Put away your purse & become debt-averse

angela110660

foxgloves wrote: »

Well, a rubbish night's sleep last night. Woke at 3.30 & that was it. Had some stressful news the previous day & I just COULDN'T switch my brain off. I read somewhere about bio-rhythms that night time is a particularly poor time for problem solving & I can believe that because it's so quiet, there are no distractions plus you're fretting that you are lying there awake for hours on end & will feel like sh*t in the morning, so whatever the big worry is, just goes round & round your head until you feel like Mrs Stessy of Stressville.
So when I got up at 6.30, I knew I'd need a really busy day. No spending involved (apart from an on-budget online grocery order!). I took myself off to my greenhouse where everything has grown like triffids & had a useful morning weeding, cutting back, removing hopeless causes (two sulky aubergine plants) & picking a lovely basketful of everything that was ready. Picked a bright cheery free bunch of flowers for the house too. I do feel a bit better tonight.
And pleased that a strong meal plan meant getting grocery order in on target - even managed to include a few items to start our emergency stores.
The cause of the stress has not gone away & will mean some tricky times ahead, but I am going to throw myself into keeping busy & embracing my frugal ways.
Wishing all fellow frugalistas a peaceful evening.
F x

How very odd as I had an awful night's sleep too that same night! Went to bed very tired then took ages to go off for some reason and woke up at 3.30 with a ping! Think I had a bad dream but could not then drop off like you found. Last looked at the clock at 5 and then it was 630 and time to get moving for work. Needless to say slept like a log last night -don't think I turned over once! Ha ha. I am the same though - mind starts thinking things over and it becomes a great drama in my head. Need to keep a notebook and pen nearby I think to write it down and get it out of my head. !!!128580;

foxgloves

Angela110660 - I think the notebook idea is a good one. I know what you mean about just 'pinging' awake. It's so infuriating as it invariably happens at Stupid O'Clock, doesn't it?
F

foxgloves

Evening Debtbusting Divas,
Well....a better night's sleep but woke up with a horrible headache which just would NOT go. I tried:
*Paracetamol
*Coffee
*Tiger balm
*Inhaling Olbas oil
*Fresh air
*Sitting with cold wet towel on my head (Yes, I know how to do glamour!)
*Massage with lavender oil
*Codiene
.......none of which had any effect. And what finally shifted it?
Drinking a pint glass of water.
As in.....out of the tap.
Next time, I must remember to try that first!
Still, an NSD & here's hoping for a more productive day tomorrow. I'm sprawled all over the sofa now. The headache's finally gone but it's wiped me out. Could do with waking up tomorrow feeling like Tigger after about 12 coffees. I can but hope!
Cheers all,
F x

angela110660

Oooh hope you slept well. Re headaches - hubby and I always swear by lots of water as first choice before tablets. Also like those peppermint sticks things you can rub on your forehead and temples - but they only work for a mild headache really. Hope you feel better now though with the weekend here.
I went to a 20 / 20 cricket game for the first time ever last night which was a treat for hubby on Fathers Day from the kids and I got in on it too!! Was baking hot when we arrived but as it got darker got a lot cooler and I think all the fresh air and no tv, phone, ipad was a boon as I slept like a dream last night!
Have to go to more cricket matches then is the answer. Ha ha. Or just switch off the electronics for a while.

foxgloves

Angela - I think we overstimulate our brains with too much screen time & it will inevitably impact on sleep. I find fresh air is the best thing.....I usually sleep fantastically on holiday.

foxgloves

Isn't it lovely when the pantry's all newly stocked up with food & all arranged neatly. Our online grocery order arrived nice & early this afternoon so I was able to get on with things. It also included the first few items in the emergency stores I'm getting together, so good to get a start on that project, from the list I made last week in my bullet diary.
I'd already got a sourdough loaf in the oven but there was some leftover yoghurt in the fridge, so I made a batch of garlic flatbreads on the griddle pan & will freeze them later. The last bit of yoghurt provided my afternoon snack. Zero food waste policy here!
I think all this pantry productivity put me in 'getting ahead' mode, as I also refilled all our tiny plastic boxes with dried fruit for work & out & about snacks. Interesting (though not surprising) how much longer our food is lasting now that we are calorie counting again. It just shows how portion sizes quickly start moving upwards again once they are done 'by eye' & not properly weighed!
Oh....& on the survey front, there was a £7 Prolific survey today & when I am paid for that, I will have £50 to cash out. Sadly it won't be going to the Loan Pay Down Fund this time, but it will be a useful little chunk of cashola towards mr f's new pairs of specs.
Enjoy your Saturday nights all, I plan to spend mine reading, knitting & whatever else I fancy.....but no more jobs. They're done for the day.
F x

Onebrokelady

What a productive day you've had,I hope you had a nice relaxing evening:)

foxgloves

I did, thanks, OBL, until I realised that due to yakking, I'd knitted about 30 rows of complete rubbish!! Tonight's knitting time will have to be spent frogging it & doing that section again. Grrrrr!

foxgloves

Hello Debtbusters,
A successful city centre trip today. Back in the Spendy Decades, I would have defined that as a trip where I arrived home with a couple of new outfits, 'bargain shoes' (have I ever mentioned that pink & purple pair?- winces) & plenty of other nice bits & pieces purchased courtesy of the permanent overdraft. Now I define 'successful' as getting the purchases I'd planned at a good price, shopping in a way which keeps my different budget 'pots' straight & not wasting money on multiple cafe visits.
We parked in the cheapest car park...that's just habit now. We did have coffee & teacakes out, but I was happy with that as we paid from our personal spends & we took packed lunch with us so as to avoid being tempted by buying lunch too. I remembered to put cash from the presents piggy in my bag for buying the remaining gift for my sister's big birthday, so that was completely 'budget neutral'. I stocked up my toiletries stash at S*perdrug with all the items I'm running out of & you know what? Every one of them (except the lipstick) was on special offer with a third off the normal price. I found the colour of lipstick I like in a cheaper brand so I've bought that instead to try it.
Mr f found a couple of blu-rays he wanted on offer & again....no effect on the budget as he used his personal spends. And finally, a free bicycle pump from H*lfords courtesy of O2 Priorities. A fellow DFW Small Things frugalista flagged that up to me last week, which was really helpful as I've recently taken up cycling again & my current pump seems to let more air out than it puts in.
Did I go in the 'Monsoon' sale? Um, well yes I did. I left empty handed, not because there was nothing nice left - far from it - & several of the garments I liked had been marked down a further couple of times...but they all seemed to be either size 8s or size 22s. So with not a 16 in sight, yep, I was saved from temptation! I can't really take the credit for that one, but it was the best outcome for me financially.
Ok, well I'm going to fetch a basketful of windfall apples now to knock up some apple sauce to go with tonight's ys pork, then it's time for some leisure.
Hope this posts ok...my DFW Small Things post got eaten.
Cheers all,
F x

foxgloves

Well, I thought I'd share the little 'Debtisode' of the pink & purple shoes I mentioned. This is a story from many years ago, back when I was first getting into debt......a way of life which was to last for pretty much the next 25 years.
Are you sitting comfortably? I love shoes & boots, & back in my younger days, during the sales, I was more than capable of visiting pretty much every shoe shop in our local city centre. On one such sale rummage I found the most glorious shoes. I like purple & I like unusual things. These shoes were constructed from bright pink, bright purple & mauve leather, stitched together with sort of dark purple leather thonging. I'd never seen anything like them & I HAD to have them. There was only one problem. They were the only pair left & they were a size 4. In the absence of a pair in the correct size, I actually saw this as a positive thing. I'm a size 5, so that's very nearly a 4, isn't it? As in..... the shoes were 'almost' the right size for me, not a size 3 or a 7 or a 9.....you get my drift. So I tried them on & they were sooooo tight. Did it stop me? Nope! I convinced myself that the leather would soon stretch & they would become a size 5. So onto the unauthorised overdraft they went!
And you know what? The Magic Shoe-Stretching Pixies never did visit. There was not even one iota of stretch going on because they were so damned uncomfortable, I couldn't wear them. I limped around town in them on about three occasions before giving them to a charity shop (it was a long time before selling on ebay was an option). And I can remember STILL thinking I was the victim here! The shoes had been sized as a particularly small '4', the shop should have ordered more 5's, etc. Of course the truth of it was that I'd been a very silly narna wasting her (& the bank's) money as usual. The LBM was still about 25 years away. Better late than not at all though!
F x