Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Morning m'dears,
Well I've just stopped for a coffee break so thought I'd pop on for a chat before getting back to this morning's key task.
Quite a useful day so far. Got up just as Mr F was getting out of the bath, so quickly jumped in & saved on a bit of gas - I'm watching energy use quite carefully atm, as although the gas running our new central heating is a lot cheaper per unit than the old electric system, we do have to bear in mind that we have a lot more heating now & this will also have an effect. As I was up early, I mixed up a sourdough & made a start on today's main target job which is to remove everything from the kitchen dresser, wash & dry it & move it out of the kitchen onto the dining table, ready for kitchen painting this coming weekend. It's a large dresser - a present from my parents when I bought my first house 26 years ago. I've mentioned before how much I used to love visiting antique/vintage fairs & so there has never been a shortage of bits & bobs to display on it. Some things are from my Grandparents, some from our old family home - for example some of the 'Midwinter - Spanish Garden' crockery my Mum bought in the 1970s, & others are just things I liked, or have received for gifts. I've been listening to my current audiobook - quite a creepy psychological mystery/thriller (who knows how it will turn out?!) called 'The Split' by Sharon Bolton, & washing all these treasured pots & it's been quite relaxing. Simple things!
Today's meal plan said "Salmon & whatever". I'd obviously got it on me when I wrote that! Have taken the opportunity to have a look at what needs using. Plenty of potatoes & milk, so am going to make Normandy potatoes (with a use-it-up leek chucked in for good measure) & will serve with carrots & home-grown green beans. 
Tier 3 talks (we were told we would be remaining in Tier 2 in our area) have resumed today as a matter of urgency & rumours are now rife that we will be in Tier 3 by this time tomorrow. That will put pay to our holiday as we won't be able to travel to a Tier 1 region. I just want to know now. I will be fine about it if we can't go - it is the uncertainty which I dislike so much - we have plenty to be getting on with if we have to cancel & don't think obtaining a refund or voucher should be too much of a problem.
Ah well, that's my bucket of coffee swigged - off to tackle top shelf of dresser.
F x

foxgloves

Kayannie - How lovely that you've been able to re-locate to somewhere special near the sea - but what a shame you are locked down at the moment. As I've just outlined in an earlier post today, I think we look to be joining you in your locked down state very soon. Hope the move goes smoothly when you can go ahead with it. Our plans also involve moving nearer to the sea, but they are longer term. Mr F is a good few years younger than me & needs to be nearer retirement age before we can do it. I am nowhere near pension age myself, either, at the moment, so we are thinking we will keep saving as much as we can & look to seeing if our dream move is doable in about 8 -10 years time. If it isn't, we will go for Plan B instead, which is to buy a campervan. 
F

foxgloves

BaileysBabe - yes, that is exactly it, re the savings pots. In my case, layered on top of that, there is knowing what it was like when I had no emergency fund or savings of any kind. Then I had an emergency fund but no savings pots so used to end up using emergency fund money for things which really, were sufficiently predictable to have triggered some saving - things like car bills, new glasses, two kitchen appliances carking it one after the other, etc. I think the anxieties I sometimes get regarding not topping up the savings pots each month stem from my determination to preserve our emergency fund at all costs. But I also need to be realistic about how much money is 'stored' in these virtual pots. I did think about having a target maximum amount for each pot, but decided that this could still vary according to current circumstances. For instance, I am currently holding more in the clothes pot than normal because when we eventually do make it to a city centre for a decent shopping trip, I'm conscious that Mr F requires quite a bit of new gear. He's like me, in that he prefers to buy clothes he can see in shops rather than online. I've also got a lot less in our tech replacement pot atm, because we have recently replaced quite a lot of cronky old techy stuff & I don't think we should need anything else in that line for a long time. So I will build it up very slowly at a tenner here & there & would rather see surplus funds added to savings. I think I'm overthinking it, actually. I am a bit of an overthinker, but usually only when I ping awake at 3 in the morning & then can't switch my brain off!
The important thing is that I do save more. I don't want to look back on this period between becoming mortgage-free & the time we assess whether we can afford our dream move to regret not having saved as much as I could, when I could. The trouble with the times in which we find ourselves - Covid followed by Brexit - is that we don't really know what the economy will be looking like in a few years time. I never want to go back to all that past silly frivolous spending though - that is truly over for me.
F x

HairyHandofDartmoor

Happy belated anniversay Foxgloves  🎊🎈🍰. Those biscuits must have been yummy.

I hope you stay in Tier 2 and can go to your holiday cottage, but who knows maybe it's for the best to drive infection rates down. If there were less virus-denying plonkers in the world it would help  🤔. I reckon I'll be in Tier 2 before too long, but as long as I can go to the NT and fetch DS3 home for Christmas I'm not that bothered. 

I think you're very sensible to save the money you used to spend on your mortgage, as it must be very tempting to rush out and spend it, but visualising your dream home by the sea must help 🙂.

foxgloves

It does help, HHoD. Goodness only knows how much of my inheritance money we'd have burned through in the last year had we not been several years past the much needed LBM!
Re our holiday, sadly it won't be happening now, as our entire county is being moved to Tier 3 from midnight tomorrow. We had booked a lovely little NT apartment on one of their properties near the coast. Mr F suggested we ask to move the booking to the same week in 2022, as we have other plans for next year..... hope there's been some progress against Covid by then. It can't be helped. I'm sad about it, but not as sad as I am for all the thousands of people who have lost loved ones to this virus.
Hope you stay in Tier 1 - there are a lot of idiots as you say, but I think there is probably another sector of spreaders & that's those who think they are following the rules but have actually interpreted them to suit their own circumstances.
It will pass - we need to be patient & sensible, keep ourselves busy & appreciate what we have. 
F xx

Pixiehouse55

foxgloves said:

Oh dear, Pixiehouse55, what a day! Sounds like he is in the right place & will hopefully get sorted out properly this time. Hope it's good news soon & that you have a better day tomorrow.
F x

Well!!! At 23.12 we had a phonecall from the hospital. Can you come and collect J please, all obs done he's a healthy man apart from the vomiting., we will do his next Endoscopy earlier than planned.  And so its a vicious circle.... thats why I've not been about much. Only good thing out-of this is our lady that lives with us is not a fussy eater so a lot of food in the freezer is being used. Our man is a very fussy eater and hard work. Nice to have a more varied meal plan.... Keep Safe my lovelies 💜 

Onebrokelady

My sister lives in a county that is going into tier 3 tomorrow, such a shame about your holiday but hopefully it can be rearranged 

foxgloves

Thanks, OBL. I can't deny that we're really disappointed, but the uncertainty was becoming difficult too, just with the simple planning of things. I think I must be a bigger control freak than I thought I was!
So many of the places we like to visit like NT properties, etc, are across the county borders in Tier 1 or Tier 2 areas so we can't visit those either. Mr F has so much annual leave to use up that he'll still need to take our planned holiday week off. We will try to use it well, to progress more of our home improvements project & crack on with autumn garden clearing. Neither of us are very good at just sitting around, especially me.
F x

foxgloves

Pixiehouse55 - Oh dear, you seem to be stuck in a loop with your poorly person. I hope this situation can eventually resolve itself.
F x

Baileys_Babe

@Pixiehouse55 I hope things improve quickly for John and that you can all get back to some semblance of normal.

Sorry to hear @foxgloves you have moved to Tier 3 and it is impacting your holiday plans. Pleased you have some positive alternative plans.

I review the maximum for each savings pot twice a year as circumstances do change. Like you @foxgloves our clothes pot has a larger total than normal as we haven't been willing to go clothes shopping, ds is desperate for trousers and I have been informed that the independent bra shop has reopened and is appointment only, with very strict measures in place. When we bought OH car insurance earlier this year it was 70% cheaper than normal, as I have no idea if this was a blip on he has now reached a golden point on the algorithm, I have continued to put into this pot as if we had emptied it (we are in a position where we can afford to do so) If next year is still in the same ballpark I will stop paying into that pot for a few years, which sounds scary.