Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Hello Sunbeams,
Not such a mad day here today. Much less pounding from the concrete breaking machine, as they only had one last corner to do & got it out of the way pretty quickly. Bit of a panic first thing......noticed some puddles of water on the ground where the concrete had been removed & had the most horrible feeling that they were on the cusp of discovering some horrendous subterranean plumbing problem. Then one of them noticed a slight sudsy look to one of the puddles so I rushed in to run the kitchen tap to see if there was a connection, & there was, a small hole in the brickwork around the drain, which can be sorted out when the new slabs are fitted around that area. It does look as though that was the issue - hope so, anyway!
So the concrete mountain outside our front window has continued to grow & is awaiting collection. The surface for the new patio has been corrected, hardcored & I'm hoping slabbing can start tomorrow, all being well.
Very little done today on the financial/domestic economies front - We ate up leftover soup for lunch, Mr F tweaked one of our budgeting spreadsheets, I watered greenhouse veg plants with two big water bottles......I can't access the hosepipe at the moment..... I baked a loaf of bread & altered our milk delivery order. Apart from that, I have pretty much amused myself with leisure activities today. That's been the easiest option to be honest, as I need to keep social distancing in place with the workmen, so can't really be coming in & out of the garden all day or in the conservatory. I think they are packing up now, so I am hoping to get a little bit of late sunshine before it chills down for the evening. Looking forward to a nice wallow in the bath later & watching 'Sewing Bee'. 
I think I will sign out now & just go & have a little nosy at how far the work has progressed. 
Hope everyone is keeping well,
F x

DawnW

How will the builders remove the rubble Foxgloves? Will that need to go through the conservatory etc?

foxgloves

It's all gone, DawnW. A massive lorry arrived with a grabber, loaded it all up & took it away! It did all have to come through the conservatory. They put boards down as ramps & systematically wheelbarrowed it out. Then they brought the hardcore in the same way, as they will have to do the new stone slabs tomorrow. Less mess than we expected, but I'll be glad when it's finished. They've worked very hard, can't fault their work ethic.
F

PurpleFairy26

Sounds like a great company you have found there foxgloves we had a chap with a similar ethic today and he’ll be back tomorrow. Arrived at 8.30 started at 8.30 had 2 cups of tea between when he arrived and when he left early afternoon at a natural break in the work. Rest to be finished tomorrow. We’re thrilled with it and it really is one of those jobs that we are probably wondering why it’s taken us so long to do. Anyway, it’s done now - or it will be tomorrow! Hope yours is concluded soon too and you can reclaim your garden. 

foxgloves

Glad you had a good day with your work too, Purps. And yes, I am really looking forward to getting my garden back. 
F x

foxgloves

Anyone else had a dodgy looking text from a phone company first thing? Mr F had one, then me too. That kind of raised our alert levels as the mobile account is in his name, not mine. Usual MO, 'your payment wasn' t able to be properly collected from your bank, please click on this scammy link, etc, etc'. Three things: April's payment went out correctly according to bank statement, Monthly DD showing on bank account as still being operational (& last payment was April) & the fact that May's payment isn't due until 20th.
Hmmm.
As my Mum would have said, 'I'm not as green as I'm cabbage looking!'
Back to builders' dust..... will aim to check in later with an update.
Cheers m'dears,
F x

Onebrokelady

foxgloves said:

Hello diary readers, 
What a day!! I am looking out on the most almighty pile of concrete heaped up outside the front window awaiting collection later this week. Workmen arrived bright & early and got stuck in to lifting the old cra*py patio with a pickaxe. Ahh.... & that soon exposed the reason it had been laid so badly. One of the biggest issues was that Mr DIY Numpty had laid it much too high & had breached the damp proof course. A few pickaxe chomps & they'd found tge problem. In all his 'Boys' Own Book of Junior Woodwork page 1' glory, he had simply laid his patio over an existing one! So the lads doing the labouring today had to take up a large patio (slabs), remove the 4 large lumps of cement which had been used to affix every single slab, then go & procure a concrete breaker to facilitate removing the original patio. They worked soooo hard. They have one last corner to drill out tomorrow, then I think they can start on getting the level corrected.
They were pretty good with social distancing. I felt a bit nervous about having people in our conservatory & garden, having not had anybody round since before lockdown, & I did go round all the door handles, etc, with disinfectant afterwards.
Not a no-spend day, as I ordered our regular fish box for delivery. I produced a 'use-it-up' meal tonight though.... a quiche using some more leftover pastry from Christmas, leftover bacon bits & saladdy bits from the fridge which were defo in need of using.
I've done a few minor jobs like greenhouse watering & ironing, but mostly I've been feeling that concrete breaking machine shaking the upstairs fkoorboards & watching that mountain of smashed slabs & rubble growing on our drive. 
My sister sent me a nice magazine, so that's me sorted until bedtime. 
Night all, 
F xx

What on earth do you iron in the greenhouse 😂😜😂

Onebrokelady

I get dodgy texts about payments all the flaming time lately, or one from HMRC saying they owe me money and if I just give them my bank details they will send it to me 😡🙄

Your builders sound like a great company 😊 I'm having a stranger in my house on Tuesday to fix the oven, he is going to text me when he is on his way so I can let him in then I have to leave him alone in the kitchen to do the job, I can either pay by card or cash and I do have the cash but I'm thinking card might be safer, I will see which he prefers 

Tescodealqueen

foxgloves said:

Anyone else had a dodgy looking text from a phone company first thing? Mr F had one, then me too. That kind of raised our alert levels as the mobile account is in his name, not mine. Usual MO, 'your payment wasn' t able to be properly collected from your bank, please click on this scammy link, etc, etc'. Three things: April's payment went out correctly according to bank statement, Monthly DD showing on bank account as still being operational (& last payment was April) & the fact that May's payment isn't due until 20th.
Hmmm.
As my Mum would have said, 'I'm not as green as I'm cabbage looking!'
Back to builders' dust..... will aim to check in later with an update.
Cheers m'dears,
F x

No but I had a dodgy email about a phone company changing my plan with a link. Almost did it but went on live chat with my phone provider through their app and have decided it is probably a phishing email. Think they are doing this as their phone call scams can't be done at the moment

foxgloves

Yes, you could be right, Tescodealqueen.... scams may well be being adapted by the many various skankers to fit the current conditions. Most of the scammy emails I receive purport to be from Virgin Media.... always a version of there being some kind of non-existent problem on my account (which again isnt even in my name) & asking me to click a link to provide my details. Fortunately I didn't come upstream on a water biscuit!
F x