Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Baileys_Babe

@HairyHandofDartmoor I share your knitting & dressmaking skills. Like yours, my Mum is skilled at both. She often buys things in charity shops and makes modifications, a tuck here, a dart there, change the buttons etc.
OH sews on buttons, as when I do it they generally fall off again. Other repairs go to my Mum for her to do her magic.

@foxgloves you have just reminded me, my Nan, used scraps of wool to make gloves. We often got a pair for Christmas, I have a drawer upstairs full of them in the winter I often change my gloves to suit my outfit - that would have pleased her as she to good care of her appearance.

crazy_cat_lady

Told you I'd send the rain your way foxgloves. Hope it saved you a watering job? 
I am now the 'proud' owner of compost, pots and some seedlings. I'm going to confidently predict that I will be a disaster at growing fruit and veg but I do have a nice outside patio space to try them.

foxgloves

Yes, your rain predictions were correct, CCL & no watering was required.
There is no reason why your container veg growing should fail. Some things might do better than others, some might not play ball at all, but this is pretty much normal. I gave up with my aubergines last year as despite there being no obvoous reason for them to stop growing & sit sulking all summer, that is what they did. But I had plenty of other stuff. There is no mystery to growing things. It's not the magic of the Wookey Hole witch, it's the simple science of water, sunlight & feeding regularly once they are starting to set fruit.
Have confidence!
F x
Oh.. & yellow courgettes are nice btw. 

foxgloves

I knit gloves only rarely, BaileysBabe, but I like knitting fingerless mittens with just a thumb. They're much quicker. I am defo going to make a few pairs of nice mittens with my stash though, as soon as my big jumper is finished. It's nice that you've kept your Nana's hand knitted gloves.
F x

Baileys_Babe

foxgloves said:

I knit gloves only rarely,  It's nice that you've kept your Nana's hand knitted gloves.

They are sentimental, unique, practical and hard-wearing, what's not to love. I think I have a lifetimes supply

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers,
Another chilly day & a little shower earlier too -  the garden is looking much perkier after all yesterday's rain. It's been quite a day of routine today so far, as Mr F is going in to work more regularly now, face mask at the ready. I've sorted all the clean laundry & ironed what needed it. I was pleased to find that my sister's top stretching method DID work on that too tight top. I ironed it this morning, tried it on & it is now wearable, more the sort of fit it was when I bought it. Since I had my big 6 stones weight loss (a few years ago now), I have re-gained 2 stones & have infuriatingly lost a stone of it then regained it, then lost it, then regained it until I really could slap myself around the chops for the stupidity of it. However at the time of buying this top last Spring, it fitted. I wore it 2 or 3 times then washed it, then when I next went to wear it, it was too tight to wear comfortably. As I am a serial yo-yo dieter, i just beat myself up for having gained weight, but the reality of it is that I couldn't have put enough on in just one week that a top which fitted perfectly well before became too tight so quickly. It definitely must have shrunk that first time of laundering. If it happens next time I wash it, I will do the stretching process again. It feels like I have a new thing to wear.....I guess sorting out that problem was shopping from home, really, wasn't it?
Have been thinking about savings today....not so much about our savings pots, but more the general concept of saving. I've said before that back in the Spendy Era (which believe me consists of many more years than the Post-LBM era), I didn't save because I told myself (somewhat crossly) that I didn't earn enough to pay into savings in a way which was worthwhile. What nonsense. I think back then, I looked at 'saving' as a rather nebulous thing - a sort of delicious sum of money which would grow & facilitate all sorts of happenings. I regarded it as something which would happen if I had any leftover money at the end of the month.....I could via them into some kind of savings account....but I never had any money left at month ends, as I was burning well through the bank's money by the middle. Of course I now know that the method is to allow for a savings payment in every monthly budget, even a small amount. The amount of times I could have done with £500 put aside to help with a horrendous car bill or a big kitchen appliance carking it at the same time as some other domestic crisis.......yet to have that helpful, comforting sum of £500 waiting in the wings to bail me out would only have meant me putting away £41.66 each month. When I think what I used to spend on coffees & lunches out, take-aways, magazines, unnecessary top-up shops (without all the city centre visits, garden centre trips & my antique/flea fair habit!), that would have covered £41.66 with ease.....& THEN some! 
I think this approach can still be helpful now. OK, for the first time in our lives, we feel we have sufficient savings to see us through a fairly reasonable sized crisis, but this month-by-month approach is still useful. If we want to book a holiday, for example, one of the first things I do, is work out how many months until it needs paying for, then divide the amount by number of months & make absolutely sure I put that amount in our holiday pot each month. It is much more helpful, I think, to try & have target- based schemes rather than a sort of vague idea of 'getting some money together'. I have also learned over the post-LBM years, that saving money takes much longer than spending it, so am finding that once I have some funds put by in a savings account or in our pots, I am MUCH less likely to be tempted to spend it. Another thing I wish I'd got on board with a whole lot of years earlier, but it is honestly never too late to change bad money habits & the slow but sure thing of gradually feeling more secure is so worth it. It might just be that you know there is now no chance of a regular payment or cheque bouncing, a card being refused or having to borrow yet again for a regular expense like car tax or that essentials like shoes (necessary ones, not like all the ones I used to buy back in the day!) don't need to be bought on credit. Right at the start of financial reform, every one of these little things feels like a 'win', & they are. 
So if I could transplant myself back in time, I'd make sure I saved something, even if it was £10 or £20 a month to start with, to start a habit of saving as an alternative to spending every penny I earned & more. Hindsight is such a wonderful thing, isn't it? 
Well, I must go & see if my loaf is ready to come out of the oven as it's starting to smell nice & 'bready'.
Take care all,
F x

Dottles1

It's raining here too Foxgloves and very cool.  The garden is positively soaking it up so and the grass is looking greener already.  I have something to share.  I have bought a very small greenhouse made of wood and perspex which has been delivered today and I can't tell you how excited I am.  I din't think that I could fit one into my postage stamp garden but this one will fit i the side part outside the back door.  My friend's husband is going to put it up and fix it to the wall for me  (it gets windy u here in the North East in the winter) on Saturday.  It'll also keep Tilly of of my seedlings

foxgloves

How lovely, Dottles! I bet you will have a fab time playing with that! It will be so useful for growing seedlings & tender plants.
F x

foxgloves

Hello Soggy Readers,
Or perhaps none of you ARE soggy? Perhaps it is just here that we are getting a little promising sunshine one minute, then the darkest clouds the next, as another sharp, squally shower pushes in. I have abandoned all thoughts of gardening jobs this afternoon as all my priority tasks involve getting down & dirty in the soil & it is currently just too wet. Never mind, my levels of perkiness at the moment are not at their brightest & most bushy-tailed.
Dreadful insomnia last night......just like the old days when I used to have a daily 40+ mile round trip commute & virtually never slept longer than 3.15 a.m. Although I am an early waker & prompt riser, I now rarely have such bad nights as these. Last night however was a shocker.  I woke at 2.30 & didn't get back to sleep again, despite getting up & having a little walk around & trying all sorts of things. I just couldn't switch my brain off! Things which I would deal with rationally in daytime were over-thought & catastrophised.....various aspects of the pandemic, our dear old cat who seems to be going downhill, builders finding awful problems in addition to the ones we're paying them to remedy, etc, etc. I know all the insomniacs amongst you will recognise this as an infuriating side problem of insomnia. The lovely Mr F brought me coffee & breakfast in bed & told me to see if I could get back to sleep, but I can't ever sleep in the day, so I read a couple of chapters of my book, then got up & did my share of the weekly cleaning.......deep-cleaning the bathroom. I decided to take everything out of my bathroom cabinet & give it a thorough clean inside & have a bit of a declutter, identifying products which could do with using up. I felt quite productive after that. We have postponed going into town for the local market until tomorrow, but we have popped out to the village garden centre & bought the rest of the pebbles we will need to finish the edge of our new patio when the final builders have finished in September. I treated myself to a really cheery geranium called 'Dark strawberry' to make up for my rubbish night. I shall feed it up then take some cuttings in the autumn. I often do that now, rather than buying 3 of the same plant, which is what I'd have done in the Spendy Years. 
Well, I think I will put the kettle on for a nice hot cup of tea as the latest mini-gale & brisk shower has arrived & it's making me feel quite chilly.
Stay dry all (& safe),
F x

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers, 
A day of not a lot to report. Chilly sunshine alternating with crazy showers all day, no gardening, went to town to buy our fruit & veg from the market, made a batch of garlic flatbreads to use up some yoghurt, picked some rocket & radishes & progressed knitting my jumper. And that was it.
F x