Thursday 24 May 2012



We all know times are hard, we don't have to be told it by the rolling news banners, or the print media or the politicians who seek to emapthise. We know because it's in the lurching feeling in our stomach when we see the supermarket receipt, it's in the clothes that we don't buy for our kids, the meals we don't have with our partner.
Whether or not we agree with the path that the coaltion government have taken we all have to live with it, and do our best with it.
Our household is a fairly average, middle of the road, normal (whatever the hell that means) household. My husband earns a good wage, we have a nice house in a nice area with most of the mod-cons. I know there are people out there who are a lot worse off than us so I do not want this post to come across as a 'woe is me' post, but at the same time I am still allowed to have a bit of a moan.
I find myself fulfilling the weekly shop in Lidl's. I have absolutely nothing against the more budget end of the supermarket, err, market but I do miss the choice that I was allowed in Tesco's or Sainsbury's. And they don't really cater to the homecook much either so I still have to top up my shopping elsewhere.
My sons don't get new clothes. After a growth spurt my eldest is running around with pajama's of the ankle swinging variety but he will have to wait until his birthday (September) before he gets anything new.
I can't remember the last time my husband and I went out for a meal, and the last film I saw at the cinema was Toy Story 2.
I haven't bought a new item of clothing in over a year and buy my clothes in charity shops, our holiday this year is curtesy of my parents, and freecycle is now my online shop of choice.
There is more we could do, get rid of Sky for example (or at the very least scale it down to get rid of the crap no one watches), sort out my veggie patch and grow some of our own food (I do try and bake my own bread when I can), and I'm not great at the make do and mend thing (can't sew, won't sew).
The only thing that keeps my head up is that we are all in this boat together and it will get better. It has to. We need to keep our chins up, our hatches buttoned down and we will all arrive safely on the other side. I constantly have one foot in the past with the 1940's being my decade of choice and I keep reminding myself that families survived the uncertainty of war years on rations. Women with more children than me had to feed them all with a few eggs, half a loaf of bread and two handfuls of potatoes.
They stood and faced it. And so shall I, but I shall moan like hell about it.

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