Giving every £ a job

Cheery_Daff

Love the sound of your valentine challenge 🥰

Blackcats

thank you @Sun_Addict - having a nice time so far.  

Thank you @MissRikkiC and @savingholmes. It was indeed a fun way to celebrate Valentines for 2 people who have previously shunned the day.  we both enjoyed the challenge without feeling under pressure or feeling robbed by over-priced flowers etc.  
I've planted the seed of doing a Eurovision night - a selection of food from various European countries and our own scoring sheets.  We never, ever watch Eurovision but my suggestion hasn't yet been rejected.

The blackcats household has burst into action with selling stuff.  OH has sold an item of "tech" on eBay and I've sold my first item on vinted.  £80 between us and equally as good unwanted items have left the house or garage.    We are adding this to the battle of the council tax pot.  OH has been foraging in the garage for more items to sell - happy days.

lucielle

Well done on the sales! Love Eurovision. 

L

savingholmes

Well done on the sales.

Love that you are maximising home entertainment 

Sun_Addict

A Eurovision night sounds brilliant. My mum was a big fan and we used to watch it together and fill in score cards, we took it very seriously 😆 I went through a stage of not being interested for a few years but suddenly started loving it again. It’s so cheesy but I love it. 

Blackcats

thank you @lucielle, @savingholmes and @Sun_Addict.  

Eurovision is on the first night of our holiday so that will be fun - I'll print out some score sheets before we go and put them in some nice folders like a proper girly swot!

OH and I have been chatting about the rising cost of eating out.  We went out for lunch at the weekend with family and were given the 2 courses for £23 menu, however it was starter and main choices so anyone who wanted pudding was directed back to the "all puddings are £8.00 menu".  The food was ok but OH's gourmet burger was a burger in a bun with a piece of lettuce and a slice of tomato and 12 chips.  I normally pinch a couple of chips as when they aren't on your own plate they are calorie free but their absence would definitely have been noticed by him.  Still at least he got a slice of rationed tomato.  We all had coffee at the end of the meal which adds another £4 per head.

we have concluded that the rising cost of running a pub/restaurant does have to be passed onto the customer but that we need to adjust our expectations on price but not settle for mean portions or poor quality.  Also we need to look forward to eating out and also factor in the social aspect of the occasion.  However, I'm still coming to terms with our £80 share of the bill 😱

lucielle

That was expensive and disappointing that you didn’t enjoy it. 

L

ladyholly

Our takeaway fish and chips for 2 last week was £18. It seems to go up every month. 

savingholmes

That is hugely expensive. I must admit to searching around for places I like the food - and then picking one thing off the menu and only going to there for that... It is restrictive though.

Blackcats

thanks Lucielle, LadyHolly and SavingHolmes - eating out is definitely an area where OH and I have the potential to overspend.  Pre-lockdown we spent £300-£400 a month on coffee shop visits, sandwich lunches when we were out and about and restaurant dinners and we used to kid ourselves that we weren't overspending.  In fact we went out for a coffee every week day which of course added up to about £40 to £50 a week.  We diligently got our loyalty cards stamped and really felt we were frugal winners to get a "free" coffee.  We now buy good quality coffee beans and I make a cake each week and we use our garden room as our own private coffee shop.


We've been tarting up our lounge ready for spring and have a spending near miss to report which resulted in a shopping from home win.  We found a nice lamp base in the garage which we had long since forgotten about - the shade was battered and torn (which is why it went to the garage in the first place) but we bought a really nice new shade and it looks fresh and new.  Whilst looking at lampshades we also looked at rugs - good grief the rug department was messy, badly lit and we couldn't see sizes or prices.  As we moaned about this OH asked what was wrong with the rug that used to be in the lounge.  A very good question!  So ....when eldest black cat was poorly he started using the rug as a toilet so we had cleaned the rug and put it away.  Needless to say we walked away from the rug department with purse firmly shut and we have a perfectly nice rug which was shopped from home.

this weekend we are ordering some canvasses using our own photos.  We got some good photos of our local bluebell woods last spring and the poppies in the summer.  We will be spending money but it will be personalised Rara that will cost less than mass produced shop bought.