Keep fit with Meanqueen

Hey, here I am with my baggy shorts on, keeping fit on my trainer. Blimey, look at my sparrow legs, ha ha. I could do with a bit more meat on them there bones.

Breakfast and supper fodder

I've just had a bowl of corn flakes, fancied a little something for my supper. I don't usually buy corn flakes but I thought a change would be nice, my usual cereal is bran flakes. The boxes look almost identical except for a different colour. I used to eat a lot of corn flakes when I was little, the posh ones with a big K on the front. I can't remember them making fake ones like they do now, they were the real deal.

I've always thought that anything with bran in it is better for you. Supposed to be good for the digestive system and good for bulking out the waste material as it passes through.

I'm trying to work out which is the best value for money, and the best for your body in terms of nutritional value. The bran flakes are 88p for 750grm and corn flakes are 31p for 500grm. There are more calories in the corn flakes, and more sugar and salt. There is more fat in the bran flakes and more saturates. The ingredients in both are almost identical, except one has maize in it and the other has wholewheat and wheat bran.

Now comes the tricky bit, working out which has the better nutritional value. They both have the same added vitamins and minerals, that's easy enough. The bran flakes have more protien, less carbohydrates, less calories, more sugar, more fat, more fibre, and less salt. So now I'm baffled. I think I'm going to go with my preferred taste. Corn flakes taste like cardboard, they are tasteless. Bran flakes taste much better. Both boxes are the same size but you get less corn flakes because they are made very thin and crispy, there is more air in the box.

One thing I never do is buy fancy and expensive cereals, they are a big rip off. I am not a snob, I don't need to buy brand names. The bog standard basic flakes does me just fine. I don't want my cereals coated with sugar, or chocolate flavour, or snap crackle and pop, or clusters, or mixed with dried fruit, or puffed up.

I think I'm going to have to stick with bran flakes whether they are better for me or not. The price suits me, and for a supermarket own brand they taste quite nice. Are you ditching the brand names in favour of value. Toodle pip.

Time is going toooo fast for me

Blimey I've missed a day, I don't know where the time goes. I see some more new people are posting lovely comments, welcome new people. Lets have a look at who has popped in. I am trying to keep up but you are all way ahead of me.

Hi lilyredcloud, thanks for your compliments, I feel a trifle embarrassed when people say nice things. I will drink a toast to you when I open my next bottle of wine, and pretend it came from you. I have two bottles awaiting consumption, given to me by my doggy friends for helping them out.

Hi Wimmera from Melbourne Australia. I hope your friends are having a lovely time now they have got off the treadmill and moved to a smaller home. Thanks for that story.

Hi Lucy, I admire your determination to read my blog from start to end, maybe we can have a virtual party when you finally catch up with the rest of us. Keep reading gal :-)

Hi Pam from Lincolnshire, nice to meet you. If you love your job keep at it, no need to retire just yet if you don't want to. As long as you are enjoying your life that's all that matters. The swing bridge you mention, would that be the one at Sutton Bridge? If so I know it well. I hope to visit Norfolk one day, I'll give you a shout as I am passing through and we can meet up.

Hi 50 and counting, thanks for that insight into the Canadian/American healthcare situation. It's great that we can learn about how things are done in other parts of the world on my lidl ole blawg. You've gotta say that with the accent.

Hi Samantha. You told us about how good neighbours help each other, doing favours and getting favours back. I like that idea. We all might need some help one day, so best to look out for others in case they need help. What goes round comes round.

Hi Marlene, I'm pleased you have discovered that being made redundant doesn't have to be the end of the world. Be happy with your five pussies, give them a hug from me.

Hi anyone I have forgotten, and thanks for the email Judy, much appreciated.

There has been some brilliant comments on the Getting off the Treadmill posts, read 1 and 2 to get the full story. Thank you all for your input, it has been very enlightening.

Right, what am I up to. I can't move too far from home at the moment. Barry is still in hospital, he should be home any day soon. The good news is that Scruff dog has perked up a bit. A week ago he didn't want to go out of his garden and wouldn't come for a walk because he was so sad. All he wanted to do was lie on the settee and wait for Barry to come back. Now, when I put the key in the door he jumps up to greet me with a waggy tail, and is happy to have his collar and lead on and go walkies. I feel like that woman what was she called, years ago, who did the dog training programme on tele. Her catchphrase was singing the word 'Walkies'. Barbara I think she was called.

Rocky came back on Saturday and he was jumping for joy when I fetched him for a walk. He has been across to visit and walk with Scruff a few times. I am sure it has done Scruff a lot of good, they are the best of pals.

The kittens and mum cat are doing really well. Janet came to visit today and between us we photographed them all individually. Not an easy task to get lively kittens to keep still for a nano second, ha ha. We will put these on our page on the catchat web site soon. Janet usually sees to that job. They all seem to be scoffing themselves silly. They are getting plenty of food down them, and of course this makes them quite productive at the other end. Luckily we have been given four huge bags of cat litter, by a friends OH who works at a factory which produces it. I happened to meet them yesterday while out dog walking, they were walking their two dogs Lulu and George. How kind people are.

I'm getting a bit restless, need to go walking soon, and camping when the weather picks up. Still busy this week, I'm also watering the plants in a friends greenhouse, they have gone away, back at the weekend. Still bits to do next week, it's looking like the last week in June for a holiday. Hope we get some sunshine. Ooops nearly forgot, I was on Radio Humberside this morning again. They rang and asked if I would talk about using coupons and vouchers when shopping, and getting discounts on the Groupon site. You could listen to it on the BBC iplayer, go to local radio stations. I was on just before 10am. Sorry haven't got the link to hand. Phew, got to go. My stomach is grumbling. Toodle pip.

My favourite recipe

Guess what I'm eating right now? Yep, it's 6pm and it's dinner time. I'll give you the recipe if you like. 1 potato. 2 carrots. Some butternut squash. A few spriggs of brocolli. 121 peas. 2 baby sweetcorns. 3 stalks of asparagus. Put these into a steamer thingy inside a large pan, to which an inch of water in the bottom has been added.
 

Steam on top of the cooker for about 8 or 10 minutes. Prick with a fork to check when it is ready. Add a large handfull of spinach and give it 30 seconds more.

I have houmous tonight as a dip. Sometimes I might put a bit of grated cheese on top, or a drizzle of toasted sesame seed oil. Fabulous. If you want to make it you can substitute any of these ingredients with any other vegetables you have. Quick and easy, and only one saucepan and one plate to wash  ;0))  Me like very much.

Getting off the treadmill. part 2

Warning - this post might be a bit disjointed, I have spent a week playing around with it, and now I need to press the publish button and move it on. There is reference to another blogger here, but this is because she asked a question. Most of the post is not aimed at anyone in particular.

There was such a lot of interesting feedback on my 'Getting off the Treadmill', post, that I feel inspired to add a bit more to it  It seems to me that there are two main reasons why people might tighten their belt and watch their pennies. The first is that they have decided to get off the treadmill, reduce the stress of working all hours, and reduce their spending. A self imposed downshifting if you want to use the buzz words. The second reason is that their circumstances have changed and through no fault of their own, they find themselves with less disposable income. It may be the loss of a job, a decline in their health, or the breakdown of a relationship which has caused their financial difficulties.

I belong in the first camp, I chose to work less hours because I was no longer enjoying my job. After my operation in 2008 I lost my job because the depot closed, and I spent the last seven months of my working life on Job Seekers Allowance. This was reduced to £36 a week, because I had an insurance policy which paid my mortgage. It was a real struggle to make ends meet, I watched my bank balance shrink drastically. But to be perfectly honest I wasn't particularly bothered about my loss of income, I knew I wouldn't starve, I just had to be more carefull. Getting to 60 was a relief, the state pension kicked in and I knew I could afford my outgoings if I was very carefull with my spending.

Three years on and I am still surviving, thanks to all the practice I have had on managing on less. Wean, you ask if I have a secret or if I really am Wonderwoman. To give you the figures my state pension is £7985 a year. I qualify for the full amount because I had 41 years of contributions. On top of this I get a small private top up pension (taxed at source), which I paid into in the eighties. Net it is £968 a year, so just under £9,000 a year in total. I am also eligible for Council Tax Credit because my income is below their threshold, and I have no savings.

Reading your blog, Wean, my outgoings are quite a lot lower than yours. You are in rented accommodation. I pay £78 mortgage a month. I don't know how much you pay but I would struggle to pay the rents up here. I have stopped paying anything off my mortgage capital as the interest rate is low, and I want to spend any cash left over on days out/holidays, and to save up for my next car. Wean you have more cats than I have so you will be paying more than me in vets fees, food, etc. I am going to stick with two for a while because I can't afford any more.  You appear to be paying a lot more than me for your utilities. Maybe your home comforts are a priority for you, and heating is important. My house is a basic shell which provides me with shelter, I prefer to save my money for going out.

In answer to your question, there is no secret and I am not Wonderwoman. My good life is all down to the choices I have made and it works for me. It is also down to my attitude, to be happy with what I have, and not yearn for anything more. It is a mistake to look around and see what other people have, and base your own aspirations on what you see.

Right, let's look at the second camp, those who find themselves in difficult financial circumstances, through something that has happened to them in their life. The feeling that you cannot do anything about things which are beyond your control is not very nice at all. As an example, I let someone take over my life for a while, and it was destroying my confidence. I couldn't change him, but I could change how I dealt with the situation, and that was by taking back what he had stolen from me, my control.

It seems to me, and I am surmising here, that the people who have frugality thrust upon them are the ones who find it hardest to cope. They didn't want to lose their job, or have their marriage break up, or become incapacitated, it just happened. It's much more difficult to pick up the pieces and start again. To have enforced lifestyle changes is much harder to come to terms with than choosing to make the changes yourself. If you have had it all, then lose the lot it must be devastating for anyone to deal with.

This blog is to record my take on life, the way I look at it, with optimism and hope. It's about my methods of managing with less. Less of everything, stuff I don't need stuff I don't want. If anyone can pick up a few ideas from it that's fine. I am not saying do as I do because everyone has their own ideas on what works best for them. People should deal with their own situations in the best way they can. Wean, I didn't say, 'quit spending and you will have plenty of money'. If that's what you saw then you read it wrong, or maybe I didn't explain myself very well. The key word here is 'enough'. Quit spending on things you don't need, so you have enough for the things you do need. It's all down to what your priorities are.

I have said this many times over, only buy what you need. Think about every penny you spend, and I say this in general terms it's not aimed at anyone in particular. Say to yourself, do you really need this, before opening your purse. If you apply this strict rule to yourself you will find you will reach a point when your priorities change. What seemed so important to you before will get taken out of the, 'something I need', category and put into the, 'something I want', box. And those 'wants' should be what you are saving up for.

If anyone is really struggling I suggest you run your household incomings and outgoings like a business. Write it all down, every penny which comes into the house, and every penny you spend. Even down to the odd choccy bar or magazine. Don't anyone base their needs and wants on what other people have.

I have been rambling on long enough here. I'm going to take my lunch to sit with Scruff and watch the tele for an hour. Bye bye, catch up with you soon.

Shelling out

Take one 500g bag of peas, priced up at £2.50. Buy them on the day they are due to go out of date, and when they are reduced to 5p.

Remove the peas from their pods. My what a lot of pods you get. You could make peapod wine out of them I suppose, but I am not into wine making, so mine will go on the compost heap.

You end up with an average size coffee mug, almost full of peas. Not a lot for £2.50 but an absolute bargain for 5p. I am amazed that anybody would pay the full price.

Then the question arises of why anybody would buy a bag of these very expensive peas, when they can get a 1kg bag of frozen peas for 99p.  Image borrowed from Tesco web site.

I reckon they are sold in the pods because people think they are getting a fresher product, it's a trick to get us to cough up more money. Commercially grown peas are harvested, transported to the factory, frozen and packed within a few hours. You can't get them much fresher than that unless you grow them yourself.

It seems to be the trend now to sell vegetables while still attached to their stalks, with the idea they stay fresh for longer. I dont want to purchase a two foot long stalk full of brussel sprouts and have to lug that home. I don't want want the tops of the carrots or beetroot taking space up in my shopping bag. Next thing you know they will be digging up whole plants roots and all complete with lumps of soil. No thank you very much.

While not wanting my vegetables peeled and chopped up for me in a plastic bag, that is being lazy, I only require the edible parts please. Oh well, back to shelling these peas, three more bags to go. Spose I can put up with it just this once being as they were so cheap. Toodle pip. 

Loads of money saved on shopping

I've been trying to get back into the swing of things today, it helps that I have a lot to do. It seems strange that I don't have to look out for Lily any more, like there's something missing, which there is. One minute life is good and ok, then I remember his little face and I want him back.

Being wanted elsewhere helps to ease the sadness. Mum cat and the kittens need me, Scruff needs me as Barry is still in hospital, Rocky dog will need me when he comes back maybe tomorrow, and my own Bugsy and Mayze cats need me. Keeping busy is what keeps me going, I have no time to be idle.

Last night I went to visit Barry, he is waiting for a pacemaker to be fitted. He seems in quite good spirits apart from missing his dog, and being afraid to cough because it hurts his injured back.

After that I went straight to Tesco to get my reduced groceries. Sometimes I am lucky sometimes not, it depends on if they have bought in too much stock and people have not bothered to go shopping. Yesterday there was a lot of rain so that kept people indoors. Lucky for me because I got loads of crazy bargains. I have added my shop to the list on my Food Diary, link at the top of the page if people are interested. The trolley full of shopping came to £9.31. If I had bought it at full price it would have cost a massive £64.52. This has to be the best shopping trip I have ever had by far. A saving of £55.21. Every item had a yellow reduced sticker on it. For the next two weeks I will eat like a Queen.

Shopping like this is such good fun, I had a bit of a banter going on with the man with the ticket machine who was marking down the fruit and veg. He had a lot of bags of peas, and asked how much I wanted to pay for them. I said oh, 10p a bag would be good. He said, how about 5p a bag? Wow, even better, ha ha. I had four bags. Then he said how much for the apricots? I asked him if they were sweet as I don't normally buy them. He took the wrapper off and said, try one, so I did. They were reduced from £1.99 to 10p, so I had three punnets. The staff were passing the message to each other to mark down the price to what the customer wanted to pay, most things were 10p.  

If you notice there ain't a lot of junk in there. It is mostly good quality fruit and veg. What I shall do is first eat things that are more likely to deteriorate quickly, checking the condition each day to see if anything has to be eaten immediately. I will eat everything, nothing will be chucked away. I have given away two punnets of strawberries and a punnet of apricots to friends. When I got home I checked my receipt and found that one item had been scanned at the original price at the till, so today as I was in town, I went back to complain. Customer Services gave me a refund of £3.14, so even better.

Here is a photo of Scruff, patiently waiting for his master to return. I went to the hospital to see Barry this afternoon and he tells me nothing has happened yet and he thinks he won't get the pacemaker till Monday now. Oh dear poor Scruff. It's a good job he only lives up the road, I can keep going in to see him. Tonight I actually got him to go for a proper walk. He doesn't want to go far normally without Barry. He is a lovely gentle boy.

This is my dinner tonight, it cost a few pennies. The dearest thing was the tuna steak at 28p. The wine was a gift.

As a reward to myself for managing to get an extremely cheap shop, I have bought a ticket for a show next week at the new Baths Hall in town. I saw the Ladyboys of Bangkok about ten years ago in Salford Manchester, I absolutely loved them, so I thought a nice treat would be to see them again. I asked at the booking office if I could have a look at the seating before I bought the ticket, because I wanted to be sure to get the right seat. The young lady was very helpfull, she took me in and let me try the seats in different parts of the theatre. I chose one on the side balcony. I am so looking forward to this. Anyway, bed time. Toodle pip.

Cats welcome

What can I say. I am overwhelmed by your lovely comments. Many of you have gone through the heartbreak of losing a pet, thank you for sharing your stories.  I shed lots of tears each time I came back to the computer yesterday. I was reading your words on here, and your blogs, but was not able to comment myself. I had to walk away I was so choked up with emotion. Thank you, my blogger friends.

My dear friends Janet and Paul came to help me bury Lily, they are such a support. I'm glad I didn't have to do it by myself. I removed a long deceased conifer from the border in the back garden and asked Paul to dig a deep hole because I wanted to transplant an evergreen bush from a pot, to mark the spot.

I think it helped that I kept myself busy yesterday, I have the kittens to look after, and Barrys dog, Scruff. I can't bring Scruff here into the house because of the cats, but he lives so close I can keep calling in to see him. I think Barry will be back in a day or two, poor Scruff is missing him terribly.

I was doubly upset yesterday because of someone's unfeeling and uncaring comment. Foolishly I went to see Lily's previous owners who live round the corner, to break the sad news. I thought it only proper and right that they should know, even though they haven't shown any interest in him since he left their house and came to live here. I have always posted a note through their door each Christmas to let them know he is ok.

When Lily first showed up at my back door, four years ago, he looked very small, so thinking he might be a young cat prompted me to look for his owners, they might have been missing him. He used to pop by on odd ocassions on the scrounge for food, but then started camping out in the downstairs toilet next to the backdoor, there is access through the cat flap. I found out where he came from and went to tell the people. All they said was I should kick him out. They told me he has a dog kennel at the bottom of the garden to sleep in, and he is 13 years old. Next to the back door I saw two dirty looking food bowls. I felt I couldn't kick him out, he was obviously hungry, eventually I let him into the house, he liked it so he stayed. They have always know he was here, but never been to fetch him back.

Fast forward to the conversation yesterday morning. After I broke the news to the woman, she said I shouldn't have kept feeding him and he would have come back. She said he was an outside cat, and often went missing for several months at a time, staying at other peoples houses, but he always came back. I said he had the freedom to come and go, as my back door is open all the time for my own cats to go in and out. I didn't keep him shut in untill six months had passed, and then it was only at night. It was obvious he was happy here and didn't want to go anywhere else.

I felt she was unfairly accusing me of enticing her cat away, which upset me because it wasn't true. I believe that cats are free spitits and will go where ever they like. They say you can't own a cat, it owns you. I also believe that it doesn't matter who looks after them as long as they are loved and well cared for, and have a safe and warm place to sleep, with enough food. These are the things we need for ourselves and why shouldn't cats have them as well.

Just because a cat spends a lot of time outdoors, it doesn't mean that it should be out there in all weathers day and night. And at 13 years old, surely he deserved some home comforts. It's like sending your granny to live outside in a shed, you wouldn't do it. I am really quite annoyed with that woman and her attitude. Lily had a lovely four years with me, he put on a bit of weight, which he desperately needed, and looked a normal size after a few months of good living.

There are two more cats who call in ocassionally for a good feed up. I know where they live, and they don't want to move in, so that's ok by me. I cannot shut my door to any cat who wanders in asking for food. Perhaps I love animals too much, but that's how I am.  

My lovely Lily

Lily died just before six this morning, peacefully on a cushion in the kitchen. I awoke at 3.30am, something told me to get up. When I saw him I knew it was going to be vet day today, but he slipped away. He knew I was there. This photo was taken on Monday, he is lying in the sunshine with ginger Bugsy. Goodbye my little friend, my lovely Lily.

Feeling a bit weary.

I haven't been able to put together a decent post for the last couple of days, there's been rather a lot going on here and I am feeling a bit weary. As you know my old cat Lily isn't too good so I have been nursing him. He can still get out into the garden and lie in the sun, but I have to constantly check his whereabouts as he gets a little confused. Yesterday I had to go into next doors garden and bring him back, I don't want him to go off and hide, I want him to stay close by, I need to know where he is.

Yesterday my friend Barry fell and bumped his head while out walking his dog Scruff. He went to the hospital in an ambulance, and someone brought Scruff back and put him in his garden. I went to get the house key from Barry so I could look after Scruff. Barry is still not back home, maybe tomorrow, so I've been in and out visiting Scruff and walking him. Poor dog is missing his master terribly.

Another emergency, the two black labs needed taking out so I've done that today, plus the kittens need three feeds a day and I like to sit with them for a while. It's a good job Rocky is away on his holidays because I haven't had time to take him out. He's staying with his owners relatives.

Not done much on the garden so no pics yet. Catch you tomorrow.  

Lighting up the sky for our Queen

Jayne was looking for me at the Humber Bridge last night, to see if I had turned up for the lighting of the beacon. Didn't need to go Jayne, we have our own beacon right here on our doorstep. Just a matter of walking for ten minutes along the hills. We are pretty high up here with some lovely views across the river.

Quite a crowd had gathered to witness the lighting of it, a task performed by Sir Reginald Sheffield. Here goes, the torch is applied to the bottom.

Now the fire is beginning to take hold.

And here it is fully ablaze.

Down below us at the bottom pub they are letting off their fireworks, and here is my pathetic attempt to capture the awesome display. More like a damp squid on my pics, I am hopeless at taking photo's of moving objects. I did a short video as well, but now I can't find it on this computer.

At the top of the hill we had 60 rockets to delight us.

Oooohhh aaaahhh pretty.

Glad I took my head torch with me for the tramp back home through the woods. It was quite exciting picking our way along the path in the dark. Can't wait to do it again ;o)

A rockin an a rollin

Let's have a little bit of light entertainment on this Bank Holiday Monday. I'm a bit hooked on yootoob at the moment, revisiting my youth through all the old music videos, wishing I was seventeen again, ha ha. I love the rockin an a rollin stuff, the energy, and the leaping about the stage. I used to love dancing, still do, but haven't been to see a band for ages. Here are three of my faves I picked out, it was so hard to choose. What do you reckon?
Love Meatloaf and Cher, brilliant together.



Amazing Freddie, one of my all time favourites.


Love Creedence C R. Can't keep still when I listen to them.

C'mon get up and dance

Feeling patriotic

On the occasion of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, I would like to say thank you to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11, for giving her whole life to her country. I salute you.

Diamond Jubilee Village Fete

The weather was dry but slightly chilly for our village fete today. It started out a bit warmer but half way through the afternoon I went home and got changed out of my shorts and teeshirt into thermal lined walking trousers and two sweatshirts, what a whimp I am.

There wasn't the drama of last year, when the barbeque burst into flames and the fire brigade had to be called. Shame really, it was so exciting :o) We were all standing to attention at 12 noon, as instructed. All the stalls were ship shape and ready for trading. This is our stall, with Sue and Janet waiting to extract as much money as we could from the punters.

This one was opposite ours, not sure what they are advertising.

The book stall was busy, they had managed to aquire lots of union flag boxes to display their wares in. They were collecting money for the Lifeboat Association.

There were lots of tombola type stalls, and people had fun trying to win a prize.

The bouncy castle was popular as usual.

Oh my, the yummy cakes. We just had to have a slice of sponge cake with a jam and cream filling. It went down well with the Rose wine we were supping, ooops, sipping.

Afternoon tea anyone?

The Allotment Association stall had home grown plants and veg for sale. That's Janet's DB in the stripey shirt.

Queueing for a burger at the barby. Always popular.

This was just a few of the things to see, there was a lot more going on. Exhibitions in the churches, fancy dress parade for the children, a band playing on the stage, and a man playing his bagpipes. It was a really enjoyable afternoon, nice to chat with all my village friends and neighbours. I do like living in a village. We did very well on our stall and made some money for the pusscats. Hope you are having a good bank holiday weekend where you are.

Getting off the treadmill

I am often asked to look at web sites and give my opinion on their content. I am also asked if I would care to submit guest posts to other blogs and web sites. I haven't had one request where I would consider getting involved because they all have an agenda, to make money for the owner/publisher.

I've just had another email, and I'm afraid it's going down the pan with all the other rejects. The title of the article they want my feedback on is 'The 6 Quickest Ways to Make £1000'. Down the right hand side of the page are photo links to erm supposedly 'Great Posts on other Blogs' Scantily clad women seem to be the criteria for a great post, so that's where I'm going wrong, ha ha.

This blog type site is a typical, 'lets start blogging to make money', operation. I can just picture a chappie, or chappess, sitting in their bedroom, spending endless hours tapping away on their keyboard, piecing together content from various sources, none of which are their own words. This particular article is of course a Guest Post. The rest of the space is taken up with adverts which generate an income when clicked upon by people who are easily tempted to go off in another direction, thus getting lost on the internet highway and forgetting what it was they were looking for. Well they don't fool me, I never click on adverts which take me somewhere else.

Right, now I've had a moan, the real reason for my post today is to explain why this particular article is of no use to me whatsoever. Let's get back to the 6 (note number not words, very amateurish) Quickest Ways. Here they are.
Selling photographs to agencies.
Sell anything, on the internet.
Grow your hair, cut it and sell it.
Online surveys. Get paid for your opinion.
Design logo's for tee shirts.
Get a micro job. Companies will send you a list of small jobs to do.

I would hardly call some of these Quickest Ways to Make £1000. How long does it take to grow hair to a good length? How many photographs do you have to take before you sell a few good ones? How many surveys do you have to do before you make £100? How many small jobs will it take to get to the £1000? Teeshirt printing companies are desperate to source new designs, are they? Selling them won't be easy. Where do you get all the stuff from to sell and make that £1000? All these supposedly money making activities are like piddling in the ocean. Unless you are focussed and dedicated to making them your life's work, you will be lucky to make peanuts. They are not get rich quick schemes.

The money making tips are not my main gripe. There are millions of sites like this, brainwashing people into thinking they have to make more money for themselves. They prey on the vulnerable and the desperate, people who are in debt and think that the only way they can haul themselves out of their predicament is to earn more. Look at the wording.

With the recession still lingering, many individuals are looking for ways to boost their salaries with part-time work; perhaps one of these money-spinning ideas will fit the bill for you.

Yes, boost your income by all means if you are young and ambitious, and have the time. Try these things, start a business, sell a few things, if you have the time to spare. It will be a learning curve, but don't pin all your hopes on it to get yourself out of a hole.

These get rich quick sites focus on how to make more money for yourself, well that's what they are meant to do. You have to ask yourself why do you want to make more money? Is it because you are in debt, if so I applaud your attempts to get rid of that weight that's hanging around your neck. But maybe a part time local job would bring in a bit extra, with set hours so you know when you are off duty.

I would also ask is it because you just want to buy more stuff? If so, when will it all end, when will you have enough stuff and be able to sit back and enjoy yourself instead of letting money rule your life?

Then there is the third reason why you might want to earn more money, and that is the crux of the matter. When you have debt, but still insist on buying more stuff. Stuff to make you feel good, stuff to give you a boost, stuff you don't need. While all the time that time bomb is sitting there waiting to explode. The red bank statements, the final demands, the rock bottom reality that you can't afford to service your lifestyle.

If any of these reasons to earn more money apply to you, have you thought of the other alternative, shock horror, STOP SPENDING. I am afraid that there are some people who just don't get the concept of living within their means, only spending what they earn and no more. They are not understanding the difference between what they want and what they need.

Take my own case for instance. I have identified my needs and wants. I need to eat, I need a safe but basic place to live. I need to leave my village and travel to different places, because I have travelled all my life. I need mobility, a car that is not going to conk out all the time, the best I can afford without getting into debt. I need communication links, internet and phone. As well as keeping in touch with my friends, it also gives me food for the brain, to learn more about my computer. I need to pay for my cats, this is my choice. All these things I can afford to pay for without credit.

What do I want? Not a lot else actually. It would be nice to live in a posher house, have newer furniture, and to be able to splash out on a few extras and treats. But hey, you can't have it all. My treats I save up for, which gives me much more pleasure knowing I have the cash to pay for it.

Now, the connection with 'The 6 Quickest Ways to Earn Money'. I don't need to earn more money, because I have enough. I can live within my means. With carefull spending and saving pennies here and there, I can afford to live a very nice life thank you very much. I have stepped off the treadmill, I don't need to keep up with the Joneses or anyone else. And I have done it by spending less, not earning more.
Best wishes and Toodle pip.