i think this 'credit crunch' is a blessing in disguise.
there's been a lot of talk about how it's media broo-haha,spinmongering and fearspinning,but to be honest,if it gets people to spend less money,reuse old crap and ...oh,what's the slogan, 'reuse,recycle,etc.' rather than become the material whores we all were beforehand...the world will be a better a place.
Welcome to a better tomorrow,1954 style.
(Fuckpig "That's not even a pound a midget.", Mon 26 Jan 2009, 14:03, 13 replies)

yup...
Last night, I dug out some wartime recipes and used up the veg in the kitchen making woolton pie - very nice and saved it from just going manky and getting thrown away.

We compost our veg waste (we have a *big* garden and I'd go bankrupt if I bought enough Fisons to do the job!), use old T-Shirts and socks as dusters, don't waste much and steer clear of ready meals. That and taking a packed-lunch to work probably saved enough to pay the electricity bill for the year, in all honesty.
(Chad, Mon 26 Jan 2009, 14:07, closed)

people like you
make me go a big wobbly.
'yes we've got enough money to buy some new dusters,but we had these,they work and they were free.'
-weeps with joy-
(Fuckpig "That's not even a pound a midget.", Mon 26 Jan 2009, 14:09, closed)

well..
Whilst I might earn a decent wedge of cash, went to public school and all that jazz, I'm not rich or priviledged.

I went to the posh school by winning a scolarship, my dad worked 6 days a week (plus overtime and on-call) as an engineer/chargehand and my mum went out cleaning to make ends meet. During the last recession, my dad was sacked because he got asbestosis and had to fight for five years to get his pension, whilst the DSS screwed him out of money for eighteen months...I can remember times when we were praying that giros went in before bills went out on the same day or we'd lose our home. So, all the chavs whining about how they can't afford another new phone or have to buy their clothes from Top Shop, not Versace, can all just fuck off - they don't know what being poor or fighting through a recession is about. However, the point is that we got through and we'll do it again.

My wife's having a baby, so our income will come down, unless my bonus/pay-rise covers the difference (but not betting on it), whilst everything is going up in cost (bills, I mean - goods are nigh-on free at the moment!). So, I'm stressed, but we'll manage - by triming our cloth to suit and by being sensible.

So, no I don't waste money - we have a good lifestyle, but we don't go crazy and I'd rather spend £50 on taking my wife out for a meal than on sandwiches for lunch in London for a week. I cancelled my gym membership and rarely buy PS3 games (although I'll treat my wife to one now and again), as I'd rather work out and have fun by going snowboarding (at a snodowme) for a few hours - it costs less and unwinds me more.

So, the moral is that you don't have to be miserable in a recession, but you do need to be sensible and the best way of getting through is not to piss money away when there isn't a recession on. And to never, ever borrow money if you can help it - if you haven't got the cash, save up for it or you can't have it. Simple, really!
(Chad, Mon 26 Jan 2009, 16:04, closed)

i salute you.completely.

(Fuckpig "That's not even a pound a midget.", Mon 26 Jan 2009, 16:32, closed)

woo and yay for packed lunch
I make a much better sandwich than most cunts, so why would I want to spend £2.50 and above for the pleasure of buying one?
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 26 Jan 2009, 14:48, closed)

Shop-brought sandwiches
are fucking extortionate! If you look at the ingredients, you realise you're paying for the privilege of not having to buy in bulk and make twenty rounds of sandwiches cheaply. It's a joke.
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Mon 26 Jan 2009, 16:42, closed)

I always do packed lunch.
Ok, I have the same lunch 5 days in a row (sandwich with some sort of sliced meat and some sort of salad, with marge and mustard or pesto), but it's cheap, tasty, made the way I want it, and I know exactly what's in it. I can't persuade my flatmates to stop using plastic bags when they do their shopping, so I use them to wrap my sandwiches in, at least that way they get reused.
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Mon 26 Jan 2009, 16:01, closed)

I've discovered soup
It's part of my recent drive to wean myself off ready-meals. They's expensive, full of empty pointless fats and less satisfying than cooking for yourself.

I make one or two soups a week, each of which sort me out with five or six servings for around two quid. What I don't use within three days, I freeze either in freezer bags or in plastic pots from supermarket sauces and soups.

Ten fantastic, healthy meals a week for four quid is awesome! :)
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Mon 26 Jan 2009, 16:46, closed)

soup is good
I tend to buy tins for lunch, but it's possible to get cheap, tasty, healthy stuff.

I never seem to have the time to cook soup myself, possibly because I cook a proper meal every night.

Can't think of the last time I even bought a jar of sauce for some pasta.

I tend to look at something in the supermarket, look at the price, look at the ingredients, look at the price again and go "fuck that. I can make it better and for half the price"
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 26 Jan 2009, 17:10, closed)

Dude, if you're making meat on the bone, use the leftover carcass for stock
and make soup by chucking in garlic, onion, carrot, then whatever else you fancy - it's simply a matter of simmering til the meat falls off then taking out the bones - if you're lucky you might even have some leftover stock for casseroles and such.
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Mon 26 Jan 2009, 17:16, closed)

*click*
Another one for the b3ta cookbook :)

Soup is one of those 'chop this lot, fry it, add stock, skin up, disappear for an hour and a half, blend a bit, enjoy' meals. Ten minutes work, a couple of hours cooking, ten minutes eating. Done!
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Mon 26 Jan 2009, 19:16, closed)

Chili FTW!
Hamburger (mince to you lot), tomatoes, chili powder, onions, peppers, salt, pepper, garlic, some red pepper, some chipotle, some cinnamon and a tiny amount of sugar and a few tablespoons of molasses. And if you're feeling like it, some cocoa powder to give it a mole-sauce flavor. (Mole sauce is essentially chocolate and chili powder, and is pronounced mo-LAY. It has nothing to do with rodents.)

Serve it over rice and it's filling and cheap.

Ditto on gumbo.

I keep my freezer well stocked.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Mon 26 Jan 2009, 18:48, closed)

It may take a while to adjust though
Awesome point but..

1. We have an economy based on "Ancient Sunlight" (or fossils fuels as they are more commonly known). It's all based on using resources laid down over millions of years in a few decades or centuries (http://www.thomhartmann.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=197&Itemid=102). This has given us the quick win of no sustainability.

2. The worlds economy (or at least in the west) is based on consumption/in built obsolescence/buy-replace that will take a while to adjust.

I really hope it will adjust.
(Big Fish Been around since the internet was just fields., Mon 26 Jan 2009, 21:49, closed)