Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Hi Takingcontrolatlast,
Thanks for your comments. Yes, I think we get to the stage where we just think 'This silly debt behaviour just can't go on', don't we? I was 46 when I paid off the last bit, though we did have to take out a small loan to add to savings to buy a car. This will be paid off this year & we have 9 years left on the mortgage at last count. I think that 'Shopping from Home' is so useful for keeping those frequent small spends on things you think you need to a minimum. I've had two examples of this today. I needed to wrap a parcel for posting to my sister & hadn't got anything suitable, so was thinking I'd need to pop out for a roll of brown paper, then I remembered adding a huge brown paper bag to my wrappings stash from when mr f recently bought two bargainaceous hoodles. Once I'd snipped the handles off that, it was perfect for wrapping my parcel, so that was one small spend averted. The other one was birthday cards. I need to send 3 cards in June. I knew I'd got one in my stash, but when I checked it, I found another two blank cards which will be fine for the other two people. Even if I were to go to our cheap indie card shop, I'd be paying at least £1 each, so that's £3 saved. I'm not even sure where one of those cards came from......I can vaguely recall finding it when I was clearing out & adding it to my stash. So with those & the roll of brown paper.....I must have kept at least £5 or £6 in my purse. Once you start thinking in 'Shopping from Home' mode, there are absolutely heaps of savings to be made. Back during my Spendy Decades, I'd have gone out & bought everything new. Now, I see if I have the item at home already. If not, have I something similar which will do the job. If not, can I reasonably easily improvise or make one. If not, & I really do need one of whatever it is, then I'll buy it & these days, I'll buy it from the appropriate budget pot. It does become a mindset. Instead of feeling like a Tightwad, you find yourself enjoying the challenge. And you know what? Who cares about being a Tightwad? In fact, ENJOY being one, because it's a means of getting or staying debt-free. If I hadn't have had my big proper LBM & changed my attitude to money & debt, I would now be steadily heading towards thinking about retiring still with a whole shed-load of money owing. It is definitely possible to change. Try a week of shopping from home & see what items you can source for free. I bloody love being resourceful instead of the big spendy nacker I used to be!
F x

Onebrokelady

foxgloves wrote: »

Hi OBL - Re your veggie gardening questions:
Without knowing what variety of tomatoes you've got, I can't say whether you should be removing side shoots. This is because some cherry tomato varieties are tumbler types.....i.e you grow them in a container & they are like a small bush, with lots of stems which trail over the sides. If they are tumblers, then there is no need to remove sideshoots. Some cherry varieties are cordon types.....i.e Gardener's delight, so you tie them into a cane regularly & take out the side shoots to concentrate as much action as possible into the fruiting branches. I've sometimes grown 'gartenperle' in the past, & I grew those as a tumbler kind in pots.
Re peppers - The same growing instructions tend to apply for all types of peppers. I grow mine in large pots & put two in each pot. They are quite upright but it's still worth staking them up as this prevents the plants being broken off by windy weather or by the fruits getting heavy as they grow. I go out & pick up all the wooden sticks from rockets on Nov 6th, lol, as they are just the right length/type for staking peppers & chillies.
Re feeding any fruiting vegetable.........try to hold off doing this until you can see that the first tiny fruit has set. I'm just at that point now with my tomatoes & cukes, but not with my peppers. The reason for this is not me being a tightwad with tomato food, but because if you start the feeding before any fruits have set, the plant gobbles up the extra nutrients & puts them into making extra leafy growth, which can later be at the expense of producing fruits. The only exception I make to this is for if there are any plants which seem to have stalled or are looking otherwise desperately feeble - my aubergine plants all look great, but have not put any growth on for weeks (they like it really hot), so they are going to get a shot of seaweed solution later on today to kick them back into action.
Once tomatoes peppers, etc, are established & have fruits on them, then I feed them twice a week.
Hope this helps,
F x

Thanks for the info Foxgloves,I think the tomato's are cordon type because they are really tall and don't seem to be growing in a trailing way,Ive had to tie them to canes or they will fall over,I will hold off on the feeding for now then,I don't reckon I'm going to get any tomatoes on these plants because there is no sign of anything,the peppers are looking more promising though

foxgloves

They do sound like a cordon variety then, OBL, I agree. Don't worry too much about them not doing much yet. I've got tiny fruits starting on my greenhouse ones, but my outdoor ones have only started to come into flower this week. There's still time x

foxgloves

Decided to do my free made-up dancey work-out to all those tracks I sorted out yesterday..... well, ten of them. Oh my days, I am truly worn out. At least it got me puffing, & when I last checked I was over 5000 steps ahead of Mr F in our fitbit steps challenge. He has a mile walk to his car after work so is bound to win, but it's not over till the fat lady sings, & this fat lady (can we say 'plumptious?' still has to go & pack the courgettes & beans away into the greenhouse, feed the worm composter & empty the kitchen compost caddy. Then I shall fit in as many steps as possible while prepping tonight's meal. So I'm going to give him a run for his money.
Well, not a run.
I don't run anywhere.
Not ever.
F xx

wishingthemortgaheaway

So today, Foxgloves, as I was sat at my desk sorting out YNAB calculating my financial wins and losses for the month and writing my bullet journal pages for June I realised this is my version of your 'big budget day'
It probably doesn't take me as long as you spend on yours as I ynab in my phone through out the month, but I do some tracking in my journal each month. Along with keeping track of some figures to make my annual tax return easier to complete.

Love your diary, debtisodes, and gardening tales, please don't desert us for the blogosphere, I'd never keep up.

Wish.

foxgloves

Hi Wish, Thanks for your nice comments. Glad you enjoy reading about my debt-averse lifestyle & low-spend garden exploits.
Yes, your session sounds like your version of my Big Budget Day. Despite being perfectly IT literate, my budgeting method is highly analogue! I do have an Excel spreadsheet for all my regular bill, but all my main budgeting is done in my trusty Money Book. I always tackle it exactly the same way too. I start by printing off a bang up to date statement, then cross off all the receipts in my bulldog clip. Then I check all the previous month's bills have gone out correctly. Then starting with that day's balance (I always do my budget on payday), I work through methodically deducting grocery budget, our personal spends, paying off both 'just for points' credit cards & Mr f's travel allowance. Then, always ensuring I leave a minimum of £100 in our current account as a 'cushion' should some or other calculation go awry, I divide the rest between our 6 savings piggies (car, clothes, holiday, leisure/entertainment, presents & household. I write up the new month's budget in my money book long-hand, with notes where necessary. It must sound like a faff to all those YNABbers out there, but it's a system which has worked for me. It's got us debt-free & has kept us that way. I'm expecting a change to our financial situation later this year if all goes as planned, so will be revisiting all our different budget strands to see how we can develop & refine them. I get through a lot of coffee on Big Budget Day, but I feel about a million times more secure than back in the bad old days when I could barely bring myself to look at my bank statements before shutting them away in a drawer of doom! I definitely thought budgeting was for squares & nerds back then, & that only boring people bothered with it. What a numpty! Oh well, at least I did see the light. My attitude to money simply couldn't be more different these days x

wishingthemortgaheaway

If it ain't broke don't fix it Foxgloves. I learned by budgeting at my mother's knee literally. I used to help her on her budget /reconciling day, putting all the receipts in date order, reading out the amounts and store names moving money 'to the back of the book' for Christmas etc. Ahh, the analogue way.
Its Such a shame we don't have good financial education in our schools.

Have a lovely weekend.
Wish.

takingcontrolatlast

foxgloves wrote: »

Hi Takingcontrolatlast,
Thanks for your comments. Yes, I think we get to the stage where we just think 'This silly debt behaviour just can't go on', don't we? I was 46 when I paid off the last bit, though we did have to take out a small loan to add to savings to buy a car. This will be paid off this year & we have 9 years left on the mortgage at last count. I think that 'Shopping from Home' is so useful for keeping those frequent small spends on things you think you need to a minimum. I've had two examples of this today. I needed to wrap a parcel for posting to my sister & hadn't got anything suitable, so was thinking I'd need to pop out for a roll of brown paper, then I remembered adding a huge brown paper bag to my wrappings stash from when mr f recently bought two bargainaceous hoodles. Once I'd snipped the handles off that, it was perfect for wrapping my parcel, so that was one small spend averted. The other one was birthday cards. I need to send 3 cards in June. I knew I'd got one in my stash, but when I checked it, I found another two blank cards which will be fine for the other two people. Even if I were to go to our cheap indie card shop, I'd be paying at least £1 each, so that's £3 saved. I'm not even sure where one of those cards came from......I can vaguely recall finding it when I was clearing out & adding it to my stash. So with those & the roll of brown paper.....I must have kept at least £5 or £6 in my purse. Once you start thinking in 'Shopping from Home' mode, there are absolutely heaps of savings to be made. Back during my Spendy Decades, I'd have gone out & bought everything new. Now, I see if I have the item at home already. If not, have I something similar which will do the job. If not, can I reasonably easily improvise or make one. If not, & I really do need one of whatever it is, then I'll buy it & these days, I'll buy it from the appropriate budget pot. It does become a mindset. Instead of feeling like a Tightwad, you find yourself enjoying the challenge. And you know what? Who cares about being a Tightwad? In fact, ENJOY being one, because it's a means of getting or staying debt-free. If I hadn't have had my big proper LBM & changed my attitude to money & debt, I would now be steadily heading towards thinking about retiring still with a whole shed-load of moner owing. It is definitely possible to change. Try a week of shopping from home & see what items you can source for free. I bloody love being resourceful instead of the big spendy nacker I used to be!
F x

You are right and I do recognise by debt behaviour can't continue. I have taken up your challenge of shopping from home for a week and so far have sourced unopened bath salts, body balm, face mask and a body shop (new) bath scrub thingy, some gift wrap and recycled gift bag which I put together as a present for someone yesterday I was to allocate £10 for a present - this will now go towards my next debt goal

foxgloves

Takingcontrolatlast - That's fantastic! That is EXACTLY what shopping from home is all about. Let's face it, unless we have spent it all on beer & takeaways, most of us who have accumulated lots of debt (& I must include myself in that category, having been in debt from the age of 19 right up into my 40s!) have a lot of assorted stuff hanging around, & once we've decided to reign in the naughty spending, that stuff becomes a resource.
I have a big plastic lidded crate which is the Presents Box. I add things to it all year round, things I pick up for a good price, things I make (I'm a knitter), things which with a bit of effort could make a nice gift, etc. In the latter category, I've saved two big glass containers which I washed out after the expensive candles previously in there (both received as gifts, I hasten to add, as I did used to be a bit naughty with scented candle buying) had burned down. I'm intending to put some beachcombed little pebbles & shells in the bases, then moss (plenty to be raked out of our lawn for free!), a bit of compost & then 3 of the prepared hyacinth bulbs (the ones that will flower at Christmas/New year). With a ribbon, some raffia or similar tied around the whole thing, I think they will make a nice festive gift. I know the hyacinth bulbs are 60p each at our local garden centre, so basically, two gifts for £1.80 each. Everything else will be 'shopped from home'. As you get into the mindset of it, it's amazing how many opportunities you can find.
I've a good feeling about you.....I think it sounds as though this could be the time you take control. It's never too late, & if you are anything like me, once I started debt-busting, you will feel a lot happier with yourself as you see those numbers start to come down. We owed £35k at its highest & that's with two full-time professional salaries, so there was no excuse for it. We honestly do have more money now, despite the fact that our income has halved. Ridiculous isn't it? We will never go back to how we used to be. That ship has sailed, & thankfully we are no longer on board!
Good luck,
F x

foxgloves

Wish - Interesting to read about you learning how to budget by helping your Mum. I never saw any budgeting at home. My parents never borrowed, except for their mortgage & maybe the balance on one or two cars, but they certainly never had credit cards or bought things on hire purchase (what my Mum called the 'never never' as you were paying it off for ever & the item had worn out before the debt cleared). My Mum ran the money side of things, but nothing formal. Right up to her death last year, she would open her bank statement, look at the balance & declare it to be 'a bit less', a bit more' or 'about the same' as the previous month. But it worked for them. They saved for things & didn't outspend their means, even though I can't recall ever seeing any practical budgeting being done. I certainly didn't pick up my bad habits while I was growing up. I managed that all on my own!
F x