Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers, 
Well I hope you've all had a decent day & not spent it among the heaving crowds trying to find somewhere to have a wee on Bournemouth beach!
I was up early before the sun got too hot, had a cool bath before breakfast then went out to feed all the fruiting veg. Cut a lettuce while I was down there, pulled a few spring onions & picked 750g of strawberries. Did a tiny tidy-up then yakked to my sister for over an hour on Skype. Then more yakking mid-afternoon when a comrade from the local political scene whom I hadn't seen for ages phoned me. When not actually yakking, I did manage to get my armchair rennovation project finished. The old glue I found in the shed, hoping it would be a successful 'shopped from home' item worked perfectly on attaching the braid. I added a pretty cushion I received for my birthday & it really does feel as though I've had a new piece of furniture! I intend to cover some conservatory cushions with the leftover fabric then to have a big declutter in there. 
We are sitting out on our back courtyard enjoying the cooler air & listening to the blackbirds singing in the dusk fall. 
Not likely to get any cushions covered tomorrow, as it's my Big Budget Day & I have heaps of budgetty & admin jobs to do, including a stack of reminders on post-it notes all awaiting my attention. 
So I'm grateful for a calm evening before the number crunching begins. 
There's even a little bit of a breeze now so I'm feeling almost human again. 
F x

moving_forward

Excellent work on finishing the chair. 
Enjoy BBD tomotrow 😎

Onebrokelady

We took B out for a late walk so it was cooler for her and it rained on the way back, it was soooooo lovely walking in the rain. When I got home I had a cold shower which was heavenly 😀
Oops, forgot to say well done on finishing the chair,it sounds lovely 😊

foxgloves

Thanks, both. I am really pleased with how it turned out. I'm a very confident knitter but less so with sewing, although I have always sewn. I'm more confident making curtains, cushions, storage bags, etc, than I am with dressmaking, so I'm quite looking forward to the arrival of the bedroom curtain fabric I've ordered. 
Anyway..... I must get up to my desk in 'Foxgloves HQ' to make a start on my Big Budget Day. I can't say I'm particularly in the mood, but I always feel proud of myself when it's done. If we are not properly in control of our money, we can't really moan when things go pear-shaped, can we? (although it took me from the age of 19 to well into my 40s to acknowledge this simple truth!) 
F x

PurpleFairy26

I do look forward to budget day! Enjoy. 

Your chair sounds fab. Just working my way up to making our blinds. Need a decent stretch being uninterrupted which might not be until we’re done with homeschooling! 

foxgloves

I've never made blinds, PF. My specialism in window coverings reaches no further than tab-top curtains usually with vintage buttons sewn onto the tabs for decoration. I did once print out the instructions for making a roman blind but bottled it & bought a roller blind instead. 
F x

foxgloves

Hello Sunflowers, 
Well what a piddley amount of thunder. From the weather forecast, I was expecting things to be a lot more Gotterdammerung with some big garden-helping rain. Hmmm. Let's hope there is still some rain to come
Spent all morning up in Foxgloves HQ working on our budget. Reconciled June's, then set July's. Grocery spend still too high. Unsure whether just tp suck it up in exchange for shopping in just one supermarket where we feel the Covid measures have been the strongest. I will see how the next couple of weeks go. We will soon be at a point where being able to use our home grown produce will have an impact on our shopping lists.
I need to give some serious thought to the ring-fenced sum of money we put aside for our programme of home improvements. It struck me today that I am using our core income to pay for quite a few smaller things which are included in us giving our home a facelift, when I should probably be using the home improvements budget. I am going to sit down one morning next week & have a look at that fund... in terms both of large infrastructure-type work still to be paid for and what else could realistically come from that budget. I'm thinking about things like curtains, furnishing fabrics, blinds, a new dehumidifyer (ours is mended with string!), replacement bedlinen. I would normally buy these sort of things gradually, but as we are doing a significant makeover project with a finite timescale, I can see a lot of sense in adding these smaller purchases to the home improvements budget rather than stretching our core monthly budget. I'll run the numbers through & I bet it will end up being the more sensible easier-to-budget-for option. 
I am intending to pick up the stitches to commence knitting my final piece of jumper later (sleeve). It's Mr F's cooking night so I am not intending to do any more jobs unless I'm struck by a sudden bolt of enthusiasm.
I bet you're all getting better thunder than me..... not fair! 
F x

foxgloves

P. S We have a blackbird with a wonky leg. I've given him a chopped up apple & a few strawberries.
F x

DawnW

No thunder, or rain here Foxgloves. I was hoping not to have to water

Baileys_Babe

A few thunder rumbles and no rain here. We could do with a deluge, to clear the air and freshen up the garden.