NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

[Deleted User]

carolbee i wish I'd known that yesterday I was sitting on the front at Westgate with DD and the boys enjoying the sunshine :) I love courgettes.
DGS Henry gave me his birdhouse that he made at school for my garden, don't know if I'll get any birds in it though as he painted it red !!! ( a Liverpool suporter) They have two dogs, so no good putting it up in their garden as the little Jack Russell Lexi, will bark at anything that moves in the garden.
Mikey has his school leaving disco tonight and looked very smart in a shirt and his big brothers tie.He's off to senior school in September,where has the time flown to. spent no cash today though but had another cheque for the RFL fund so I'll pay that in tomorrow Total now stands at £592.25 :):) and we are very pleased with that, far exceeded our expectations of £100.00
DGS Ben has been trying to find some temporary work to earn a few pounds but no luck so far
onwards and upwards chums
JackieO xxx

firesidemaid

Primrose wrote: »

Just returned from 3 days away and courgettes and cucumbers seem to have matured to full size out of thin air. We joke it's the time of yesr when all the neighbours start running in the opposite direction when they see you approaching bearing courgettes!

In the last couple of years I have collected several recipes that require large numbers of courgettes - a courgette & ricotta lasagne and chocolate courgette cake, courtesy of G00d F00d website, both yumster

Ches

Lyn I know you can freeze egg white but I don't know how they are used after coming out but I guess you would have to thaw them first whatever you use them for. I have a vague idea that they are mixed with a teaspoon of sugar if they are wanted for a sweet recipe and salt if wanted for savoury but I could be getting muddled and thats for freezing whole eggs? Didn't one of the slimming clubs have a recipe for egg white omelette. I think maybe it was Rosemary Connelly.

Lynplatinum

Ahoy there

Jackie O - perhaps you could save plates, bowls, mugs and any knives and forks for Grandchildren when going t o Uni? They may say they dont want them at first - I bought my sons complete sets (only from cheap shops like W!lco) when they went away. They we horrified to discover that their fellow students were no respecters of other's possessions and used their stuff (which my naturally generous sons allowed them to do) but would then break, leave food until it went mouldy, keep the plates in their rooms, take them out to eat 'al fresco' and 'forget' to bring them in. Furious, i told them they could replace it with my old 'bottom of the cupboard' plates etc or go without!!! Your GS will find the same - rich folks children dont care for things; dont understand the value of money; and find it funny if you get upset by such behaviour. (I accept there may be exceptions to the rule but ......)

Carolbee - how brilliant - your first allotment is just SOOOO exciting! I remember ours (although it was down the bottom of the garden - cos it was so big!) I do miss the fresh produce and am quite happy to have anyone's spare produce. I suspect tho that a lot of people today dont know how to prepare it!! however, I do think there is a resurgence in folks growing their own now :T

Ches - thanks for your info re egg whites - can anyone else help, please?? :A

GreyQueen

Lynp, your rant reminded me of my spoilt little rich kid flatmates when I was a student 30 years ago. They were bu88ers for all of that and thought it was amusing that I was unamused. I particularly regretted allowing them to cook in my 9 inch pan and take it to a potluck supper in another flat in the same building. They managed to 'forget' to bring the lid back and I never did get it again. Spare lids for 9 inch pans are hard to source secondhand.:mad:

I'd give students a handful of 'bottom of the cupboard' plates/ bowls any day, or source similar from jumblies or chazzers for pence. Plenty good enough for what they're going to be doing with them.

vulpix

When I went to collect my son after his first year in uni halls I was dumbstruck at the carnage and waste.It was a huge block of many similar,with 3 floors each,6 flats with 4 students in each.Just abandoned were TVs,microwaves,computers,crockery,cutlery,pots,pans,toasters,bedding etc etc.Many of these things had also been thrown down the stairs.On the other end of the spectrum was my son squireling away the odds n sods my Mum had given him for year 2.Do these parents buy it all again in second and third year?

My daughter always collected the leftovers when flatmates moved out and either carbooted it or took it to the charity shop.Youngest DD had a large bag of expensive,trendy clothes recently left near the bin when they moved out of the last place recently.

Shocking. Vx

GreyQueen

The students here (uni) do that, too. I have student housing nearby and the waste is extraordinary. The lazy so-and-so's just dump pots, pans, and crocks etc, unwashed, when they leave. They also throw stuff out of the windows.

I have been known to womble them and put them through two sinkfuls of scalding hot water, and either keep or give to pals/ chazzers. Got a very nice stainless steel mixing bowl one year.

Gawd knows how they're going to repay their debts, or maybe they're spending their parents' money? They also seem to live on takeaway pizza as I regularly get door-knocked by delivery blokes aiming for the student addresses who miss and end up at my g/f flat.

[Deleted User]

Good Idea,Ben goes into his first student house this September, I'll have to ask him if there is anything at all there for him to eat off.:) Don't suppose he noticed ,so I'll ask his G/F Katie as she may have seen what's available.Looks like there will be another box apart from his food box winging its way to Norwich in the autumn. Ben is certainly not a rich kid I've just paid his rent for July and will probably pay his August rent as well.His grant doesn't appear in his account until September. His Mum is paying for his insurance for him,covers breakages/theft etc. He has been trying to get part-time work locally but nothing is available .There is a Work-fair in September at the Uni, and he has signed up with Katie for that and fingers crossed he may get something. They went camping last week and lived on apples and nutribars for a week :):).They really are stoney-broke students, hence the food boxes we send up with them.

No shopping to buy today, as I am using as much as I can from the freezer as its only 24 days until our holidays. tonight I have no dinner to cook as its Quiz night at the pub so the £2.00 covers the meal as well. Great night out and a bargain meal win-win
Onwards and upwards chums
JackieO xxx

suki1964

Seeing as I was making pavlova's for work yesterday, I was googling left over yolk recipes and one of the things thrown up whilst searching is that frozen egg White makes great pavlova

As for freezing them, just pop them into ice cube trays, or I think it was Mary Berry who used the plastic egg box. Once frozen pop them out and bag up

Can we please have less talk of courgettes, as I have courgette envy :rotfl: My two plants are still very small and the courgettes are even smaller still, but at least they are still alive and are actually going to produce . We picked our first lettuce, got a good handful of mange tout, spring onions and new pots on Saturday :j So even though the weather wasn't the best we had a lovely salad for tea and omg, the tastes.....the spuds in particular, reminded me of the days when Jersey Royals had flavour. The spring onions were so strong, I mean burning strong, how I remember them being as a kid. So we are still very behind but omg it's been worth waiting on


Student waste Stepson (bit of a black sheep but that's a long story) got into uni. Convinced his mother he needed this that and the other for it, her and his dad spent a fortune. He lasted six weeks, packed his bag and flew home leaving EVERYTHING behind. Then he done the same again a year later, got accepted into another uni, decided he wasn't going halls so got a flat share, cost us all a fortune again, lasted all of six weeks, and walked away leaving it all behind :wall:

His sister is so different, she can stretch a penny, she's seen her mum struggle all her life, but he, well he's always been good at spending other peoples money

Weather here has been so bad I've been having to light the stove which means I've had to tell the coal man to start his deliveries to us a month earlier. Was hoping what I had left from winter would see me through till November at least as my coal money jar is empty. Going to have to pull the strings a bit tighter now over the summer and get the jars looking a bit more healthy. Got a good lot of shifts in work last week as it was holidays here and this week as covering sickness and hopefully we will have a good summer season, regardless of the weather

Anyone use a kenwood for bread making? If so do you have a fool proof recipe? I'm struggling to get the dough right. Getting soft light airy rolls, but they are too light iykwim? Like the ones from the bakers that have to be eaten right away else they go chewy.

Going to try catch up on some cleaning today. House is a pig sty. How can a house get so messy when everyone is out all day ? Are there gremlins who come in as soon as your back is turned? I'm sure it's not me who's left clutter everywhere:rotfl:

Spending today ( and hopefully that's it till the weekend) is diesel and the vets. Hopefully they will have the right strength tablets so it won't be too expensive

bexster1975

Hello all!

NBI shopping wise isn't going great, though I do have an (almost) empty freezer compartment :T
That's quite an achievement as I use my freezer lots and one drawer out of three empty is almost unheard of. Will defrost nex month if I can keep that going.

On an unrelated note do you ever watch those benefits programs? I confess I avoid them, mostly because I think they are deliberately designed to make benefits claimants look like scumbags! ( I would say I don't claim benefits, but I don't believe all claimants are wastrels either). Last nights how to get a council house was a case in point. A couple she 23, he 36 losing their rented accommodation as friend who was also sharing house left and they can't afford rent. So far, so reasonable. She is on a zero hours contract ( how these can be defended for permanent workers I do not know) earning £600 to £800 a month. He hasn't worked for 12 months. Now for the best bit, he doesn't want to claim benefits as he is too proud! So he literally brings in nothing! Not too proud to live off his 23 yo girlfriends zero hours care job though! Where do they find these people!! I must say I was pleased to see at the end that they were " on a break". - I think that might be the best decision she ever makes!! I noticed she had a smartphone on £28 a month contract however. She revealed this when trying to get the flat deposit from a payday lender :eek:

It's frightening to think so many people live like that

Bexster