Champagne Lifestyle on a Lemonade Budget.

helensbiggestfan

Good morning my lovely friends.  

How are you all, are you busy preparing for lockdown,   I've been making a few plans, no big projects this time but I have enough to keep me busy and occupied.  A bit of painting, Reupholster my dining room chairs, organise cupboards and wardrobes,  

My champagne moment this morning is going back to bed with my coffee, just taking my time.  It's dark and murky outside and temperatures are starting to fall now.  Hey it is November so I guess it's inevitable.  But I'm warm and cosy.  

I love the changing seasons and I actually dont mind winter at all, It has its compensations.  I have long been a lover of Hygge, long before it became fashionable.  I love closing the curtains at dusk, settling down to a nice dinner, and then reading or watching a nice film.  I love the whole cosy throws, warm knitwear, candles and roaring fires.  On a nice day going for a walk.  Sadly there will be no trips to the cinema or theatre, no cosy restaurants, no museums or art galleries this winter and maybe no browsing round the shops for a while but I live in hope that one day.......🤞

Hey ho.....I have my family bubble, my new grandson, I am content,  

Mother and baby doing well. Baby 1 week old now and filling out nicely. My son and DIL are of course practically on their knees with tiredness but they will manage.  I remember having two little ones under the age of 2 and I can remember only too well how exhausting it was.  All part of the joy of parenthood.  😂🤣.  

So my friends, here we go again - all aboard the merry go round of lockdown.  I hope you manage to find joy and plenty of champagne moments.  They are always there, even if we sometimes have to look a bit harder for them.  Life's simple pleasures🤣.  Many of them are free too.  

DIL commented on some of my new trees yesterday, how much she liked the colours.  (She's Venezuelan and is learning to love the changing seasons, especially the autumn colours).  I have planted a mixture of evergreens and deciduous.  They are still babies of course but already the autumn leaves look lovely.  

Have a great day y'all.  Stay happy and healthy,  

[Deleted User]

I read more than I post, but I just had to tell you all of this 'lemonade budget' moment.

Like many people we have had a rough year, including several deaths of friends and family (none COVID related).  Therefore, we decided to really treat ourselves to a lockdown picnic in our garden for our birthdays (there are only 10 days between me and my husband's birthday). 

We decided to buy a Fortnum & Mason's hamper.  Just before ordering I noticed my bank was offering 5% of F& M hampers and so I selected this offer and I recently had the cashback money into my account (which paid for the postage of the hamper).

We had a great sunny day in the garden and a really nice posh afternoon tea style picnic.

We have had the empty F&M hamper basket hanging around the house and so I suggested we also sell that on Ebay.  Someone paid almost £50.00 for it!

The upshot is that we got the hamper postage for free due to cashback via my bank and with selling the F&M basket we got the hamper for 1/2 price too.

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Wow, a truly champagne moment

sugarbaby125

Spider_In_The_Bath said:

I read more than I post, but I just had to tell you all of this 'lemonade budget' moment.

Like many people we have had a rough year, including several deaths of friends and family (none COVID related).  Therefore, we decided to really treat ourselves to a lockdown picnic in our garden for our birthdays (there are only 10 days between me and my husband's birthday). 

We decided to buy a Fortnum & Mason's hamper.  Just before ordering I noticed my bank was offering 5% of F& M hampers and so I selected this offer and I recently had the cashback money into my account (which paid for the postage of the hamper).

We had a great sunny day in the garden and a really nice posh afternoon tea style picnic.

We have had the empty F&M hamper basket hanging around the house and so I suggested we also sell that on Ebay.  Someone paid almost £50.00 for it!

The upshot is that we got the hamper postage for free due to cashback via my bank and with selling the F&M basket we got the hamper for 1/2 price too.

You had a great picnic in your garden with your Fotnum & Mason hamper, then the icing on the cake was selling the empty hamper for such a great price. Really lovely champagne moments 

phoebe1989seb

That F&M picnic sounds a perfect champagne moment, Spider! Glad you were able to enjoy it while the weather was good

I know what you mean about winter and snuggling up by the fire in a cosy environment, LL! It's a pity we can't all hibernate and wake in spring to find the virus had vanished with the snow/cold weather!

Here in Wales the end of the seventeen day firebreak is in sight.....just as England heads into a second lockdown  I'm guessing it might scupper our plans to visit our family (who all live in either south east or south west England) in the run up to Christmas and once again I can only give thanks that our most immediate family managed to make it here to see us last month 

Fortunately, otherwise we had no plans for a big, hectic, social Christmas which isn't our thing at all, although we had considered a retail therapy trip to London and in previous years have sometimes combined this with visiting an art exhibition or play. Not this year. So for us, even if our firebreak gets extended, it won't really make a huge difference. However, for others a month (or more, but hopefully not!) confined to barracks during the long dark days of winter will be a crushing blow. The only option if at possible, is to hunker down and try to enjoy some creature comforts indoors.......

Anyway, there was a champagne moment here yesterday evening when DH broke through the wall between the front (formerly main) bedroom and newly created rear hallway, which was previously a shower room! Actually the real champagne moment came on Sunday when we finally removed the previous owners' hideous shower (disconnected by us in 2018) as well as the sticker announcing that the system had been drained down (one of the final remnants of when the cottage was repossessed in 2017)! Tonight the plastering begins.......

I feel so blessed that DH is able to do this sort of stuff as it's saved us a fortune over the years 😍 

It's really exciting as we can now get a better idea of how the upstairs layout will flow. It also means that currently we have a rather open plan first floor, so - despite the application of dust sheets across the openings etc - everywhere is coated in a fine film of dust..... which is not so champagne-y, lol!

Over the weekend we were discussing how ideally this should have been tackled before we began the more *flowery* side of the refurb, but when we bought the cottage in early 2018 we had no plans to remodel the upstairs layout as drastically as we did the ground floor. It took living here for more than two years to determine how the first floor would work best for us. Now we're nearly there we both know that although it's a pretty radical redesign, this was definitely the right decision!

Wednesday2000

Wow, somebody paid £50 for the basket. Good job.

Champagne moments for me are just very simple pleasures, enjoying playing a new to me computer game and listening to a new album. I also did some batch cooking today, quite healthy food too. My husband is off work until mid November and then he goes back for one week and then has another two weeks off so the lockdown shouldn't really have that big an impact on his working life.

I was thinking about going to a few charity shops tomorrow (as they may close) but I'm not sure I need anything really. I have a stack of 8 paper books and 47 books on my kindle so I don't need any reading material. I don't need any new clothes as I bought so many new bits the past couple months when I started going out to shops a bit more.

helensbiggestfan

Good Morning my lovely friends.  

spider...loving the Hamper story.  Fabulous.  Sorry to hear you have had such a rough year.  Hopefully next year will be better.  I think an awful lot of people will be glad to see the back of 2020.  

As we head for another lockdown I think a lot of people are going to struggle - financially, emotionally and inevitably there will be more lives lost. It's a sorry state of affairs.  I look forward in hope to better times ahead. In the meantime I'll do my best to keep busy and remain happy, taking pleasure in my home, my loved ones and, weather permitting, in walking and enjoying nature.  

I visited my favourite charity shop yesterday, had a little splurge, bought some books for lockdown/winter reading and treated myself to some vintage fashion jewellery, a sweater and some fab velvet jeans. £5.50 the lot.  

Looks like there's been a frost, winter is definitely on its way, but I'm nice and cosy, being very decadent and drinking my morning coffee in bed,  a Champagne moment and one of the perks of retirement. 😁. 

Expecting some deliveries today so probably an at home day......finish painting my hall console table, some home based exercise - currently tai chi and then a Bollywood dance workout and maybe make a start on tidying some kitchen cupboards.  

Feeling a bit stiff and sore - My fibromyalgia is bothering me, my own fault because whilst I stayed at my sons last week I didn't really take the time to exercise properly so I'm paying for it now. So I'm going to start with a nice warm bath to loosen up and then indulge in a bit of a beautifying session.  If I can't go to a salon then I'll recreate a salon experience in my home, cheaper anyway. 😉

Have a great day everyone and keep savouring those champagne moments, 

sugarbaby125

My Champagne moment yesterday, was finding out that the last 2 creative writing workshops have now been rearranged as Zoom meetings.   

I got my refund for the cancelled 20th November Open Mic event within 24 hours of requesting the refund. 

My Champagne moment today, I was so pleased to find I have lost another pound in weight. I am now 16 stones 1 pound 

phoebe1989seb

Some great bargains from the charity shop there, LL  Most of those near us - and there are only two in the nearest small market town, but a few slightly further away - have never re-opened since the first national lockdown. I guess this is due to lack of volunteers/the age of those volunteering placing them in the more susceptible categories    Ours tend to be rubbish for clothing anyway, but you often find a few interesting books, art, dvds......

Champagne moments today - fabulous sunshine after yesterday's rain/hailstorms and even some snow not far from us on the Brecon Beacons! Means I can finally venture out to the machine in the outbuilding to do some much needed washing, lol! It's been such a faff having to do the washing in cramped, leaky conditions for 33 months so I can't wait to finally get the indoor laundry cupboard done (hopefully by Christmas  ) 

Just had a parcel delivery here too.....three brand new light fittings for the first floor landing/hallway. Another great eBay find - the seller had bought them then changed their mind, so was selling them for less than half price 😆

Have a good day all!

sugarbaby125

I was determined to buy far more modest Christmas presents for my family this year and I hit that goal. I am pleased to say that all of my Christmas presents are wrapped including my 4 sisters presents which I have packaged in grey mailing bags and I will post to them.