Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Afternoon Campers,
Another odd day. Builder has been here & cracked on with the job until rain stopped play as it arrived just as he was thinking about starting some bricklaying. I had a lovely long skype call with my sister, then got on with tackling a few longstanding annoying jobs.......you know the ones. They usually take a very small amount of time to do, can often be done for free, yet we keep on leaving them until we are just sick of seeing them. I've done a few of those today. The best win was a shop from home on a large ceramic plant pot holder. I had made a mental note to look out for a suitable one to buy, but it occurred to me today that I could maybe just swap with another plant. Done. Looks fine. Feels like I've had a new item. In the spirit of my recently revived frugaldom, I've revised my planting plans for the new front courtyard when it's finished. I had intended to buy quite a few plants to fit my bee-friendly theme, & while I still do intend to buy a couple of shrubs, a large terracotta pot & a witch hazel to go in it, about a dozen lavender plants & a sturdy bee box, & I do have the funds for these in the House & Garden Pot, I am going to shop from home by taking divisions of flowering perennials I already have established in the back garden, & as I have sown plenty of annuals, I can use some of those too. Also, the poached egg plants I grew from seed last year to plant around our veg beds (good for pollinators) have self-seeded & there are enough of those for me to save for the front when it's finished. I've already rescued lots of self-seeded plants & used them to fill gaps in the borders, but I am sure I will find a few more if I look & I still have some big clumps of pink primroses to divide up, also snowdrops. With the economy throwing lots of grim price rises at us atm, I feel I'd rather shop what I can from home & not hollow out our House & Garden Pot too much, as who knows what else we might need it for? Overall, it will mean more effort, but less spend, which has to be a good thing.
Well, on those planty musings, I shall leave you, as I want to check if there are any more PA surveys before I sign off my laptop. I like to aim for a £100 December cash-out, but I am already at over £50, so must keep up the good work.
And it's really chilly now so I'm off to find some warm socks because I am not turning that thermostat up or lighting the stove! Determined that our March energy statement will be lower than last month's.
F x

Pixiehouse55

Alchemilla said:

Pixiehouse55 said:

Good morning @foxgloves and all
How are you? What have you been up to? Behaving I hope and not overspending!! 
I'm so sorry I've not been in to sit and have a cuppa and a natter. Retirement life is so good. Very relaxing. But we do have a poorly dog, we are now on the Kennet and Avon Canal at Hungerford. Weve moored up here for a week. I think Harry is going to need to see a vet. He's been sick today and he was on Sunday but then picked up and ate his food in the afternoon. Then this morning I woke to a Poo on the floor and he had been sick again. Might be something he ate out on a walk yesterday or it could be his tummy playing up. He does have a sensitive stomach.
 When we were in Newbury we had those nasty winds, luckily where we had moored up we were surrounded by shops!! Ha ha yes shops like Dunelms. B&Q and Tescos. I LOVE Dunelms!! They had reduced a lot of their Wool and needles. Sewing things as well!! So I did buy some wool and a couple of patterns, knitting Needles *sizes that I didnt have) and a couple of crochet hooks.
We are making our
way back to Bristol where we will Moor the boat up, hire a van and go back to our home town where we have stuff in a storage container load up the van and take it all back to our boat! I have lots of wool and fabrics here plus my sewing machine.
2 armchairs and 2 storage pouffs a dressing table and a king-size bedstead to sale!! 
 Weather has been lovely the last few days. Lovely walks along the tow path. With the evenings getting lighter it's 6pm and we are busy knitting or hubby is Tatting and we realise the time!! So dinner can be as late as 8pm lol
Hasn't food shopping gone up??
Went to do a food shop the other day, didn't buy loads and it came to £74 I look at the cashier in shock lol
Anyways its now absolutely heaving it down with rain so I won't be going anywhere today! Hopefully it will calm down later to take dogs out for a walk. 
Off to do a bit of knitting now whilst waiting for the water to heat up so that I can do the washing up. I'm knittingva jumper for a 6 month baby. We are thinking of getting a traders license so that we can sale what we make. 
Look forward to reading what you've all been up to. 
Take Care and Keep Safe xxx

Are you giving Harry chicken/pasta/rice?

Love Hungerford, is the antiques arcade still there?

Hi  
Yes Harry is on White Rice and Chicken for the next 3 days. I got him into a vets today. She gave him a anti sickness injection and probiotics powder to put on his food once a day. If he carries on being sick then it will be xrays and blood tests next but she thinks the same as us that he has either eaten something that hasn't agreed with him or its his stomach playing up again.
Yes the antique arcade is still there we had a good look around it on Sunday. We are going back there again to buy a Copper Kettle to go on our log burner. 

CRANKY40

Just a passing thought....if you cashed out PA now you could buy some premium bonds with it? Someone else pointed out that it's best to cash out while you can in case the company goes under and all of your hard work is wasted. I take mine out every month. 

foxgloves

Interesting idea @CRANKY40, thanks.I hadn't thought of that. Even if it was simply in our bank account/on my Personal Spends spreadsheet, it would mitigate that risk. I think I might cash out my current earnings then set myself monthly earnings targets. 
F

kayannie

Just dropping in to say that the comparison site conf****.com will tell you where the cheapest fuel is in your area, or any other postcode you put in. You will need to register with them first. In my area there is a difference of 26p a litre on diesel! KA

foxgloves

Thanks Kayannie. I did use a different fuel prices website years ago, but gave up because the prices stated were always out of date, but I'm willing to have a look at this one. We only tend to use supermarket petrol stations but there can even be a bit of difference between those.
Nice to see you dropping in.
F x

foxgloves

Hello Sunbeams, 
Well I've been getting bits & bobs of jobs done. Was speedy in town so as to be able to park for free, then off to do this week's grocery shopping. £58 this time, a decent improvement on last week, helped by us having £6 worth of vouchers & cat food big boxes not having gone up in price. 
Equally speedy house clean then inspection of plant babies. Moved chillies to the greenhouse & potted up 1st lot of tomato seedlings. Plenty of seeds germinating - cosmos, apricot foxgloves, cerinthe, chard, echium blue bedder, lettuce, etc. I often buy mealworms for our garden birds but was initially put off by the single use plastic containers. I now recycle these.....I've also seen cakes sold in this kind of thing....transparent plastic with a hinged lid. I sow seeds in the bottom half & close the lid until germination. Then the lid can be propped open like a little propagator, using the plant label. Seems to work particularly well for starting off lettuce. I sow very little directly into the garden - too many assorted scoffers waiting to eat it!
Unexciting but pleasant day. Not very spendy at all. I did buy a couple of books from our local charity bookshop but that's the sort of thing our monthly 'Personal Spends' is for - guilt-free spending, but when it's gone, it's gone. Fair enough!
I've been thinking about all those ferry staff being sacked by video recording with no notice - outrageous - & what a time suddenly to be sacked, with bills & expenses rocketing. Just awful for them.
F 

Sun_Addict

I can’t believe what’s happened to those ferry staff in this day and age. I think that ferry company have signed their own death warrant because who would want to book with them now 😡

ladyholly

There was a lady who had been stranded  in Amsterdam talking on the radio. She wasn't best pleased to say the least. I wouldn't book with a company that treats it staff so dreadfully.  If they do go broke it will be  self inflicted as I certain a lot of people will feel the same way.

QueenJess

Sun_Addict said:

I can’t believe what’s happened to those ferry staff in this day and age. I think that ferry company have signed their own death warrant because who would want to book with them now 😡

Well firstly I thought what they did was not just stupid, but illegal. If you get rid of that many people you have to go through consultation and give them 28 days notice.

 Even ignoring the ethics of using them, I would be very worried about safety as this is managing boats and I’m sure it isn’t a very simple job that can be done without sufficient training.