Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Baileys_Babe

foxgloves said:

we have been to look at new vinyl flooring this morning. Money-wise, it's covered from our Home Improvements Fund, but it's the usual dilemma of do we choose a cheaper option so as to spend less, or do we have something better quality which stands a chance of still scrubbing up decent in years to come when we will be looking to sell the house? I was glad I had Mr F with me as the 3 sample books I chose to bring home to test a few out are so big, I don't think I could have lugged them back to the car. I am thinking I do want to chose a good quality one for longevity, but will choose carefully as I always do these days, as mistakes can be expensive, can't they?

If I could afford to I would choose the higher quality flooring so you don't need to change it before selling the house, which in the long run should be better for your pocket and the environment.

Your garden has been productive today 😊

foxgloves

Yes, I think I am going to come to the same conclusion, @Baileys_Babe. We are not aiming to move house for a good few years yet, but I would rather not have to replace flooring again. I shall enjoy messing around with the sample books. 
F x

foxgloves

Hello Sunbeams (Ha! As if there's any sun! A proper grey day here, although not at all chilly)
You know those nights where you don't really sleep for long enough, but the sleep you do get is way too deep & you wake up feeling muggy-headed & addle-brained? Well, that's me today. I had such a long list of plans in my head for stuff I was going to achieve today, but the zonked feeling plus a long chat with my best friend (that was nice, of course) has rather poleaxed my intentions. 
On the MSE front, I've dealt with yesterday's veg pickings - 3 more containers of french beans prepped & frozen, aubergines sorted out into 'use tonight' & fridge, etc. I'm going to use the last of Sunday's roast chicken to make chicken & vegetable bhuna tonight & plan to serve it with home made garlic flatbreads from the freezer. I've done meal plans for next week, made a sourdough (just needs baking) & will make a start on the grocery shopping list as soon as I've made a cup of coffee. 
I've also done some surveys, updated our Personal Spends spreadsheet & made a list of the financial tasks I need to do regarding changing our car. I've transferred the money from savings to our current account so that is there in good time for the bank holiday when I think transfers & such can sometimes take an extra day. I've also investigated how to get a car tax refund which looks straightforward. I think our new vehicle comes with 12 months tax & although I know existing already-paid tax doesn't transfer to a new vehicle, I am aware that we will have paid for about 5 months we won't have used, so it's worth filling in the online form on the DVLA car tax refund section. 
Oh & while on the subject of saving money, I'm glad I didn't choose my new autumn make-up colours yesterday, as I found a voucher in my in-tray which I'd completely forgotten about, which is for £10 off a £20 spend for a make-up range I quite like, so I have put it in my purse tucked in with my loyalty card so I remember to look at their colour range next time I am in town.
Right, m'dears, I'm going to go & fire up the coffee machine & start that shopping list, then I think I'll get the curry sauce base part of tonight's meal made so it is less of a faff later. Today's garden pickings = 1 pepper & a bunch of coriander. No courgettes today, thank goodness, as we are still backed up with them.
F x

Pixiehouse55

Helloooo MrsF and gang. Lots more selling going on. New fb page with house declutter going on there to sale everything 
. Our people will,be leaving September 7th. Then let the mega selling begin. Not brought much food at the moment as we are living off the food in the 3 freezers fridges and cupboards. We've been so busy my fuchsias have been forgotten. Hubby normally pretty good at the watering but too much going on I think. So tomorrow I will be putting them out of the hanging baskets and in to pots and hope I can revive them. I seem to have a constant headache lately. Hubster snoring away as normal so I'm wide awake.
Keep smiling, and keep safe all of you. Keep up the good work in your gardens and your cooking etc. Tc xx

foxgloves

@Pixiehouse55 - You have such a lot on with your lifestyle change! Good idea to live off the food stores you already have in. I am determined to do that here too, throughout September. I think if you trim back your fuchsias, pot them up then water them with some dilute seaweed extract (my favoured one for years has been the well-known one in the brown bottle), they may well perk up. I find seaweed solution can often revive plants I think are on a one-way ticket to the compost heap. Worth a try. You'll want some nice fuchsias, etc, for the roof of that narrowboat!
F x

foxgloves

Hello Friday Frugalistas,
Big Budget Day here for me, so I've cracked on with that this morning. Reconciled August's budget first, as usual & made sure all transfers of funds were done before settling down to work on September's, so as to have an accurate starting figure. Budgeting a bit like comuputer programming in the sense that if you put rubbish in, you'll get rubbish out! No nasty surprises. I am very conscious of how much money we are spending atm, both with the imminent change of car plus all the continuing work on the house as part of our major home improvements project. All of this is properly budgeted for, so is not impacting on day-to-day household budgeting, but you know, I set our September budget this morning & I just had a real feeling of wanting to take a firmer grip of the day-to-day stuff. I think the reasons for this are that we are not yet where I want us to be by the end of October with our Presents Savings Pot (includes Christmas & several winter birthdays) and also, I have really got that 'new term' feeling that comes with the beginning of September. I am going to harness this feeling to re-assess practical things where I can be a bit more frugal/eco-friendly. They will only be small things - for example today I went to declutter a pile of old birthday cards & turned them into a shopping list pad & pretty gift tags. I also asked Mr F if he could caveman his way into an 'empty' body lotion bottle that has been sitting around for a while. As suspected, there was easily enough for at least a week's use in there, so I put the new body butter I was about to open back in my stash. We have been spending some large sums of money on the refurb works over the past 20 months or so & I am wondering if dealing with these much bigger sums than usual might be contributing to me taking my eye off the ball with a few of the little frugal activities. Well, I have so got that 'back to school/college' feeling today. I have budgeted around the usual amount for groceries during September, but I am going to see if Mr F is up for the challenge of eating from stores/garden produce so as to end the month with some leftover money I can add to the Presents Pot. Now that we have paid off the mortgage, there is obviously a feeling that we 'have more money' & of course we do, but at the moment, we are paying what we'd have spent on our monthly mortgage repayments into Savings. This is something we both want to continue, so as food prices/energy bills/petrol, etc, continue to rise, I want to revisit a few habits & processes to make sure we are not allowing any little wasteful ways to creep back in under the door.
And if any of it involves coloured pencils, that's even better!
(Newly re-frugalled) F xx

marionmgcars

I like the sound of new coloured pencils,  I've put them on my wish list for Christmas,  I was addicted to highlight pens, but now think its more eco friendly to have pencils and not contribute to the mountain of plastic going to landfill.  I'm busy working my way through the pen pot using up all the free pens we have been given before buying any refills for my pens.   Seems like a small win, but keeps me happy.

Blackcats

Hello Foxgloves - I agree that it's easy to get the scale of spends wrong.  I find myself focussing on small spends and being more easy going with big spends which is, of course, very dangerous.  I've noticed that since we have been released from captivity there is a temptation to spend in coffee shops and eateries that obviously wasn't there during lockdown.  I went to the seaside one morning and had a breakfast that was delicious and worth every penny, however, I find it disconcerting spending £5/£6 on a tea and a coffee where previously I used to think this was absolutely fine. 

foxgloves

@marionmgcars - Yes, I love coloured pencils. They were frequently on my Christmas wishlist as a child. My Mum was arty so she preferred buying us crafty stuff to whatever the latest craze toy was at the time.
Smiled when I read about you using up free pens. I am doing the exact same with free pencils! When I took voluntary redundancy, I cleared out all my work supplies which included heaps of promotional pencils which were part of the freebies at community events. I don't like wasting things, so I offered them around several colleagues, none of whom wanted any as they had their own stash. So packaged them up to send back to the person whose job role involved co-ordinating all the promotional stuff but when I mentioned them, he said not to bother as he had plenty. The solution offered was if nobody else wanted them to chuck them. Well, I love pencils & no way could I just bin perfectly new unused ones, so I brought them home & have been using them for 10 years! Yes, a small win, as I don't expect 10 years of pencil purchases would have amounted to much, but it was more of the satisfaction of being able to shop them from home & not send a perfectly good bag of new pencils to landfill! Win-win!
F x

foxgloves

@Blackcats - Yes, I think you & I are definitely both thinking along the same lines here re the small spends. Coffee shop expenditure is deducted from our Personal Spends. We have a Personal Spends allowance of £100 each per month. This might not sound like much, but it doesn't include clothes or things like concerts, opera, etc, which would instead be charged to our relevant Savings Pot. Like you, I have noticed that my Personal Spends tally is depleting more quickly now that we are no longer in Lockdown. As I am currently working on weight loss, I mostly (but not always) just have a coffee, but a coffee in town on a Saturday, then one on some or other outing on Sunday can be £5+ - there could be an additional visit during the week & it does add up over the month. I do like coffee shops, the social side of it, the little breather from shopping, the caffiene, etc, but I think it is important to maintain an awareness of the cumulative effects. That's one bonus of our Personal Spends spreadsheet......we can see exactly what we've been spending it on! I do always have some money left to carry forward to the next month (for instance £33 leftover this month), but it isn't as much as I had while we were less able to go out.
F x