THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

moneyistooshorttomention

singlestep wrote: »

I'm yet to turn 40 and so I am trying to manage RSI for the long-term. I have next week off, so won't have to think about it as much

I can also recommend MTSTM's advice on the track ball. It makes a difference at home. Work can't/won't provide me with one - and I'll not be taking one in as I don't have a workstation for my own exclusive use. As it is, one colleague likes appropriating my nice pens/stationery and occasional dehydrated lunch left in my desk drawer for my own emergencies. As a promoted member of staff, although not my line manager, he must realise that they are not provided by the workplace.

:eek: But they cost peanuts - by work standards - less than £50! That's petty cash to an employer. It's so low it's petty cash to many of us personally! Mean or what - ie your employer!

As for the thieving work colleague - I'd be sending him an email (copy to the person in charge). It would be phrased in polite terms - but making it very plain he was helping himself to MY property. Basically - if I had to send him a second one (copy to manager) then I would have just "landed him in it" for being a little thief.

lavandergirl_2

Hello lovely peeps,

anybody stocking up on Marmite?
http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/tesco-withdraw-flora-pg-tips-9033259

GreyQueen

Morning all.

Just been scanning down the list of the fast-vanishing Unilever groceries and toiletries and confess myself completely unmoved by them being in short and eventually nil supply. Wouldn't phase me if I never saw any of them again.

Of all that lot, the only thing I can recall ever using are PG Tips very occasionally, and I have switched to Sainsbugs loose tea, plus Tosspots own brand cheapy teabags for work.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall when the Tosspots boss, a 27 year Unilever man, gets fierce with his former employer. It's a diabolic cheek, imo, and I think U will live to regret it.

When your entire product range consists of unnecessary things, versions of which can purchased elsewhere, or the truly vile yeast product in the jar (yes, I am not a fan ), you're not too clever to be p*ssing off one of the country's largest retailers, are you?

I think Uni will be the loser in this, and feel sorry for those employed in the manufacturer and distribution of their products, who may lose their jobs.

mila, the UK has long been Airstrip One, and we have a big US military presence here. This means that we're vulnerable to international spats between Russia and your country.

I feel a lot of what's going on in international relations can be filed under sabre rattling, but would have greater concerns about Russia turning off international gas pipelines and leaving parts of Europe without natural gas (gas not being gasoline in English-English, of course) in cold continental winters.

As for the current presidential election, I watch occasionally with wide eyes and think that this has gone beyond satire and deep into the realms of absurdity. What a choice to have to make............!

maryb

The pound went through a big fall back in the early days of the financial crisis but big food manufacturers didn't dare hoick prices up by 10% back then. They were too worried as it was that people were finding out the difference between needs and wants.

I do like a bit of yeast extract on toast but it lasts for years and I've got a nearly full jar in. That is about the only one of their products I actually use

maryb

Correction, I do use Hellmann mayonnaise. But Memory Girl posted a recipe on her blog for making mayonnaise instantly if you have a stick blender and it is really good - and cheaper than the Unilever stuff

http://mortgagefreeinthree.com/2013/06/ten-second-mayonnaise/

GreyQueen

Very true, maryb. Needs are actually very few, wants are infinite. I wonder how many millions have been spent on promoting just one U product - 'Chicken Tonight'? TV advertising is expensive. Generic cook-in sauces are widely-available or, whisper it who dares, tell it not on the mountain, you could actually learn to make a simple sauce at home.

As someone who used to earn her crust in a food factory, I'm concerned about the people who work to produce this stuff, and them getting canned because of U's stubbornness. I really can't believe U are going head-to-head with a retailer who takes about £1 in every £7 spent on groceries in the UK. (U)tter madness.

A recent kondo-ing at the parental home revealed two full and one nearly full bottles of Comfort fabric conditioner under the sink, bought in a moment of scattiness thinking they were a liquid detergent.

I'm wondering if we can flog these off in coming months for considerably more than they cost originally............... offers to my inbox, pls.;)

maryb

I understand Unilever are trying it on with all the supermarkets. I suspect Tosspots stand will encourage the others to hold firm as well

End result likely to be a 5% price rise

GreyQueen

maryb wrote: »

I understand Unilever are trying it on with all the supermarkets. I suspect Tosspots stand will encourage the others to hold firm as well

End result likely to be a 5% price rise

Yeah, but in the meantime, more people may have taken their grocery money off to Liddly or Aldee or realised that un-fabric conditioned garments are perfectly acceptable.

thriftwizard

There's always white vinegar, too...

I hold no brief for T&sco, I've had run-ins with their customer service people in the past & found the process a bit of an eye-opener, and I'm all too aware how poorly the supermarkets treat my farming friends. But I'm even more worried about how the world's "food" supplies are falling into a very few, very wealthy hands - hands which have no interest whatsoever in the well-being of most of us. Stay out of supermarkets altogether, whenever possible, folks, and put your money back into your own community!

ivyleaf

Thanks for the link to the mayo recipe, maryb