Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Blackcats - Oh yes, I gather the M25 is a regular nightmare. One of my best loo stops on the way out of London is off an intersection with that motorway, & this time, I took one look at the sheer clog of traffic around it & decided to put a Cork in it until the next services!
I loathe sitting in traffic.
Re new year resolutions.... I always used to make them, but found in more recent years that they set me to fail. Then I beat myself up for failing, so feel like sticking to them even less. So I'm going to have probably one big goal for 2020 & a more general move towards some more positive lifestyle choices.
F x

foxgloves

Sorry to hear you've not been feeling too well, OBL. I expect that you come into contact with a lot of lergies in your line of work. Hope you get your appetite back soon.
F x

Onebrokelady

foxgloves wrote: »

Sorry to hear you've not been feeling too well, OBL. I expect that you come into contact with a lot of lergies in your line of work. Hope you get your appetite back soon.
F x

Thanks Foxgloves,I do indeed come into contact with lots of lurgies at work but I suspect this came from my DGS who got it from his dad ,I'm forcing myself to eat something for tea tonight,DD2 is cooking a roast so I'm having g some of that

foxgloves

OBL - I worked with the public & out in the community before my VR & I used to get a lot of lergies. No amount of handwashing & hand gel seems to keep the germs at bay when you're in contact with kids. My throat feels a bit suspicious tonight so I'm hoping I haven't transported my nephew's lergy 130 miles north, grrrr. It might just be too many late nights & unhealthy food. I'll see what tomorrow brings.
F x

foxgloves

Baileysbabe - I did use lots of recycled stuff for my gift-wrapping this year.... or reclaimed, as I found some unused paper while clearing out Mum's house & used that too. I've brought back a bag of salvaged wrappings from Christmas Day, which I will sort out at some point & put in my stash for next year.
I did buy some wrapping paper this year as I had a couple of large items to wrap. I found it quite hard to choose, actually. Once I'd excluded all the shiny foiled stuff, plastic & glitter (more plastic) plus all the designs which (to me) weren't remotely Christmassy (llamas, unicorns, cartoon characters, etc), there wasn't a lot of choice at a price I was prepared to pay. I ended up buying a 3 for 2 on some cheap rolls with stars on, as they looked OK for birthday use too.
On Christmas Day, I discovered what false economy they were. Poor quality paper & virtually impossible to salvage for re-use. I did bring one big sheet home with me but it looks about 5 years old already, whereas what I love about wrapping gifts with stuff from my recycled stash is making them look so good, the recipient wouldn't know unless they had eagle eyes.
I saw some nice, good quality gift wrap in a charity shop which was completely recyclable & non-plastic so I think I might pop in & see if they have reduced the price to clear it & buy a few rolls to put away. I'm not having that cheapo tat again. I've had better quality paper bags from the market when I buy my fruit & veg!
But the most important thing is that an hour or so considering potential resources amongst our cards, wrappings, ribbons, etc, can often provide a goodly amount of shopping from home opportunity for next year.
So it's well worth looking at everything with a creative eye.
Well, I am going to light some candles & sort through a pile of magazines. Mr F's cooking night - hope he cooks slowly, as I've only recently stuffed my face with a hefty wodge of Christmas cake!
Love & Peace all,
F x

maryb

Happy Christmas Foxgloves!
Just popping in to say I got a big roll of plain brown wrapping paper very cheaply from a cheapo stationers. tied with some raffia and a few sprigs of fir tree and the name written on in gold felt tip, it looks very festive. The leftovers will come in useful for ebay wrapping

foxgloves

Happy Christmas to you too, Maryb. Yes, I think brown paper parcels have a timeless elegant style. I need to be moving towards doing that myself, really. I often pick up little sprays of alder cones & have tons of ivy in the garden, so I could easily do something similar.
I very occasionally used to wrap a present for my Mum in Christmas fabric as she was such a keen crafter, I knew she'd enjoy using it for a sewing project over the following year.
F x

foxgloves

Morning diary readers,
Such a simple pleasure yesterday, & do you know what it was? Simply unpacking all the lovely toiletries I received for Christmas & putting them in the big basket I use for my stash. They will last me a good long time which will be great, as since the very recent increase in our monthly 'Personal Spends' (following paying off our mortgage), we both agreed that we will now buy ALL our toiletries ourselves. It struck me that I've enjoyed sorting out my new Christmas toiletries since I was about twelve years old. I celebrated last night with a candle-lit bath (gifted new candle, bath salts, body wash & body butter) Simple pleasures!
A good night's sleep - no silly waking at 5am - & a much later start to my day. Am just fortifying with peanut butter toast & coffee, then I must tackle my Big Budget Day. I'm only two days past the date I'd normally do this, but I can feel the first tiny worries creeping in about potentially 'losing control' if I don't get it done. I don't think this will ever leave me. You see, I was bad with money from the age of 19 to my early 40s. The last of our £35k debt was cleared when I was 46. I'm now 55, so I am well aware of the fact that I was Very Spendy for a lot longer than I've been sensible.
So I will be number crunching at my big old desk today, up in Foxgloves HQ. Mr F has a nice long break from work & is going to do a nice festive roast dinner later, so apart from my budget duties, I will be enjoying another day of reading, knitting & maybe watching a film. I might write my thank-you letters today too, as I have stamps & will have the opportunity to post them tomorrow morning.
OK, I am caffiened-up. Bring on the Money Book & calculator!
Cheers all,
F x

Baileys_Babe

Peanut butter on toast, yummy, I can not remember the last time I had that.

My long term plans regarding present wrapping are to buy some fabric and use that and ribbon and telling the recipient if they are going to reuse the wrapping to keep it, if not please can we have it back. This would work well with everyone we currently exchange presents.
But first we need to use up the wrapping paper & gift bags in our stash.

foxgloves

Good idea, BaileysBabe. Another idea which occurred to me is that part of the gift could be a really nice festive tea-towel, which could be used as gift wrap. I think that could look quite festive with a recycled red ribbon or even neatly tied jute twine, as that could be re-used or composted.
I was just really conscious this year with that cheapo paper I bought that even though it wasn't foiled, so could go in the recycling bin, it was still very much a single-use affair, & that is what each & everyone of us needs to change, isn't it?
F x