Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Definitely, @HairyHandofDartmoor. I just hope the soreness starts to lessen soon as I would dearly love to have a productive week fuelled by motivation & zest for life, rather than by painkillers! 
Monday here we come! 
F x

foxgloves

Morning Campers!
Another week has dawned & here are today's money saving plans:
* Finish this week's laundry (washer at 30°, heated airer).
*Rubber chicken activity - it did a roast dinner last night & I will be divvying up the remains for 2 more meals plus some stew & carcass into slow cooker for stock.
*Make a rough list of meals I know we have in the freezer or which could be made for a very small outlay - I intend keeping a closer eye on the grocery budget atm with the ongoing inflation situation.
*Do my regular Monday morning budget updates, including any necessary fund transfers.
*Look at savings in more detail, esp our 10 Savings Pots, ready for our annual start of year household money summit. This is already overdue & needs to happen fairly imminently.
*Have a look at my February Personal Spends in view of a few odds & ends I want to buy this month. 
*Finish 1st of the stash busting socks I'm currently knitting for Mr F & cast on its pair.
*Make a start on this season's stash of free plant labels (cut from empty plastic spread tubs).
*Make tomorrow's packed lunch & work snacks.
Have decided my sore jaw is a little less so if I don't talk! As Mr F has returned to work today, I will only be chatting to the cats, so hopefully a good day of healing ahead.
Wishing everyone a trouble free start to the week.
F x

Alchemilla

Have a great week @foxgloves. It is lovely to hear about the cats growing their confidence with you.

marionmgcars

Hi Foxgloves,  sounds like you are raring to go,  hopefully the extraction has done its job and the healing has begun.  Nice to see you back and busy again, it motivates me too. x

foxgloves

Thanks, @marionmgcars. It is healing, but it is slower progress than I'd like. Was woken by throbbing jaw again this morning, but I think part of the problem is that I sleep on that side, which was exacerbating the problem. So I'm still on painkillers, but just bog-standard ones now, not ultra-strong ones. I shall just have to be patient.
Plenty to do to keep my mind off it, including much money saving activity atm, as like everyone else, I am concerned about the rocketing cost of living. 
F x

Humdinger1

@foxgloves teeth really are a design flaw, aren't they? The only way is up now; congratulations as ever for your splendid attitude and determination to lead your best life.  I always love your writing; it's a poem to the power of a thought-through grounded life.  Love Humdinger xx 

foxgloves

Thanks for your encouraging comments @Humdinger1. I do enjoy all forms of writing..... as I've said before, if only I could get my ample backside in gear & finish writing the novel I started a few years back. Even if I do nothing whatsoever with it, I would enjoy the satisfaction of having reached the final paragraph of a polished-up version, & the simple fact that I'd have finally seen it through.
But first things first....... like sorting out nuclear litter trays & interring electrocuted rodent. Yes, it's non-stop glamour here, as usual! 
F x

foxgloves

Ah well..... I haven't done nearly as much as I'd intended today. Its turned into a bit of an odd day for one reason & another..... too tedious & nothingey a saga to relate on here.... but suffice to say I spent a fair bit of time dealing with freaked out cats (they have taken against the re-roofing which is going on next door).
I did have a good tidy round, did the ironing & sent a tentative enquiry re cost & process of dental implants. I know they are expensive & there's no way I'm going down that route without a realistic budget in place. Received a very helpful reply, anyway.
I've had a look at savings goals for this year too. I think that just spending some time with a pile of paper, pencil & calculator & working various different options through is well worth doing. I particularly like to identify the sum which needs saving, then divide it between 12, 24, 36, 48 & 60 months to look at how much we'd need to put away each month to meet that goal. Dividing by 12 generally works out at quite a scary sum, so it is almost reassuring to see how the monthly amount reduces by saving over a longer period.
Of course, this kind of exercise does raise a few regrets about the sheer amount of cashola I've frittered over more than two decades of spendy idiocy. If just £100 a month of what I regularly blew on city centre trips had been saved, it would have been such a nest-egg as I was a naughty spender from age 19 to my early 40s (last of the debt paid off when I was 46).
The truth is that I could easily have saved £100 per month & more. I just preferred spending.
Well, I'm sensible enough not to wallow in regret..... I know there are likely to be many people my age who are going to be taking debt into their pensionable years. I am grateful that a real-life LBM did eventually happen & that atm, we are in a position to save..... not nearly as much as the experts recommend, but enough to feel we are being at least a bit more responsible for our future.
So an afternoon of number crunching has made me feel quite thoughtful. I think I'll have another look at it tomorrow & see if any other possibilities jump out at me.
Soot & Ash think I've been chopping up their dinner, & are going to be v disappointed when they find out it was actually a green pepper!
Night all,
F x

Sun_Addict

Another one here with regrets around the amount we could’ve saved in the past instead of frittering it away during trips to the city centre on things that definitely weren’t needed. No point crying over spilled milk though, what’s done is done and things are very different now.

I hope your jaw will start to settle down soon. Do you think you need the implant or could you put up with the gap?

Cats always think anything remotely edible is for them 🤣

Elisheba

Oh, if I'd saved instead of spent I'd be rich! Nothing to be done about it now though 
Hope the cats settle and get used to the works going on next door.