Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Pixiehouse55

I put a recommendation on Facebook for a painter/decorator as hubby is 66 and suffers with neck problems.  One bloke replied but he is busy till May!!! . So I'm still looking, Weve always done it ourselves, want it done ready to put the house on the market hopefully in July/August time.  
Well it's been a lovely sunny day today so I've got washing dried, ironed and put away. Then I sat and done a bit of knitting and watched a film. Hubby cooked a fab roast chicken dinner..  keep safe everyone.  X 

savingmore

my daughter in law went into her lounge recently and most of the ceiling was on floor.  lath plaster....now it’s all new and done, won’t happen again!

foxgloves

Pixiehouse - I think it is that time of year when we are all thinking about getting on with house jobs. I have got a local decorator coming over tomorrow to discuss the job & hopefully give us a reasonable quote.
Savingmore - Oh yes, it's terrible old stuff when it gets to the crumbly stage. At my old house, the worst lath ceiling was in my bedroom. So many cracks had been filled, you could lie in bed & follow them, like a maze. When Mr F moved in with me, he didn't think it looked all that stable & bunged a load more filler in, but it was an endless task, really. I expect the chap who bought the house from me will have had the ceilings replaced as he was very keen to rip everything out & 'develop' the property to make some money.
F

foxgloves

Evening dear readers,
Hope you've all got off to a decent start to the week. Chilly here, compared to the lovely bright weekend & foggy this morning. Quite a productive day on the whole - up at 6 a.m & 2 loads of laundry done. That's it for the week. I was hoping to peg out but it looked so damp with the fog, that I got the heated airer out instead. It holds two loads, so I shall only need to use the electricity to run it today & overnight, as it should all be dry by tomorrow morning. No need to cook for tonight as Mr F made a lovely pie from the 'Pinch of Nom' book yesterday & there was enough for two days. He did have 100g mince left over though, which he didn't put in as we are trying not to take the mickey with portions/calories, etc, atm, so I did a little bit of useful cooking first thing  & made it into a tamale pie base for the freezer. I shall only need to make up the cornbread topping & it will feel like a free meal. I also fancied soup for lunch so I made a big pan of leek & potato and put some in the fridge for our lunch tomorrow as well, plus some for the freezer. So some useful frugal activity there, but not a no-spend day, as have ordered a few household items but I qualified for free postage (without the dilemma of being tempted to order something extra to make up the amount, which always annoys me!) & I also had a £10 voucher which meant that two of the items were effectively 'free'. I also ordered myself some new plain black leggings as my old ones aren't fit for much more than gardening & I like to wear black leggings with tunic-type dresses so wanted something a bit smarter. 
I did a survey, so am now up to over £15 on Pr*lific & am intending to do nothing more energetic this evening than watch TV & knit a blanket square (53 / 144).
So as my Dad used to say, "I shall love you & leave you". Enjoy your evenings, talk to you soon.
F x

foxgloves

Evening m'dears,
I just don't know where today has gone. We had a late appointment with a painter & decorator to discuss the work we want done & my intention was to get lots done earlier in the day. I have sorted the dry laundry, ironed, fed my sourdough jar ready to mix up a loaf tomorrow, done a very little piano practice, taken a colander of scraps down to the worm composter, cleared a few emails, done some surveys & knitted a blanket square (54 / 144).That doesn't feel very industrious. Hoping to move a few garden jobs on tomorrow. 
F x

Onebrokelady

foxgloves said:

Evening m'dears,
I just don't know where today has gone. We had a late appointment with a painter & decorator to discuss the work we want done & my intention was to get lots done earlier in the day. I have sorted the dry laundry, ironed, fed my sourdough jar ready to mix up a loaf tomorrow, done a very little piano practice, taken a colander of scraps down to the worm composter, cleared a few emails, done some surveys & knitted a blanket square (54 / 144).That doesn't feel very industrious. Hoping to move a few garden jobs on tomorrow. 
F x

Thats a lot more industrious than I've been today 😀I've done a few things but mainly been sitting on my well padded bum all day 

foxgloves

OBL - I hear you. I think lockdown motivation is harder to find this time round. I was up at 6am today, have pottered around doing a few bits, but I've just delivered myself a big 'kick up the bum' talking to re upping my productivity. Outdoor jobs first, I think, for a dose of fresh air & birdsong. Hopefully I'll be reporting in later with a list of achievements.
F x

marionmgcars

I have tried to motivate myself by having 5 things listed in my diary/journal to do the next day.  It really helps me to get motivated on a morning, so I can relax more and read or knit when I have them all ticked off my list.  x

foxgloves

That's a good clear method to follow, Marionmgcars. I always used to do a daily job list, but found that I was listing the same routine tasks each day, getting great satisfaction in crossing them off, but it kept tending to be the bigger 'moving things forward' jobs which were falling off the bottom each time. I do still use a '3 things only' list strategy when I am under stress. I think I will experiment with a weekly list made each Sunday night which maps out where I hope to be with more significant tasks/projects by the end of that week.
F x

foxgloves

Hello diary readers,
Pleased to report a better day today for achievements. I've just noticed my hands are all chapped again from all the washing plus the cold weather, so I must go & slather on the hand cream as soon as I've finished chatting on here.
Had planned lots of garden/seed sowing jobs today, but once I got out there, it was clear that it was just too cold. I soon couldn't feel my hands even though my gardening gloves are quite padded & my legs were all a-shiver (OK, that was down to me.....short dress). So I just sowed my tomato seeds as they were heading straight back indoors to go in the heated propagator. I was pleased that the 'average of 12 seeds' stated on the packet turned out to be 15. That wouldn't generally matter at all with flower seeds, but sowing 3 extra tomatoes will improve the odds if any decide not to grow or to turn up their toes early doors. If they all flourish, well, those 3 extra tiny seeds could produce several lbs of extra tomatoes. My baby chillies were ready for potting up, so I did that & by the time I'd finished & had a coffee wrapped up outside on our coffee bench, that was most of the morning gone. While I was potting up in the kitchen & listening to my audiobook, I was thinking how gardening just lends itself to recycling - there really isn't the need to spend a fortune at garden centres, even though I mustn't be a hypocrite, as back in the day, I spent a fortune there most weekends (often on the way home from an already spendy excursion to an antique/flea fair!) I sowed two types of chilli, each in a recycled plastic tray from some tofu - a perfect size, just needed a few holes poked in the base. I have potted them up in little flower pots I wash & use every year. They will now grow on upstairs on a bedroom windowsill, so they needed to stand in something to prevent water & soil leaking out. I made my own perfectly-sized saucers by cutting down plastic skyr pots, so each potted chilli baby is now sitting in one of those, with their labels either washed & recycled from previous years' supplies or cut from empty plastic spread tubs. My dibber for this job was an old knitting needle....an odd one in a bundle I inherited from Mr F's Nan years ago. The tomato seeds were also sown in an empty spread tub with a few holes in it. I find these the perfect size for fitting maximum veggie seeds in my propagator. At the moment, I also have aubergines & peppers in there. One aubergine has poked its head up, but the peppers aren't bothered yet. Cucumbers will be sown mid-month & squeezed in for some heat somehow.
Other things today: Re-visited next week's meal plans & wrote grocery shopping list. During the pandemic, Mr F has mostly stopped off to get our shopping on a Thursday night on his way home from work. It's worked well, as he is going past anyway, has the car & unlike Fridays & weekends, doesn't need to queue to get in. Small list this week. I am also going to cross off coffee unless there is a spectacular offer, as we have plenty in. I've baked a nice crusty white sourdough, testing out some different flour which the local(ish) miller swapped into my order at the cheaper price of my usual flour - it rose well, so will be interesting to try it. I've done a bit of work on a project this afternoon & almost finished another blanket square (55 / 144). I'd intended to go for a bike ride, but the motivation wore off as the day progressed & I did unexpectedly need to wait in for a parcel too. Maybe tomorrow.
OK, m'dears, must crack on,
Take care all of you,
F x