Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Oh, & another silly antique fair purchase from the Spendy Years - I really like 'vintage' or shabby chic as a look & as I've said before, I used to buy a lot of home/interiors type magazines for inspiration. Can remember deciding to start a vintage button jar. Now, I didn't buy a jar (most unusual at the time......can I at least have a tiny bit of credit for that?) I used a large one I already had, but I needed some buttons, so when I was next at a fair, I bought some rather nice vintage ones - 3 different lots sewn onto cards - £11. How do I remember the price so exactly? Because I queried it with the stallholder as to why one set of them was so much more expensive than the others. Can't recall what the reply was, but I bought them anyway & put them in my jar.
Of course, this misses the entire point of button jars. Our grandmas would have kept the buttons they snipped off things, spares, finds, etc, so they could be used again. Button jars are really a frugal thing, aren't they, not something you go & 'buy in' as an accessory to make your home look more vintage. My current button jar is exactly that, & it does get used. I put in it leftover buttons from things like knitting projects, odd ones I pick up around the house, those I cut off old garments before they are cut up for the rag bag, ones that people have given me over the years because they know I like craft, that kind of thing. And the jar is one saved from a gift ages ago, which originally had old fashioned seaside sweets in it. What ISN'T in this jar is those expensive vintage buttons I bought at the antique fair, & as I have absolutely not the first idea what happened to them - I certainly don't remember ever using them - that shows just what a waste of money they were....admittedly not as hard to carry to the car as a grumpy 5' brass rubbing, but a similarly silly fritter nevertheless.
I think I need some coffee after that.
Cheers all,
F x

Onebrokelady

I've got a button tin,the tin is a commemorative tin from one of the royal grandchildren's births but I can't remember which one off the top of my head, I don't know what possessed me to think I needed this tin but I thought seeeig as it's sitting around I might as well use it fo something,the buttons are all ones from other items of clothing or spares from projects,I might declutter it yet because I very rarely use it and I'm not planning on knitting anything apart from socks

foxgloves

Well, OBL, you won't need buttons if you re only planning to knit socks....that's one of the things i love about sock knitting - the lovely self-patterning yarns create the patterns automatically & if you knit them in the round, there isn't even any finishing off, just the cast on & cast off little tails of yarn to darn in & that's it, job done!

foxgloves

We have a lot of driving this weekend - it's a bit of a saga to be honest, but needs must. I've written out a really meticulous planning list for this, particularly regarding what we take with us, because as we all know when we make that leap from pre-LBM spendyness to post-LBM 'OMG, HOW MUCH????!!', being away from our routines can suddenly see us racking up quite a few silly spends. So, despite the early start out time, we will be making breakfast at home even if we don't feel hungry enough to eat it, we can take it with us & that will mean we won't need to stop off to buy coffee & bacon rolls. I've also got a bag packed with a few snacks & will add our water bottles, having popped them in the fridge overnight so they're nice & cold, so that should avoid temptation when we stop off for petrol, which we will need to do. mr f has even planned in a bit of the route to allow for filling up at a supermarket where we get some loyalty points, rather than pay the eye-watering fuel prices at motorway services. Last time he saw the price of diesel at one of those, I thought I was going to have to administer a cardiac massage! He was still going on about it about 10 motorway junctions later!
So I've had my money saving hat firmly on with the planning & hopefully we will avoid all these little money leakages before we even get to where we're going.
Oh my days, the Dyson is now being wielded around my feet with such gusto, I think I shall sign out & run for cover.
Love to all,
F x

crazy_cat_lady

You are amazing Foxgloves - what an inspiration. I wish I could be that well prepared. Have a good weekend.

foxgloves

AW, that's sweet of you, CCL. Long journeys can make me anxious, so planning helps with that too xx

carrielovesfanta

I inherited all of my nan's buttons when she passed away in 2002. I have managed to use some over the years. Some were in a navy cigarettes tin, and the others were in a German air rifle pellet tin! I still have the tins, but the buttons have been moved to a tray in my work basket.


The work basket WAS a spendy moment though and shall not be mentioned. OH took advantage of the fact that I was a bit tipsy to make me buy something.

foxgloves

Ooooh, there's a lesson, there, CCL....never shop while tipsy!

foxgloves

Morning Campers,
Well, the gales are howling around the corner of our house & although the sky is blue atm, there are some threatening looking clouds gathering on the edge of our village. No gardening for me today. I just know that if I blow down to the bottom of the garden to open the shed & get my stuff out, I shall be packing it away again in the rain about 10 mins later. So indoors it is!
You'll know if you follow my diary that the last few years have seen me become a Very Resourceful Girl. Although I do sometimes get tempted, my restraint is very good these days. I am also quite 'green' in my environmental outlook. I genuinely worry about where we are heading as a species with our horribly cavalier attitude to waste & chemicals, so this also feeds into my born again resourcefulness. It's second nature now. This morning, I've made bread dough for cobs & pizza and as I was also feeding my sourdough jar, I added the portion of sourdough mixture that would usually be spooned down the sink to my standard wholemeal bread dough. I experimented with this the other week & it worked fine, gave a nice flavour & of course it's a chance to use something else which would usually be thrown away. Back up in my little HQ, I've re-filled my desk jotter with scrap paper. I just divvy clean-on-one-side A4 up into quarters & keep a stash of it ready for when I need a new scrap pad. Clipped together with a bulldog clip, they make perfectly good pads for desks, kitchen, phone, etc. One plastic mushroom tray, a large yoghurt pot & a clear piece of plastic packaging put ready to go down to the shed for new life as a seed tray, pot for sowing climbing beans & small cloche. Next job is to try & make a start on all the shredding I need to do - this will be used for bedding for the worm composter, then added to our normal compost bins & only put in the recycling wheelie bin when we've made use of what we can.
But I'm not the only resourceful being here today. I've been laughing at a magpie in our garden. Two woodpigeons have made a nest in our old pear tree. The magpie is also making a nest, but he can't be bothered finding his own sticks, so he waits for the woodpigeons to leave their nest then he dives in & pulls out a beakful of the best twigs. He even braced his foot on the nest earlier so he could nick a particularly good stick! It's so funny to watch, as the woodpigeons arrive back & their demeanour would seem to say they're thinking 'Eh? I'm sure our nest didn't look this cr*p when we went out!'
Well, I had better go & get the bread dough on its 2nd proving & make some lunch.
Keep your hands on those purses, everyone.
And don't blow away!
F xx

Onebrokelady

Cheeky Magpie :rotfl: I must admit that although a lot of people see these birds as bad omens they are one of my favourites,they are always so cheeky and speaking of cheeky I bought a squirrel proof bird feeder the other day and at the time I remember saying I bet he/ she gets the lid open,well my little friend got the lid open after a few days,so on Saturday I went and bought a padlock:rotfl: I feel like the mean gardner from Peter Rabbit and now feel so guilty that he can't get the bird food I'm considering buyng him some monkey nuts instead:rotfl: