Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Oh, I'm a day ahead of myself! It's only the 6th tomorrow, so 6 items to declutter. My brain is all over the place. Have just heard from both solicitors & am making lists, thinking through the order I need to do things, etc. Think I'll have a bit of time in the garden with my book x

foxgloves

I love this time of year, when more home grown food starts being ready for picking. Considering we divided up the rhubarb & it sulked for weeks, we've not done badly for pickings so far. I've a nice big crumble base in the freezer, made a dozen muffins & a fruit sponge. Also had 5 cucumbers, a few tomatoes (only cherry ones so far), a decent bowl of strawberries, lots of lettuce & other salady leaves plus radishes. I pulled the first few spring onions this week, the first couple of courgettes & I notice that the beans will need a little pick next week. Herbs have been ongoing for a while & I must get more cut & dried. Am planning a bit of gardening tomorrow instead of going out.
Today's decluttering. 6th July, so 6 items needed to go. And they have:
1 newspaper
1 guidebook
1 skanky loobrush & holder
3 garden tools.
The garden tools were a win-win. We've been down to Mum's house early this morning. It's a 150-mile round trip, so one of the things about clearing it & preparing it for sale, etc, is that we need to be very task-focused when we get there, because it's too far away to be popping over regularly. Today was (if all goes according to plan), my last ever visit, as Completion Date on the sale is finally looming, so it was meter readings, collecting up keys, etc, as well as transporting some garden tools & a knackered lawnmower to the local tip. Now Mr F has done many battles with that mower, it's inability to cut grass despite how much he swears at it, meant there was NO WAY it was going anywhere other than the tip. The tools though, a long-handled weeding knife, a rake & a grass rake were all in perfect condition but unwanted. We have plenty of tools & my sis has a city garden so tiny she barely needs more than a cake fork to dig the lot. Seemed a shame to waste them though, so decided to bring them back home to store while we decided what to do with them. Anyway, Mr F was just wrestling his Lawnmower Enemy out of the boot & a complete stranger who passed by on the way to skip his own rubbish spotted them & said "Ooh, are you tipping those? Could I have them?" We both said "Yes!! Please do take them". He was so chuffed. Went off with a smile on his face cos he'd got some useful stuff for free. Me & Mr F delighted we will not now be storing extra unrequired clutter in a shed we're supposed to be clearing. In fact, I decided to count those tools as 3 of today's 6 decluttered items. Decluttered before they even REACHED our shed.... that's got to be a result.
Seven more items to go tomorrow.
As for now, my knitting is coming out. I can have this sock finished today if I stop f*rting around online & get a bit of needles action going.
Love to all,
F x

Blackcats

Hi Foxgloves - it must be very bittersweet going back to your parents' home for possibly the last time. Your inheritance will be put to good use I'm sure but not having mum and dad must be so sad. I've still got both my parents - they are elderly and sometimes cantankerous but I'm so lucky to have them.
My budget balancing day is today as my spending credit card statement is drawn up today. The start of the budgeting period was very good - frugal spending and lots of balancing actions, then an unexpected but urgent spend on the car made me think I needed to go out for a curry and buy some candles. So like a game of kerplunk I pulled out the stick and the marbles (spending) cascaded out of control . Anyway time to start afresh. Budget set up, purse shut (for now).

foxgloves

Ah, now Missis - I grew up in the 70s & played a lot of 'Kerplunk'. I know that thing with the stick & it's a good analogy. When you replace all those sticks for the next game, just make sure you don't choose that particular stick again, lol!
Yes, it's right what you said about the house. It was our family home. We moved in when we were little - I was in the Infants & my sis was a toddler. We both moved out for university in the 80s, but obviously we've popped back regularly for visits, Christmas, etc, etc, so the house has been a big part of our lives. The inheritance will certainly make us more financially secure, but I lost both parents in less than 13 months. It's been sad & stressful and we've all been ploughing through all the stuff that needs doing - and it's a long process - & not really thinking much about the end product when the money comes through. Today was my last ever visit to the house (unless something goes wrong at the eleventh hour). I expected to find it more poignant than it was. It was initially difficult seeing Mum's beautiful garden so overgrown, but then I started seeing all the movement out there, as butterflies, birds & bees have clearly been making good use of it & there was a young great tit exploring. It didn't feel like 'home' any more because it was Mum & Dad and all their stuff in it which made it our home. It felt like a house which has been empty a very long time, needs a lot of tlc & a keen new owner. So I actually felt OK about it. I think it will be a bit of closure on all the procedural/legal stuff actually. Mum went into hospital at the end of July last year for something minor, but never came out again, so it has been a long, sad old time. Fingers, toes & paws crossed that nothing interrupts the sale now it's so close. Shall be keeping really busy next week so I'm not catastrophising worst case scenarios.
Then I shall be looking at all those legal bills....
F x

foxgloves

Grrr, my phone will insist on messing up my spellings with its silly corrections. Must change the settings when I can be bothered.

crazy_cat_lady

Oh no....
I am the parent that does 3 separate meals... probably why I hate cooking so much.
DS likes food in sauces (like gravy, tomatoes etc), and ds despises it.

Hope you're ok foxgloves - I'm just trawling round and catching up with everything.

Blackcats

I'm a child of the seventies too - I think we might be very similar ages - I'm 55 but I've no idea how that age crept up on me. I played kerplunk a lot with my uncle. He was blind so it obviously worked better than other favourite games like monopoly and cluedo. He had Braille playing cards so the whole family played cards together. It sounds so cliched but we really did gather round the table after the buffet tea or the feast of cockles and whelks (yuk). Max Bygraves crooned in the background. Family aren't eastenders but are Londoners.
By the way the candle is lovely - I bought it so I might as well enjoy it. It was made by a local craftsman and shines brightly and beautifully. I lit it last night whilst watching a great film I'd found on BBC catch up - The Woman in Gold. Shocking and inspiring - worth watching if you can find it.
CCL my children ate more or less the same main meal, but in all other ways they liked completely different things. Different cereals (branded only of course!), orange juice v apple juice, smooth yoghurt v yoghurt with bits, milk chocolate v white chocolate, shampoo for volume v anti frizz shampoo (further sub divided into shampoo for blonds v shampoo for brunettes obviously v expensive brands by famous hairdressers etc etc. No wonder my supermarket trolley was always so full and cost so much.

foxgloves

Hi CCL,
3 different meals is almost certainly a factor in your dislike of cooking, I would think, esp after a busy day of teaching.
Yes, I'm OK, thanks. All the legal stuff is drawing to a close now..... fingers, toes & paws crossed that nothing goes wrong between now & completion date. The first solicitor's bill has landed. The next one will probably rock up some time this week.
Cat is back on his food. Think the massive fur ball he kindly hacked up onto the lounge rug the other day probably helped!
Take care now,
F x

foxgloves

Blackcats - I am actually the exact age you mentioned.
I'm just not sure how it happened.
I have been a buyer of candles in the past..... until I realised (post LBM of course), that I receive so many lovely ones for presents, I don't actually need to spend any of my own money on them. So I really just buy the big packs of tea lights from the Swedish Emporium now. Always like a spare pack of those in my 'WTSHTF' fund. Very useful if power supplies are disrupted. Admittedly not quite so good in riding out a zombie apocalypse x

foxgloves

'Fund?' Meant to type 'stash'..... tho I do have a modest WTSHTF fund too. It will depend massively on what level of S actually does HTF, as to exactly how useful it'll be, but something is very much better than nothing is my feeling on the matter x