Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Onebrokelady

foxgloves said:

Oh, you're another one then, @HairyHandofDartmoor, lol. Actually, I wonder whether the birthdate demographic would show up in a study of personal spending history in the UK. My overspending started when I left home & moved to a big city full of temptation. I was in debt from the age of 19 to my mid-40s. BUT.... & I'm not sure I'm explaining this too clearly..... in my early days of debt (starting Spring 1983), the only real borrowing available to me as a non-home owner was an overdraft - either an officially arranged one, or more usually in my case, an un-official unsanctioned one. I couldn't access a personal loan till a bit later & didn't start getting offered credit cards until the early 1990s. So I think our cohort came of spendy age at a time credit streams were opening up & we simply grew with them, any reigns on our spending loosening accordingly. Borrowing felt 'modern', more accessible & normal, so our parents' view of it, that it was the road to ruin, seemed old-fashioned & grandma-ish.
So there could just be something in those mid-1960s birthdates after all, who knows?
F x

This is so true,I've never had much money but always lived within my means or went without until the 90s when I got the first of many credit cards,it also coincided with me and the ex buying this house which seemed to send me over a spending precipice  

Debt_Me_Out_Of_Here

foxgloves said:

Just jotted down everything I would ideally like to get done tomorrow & honestly, it's a ridiculous amount of stuff. I think I may whittle it down to 3 jobs to which I can only add another one when I've crossed one off. This has worked well before because I am never going to be overwhelmed by a list with 3 things on it at a time.
Feel motivated already!
F

That's a good idea! I always overwhelm myself with ridiculously long lists!

foxgloves

It's not my idea, @Debt_Me_Out_Of_Here. It was either from another thread or a podcast, I can't remember which, as it was a long time ago. It does seem to work for me though. I have been busy all morning & not felt at all over-faced by my busy list, even though I do write another job on it as soon as I cross one off. I started on a blank piece of paper first thing & I can see how much further those crossed out jobs are moving down the page which is motivating in itself, as when I write a new one on, it means I have just crossed one off!
Hoping there will be a positive post from me later, as I do like to be productive.
F 

foxgloves

Well, I'm pleased to say that the '3-things at a time only' job list worked its magic & I had a productive day. I mended a dress, baked bread, pulled a big bundle of rhubarb which I made into a batch of chutney plus some compote for the freezer. Cut a big bunch of sorrel & made more soup (now frozen), had a good tidy-up, rigged up a little bit of outdoor protection for hardening off my bedding plants, made a list for town tomorrow, sorted out this month's current account 'sweep' into the ISA, popped out to vote, made a wishlist of book titles for the library & made a start on packing up my little HQ room ready for decorator's return next week. Also packed another bag of stuff to take to the charity shop tomorrow, finished bedspread square no. 97 /144 & cast on no. 98. 
I just want to read my book & sleep now, but I do like a good productive day, & still plenty of room clearing to do over the weekend. 
Take care, m'dears, 
F x

Debt_Me_Out_Of_Here

Wow it sounds like you've managed to squeeze a whole week into a day there, well done! 
Also I'm jealous of your rhubarb haha

foxgloves

Lol, the rhubarb has gone crazy. I think I will need to do another pick before too long. The compote is lovely - had some for lunch with a dollop of skyr - so that will reduce spending on fresh fruit a little. Might make some rhubarb & ginger jam at some point as it's a nice one for festive hampers.
F x

Blackcats

I like the 3 things at a time list.  It's so daunting seeing a great long list of tasks and I'm always tempted to spend more time writing the long list than actually tackling any tasks and/or choosing the easiest tasks just so I can cross them off the list.  

foxgloves

@Blackcats - That is exactly why I stopped writing detailed daily task lists. I love lists, & still do write them if I have loads on or it's a stressful time &I think I might forget things, but mostly now, I just plan a general shape to my week & what I'd like to have achieved by the end of it. I found increasingly that I'd write my daily list & it would look pretty impressive. I'd enjoy the crossings-off as I went along, but was finding that while I was certainly being very organised, the detailed lists were funnelling my activity towards lots & lots of quite routine things which would then fill up my day. Nothing wrong with that in itself, it's just that I found I wasn't moving forward on some of the bigger key projects I wanted to do. It took me quite a long time to recognise this because regularly seeing long lists with everything crossed out probably made me feel I was being more pro-active than I actually was, if that makes sense.
F

foxgloves

Oh my giddy trousers, what a day! All sorts of things I could tell you about today, but I would still be here typing into the night, so I'm sure I'll catch up over the coming days, etc.
Frugal greetings anyway, Diary Readers. Some sunshine here today but I have just seen the weather forecast for tomorrow, so I am not getting at all excited about gardening prospects over the weekend. 
Well, this afternoon, I was mad busy clearing out 'Foxgloves HQ' ready for the decorator's return next week & I found a time capsule!! OK, not one of those ones you see on TV where somebody digs up an ancient biscuit tin full of bits & bobs from year nineteen hundred & blob. Mine was a lot more modern that that. Firstly, can you remember me saying recently I needed to be careful with my Personal Spends for the rest of the month because I had some online orders to pay for? Well, I realised yesterday I'd under-estimated this, as I had actually forgotten that another order I placed for some household items also contained 2 things for me. So, there I was going through a desk drawer to remove stuff I'll need during the period I won't have a useable home office & right at the back was my old cash tin in which I used to keep my Personal Spends before the pandemic forced us all to go cash-free. We used to like our spends paid in cash each month but changed to a spreadsheet system as soon as it became clear that no-one (except our local market) seemed to be taking cash. I picked the tin up & it rattled. I thought I must just have left a bit of shrapnel in there, but when I opened it, there was the princely sum of £28. I hardly went out anywhere during Lockdown1, didn't need cash, we'd swapped our monthly Personal Spends to a non-cash system, so I forgot my tin even existed, let alone that I had some money left in it. It has been sitting in that drawer since March 2020. I said it was a time capsule, didn't I?! Suffice it to say that my purse is now £28 richer & I will make it through to the arrival of my June Spends without total coffee shop-denying hardship, for heaven forfend that I should have to forgo all opportunities for topping up of caffiene!
New oven due to arrive tomorrow morning. The old one is a bit of a symbol of the old pre-LBM attitude to money, which kind of annoys me - bit of a saga, really, but it can wait till tomorrow, or forever. It's knitting time as I aim to reach 100 squares / 144 by the end of this weekend.
Peace & stuff,
F xx

Sun_Addict

That £28 is a lucky find indeed.