Put away your purse & become debt-averse

PurpleFairy26

Lovely to hear your updates foxgloves 

thanks for posting about your recent mixer purchase with voucher. I hadn’t had any vouchers when you mentioned yours but there was an item I was keen to buy from
said shop. Ive done my research and thought about it for about 2 years but didn’t have anywhere for it before, even though it would have been useful. Didn’t want it to get broken by keep moving it. Well with the imminent utility works approaching And therefore somewhere to store it, I was thrilled when my vouchers dropped this week. They didn’t have the product discounted but they did have 20% off any purchase. So all duly ordered. I’m very excited by it coming! 

Kantankrus_Mare

Not been in for a while. Hope youre all ok? Im still not back at work. 2nd September all being well.
Nice to see you all getting the steps in! Do any have a fitbit? Anyone like to add each other and we could do challenges? Always spurs me on a bit of competition.
Wading my way through a colossal amount of courgettes which were slow to get going but picking 3/4 a day now. 

foxgloves

PurpleFairy - Yes, I was glad to see those vouchers & just simply couldn't believe it when there was one which gave me £103 discount on the mixer as they have been out of stock everywhere throughout lockdown. My sis is convinced they are manufactured in a country far away which has been super-massively locked down, but I don't know.
Kantankrus - Courgettes are on the move here too. They are no longer a bed. They are an empire.
I do occasioanlly do fitbit challenges with Mr F, but reluctantly as he always wins......apart from one time when I waited till I knew he was stuck in a meeting at work so I deliberately chose that time to go out for a long walk, then when I got back, I put on my 'Purple Rainbows' CD on & did lots of jumping around the kitchen swishing my hair around & trying not to dislocate my ageing hips. It was sort of 'Rock-fit', lol!
F x

foxgloves

Evening m'dears,
MUCH more productive day today. This is what I have done: Baked bread, sorted laundry basket contents, picked sorrel & squash, made sorrel soup & froze, picked courgettes before they achieved their mission of world domination, picked basil & made pesto (froze it), picked loads of french beans (blanched & froze), fed & watered whole veg garden including greenhouse, made dhal to use up yellow lentils from broadly around the cretaceous era, topped up worm composter with scraps, picked a posy of flowers for the house, filled up all the bird feeders (which was carnage once the teenage starlings spotted there was a new fat block!), sorted out arrangements for a family BBQ this weekend then planned the menu, vacuumed the kitchen, emailed the builder and did a bit of general tidying.
Now, I was intending to hammer all the above tasks & then see what my step-count looked like before popping out for a trot around the block to get my 8000. I was pretty amazed to see that I had already done over 7000, so I simply marched up & down the garden until I hit the 8000. I have some stiff muscles in my hip, which I know is from the bizarre contortions into which I had to arrange myself in order to pick all the beans! Never mind, I am not intending to do anything energetic for the rest of the evening. 
Oh & the dhal made from my prehistoric lentils was lovely......but the thing about pulses taking longer to cook, the older they get? Well, I kid you not, I soaked these big yellow lentils from yesterday afternoon to 2.30 pm today when I put them on to cook. And the bug*ers weren't done until 5pm!! I knew they had been sitting in their jar for a long time, but was still determined not to waste them. There was some dhal for the freezer too, which was good. We are trying to keep a decent amount of supplies in now (particularly  as Mr F is back at work managing a front-line team) in case we are contacted by Track & Trace & have to isolate. I think it makes sense to be prepared.
OK, that's my busy day. I must have gone up & down the garden about 150,000 times....at least that's what it's felt like!
Cheers Sweetpeas,
F x

carrielovesfanta

foxgloves said:

 I put on my 'Purple Rainbows' CD o

F x

I'm sure my dad has that CD too - a Rainbow/Deep Purple compilation? 

Pixiehouse55

Hi Foxgloves & Gang. Well the July birthdays are over! Phew!!. Now 1 birthday in August to celebrate.  We had a lump some the other day of 13 weeks as we had our people home 24/7 for 13 weeks (its been longer but anything better than nothing)  totally unexpected so it was good.. Big decision now do I pay off more on CCard  or use it for the new flooring in kitchen and Hallway?Hmm.  Lovely weather for the garden isn't it. We are always late with tomatoes and cucumbers but we have some small ones. 1 Yellow courgette so far. Strawberries and Chard. I've just brushed all floors and will wash them in a bit,  I have to rest in between because of my back. This afternoon I will hoover our grass😁 (fake). And after more plants to put in the garden. I got them from an online garden website, mystery box of plants for £20. Well worth the money roughly 15 plants I think I counted. 
Happy Monday to you all whatever you are doing and please let's all keep safe. 

foxgloves

Carrielovesfanta - It is indeed that same great rock compilation.....Rainbow, Deep Purple, a bit of Whitesnake (of course) & a few other incarnations of the same people in various different band line-ups (showing my age & don't give a damn!)
F x

foxgloves

Pixiehouse  - Yes, I can sympathise if you have a big concentration of birthdays in one month. We don't have any in July, but we have a concentration from December to February which can feel a bit ouchy on the budget front. We didn't used to put enough money away into our Presents Pot really, but I increased it when we paid off the mortgage so that we have a hope of it covering Christmas presents as well as birthdays - I still buy gifts all year round as & when I see them though, as I think better prices are often to be had then. And I like to make gifts too.
F x

foxgloves

Well, Sunflowers, As we start to approach another weekend, I hope everyone is still well & managing to get on with life at least to some degree. Mr F has had a hospital appointment today, but it seems to have gone ok from what he could tell. It is odd not being able to go with partners & family members for support, but for sensible reasons. He remembered to take a mask with him & was pleased to find that the hospital car park is currently free as part of their Covid measures. 
I've been quite busy today, although I did have an hour & a half yakk to my sister via Skype. We really enjoyed our chat today, which was about her garden plans, knitting, sewing, the foxes which use her alley as a throughfare, oodles of other inconsequential stuff, but all goes towards daily life feeling a bit more normal. Apart from major exercising of my yakking muscles, I have made a batch of BBQ sauce in my slow cooker (ready for Saturday), used up the last onion, celery & a stray piece of smoked haddock in some kedgeree, picked some tomatoes, done the ironing, watered all the veg, weeded half the herb bed, done meal plans for next week & written the shopping list. I've also achieved my 8000 steps, so haven't missed a single day's target in my 30-day challenge as of yet. Encouraged by hitting 8000 steps yesterday without even leaving home, I made up a little exercise circuit in the garden. On the patio, I did 2 lots of 8 marches on the spot, then 2 x 8 of step & touch, knee raises with arm pushes, grapevines, you know the classic aerobic-type steps, then did two brisk marches up & down the garden (100 steps each way) then back to the patio to repeat the aerobic step sequence. I repeated this for 25 mins then jogged up & down the garden twice.....I only did this to see if I actually could. Actually, I think jogging is for ponies. I have zero interest in it unless there is a super-amazing treat at the end! Anyway, I'm digressing (again!)  - The gist of this ramble is that I have achieved my steps total & am feeling there is a rosy glow of virtuosity about my person.
Received a bank letter this morning explaining about how interest applied to overdrafts is changing. I put it in my basket for filing but didn't read it. Not like in the old Spendy Decades when I didn't read bank letters because they might have said horrid things like 'Dear Foxgloves, you have no money, please see me', but because I can honestly say that neither of us have been in overdraft since we paid them off as the first debts cleared following the LBM. I can still remember the absolutely amazing feeling when my first monthly salary went into the bank following that & for the first time since I was 19 years old, ALL that money was mine! Yes, I had to pay a load of it out for the mortgage, bills & other debts, but it still felt incredible not to see the usual pattern of a huge wodge of salary being swallowed up instantly by the Overdraft Monster........a creature which I came to realise was actually me all along! So much easier to budget (even budgeting to pay off additional debt) once one's current account is solvent on pay-day. Ah well, I've been a baddie with money, now I'm not, but I still sometimes see or read things (like this bank letter this morning) which make me think about my past financial behaviours.
Looks like a very hot sticky day tomorrow, m'dears, Stay hydrated & keep it real.
Love F x
CCL - This means you......just in case you are planning on ordering in your 14th skip!!

crazy_cat_lady

Bless you foxgloves. The skip is gone but I do already have easily enough to fill the car and go to the tip (and I was only there Tuesday) - but we're not going till Sunday. Tomorrow I am playing with my friends who are going to show me how to use jigsaws and circular saws to improve my outhouse (I don't know why I call it an outhouse because it's definitely part of the house). After that (and not before) we will crack open some gin.