Frump to Fab - A Whole New World.
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so sorry to learn that your sister 2 got the virus Sugarbaby, but pleased that she too is on the mend. take care x
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MoneySeeker1 said:Has anyone else totalled up their Covid expenses to date (ie for things they wouldnt buy normally)?
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I've had to purchase a lot of cupboard stable items. I have loads of shelf stable goods. I don't really need to buy more for a while.
Extraordinary expenses where much higher. Keep fit stuff 40, food honestly a lot maybe three to four hundred. Hand gel, masks and gloves about 100 easily.
Fuel less and shopping elsewhere is reduced. No new clothes or trivial items. I am saving on personal training.
I have to balance the books and every time I step into the supermarket I spend loads. I'm going to eat down what I have. I will soak beans and stretch what I have. I want to save money for bills and nest egg.
I have to step away from want to really need.6 -
Good morning lovely ladies.That's a very interesting question. I am usually fairly well prepared for eventualities such as bad weather or being unwell anyway so I never really allow my stocks to run too low. So once I realised the virus was heading our way I simply just kept adding a bit extra over a month or so.I would be hard put to put a price on what I have invested in my supplies but I have enough to keep me going for quite a while, food, cleaning materials, toiletries etc. but it will all get used in time. The only extras I bought were face masks and disposable gloves.Im certainly saving money by not going out or entertaining. Only saying to DIL and a few friends ...when this is over we are going to party like it's 1999.!!! And I think we will have all earned a few little treats don't you but for me the biggest treat of all will be proper physical contact with the people I care about, hugging my friends and family and cuddling my grandson. The simple pleasures of cafe society and a trip to the cinema.My DIL said something interesting yesterday. She said "I used to daydream about a luxury holiday in the Caribbean now I will be happy to just have a nice lunch at the bistro".Personally I think the world is going to be a different place when we come out of this. It has been a sobering experience for many and I'm hoping it will be a game changer.I hope that we will be a more thoughtful and considerate society and, like Maman has said, that we learn to value that vast army of people who essentially keep the wheels turning......not just medics and the ancillary staff who keep the NHS going but people like shop keepers, hospitality workers, farmers and food production workers, lorry drivers, delivery people, power workers, council workers, especially the refuse collectors.Hopefully there will be a little less fascination with vacuous talentless Z list "celebs" and influencers and a little more appreciation of the silent majority who work hard and long hours and keep things running smoothly. Who knows they might even end up with a decent living wage instead of having to grind along the bottom. Having seen what carers do when my husband was the beneficiary of their services I think it's shameful they get only minimum wage.I hope that humankind has learned its lesson.....that the planet's resources are finite and that we need to value what we have and not be on a never ending quest to acquire and consume more, more, more and that animals are sentient beings too. I have seen those wet markets (from where this virus came) and what I saw shook me to the core. I have seen human beings scavenging rubbish tips for items to sell, and I have seen fancy hotels standing check by jowl next to slums. I have seen sweatshops. And in our country I have seen the rise in homelessness and feeding stations. Feeding stations in a rich country like ours??? It made me ashamed but at the same time I felt utterly powerless. Let's hope this pandemic opens a few eyes and humankind mends its ways.On a more cheerful note....I have been using my time productively. I have finally
got round to sorting out all those boxes of photos. 😁
Stay well everyone, keep busy and cheerful. Cherish your loved ones and keep up the fabbing.12 -
chanie said:MoneySeeker1 said:Has anyone else totalled up their Covid expenses to date (ie for things they wouldnt buy normally)?
I keep telling myself "I'm paying those Covid Expenses from the money saved on social life - because I havent got a social life at the moment. Do hope I'm going to be able to get all of my social life back to normal afterwards - ie it will all still be available".
It's going to vary from person to person. Being retired - I'm resigned to extra on fuel bills anyway (because I'm in more normally - now I'm not out to work 9-5 Mon-Fri any longer anyway).
Just trying to think in terms too of all the extra food/bartering possibilities from the extra stuff I'm planting in my garden currently (all planned in advance - but just brought forward a bit of the expenditure on that by a few weeks/months to what I otherwise would have). The reasonable neighbour I've got here had obviously been doing a lot of peering over the walls watching what food I've been planting for some time and recently got themselves set up to do so too. We've been swopping notes about what we are respectively growing already - I'm guessing they've already got their eye on maybe getting some more "luxury" type stuff I'm growing and I've got my eye on maybe getting some more "basic" type stuff they're growing.6 -
helensbiggestfan said:
- Personally I think the world is going to be a different place when we come out of this. It has been a sobering experience for many and I'm hoping it will be a game changer. Hopefully there will be a little less fascination with vacuous talentless Z list "celebs" and influencers and a little more appreciation of the silent majority who work hard and long hours and keep things running smoothly.
- On a more cheerful note....I have been using my time productively. I have finally got round to sorting out all those boxes of photos. 😁
I do hope you're right LL and that society will turn its values on it's head after this is over. It grates with me when I hear government ministers praising public services. I'm sure they're being sincere but they forget that it's coronavirus that's sweeping the nation not amnesia! These are the same ministers that implied that junior doctors were lazy and mercenary when they were looking for decent working hours. Or decimated nurses' recruitment by removing the bursary. Then there's that idiot footballer who went to a party at the weekend. He's being fined £150 000 by his club which just puts into perspective how ridiculous their earnings are when people are expected to live on less than £100 per week Universal Credit.
Thinking about your garden comments moneyseeker, I was wondering whether garden centres should be opened to sell all the bedding plants that will otherwise go to waste? They could operate like supermarkets with spaced queues but it really would help to keep people gainfully occupied in the fresh air if they had more gardening to do. I'm undecided. I suppose a bigger priority is getting enough people to replace the Eastern European workers that harvest crops. They'll miss the income and I'm feeling for the Indian poor stranded in big cities with no money.
Have you actually finished the photos or made a start LL? I'm envious. It really is something I should tackle. Are you just mounting them or annotating them in some way?
Interesting article in my newspaper this morning about 'top half dressing'. It's an amusing piece about how people are presenting themselves in video conferencing where they might look presentable for the camera but they have joggers or PJs under the desk. It occurred to me that it's what I do when I go on city breaks in winter. Although I might have heavy boots and jeans on for sightseeing, I always take some really nice jumpers or blouses so I look good sitting at a restaurant table.
Keep cheerful everyone.
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helensbiggestfan said:My DIL said something interesting yesterday. She said "I used to daydream about a luxury holiday in the Caribbean now I will be happy to just have a nice lunch at the bistro".
I am really going to appreciate my life more after this is over!
I am going to make sure I have a fully stocked food cupboard at all times too!7 -
I can't work out if I am spending more or less. My husband seems like he is going to the shop almost everyday to get more supplies as we keep running out of certain things but then we aren't getting online deliveries. It's making me realise that we both eat loads of food!
I think we will have about £300 to add to our savings before payday and we already put in £200 this month so that is quite good, I think.
I have put on my long black dress and my cobalt blue jumper with one of my blue birthday pendants. Makeup too. Not that I'm going anywhere, obviously.
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Keeping cheerful is going to be a bit difficult right now - have talked to two good friends on the phone and will be having a cup or two of my own homemade lemon balm tea (lemon balm being a soother) later - after my One Exercise for the day later (ie a walk).
This all just got a bit personal though. Fortunately, and knowing what was about to come, I went back Home (ie my home area) some weeks back and handpicked the best nursing home I could for my elderly ill father. I was determined no-one/but no-one apart from me was going to have the choosing of it (not other relatives and certainly not the State) and I chose the best one I could and feel as happy I can about putting him in and it'll just have to cost an "arm and a leg" to cover it.
Rang this morning to see if various things had got through to him (which they have) and I got a nurse who is about as straightforward as I am and I didn't have to cross-question very closely at all to find it out - but he's trying to commit suicide.
The falls he is now having are not accidental - he's trying to knock himself "out and gone". He recently started vascular dementia (on top of all his other ailments) - but he's not that "far gone" that he won't be watching the news and Aware. I know how he thinks. I know what he will be thinking. He is the one that taught me (eventually) to be a Future Thinker and plan way ahead. He's trying to commit suicide because of all his own personal troubles and because he's scared - and there's b&gger all I can do about it, other than hope he doesn't have much longer left to live.
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Didn't catch that about the footballer. Having said that some of them, both players and the clubs, have been extremely generous with their money and their time. Same with some of the entertainment industry and sports people. ....some extremely generous donations. Yes £1m is probably only small change to some of the big Hollywood A listers and our premier division players, but it's nice to see them sharing a little of their largesse. Let's hope the meaner, more avaricious ones take note.I was furious that Branson got the begging bowl out ....as usual.😡 Pleading for government help to save his airline, perhaps he could start with selling his private island to pay his workers. 😉.I agree about India and similar Third World countries. I haven't been to India but I have been to the Sudan - often a famine hotspot at the best of times. It's those kind of countries which are going to be really badly hit, not just with the virus but I think they are at a very real risk of starvation and famine on a massive scale. No chance of them building emergency hospitals either.I am seriously impressed with how we have managed to build the Nightingale in record time.As for italy and Spain.....very worrying. I wonder if it will be as bad for us. DIL has family in Madrid, so far so good.I too can't see why garden centres are closed if I'm honest. OK shut down the cafes and the ancillary products such as garden furniture, hot tubs and the like but most garden centres and nurseries also sell vegetable plants and fruit bushes, not just flowers. I think people should be encouraged to get out in the garden and grow a few easy vegetables. "Dig for Victory" was an important part of the war effort in WW2, I would have thought it would help a little now with food security.Re the photos......at the movement just at the sorting out stage, but yes I will put them in albums and annotate them.....part of the Swedish Death Cleaning. 😂.5
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