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Put away your purse & become debt-averse
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Hello readers,
Well today I succeeded in swallowing a hefty frog by finally going & getting my mobile phone & contract upgraded. It's needed doing for a while & a chance sign in to our accounts by mr f to check on something else, revealed that our loyalty discounts end next week, increasing my SIM only contract by an extra £5 per month & his by £10.
I know some people really enjoy upgrading their phone. I'm not one of them. I find mobile phone shops utterly stultifying. I am intelligent & perfectly IT literate, but put me in a shop with someone who is telling me in mind numbing detail about phone contracts & I swear my synapses cease firing & I just zone out. I don't mean to sound detrimental to the staff, who are doing their job. I just find the tediosity of the process too much. I would have done anything rather than go & sort out my upgrade this morning, including sitting by myself on the town hall steps with my pants on my head counting backwards slowly from 8,000,000.
The first shop we went in (yes, I went in TWO!! Is it any wonder I needed coffee & a cheese scone afterwards?) had very little practical info with the handsets on display. What is the point of stating the price per month if the customer can't see what is included? Cue for a salesperson to jump out & bombard me with micro-detail. 2nd shop had a much more transparent approach. Each handset was displayed with price, exactly what it covered, how much of the price was to pay for the actual phone, etc. So I was able to say to the member of staff, "I want that one, please" & just sort out the paperwork. I saved a bit of money on what I'd be paying once my discount on the old contract lapses next week & we set up a family account kind of thing which reduced it by another 20%. I felt it was worth the effort. Best thing is that I hopefully won't have to cross the threshold of one of these emporia for another 3 years.
Will be back with another antique fair debtisode soon,
F x2025's challenges: 1) To fill our 10 Savings Pots to their healthiest level ever
2) To read 100 books (36/100) 3) The Shrinking of Foxgloves 6.8kg/30kg
"Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards" (Soren Kirkegaard 1813-55)1 -
Evening Campers,
Time for a bit more from the Spendy vintage fairs years.....
So on another occasion, I'd been at an antiques/collector fair for quite a while & I hadn't found anything to buy, when suddenly I saw it. Yes, an object I absolutely HAD to have. It was pretty much as tall as me (am only about 5'3"), heavy, I was on my own & the car was parked right on the opposite side of a huge car park. I bought it & somehow managed to get it there, & it travelled home wedged into the back seat, driven by its new VERY PLEASED WITH Herself owner. What a find! Because what had I bought?
An enormous framed brass rubbing of a medieval knight!! What was not to love?!
Well, I'll tell you. These were my Spendy Years & impulse buys were very frequent. My house was full of eclectic interesting stuff (because I was always spending) but this was not one of them. I reckon I liked that knight for a fortnight tops. I love medieval history - it was a big part of my first degree - but this knight was a miserable looking b*gger & as with most of these recumbant tomb brasses, he had a small loyal dog at his feet. Because the brass rubbing had been framed for vertical display, it had all the appearance of a geezer in armour standing on his whippet. It had also been framed on a dark turquoise background, which I didn't like, so one afternoon (it was rock n roll at my house), I dismantled the frame, removed the brass rubbing, carefully cut out the knight, cut a length of wall lining paper, painted it purple, glued him back on & re-framed it. Better, but still too heavy to hang on any of my c. 1900 dodgy plastered walls & just too..... well, just not such a great quirky item as I thought. Stored him behind the dresser for a while, before taking him out & binning him. I kept the frame a bit longer, thinking I might use it for something else, but it was just too big & narrow and it went to the local tip when I moved house.
Not an expensive item.... I seem to remember about £20, but just a waste of money I should not have been spending, given that I was in overdraft within two weeks of pay-day each month, before the mortgage payment had even gone out. I did this time & time again, with things I liked, impulsively had to have, or soon talked myself into buying, which later turned into stuff that wasn't really all that special at all.
So there you have another of my past fritterings.... Readers, I give you the 5 foot gold on turquoise medieval tomb brass rubbing...... in a frame which weighed as much as a small child!
What a numpty!
F xx2025's challenges: 1) To fill our 10 Savings Pots to their healthiest level ever
2) To read 100 books (36/100) 3) The Shrinking of Foxgloves 6.8kg/30kg
"Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards" (Soren Kirkegaard 1813-55)0 -
Foxgloves - I was actually laughing out loud reading that! :rotfl::rotfl:Not giving up
Working hard to pay off my debt
Time to take back control
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6290156/crazy-cat-lady-chapter-5-trying-to-recover-from-the-pandemic/p1?new=10 -
Lol, CCL.... there are way too many similar tales from the Spendy Years, I'm afraid!
Tonight, however, I'm being Mrs Resourceful of Frugal Land as I am now on Project #5 of my 2019 Stash Knitting Challenge - a pair of socks for the presents box. I'm using plain black for the main leg & foot bit, with two different self-patterning colourways for the ribbing, heel & toe. All three yarns were left over from previous projects, so I'm feeling resourceful because I've got a nice knitting project AND a free Christmas present.
If I suddenly had another urge to own a humungous medieval knight brass rubbing, I think I'd be off down the church with a roll of wallpaper & my own crayon, lol x2025's challenges: 1) To fill our 10 Savings Pots to their healthiest level ever
2) To read 100 books (36/100) 3) The Shrinking of Foxgloves 6.8kg/30kg
"Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards" (Soren Kirkegaard 1813-55)0 -
:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
Reading this makes me feel better about my own impulse spend this week
My weakness was craft fairs,either the ones selling supplies or the ones selling craft items,I must have spent a fortune over the years,I haven't been to a supplies one since my LBD but I have been to a couple of the other sort,one was back in the summer and I didn't buy anything but had fund looking around,the other was at Christmas and I did buy a couple of bits but they were Christmas presents so not wasteful and more importantly I had a budget and stuck to it
I got a leaflet in the post for a major craft show that comes to my area that was taking place in February and I was so tempted to go but I didn't in the end because I know I would buy something and I don't need anything at the momentOriginal Debt Owed Jan 18 = £17,630 Paid To Date = £6,510 Owed = £11,1201 -
Yes, I have been reading all about your impulse buy, OBL.....& he wasn't even a little Billy-no-mates, was he, lol? Snap re the craft fairs. I have spent silly amounts of money at these too, over the years....no surprises there! Spends include a reproduction medieval musical instrument (which has been up in the loft for 17 years), a small lentil-stuffed suede cat which I still have out on display, but only because I was able recently to sew on new button eyes (his original eyes dropped off) - he was absolutely silly money, oh & yes, the big mirror with a lime-green acrylic sprayed frame adorned with 4 massive salt dough yellow daffodils.........WHY???? Even the charity shop I later generously offloaded this item too were quite clear that they didn't really want it. Oh dear, I could go on, but I need to go & knead the bread dough which is waiting downstairs & make some lunch, so I can get out & do my garden jobs before the rain arrives.
But in contrast to how I used to be, I have just spent a couple of hours at my desk updating budgets, inutting new amounts into my outgoings spreadsheet & upping my survey income. I know we laugh about the Spendy Decades, but I have been a reformed character now for several years.
Hope everyone's getting off to a great start to the week,
F x2025's challenges: 1) To fill our 10 Savings Pots to their healthiest level ever
2) To read 100 books (36/100) 3) The Shrinking of Foxgloves 6.8kg/30kg
"Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards" (Soren Kirkegaard 1813-55)0 -
A bit too showery to get all this afternoon's gardening plans done, but I did manage a couple of wins on the shopping from home front. Managed to fill the gaps in my strawberry tower with new free runners which had rooted nearby in the gravel, then spotted that the new spring rhubarb was pushing the lid up off the forcing crock. Is there anything quite as springlike in the veggie garden as dragging off the rhubarb crock & seeing all those bright neon pink stems & lime green leaves? Now all prepped ready to bake with orange juice, zest & a bit of sugar.
Nomnom. Will leave some in the fridge ready to top my porridge.
F x2025's challenges: 1) To fill our 10 Savings Pots to their healthiest level ever
2) To read 100 books (36/100) 3) The Shrinking of Foxgloves 6.8kg/30kg
"Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards" (Soren Kirkegaard 1813-55)0 -
You could have put the mirror in the garden :rotfl:
I am mostly a reformed character now, apart from the occasional hamster purchase,I should have called him Billy :rotfl:::rotfl:Original Debt Owed Jan 18 = £17,630 Paid To Date = £6,510 Owed = £11,1200 -
Lol, OBL.... the only place that mirror needed to go was the wheelie bin!2025's challenges: 1) To fill our 10 Savings Pots to their healthiest level ever
2) To read 100 books (36/100) 3) The Shrinking of Foxgloves 6.8kg/30kg
"Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards" (Soren Kirkegaard 1813-55)0 -
How different things are now, from back in the Spendy Years, when I'd be visiting garden centres practically every week, with cash spraying out of my purse right, left & centre! I had a fab time out in the garden yesterday & apart from the compost we bought at the weekend, everything else was well & truly shopped from home.
I sowed lots more flower seeds - all these were free packs, which I found in Mum's house while we were clearing it out. I did feel sad that she never got to sow them herself, but the next best thing is that I make use of them & fill my garden with some colour, give some plants to my sister, & that way, they haven't been wasted. All of them were sown into recycled plastic meat & veg trays from the supermarket. I honestly can't remember the last time I bought seed trays. Even those modular ones for potting up little seedlings can be reproduced for free very easily by standing small recycled yoghurt pots close together in a tray. Despite all the sowing, no need for plant labels either. I re-used some of last year's & some that I cut out from empty spread tubs. Perhaps I should confess that I did pinch my labelling pen from mr f's work pencil case, but he probably thinks he left it at some or other meeting venue.......
So seeds sown, then onto finishing cutting back & weeding the herb bed. Loads of parsley, so picked a bunch to bring in & used some of it in our meal. Once you get parsley established outside, it self-seeds quite well. I usually find I can keep it going this way, by picking from the big plants, while nurturing the smaller ones for the coming year. I enjoyed that, anyway, as all the new leaves are coming in on the bronze fennel, marjoram, oregano, etc, & it made me feel really spring-like (unlike today when it's really chilly & grey again).
Finally, a close examination of our veggie beds which will be cleared next, to remove any free plant babies - this just requires a basket, trowel & the ability to recognise things which aren't weeds - good news on the freebie front, as I found quite a few oriental-type poppies, more foxgloves & aquilegias, two sage & a verbena bonariensis - the latter often appear at garden centres priced as high as £4.99 each, yet they are easy to grow from seed & also self-seed for freebies. Well, all those were used to fill gaps in my flower borders without one of my notorious pre-LBM weekend garden centre splurges. And as I seemed incapable of visiting garden centres without a coffee & colossal warm cheese scone dripping with butter......well, it's probably doing my arteries a bit of good too!
Hope everyone is having a productive week & not being too spendy - remember if it's all gone off-plan, just pull in the spending as much as possible, be kind to yourselves & start again next week.
Bye for now,
F x2025's challenges: 1) To fill our 10 Savings Pots to their healthiest level ever
2) To read 100 books (36/100) 3) The Shrinking of Foxgloves 6.8kg/30kg
"Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards" (Soren Kirkegaard 1813-55)0
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