Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Yes, Blackcats, we ate so many sweets back in the 70s, didn't we? My dentist calls us the 'Amalgam Generation'. There were differences, though. You're right about crisps. I don't remember them ever being on the shopping list - & certainly not huge multi-bags or the big bags slyly labelled as 'containing 4 or 5 portions' when they will probably mostly be eaten by one or two people. We had crisps, but we tended to trot off to the shop with 3p or whatever they cost then, & eat them on the way home, thus burning off at least some of the calories with the effort of going out to get them. Also, we had chocolate bars, but they were more of a treat & you were often expected to share. You wouldn't have got one every day by any means. Getting a Selection Box at Christmas was amazing because all the chocolate bars inside were yours! I can't imagine today's kids being very excited by a Christmas design on a cardboard box with 5 or 6 very common or garden branded chocolate bars in it, but we generally were because proportionately, a chocolate bar took a lot more pocket money to buy than a '2p mix'.
Had to laugh about your comment about 'money coming to money', lol, as aside from the 6p rebate, I found 2p in the bottom of my handbag & Mr F found that £1 coin in the parking machine. You see, three things! It must be true!
F x

cbsexec

Just wanted to say congratulations on paying off your mortgage. When we paid ours it all seemed a bit flat even though it was an amazing moment. I expected fireworks and champagne as it had been a long hard road (15% mortgage rates!!) Its strange though when you can tick the "home owned outright" box when doing paid for surveys:rotfl:

foxgloves

Thanks, CBSexec - I did sing a fanfare in the building society after they'd handed me the redemption receipt.
F

HairyHandofDartmoor

I remember choosing penny sweets at our local corner shop as a child . I liked black and red liquorice bootlaces, black jacks and all kinds of other good things. I used to like aniseed gob stoppers when I was a bit older. I don't like sweets now and never eat them.

I remember being delighted with a Christmas selection box too as I didn't get chocolate that often apart from Christmas and easter. We only had sweets once a week and that was on Fridays after school and I think I was given a clu6 biscuit or small kitk@t to eat a playtime at school. But I agree you never had giant chocolate bars or multipacks like you can buy now.

No wonder children were all skinny in those days

foxgloves

Yes, HHoD, I think that the arrival of huge multi-packs which fuel our out of control snacking culture probably has a lot of answer for. In our house, as children, we couldn't simply have pestered for another bag of crisps or another chocolate bar as there wouldn't have been any in the house. We did eat them, but they tended to be bought as single items. On those TV programmes where a family's grocery shopping habits are overhauled, I'm always shocked by the inevitable entire cupboard of drawer rammed with chocolates, sweets & crisps, & I say that as somebody who can be a bit of a shocking pig at times! Abundance is definitely fuelling obesity, but it is abundance of the bad stuff, isn't it? Sugar & stuff which is devoid of nutrients.
F

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers,
Hope you have had a decent day today. I started off really well, with all sorts of little positives, starting with a lovely free reindeer cupcake for Mr F at Wa*trose cafe this morning & all sorts of other small wins which I'd intended to tell you about,but I'm sitting here now by the fire feeling properly sorry for myself, having both physically hurt myself & massively lost my temper this afternoon, so I'm going to have a moan about that instead.
I'd set myself up for such a nice afternoon - I'd switched the fairy lights on, on the kitchen dresser, had Bach's Christmas oratorio playing & had planned to write my festive baking plans, then bake a fruity tea bread, divide up the chicken stock I made in my slow cooker yesterday & make chicken & mushroom supreme for tonight's meal. I remember putting the baking powder back in the larder, then suddenly I was flying through the air at speed, heading for the floor! I just couldn't stop myself falling. I did manage to put my hands out & brace myself against the edge of the kitchen worktop, which is how I avoided bashing my face up, but I was going so fast that I hurt my hands, fell hard on my knees & I felt the impact of hitting the cupboard & floor simultaneously in my lower back. Well, it was such a shock & it bloody well hurt so I yelled & Mr F came in to see what had happened. And although he was very concerned about me, out of the 10 things it would definitely have been better not to say until after the event.......let's just say he said most of them. There was me still on the floor......shaky & daren't yet get up in case I had damaged my back & he insisted on starting on a forensic analysis of how I had fallen........
Hang on....I'll be back to finish this tale of woe in a minute......

foxgloves

Right, I'm back now. Yes, so there I am on the floor, feeling I need to recover my equilibrium a bit, & just check that my back was only hurt in a muscular way, & not something more serious. And there's a lot of shocked whimpering going on. Have I set the scene? And there's the Beloved standing there telling me about the dangers of rugs in kitchens, how this is a known household hazard, asking me for really quite minute detail of how I'd fallen....well, I am very patient up to a point but when I lose it, I completely lose it! I said in my most sarcastic mode (from the floor!) 'Perhaps you'd like to go & get your bleep health & safety manual out of your work bag & read me the entire chapter on bleep carpets in bleep kitchens while I'm down here on the bleep floor!' He said he was just trying to see how I'd done it so he could determine if I needed an ambulance or to be driven to A&E. I was having none of it & yelled "Why don't you go & fetch a bleep calculator & set square to work out a 100% accurate bleeping trajectory of my crash to the floor???!!!" "There's a pen & paper on the dresser - why don't you calculate the velocity of my body flying through the air until it intersected with the bleep cupboard & door?! Perhaps you'd like to borrow a bleep flip chart & draw an actual-scale diagram!! Oh, I was mad! Like most of my spectacular tantrums, it was over very quickly. He said he was only concerned & wanted to understand how it had happened. I said that on any future similar occasion, the 'wife still on the floor' stage requires sympathy & offer of tea & biscuit only. Everything else can follow on from that. I did apologise for my bad language & after I'd very slowly done some of my planned kitchen tasks - I felt it was important to keep gently moving so as not to seize up - he made me a hot water bottle & made me sit on the sofa with it tucked behind my back where I have defo pulled some muscles.
So I'm feeling properly sorry for myself tonight - bashed knees, bruised wrist & sore back.
A tiny uptick on the situation was suddenly remembering that I hadn't eaten today's chocolate out of my Advent calendar, so that was a tiny cheer-up, at least. I don't intend to do anything else tonight. Just hoping that I am not stiff as an old wash board tomorrow morning when I get out of bed, as I have quite a lot of tasks I want to do. Grrrr. So that was a moany old post today, wasn't it? I hope I will be back to my normally positive self tomorrow.
F x

crazy_cat_lady

Just wrote a long post and lost it. :mad:
I really hope that you're ok foxgloves, and that Mr F has at least made you a cuppa (or something stronger). I fell over in my kitchen once when I stood on a cat dish and slipped - I could barely walk for 2 days and was stiff for weeks afterwards.
Take care my lovely

HairyHandofDartmoor

Sorry about your fall Foxgloves. But what a typical husband way for Mr F to respond :eek:. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall during your temper tantrum :rotfl:.

I hope you don't stiffen up too much tonight. Have you got any deep heat or ibuprofen gel you could put on it? Or maybe a hot water bottle to lie on might help?

foxgloves

Thanks, CCL. Yes, he did. He is a very kind man & generally calm in a crisis, but he does like to start on the forensic detail of an incident, which from my viewpoint (i.e on the floor!) seemed rather judgemental & a few stages removed from what actually needed doing. I'm 'not allowed' to do anything else tonight & that's fine by me. I'm on the sofa by the fire with cat & have another hot water bottle on my lumbar regions.
I've never stood on a cat dish......though I expect you have more of them than me! I think it is the shock of falling as much s anything. Jarring all those muscles does add to the stiffness of any actual injuries sustained, I think. Hopefully putting some warmth round my lower back will help & I won't feel too stiff tomorrow. The problem with me is that as a rule, I am absolutely hopeless at sitting around doing nothing.
Ah well, it could have been worse. If I hadn't broken my flight through the air with my hands on the worktop edge, I think I would have gone face first at speed into the cupboard door & properly bashed up my face. And don't you feel like a prize numpty when you're suddenly on the floor?
Anyway, I am 'Mrs Do Now't' tonight.
F x