The OS Doorstep - a helpful and supportive thread in these tough times

fuddle

SQ some of the most beautiful pieces of furniture I have seen have been on the shabby chic thread. To possess a talent that enables a labour of love is something that cannot be emulated by swiping a card whether it's paid for upfront or not.

Your appreciation of what you have sings volumes amongst your words. I doubt you could be happier if you bought new

Jazee

SQ, you are teaching your family life lessons amazingly well. Unfortunately, mine have learnt theirs from seeing me in debt from buying new (not something I do anymore). DD and her boyfriend are currently getting stuff together for setting up home and are concentrating on second hand, freecycle and 'antique' shops. Wish I'd had theirs and your common sense years ago.

Pooky

Ginny - I hope you've got your bum parked on your new suite! Bargain price.

Stilty - Yay to tax returns!!

SQ - Yay to new (to you)chairs!

It's been raining again nearly all day - brightened up for about an hour so the washing went out quick....and then came back in just as quick and no drier....oh well - a bit of freshness.

In between working I've chivvied the girls into hoovering the house through - and then again as they made such a bad job of it....played hokey cokey with the washing and made another 8 jars of apple chilli jelly (enough juice to make another 8 jars tomorrow). As we were all in the same place at the same time we popped out for lunch, will be the last time we can before college and uni start up and we really haven't done anything with the girls this holiday. We're all still full too so no cooking this evening, they can make cheese on toast as they require it.

Off to college tomorrow with DD2 to do all her enrolment stuff - she's filled in 50 thousand forms this afternoon, all seemingly asking the same things!

Floss

In a bid to spend my week off work doing something useful, I have been in the murky depths of the cupboard under the stairs (aka "the pantry")...amongst the bottles, jars & spiders were a jar of 2011 whisky marmalade and some 2013 blackberry something (with the blackberries still in!) that DH and I had to sample to indntify the spirit.. :drool: Have shifted all the empty jars & bottles to the attic, tidied up all the dregs of last year's preserving and moved the 2014 jams into there so I've got my baking kitchen back again

Now have 2 ebay parcels to post from a quick listing of some things that have been lying around this morning, and have another to post when payment comes in. Also got 2 bags for the CS and lots of paper for recycling!

I must get on and do my tax return for last year to claim the tax back on all my baking equipment, but am not sure quite where and how to start! I've registered online, but do I just add up how much I've paid out from all the receipts, fill the relevant bits in & submit? I could really do with the tax refund for it all - my mixer alone was £300 and I've bought baking tins, my range, moulds & cutters & lots of other stuff so it's not a small amount!

savingqueen

Just chilling with a decaf cuppa before tackling the 2nd lot of dinner dishes - seem to spend half my day washing dishes since the dishwasher packed up. DH is very keen to get a new one but I am stubbornly holding off as we need so many more things- well repairs mostly far more urgently. (looked today at the outside repairs that need doing and they are worse since the recent rain - hoping we can book someone in the autumn though fingers crossed.) His lordship is being equally stubborn and not offering to do ANY washing up... in turn I try to wash up asap so neither of us get annoyed. We are mad!!!

Your wonderful posts earlier about our chairs and other previous ones to myself and others really do help keep me going with our OS or at least mainly OS ways. I am determined to save as hard as we can to get the house repairs done, a decent savings pot established(these 2 things are one and the same for now) and a replacement 2nd hand car savings pot. I have been overpaying the mortgage ever since the redundancy scares for DH started and I am going to try and keep that up as best I can. To me other stuff is not as important and will just have to wait. I still find money for treats though, mostly family fun as we also want the kids to have happy memories and experience different things. I am thinking long and hard about our future plans at the mo so apologies again for the ramble. Hardly anyone in RL lives the way we do and we are not anywhere near as OS as many of you lovely folk. I am so appreciative of the forums especially the Doorstep.

ps Jazee - I spent a fair few years spending money in all sorts of not very commonsense ways. Some of it I am glad I did especially as a single person I needed more of a social life (used to be a bit of an 80s party girl with all the trappings and trimmings ) but some it could have been put to far far better use. You can't go back though only forward which is what every single one of us is doing on here.... ONWARD AND UPWARDS! REPEAT AFTER ME.... WE ARE FANTASTIC xx

nursemaggie

Hi all

After looking around a few other threads and find in some of you on them all I expected nothing to read not two pages.

Welcome lilysue.

Think I am not so OS but what is the point of baking if no one eats cakes or making jams and chutneys if no one eats them either.

Sorry you got a soaking yesterday MrsLW, most of our August has been like that we go out shopping between the showers and still get caught in it. I have not done anything else much but the cleaning and the washing.

Even if the sun is shining our back yard is not big enough to have a line more than about 6 inches from a wall so only socks and underwear go out there. There is also no where to put a drier as the kitchen is not much more than a cupboard. I have had bigger pantries.

What a bargain you had on your suite Pookie and even better for the chairs SQ.

The thing that has made things so much better for us is shopping at Ald!
we would be in debt now without. Everything seemed to be so much more than when we were in Sussex. I had been buying only what we needed for 4 years before we moved.

Sorry that sounds a bit down and I am not. I have almost finished my second scarf for Christmas. I am amazed what they cost to buy. Buying kits to make them just as bad.

I discovered the kitting thread and joined some sites with free patterns and one is advertising kits to make scarves at $30 and $40 for two balls of wool. It is surprising how many other people had not knitted for 20 years and have started again.

[Deleted User]

Hey MGGIE whenever I get soaked I live in hopes that I might shrink a bit with all the cold water --- hasn't happened yet but it's a jolly good theory and I live in hopes that one day it will happen......... No breath holding going on though and I really do feel sorry for old Docky dog as he won't wear a waterproof dog coat and has not much by way of fur so he gets to look drownded ratty very quickly and drips on the hall floor in a forlorne way when we get in!!! Awwwwwww!!!

paidinchickens

Good morning everyone.

I'm cutting down on the jam making this year (even though I just bought a pan for £3 from the booter)

I end up "testing" the cold jam plate in the fridge to much IYKWIM :rotfl:

I'm trying to cut right back on my sugary treats.


My DD rang me yesterday to tell me DS was in his pants doing the ice bucket challenge in his friends back garden. Fully videoed and on FB :eek:

This is the child I threaten with a bucket of water when he won't get out of bed, well at least he knows what to expect now

I hope you all have a lovely day

PiC x

Pooky

Morning all

The sun is shining!! But I woke up at 4.30am so it's going to be a long day.

WM is doing it's thing, DW will be loaded in a mo - just finishing my tea and brekkie (scrambled egg wrap - yummy!)

Will be a quick cheese and bacon pasta dish tonight as we're off at college to do DD2's enrolment later, it's 25 odd miles away so I will make the most of the trip over there and stock up in some of the shops we don't have locally (will avoid the fabric shop....I will.......I really will...........maybe). DD2 was in tears last night as she's so nervous about all the change. I'm going to leave her to sleep in as long as possible, if she's asleep she's calm.

Tried to phone a government agency yesterday to inform them that DD1 is off to Uni and I was told they can't do anything about it until after the 1st of September so phone back then...then any money they've overpaid will be claimed back.....why can't I tell you this week before the payment goes out so that you don't need to claim it back? There's no function on the computer programme to do that..... Madness!

Jazee

Our life is all a bit stressful at the moment even though I'm off the paid stuff for another day. DH hasn't had a day off in weeks and although he's enjoying what he's doing, he just looks so tired now, and some events and text messages recently have brought back some bad memories from our old life before we moved here.

Today I am going to get out in the garden as that usually calms me and I need to get ready for our new greenhouse arriving next week. Maybe I'll get another cucumber today or maybe even some tomatoes.

Onwards and upwards....have a great day everyone.