Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Pleased to report a pleasant & productive day, with a nice break in between to read my book out in the garden. Also did my decluttering challenge. Oh my goodness, 29th July already. It seems like just a week since my daily decluttering were just single figures, the times has flown! Anyway, 29 items evicted today:
* 11 x old receipts/guarantees - That's all the out of date ones gone now, & the current ones now fit into an envelope.
* 1 x laundry tips booklet. No idea why I kept this as it is heavily biased towards a brand I never buy.
* 8 x instruction manuals for devices we no longer own.
* 5 x padded satin coathangers. Taking up a lot of room in storage. Not used because they're too narrow for my tops & dresses, so seems pointless to have kept them. Added to charity shop bag.
*3 x magazines. 1 to recycling bin & 2 to my friend.
*1 x silver jewellery catalogue.....full of very tempting little wares indeed. Recycling bin safest place for it, silver jewellery purchases having featured fairly frequently during the spendy years.
I could really do with shifting some old bank/financial statements tomorrow, as I can barely fit any more in my big file. I could dispense with the file if I went paperless. However, despite banking almost entirely online, I do like paper statements, particularly on my budgeting days, as I annotate them quite heavily. No need for files to be bursting at the seems though. Will get onto it tomorrow, while still in declutter mode. Only two more days to go now.
F x

foxgloves

Hi Diary readers,
I got today's declutterings done really quickly this morning for my challenge.
*30 x old bank statements. The whole issue around reclaiming PPI a while back made me wish that I'd got more of an archive of bank statements on file. I used to keep 3 years & I extended it to 5. It didn't make any difference in the end, as the banks obviously got their wrists slapped from the regulators & were told to pay back what they owed regardless of their made-up 6-year cut-off. Hence, a letter arrived out of the blue a couple of years later with a cheque for nearly £1200....the rest of my refunded payments plus interest from those earlier years. Anyway, I don't half digress, don't I? These days, I know a lot of people opt for e-statements, but I like paper ones. If I didn't have them sent, I know I'd just print them out & file them, as I like to annotate them as I check off the month's budget & often leave little marginal notes or a '?' if there's something I need to revisit. But I think 3 years of statements feels about right for me. I don't need to archive more than that.
That big banking file closed a bit more easily today.... & will be even more manageable when I whip a bit more stuff out of it tomorrow. I shall shred all the old statements. I could do with a new layer of bedding in the Worm composter unit, & shreddings are useful in the ordinary compost bins too.
I've done a bit of gardening today, while it was still dry. When the rain came, I cut a basket of basil & spent a happy afternoon making pesto. With that gorgeous herby smell filling the kitchen & an audio book to listen to, it was a much more enjoyable afternoon than it probably sounds! All frozen in yoghurt pots. I'm not sure if freezing pesto is recommended, but I've never found a problem with it. Should get decent regrowth on the basil so hope to get a second batch of out of it in a few weeks.
Hope everyone is well & enjoying the summer.
F xx

DawnW

I always freeze pesto too Foxgloves - I grow a big 'plantation' of basil in pots and tubs in my mini greenhouse, and cut it several times over the summer. I also make rocket pesto, and have done parsley pesto once, when I had lots of parsley. I mix them up, too. All nice.

PurpleFairy26

I freeze my hm pesto too. Still here to tell the tale! Still tastes yummy and much yummier than shop bought.

foxgloves

Yes, Dawn & PF, I agree. I've never had any problems with freezing it & will continue to do so.
I've also tried making a couple of different varieties. I used lemon basil with red chillies & garlic, which was nice, although I never find lemon basil grows as abundantly as the normal variety. I've also got a recipe for a broccoli & cheddar one, which is very different in texture (no nuts in it) & is more like a sauce...... although that may be because of the sheer amount of it Mr F is capable of putting on his pasta!
I've never tried kale pesto, but I think the red kales could make a really nice autumn/winter version. Although we both really like discovering a pot of pesto at the back of the freezer in the depths of winter..... It always seems to taste like a little bit of summer.
F x

crazy_cat_lady

I want hm pesto now - love pesto!

foxgloves

Well, CCL (we cross posted as have just posted on your diary)..... it couldn't be easier to make. You only need 50g of fresh basil leaves (although that's actually quite a big bunch), so if you have any gardening friends or neighbours, maybe you could scrounge some x

foxgloves

Morning Campers!
I wish we were camping....although, as yet another shower starts, maybe not in this weather. Hope it's dry when we do go, though.
Well, it took me a while to get going this morning, but when I did, I found myself powering around the house getting my job list done, so as to free up a nice big portion of my day for a project I've been working on. I'm pleased to report that I have completed my July decluttering challenge!! It started with 1 item on 1st July & here are today's 31 items for 31st:
* 3 x old bank statements (defo no more of these lurking now)
* 3 x old credit card statements (3 year rule for these too)
* 2 x old savings account statements (ditto)
* 11 x assorted banking leaflets/information booklets (Some are unnecessary, others are not dated. I usually date each document as I file it, so I can be confident that I'm looking at up to date information, & the fact that none of these were dated tells me they are older than is helpful. Recycling bin).
* 1 x home energy audit. Ah, now I did this a few years ago. I was trying to reduce our energy bills & I went round each room with a clipboard noting down all the instances where we were being wasteful. It did pay off as monthly payments were reduced (until prices started going up a lot faster). It's quite a big document as for each room, I made a list of actions for improvement. I intend to read through it again & note any of these measures that will still be relevant in future. We are aiming to upgrade out heating system substantially in the coming months as part of a planned upgrade to a number of problem areas in our house, so there will soon be several things on my audit which are no longer as relevant..........when the work is done, I will probably write a new one.
* 7 x hospital appointment letters. I don't really require this many souvenirs of gynae clinic, thank-you very much, esp as each one consists of 3 pages!
* 1 x jam jar.......I know I haven't blitzed my jam jar cupboard in the efficient way I intended at the start of this challenge. It's just coming up to preserving season & I am getting twitchy about letting jars go & then finding myself scratting about for them when I fancy doing some jamming or chutney making.
* 1 x re-useable fabric sandwich wrap. This is a really nice item which Mr f received as a gift. It NEVER gets used, for the simple reason that it has been put in a cupboard which is completely unrelated to anything packed lunch-related. Have moved it to live with the lunchboxes & will commence using it from today. It will save on foil, etc, & be a whole lot greener.
* 1 x annoying little bit of cornmeal. This seems destined to sit in the pantry doing sweet b all. I buy it for making the cornbread topping on tamale pies, but there isn't enough left for anything meaningful. Have clipped the bag to my bread tin & will add to the flour when I bake bread rolls tomorrow. No food waste here!
* 1 x duplicate Floodline leaflet. Our village is on a major river & floods fairly regularly. The water has never come as far as our road & it would take a major flooding incident for it to do so, but I still feel happier being on the Flood alert scheme. We don't need two identical leaflets though.

And that, dear readers, is the end of my challenge!! If my maths is correct, that's a total of 496 pieces of clutter which have been dispatched or otherwise dealt with this month.
What have I learned?
That even though I am not a hoarder & sort & tidy regularly, I still amass clutter.
I could reduce this if I stick to a few simple rules, such as 'One in, one out' on things like financial statements, etc.
I could reduce it further if I made what are really quite simple decisions at the time. Is it REALLY going to be useful? If not, choose a different path for the item than putting it out of sight in a cupboard or drawer.
I have always done lots of crafty, research, garden, hobby type projects.....& it's lovely to look forward to the next one, but I'm going to be just a little bit more realistic about what I'm actually going to go ahead & do, & not store things which 'seemed like a good idea at the time' for the next 5 years.
And finally, it's emphasised that while I do like stuff, I also really do value space. I've so enjoyed seeing extra space freed up simply through moving on the things I no longer need.
And now I think it must be time for more coffee.
I think I must include another Debtisode soon.......I'm thinking 'Foxgloves & her 'environmentally friendly' spending.........back in the day, of course, am a reformed character now.
Love F xx

Blackcats

Ah Foxgloves - how cruel to remind me of my lost love the plastic cactus. Seriously though if you put that cactus in a line up with other glittery plastic cacti (or indeed non glittery plastic cacti) I wouldn't recognise it. How fleeting was my passion. However, in my de-cluttering I found evidence of previous dalliances into the world of plastic houseplants - a plastic orchid. Now, with my fresh pair of eyes I see it has few redeeming features and it will be going to the charity shop with my next donation.
I think I will limp over the budgeting line this month - food is a little over budget - a couple of popping in at the little supermarket for milk and spending £9 or £10 has caused that. Eating out is under budget. I've made a couple of changes this month. Meeting chums for brunch rather than dinner makes a real difference. No starters, puddings or alcohol - instead yummy food and a cup of tea in some really nice venues. I could cutback further but still want to socialise and this is working well for me.

foxgloves

So glad, Blackcats, that you have seen the tawdry plastic cactus in its true colours - a piece of polluting tat, probably with enormous..... I was going to type 'food miles', but I mean 'plastic tat' miles, too. We visited that well-known Swedish emporium recently & were shocked at how many plastic plants & sort of small hedge-like plantations were on sale. I would have thought that with all the recent focus on avoiding unnecessary plastics, people would probably not be queuing up to put these in their floppy yellow baskets. They actually made me feel quite angry & despairing....... there is such a disconnect between sourcing wood for furniture from fsc accredited sources (like the supermarket I mentioned with the new reusable fruit & veg bags), then stocking other departments with shelves of plastic plants & similar stuff which will maybe last a couple of years in somebody's home before going off to sit in landfill. What Will future archaeologists make of the androcene layer, I wonder, when they take their little brushes to all those plastic cacti? Or maybe, in 5 - 10 years time, charity shops will have rows of them sitting on shelves like they used to have 100s of tiny printed shot glasses from the 60s & 'straight to video' tapes of movies about Bigfoot turning up at the local car wash or dog walkers finding love again.
But I'd be lying if I didn't hold my hand up to having bought my share of plastic crud in the past. "My name is Foxgloves & I was a crud buyer".
Re groceries...... my Aug spend already slightly higher than I'd like..... esp as I've allowed an extra £100 this month to cover family coming to stay, including ever-hungry nephews. Am doing good meal planning for the two of us until then. Getting fruit & veg from local market today, then will write a tight shopping list for tomorrow's supermarket trip.
Agree going out for lunch saves a lot compared to an evening meal. I tend to favour meeting up for coffee & cakes these days, which saves even more. It will be free coffees from Mr W's emporium today, however, as am saving my spends for a city centre trip.
Anyway, enough of my chat, must go & get the slap on so as not to frighten the locals, lol.
F x