HOUSEHOLD TIPS NOT FOUND IN WOMAN'S WEEKLY

[Marilyn]

My slight OCD is both a comfort and a curse. My son shares the same thing, so there is a great understanding between us. We both need things to be a certain way - not obsessively so
, but - we both understand certain standards. I didn’t make him that way, I just understand more than other folk might.
For example...I think it is important that every human has their own toothbrush, hairbrush, comb, shaver, bath towel etc. ( not obsessive in my view). I fell in love with a man who had three children who grew up totally sharing such things. It never sat easy with me.

[Marilyn]

Every child deserves their own bed too.
Sorry if I upset folk, but every child must have their own (safe) warm bed. To me, it is not a negotiable thing.

[Stanley]

Every old bloke needs that bed as well! I shall be popping off to mine as soon as I have necked this steak pudding and peas.....

[Marilyn]

Sleep well, old timer.

[Stanley]

I'm blessed in that department. I always sleep like a baby. I am so lucky, I often think that sleeping difficulty must be one of worst disadvantages you can have, it is so essential to health.

[Marilyn]

I get as many hours under my belt as I can each night, before the Sciatica wakes me up...anywhere between 3am and 5am.

[Stanley]

Do unto others as you would be done by. An old tip but a good one.

[Stanley]

Nowt wrong with making sure you have good stocks of disinfectant, soap and toilet paper. Experience in the places most affected is that panic buying clears these off the shelves first, a bigger danger than the virus perhaps. Makes sense!

[Marilyn]

Doesn’t hurt to have a few LongLife Milk and tins of Soup in the pantry either...staples such as Rice and Pasta..no need to panic buy, but if you need to spend a few days off the grid watching re-runs of Sci-fi movies I suspect some folk may need Chocolate too! I can always put a meal together. Between my freezer and pantry, I am ok for weeks...

[Stanley]

So am I Maz, all the time. It's the way I was brought up. Even in the war under rationing mother always had reasonable stocks in and I do the same. It's estimated that 25% of families in Britain have no stocks and live hand to mouth on takeaways. They could be in for a rude awakening. It seems like common sense to me....

[Tizer]

There was no paracetamol in the big Tesco supermarket here yesterday - empty shelves.

[Marilyn]

It's estimated that 25% of families in Britain have no stocks and live hand to mouth on takeaways. They could be in for a rude awakening.

I was having this exact conversation with my son and his girlfriend the other week. They think we are dinosaurs.
I’ve always raised my son to plan ahead, have a budget, know when bills are due etc...and he does an amazing job of it ( has his own home etc and is a great cook.)
Girlfriend is the complete opposite. Money slips through her fingers and she has no idea of the value of it or where it all goes.
They both spend a huge amount on food. Girlfriend always has her hair and nails done and gets frequent massages. Everything that takes her fancy goes on the “tap and go”. She has an alert on her phone to remind her to pay her rent!
I am just glad they don’t live together in all honesty. It would be a complete train wreck...

[Stanley]

"Look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves..."

[Marilyn]

With interest rates being so low, all youngsters should be buying somewhere to live. When I think of the 18% home loan interest rates we were paying in the eighties I could weep.
( but we made it and paid our first home off before we were 30 years old. Went without a lot of stuff to do it too.)

Now that we are older, interest rates being so low are damn cruel...we would be rolling in clover if they were 18%! Hell...we would be grinning ear to ear if they were 10%...

[Stanley]

I agree Maz. We bought Hey Farm on a bank loan, nobody would give me a mortgage, my wage rate was too low. Despite sky high interest rates we paid it off, never missed a payment and what I never understood was that the value of the farm was rocketing with the interest rates but the repayment, £15 a month, never altered. And we got tax relief on the payments! At the same time we reared three kids..... Those were the days!

[Cathy]

I remember the 18% days, for a few years we had a second mortgage too. If I remember correctly, it took us 7 - 8years to get carpet . I had to wait 11 - 12 years before falling pregnant.
These days lots of things come with the first house. We used to buy ‘house and land packages’, now it’s house, land, heating, cooling, some landscaping, driveways, floor coverings, updated this and that, all in the same mortgage.

[Stanley]

True Cathy, when I bought Hey Farm we only had one habitable room, the kitchen. Not a carpet or a curtain in the house. The warmest place in the house was in bed. Times have changed!

[Marilyn]

I think Cazza and I share many memories about how tough things were as young brides. Took a lot of the romance out of life for both of us. When you have to decide between a haircut for yourself or clothes/shoes for your child, you go without. That’s the way we lived. Nowadays females fret if they can’t afford shoes or handbags.
Even today the hairdresser says “ see you in 6 weeks”.
No you won’t. At your prices you will see me in 6 months!!!!

[Cathy]

I was watching ‘Honey, I Bought The House’ recently , and the female buyer took a ‘saucepan’ with her to each house, to see if it would match the kitchen! If the saucepan’s colour didn’t match then she didn’t want the house.
Honestly I would have donged her on the head with it!

[Marilyn]

I would have squished her skinny arse in the saucepan and buried it in the shrubbery!
I honestly don’t know where modern day females come from. It is all “tap and go” apparently!
I saw my son’s girlfriend “tap and go” about 6 times in an hour. I turned to her and said “ gosh...your bank statement must read like a newspaper!”
She just looked at me and said “ Hugh?”
How do you keep track of your life when every whim is satisfied by the tap of a card? I could not sleep at night if I lived a life of complete oblivion.

[plaques]

Probably like most men I ask myself the question, Do I really need it or is it just a passing fancy? if the answer to the first part is 'yes' then its a search round for the best for the purpose I have in mind at a reasonable price. Boring I know but never disappointed because it would be 'my' fault.

[Stanley]

I think the thing that covers today's tip is 'Easy come, easy go'. I am always struck by the fact that whenever a TV programme on poverty comes up, interior shots show large plasma TVs and one of the complaints is no holidays and as often as not that means abroad. Really!? When you have been poor for years you build up defence mechanisms. I am classed as below the poverty line even now but have no debt and enough money in my back pocket to indulge a whim occasionally but surprise surprise, it stays there!
So, always remember Wilkins Micawber in Dickens; "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery."
I rest my case.

[Marilyn]

Absolutely...I agree...sort out your “wants” as opposed “needs”.
I’m not complaining. But imagine if interest rates were higher!

[Stanley]

[Cathy]

Some young ones today don’t know the difference between need and want. Their wants are their needs and they are having it Now!
Just like in most people’s lives , something will happen where they will learn a bit of discernment.