The Final Furlong

Seasidegal58

Yes! Congratulations to your students! You must feel very proud!

Your fish and courgette dish sounded lush! What are you growing in your pots? I don't have access from my flat to any personal outside space so can't really grow anything. I do hope that when I move in a few years time I will have some sort of small balcony or garden space when I can have some pots to grow some veg, etc. I keep looking on Pinterest at "small garden spaces" for ideas!

clearmydebts

Just wanted to pop by and said hi. Your diary is a lovely read and you seem to be in such control over your debts

Dottles1

Morning all
Thank you Clearmydebts, glad you enjoy my ramblings. It has taken me many years to get to this point and I still have slip ups where I have to move things around a bit. I suspect that may have to happen after this weekend as I have one or two things to pay for that I hadn't planned in. However, a budget really does help with this even if you have to adjust a little along the way.

Seasidegal, I am very proud of my students and how hard they have worked to get those passes. As for my pots, I have just completed my first year in this house so am experimenting to see what will grow in them. I have runner beans, Borlotti beans (though none appeared), tomatoes, peppers, chillies, kale, aubergines, spring onions, lettuce, kale, courgettes and several herbs. I use all sorts thing to grow in e.g. a shoe box for cut an come again lettuce and used coffee cups for spring onions. I also have flowers in empty tomato and beans tins which looks lovely. You could perhaps grow something on your windowsill, chillies or herbs maybe.
Well I have survived my first full week at work in a while. Everyone is already stressed and teaching hasn't begun yet. I'm back with students next week for their induction so that will be better. I love the teaching and seeing the students grow but know I'm now definitely on my way out now.
I fell off the wagon this week and bought 2 lunches in college. I only spent £4.50 in total but need to nip that in the bud. I will take it out of personal spends as it was a kind of social thing, catching up with colleagues and it will make me think twice next time.
It's the wedding tomorrow so I am off for 2 nights in a hotel, I'm sharing with my lovely friend from London and really looking forward to it now. When I get back I will tell you about my budget outfit, came in at a total of £11 !!

Budgets update as follows:
Personal spends = £100/£95.50
Petrol = £50/£20
Groceries = £150/£100.55

Have a good weekend all
Dottles x

beanielou

Enjoy the wedding:)

clearmydebts

Enjoy the wedding! Can't wait to hear about the budget outfit!

Seasidegal58

Thanks Dottles for suggesting the windowsill herbs and chilli. I've been thinking about this for a while so must get myself in gear to sort it out.:T

Enjoy the wedding and another one here intrigued as to your £11 wedding outfit!:)

Dottles1

Morning all
I have had a fab weekend. The wedding was lovely and the bride beautiful. It seems only a short while ago that she was leaving school and planning for university and now here she is a stunning young woman with a family of her own (daughter and stepson). I have become such a softy over the years and cried at almost everything throughout the day. That said I laughed a lot too. The hotel was quite posh and I shared a room with my friend from London. On the night before the big day we had settled in with face packs, moisturising socks and prosecco when we got a message from the bride to be to come an checkout the celebration suite she was sharing with her family. So, thinking that we could sneak into the lift without being seen, we set off in our nighties but quickly discovered that they were housed in another wing. I persuaded a man coming out of the room next door to ask for directions and we were then escorted by a member of hotel staff. So if you were checking one of the people checking in on Friday night wondering why 2 middled aged women were in their nighties and no make-up in reception, I do apologise.
Now for the bargain outfit. I make no secret that I am happy to buy second hand whether it's furniture or clothing. I can't bear waste and so much stuff goes to landfill when it has lots of use left in it. Well, doing a bit of a clear out of my wardrobe a couple of months ago, I realised that some of my clothes had seen better days and that I needed to buy some more tops for work. I had seen a couple on FB that I liked and were in my size and were luckily still available. When I arrived at the seller's house she had other items for sale and I ended up buying: 1 pair of white linen trousers; 3 long vest tops; 2 beautiful tunics; a long sleeved lightweight blouse; a T shirt; a full length lined dress and a shorter one, all for the total price of £38. Everything was in wonderful condition and I'd had the wedding in mind when buying the dresses and eventually settled on the shorter one. It was just below the knee, which is great as I'm quite short and often they swamp me, floral on a black background with short fluted sleeves and a cross over bodice and, most importantly, a perfect fit. One of the colours also matched the shoes I bought for my GD's graduation last year and have only worn the once and a bracelet I had, so there you go, outfit sorted. Then last week I spotted a fascinator for sale on FB but it was navy so no good and the, lo and behold, the same person was selling a lovely black one for £3 !!!
So there you go, a dress for £8 and fascinator £3 and shoes and jewellery from models own collection.
In the past I would have spent months gong round the shops to find something and have ended up paying too much at the last minute for something that didn't feel quite right and that I never wore again but would be paying off for months.

I did spend on getting my hair cut, eyebrows threaded and nails done, a total of £54.50 which will come out of this months personal spends but I felt lovely and really comfortable in my budget outfit. It just goes to remind me that it's not always about how much I spend but how I feel and not worrying about what other people think.

Right, I'm hoping for some dry weather this afternoon so that I can do some more in the garden, then housework to do and some resit marking for tomorrow. I need to plan meals for this week but have plenty in so expecting a NSD today.
Have a good one
Dottles x

beanielou

Sounds like you had a great weekend:)
Outfit sounds just perfect too.

clearmydebts

Ah ha ha ha Dottles the nightie escapade is nothing short of hilarious! Wish I had been checking in :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Well done on the bargain outfit!

Seasidegal58

The wedding sounded fab!

Well done too on all those bargain outfits!:T. I'm trying to lose quite a bit of weight at the moment. I occasionally take clothes and shoes into a local dress agency who often has some wonderful outfits at bargain prices. Alas - the wonderful outfits tend to come in the more average sizes! I'm quite looking forward one day to treating myself to some.....:D