Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Humdinger1

Fascinating HE stories! My school year was the first of a combined grammar and comprehensive schools; looking back, I think some of the teachers from the latter felt like underdogs and that may have translated into quite chippy teaching practice.  I love cooking now but the HE teacher was horrible.   I think one stand-out moment was when I left a shepherd's pie in my locker for weeks on end...only my mother threatening to call in a sanitary inspector got it home and into the dustbin.  My DH learned how to make and decorate petit fours as part of his D of E! He bakes all the bread and cakes in the house; he is super-talented.  Loving your diary as ever @foxgloves; just so grateful I had my LBM when I did as I'm not panicking as I would surely have been re current cost of living.   Paying off £140k of debt 10 years back has rewired me and given me some useful techniques and an appreciationof what is truly priority spending.  I am worried for many though and agree with you @foxgloves about the state of the nation.   Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

Cheery_Daff

We did home ec at school but I ditched it when I was 14 I think - certainly didn't do any qualifications in it (I think I chose graphic design instead, far more useful 🙄😂). I remember forgetting to put the sugar in an apple Charlotte, and a ratatouille that I took home in a plastic biscuit tin - it was the most unappetising thing I'd ever seen, and to this day none of my family will eat a ratatouille 😂 We had to 'invent' something at one point - I scooped the inside out of a bread roll and stuffed it with cheese and lettuce 😂 My culinary skills haven't progressed much since then...

The most memorable thing was a boy throwing an entire glass bottle of milk out of the window onto the playground below 😂

foxgloves

I'll reply properly tomorrow, but no, I still haven't found that Christmas candle! I will step up my search tomorrow & Tuesday when I have some festive prep tasks on my agenda. 
I honestly thought I'd packed it away in the decorations box.
Grrrr, F x

Humdinger1

I had a moment of proper, full-blown panic yesterday.  Had I saved enough for Christmas; could I possibly (clutching pearls in horror) have put more on credit cards than I could pay off at the end of the month.   As it turns out, no.  All is in order but it goes to show that LBMs need reinforcing, no?! I do save monthly but as with so many posters on here, feel bad when I draw on it.  I will have built savings back up by the end of March as will put 2 months free of council tax  back in.  Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

ladyholly

Have you tried looking in this diary for last December to see if you happened to note where you had put your candle?

EssexHebridean

Another here who clearly remembers reference to the candle - I do hope it turns up, now! (And slightly wondering whether maybe it was referred to as surplus to requirements from 2020, and so was actually burned last year in the end?) 

If I remember rightly we did a year each of woodwork and metalwork (one one year, the other the next) - I rather enjoyed both, although never made anything wonderful I don't think - I do remember a set of cookie cutters being made in metalwork that got used by Mum for a fair few years - no idea if she still  has them however! Pretty sure nothing that useful was ever made in woodwork, and as for "textile and design" which was also in the mix, that very definitely was never my strong point!  

foxgloves

Thanks for candle-finding suggestions. It has been found. Yay! It took some doing though. I looked in the decorations crate, my outdoor wreath-making box, in my Christmas crockery cupboard & the shelf where I store festive table linen. Also utility room & random cupboards. Mr F wfh this morning & between us, we decided it MUST be up in the loft. He abandoned his 268 work emails to shin up the ladder & found it. He thinks he probably took it up the loft to add to the decorations box, then got distracted by something else. Anyway, it's a Christmas Spice fragrance & is now on the kitchen dresser so no temptation now to buy a new one.
F

Onebrokelady

foxgloves said:

Thanks for candle-finding suggestions. It has been found. Yay! It took some doing though. I looked in the decorations crate, my outdoor wreath-making box, in my Christmas crockery cupboard & the shelf where I store festive table linen. Also utility room & random cupboards. Mr F wfh this morning & between us, we decided it MUST be up in the loft. He abandoned his 268 work emails to shin up the ladder & found it. He thinks he probably took it up the loft to add to the decorations box, then got distracted by something else. Anyway, it's a Christmas Spice fragrance & is now on the kitchen dresser so no temptation now to buy a new one.
F

Yay to found candles 😀

Onebrokelady

My lasting memory of cooking at school was making a lemon meringue pie for my CSE mock exam and when the teacher cut into it all the filling ran out all over the table 😀 I've made lots since and that has never happened again 

foxgloves

Hello Rainy Campers,
Soot is flying around like a loon, but I'll try & concentrate on today's post. I feel I've been productive, anyway:
*2 loads of laundry done & on heated airer

*Did my regular Monday morning budget updates.
*Did a couple of surveys.
*Got out my Christmas table linen & crockery

*Made a wreath for the door (will pop a photo up in a minute)
*Made bread sauce with the spare whole milk leftover from fudge-making & froze.
*Made bread - it will be going in the oven shortly.
*FOUND CANDLE!!!
*Trotted out to post Christmas cards to a few neighbours.
*Defrosted tomato soup - 2 more containers out of freezer for a 'free' meal tomorrow

*Took down my hanging bunches of garden herbs & crumbled them into their jars - sage, oregano, thyme, winter savoury & also some chillies.
V little culinary effort required tonight as Mr F made enough butternut macaroni cheese last night to feed us twice, so apart from practising some Christmas music, I shall just be reading later & knitting more of b-in-l's Christmas 2023 socks.
Warmer today though wet & windy. I did intend to decorate our little outdoor Christmas tree this afternoon, but have deferred it till tomorrow in the hope of dry weather.
Take care, m'dears,
F x