The Garden Fence - help and support in tough times

GreyQueen

fuddle wrote: »

I think thats where my worry re: pensions come in GQ. Even as a reletively non consumerist family we still consume and my food levels are contunually a battle to improve. That 500g mince would make 1 meal for our family plus an extra for DH' lunch the day after. Over the past few days I have been looking at how I would cope with just me and even a retired DH too and I'm much more comfortable with my thoughts.

GQ? You have 1 more dinner plate than me:eek:

Heh, and one of them is under a pumpkin on the kitchen counter atm.

The plates (dinner, tea plates, a cereal-type bowl and some hybrid between a saucer and a shallow dish), take up very little room as they are stacked vertically on one of those corner-fitting stacking racks. The current inventory will be allowed to dwindle through natural attrition but I only tend to break about one plate/ bowl per decade, so it's taking some time.

I also have an enamel plate which does for camping and as a substitute lid for a secondhand pot which I never did have the lid for. It only needs a lid about 1-2 times a year, so that works out just fine.

I have more than I need of some categories of household items, but the idea is to concentrate the wear and tear on certain things (like the two tea-towels in circulation) and wear them up, rag them and get another two out.

Rain has stopped allotment play today (well, stopped it from the beginning as it was raining when I got up) so am having a pottering-about sort of day. Nice to spend some time at home when you're out all week.

ETA; nursemaggie, our flats sound not dissimilar. My living room is 9 ft 7 x 12 ft 9 and one end wall is lost to the shutter door into the kitchen and a radiator. Kitchen is 6 ft square. Bedroom has about a foot of space (sidling room) down one side of the bed and it's end, I have one chest-of-drawers and the alcove has a trolley with some boxes in it, and a hanging rail just below ceiling height for the clothes which are better hung - alcove is less than 3 ft wide.

One the plus side, you can vacuum the whole place with change from 5 mins. On the debit side, you can't swing a cat in here. Still, it's central, warm and affordable even to a pauper like me.

Floss

GQ we managed a couple of hours on our lottie this morning (well I did 2 until I tweaked my back, DH did 3) digging out the old compost heap & spreading it onto the beds. I also got my bean trench dug & filled, topped up some pots, cut off some brambles ready for brush wooding to kill them off, tidied up half of the raspberry canes, dug up the last of last years leeks and found 3 parsnips which will be eaten with roast chicken tomorrow

nursemaggie

I don't even break one plate a decade. I usually end up throwing them out because we have worn all the glazing off and it is not hygienic any more. How many I usually have is dependent on how may they have when I see some in a CS. I don't think I have bought any new plates for about 50 years. My box of lasagna sheets are on top of my dinner plates. I have to empty the cupboards for most things. I inherited about 20+ side plates from my mum who dies 14 years ago. Not broken any so most of them are in the bottom of my wardrobe.

I have one wall taken up with the way through to the kitchen from the rest of the flat. My box of wall plates are stuck there. Think I may have to stack them in the dresser. I wish we had radiators.

We took this flat because of it's position. We are in nice area, not too far out of town. Less than half a mile from £1,000,000 houses. If we had stuck out for a house we would have had to go through the whole court and eviction thing. I don't think it would have done my health any good.

mardatha

I recently gave my DIL a dinner set of nice matt black plates and bought 2 white Ikea square ones, and 2 square pudding/soup bowls. I am so happy having an empty cupboard lol - I seriously canny be assed with clutter any more.

fuddle

Apart from having a young family and all the squabbles etc that it brings If it was up to me I would choose a small home every time. I feel cocooned and safer, warmer and more in control. I like that having to have a place for everything and everything earning its place.

The girls are loving having a room each and I adore having a multi purpose garden but I wouldn't choose a normal sized house again and because of that we have bare walls with no furniture and live in one part of the living room whilenthe other is bare. I tend to think that normal folk would purchase a shelving unit or a desk etc to fill the space but not us. I want my possesions to contunue to earn their place and to be able to fit them in whatever dwelling comes next... 'cos we never know :rotfl:

GreyQueen

I might be able to exchange into a slightly-bigger flat further out, nursemaggie, but I really enjoy the benefits of being slap-bang in the middle of a mostly-medieval city. Flats on the estates could be up to 4 miles out, bus fares are extortionate here, and slogging in and out of the centre to work would be exhausting on my pushbike. But you're not ever going to get a house here unless you have dependant children, there's so few of them unsold that they reserve them for folks with children, and quite rightly so.

fuddle, I think you've got wisdom far beyond your years. There are plenty of people who have to get to 60+ to work out what you've worked out already. In 15-20 years your girls will be grown and flown, and you and DH may well want to live smaller and snugger. I know I do love that I can stand in my hallway between the living-room and bedroom doors and see every nook and cranny of my home. And Bea Johnson on zerowastehome mentioned in passing that she feels safer in a smaller home than she did in their previous one (they downsized by 50% to move into an area where they otherwise couldn't have afforded a home, to bring them into walkable and bikeable areas.

nursemaggie

Don't blame you BQ I think bus fare are extortionate nearly everywhere. We did try to move into Manchester. Bus fares only £1 everywhere. It must cut traffic down the busses are full all the time and like the tube there will be another along in a minute so it does not matter if you can't get on.

We have no housing shortage here. When we moved north it was the choice of moving where there were jobs and not being able to pay the half of the rent that housing benefit would not cover and or moving where there was plenty of houses to rent and not many jobs. In 4 years there was one bed sit in a 3rd floor attic that we could afford in the area we lived in. The limit for housing benefit would have still have meant we had to pay some of the rent.

I think I will make some flapjack.

GreyQueen

In this city, if you need to come in from the estates which are about 2-4 miles out, you're talking a return ticket min £4.80. If two or more adults have a lot shopping, and neither has a bus pass, it's more economical to taxi home than ride the buses - madness. I can go 20 miles up the road on the bus for the same price as across town.

I was toying with the idea of putting some of my plates 'away' but have decided not to. I use them to put over and under things in the fridge as well as to eat off, so having just one of each size out wouldn't really be practicable. One of them has a small ding on the underside and I always use that one for preference, thinking that if any of them break, it'd better be that one.

Only it's been trucking on plus ding for about 15 years now. Never mind, one of these days it'll fly, and concrete floors under Marley tiles don't take prisoners.:rotfl:

Took a bag to the chazzer today, large bag-for-life type carrier. Big fat hardback novel bought about 10 days ago and read, a bottle of shower product which was a gift and which I didn't even open as can't use this stuff due to the preservatives (that laurteth sulphate thingy), a bag of rags and a few other bits and bobs.

Small space living forces me to think of items as keepers and just-passing-through, and the latter have to pass pretty quickly indeed.

Still, I think of it as keeping items in circulation and earning money for charities. The big fat hardback which went today wouldn've cost about £15 new, I bought it for £1.25 (although a price written inside shows it was once sold 2nd hand for £2) and the chazzer I gave it to turns all theirs out at £1 which is great because it encourages people to buy and then donate it back again

camelot1001

I often think I would like new crockery but I have Portmerrion botanic garden and it seems to be indestructable! I don't really have anywhere to keep another set so I expect these will see me out!

Thanks for the advice silva, I hadn't thought of melting a hole but will try tomorrow. I ended up taking the bike to DDs inside the car, couldn't find the energy to wrestle with the bike rack. Anyway, she now has a bike to use and hopefully this one wont get stolen.

Spent all day at DDs painting the hallway - there are 8 doors to go round along with the top and bottom, I was so glad to get the roller out for the last bit. Going back tomorrow to give it a second coat.

Hugs to you monna.

I moved a couple of years ago to a smaller house and love it, wish I had done it earlier but the children were lingering. They've all gone now and I wonder if this is now too big but it's nice to have the space when they come to visit.

Softstuff

fuddle wrote: »

Funnily enough I've been reading about using thyme for chest and respiratory disorders. Thyme tea seems to be popular for coughs and cold symtoms.

Thanks for all the gravy suggestions

They use sage tea a fair bit in Turkey Fuddle, for coughs, colds and stomach complaints. It's a taste you get used to.

When we decided to move to a house, we went looking for a small one, but there's no such thing it seems in our area. You're either in a flat, which range from those reasonably priced, but not built for living in holiday flats, which are small or apartments with a hell of a view and price tag to match but either way, huge body corporate fees. Or a house, tend to be 3 bedroomed and up, seemingly people build as big as they can with little thought to layout or quality and the price is predominantly based on location. We're a bit out of town and our house is really too big, but as far as houses go, the cheapest going without getting really far out of town.

So I have more space than needed and increased our crockery count. I break more than and enthusiastic Greek at a wedding. I don't always grip well. But found a lovely set $1 an item on discount and bought a lot so we can have a matching set for a few years. That said, it's good stuff because I keep whacking it and it bounces.