It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

LoulaBelle

sammy_kaye18 said:

I was looking for oodies or similar and on the online home shop they have them for between £9 and £35 and different lengths so I have brought 3 of them - one for each child and one for husband. Total cost £33 including delivery. 

Hiya - Can I ask where you found the Oodies for £9 please as I'm looking to get a couple for xmas presents, thanks

London_1

The ground rice pudding was really nice and made a change from the normal rice pud I know its possible to buy ground rice in the UK and I may look out for some when I go shopping in a week or so. I have enough in the cupboards for a good few weeks yet, but I'm off to stay at my DDs for a few day this week so once the fresh stuff is used ,or I take it with me I've got no shopping really to buy for at least a week or so.

By which time I'm hoping to be driving. I shall do an inventory of my 'Winter cupboard big shop' before I go as I like to stock up on essentials, so if the weather is bad after Christmas I don't need to wobble around on sticks in the icy weather, not a great idea when you are ....a little older I've seen enough of the insides of hospitals for to last me  a long time after this years problems.

Last night I did a couple of chicken thighs in my Remoska and some mash and mixed veg and it really was nice to be back home and in my own kitchen cooking again.

I dare say I will have a bit of a shock when I see how the prices have risen in the space of the five weeks I've been in hospital ,but it is what it is so I shall be digging out some old recipes, and making do as I have done in the past when things got tight. Its just lovely to be able to eat food without being in pain anymore, I was virtually living on soup before my last op.
But onwards and upwards chums we will all get through this bumpy ride and the boom times will return fingers crossed , thanks everyone for all your good wishes and support  I do appreciate it 

JackieO xx 

Longwalker

LoulaBelle said:

sammy_kaye18 said:

I was looking for oodies or similar and on the online home shop they have them for between £9 and £35 and different lengths so I have brought 3 of them - one for each child and one for husband. Total cost £33 including delivery. 

Hiya - Can I ask where you found the Oodies for £9 please as I'm looking to get a couple for xmas presents, thanks

@loulabelle I think this is where hoodie-blanket 

Bywayz

LoulaBelle, I have seen £9 hoodies here -   online home shop.com

Floss

London_1 said:

The ground rice pudding was really nice and made a change from the normal rice pud I know its possible to buy ground rice in the UK and I may look out for some when I go shopping in a week or so. 
JackieO xx 

We used to have Rice Creamola (made from ground rice) when we were kids (and I can remember giving it to my boys when they were very young) but it is no longer made 😥

YorksLass

Mmm, milk puddings take me back to childhood (1950s) and school dinners.  You could guarantee at least one would make an appearance each week, be it rice pudding, ground rice, semolina, tapioca or sago (aka frog spawn).  I liked all of them but the only one I make nowadays is rice pudding, mainly down to the fact that SMs no longer seem to stock "old fashioned" ingredients - although they do sometimes have ready made versions that are unsurprisingly much more expensive than making from scratch.  

Yesterday I cooked the beef joint that came with our grocery delivery and today have sliced it up, some for today's dinner,  the rest portioned and frozen in gravy.  It will do us for several meals so good value at just over £9 (half price offer).  There's also some thin slices for sandwiches and enough thin strips to make a stir fry later in the week. 

This afternoon I've busied myself going through food inventories and, in view of overspending the last three months, have decided that November will be a low-spend month.  I'm aiming to buy only the necessary fresh stuff and to use up some of the stocks.  There's far more in the cupboards than I thought!     I have a recipe for a sweet macaroni pudding that I might resurrect - I don't have any macaroni but I do have some pasta twists that could do with being used up and I should imagine they'll be an acceptable substitute.

The curtains were closed at 4.30 pm today, just as the heating clicked in.  So far it's only on in the living room and the hallway (can't turn this radiator off but the heat rises up the stairwell) and I think it will soon be time to turn the bedroom radiators on to keep the rooms aired and mould-free.  DD comes out tomorrow and will put us over £600 in credit so I'm going to ask for a refund of some of it.

Siebrie

@YorksLass do you have the possibility to have a drying rack in the stairwell, to use the heat as it rises? Mine hangs from the banister permanently; it’s hardly noticeable when empty, and, unless I hang sheets or similar, isn’t in the way when full.

London_1

dreadful forecast for this week weather wise especially mid week

I have an electric airer I bought a couple of years ago from Lakeland and its brilliant I have it on in my conservatory and also another fold up airer I leave the window very slightly open to keep it from being too damp out there and can get most of my washing dried even in  the worse weather.

It doesn't cost a great deal to run and I leave it on for most of the day The tee shirts I finish off hanging from hangers on the curtain rail in the sitting room, underneath which is a double radiator so once damp dry from the airer I can finish them off on the curtain rail.

Luckily there is only me to think about now so it must be a nightmare for families with several children I remember when my youngest DD had 5 children under 11 and getting five school uniforms dry was always a problem especially as she had four mucky lads who seemed to attract mud like magnets  

JackieO xx

skogar

Great to hear you are back home Jackie. :-)

YorksLass

@Siebrie - Good suggestion but sadly no banister and it's an extremely small landing too.     However, the laundry dries well on an expanding airer in the hallway and I also put things on hangers over the spare bedroom curtain rails, with windows slightly ajar.  There's only the two of us so it isn't really an issue nowadays, unlike when the offspring were here and there were school uniforms, sports kit and DH's work uniform to dry over the weekend.  The rising warm air does mean I don't have to have the landing radiator on though!  Whoever thought such a small radiator in a high space was a good idea?  Not me.  I have an over radiator rack in the bathroom for damp towels and there's also the shower curtain rail as a last resort.

Today I've cracked on with the Use Up Stocks Mission and have a liver, bacon & onion casserole in the oven along with a batch of Yorkshire Parkin that will be suitably sticky, come Bonfire Night.  Rice pudding in the SC too - I chickened out on the sweet macaroni pudding but will try it at some stage.

Wet and very dull here today with no sign of a let up.  Typical - we have to go for our annual health reviews on Thursday!  I feel like cancelling them but they took so long to get that's not happening.  Not having a car I think it will be a taxi there and back but at least I have the wherewithal to pay for it.