Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Pixiehouse55

Hi Foxgloves and Gang 
WiFi is very hit and miss at the moment. We've spent a few days in Weymouth, visited  Mr Ps mum. Had a day in Chalmouth as we needed a fuse and a light for our motor home and they had what we wanted there( or so we thought) lovely walk on the beach with our dogs. Fuse wasn't the right one, got the one we needed in Weymouth today.
Survey done on our boat Saturday, paid the Surveyor and got the report yesterday. Lovely man said we were getting a good narrowboat for the price. A few minor problems but all in all its brilliant. Travelling back to Swanley Marina to meet up with owner of Squires and have a handover. Pay the man and Squires is ours!!!
Off to Sheffield on Saturday to see my nieces, then sort out getting the licence and a refresher one day course on the locks etc.
Hope you are all OK and behaving yourselves 🤣 Keep Safe and Take Care  X 

Humdinger1

Foxgloves just wanted to say, if I may, that somewhere, somehow your parents can see what you've done and are proud of you.  You truly make the world a better place, with your combination of humour, fairness and feet on the ground.   I know I'm just one of a posse of your devoted admirers.  Keep going, you're doing them and yourself huge credit.  Love Humdinger xx PS please can you give us some more stories of gothic monstrosities of spendiness? They make me howl like a wolverine and shake my head as I remember similar tales.  Did I ever tell you about the 20k bill I ran up on work expenses  not once, not twice, but three times? I got the expenses repaid but decided to keep the dosh in my current account each time....this was 30 years ago mind you and i finally learned my lesson.  I'll tell you about that another time. 

Four_Seasons

Hope you are ok Foxgloves after your flu jab, mine made poorly for a couple of days, think it met the two Covid jabs and they had a rave!! Take care x

foxgloves

@Pixiehouse55 - I'm sure you will both soon be whizzing through those locks like professional canal people. There were lock gates in the village where I grew up. The local lads used to hang around them & get chucked a 50p piece for opening them for the boat owners. Girls weren't encouraged to do it, needless to say, regardless of their stature or potential ability. Sexism defo alive & kicking in these rural areas in the late 70s - not many bras burned there! 

@Humdinger1 - Thanks. Glad you enjoy reading my diary. I think we've both clearly undergone major financial reformations, haven't we? Thank goodness you got that money paid back. Re money wasted in the past.....one of my vintage collectable 'investments' is sitting here right now, annoyingly taking up space, & with hindsight I probably wouldn't have bought any of them, let alone FIVE of the things! Ah well......I'll investigate whether I can make a few quid getting them sold. That's all it will be. Though as my Grandma used to say 'Better than a slap in the belly with a lump of wet cod'.

@Four_Seasons - Yes thanks, I am fine after my flu jab on Monday morning. My arm isn't as sore as usual, maybe those 2 Covid jabs toughened it up! I did feel very tired on Tuesday night & started wondering if it was a side effect kicking in, but then I remembered I'd had three consecutive nights of unhelpful early waking, so it was more likely to be that. Sorry to hear your jab made you feel poorly.

F x

foxgloves

Afternoon Campers,
I don't seem to be achieving as much this week as I kind of thought I would - a combination of people popping in for coffee, having a long meet-up in town yesterday with past colleagues, city centre trip on Sunday, town on Monday, etc, etc. I am telling myself that I still have all of tomorrow plus the weekend before the decorator returns to start next week with the last phase of our painting. I've baked bread, had a good tidy, sorted out payment to wheelie-bin cleaner (am new customer), sown two lots of sweet peas, made use of a very worthwhile voucher code & done a bit of typing (a project I am trying to get finished so as to be able to get rid of lots of piles of paper). No effort required re tonight's dinner as I put a stew in the slow cooker this morning, added potatoes to it mid-afternoon so it will simply be a case of serving it up later.
I've felt quite jittery about money since accepting the final home improvements quote earlier this week (the biggest one) but I have been through the figures twice & our budget can stand it. I know we will feel we have at least 'got some of the money back' on this when we finally come to sell the house when Mr F retires, because it will greatly enhance the 'kerb appeal'. For the rest of our time here, I know I will really enjoy the planned changes because I have hated how our front courtyard/drive looks pretty much ever since we moved in! I like gardening & had optimistically assumed I'd be able to transform it myself more than I actually could in reality. The current paving has been laid by numpties -  a 'Friday night' drive if ever I saw one - & we soon realised it would need ripping out .....we just didn't have the money to do it because you know what moneypits old houses are, you always have a list of things which are greater priorities. So Horrible Front Drive, your time has come......well, it will be 2022 for the actual work, & I'm sure we will think every penny was worth it. But I won't lie that I've had a few jitters about the spend, even though I know we have the budget to cover it.
It's dropping quite chilly now. I think I will have a trot upstairs & close the curtains. Thermostat still not being increased any time soon.
Cheers m'dears,
F x
 

Onebrokelady

Good to see all is well in Foxgloves land 😀I think treating yourself to the two dresses is a really good use of the clothing pot but I do have to say I think the walnut whips are going too far 😀😀

foxgloves

Lol, @Onebrokelady - have made peace with dress-buying (have worn one of them already) but depending on how I feel at the time, the walnut whips may not be going far enough! Those things are therapy, lol!
F x

foxgloves

Morning Campers, 
Just fortifying myself with coffee before heading off to town. Did my regular mid-month budget check-in yesterday & am confident that the figures are now correct. When I set October's budget at the end of last month, it looked - on paper - as though we had an extra £200. It was one of those occasions where I KNEW this could not possibly be the case, as I had topped up a couple of savings pots & paid into the ISA. I just couldn't see the error because all the figures worked. I'm still not sure exactly what the error was, but there was a complicated series of budget swaps involving a refund credited to my credit card & I also found a few quite large transactions on the cusp between 2 bank statements which had not been listed in the same order as I actually paid them. But the key thing is that unless Money Pixies had been secretly paying into our account, I did know that we could not possibly have that surplus £200.
My Dad was fond of saying of such things, "It'll all come out in the wash" & it's true that whatever it was, it's righted itself.
Of course back in the Spendy Years, (not that I ever budgeted back then), if I thought there was an extra £200 sculling around, I'd have spent it thrice over. Thank goodness those days are done, because if I'd spent it this time, I'd be borrowing it from savings pots. Back then, I didn't have those (saving was for wealthy people & squares) so it would have been another £200 onto my overdraft (which incidentally lasted 24 years!)
Ah well, caffeine imbibed... had better show my hair the straighteners & head out.
Enjoy your weekends all,
F x

MiMi66

Oh gosh, that made me laugh wryly, 'overdraft lasting 24 years.....' I have been that person with CC debt....Queen of the 0% shift!!
Am just reading up and catching up on threads since a rather long break away from the Forum. Nice to see familiar names, really quite a warm feeling.  🙂

foxgloves

Awww, welcome back @MiMi66 - I remember you. Hope you are OK.
F x