2026 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

PipneyJane

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82009815#Comment_82009815

That’s sweet of you @moginstein, but I really don’t need them. Save them, please, for a treat for yourself.

(I was just trying to clarify what a pair of skimpy PJ’s should cost. I will add “shorty PJ’s” to the first post at 4 coupons.)

I’m home. Got discharged yesterday afternoon. Was weighed yesterday afternoon and am horrified to discover that I weighed as much yesterday as I did when I was weighed, fully clothed and shoed, on admission! How? Beyond that I’m not burning as many calories as normal. I couldn’t have consumed more than 2,000 a day, often less because much of the food was “meh”. (For the record, I am 4lb heavier than I was at Christmas, which I can only put down to being considerably more sedentary from all those colds.). I’m not concerned about the numbers on the scales; I just don’t want to swell out of my clothes!

• Pip

Nelliegrace

It may be fluid, @PipneyJane and should improve as you recover and get back to your healthy, gut friendly diet. The food was so awful when I was in the local hospital last that I lost 2 stone.

PipneyJane

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82011057#Comment_82011057

@Nelliegrace I hate to say this, but I think that hospitals were better managed in “our day”. The doctors, nurses and care assistants are doing their best, but they’re fighting against a losing battle. The system has not improved. Certainly, computerisation has helped, but for some things it is a hinderance. I lost count of the number of times I had my blood pressure taken and then repeated, because it always hovers between 95-110 on 60-65. One glance at a paper chart would have shown that was normal range for me, but the computerised “observation machines” don’t show charts.

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Nelliegrace

@PipneyJane Our teaching hospital always had about a thousand student and pupil nurses, all keen to put their learning into practice under the Spinster Ward Sisters and Staff Nurses, who demanded the highest standards of patient care and hygiene. They are not there now, and neither is the order and routine, and the accountability.

PipneyJane

Agreed @Nelliegrace. We need a nurse in charge of the hospital. Please, would you be Matron of the Much Mending On the Borrow Cottage Hospital?

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moginstein

4 points seems fair for shorty pj's @PipneyJane, and thanks for asking @Nelliegrace to be Matron.

it's sooooo hot. Good that you're home, when mum had an op last year she said it was too hot on the ward, and that was without a heat wave.

I don't normally wear skirts, but had bought one from the cat charity shop, as it was a similar cut to the one I bought from the hospice charity shop, but with a black base instead of navy. It's lined, but feels light and floaty. Bought 3 weeks ago, and it's been so nice to wear in this weather. Both have very different patterns on, so look different enough, but it's nice to find a style I like.

I sometimes get things in charity shops I'm not sure about, to challenge myself to try something different, if I decide I don't like it after all, it is redonated, and the cost was just a donation to the charity for the experience. Much easier to do as the shops in question were both £1 clearance charity shops.

MrsCD

I'm so glad you are home, @PipneyJane . I hope you're looking after yourself and can do some knitting!

I have some spends to declare..

3 t-shirts = 12 coupons

Sandals = 5 coupons

Nelliegrace

Thank you, @PipneyJane but no, I am much too old. Alas, I cannot even help as a volunteer at the hospital sewing, like dear Nella Last. I enjoy fund raising coffee mornings, bring and buys, bazaars, and visiting the hospital charity shop.

We went to the County Show yesterday. There were useful demonstrations, we watched one on catching rabbits with skein nets and ferrets, (they used a toy rabbit). We saw some of the latest tractors on display. The WI Marquee was decorated with knitted bunting, I wonder if it will be made into blankets? The theme was The Seaside, and some of the handicrafts from scraps and oddments, were beautiful.

MrsCD

Ooooh, imagine what you could pay for that beautiful seascape! 😍😍😍

There are some very clever, inventive people around. 😊

PipneyJane

Anyone for a cup of tea? I’ve just made a fresh pot.

Yesterday, I watched a Channel 5 production called “A Wartime Christmas”, narrated by James Bolam. (It’s been on the DVR since 2024(!).) Anyway, in it the Dekker family move into the recreation of a 1940’s cottage, and over the course of a week or so experience life on the home front through the prism of Christmas. There’s mum, dad, teenage daughter and a younger son. For example, for the “Blitz Christmas” of 1941, they cooked Wootton Pie for dinner.

While it was a lot lighter than the Wartime Farm series, I would recommend the show as a good starter for anyone interested in life on the home front during the war.

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