NSK;The Tortoise and The Mad MARCH Hare!!!

Buffythedebtslayer

thriftylass wrote: »

Loving the topics today.

Firstly, cant find that food bank programme, what's it called. Only saw a bit but want to watch it n full.

Re food and home cooking. I grew up in eastern Germany before the wall came down. So there was no convenience/prepackaged food as such. Both my parents worked full time and we had dinner together every night. My mum had batch cooking days a few times a month and I was tought early as I made my own snack/tea after school till my patents came home from the age of 9 or 10. I alway ate school dinners (heavily subsidised, and you just ate it, no choice, if it was kidneys, tough) in primary school and then had a packed lunch of rye bread and fruit, no snack. Crisps were reserved for special occasions. Also I helped my mum and gran baking and doing other jobs in the kitchen as part of my chores. Oh and I'm only 35, despite this sounding like half a century ago, lol

that is just so interesting. thank you for sharing, I used wonder when studying it at school what it was like on the other side of the wall.


X

ikesmummy

Not a SFD today as needed to get the bits from lidl they didn't have when I went at the weekend but did park on a free side road about a mile from work to avoid paying to park (haven't caved and used the multi story for at least 6 weeks now ) and took my lunch with me.

I also think it's a shame that more life skills aren't taught in schools. I was lucky that having seen my parents cook over the years (not that they really taught me) I would never have considered buying a jar of ready made sauce or ready meal and by the time I left home at 21 could cook quite a few meals which I have built on since.

Agree in part Thriftylass that budgeting probably mainly only requires maths skills and common sense but considering the number of people living in debt wonder if there couldn't be something taught at school to help prevent some people getting there in the first place?

traveller

I think it's the false concepts of debt that need to be challenged too. How many times I have heard the self righteous come out with
Comments like " we don't do debt,we only have a mortgage" er yes you do do debt. Try not being able to pay your debts and watch what happens to your house, which you actually rent from the bank, until you finish paying for it. A work colleague last week was desperate to take money out against her house, for her daughter's wedding! Her only concern was that she would not get accepted. Couldn't care less she would be in ridiculous debt- she wanted 40k!

Then you have many who just accept it as a way of life, because it's not cool not to have the latest. It's attitudes that need to be challenged and that will only come about by education, because many have been brainwashed by our now society. We need to learn to wait and make do a bit more :T

nannygladys

Another sfd today so that's no.4.

On the cooking front and being a lot older than most on here, I can honestly say I wasn't ever taught how to cook and only managed when I got married by trial and error through necessity as we never had much money and produced two children really quickly. We were never in debt (really frowned on and no such thing as a credit card) but lived very much hand to mouth, there's wasn't a benefit system as such and you got family allowance for one child so money was always tight, I regularly went without to feed our children and husband and would eat a cheap packet of biscuits to fill me up in the day and then tell hubby that I had eaten with the children, he didn't find this out for years and was understandably cross when he did. But we survived I learnt how to cook, we stayed solvent, bought up two dds who can both cook and manage money! And if you're wondering about my debt now, it isn't very much and happened a couple of years ago when I walked out of a good job and was unemployed for a few months wasn't entitled to anything and used all my savings on paying the mortgage etc and still lived like I was on good money!! I was in denial, but now I work part-time,on very little and am taking the scenic route paying it back lol. Sorry for rambling on. Oh by the way I have another dd now who is very savvy with money and can cook much better than me, so I must have done something right
Nannyg

traveller

What a lovely story nannygladys.Well done to you for coming out of denial, like me and seeing the fruits of your labour, with your wonderful children :T

thriftylass

Yes, my apologies if I came across as quite judgemental. Of course there is also debt that is cause by loosing jobs, being ill or various other situations that maybe cant be planned for. I would love to help develop some sort of education scheme though. Wonder how hard it would be though to go against business (even banks want us to he in debt) and even the government who is in massive debt and encourages us to be too (spend beyond your means to aid the recovery etc.). Plus I just reaised with shame that i dont really count the mortgage because it's neigh impossible to rent a decent house and call it home. In Germany you rent but are able adjust it with your own kitchen, curtains, furniture etc like you would your own.

£ashcow

Hi all
Very interesting thread, I was taught to cook, sew, Knit, darn,wash, iron, diy and budget as my mother brought myself and younger brother up pretty much on her own and worked full time, later on when i had my children i taught them the same skills as they grew up, but as money was short and i constantly had to call upon these skills i began to feel quite angry that others around me just seemed to be able to purchase what they needed but i had to continue to make do and mend. Now i have anew appreciation of these skills entirely, since working as a support worker i have run groups for people with learning difficulties and Physical disabilities teaching them to cook,shop and eat so that they have a chance to live an independent life, and i am currently helping people with dementia to maintain the skills they already have. Wouldn't it be nice if the same kind of support was given to some of the young mums and dads just starting out.

Anyway spendy day today and i succumbed to the liver and bacon at work for lunch ( i needed the iron honest and nobody at home likes it) I did manage to de-clutter 5 items

Night

Fmess

Morning all

Checking on for yesterday, I've been trying to read all the posts (last night and this morning) and I'm still not caught up but need to go to work!

SFD number 2 and lunch to work. Did tutoring so paid another £20 towards the debt

Will try catch up tonight and post something more meaningful and contributory!

[Deleted User]

Morning all - like Fmness, also trying to skim last night, sounds like a very thought provoking conversation. Love the insights from each of our circumstances growing up. My mum didn't have any interest in cooking - meals were meat and two veg, from scratch to keep costs down. Like me she was a veggie trying to cook for a family of carnivores - my dad cant have been easy to cook for - he is a strong traditionalist and still views rice and pasta as foreign food!! I don't think the kitchen ever seemed accessible and we weren't really taught to cook - including us in jobs seemed to add to the bother of it. I have (I hope) a very different perspective and my DD has cooked tea for her and I once a week for the last year or so (mainly pasta, but sauces from scratch). She also goes shopping for me at Aldi and knows how much our basic things are - if there is more on the list than we have money for, I involve her in the choice. She learnt quickly that the corner shop was much dearer than Aldi :T

I have done my do something for others...my guest last night was a student teacher and turned up at about 10pm having not stopped all day. I gave her some homemade soup that had been destined for my lunch today and we sat and chatted for a bit before she hit the sack. So off to see what else is available for lunch today now

I also spent some time with somebody who works for our county council yesterday, we were talking about how to support communities to become more resilient in the face of various cuts (developing things like first responder schemes). She said some things that really interested me - resilience schemes have really taken off in our rural communities but that it was much harder to support urban communities to pull together, but also that a lot of money goes untapped because small charities and groups are not set up in ways that helps them write strong cases for their bids (no data to support that they make a difference). This is something I am quite good at so I have decided to get in touch with a few local charities that support homelessness, food poverty, new parents who are struggling, and asylum seekers to see if this is a way I could help. I've also been pondering how to bring my community together (I live in a terrace towards the edge of a city, but barely know anyone here) and was thinking maybe of hosting a small scale coffee morning one day and invite the rest of the street.

lotti379

Deleted_User wrote: »

I also spent some time with somebody who works for our county council yesterday, we were talking about how to support communities to become more resilient in the face of various cuts (developing things like first responder schemes). She said some things that really interested me - resilience schemes have really taken off in our rural communities but that it was much harder to support urban communities to pull together, but also that a lot of money goes untapped because small charities and groups are not set up in ways that helps them write strong cases for their bids (no data to support that they make a difference). This is something I am quite good at so I have decided to get in touch with a few local charities that support homelessness, food poverty, new parents who are struggling, and asylum seekers to see if this is a way I could help. I've also been pondering how to bring my community together (I live in a terrace towards the edge of a city, but barely know anyone here) and was thinking maybe of hosting a small scale coffee morning one day and invite the rest of the street.

Your ideas sound briliiant! :T Well done, I'm so impressed with your thoughts.

Oddly, recently I've found the opposite to be true. I moved to an admittedly small city in January, and I've found my neighbours now, and particularly the people at church, are a lot more friendly than the people in the beautiful cotswold village I moved from. Mind you, I move every 18 months or so for work so don't have the time to really establish myself in a village. I think it takes longer but the sense of community is probably stronger when you do get settled...