Gransnetters, I could do with a bit of your lovely Humour.

Yes we got solar panels a few years ago and we are mid 70s now. We hope to live a couple more years when they will have paid for themselves. We often say things will see us out - we used to think it a huge joke. Perhaps less so now! Spend your money! We do and the children tell us to!

Thank You Gransnetters for putting things into perspective.
I have just got some brochures, and seen some beauties.
Number 1 on my list of priorities now is an oven that cleans itself completely. I have decided that my days of kneeling on the floor, applying oven cleaner that however hard I try, splashes on my arms and burns my skin, followed by the arduous task of washing it all off, are long gone.
Either that, or having a professional clean every so often.
In the meantime, my trusty slow cooker will once more come to the fore as it did yesterday and we enjoyed the most delicious minced beef. .

My Nannie used a version of that when she got older. If we bought her nightwear or nice toiletries for Christmas or birthdays she would say " I'll put those away in case I need to go into hospital" In fairness she was in hospital quite a bit! We will be needing some new sofas in the next few years (if i can persuade DH to spend the money) and given the ones we have have lasted 17 years I suppose the next ones could see me out!

1974Cookie. I suggest that you not only buy yourself a new all singing all dancing cooker, but also have it cleaned professionally when needed. It is money well spent, they do a marvellous job, leaving your cooker like new.

cookie one way I’m trying to preserve the pristine condition of my new cooker is by putting casserole dishes & cake tins into baking sheets before putting them in the oven.
That way any spills or boiling-overs land on the baking sheet rather than the oven itself.

Onto baking sheets not into!

On my last birthday my brother sent me an email saying "don't look on it as being old but as having outlived your warranty" Still not sure how to take that!

"That'll see me out" are words that I vow never, ever to use. I'm careful, and don't go mad with money, (I'm a charity shop fan) but after many years of "making do", I'm determined to have things, as and when needed, regardless of age. Consider the words of Henry David Thoreau:"none are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm". Go for it, 1974cookie!

Thank You all so much.
On a positive note, I have rediscovered my slow cooker. It cannot replace my oven completely, but my goodness, you can cook a gorgeous joint of meat in it, especially beef.
I have several brochures with some fabulous fitted ovens, but I have now discovered that the fitted oven that we have had for 20 years no longer conforms to safety regulations, so I cannot buy the exact same type.
Annoying, but that is the way it is.
Hey ho.

I like that quote David1968

Cookie this is one of my favourites which I frequently quote to MrA
“It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When
you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay
too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you
bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The
common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a
lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well
to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will
have enough to pay for something better.”
- John Ruskin
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