22 months to work, dig, tidy and declutter my way to debt freedom

peaceandfreedom

Target update - if this were a school project, I'm afraid it would be a D :

Declutter: 45/100 items
Sell: 0/20 items
Pay off: £60/£50 from a CC (on top of the usual monthly payment and the extra 50 already sent)
NSDs: 6/7

The extra money to the CC came from juggling about the remaining bit of budget for September so I pleased with that. The decluttering - well clearly I didn't try hard enough, we have thousands of items to be de-cluttered. As for the sales - Jwil, look away now .

Might rustle up some more last-ditch efforts before the end of tomorrow but I wouldn't hold your breath anyone .

Lacherlich

peaceandfreedom wrote: »

The weather has been gorgeous hasn't it, what a lovely unexpected treat for us just when we thought that summer had sloped off sheepishly. I believe I have precisely 5 chillies this year - not worth the effort. There were more on the plant but a lot of them had holes in, presumably scoffed by something - do slugs like chillies? It's odd because nothing else in the greenhouse was nibbled except an odd tomato. I have had tons of tomatoes this year but the last of them have been slung onto the compost heap now and I have some jars of tomato chutney made which should be very tasty by Christmas. I've also made some cucumber pickle, have no idea what that will be like .


I had a nice quiet weekend, did some gardening, some housework, nothing too strenuous. I like it when I have nothing specific planned.

I like to hibernate over the winter - if I could afford it and didn't have to work I would definitely take myself off somewhere warmer from January to March. I like winter up until Christmas, then I am counting the days until the first snowdrops . If you are going to be sitting around the house more you could find something to occupy you - perhaps a FutureLearn MOOC: https://www.futurelearn.com/ - tons to choose from there. Or (you might be too young for this) knitting or some other craft?

I am hoping to be less miserable this winter and take myself off for some nice frosty walks and then come home to a nice warm fire and maybe a hot toddy . I also plan to learn how to take some decent photographs because there are such lovely landscapes and interesting sights around here and I would love to be able to do them justice in my photos.

And of course there is the usual decluttering / decorating etc that I never seem to get around to!

Hi. Reading this cheered me up a bit!... was in a foul mood after dropping my new phone which scuffed and generally tired/stressed! Not the end of the world Plus i just sold my old one so thats £200 towards debt! yay. Ooo cucumber pickle, that sounds nice. I wont really have enough now to experiment with - was put off trying to jar things after reading some horror stories online ha, I just need to learn how to do it properly I guess and sterilise the jars! I have about 10 chillies? They are all green and dont look like they'll be ripening any time soon. I had tonnes last year! It might be caterpillars on your chillies, they are the only things I've really had problems with. I managed to catch them early this year and pick them all off, but least year there was soo many! They even tucked into my Carolina Reapers, which are the hottest you can grow! I was shocked!

I agree, the build up to Xmas is fine - Halloween, my birthday and Bonfire night to look forward to. By Jan the novelty of it being colder wears off. Would be nice to jet off for a week, never been on holiday during winter before and I cant work out why ha. Age is just a number hehe, but I definitely need a hobby. I might start drawing again, used to love it when I was younger, and it might help me relax/destress. The joys of modern life ey. I'll check out that website thanks :-).

Photography will be fun! I love taking photos too, would like a decent camera one day... are you lucky enough to live in the countryside?

peaceandfreedom

Lacherlich wrote: »

Hi. Reading this cheered me up a bit!... was in a foul mood after dropping my new phone which scuffed and generally tired/stressed! Not the end of the world
Plus i just sold my old one so thats £200 towards debt! yay.

Oh well done on the phone sale. My phone is like my car - old and worth very little . Also, I can go all day without remembering to look at it .

Lacherlich wrote: »

Ooo cucumber pickle, that sounds nice. I wont really have enough now to experiment with - was put off trying to jar things after reading some horror stories online ha, I just need to learn how to do it properly I guess and sterilise the jars! I have about 10 chillies? They are all green and dont look like they'll be ripening any time soon. I had tonnes last year! It might be caterpillars on your chillies, they are the only things I've really had problems with. I managed to catch them early this year and pick them all off, but least year there was soo many! They even tucked into my Carolina Reapers, which are the hottest you can grow! I was shocked!

Ah caterpillars, never though of that, will check the plant tomorrow. Pickling is fine, just sterilise the jars as you say and the lids. Also, hot mixture goes into hot jars, cold mixture into cold jars. I always do hot-into-hot and the lids eventually 'click' down as they cool so I know everything is nicely sealed.

The thing you have to be careful about is botulinum which can result in lethal botulism. I remember reading a vivid account of death-by-botulism in a book once (the lady had tasted something from a homemade jar of something) and it did put me off a bit. But that is unlikely with things pickled in something acidic like vinegar. You would be on dodgy ground if you, for example, stored some garlic in a jar of olive oil - the garlic could have bolutinum from the soil and the oil gives the sort of anaerobic conditions that botulinum loves :eek:. I personally never preserve anything with added garlic - my garlic is either dried or frozen, on its own. I've made chutneys, relishes etc for years and have so far failed to kill anyone .

Lacherlich wrote: »

I agree, the build up to Xmas is fine - Halloween, my birthday and Bonfire night to look forward to. By Jan the novelty of it being colder wears off. Would be nice to jet off for a week, never been on holiday during winter before and I cant work out why ha. Age is just a number hehe, but I definitely need a hobby. I might start drawing again, used to love it when I was younger, and it might help me relax/destress. The joys of modern life ey. I'll check out that website thanks :-).

Photography will be fun! I love taking photos too, would like a decent camera one day... are you lucky enough to live in the countryside?

Yup, I live in a small village in the West Country. We live near a range of hills and within 15 minutes walk, we are in semi-wilderness, it's lovely.

peaceandfreedom

I find that if I sit down and try to do well-thought-out targets, I never get around to thinking them out. So I'm going to plump for another set of entirely random targets for October - let's see what happens .

• Declutter.............................200 items
• Sell..................................... 20 items
• Earn extra cash/vouchers..... £150
• Pay off.............................. £100 from a CC (on top of the usual monthly payment)
• NSDs..................................... 7
• Lose weight............................ 3 pounds
• Walks.................................. 20 short, 4 long (2 hours+)
• Bike rides.............................. 4

There are a multitude of other things to be done inside and out but let's go with these for now .

It's a reasonably nice day. I'm going to have a nice coffee and a slice of cake (errrm, I know I want to lose 3 pounds but I will work off the cake in the garden ) and then outside to take on Weed-land.

Have a lovely day everyone.

Oh and COME ON INNNGGERRRLAND in the rugby - you can do it, lads :T.

peaceandfreedom

peaceandfreedom wrote: »

Oh and COME ON INNNGGERRRLAND in the rugby - you can do it, lads :T.

.... or maybe not .

in_need_of_direction

You can support Ireland instead.

peaceandfreedom

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

You can support Ireland instead.

I think I will, why not ? Got to be a Northern Hemisphere side, preferably a Home nation. COME ON IRELAND!!! Go n-eiri an bothar leat . (Darn forum software won't accept the fadas - you will only understand that sentence if you know a bit of Gaeilge.)

peaceandfreedom

Target update:

Declutter..............................0/200 items
Sell.................................... 0/20 items
Earn extra cash/vouchers..... £0/£150
Pay off.............................. £0/£100 from a CC (but 80 set aside in YNAB)
NSDs.................................. 2/7
Lose weight......................... 0/3 pounds
Walks................................. 3/20 short, 1/4 long
Bike rides............................ 0/4

jwil

Good luck with the targets P&F, hope all is going well

Sold anything yet?

peaceandfreedom

jwil wrote: »

Good luck with the targets P&F, hope all is going well

Sold anything yet?

I think we all know the answer to that one, Jwil .