Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

"Flawed financial reasoning", Blackcats. Yes, that is exactly it, & a very succinct way of describing it. I think I've mentioned that I used to know someone who bought a new car on a credit card because the existing one needed an MOT & one new tyre. I was never that daft, but the reasoning is very much from the same flawed playbook.
I did have a Next catalogue back in the day but rarely used it. I was a lot bigger then & none of the clothes fitted me properly, but I certainly sprayed loads of my & the bank's cash around clothes shops on my very frequent city centre visits.
F x

savingmore

Been missing in action for a few days (well missing in non-action more accurately) to come and discover I am now living in PFE🤣🤣. Well done on your detective work with the evil black fluff....made me chuckle this morning, and am not even up yet!  your idea of baking an apple cake to mark apple festival is a great one😀

foxgloves

Thanks, Savingmore. We do like seasonal celebrations & despite being a very simple recipe, it's a yummy cake. I've been baking it for ages & it was always one of my Dad's favourites. I love to try out new recipes, but there are some I always return to.
I've just washed the purple dress of the EBF saga. It is drying flat on the airer all alone, like a laundry Billy-no-mates.
F x

HairyHandofDartmoor

Black fluff mystery solved 🙂.

An apple cake to celebrate apple picking is a lovely idea. An NT place near us had an apple festival last year which I missed and planned to go to this year, but I expect it will be cancelled due to virus related reasons this year. I'm determined to go when it's held again as it sounds a good way to celebrate the season.

My N£xt D!rect0ry was one of the first things to go when I was trying to get on top of my debts. I had a £2,000 limit too but luckily never went above £600 but still what a waste of money when it was about 30% interest 🙄.

Onebrokelady

foxgloves said:

Oh my days..... more 'thanks' for Prawnchorus & Balanceby50's plea to hear the resolution of the black fluff saga than for the post about my riveting daily activities yesterday....... that tells me all I need to know about your priorities, m'dears, lol!
Right well you'll remember that the Evil Black Fluff Saga ended with me having absolutely no idea where it came from. I'd done a couple of laundry loads since then & there was no sign of any more.
Then the other day, I was in the bedroom (pale carpet), looked down & there were several bits of Evil Black Fluff on the floor. And as the day progressed, I kept on finding it.... on the stairs, on the kitchen tiles, around the loo of all places..... yes, this stuff was FOLLOWING ME AROUND!! And this could only mean one thing... that my purple dress (which was in the problem laundry load) was the problem. Stripped it off & examined it. Yes!! Small clumps of black woolly fluff all over it, especially on the inside. Was really surprised as this dress isn't black, it's purple, & the fluff is very definitely black. Anyway (I didn't say this was going to be interesting, did I.....) my forensic investigations revealed (by holding the fabric under a bright light) that the fabric is very slightly marled. I looked at the fabric content label & it is 85% cotton & 15% angora-type wool. It also said 'This fabric may pill'. I think that the black part of the marl weave is the wool & the cotton part is the purple thread..... I'm still surprised because the black content of this purple dress is virtually invisible to the naked eye. Anyway, in the interests of science, I picked off all the pilling & rolled it into a clump & what did it make? Evil Black Fluff!! Sussed it! Conclusion: I love this dress..... had been seriously considering buying one in a different colour.... so will just make sure I launder it separately from now on. I am thinking it should hopefully get to a stage where it has been worn such a lot, it stops shedding.
Now look, there you are. You've had the end of the saga. Happy now? ☺️
F x

I knew it was that dress 😀

foxgloves

OBL - Oh well you are Mrs Clever-Trousers, then! That dress was certainly the only thing in that hairy laundry load with a vaguely knitted texture, but I'd ruled it out because it is sooooooo purple & the fluff, which I even photographed as evidence (!) was very, very black! F x

foxgloves

Hello Friday Frugalistas, Oh my goodness, my feet feel like mince today......I've spent two days throwing myself into getting the kitchen straight, so have barely sat down. I'd have got an earlier start yesterday had I not looked in the bathroom mirror first thing & seen my dreadful roots! About-turned straight away to fetch a hair colour & got them sorted out before deciding I was ready to face the day - not that I ventured out any further than the post box, as I spent the rest of the day sorting out our food stores from their temporary cupboards & arranging them in the new pantry. It was a good opportunity to do a bit of a stock take too, & of course I found things we'd completely forgotten about. The best thing is having lots more space as the shelves were built to maximise this, so I can go in, switch on the light & actually find things really quickly, unlike our previous food cupboard/excuse for a pantry, which was more of a dark smelly cave in character. Made a pasta bake in the evening. What a good 'use-it-up' opportunity a pasta bake is, isn't it? I don't think I've ever made one with a recipe, I just use whatever I've got. This one used a lb of our home grown tomatoes which were getting a little squishy, a tiny squash we picked the other day before composting the last plants, a single slice of bacon which Mr F had decided was surplus to requirements at some point & bunged in the freezer (usually this would have been added to the mass of bacon already in his sandwich!), a tiny pot of home made pesto when I didn't have quite enough left for a full size one & a red pepper from those I picked from the greenhouse the other day. With plenty of seasoning & cheese on the top, it was filling & tasty & did its job in using a few things up rather than wasting them. Anyway, that was yesterday's kitchen-tackling efforts. F x

foxgloves

So....onto today. Went into town first thing. Did not go for a coffee & cake as I knew there was still apple cake left at home, so that was a little of my monthly Spends saved for another day. Got rid of a couple of bulky items to the charity shop, tried WHS for a couple of books I want to give as Christmas gifts (no luck) & got this week's fresh fruit & veg from the market. Coffee & apple cake on return then another use-it-up, as I decided to bake soda bread with the bag of out of date granary flour I found yesterday. It was very nice for such a simple thing & meant I could put off my usual bread baking until tomorrow. More kitchen sorting this afternoon. As the new pantry has meant we have freed up a few cupboards, I've moved several things around to make better & more logical use of space. I've done a bit of shopping from home too, as decided to ask mr F to fetch an old tea-set & side plates which belonged to my parents about 25 years ago down from the loft so we could use them. Well that turned into a saga. He'd spent a lot of this afternoon sorting out stuff for a tip-run tomorrow & as soon as he stuck his head through the loft hatch, he said "Why have we put all this stuff up here?" I said "We? I've been saying for 10 years that the crud up here needs taking to the tip". Well he must have had his chucking out head on today as he fetched down an old vacuum cleaner (motor blew up 1bout 15 years ago!), some ancient speakers, an old shower rail & a pile of other stuff. And it will definitely go off to the tip tomorrow as it's already in the boot of his car & he's raring to go! He also cleaned the rhubarb off the ceiling, cut the lawn & dismantled a knackered stereo. I've started a new charity shop bag, which already has 5 things in it & I was only there this morning! I've suggested we continue with jobs tomorrow, but have Sunday off, which I think will be really nice. I'd quite like a city centre shopping visit but our big local city centre has become very coviddy indeed & our whole county is on the cusp of restrictions akin to those in place in the North East. I think I'll stay local for a while longer, which might even save me some money in the long run. Time to put my feet up now,, Stay safe, F x

foxgloves

Just couldn't believe the amount of space on our kitchen work surfaces this morning! Feeling 100% motivated to tackling more cupboards today.... just on my 2nd coffee, then I intend to get cracking.
The Tip-Goer is suitably attired, so that's definitely happening.
F x

carrielovesfanta

foxgloves said:

"Flawed financial reasoning", Blackcats. Yes, that is exactly it, & a very succinct way of describing it. I think I've mentioned that I used to know someone who bought a new car on a credit card because the existing one needed an MOT & one new tyre. I was never that daft, but the reasoning is very much from the same flawed playbook.
I did have a Next catalogue back in the day but rarely used it. I was a lot bigger then & none of the clothes fitted me properly, but I certainly sprayed loads of my & the bank's cash around clothes shops on my very frequent city centre visits.
F x

This very much reminded me of people's reactions to our old car's final MOT. We had plans to buy a new car at some point in 2019 and we were hoping that our old car would last through the winter. It had its MOT in October 2018 and it needed £700 of work doing (long story involving headlights needing replacing, which was mighty frustrating). People kept saying that the MOT was awfully expensive and wouldn't it be better to scrap it and just get a new one? I figured that £700 was far cheaper than a new car, but what do I know eh?!