Will life not go back to pre-covid 19? Is o/s the new way forward?

suki1964

wmf said:

Really good news re your DH Suki. 

More so then you may realise

Us over here in NI can not use our passports or driving licences to verify ourselves online so we have no option but to ring up and hold, and hold, and hold

He was lucky, just shy of 2 hour wait, the guy he was put through to said 4 hrs is the norm

helensbiggestfan

Suki........Great news about your DH.  

Toonie

I've been OS for a while, generally as I never had any money spare, but my purse strings are even tighter now as I lost my job just before Christmas (20 December!) due to injury and ill health and I've not been able to find anything else as yet. When we did have a little spare money I'd get a couple extra tins (beans, tomatoes, corned beef) all of which have made me feel a little reassured given the situation we are now in. During lockdown I've been getting a little more creative with meals to try and do away with the rut we were stuck in. Right now I have some cheap steak stewing away to be turned into steak bakes for dinner alongside veg.

Even though we were already reassessing finances this situation has given us pause and made us look at other things. We're growing tomatoes and salad in the garden and have a couple of strawberry plants in our little garden. We only moved in last year and it was already a mature garden. There are a couple of grape vines at the end of the garden as well, and they tasted good last year. Fingers crossed our little extra bits will help us out.

PipneyJane

suki1964 said:

ejmo said:

Life for most people I know is managing on what you DO have. I'm awaiting a SEISS payment but it will actually only be 40% of what I have been earning recently (2018-19 compared to 2019-20) when I went from part time work to full time when my OH, due to health issues, went from a managerial wage to ESA support group.

But I am kicked out of my complacency and thinking harder. Which is good for me.

And for that I do sympathise

Please don't feel we are all so smug on here, we really are not

Most of us have come through extremely hard times, some are still going through them. I went from having a fantastic well paid job with a gilt edged pension to NMW and now can barely work 20 hours a week over night. But it is how it is and I learned that I have to prepare for the worst at all times. I wasn't joking when I said we are getting by on £202 a week at the moment , and helping our daughter out, its not easy, but its easier because Ive always made sure I have a store cupboard, I use the freezer, we try to grow what we can, Im not adverse to accepting free food, if that be carrots from work that cant be sold to the public or a jug of milk or cream because its split, or someones fish or shoot excess, yellow sticker shop, and refuse to waste food. And most of all , we stopped buying stuff years ago

My savings from diesel prices falling and no MOT requirement this year, plus my general save from not using the car has given us the extra oil fill. Overtime paid for the logs. We haven't had the rates bill issued yet and we have just had the good news our electric bill is being reduced so we have a bit of jiggle room. Not going out for our usual Saturday and Sunday drinks is saving a fortune, still having a drink, but buying from the supermarket and having a set time for "the beer garden" makes it feel like we are doing something different, we sit and chew the cud for a hour or so, then go in and resume life. Kinda of feels like a night out lol

Tonight Im going to go to bed knowing its been a good day. I got 5 hours overtime, we had a hot dinner on the table, we lit the stove to keep warm ( its really cold again ) and its food shop tomorrow and I can afford it even if it has stretched from the average of £40 to a new average of £60

We are also waiting an SEISS payment. We know its coming so we aren't panicking. Although Mr S's work place won't be open anytime soon, hes already found a private job which will give 2 or 3 weeks work shortly, just awaiting the supply chains to catch up so he can get the materials required

I do understand life is hard right now, I really really do. Its just for me life has been so hard for so long, it no longer feels hard, its just my way of life and I really hate to sound smug, but I truly don't feel hard done by at all. Im content with what we have, in fact Im happy ( mostly ) with our life which is why possibly I can see the positives right now where others may not

@suki1964, I’m reading this thread so many days after people posted that I told myself that I wasn’t going to reply to anyone but I just couldn’t stop myself.  I want to give you a hug.  You sound so much like my sister, who phoned me from Australia at the end of March, worrying whether we would be OK financially.  She’s the one who has struggled financially and never had an easy life, and yet she was the one who reached out to ask.  The other sister who is well off, never thought about it.

Thank you for your wise words.

I know I’m lucky.  For now, both DH and I have jobs and can work from home.  But we’ve both been through job losses and redundancies in the last decade.  In DH’s case, he’s been made redundant three times and had one contract cancelled.  In my case, it’s one redundancy and one cancelled contract.  (Neither of us wanted to be contractors.).  We have savings because we’re both determined to not spend everything we earn, so that we can afford to live tomorrow if we are jobless again.  (Job Seeker’s Allowance is derisory.)    I micro-budget to ensure I have enough set aside for repairs to my car, diesel, my hobbies, nights out with the girls, even haircuts.  Am I smug about it?  No.  But it does mean that I can fetch shopping for my neighbours and tell them not to worry because they don’t have the cash to pay for it.

Like you, I count my blessings.  I know I can’t control what happens to me - it’s quite possible that my job will disappear before Christmas - but I can control how I react to it.  “Hope for the best; prepare for the worst” has been my motto for a long time. 

- Pip

suki1964

suki1964 said:

herlig said:

It's buying in bulk all the way for me. A tip I picked up from my interest in the American Pioneer era is to put bay leaves in sacks of flour to repel bugs. I'm trying it as I have no real alternative. I have all flours in sacks of either 16 or 25kg now and quite twitchy at the prospect of losing them to bugs. 

With just the three of us, whilst I do keep stocks, I couldn't justify buying such large amounts of flour. Just before lockdown looked like it was coming, I thought things might start getting tight so stocked up on a few bags of each, put them in the freezer for 2 days then stored them in air tight containers. I had weevils last year, a packet of flour not in a container, they were everywhere. Still it made me sort out my dried goods store and am more on top of the chaos. 

I will just have to be vigilant and keep an eye on what's happening in the shops and buy as and when I see things. We had some good news yesterday, Mr S's self employment grant was confirmed so that will be with us next week so I can loosen the purse strings a bit and buy a few extras plus I can always get carrots, turnips, onions, parsnips and spuds from work FOC and I always take the broccoli stems and cauliflower hearts home for soup and stir fry We sell the florets, the "waste' goes for animal feed so its not stealing, just repurposing

Well with all good news, there has to be bad somewhere along the line

Ive just been furloughed, 3 weeks minimum, to be revised as we go along. I will only be getting the 80% which will really tighten us but hey ho, its better then the dole. I offered tbh, we are scratching about to find enough work for us all to get a full week in and Im the only one who doesn't have kids and mortgage to fork out for, Don't get me wrong, Im no saint, its purely for self preservation , if the company can keep going till the restaurants etc can open again, Im back in work. Theres 3 of us on furlough now, two casual staff were told at the start there was no work, and out of the staff left, they can work all areas, from driving the vans to peeling the spuds so they can step in wherever the work is. My boss is a good man, he worked hard to get where he is and its a great team he has working for him, I don't want that he has to lay staff off altogether. If he can keep going through this then he really does have a good chance of bouncing back by Christmas 

So right now Im looking at it as a 3 week paid holiday, I work hard, Im tired, so its come at a good time. Plus I'll not be using holiday which will still be accruing. Luckily I had stocked up on things like soap powder, kitchen roll etc last week knowing Mr S's money was coming ( oh I know how to splurge  ) and we had filled the oil tank, got logs etc

So my tipple of Grouse has dropped to Strongbow and whilst there certainly won't be any takeaways for a while, we won't starve. Indeed another splurge was having a whole monkfish tail delivered straight of the boat today. 6 really good sized portions from it, 3 in the freezer for another time

Rowan9

Sorry to hear this Suki but I hope it works out well for you all, also that the business bounces back. You have good supplies in and you are resourceful. Time to rest for a bit, well deserved. Hope back to Grouse soon but enjoy the Strongbow meantime 

Nargleblast

A time for you to draw breath, Suki, get all those jobs done at home that have been waiting. Maybe this will take the pressure off your employer for now and ensure the long term survival of the company. It will work out in the end, have no fear.

suki1964

Thats what Im hoping for Nargleblast, he really doesn't want to lose any of us so having the Gvt pay me for a few weeks will be a great help for him. Im only contracted for 24 hrs but tbh Im struggling to drag the work I have to 20hrs and I feel like thats really taking the pee. We work bloody hard for our money, seriously hard, start time is 7am and at 7am you are dressed, gloved and knife in hand with the veg you are working with out in front of you, not wandering in asking how the weekend went. lol. Sounds draconian, but that how it is over here, you get paid to work and work you do. Last boss I had said if you have time to lean, you have time to clean. And believe it or not my boss now is so very laid back, as long as you are working and not shirking, he leaves you to manage your day yourself 

So yes, Im going to enjoy having these three weeks off at least. Ive already been offered 4 hours in the petrol station, it will make up the 20% so I will probably take it, got to let them know in the morning, its Saturday mornings but hey ho, weekends don't matter right now

Mr S already has a list of jobs we can do together ( groan ) Ive agreed to be the foot on the ladder whilst hes cleaning and washing the gutters. Right now would be the ideal time to do the bathroom ( the one job we still have to do in this house, it so bad no one uses it ) but Im not prepared to take a loan right now. I hope also to get back in the kitchen more. Not more as in cooking dinner every day, but to play - as in baking, making sweets and trying new recipes. You know the sort of thing, " oh so sorry Mr S, cant do that right now, Im busy" lol. sure he hasn't had work other then two days since the start of lockdown, hes getting to the "what can I do now " stage, Im just thinking of a few lie ins and doing nothing days

PipneyJane

I’m sorry about your job, @suki1964.  Hopefully it will be enough for your boss to keep the business going in the longer term.

- Pip

daz378

I think this  pandemic  as  well and truly   shaken us  out of our normalcy bias, secure we were in the knowledge  that our first world  technological society   could handle most situations....   im not going to be too keen  on travelling  internationally  anytime soon....  interesting times ahead....stay safe