Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Thanks for all the additional birthday well wishes - what a kind bunch you are. Yes, I did enjoy my day, thanks - quite simple, we just spent it together, but we did manage to meet up with friends the previous day & went out again on the actual day to one of our favourite places. It was very chilly, but lovely to get out. 

@Pixiehouse55 - You have been busy again, especially with all your training. I hadn't picked up that your house is going on the market so soon. Have you found a narrowboat yet? How exciting!
I have to sow my sweetpeas in October, as for some reason, my Spring-sown ones never seem to thrive. 
F x

foxgloves

Hello Icicles - Honestly, what ridiculous weather for the end of April. Icy cars here again this morning & frost on the lawn. My greenhouse plants will be much happier when we start getting more seasonal night time temperatures. As for today? Well, the sun took a brief look around lunchtime & decided not to bother. Huge black clouds over the village now, although the garden is very dry & grateful for the showers.
My Big Budget Day today. Felt a bit muzzy from half a bottle of cava last night & way too much sugar, but managed to crunch my way through the numbers. It's looking OK, despite May always feeling like an expensive month on the bills front. I think this is simply because we are obviously back to paying council tax & water bills (from last month) plus a quarterly TV licence payment & our English Heritage subscription are due too, so they bump the May bills total up by quite a chunk. We received a £75 credit for some gig tickets - cancelled due to Covid, of course, so I have paid most of that into the Leisure/Entertainment savings pot ready for when it is safe to book concerts again. I also paid the Clothes & Presents savings pots. The rest are ok at the moment. I've left my usual buffer zone in case of anything that comes up (as well as any bits of duff accounting on my part!) & was pleased to see I will be able to sweep another £200 payment into the ISA. 
I received a £5 birthday voucher from the B*dy Shop loyalty scheme & as I already had another voucher waiting on my account, I have been able to order my favourite moisturiser & a new lipstick & eyeliner with £10 off. I also qualified for free delivery & a free gift (a shower gel of my choice). I haven't bought a new lipstick for over a year. Unbelievable for me! Just shows how little I am going out......& when I do, of course I'm wearing a mask. 
Our bedroom is pretty much finished now. The new carpet & furniture look so nice & shows just how shabby our old stuff had become. I so enjoyed arranging my clothes, shoes & bags, etc. The only two things left to do are for me to make some new curtains - I already have the fabric - as although we have a blind, I prefer curtains too. Also, we are going to choose one of Mr F's photographs - he has taken some lovely close-up shots of flowers, etc, over the years, & have it blown up onto a large canvas for the bedroom chimney breast. I think this will feel a lot more personal to us & will probably work out a fair bit cheaper than me being tempted in interiors type shops/local galleries. Next plan of campaign will be to empty out the back bedroom (where we were camping) ready for the carpet fitters coming on Tues. Then we have a week to empty 'Foxgloves HQ' before the decorator returns to get it stripped & painted. We started our home improvements project in January last year. We knew it was a big one, but I don't think we thought it would stretch out such a long way into this year. I think that was naivety on my part, as obviously we've had to tie in with builders & workmen schedules and the pandemic has also slowed things down, as did the jackdaw nest in the chimney & other things beyond our control. But we are getting through it, I am managing the budget for it carefully, & we will get there.
Well, I've been at my desk for ages, so I am going to have a tidy-up now, put the greenhouse to bed, make tomorrow's packed lunch & decide how best to use my time tomorrow. 
Love to all,
F x

Blackcats

How lovely to have got your bedroom done.  I bet your fingers will be knitting even quicker than usual to get your bedspread ready.  The photo onto a canvas sounds like a good idea.  In my spendy years I bought a few limited edition paintings and other fancy artwork from a local art shop.  I have no idea what the heck I thought I was doing spending £200 - £300 on a painting when in reality I had absolutely no disposable income of my own (I.e. not a credit card or a loan).
anyway most of these ended up wrapped up and stored away in the garage years ago.  I got some of them out a few months ago and have out them up in the house where they look nice and freshen up the rooms.  

foxgloves

I also have a selection of pictures stored away, @Blackcats. I think it would be worth me having a good sort through them to see what can be used for a free change of 'look'. I did add one to the charity shop bag last week though. And yes, it was from the height of my obsession with going to vintage fairs. I bought several pictures from this particular stall & I don't have a single one of them on display at the moment. Another category of past spending which all added nicely to the never-ending overdraft. 
F

scandimore

Glad to hear the bedroom is pretty much there, sounds lovely! I suppose emptying all the rooms is a good time to de-clutter too although it seems you're quite on top of that normally. We're on with our hall landing and stairs, got the quote from the decorator -  2.3K - eek! So we've cut it in half and are doing the woodwork ourselves. It is a dear do isn't it but hoping that professional finish is worth it!!
Good luck with emptying the other bedroom and foxgloves HQ - hopefully won't be without your base for long.

Onebrokelady

Belated birthday greetings Foxgloves,I'm glad you enjoyed your day 😊and how lovely  to have your bedroom finished 😊

foxgloves

Yes, it's lovely to be back in our bedroom, @Onebrokelady, though it will be better when I've made the new curtains.

@scandimore - Yes, it's actually the first time we've ever paid for professional painting & decorating. I think our hall/stairs/landing must be a lot smaller than yours though, because our decorator has quoted us a figure I can't quite remember but it is under £900. That's for stripping off old wall & ceiling paper, re-lining with wallrock & painting, plus doing the woodwork, fitting a new door handle & repairing an area of skirting near the front door. It's not a very big area, but it is high. Badly needs doing. It will be a huge improvement, but it won't be done until late summer.
Fx

Pixiehouse55

foxgloves said:

Thanks for all the additional birthday well wishes - what a kind bunch you are. Yes, I did enjoy my day, thanks - quite simple, we just spent it together, but we did manage to meet up with friends the previous day & went out again on the actual day to one of our favourite places. It was very chilly, but lovely to get out. 

@Pixiehouse55 - You have been busy again, especially with all your training. I hadn't picked up that your house is going on the market so soon. Have you found a narrowboat yet? How exciting!
I have to sow my sweetpeas in October, as for some reason, my Spring-sown ones never seem to thrive. 
F x

Hi Foxgloves. Yes all being well our house will go on the market in July. Hubby is 66 then and can retire. Busy getting the last few jobs done. Nothing major now, a bit of decorating and tidy up. Weve been looking about for a narrowboat, not seen anything that's really hit out at us yet. We are thinking or either renting for a few months when we can have the time to properly look around or buying a cheap camper van/motor home to live in, whilst travelling around viewing boats. That's the plan.  Can't wait, wish we could do it now!!  X

Blackcats

Foxgloves, I've also just spent (wisely) my body shop £5 birthday voucher recently.  I suspect we are very, very close in age so there was probably a spendy spell cast over female children born in that month and year.  In other words none of it was our fault, it was something to do with the stars/planetary alignment when we were born. 

foxgloves

@Blackcats - Lol, yes, that's it! We could be under a malign astrological influence simply because of our birth! All those spendy years weren't our fault after all! Feel better already!
F x
(1964 by the way)