Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

vhalla1478

Good Morning, Everyone,

Typing fast as I have a friend to lunch and my DB is coming later; so please forgive any typing errors!

Splendid news, NurseMaggie, I'm so pleased for you and your son; I hope you have many happy years there. And, GreyQueen, great advice about Housing Benefit, something all of us who rent and receive it should know. I was very lucky when I moved here as my landlady let me in to decorate (and paid for Farrow and Ball paint) for a month before I had to sign the lease. Although, in all fairness, the place had been left in a filthy state (think gerbil food on living room carpet and the fact that it took me 9 hours to steam clean and bleach one side of the kitchen door to transform it from grey to wood colour).

Lynn, I so agree with what you say about homelessness and also all the remarks about possessions; I think I mentioned in a much earlier post that at 18 I was once homeless for a night. It was terrifying and I've never forgotten how frightened I was and how easy it is for it to happen. There but for the grace of God.... as the saying goes. I'm no curmudgeon, but it sickens me too to see the amount of money that people seem to spend at Christmas, and the consequent debt that many face in the New Year. My youngest GS, Mikey, who is just 5, has drawn and written, a Christmas card for me; that is more precious to me than anything that can be bought.

I went to the new Aldi's in Louth yesterday; nice clean shop, plenty of choice, pleasant staff, easy parking, affordable food - what's not to like?

Must fly, Folks, still in dressing gown! Have a good day. We have beautiful sunshine here - now there's something money can't buy!

Viv xx

Ps Vulpix, in our family we call it 'MeadowHell' - haven't been for years. x

nursemaggie

GQ I have not been given any choice I have to tell housing benefits I am moving in on Monday. The HB on this stops on Monday and starts on the new flat from then.

There is no way I can get removal quotes book a remover and pack in a week end. It will take me more than a weekend to sort out Electricity, water, buy a cooker and have it fitted and clean the place. DS cannot decorate so I will have to teach him. Being so short I need him to do the ceilings and cutting in round the top of the rooms anyway. I think I will get him to practice for a while with water until he gets the hang of cutting in without painting the adjoining wall.

I love the name "MeadowHell" have not been there since DS was a toddler. He was born in Derby. vhalla I was born in your part of the world S!!!!horpe.

We have to buy a new Fridge Freezer I am not allowed to have a tall one it has to be one of those side by side ones. It will have to be cheap carpets but can't do without the floors have had tiles on that have just been ripped off leaving horrible black mastic that is crumbling. I could kick myself 5 days before we suddenly got notice to get out of our house I got a leaflet through the door £480 to carpet a 2 bed terrace. I put it in the recycling and of course it is long gone.

The one good thing about social housing is you don't have to pay a deposit so I will have a deposit to come back in January. That should cover the oven. Will get one with a double oven we found one of those very usefull when we had one a few years ago.

Sorry sat thinking instead of getting on. Our Christmas will be thanks to Ald!

Lynplatinum

Hiya All

Am rarely on at this time but switched on computer to do summat else and got embroiled in our conversation!

It is interesting how people buy and buy and buy for their kids - is it for the kids or to fullfill some hole in them (psychologically)?

I knew a family once which had 3 kids in a victorian terraced house where the two front rooms had been knocked through into one room. The whole and I mean the WHOLE of the dining room section was covered on Christmas day with presents and the kids were literally running through them - trampling on and destroying toys right left and centre. My boys were horrified! (aged 12 and 9). We were on Income support and had very little! I stopped giving that family Christmas presents after that. I wasnt popular and it meant one less present for my boys but my conscience was felt better - my boys said they understood!

It also strikes me that so many of these toys are plastic. Which is made from oil by a process called fractionation - which uses a lot of energy. Soon after Christmas these non bio degradable toys end up in land fill - and when, after thousands of years they do break down they will be a major pollutant.

What ever is all this greed doing to our poor planet??
Anyway brighter new later - friend here now gotta go

GreyQueen

Afternoon all.

I've long found this season of the year a bit troublesome, to put it mildly. Not weather-wise, as December in southern England is seldom very severe, but in terms of the veritable orgy of consumerism and wastefulness all around. Even if you've personally opted out of the consumer-fest, you can't ignore all the excess, including the gawping binfuls of refuse in the week or so after.

I try not to be a grinch, and I'm as fond of big dinners, small libations and sweeties as the next person, but it's all so much that it leaves me feeling exhausted and p'd off with it all before we've even got into November, most years.

I joke that I'm suffering from tinsellitus (sorry ).

candygirl

Fab news on the flat NURSEMAGGIE, and sorry but I had to laugh at the swear filter on S!!!!horpe, it always makes me laugh :rotfl::rotfl: Childish I know

[Deleted User]

Nursemaggie I wish you and your son every happiness in your new home.it so easily have been emergency accommodation so no matter how bad the floor is, you have got a place and will soon settle in.

Back in 1971 when we moved house my late OH was at my FIL's funeral on the IoW and I had to move with a 2 & 4 year old on my own .
We arrived at the new house, and the previous owner had removed all the light bulbs when he moved out and ripped all the carpets up and left the grippa strips all around the place with nails sticking up.

I had to go around with a hammer by candlelight :0 as it was three miles to the nearest shop. Luckily I had a neighbour, who saw my predicament and loaned me a couple of bulbs until the next day when my OH arrived back home from the IoW .but we survived and laughed about how mean you had to be to even take the light bulbs.

No doubt things will seem upside down for awhile but you will have your new home to settle into and Christmas will be fine I'm sure . I think we were all worried about you getting evicted before Christmas.

The lunacy of Christmas is getting absurd at times.Luckily I am at the age where I just refuse to buy into it.Its one day and then its over so quickly and you really don't need to end up in penury for January.Luckily both my DDs are the same as I am ,we enjoy Christmas and use it as a time for us to get together as a family and we really do have quite an old-fashioned Christmas at times we actually play and talk to the children and although we like a few nice nibbles its not that important in the scheme of things when you see folk rushing around like headless chickens spending money they can't afford, on things they don't like, to give to people that probably don't appreciate it anyway. I just think its daft.

We are all living in a pretty comfortable world in the Uk and I was thinking last night of how those children in the camps in Hungary and eastern Europe are going to survive through the cold winter They are used to warmer climates in Syria, winter snow in northern Europe will come very hard if you are living in a tent .No child should go cold, God knows how they will survive it

I know we have homelessness in this country, and its must be the most devastating thing not to have a roof over your head.I too like LynPlatinum would love to have the cash to rid the world of homelessness but its only a dream sadly.I try not to walk past a big issue seller if I can help it, we have a lady in the local precinct now and again but I haven't seen her for awhile I am hoping she has now been rehoused

nursemaggie

Well I have signed up and got the keys. I can't have housing benefit for either this house or the flat until I have seen housing benefit department and it will take a few months to sort. I thought it would just transfer.

The most annoying thing is I have paid the rent but I can't have water or electricity for a week. If we had been all ready to go we can't move in yet.

The previous tenant has taken the carpet grippers with them so now I understand why there is rubble all over as the floor must have come up with the grippers. They have also taken the seat that goes with the disabled shower but I don't need one.

JackieO I had that years ago when DD was about 18 months old. There was no heating they had taken the gas fires, all the light fittings and sockets even the plugs from the sink, washbasin and bath and the bath panel. If you could unscrew it they had taken it. We had to go stay with my mother. Thank God she took DD home while we moved the furniture in.

We were buying that house so we called our solicitor. He told us to stay in a hotel until they brought them back as it was illegal. I was not going in a Hotel with an 18 month old baby we were much better off at mums.

I think it cost them a lot of money to have everything put back as our solicitor insisted they were all fitted by a professional.

GreyQueen

The crazy thing about people being so stingy as to take the carpet grippers is that they have probably wasted their time and money as it's unlikely that they would be able to be re-laid properly anywhere else.

I did take my special low energy lightbulbs from my last flat to this one, but I replaced all of them with ordinary incandescent bulbs (low energy bulbs were a lot more expensive back then).

I've seen shedloads of pix of how people have left their homes when they move and very little would surprise me now.

I am in the process of minimising some of the stockpiled food plus I have finished several books from the to-be-read category and they are now in the donation bag.

Haven't actually mended anything for several days as have been very busy at work, but that might change over the next few days. Onwards!

meritaten

When my son moved into his home - nearly eleven years ago - although the 'contract cleaners' had been in, the place was a stinking tip! they couldn't even view it properly as the previous tenants had taken the lightbulbs and it was almost dark!
OMG - viewed in daylight it was appalling! I went around making lists and he contacted the HA and got a surveyor up - who I took round pointing out all the faults etc and the WHOLE place needed redecorating. as you say you need to redecorate nursemaggie - ALL landlords have to provide accommodation that is in 'reasonable' condition. if not, they are obliged to either redecorate, or allow you funds to DIY - whether that is vouchers or 'rent free weeks'. I don't know if this applies to your new flat? If its just not to your taste that's a different thing.
BUT - its great news! the flat sounds ideal! I hope you will be very happy there!

nursemaggie

No meritaten it was not in bad condition before they took all the picture hooks out but someone used pink filler on blue and green walls. I don't like the dark colours that make it very dark so we will lighten it while we are covering all the pink filler.

You may remember Thursday was a very dark dreary day so we could not see very well. The electricity is off until next Friday. DS called the pink filler smudges.

One amazing thing is we have a back door very unusual in a flat. I shall enjoy that in the summer.