Price check at till number seven - The Book-keepers Forum (UK)

Peasie · Expert

Price check at till number seven

BudgetB · Guru

Bet that's ripe by now! A food stock take? I almost want to ask...

Spamkebab · Expert

What you need Peasie is a nuclear bunker in the back garden where you can store all this stuff, very armageddonish. Actually 95 was a good year for the chasseur.

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

looking at the ingredients and considering that it was stored in powder form you would probably find that the expiry date was only on there to make customers buy more rather than stockpiling.

Apparently the chocolate given out in the first world war is still edible. You might want some of that for the bunker Peasie (lol Neil!).

Peasie · Expert

Spamkebab wrote:
What you need Peasie is a nuclear bunker in the back garden where you can store all this stuff,

My back (communal) garden currently has 21,000 bits of wet paper in it (envelopes, junk mail etc) as well as food tin lids, cleaned out food tins, cut up plastic milk cartons (I keep the bottom bit), milk bottle tops etc. The storm on Tuesday blew the recycling bins everywhere.

I recognised my recycled stuff. I mean, who else cleans out food tins and then squeezes one inside the other? And the cut up milk cartons were a dead giveaway.

I cleared half of it away on the Tuesday. I'll get the rest on Saturday when I have more time. It's not exactly going to go anywhere - they are soaking wet.

BudgetB - my food stock take is mentioned on another thread. It was an exercise for using Excel but I quite like now as I can see when I'm running out of food and need to re-order. A bit like supermarkets only on a smaller scale. At the end of the year I'll be able to see which foods were most popular with me. Although I'll likely have given up on the idea by the end of this month.

Amanda · Expert

God Peasie, my hubby would love you!
Hes always complaining that there must be stuff in the fridge thats wasted! And I don't rotate the food in the cupboards.

Maybe I should impress him and do a spreadsheet like yours at least I would know what food we all liked or not!
Maybe you should post your spreadsheet on here for us all to copy.

A friend of mine does some gardening for old biddies and in December she was given a box of chocolates from one of them as a thank-you, anyway my friend decided to donate them to the school for their Christmas fayre, luckily she checked the date before handing in and they were dated 2003, so she threw them in the bin.

chatcat · Senior Member

The question is, what method of depreciation is best for chicken chasseur? Or, who knows, perhaps it has appreciated in value and would be of interest to collectors. In that case it could be regarded as an investment chicken chasseur. Capital gains might be an issue?

Amanda · Expert

The question is Peasie are you using it tonight for Dinner?........

Spamkebab · Expert

Yuk! clean up, aisle 7

ICBUK · Guru

I remember reading about a chap who ate some canned chicken from the war not long ago. Lived to tell the tale.

Check out: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2005/11/69447

Think you should leave it for another 30 years then eat it smile

Peasie · Expert

I can't see me being around in 30 years time - I'm not exactly the healthiest of people - if I went for a medical I'd no doubt be told I had died a couple of years previously. And if I ever posted my stock spreadsheet it would be apparent the reason for my health. I used to post scans of my shopping receipts on another forum and it was often pointed out the lack of fruit and vegetables. Apparently jaffa cakes don't count towards your "five a day".

My stock spreadsheet (movement) is in for a big data input on Saturday as I've an online order from Asda arriving. After I'd placed the order and checked out I received an email stating I was entitled to free delivery of my next order (as this order was over £50) as long as I made it before the 16th January. I was going to order ONE packet of dry roasted peanuts to be delivered just t annoy them but then I noticed the small print. The NEXT order also had to be over £50. For someone living on their own (and is it any wonder, after reading my posts on here I wouldn't want to live with me) I'm hardly going to make two reasonable sized orders a couple of weeks apart.

I did not have the chicken chasseur tonight. I had a mixture of pasta shells, tuna fish, sweetcorn, SPAM pork and ham cut up into tiny cubes and celery. All mixed in together with salad cream and mayonnaise.

Incidentally, I couldn't resist going into the stationery department at the online Asda. That's one thing I miss about not going to the store in person.

TRAINING LINK · Senior Member

What you need Peasie is not a food bunker; my advice would be creating your own food mountain and hold annual events to see who will be the first to reach the summit of the ALPEN. Made me laugh anyway lol.

Have a great weekend.

Dave

Sammy76 · Senior Member

When you said about your garden being full of plastic and paper etc, I thought you were one of those extreme hoarders lol (did anyone see that programme over Xmas?)

And, who says Jaffa Cakes aren't part of your 5-a-day!!!!!

Peasie · Expert

Food mountain - I can just picture me at the weekend making a pyramid out of food tins.

I'm not as bad now with the hoarding. In the past I actually kept the tin lids. And for a point even kept the tins. When the tins used to have a bit you could cut off with a tin opener at the bottom as well as the top I would do so, then with a set of tin snips (bought off Ebay especially for this purpose) I'd cut the cylinder through the middle, then flatten it out. Several years worth of tin lids so when they eventually provided us with recycling bins imagine their surprise when they saw them appear all at once.

I still do keep the plastic off of milk cartons. When you cut the middle section out you are left with a rectangle 14" x 3½" which I sometimes use for dividers in ringbinders or lever arch files. You need to round the corners though. They can also save the top pages in a lever arch file from damage if they are constantly being looked through as they tend to suffer most damage. Which is why it looks odd out in my garden with the tops and bottom sections of milk cartons but no middle section.

An insight into the world of Peasie. There's a couple of men in white coats coming to the door. I'd better go and see what they want.

Amanda · Expert

God Peasie,
That is taking recyling to the extreme!
Do you use them as dividers in your customers ringbinders?? Or are you going to use them in your customers ringbinders??

May I suggest finding a hobby to pass the time?? Take up a sport for the new year? lol
I have to say you have brightened up my boring friday and really made me laugh, when I read your post further up the thread I had no idea why you used the milk containers.

you could get a job on Blue Peter they would love you and just think how resourceful the little kiddies will become!

Peasie · Expert

The few customers I have at the moment I do use them with - but they know me on a personal basis anyway so know I'm like that. But, to be honest, looking at the piece of plastic in the binder, it is not obvious its origins. The label these days peel off fairly easy without leaving any marks. Because of where I cut it and cut it down to the size for binders it removes the markings for measurements. It is no longer curved as it has been flattened out over a long enough period.

I probably got my inspiration from Blue Peter (and my mother). I just looked across the room and saw an empty plastic salt container with the top cut off being used as a pencil/pen holder.

As for time - don't get much of that. (He says while writing on an internet forum). Any spare time I get I will be studying the next level of bookkeeping. Or Sage software.

EDIT : I'd better go for a lie down. The mere thought of sport has got me exhausted.

EDIT 2 : I'm not alone in jusing milk cartons. I was one in a large (tardis like) shop in town and I see they use milk cartons for storing things in, in their bike department. Well, they did. The guy that ran the department now has his own bike shop just across the road from this shop. maybe that's what he'll use in his own shop now.

-- Edited by Peasie on Friday 6th of January 2012 12:51:48 PM

chatcat · Senior Member

"I still do keep the plastic off of milk cartons. When you cut the middle section out you are left with a rectangle 14" x 3½" which I sometimes use for dividers in ringbinders or lever arch files. You need to round the corners though. They can also save the top pages in a lever arch file from damage if they are constantly being looked through as they tend to suffer most damage. Which is why it looks odd out in my garden with the tops and bottom sections of milk cartons but no middle section."

That is a really good idea, which I shall copy today. My Filofax came with a little plastic ruler at the front with binder holes punched in it which I have never actually used as a ruler, but it protects the pages below it. Now I can have the same sort of thing for my A4 binders. Yay!

I made a very satisfactory storage box for my sauce sachets and cup-a-soups by cutting down a plastic milk carton years ago, and that still pleases me every time I look at it.

To find happiness in the small things of life is the mark of the true philosopher, as I shall mention to the men in white coats if they call on me next.

-- Edited by chatcat on Friday 6th of January 2012 01:10:58 PM

Amanda · Expert

Hi Barbara,

Thats a good idea about the milk cartons for storing sauce satchets I'm going to have a go at that.

Peasie, any other good recycling tips?? Bet the council love you!
I may even have ago at the ringbinders dividers, although I think my kids will think I am nuts! (I know I already am).

Did you see that couple in the newspaper and TV who had used recycled stuff for their flat, their bed was made from scaffold poles, I thought it looked quite good. They saved a fortune!

Don Tax · Expert

Any tips for Tetra packs? They seem so wasteful.

Peasie · Expert

Don Tax wrote:
Any tips for Tetra packs? They seem so wasteful.

Cut down to the correct size they can be used (again) for holding pens (I have a LOT of pens). I also use them for keeping remote controls in for machines I don't know if I still even use.

I know someone that once helped a musician soundproof a room using cardboard egg cartons. I don't know whether it was much use but it was probably better than no soundproofing at all. When I say I know someone, what I mean is, the musician liked the idea but was too tedius for him to do so he paid my mate (when he was just a teenager).

They've changed the size of milk cartons over the years as they went from pints to litres (although Morrisons still do pints) - but there was one of their milk cartons that was the perfect size for A5 leaflets/booklets. sadly these days the larger sized cartons aren't much use for anything.

That's the problem when they change the size of things. For years I had a neat kind of modular filing system. An empty washing powder carton with a Kellogs cornflakes box inside for reinforcing (and because you never get rid of all the washing powder) were perfect for stacking and standing alongside each other and you then have an A4 box cut down so it is like a tray. I'd probably need a photo to show you what I mean. Unfortunately they went and changed the sizes of the boxes. I've got at least 30 trays like that.

Scaffold poles - do you ever have a dream that is so weird that you don't want to know the meaning of it. Well, recently I dreamt I drove the three miles I normally drive home most nights except this time I was "driving" a tower scaffold. Not a huge thing, just the height of a room maybe. But enough to cause a nuisance to other drivers. I just know I'm going to regret posting that. Incidentally, at no point in my life have I taken drugs other than those prescribed to me.

Amanda · Expert

You are soooo funny Peasie, this has made my day reading this thread!

Please take a pict of the the trays if you still have them I'd love to see what they looked like.
Are you a very neat and tidy person and like everything just so?

They do reckon egg cartons are good for sound proofing, years ago someone I knew was in a band and they did this to their shed, off course nowadays you would have insulation!

Peasie · Expert

I do want to be neat and tidy and organised - I just don't have the space. I live in a tiny flat that gets smaller as the years go by. I have plastic boxes with lids all over the flat but the never seem to be the exact size and shape I want. I have a tower of seven plastic boxes (taller than me and I'm over 6 foot) in the hallway of my flat that a friend has named "The Leaning Tower of Peasie" even though it doesn't actually lean. This same person sent me a Christmas card this year addressed to "Peasie" with the address of the block of flats. Worryingly the postman knew which door to deliver to.

I could have taken a picture of 12 of these boxes in situ (in a block of 4 rows and three columns) but that corner of the room is too untidy. There is a pile of guitars and a banjo piled up against them blocking a good view.

It was a Safeway cornflakes box not a Kelloggs one inside.

EDIT : It looks kind of scruffy on its own but when they are all together in their space it is just the front you see.

-- Edited by Peasie on Saturday 7th of January 2012 01:39:33 AM

Amanda · Expert

Very impressive! I've just finished a box of washing powder today maybe I should have a go at this.

Is it a new years resolution to clear out all the unwanted stuff in the flat?

You can never have enough storage thats what I say!
The postman obviously knows you well.

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

But one has to ask Peasie, why is the box / drawer empty and the desk full?

Peasie · Expert

I once had a picture of my face on my doorbell. That way it might stop people knocking at my door randomly looking for someone. If they saw my picture on the doorbell they know they were at the wrong flat (the name on the door isn't enough). Maybe the postman is going by the logic that anyone daft enough to have their picture on a doorbell is the likely recipient of a letter addressed just to "Peasie". I've seen better ones than that. Postcards from abroad addressed to "The Cruffurd Hoose, Next door to the V.I., Fairlie". Cruffurd being the way they pronounced "Crawford", the V.I. being the nickname of the pub next door.

Unwanted - there is no such thing. Everything in my flat is wanted. Only 5% is actually needed though.

I don't wait to finish a box of washing powder. As soon as it's bought it is tipped into a large ice cream container with secure lid. Less chance of any getting spilled and I then have a box ready to re-use elsewhere.

I've now had a delivery from Asda. Those cut up milk cartons will come in handy for the rice. I won't open the individual bags of rice just inside the container they have less chance of being punctured. I could put them in a massive jar I have but in their bags lets me keep better track of how much I have used. Good thing about Asda is they will substitute things with things of a greater value. The food turner I ordered for 34p has been replaced with one which should have cost £2.47. The pack of pens costing £1 replaced with ones costing £3. I wish they would sell red pens on their own. I have to buy a pack of 10 pens (5 black, 3 blue) to get 2 red pens. Although, it does only cost 28p for the pack of 10.

Peasie · Expert

Shamus wrote:
But one has to ask Peasie, why is the box / drawer empty and the desk full?

Because, until I went to take a picture of it (in slightly tidier surroundings) I wasn't aware the drawer was empty. Because of the guitars and banjo it is difficult to reach so only rarely used things would go in this drawer anyway. Now I'll need to think what I can fill it with. An excuse to visit Ebay to order new rubbish?

You shouldn't start a sentence with because. And now I have gone and started two. Why? Becuase I am useless at English - and know you also shouldn't start a sentence with and.

pDm · Senior Member

Is it time to nominate Peasie as the recycling Guru for the whole forum?

Talking of scaffolding, I happen to have about eight, 4 meter lengths of the stuff haphazardly stacked in the garage. Not really through choice either - my partner is a bit of a home-hobbiest/engineering-fiend and will use any excuse to hoard "useful" bits of metal no matter where they come from.

It's a nightmare walking past a skip (because it's impossible to simply walk past) and I daren't agree to a day trip to a scrap-yard.

Still, we do tend to have unique solutions to breakages and storage issues... as long is they're made out of metal.