, the only person any of us can truly always count on is ourselves. If you start off from there then you grow much stronger xxx

Thanks Mar. Just done a reading for myself, I'm hoping I'm not projecting my wishes onto my cards. It says I should hear of a job this month. Timings I can get spot on for other people but not myself its bizarre.


I've called the various agencies, applied for a few more jobs. Downloaded the payslips from my last job (as they are about to cut my access to the payroll site as I don't work for them anymore). Tidied out some rubbish (after bringing the recycling bin in). Cooked 2 chicken legs to mix with some wholegrain mustard and mayo for OH's packed lunch. Logged onto Tarot a few hours ago but managed about 80p!

monnagran

Kezlou, Unixgirl and others: Isn't that what this thread is all about? When we hit tough times or things suddenly get us down we can come on here and let it all out, knowing that even if no-one can make it all better everyone is sympathetic, empathetic or understanding. I have heard things on here that I don't think I could deal with and I have the most enormous respect for all of you who are battling demons of some sort or another. Please, never apologise for having a good rant.

x