Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Pixiehouse55

Hello Foxgloves and Gang.  Hope you've all had a good Christmas? Our man John was poorly again and ended up in hospital yesterday at 4.30pm so not a brilliant day, he only came home Christmas eve at 9.30pm. Apart from that everyone liked their presents. I spoke to my son, daughter and grandchildren on the phone. Not sure when we will be able to see them though. Ah well life goes on. Roast Turkey was very tasty, we only brought the crown this year otherwise it gets wasted and I don't like waste. I got my charcoal pencils and paints for making mandalas so I'm happy. Will pop in again soon. Tc and keep safe X 

foxgloves

Tomorrow I'm not going out,
The weather's looking murky,
I'll have my biggest cauldron out,
Ready for RUBBER TURKEY!!
F x

foxgloves

Helllloooooo! Thanks everyone for the good Christmas wishes - much appreciated. We have quite enjoyed holing up together enjoying a peaceful time.
I've finally got my backside onto the sofa. Today, our kitchen has been one long turkey production line. Decided to order an expensive free-range turkey from our village farm shop this year & so as you can imagine, I was determined to use every scrap of it to get our money's worth. After our Christmas dinner, it did cold meat with chips & salad, etc, on Boxing Day, plus a big sandwich for Mr F, then today, I've batch-prepared the following: 2 portions of turkey & mushroom supreme (tonight's meal), a tray of turkey slices with leftover gravy, stuffing & a couple of pigs in blankets for dinner on New Year's Day, 7 portions of turkey chilli, 3 portions of turkey bhuna, 8 portions of soup (which also involved a round-up of veg) & 4 big cartons of stock. The Beloved kept coming in & asking if there was anything he could do, & I said he would have a Very Important Job later..... not pot washing - I did all that - but the 10 x worse task of fitting it all in the freezer! Even leaving out the bhuna to feed us tomorrow & 2 portions of chilli for Tuesday, there will need to be some seriously virtuosic freezer tetris. Ah well, my 🦃 work is done! This evening is for reading, knitting, maybe watching 'Krampus', finishing off my chocolate brazil nuts..... important stuff like that.
Tomorrow is my Big Budget Day. I'm planning to do that as normal, but I really do need to think about savings goals for the year ahead too, & how we might best achieve them. I think I might need to mull this over in my head for a week or so in case any bright or useful ideas appear.
But for now? Tree lights, candles & fireside.
Stay cosy,
F x

HairyHandofDartmoor

I'm glad you enjoyed a peaceful and relaxed Christmas Foxgloves 🎅. Did you get some nice presents? There's something so lovely about relaxing and eating with family at Christmas, even a reduced number of them.

Well done on stretching the rubber turkey in so many different directions 😇. 

foxgloves

Hi HHoD, 
Yes, I did receive some lovely presents. We really enjoyed sitting by the fire in the afternoon & opening everything. We were always going to spend this Christmas at home, just the two of us - it wasn't a Covid-based decision. We skyped my sister, b-in-l & nephews on Christmas Day, when our younger nephew wss opening his presents from us, so that was nice. Mr F not back at work until after New Year, so we've got some more days together. Plasterer supposed to be coming next week, so plenty to do.
Hope you & yours are keeping well & enjoying your time together.
F x

Honeysucklelou2

That’s an impressive Turkey menu plan Foxgloves! We had  a fresh turkey crown from the local butcher about 12lbs in weight but I’m surprised by how little is left this year! We’ve had 2 roast meals out of it, some turkey, cheese and cranberry toasted sandwiches and there is enough for a pie or curry tomorrow. We are a big household including 2 teenage boys which probably accounts for why there is little left to freeze😉

crazy_cat_lady

Ah foxgloves - you'll be big budgeting as I'm sitting catching up on 2 months worth of your diary.
Belated Christmas wishes, and thanks for the amazing recipes you sent up to me. Hope all is well with you.

Onebrokelady

Sounds like the prefect Christmas to me 😊

foxgloves

Honeysucklelou - Oooh, those toasted sandwiches sound gorgeous... just my kind of thing.
CCL - Nice to see you back.... though I'm not sure catching up with two months of my ramblings is an optimum use of your festive relaxation time, lol
OBL - Yes, it was no different from how we were planning to spend Christmas this year, although were it not for Covid, we'd have invited a few people over between Christmas & New Year. Never mind, it's hopefully only one year.
F

foxgloves

Hello my little festive stuffing balls, 
Well, that's 2021's finances off the blocks. It's my Big Budget Day today, so I spent most of this morning reconciling December's figures & setting January's. Now I've been very open on here about my past poor relationship with money, & my overspending at Christmas led to some awful bank/card statements when January rolled around, & if anything, February's were even more eye-watering becaise I'd have made multiple visits to the sales by then, too. We both used our credit cards for purchasing gifts this year, but all these purchases were paid off using the funds saved in our Presents Pot. So today, all that was on Mr F's CC bill was petrol & a couple of items of planned spending. On my CC..... NIL balance!! Back in the day, having all our festive expenditure paid off by the end of December THE SAME YEAR would have been utterly unheard of. If anyone reading is anticpating those horrible Jan/Feb credit card bills of doom, but hasn't yet been brave enough to begin the debt-free journey, please do it! It won't all happen at once, but it is sooooo worth making the decision to change & to start getting things under control. Like many people on here, I hope I serve as proof that it is very definitely possible to change even very long-standing bad money habits.
Every new year since our LBM, Mr F & I have had a new year money summit. This year, there are so many things to discuss, I'm drafting an agenda, lol. One of our key discussions needs to be about how we can put more money into savings. I want to ensure that we are as stable as possible in these distinctly unstable times.
So that's 2021's first budget set, & now it's time to think about eating some of that turkey bhuna!
Stay cosy, hope none of you are flooded at home. I feel a little envious of all those who woke up to snow. 
Love F x