Put away your purse & become debt-averse

savingmore

£1.50 sounds very barganeous for a wooden darning mushroom.   this can be my ‘have to look’ objects for charity shop hunting.  walkways next need something to look for.  good excuse 🤣🤣🤣🤣

foxgloves

Well m'dears, Nothing of any interest to report. Another busy weekend which went something like this:
More tip runs
More stuff put up in loft
More storage boxes purchased
Carpet fitter appointment booked
New upstairs carpet almost chosen
Bedroom curtain pole purchased
Bread made
Two loads of laundry
Ironing done
Mr F planted seed potatoes
Vacuumed upstairs
Made a vague plan of stuff I'd like to get done over the coming week.
F x

Pixiehouse55

savingmore said:

£1.50 sounds very barganeous for a wooden darning mushroom.   this can be my ‘have to look’ objects for charity shop hunting.  walkways next need something to look for.  good excuse 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I have got a wooden darning mushroom, I found it in my late mums sewing box. Doubt I would ever use it, guess I'm keeping it for sentimental  reasons. Are people darning their socks now? 

Pixiehouse55

Hi Mrs F and gang
How be your all? What gorgeous weather we have been having. My Bluebells are out in flower and my primroses. Put some sweet peas seeds in a pot today and some Dahlia seeds, fingers crossed. Off to a garden centre to get a large pot for the other Japanese maple and a Fuchsia or two. I lost a lot last year to Gall mite.  Back garden beginning to look a bit tidier. Hubby has sorted out his trees that he is growing for Bonsais and put them up on the garage roof... He has to decide soon what he is doing with them all!! He has two Horse Chesnuts made into Bonsai that are over 20 years old!!  Front garden is now looking tidy and I painted the fencing. Best get to bed have to be up early to give my lady her shower, our man John is self isolating as he is in hospital Wednesday as a day patient to have another procedure. He is doing really well now, its been a hard battle but we are getting there now. Good night, keep safe X 

foxgloves

Yes, I do darn socks, @Pixiehouse55, because most of them are handknitted so I like to keep them going, having put in the hard work making them. 
You have been busy again, esp in your garden. Perhaps you could save a favourite bonsai to have on top of your narrow boat?
Glad to hear your John is improving. It's been a long time for him.
F x

Pixiehouse55

foxgloves said:

Yes, I do darn socks, @Pixiehouse55, because most of them are handknitted so I like to keep them going, having put in the hard work making them. 
You have been busy again, esp in your garden. Perhaps you could save a favourite bonsai to have on top of your narrow boat?
Glad to hear your John is improving. It's been a long time for him.
F x

Helloo Mrs Foxgloves. Yes weve been knitting our own socks, so I best keep the mushroom for darning.  We have agreed that we can have a couple of plants each.. that means 2 Bonsais for him, 2 fuchsias for me AND 2 orchids?? That's fair isn't it 🤣😂  I've had my hair cut and coloured today and I feel good 😊  Dinner ready. See you all later xx

foxgloves

Hello Sunbeams,
Oh my days, today has been crazy. First time I've sat down except for 20 mins at lunchtime to eat my tuna wrap. Decorator here doing final day on main bedroom. He had kindly agreed to fit our new blind as we were nervous about drilling into newly decorated walls. It was a made to measure blind & we had measured really carefully as they are non-returnable but it was slightly too big because our house is 85 years old & the window recess isn't quite straight. He really went the extra mile for us altering things until it fitted. It was very good of him, as he didn't charge for his time & it took ages. So I was doubling up as blind-fitter's assistant for the 3rd time with both my arms up in the air when I spotted a big delivery lorry pulling up outside with our new wardrobes, etc. 6 very large heavy boxes in total, nowhere to put them as bedrooms are chaos. Driver adament two boxes missing so that was a bit of faff checking what had arrived but it is all here.
So they went on their way & I managed the luxury of actually going for a wee before the carpet man arrived for measuring up, having to squeeze past my barricade of massive boxes. Made some chicken soup when he'd finished, did next week's meal plans & shopping list, washed our bedroom chandalier & spent an hour in the greenhouse dealing with the plant carnage caused last night by a really very naughty blackbird indeed. 
Tomorrow I will have the house to myself. I can hardly wait! 
Hope everyone well & soldiering on. 
F x

foxgloves

Hello diary friends,
It is soooooo quiet today. Apart from Postie knocking at the door to deliver a package of magazines gifted from a kind person, I have been completely enjoying the peace after the chaos of yesterday. We have managed to reduce the size of one of the 6 enormous boxes as we removed the packaging from one of them last night. Well, I'd have to say it was well-packed......we started unboxing at 9pm & it took us an hour (both of us!) cutting off tape, removing huge quantities of polystyrene, etc, before we could finally ease it (large chest of drawers) out of its box. I can now just about fit between it & the piano so as not to neglect my playing between now & post-carpet-fitting when we can finally get it upstairs.
So (that was a digression....), today I have been catching up with my normal running of the household activities. Mostly so far, this has been updating budgets, paying decorator's most recent invoice & working through a few projections of what the Home Improvements Fund will look like once the carpets have been paid for, a much-needed new oven, external brickwork repairs, etc. It does look as though we will have enough left to pay for a new front courtyard, which would be a positive thing as we both loathe the current one......it looks like it was laid by someone utterly unacquainted with the spirit level & is just a horrible weed magnet. I am glad I learned to budget properly before having to manage this additional sum of money, as obviously the same principles apply.
Have also caught up on admin, including clearing emails & doing any available surveys. I was eligible for a cash-out on one site, so have printed off a £10 J*hn Lewis voucher, as they always come in useful.
Am hoping to hear from carpet people today re our quote. I know they will be really busy with having been closed for so long, so I am going to give them until tomorrow lunchtime, then chase it, as out first room fitting is due on Mon, so I do need to know the cost.
Mr F has just phoned me (about something else) on his lunch break & announced that he's intending another tip run this weekend (3rd weekend running) so I am going to have my eye out for anything else, that we've so far overlooked which could usefully be on its way. 
Blackbird has been naughty again......had tipped a marginal pond plant over (it is now pot-less floating in the middle of the pond) in the never-ending search for wriggly critters to eat. Conveniently for her, the pot fell in such a way as to create a dam, trapping all the tadpoles in a very shallow area just perfect for being pecked off one by one. Hmmmm. Birds are so clever. Luckily I spotted this before too much gobbling had gone one & have moved the pot to free them. I don't know where the expression 'bird brain' came from, as I think they can be very smart. I watched a pair of jackdaws visit our groundfeeder table recently. They walked around it, giving it a good look, then one of them put his foot down hard on one edge to tip it over. He then proceeded to eat all the food which fell off it, while the other one took advantage of the tipped up table by snarfing all the bits of food underneath it. I love our garden birds, but I am having to try & stay one step ahead of them this year!
Right m'dears, enough of my yakking. Must crack on with some more jobs.
Take care all,
F x

foxgloves

Another frosty lawn & frozen bird bath this morning, but beautiful sunshine now & I am on my way down the garden to get a few much needed jobs done.
Hello Frugal Diary Friends,
Well, although I have had a lovely coffee break chatting with my sister on Skype, the rest of the morning has been quite busy sorting out carpet shop deposit, booking in firm dates & then of course, being in a position to update the Home Improvements Budget projections I did yesterday. So I spent a bit of time updating those & getting all the fittings/delivery dates into my diary & I am now feeling confident it is all organised & the budget is where it should be. I am just sorting out a cheque to pop into the building society tomorrow (am still trying to maintain the 'monthly current account sweep' into the ISA, but not as generous as the last couple of months when there was no council tax/water bill to pay). That will hopefully be my final financial task for today. I have got bread in the oven.....just starting to smell nicely crusty & I intend to make the tomato & lentil soup I didn't get round to making yesterday. Dinner is almost done, as I have defrosted a tamale pie base I made a week or two ago & will only need to beat up the cornbread topping for it. Mr F is on a half day today & is stopping off to do the grocery shopping on his way home.
So.......Yours Truly will very soon be heading down the garden. I intend to do some much needed watering - first time the hosepipe will have come out this year, but I have plants in my borders which are starting to droop now, following days & days without rain. I have a few things which need repotting, plus spring onion troughs to fill & sow. If I could just get those tasks done this afternoon, I'd be delighted. If I also got some more salad sown & progressed a bit of weeding, that would be proper fab! I must top up the pond too, as the lower level is facilitating naughty blackbird raids on tadpole population. I have put stacks of food out for them today. There's something for everyone: Apple halves, a fat block with berries in, peanuts, seed mix, meal worms & toast crumbs. There really is no need for anyone to be stealing tadpoles!
Oh, that is the pinger to tell me the loaf is ready to come out of the oven, so I shall say 'bye' & crack on with my jobs.
Take care now,
F x

foxgloves

Hello Sunbeams,
Another busy day. Town 1st thing for fresh fruit & veg, butcher, paying in April's account skim to ISA & dropping off charity shop bags. Had coffee in the courtyard of our fave cafe & felt almost normal.
Garden all afternoon. Sowed a big trough each of spring onions, red spring onions & rocket. Also set up this year's watercress bowl of pots & sowed that too. Did some weeding & then helped Mr F get everything packed in the car ready for an early tip run tomorrow. Most of it this time is packaging from the new bedroom furniture. 4 items & the packaging, esp horrible polystyrene, has filled an entire car! 
My hands are feeling stiff now so I am having an hour on my pondside bench with my book. 
Hope everyone's seen some sunshine today. 
F x