Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Well, it doesn't sound a lot, @Sun_Addict - it's the sort of sum I would  fritter in seconds on assorted unnecessary tat back in the Spendy Era, but it was indeed a lucky find today. In fact, it has pretty much doubled the remaining balance of my Personal Spends this month. I'm pleased with my purchases though, I've been 'wearing in' my new sparkly sandals today, as it does take a few wears to get used to toe-posts again. 
F

cbsexec

Love a part of toe post sandals - hate the first time you wear the after winter 😀 ouch

cbsexec

I meant pair !

foxgloves

I do too, @cbsexec. You are right though about that first time of wearing. Despite decades of toe-post styles, I always have to start again with wearing them in ready for summer. 
F

foxgloves

Afternoon Rainy Moneysavers,
It hasn't stopped raining since first looked out of the window this morning at about 6.40. So soggy. No gardening today for sure.
The new oven arrived bright & early. Our old one was in poor repair & we had intended to replace it ages ago, delayed it once we knew out home improvements project was a goer, then further delays from the pandemic as the one we wanted went out of stock & the company had paused its usual gas fitting/old appliance removal service. I am glad to be rid of the old one. It has 'done the job' but at 18 years old, it was a purchase from the Spendy Decades & had become a sort of symbol of our silly behaviour. For instance, I ordered it from a big Home Shopping catalogue as we had no savings & I needed to do this so as to be able to buy it on credit. It was expensive.....I probably could have got it for around £100 cheaper by not using expensive mail order catalogues but it wouldn't have occurred to me to shop around. Oh, & as we had no money, I also ordered a stainless steel cooker hood (which has never worked to any effect as the cooker is in the wrong place to vent steam outside) & a big shiny stainless steel splashback. When it arrived, it very soon developed a problem with the top oven, rendering it unusable except for a grill. It was under guarantee, but we didn't bother contacting the company about this until almost the expiry date. A gas engineer arrived & fixed the problem, but within a couple of weeks, it stopped working again. We we still paying for the thing, so really should have phoned again & complained but we didn't bother & within the year, the silver coating on the control knobs started flaking. Contacted company to request new ones, which were duly sent & we fitted them. By the following year, the same thing had happened again & we had also discovered another issue. When we cleaned the front of the oven - the control panel section with the knobs- which obviously gets splashed with oil, boiling jam, you name it, we discovered that if we used anything stronger than say, washing-up liquid on a cloth, the enamel coating would start coming off. This meant we couldn't clean this prominent part of the oven properly & it started looking very shabby as there were patches of missing enamel plus dirty enamel we couldn't clean properly without making the situation worse. Then the silver-coated bits of the control knobs which had now flaked back to bare plastic started falling off, so we removed & binned them. By now, not the lovely looking oven we imagined!
I mentioned to the fitter this morning how nice the stainless steel looks on the new one & that we had, had problems with the poor build on the control panel on the old one.  He knew about these problems & said we'd had one of the models with the dodgy enamel. Apparently lots of people who bought them insisted their ovens were changed for a different model as there were features not up to standard. 
Now this really does beg the question, as Mr F & I are both articulate, assertive people, why did we not complain properly when the first fix on the defunct top oven didn't work. This was a sufficiently cr*ppy purchase for us to have a replacement or a refund. We spent a lot of money on this item & it very much fell below expectations. There is absolutely no way I would allow this to happen now. I haven't grown any more assertive during the intervening years. I think the change has been my attitude to money. Since the LBM, learning how to budget, facing up to the fact that I couldn't carry on living beyond my means every single month, the thought of spending around £800 for the main component to fall so short of what any reasonable customer should expect......well, if it happened now, I would be onto that company every day if that's what it took. I think this was just another example of neither of us realising the value of money. We were both very organised at work & wouldn't have wasted a penny of the budgets we managed professionally, the imprudence was only with our own finances. What a wasteful pair we were. I know it might sound silly as I try to explain it, but that oven sat there as a reminder of our past behaviour because it looked shoddy, it didn't work fully & couldn't be cleaned properly and ALL of that was because we didn't take remedial action.
I have to say that I felt glad to see it loaded onto the lorry for removal. Yes, I've cooked heaps of nice things on it over the years, so it has served its basic purpose, but its wider story was a reminder of long-left behind poor money habits.
Still raining. Can't believe we still have the heating on in MAY, for goodness sake. Unheard of! Time to snug up under a knitted throw with my book, I reckon.
Take care, all.
F x  

Onebrokelady

I've still got my heating on too,I'm hoping this weather now means we are going to get a good hot June,July and August plus a decent September too 😊

carrielovesfanta

Oooof I know what you mean about the heating! Icouldn't decide whether it was down to 
a: We are at home instead of work so need to be warmer
b: We now have a thermostat and a boiler that switches on when you like so we are using it more freely
c: We are just being pathetic
d: It's really cold

I think it's probably a combo of all of the above. I know for a fact though that it was only 15.5 degrees c in our living room the other morning which is def on the nippy side.

Baileys_Babe

Our heating is off, but we are lighting the fire more frequently than we usually do at this time of year. In the office where OH works we have a tiny oil filled plug in radiator on virtually constantly to keep it comfortable to work in.

@carrielovesfanta 15.5°c I find is good in the bedroom, but chilly in the living room 🥶

HairyHandofDartmoor

Our heating is off but I'm sitting under a blanket again and wearing my fleece jacket indoors again. The weather is certainly variable, but reminds us of the old saying about not casting a clout until May is out. My mum said she was made to wear her liberty bodice until the end of May but used to take it off as soon as she got to school. She was always a bit of a rebel  😂. 

What an amazing find that £28 was, I would get very excited about something like that. I hope your carpet fitting goes well next week and that your new oven is a testiment to careful choosing and spending.

foxgloves

Thanks all, at least it's not just me then! To be fair, it has been warmer today. I think I will aim to switch off radiators this week.
@HairyHandofDartmoor - Yes, much more sensible choosing this oven, & after the problems with the last one, we avoided anything with a similar finish. I was delighted to find that £28. If I were to run out of personal spends this month, I could theoretically cash out my PA survey earnings but I aim to avoid that unless I absolutely have to buy something, because I want to build it up & cash out in December again.
Enjoyed reading everyone's comments - thanks.
F x