Missy’s Surviving the storm so we can dance in the rain.

Mrs_Money_Penny

Just popping in to say Lidl have halloween costumes advertised in their booklet. xx

missymoo81

Thanks all. I’m pretty sure we reached rock bottom this week with one thing and another, business problems have been amplified massively by a member of staff making noises about starting their own exact same business close by. OH has taken this so personally, as you would, and has lost the plot and keeps saying his life is over. We’re In a really difficult place right now. Sorry I haven’t anyone IRL to talk to so just sharing on here. 

slm6002

Sorry it is so tough for you both at the moment.  If it helps to come on here and rant about things or sound things out do.  Sometimes it helps both with getting things off your chest as well as getting a new perspective on things from people not connected to the situation

Bluegreen143

Sending love @missymoo81 ❤️ That must be so difficult to try to support your OH when he’s hurting like that and you also have your own stresses. Vent away whenever you need to xx

RelievedSheff

Big virtual hugs heading your way Missy.

So sorry you are both having a bad time of it at the minute.

dawnybabes

Horrible times, has the person got a contract with a non competition clause in it ? Thinking outside the box could you sell the business / good will to them ?

jwil

Sorry to hear about the staff member.   

Bunny_mumma

I couldn't not stop to send you hugs missy! 

Xx 

missymoo81

Thank you! Argh I typed a really long post yesterday and lost it.

Basically after many meetings and heartfelt discussions for the past 5 days and I think we have finally come out of the other end, of what is some of the darkest times I’ve had to deal with emotionally and mentally, thank you all so much for your support. 

Staff member is now not setting up a business, it was more of a cry for help. So we’ve managed to sort things, and have a bit of a rejig and I think everyone is happy! We have a plan.

OH seems to have come out the other side unscathed too and happier which was my biggest concern. Absolutely, the lowest point I have ever seen anyone, so emotionally harrowing. I’ll be honest, I found this all too much to be on my shoulders and I actually text the Samaritans, as I said I don’t have many close Friends IRL, and I didn’t want to burden them. Just telling someone, and talking it through, really, really helped my mental State and to see things more clearly. Im just mentioning this in case anyone else needs help and doesn’t know where to turn. Just google the Samaritans.  

Ok onto other news. OH is on a course today but he’s super tired as we really didn’t sleep well. So fingers crossed he passes. I need to go to the post office to send back an Amazon parcel. And take some jumpers back to H&M that I bought on a whim last week. I think I did it as more of a distraction mechanism rather than want. Hence why all but one are going back and that one I do actually need. 

Money is super tight this month, in fact I’ve looked forward to the next 6 weeks. Shopping budget is tiny, so trying to come up with a plan to make things streeeeeetch. Interestingly, I had to go to Sainsburys to get my friends dog some food, and I always put Sainsburys as an expensive supermarket, but they actually had a lot of their basics stuff in stock where as lidl and Tesco very rarely do! So I started comparing prices online, with aldi, Tesco and Sainsburys, and it’s really interesting, as to what is cheaper where. I’m wondering how I can incorporate this into working in my life. I couldn’t constantly go to 3 different supermarkets, but once a month or once every 6 weeks I could do a big staples shop. It would prob have to be monthly due to storage. 

I do have Roo’s birthday and Christmas coming up. Not sure how I’m going to afford those…..

I hope you’re all ok? I’m going to try and post more regularly, it does really help me to stay on track. And your support and kind words really have helped me. Thank you so much again. I’ll pop across to diaries today. Thank you for taking the time to stop by.

joedenise

As you probably know the way to stretch meat in particular is to add stuff to it to make it go further.  I tend to make lots of stews with masses of vegetables and lentils and beans and then divide up into portions for the freezer.  I made 14 portions of the last stew I made with just 250g of stewing beef cut into chunks!  Also if you have some red wine a glass added will add flavour, alternatively add a red wine stockpot for a similar flavour.  I tend to add both a red wine and a beef stock.

Try doing more vegetarian meals which tend to be cheaper than anything using meat - even egg, chips and beans is a cheap meal.  Lots of people do a soup and pudding night once a week - could you try that?  Again make a big pan of vegetable soup - I just use a load of root vegetables and then blend it either with a stick blender or in a blender if you have one.

I haven't looked at it myself but apparently there is a section on BBC food website for cheap meals so that might be worth a look for some ideas.  There are also quite a few websites which have cheap ideas such as www.cookingonabootstrap.com or www.thriftylesley.com.  There's also www.cheapfamilyrecipes.com which even has meal plans and all the recipes have been tested by people who used to be on MSE years ago.

Good luck with stretching that budget!