Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

I hope so too, Moving_forward. Today's main issue will be Spendy Temptation at the above mentioned Emporium. There are several things we need to look at & price up, but I'm definitely not planning to buy everything today. My plan is that we get a coffee when we arrive & make a list of all the things we're researching, so that we can be focused & I can make notes, write down any measurements, etc.
Just need to pop out to village butcher first as I promised I'd cook something nice for Valentine's Day.
Hope everyone has a good day today. 
F x

moving_forward

I assume you are members of the family card for the above as you get free coffee midweek 👍

crazy_cat_lady

Hope you've had a good day foxgloves - I try and avoid the Swedish place as I lose control there a bit

Onebrokelady

Hope you found everything you needed today,I love the Swedish emporium and have to be very strong willed when I go there 😊

foxgloves

Evening m'dears,
Pleased to report that I didn't lose control of the purse strings at the Swedish Emporium yesterday. We arrived in time for free coffee & there was an offer on cakes, so it would have been churlish not to take advantage of that. We did find some bedside lights - something I've been hunting for months, with no success as everything seemed too prissy, too modern, too plastic, too pastel, too frumpy, too expensive, too kiddy, etc. So it was good finally to find some we both liked & we did buy them. They didn't come with bulbs fitted, so we bought two of those, then another two because we do find that we've had lighting from there before & when we've tried to re-buy bulbs (non-standard types), they've been discontinued. So as they were quite weird bulbs, buying the spare ones did push the cost up, but we think getting spares was the sensible thing to do.
We researched a few other things, but we didn't buy them. We are not at that stage yet. We don't quite know exactly what we need, what space will be available, etc, & although our previous attitude during the Spendy Years would have been simply to chuck the magic credit card into the mix (as well as our ever optimistic expectations of being able to pay it off super-speedily....haha...as if that ever happened!), we don't impulse-buy now. We prefer to research, enjoy the browsing, take some measurements & go away to think about it. This sometimes leads to a later purchase, but it equally often acts as a sort of cooling-off period during which we decide we don't really need the item after all. 
So it wasn't a particularly spendy visit. We visited out friends afterwards who fed us, so that was lovely as it meant we all had time for a proper catch-up. Oh & another win yesterday? We decided at New Year to spend our Co-*p Dividend points on stocking up our wine rack, but didn't get round to it. So yesterday we did exactly that. We kept within the amount of dividend on our loyalty card, so it really did feel like free wine! 
Haven't received the quote from the builder yet, so there is much speculation here on how much it is likely to be. Hope it arrives soon so that we can begin putting more concrete plans in place.
F x

PurpleFairy26

Sounds like you had a lovely productive day yesterday. My kind of day 👍🏻

moving_forward

Sounds like a lovely day foxgloves. Hope the builders quote is kind. You are very brave getting all this work done. We get quite fraidy cats even thinking of getting quotes let alone starting to get tradesmen in. We now have an excellewnt plumber and have found a landscaper/fencer we trust so things are improving.

foxgloves

It IS scary, moving_forwards, but now that we have paid off our mortgage (9 years earlier than expected), we are very conscious that we need to maintain our house - which is very much our biggest asset - in as good a condition as possible. We are unlikely to move for at least 10 years, probably longer, until the Beloved retires (he's a good few years younger than me) & one of the biggest factors in whether we will be able to upsticks & relocate to a (more expensive) area of the country we both love, will be needing to achieve the best possible offer on our house here. So some upgrading very much needed & we will be here a long time, so we will benefit hugely from the planned improvements too. 
But you are right that it feels scary. In older houses, you always wonder what other hellish problems builders will find, don't you? 
F x

moving_forward

Not to mention the fear those builders will be cowboys as previous ones have proved to be hence our fears. But older and wiser we tend to spot the bodgers at bit easier these days.  
You are right about protecting your biggest asset and thats something to remember shen debt busting. Spenda on tat take away money that could be "invested" in protecting assets. Thank you Foxgloves once again youve given food for thought x

foxgloves

I think all the past dodgy home improvements here have been done by a previous owner, rather than builders. We've found so many things done incorrectly over the years, we're convinced there was a DIY obsessive here in the l980s or early 90s who had a go at everything....... but without even the 'Boy's own guide to woodwork' to hand. A truly clueless individual who has cost us money over the years, as well as leaving some things unsafe.
He's (I'm not being sexist here, but it will be a bloke) probably left other houses with similar issues since then.
F