Champagne Lifestyle on a Lemonade Budget.

sheilavw

its stunning Phoebe

sugarbaby125

My Champagne moment today was going to Nando's in Camberwell with my younger son. As it was an Eat Out  To Help Out day we both saved 50% on our meals. We both bought a 10 chicken wing platter with 2 large sides, then took our leftovers home in Nando's take away boxes. 

I had 6 wings and a large spicy rice to take home. I will enjoy them later in the week 

helensbiggestfan

Hello my lovely friends.  

Lots of lovely little champagne moments here.  And very little money spent, even better, 😂,  

Phoebe your painted cabinets look wonderful and all for the princely sum of £1. That's what I call champagne living on a lemonade budget.  😊. Your covered eating area Is fabulous. A real labour of love which will bring you many pleasureable hours. 

I would love the idea of a covered outside eating area but I don't have any supporting walls like yours, but I have bought a large umbrella and I also have my sun awning so a reasonable compromise although not really water proof or suitable for chilly days. I am thinking maybe a summer house instead, adding power and light so it could be used year round.  I also have a very large shed, which frankly is rather a mess but I'm hoping I can repair and revamp it and turn it into a studio/workshop, which was its original function before it fell into disrepair.  

I'm just about to watch Monty  Dons Japanese gardens - get some ideas for next years revamp.   The owners before last here had a beautiful Japanese garden, complete with a pond with carp.  The last owner destroyed it all and planted the awful patch of sickly grass that I inherited, No plants, no colour, nothing.  I am not aiming to reinstate the Japanese garden but rather to take some elements, and create an English/Japanese hybrid.  

I have been working the new border today (the one that has two treatments of claybreaker). It's worked it's magic,  the soil is lovely now and hopefully I've sorted out the drainage issue, because despite the heavy rain there has been no flooding this time. I should be able to start planting soon.   I've got plenty of shrubs That I've been nurturing in pots, and the other eday I bought loads of bulbs in Asda.  So hopefully I'll finally have something pretty to look at.  

I am also aiming to make a start on creating another border for fruit bushes.  Get it started now so I can use claybreaker over the winter, ready for spring planting. 

Had a lovely massage yesterday.  Pure heaven. 😉. 

Today I had a little splurge in a charity shop, bought a gold and black pleated evening skirt, two pretty bracelets and three paperbacks.  £4 the lot.  Wahoo.  

SUgarbaby......that Nando's Chicken looks delicious. 

sheilavw

champagne moment today was me and my sister taking my Aunt out for lunch. She recently lost her Husband and yesterday was her birthday. We went to the Lounge at my local gym. The food is delicious. My Sister had the fish pie with Green veg, I had halloumi/salad/chilli jam tacos, dips, fries, my Aunt the same but chicken, 3 pots of tea all for £20.95

phoebe1989seb

My turn for internet issues 

That nando's chicken looks scrumptious, sugarbaby 

Barny1979

sugarbaby125 said:

My Champagne moment today was going to Nando's in Camberwell with my younger son. As it was an Eat Out  To Help Out day we both saved 50% on our meals. We both bought a 10 chicken wing platter with 2 large sides, then took our leftovers home in Nando's take away boxes. 

I had 6 wings and a large spicy rice to take home. I will enjoy them later in the week 

Make sure that rice is reheated properly

PaulieHerts

Phoebe - the whole room looks fantastic and the cabinets are beautiful.  So clever and creative 😊

helensbiggestfan

Good Morning my lovely friends.  

How are we all.  Hope you are all enjoying the bank holiday and those champagne moments.  The good news after all the cold, rain and murk of the last week or so is that it is warming up a bit again.  

An Indian summer maybe???  

Not much happening here, just quietly joying life, spending lots of time with family, eating well, plenty of sleep, and just catchIng up with myself upping the TLC and self care. I've got a break from chiro till next Friday.   Have started taking extra vitamins as instructed by the chiro. A bit of decluttering, garden tidying and painting some the woodwork in the kitchen, just finished the small cupboard. 

The big change is that I'm now building proper exercise into every day....(not just gardening, housework or diy). A mixture of cardio and stretching.  So I am now Zumba-ing, yoga-ing and Bollywood style dancing.  I can't manage the whole routines yet so I'm building up slowly, being careful not to overdo it or injure myself. 

Have had a really expensive month.  Had to buy a new fridge freezer, house insurance renewal, Tv licence renewal and for some reason my housekeeping budget went through the roof. Well I do know how,  I have been stocking up a bit, filling the freezer and cupboards and I did have a little splurge on some charity shop bargains. I have also bought quite a few plants, bulbs etc.  The next couple of months are also going to be rather spendy too, Outside house painting, car tax and insurance, and I need a new cooker. Ouch!!!   So.......no more spending in chazzers and on the garden and try and trim the grocery budget a bit.

For the next few months I want to spend like a pauper whilst living  like a Queen. 😂

Other than that, nothing new.  My SIL and niece have invited themselves down in a couple of weeks so I need to get organised for that. 

Can you believe it's September tomorrow....... Where does the time go.  

What will the winter bring I wonder.  Bad weather, another lockdown???  

 Well we can't change whatever is coming but we can try and prepare.  So, although I have been a bit disappointed with my level of spending, most of it as been either routine expenses which are budgeted for anyway or one off expenses on the renovations - getting the house and garden sorted before the bad weather sets in.  Anyway I shall use the winter and any periods of lockdown productively, a bit of indoor decorating, furniture revamping......and some serious decluttering. 

Then it will be one final push next year over the spring and summer. Not sure when I plan to sell yet.  Don't think it will be next year but it will be nice to get it all finished sooner rather than later. I just want to clear the decks and get everything done.  

Then maybe I can think about a little sideline business ....

Start making some money instead of spending it. 😂🤣.  

phoebe1989seb

I'm still having internet issues - the joys of rural living in my case, lol - but will try posting now, while I can 

A quiet weekend here enjoying the sunshine which has been abundant for the first time in a week or more. That's a champagne moment in itself as it's been lovely eating outdoors again after so much rain.....it's definitely feeling chillier and very autumnal though!

DH has been getting on with building a new large log store as our existing ones don't accommodate enough. This one is 8' long and approximately 7' high, so will hold loads. Timber is really expensive right now, but even so we'll have saved at least £200 on the price of a ready made one 

We've been planning the extension too - which will be self build if we go ahead, not decided yet - drawing the plans etc....

I've repainted the decking in the covered dining area and done a spot of planting, but otherwise have just been getting on with housework, same as any other weekend. 

We had intended a road trip for the bank holiday - possibly going to check out an area we might consider moving to in the future but, like you LL, we've had quite a spendy month (MOT - although we got that done early at the end of July and luckily no advisories or worse, car tax/insurance, DS's birthday, plus lots of timber for outdoor stuff not to mention all those little extras such as lampshades and outdoor mirrors, lol!).....

It's not likely to get better going into September either, as we'll be filing a moneyclaim online next week for the return of our £3500 window deposit. Yep, the joiner has conned us again - assuring us the windows would be ready earlier this month, then ignoring all attempts to contact again, grrrrrr, so a LBA has finally winged its way in his direction. Eleven months is totally taking the pee 

I fear we might be needing a new fridge freezer soon too - our old Smeg, bought new from a graded appliance shop in 1998 for the princely sum of £300 - has definitely seen better days and replacing that won't be cheap. It's done amazingly well though so can't really complain. The (considerably more cheap and cheerful) washing machine is also coming to the end of its life - probably because we've had it in a partially open outbuilding for the past two and a half years! 

I'm just glad we bought our Bertazzoni range when we did as our model is now unavailable at the excellent price we paid in 2018 

sugarbaby125

My Champagne moments yesterday were all to do with my grandson and his partner visiting us. 

We had some lighthearted and some serious topics of conversations and lots of laughs as well.  

I cooked skinless chicken drumsticks with a yellow pepper, onion and sliced carrots in gravy and served them with Tilda microwave rice and peas. It was great to share dinner with my grandson and his partner.  

My daughter only woke up at 3pm when my grandson and his partner arrived, so she did not eat her dinner until 8pm in the evening.