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

bunbun2

AOT sorry to hear you are sffering with the heat. It is sunny here but there is also a nice brezze cooling things down

MrsLW have a good break

sunshine glad to hear the OT was able to help and they will be able to make your life easier

I have recorded superscrimpers but not watched it yet. I too am learning lots from this thread and trying to change my ways and habits

kitchen cleaning today...I have sorted out the big food cupboard and all the plastic boxes and lids

jem132

Hi all I have lost 4 long posts today arhhhh.

Well I have had a really successful Ikea trip today i went to buy myself a new desk to make my sewing area better for £55 but found a better one in the sale reduced from 175 to 40 I was so pleased and it looks fab. I allso bought 200 big piler candels reduced from 4.25 to 20p so if any body would like any give me a shout. Dh is in Lester tomorrow and Monday so could take them in his van I also got some string lights for 3 the hart ones I am so pleased with my little buys.

I even came home and renewed my tax credits witch I was dreading dh has done loads of overtime so don't think I'll get any next year. Witch is a shame as he does no where near that amount now and the overtime pay has been cut.

Me and my 3 ds went for a very long walk with the pooch and now my back is killing. Anyway I better go tidy the garden before dh gets home or he will be cross with me x

kidcat

wow its quiet today usually I have pages to catch up.

Well day one of the summer holidays and its not gone entirely well, OH has to return to work tomorrow to see out the time until his redundnacy in four weeks, and he is incredibly stressed, his union tried to negotiate to have him paid off early but personnel were not budging.

I decided to use the day to get all the fiddly stuff done hoping to keep him occupied but also to get it out of the way and allow me to spend time on entertaining the kids over the next week.

So we headed off to buy shoes for kids, which went well, sale in Cl@rks actually had stuff they liked and that fitted
We spent the day to-ing and fro-ing to various places, and finally ended up at my parents to check their house (OH had apparently promised when they called). We came home and OH has seriously flipped out and that has sent the boys over the edge too - so I now have three very shouty people all driving me mad

kidcat

jem132 wrote: »

Hi all I have lost 4 long posts today arhhhh.

Well I have had a really successful Ikea trip today i went to buy myself a new desk to make my sewing area better for £55 but found a better one in the sale reduced from 175 to 40 I was so pleased and it looks fab. I allso bought 200 big piler candels reduced from 4.25 to 20p so if any body would like any give me a shout. Dh is in Lester tomorrow and Monday so could take them in his van I also got some string lights for 3 the hart ones I am so pleased with my little buys.

I even came home and renewed my tax credits witch I was dreading dh has done loads of overtime so don't think I'll get any next year. Witch is a shame as he does no where near that amount now and the overtime pay has been cut.

Me and my 3 ds went for a very long walk with the pooch and now my back is killing. Anyway I better go tidy the garden before dh gets home or he will be cross with me x

Jem as far as I know with tax credits if you think your income will be lower this year you can ask that they base your calculation on the lower income. It wont wipe out any over payment you have from this year though

GreyQueen

Pooky wrote: »

GQ - watch out it could be someone from an upper floor doing something unpleasant out a window.

Not an unheard-of development, I can assure you!

It rains some interesting stuff from the upper floors at times. I myself have narrowly-escaped death by plummeting TV and several other appliances and large things like sofas have hit the ground over the years.

The rain was just bad enough for me to have to take a jacket to work and then stopped, so won't have been enough to have benefitted to lottie but it was exciting to see it.

Very pleased to hear that fluffy kitten is feeding well. The parental cats have barely set paw indoors for about 3 weeks and apparently find the very onerous walk from the back door to their bowls too much in the heat (all 2 metres of it) and have to be fed outside.

Cats mostly treat their homes like hotels but this is more like a Maccy D drive-thru..............:rotfl:Cheeky beggars.

Have been having the usual run of drama and melodrama and police and whathot here at the Towers. SG fills me in on the gossip most evenings, work takes me out for the day and I miss some of the excitement. A good miss, in most cases.

I've been having a week of eating down the freezer and have spent almost nothing on food since coming back from the holibobs (bit light-on IYKWIM). Have spent £1 on eggs and £1 at the Magic Greengrocer, which got me a large bag of fruit. Am also eating stuff from the lottie like HG spuds and broad beans.

I was raised OS and most of it stuck, some skills being refined by exposure to the wonders of MSE. Mum still can't credit that people actually buy pre-prepped yorkies and roasties and various other things which are simple to produce yourselves.

I wonder if there hasn't been a deliberate de-skilling of the population for a couple of generations now, designed to serve us up to consumerism as hopeless debt-slaves who can't do anything for ourselves. But I do wear the old tin hat a bit, so mebbe it's just middle-aged cynicism.

I do know I was shocked into speechlessness when a colleague remarked on the subject of Primarche clothes that you could wear them once then bin them, because they're so cheap.

Bin them, mark you, not donate them to the charity shop or something...........I was shocked.

Must be getting old..........and aren't the nights drawing in all of a sudden?

Have a peaceful night, all. GQ xx

stiltwalker

Evening all

Well on to night 3 of operation big boy bed - last night DS ended up in bed with his sister, we heard a few thuds then all went quiet so I went up about 10 minutes later to check on them and found them both fast asleep in DD's bed - very cute! both up and wide awake for 7 this morning though and not in the most co-operative moods! Took me an hour to do hair, teeth and get them dressed and get them downstairs!!

Went to a coffee morning in the village pub this morning - some ladies from the village do a fundraising coffee morning once a month and this was for a community in SW Uganda - it's a project run by a local lady. They make bags (in Uganda, they even have the name of the lady who made them on) and sell them over here and all the money goes directly to the maker - the £9 I paid for the perfect bag to fit on the back of the pushchair will go a long way over there and the kids had a lovely catch up with friends from the village.

Once DH got home from work I escaped into town for a quite potter on my own as I was at the end of my tether. It did me good.

Off back up to the Lakes to my parents again this weekend. My mum is exhibiting at Artfest North and we are also going to the steam gathering at Flookborough.

Have a good time Lyn - you'll be missed!

VJsmum - have a good time too.

Catch you all later - hugs X

mardatha

I don't seem to be yakking as much as I used. Very odd
Humid horrible muggy days here with torrential rain off and on and loads of bugs. Wish the nice weather would come back. I notice I got very washed out and tired when the weather changed, hope to gawd it's not the ME back but I don't think so.
Not even able to join in the food talk as I'm still low-carbing. If I could get this last bloody lb off, that would be a stone. But I've now added lettuce and salad to the list which contains the dreaded green stuff :eek::eek: If I eat any more of the stuff I'll turn into a caterpillar.

GreyQueen

Steady on there, Mar.

This is how it starts; a little lettuce one day, touch of bean sprouts and, before you know it, you're onto the hard stuff like Class A K*le and heading for re-hab in the chippy.

Deep fried Mars bar, anyone?

Pooky

Morning all

Overcast and muggy here so far although the sun is trying to muscle in between the clouds. We have a big weather system coming in tomorrow that looks interesting.

Old moggy cat surprised me yesterday by turning up with a great big abcess that's burst, he's a bit of a recluse and not really a fighter but seems to have got himself into a scrape. He's keeping it clean so I shan't interfere.

DD2s BF stayed last night, he lives 18 miles away and cycles to see her nearly every day, DD1 is away with friends so we offered him the spare bed to save the cycle, he was very pleased. I gave him our phone number to give to his Mum so she could call to check up on us/him as I've never met her but no, no call. Are other parents really that trusting? I like a full address, landline number and want to speak to the parents to check everything's ok before my two stay anywhere....am I being a bit OTT?

Ive started doing much smaller portion sizes for DH and I of an evening but have slightly upped our lunch time ones to even out our meals rather than have a big heavy evening meal. Its making me much less prone to snack which is always a good thing. I really need some more inspiration for using more pulses and lentils, can anyone recommend any websites? (I don't buy cook books so need it online)

Hope you all have lovely days.

jem132

Morning all its sunny yay. I've got my aldi vouchers x2 so we are to the shops today. I hope they have everything in stock.
Pooky how old is dds boyfriend? 7did she not tell him she wouldn't be home? Wow 18 miles is a long way to cycle bless him.
I bought aldis pims last week and boy was it delish so I think I will pick some more up today mmmmmm.
Ds13 and I had a movie fest last night and boy am I tired x
Have afun and warm day all xx