Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

I think I will enjoy planning how to knit up my stash, CCL. I nearly bought a hairband today, but put it back as it occurred to me I can knit something similar & then it will be free!

foxgloves

Enjoyed our city centre trip yesterday & was able to buy all the Christmas presents on my list. Tomorrow I intend to have a good sort out, transfer some funds & sort out the final things I need. It won't shock anyone who has read tales of my Spendy Years to hear that I used to be a big festive overspender. I love Christmas & used to get carried away with present buying, decorating paraphernalia (encouraged by all the home/interiors type mags I used to buy) & of course, the sales. By the end of January, I'd be worried about my cards being refused every time I tried to use them & by the end of February, my finances would be close to melt-down & the recalcitrant Light Bulb would have a little flicker for a week or two. Oh my days, I couldn't go back to that! I choose the gifts I buy carefully & put things away all year. This has meant that this year, I already had everything for 3 of my 'present list' people. Like everything, a good list is key to avoid the wandering around shopping centres trying to come up with ideas - that's what used to be so expensive when I was Spendy......buying a gift, then seeing something better & buying that too. And just silly wastes of smaller amounts of money too, on things like nice rolls of gift wrap & cards, without checking at home to see what I'd got left first. I much prefer how I do things now. Whether people celebrate Christmas as the birth of the son of their god or the older midwinter festival of Yule (as we do) or just a nice few days off work enjoying family time, it shouldn't be about greed & falling deeper into debt. One of the gifts I most get asked for is a box of my home made fudge - just 5 ingredients & all from Aldi.......says it all, doesn't it, as I would have gifted expensive boxes of chocolates in the past.
Oh well, must crack on, am determined to put a couple of hours into clearing the garden this morning. Am so behind with that since Mum became ill & all that followed.
Love from F xx

Honeysucklelou2

Enjoy the garden, always a great place to be!

foxgloves

It did my mood a lot of good, Honeysuckle.......I spent the morning in the greenhouse. I pruned back the grapevine, cleared & swept & arranged all my tender pots of plants (agapanthus, mostly) in there, out risk of the frost. I re-used two empty grow bags from summer crops to top up a couple of tired looking beds & sowed sweet peas. One packed of seed was 'Sow before 2014'. I found it stuck down behind a chest of drawers while I was sorting out some of Mum's furniture. I thought I may as well give them a chance....I've lost nothing if they don't germinate, but might have a few extra blooms if they do. I also tidied up my troughs of rocket & wasabi rocket, as both those are still cropping, so have put up on greenhouse bench so I can easily get to them when I want a bit of salad. Mr f is planning an epic bonfire tomorrow night, so was really busy sawing overhanging branches off the apple tree, something he's been wanting to do for ages. He also picked up a lot more windfall apples & requested a crumble next weekend, so that's dessert sorted when I get round to the next lot of meal planning. I always think autumn is very much the start of the gardening year, not the end of it, so it was lovely to get outside today & enjoy a bit of physical work & fresh air. Have brought the worm composter under cover too, so must get that sorted out over the coming week.
4 ebay sales wrapped too, & another 10 items listed, so it's feeling like a useful day. Time to get my feet up with my book now, though!
F x

joedenise

What recipe do you use for your fudge Foxgloves? There are so many different ones on the internet. Also how long does it keep once made?

Thanks.

Denise

Kantankrus_Mare

Oooh yes.......I'd love to have a go at fudge. Never made it before.

foxgloves

Hi you two, mine is very simple. Just ordinary granulated sugar, butter, milk, evaporated milk & vanilla extract (or whatever flavour I'm making). There are a lot of recipes around which are quite possibly yum, but aren't really proper fudge, as they rely on a high proportion of chocolate to set it. If it doesn't involve hard boiling a sugar/butter/dairy combination till setting point, it isn't really fudge in my opinionated view! I often make a batch to take when visiting friends for a meal as it makes a change from flowers or a bottle & is v affordable to make as everything can be got at A*di.
F x

foxgloves

Oh sorry....forgot to add....I don't know how long it lasts because it never does!

Onebrokelady

foxgloves wrote: »

Enjoyed our city centre trip yesterday & was able to buy all the Christmas presents on my list. Tomorrow I intend to have a good sort out, transfer some funds & sort out the final things I need. It won't shock anyone who has read tales of my Spendy Years to hear that I used to be a big festive overspender. I love Christmas & used to get carried away with present buying, decorating paraphernalia (encouraged by all the home/interiors type mags I used to buy) & of course, the sales. By the end of January, I'd be worried about my cards being refused every time I tried to use them & by the end of February, my finances would be close to melt-down & the recalcitrant Light Bulb would have a little flicker for a week or two. Oh my days, I couldn't go back to that! I choose the gifts I buy carefully & put things away all year. This has meant that this year, I already had everything for 3 of my 'present list' people. Like everything, a good list is key to avoid the wandering around shopping centres trying to come up with ideas - that's what used to be so expensive when I was Spendy......buying a gift, then seeing something better & buying that too. And just silly wastes of smaller amounts of money too, on things like nice rolls of gift wrap & cards, without checking at home to see what I'd got left first. I much prefer how I do things now. Whether people celebrate Christmas as the birth of the son of their god or the older midwinter festival of Yule (as we do) or just a nice few days off work enjoying family time, it shouldn't be about greed & falling deeper into debt. One of the gifts I most get asked for is a box of my home made fudge - just 5 ingredients & all from Aldi.......says it all, doesn't it, as I would have gifted expensive boxes of chocolates in the past.
Oh well, must crack on, am determined to put a couple of hours into clearing the garden this morning. Am so behind with that since Mum became ill & all that followed.
Love from F xx

Snap again,we really were the spendy twins:rotfl: xmas to me was like spendy overload,I would go crazy on everything fueld by photos of perfect family Xmass in magazines,it's Xmas last year that pushed me over a financial cliff and come January I was spending all my time feeling sick and panicking about my credit card bill,February was when I had my light bulb moment and realised it had to stop,I have a budget this year and I've saved cash and I am absolutely determined that I'm not spending excessively this year,I bought some chocolate for Xmas today and instead of buying the branded range I bought the shops own brand which was soooo much cheaper and probably tastes exactly the same
I love Ferraro Roche chocolates and was about to put some in my trolley but they are £7 for a tray of about 16 approx and I just thought who the hell has £7 to spend on 16 balls of choclate:eek:
We also celebrate Yule in our house and not Xmas :beer:

foxgloves

Oh yes, OBL. Spendy Twins again. Those horrible debt-ridden Februarys......salary going into bank account & being swallowed up almost instantly by the Overdraft Monster. So stressful.....& entirely caused by ourselves! Like you, I wish I'd seen the light earlier, but lightbulb moments come when we're ready & I obviously wasn't ready to change until my 40s. Since then, our income has halved because I took redundancy in the 'austerity' cuts. We would not have been able to manage that while we had over 30k of debt. The shocking thing is that our lifestyle has barely changed at all.......we have just stopped wasting money & we plan ahead a lot more.. We haven't felt deprived of anything because so much of what we used to fritter money on was completely unnecessary.
Re your Ferrero Rocher chocs......my Mum used to make cute little knitted Christmas puddings -tiny- & pop a Fererro Rocher inside each one. They made lovely little place settings on Christmas Day. She used to shop around for the chocs as she always said they varied a lot in price, so you may yet find a better deal. I'm putting walnut whips on my Santa list.....I spotted a festive pack of those in M&S the other day & was nearly tempted.
Oh well, can't sit here chatting.....lots of jobs planned today & mr f's big bonfire tonight with slow cooker smoky beans & sausages. Have a good day everyone.
F x