Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Blackcats

Wise words Foxgoves and friends.  I'm in tier 4 now - it's not unexpected but requires adjusting to as we were tier 2 in Thursday.  I had originally planned the permitted 3 family gathering on Boxing Day but I had already cancelled it earlier in the week as it just didn't seem right.  Looking on the bright side my food bill is now very much reduced.  

I used an online calculator to see approx when I would be eligible for the vaccine - apparently I'm amount 20,575,000th in the queue 🤣

   

foxgloves

Winter solstice blessings to all.
Just popping out to feed our garden featheries, then a cosy day of baking & food prep.
As the wheel of the year turns, let's be thankful for what we have & try to remain hopeful. And safe, of course.
Peace & Light,
F xx

still_hopeful

Happy Solstice!

foxgloves

Blackcats - I expect I'll be the next person behind you in the vaccine queue! Gosh, what a wait.... but at least there's a vaccine, & others almost ready too. 

Still_hopeful - That made me smile. I did once run a children's history event which involved the building of a Stonehenge replica using bourbon biscuits..... tho I think they were eating as many as went on the model.
F

foxgloves

Evening Christmas fairies,
Quite festive today..... well it's better than the alternative, isn't it?
Zizzed up sufficient breadcrumbs & chunks for making stuffings & bread sauce, made & froze sausage rolls & the handful of cheese straws I made from the leftover pastry have gone into tomorrow's packed lunch. Also iced the Christmas cake, made dhal, did two loads of laundry & discussed quote & start times with the plasterer. Did a good solid session of piano practice this afternoon, then fetched all the presents & arranged them under the piano (tree too near radiator) but have left access to the pedals so I can still play. Oh, & I did my usual Monday morning budget update. I enjoyed being busy, as it meant less time for looking at news websites & getting wound up by the parlous state of the UK.
I'm going to read Christmas 'Good Housekeeping' magazine tonight, watch TV & either knit or make my felt sprout decoration (a little gift from my sister). And I must remember to take filo pastry out of the freezer so I can bake mincemeat twigs tomorrow.
Enjoyed the sunrise live-streaming from Stonehenge, even though it was a bit too cloudy. 
Ah well, time to light some candles & try to resist peeping at presents. 
Love F x

foxgloves

Hello Christmas Crackers,
I've just finished the tediosity of this week's ironing - thankfully there wasn't a lot, & I thought I'd pop on here to say hello, then go & switch the various fairy lights on, the Christmas tree, etc, & see if I can talk my prawns into defrosting.......you see, in the absence of a fur friend, I am talking to seafood, which I think is a most unpromising sign!
Well, I was just taking my 2nd tray of mincemeat twigs out of the oven this morning, when I suddenly remembered I had forgotten to respond to our energy provider's request for monthly meter readings. Dealt with the really quite festive task of transferring hot sticky twigs to wire rack with their generous dusting of icing sugar intact, then (as my lovely old Grandad used to say "After the Lord Mayor's Show comes the muck cart") set about reading gas & electricity meters. Now, I'm not one to wax lyrical about energy providers, but one thing I do like about our current one (the 8-legged cephalopod) is that as soon as a customer submits their monthly meter readings, they receive an up to date statement almost immediately. I like this approach, as it means I don't have to wait until my quarterly statement or go searching for the info myself. I have been keeping a log of our account balance from these monthly statements, as well as a note of how much (in ££s) we have spent each month on gas & electricity respectively. We had our old electric storage heaters removed in August & replaced with full gas central heating with a combi boiler. Our builder said we could expect our bills to decrease because the new gas system is cheaper to run. I wasn't too sure, because being night storage heating, our old system ran on the cheaper rate Economy 7 electricity tariff, but a look at unit prices seemed to bear this out. From the stats I've been keeping, I can see that our monthly dd should be reduced at some point. 
I'm basing this on the following:
Our storage heaters were switched off at the end of March. As usual, our energy account was in debit, following the coldest months, then gradually righted itself, reaching a credit balance of £193-69 by the end of September. Normally, with the old system, that credit would offset the winter bills, but in October, when the heating was switched back on, we had changed to gas central heating. I submitted our October reading & the statement came back as £228.90 credit. Ditto November....statement now at £246.14 credit. We have used a little more this month as we have been turning down our lounge radiator & lighting the gas stove in the evenings, but even so, following today's readings, our Dec statement is still at £239.30 credit. Over the last month, we've used £40.64 electricity & £68.93 gas. We currently pay £102 a month, a figure based on usage from our previous heating system which was more expensive to run. So although it is winter, we have only used £7.57 more energy than our monthly dd, As the central heating will almost certainly be switched off on March 31st, even if the weather took a more wintery turn, I am thinking that we ought to be in line for our dd to be reduced. I am going to keep a close eye on this & request if it it doesn't happen automatically.
Oh dear, that wasn't very festive, was it? A couple of lines about hot mince pie twigs, a passing mention of fairy lights, then straight onto the stultifying topic of energy bills! Note to self - must do better tomorrow!
Stay safe, stay cosy & let's see if we can keep it together - bloody Covid, bloody weak leadership, bloody everything........think I shall get my Christmas cutters out tomorrow & bake biscuits.
Peace,
F x

foxgloves

Hello diary readers, 
Well, I honestly don't think it has stopped raining even for a minute today. I popped down with a bowl of scraps for the worm composter & the ground is so saturated that water is starting to lie on the lawn in a couple of places. I've not been out & I've spent nothing. I've baked bread & a tin of biscuits & taken everything out of the freezer for making stuffings, etc.
I've also been very much in the 'use-it-up' zone. Last tiny bit of a lipstick extracted with my lip-brush this morning, last application of mascara coaxed out by standing the tube in a cup of hot water, my distictly un-festive roots perked up with the half pack of hair colour left from last time, etc. Same once I got into the kitchen. Found myself topping up jars & using odds & ends up,
Watched a film this afternoon while knitting another blanket square & such is the level of grey sogginess outside... plus the wind is now getting up... it was nice to put the tree lights on & try to forget Covid for an afternoon.
More knitting tonight. I am in the mood only for cosy fireside activity. 
Be safe, 
F x

Pixiehouse55

Hellooooo foxgloves and gang. Well John ended up in hospital again today, just 2 weeks again. Poor man has had enough now. Christmas cake iced and apart from presents to wrap( which should of been done today) We are ready for Santa, Wishing you all a Happy Christmas. As Happy as we can make it, and hope 2021 is a better year. Ready for my bed tonight. Catch up with you all soon. Xx

HairyHandofDartmoor

We had heavy rain all day yesterday too Foxgloves but the sun has finally appeared I'm glad to say. It sounds like you had a chilled but productive day yesterday. Enjoy Christmas eve 🎅 .

marionmgcars

Happy Christmas to everyone, and best wishes for 2021, whatever it may bring.  X