Frugal, thrifty, make do, mend! Let this debt come to an end!

beanielou

Hope your cat is ok. 

SuzeQStan

Hey Elisheba - so lovely to see you back you have been missed!

congrats on the water bill very clever on your part for the assessed charges!

sorry to hear about your cat hope all is ok x 🙏🏻

like hearing your ‘shopping from home’ with your existing wardrobe.  My OH is guilty of putting things away and not knowing what he has. I was trying to match his socks up the other week and stopped counting at 90x pairs of socks!! 😭

have you any plans for Easter? Our family was supposed to come to ours the whole weekend but the matriarch had a fall and isn’t feeling too well so we are going to take Easter to her! 

Elisheba

Hello all!  

Long time no see, everyone! I'm sorry I have been away so long!  No particular reason why really - I think I just needed a little break.  I haven't been spending madly; I just haven't been watching every penny either.  I think it can be good to have a break from money watching or it can start to become a bit obsessive.

I have totted up my May spending and I went over a little on my personal spending but not in a major way so I'm happy with that. What I have been going overbudget on is things that I am allocating to the annual pots.  I suppose its all a learning experience, and having just moved house I really was too parsimonious with what I allocated for house spending this year.  I've also spent more on clothes than I normally do - again I think this is because I haven't spent much at all in the last few years and some things just needed replacing.  Its not crazy spending and most of what I have bought has been from charity shops.  

I'm just back from a week seeing family in Scotland, and it was very nice apart from getting some awful virus at the end of it and having to spend a day in bed, and feeling lousy all last weekend.  Silly dog has been very good about the fact he hasn't had any walks for a few days.  Think goodness I can throw a ball around the garden for him.

I had some potentially good news today.  My office days might be moving to once a month - it depends on a few factors, and will purely be for the convenience of my manager, but if it happens I will be grateful.  The long Fridays are very tiring.

Looking forward to this month I have a couple of friends visiting on different weekends so that will involve a fair bit of staying on top of the tidying and some lunches out.   I also have a big thing for a friend's birthday one weekend later in the month which is coming out of an annual pot, so don't need to worry too much about that.  I've done an online T3sco shop for this month which is getting delivered on Wednesday, as I am just not feeling well enough to do a big haul at Ald1. It costs a bit more, so I've increased my food budget to £150 for the month.  Some nice littel treats in there though so looking forward to it arriving.

Dinner tonight is going to be red pesto and various vegetables with pasta.  I'm not attending Beavers as still not well enough, and have an online meeting at 7pm for a scouting thing that I was supposed to attend in person but again not quite well enough.

When I find time this week I will try to catch up on the forum and some diaries, to see how everyone is doing and motivate myself.  

I hope everyone is well, and that you have been enjoying the rather nice weather the last few days 

Four_Seasons

Lovely to have you back. I hope you feel better soon xx

fionaandphil

Lovely to hear your update, hope you're feeling better soon

peewhyeff

Coincidently I was wondering why no posts for months.  This was, in part, when I saw Aldi are selling an inflatable mattress shaped to be used in the back of a car. Lovely to have you back and looking forwards to hearing what's occurrin'.

Elisheba

Morning, all,

Thanks for the lovely welcome back @FourSeasons @fionaandphil and @peewhyeff.  Looks like it will be fairly cloudy today so a good excuse to wear the new pair of black jeggings I picked up in a charity shop last week and see how comfortable they are to wear. I'm currently drinking tea in bed (my usual coffee in bed having been disrupted by accidently buying decaf 😱) and planning my day.

I think I'll try a dog walk today - even if it's only short.  Silly dog could do with it, and I'm sure a small amount of exercise might speed my recovery at this point. I'm a bit stuck for breakfast as I forgot to make bread yesterday and I'm out of porridge. I'll need to raid the cupboards and see what I can come up with.

Lunch I'm also not sure about - I might have made bread by then so it could be toast with beans and cheese. Dinner is more of of last night's red pesto pasta. I'm out at church home group later on, so that will be a nice and easy and quick supper before I go.

I have a friend's birthday and my sister's birthday coming up so will need to think about what to get them. My sister should be easy enough - she would be happy with vouchers. My friend will be a bit more complicated. She's not a reader, but she does like adult colouring books so I might have a look online and see what I can order. Will also need to look out birthday cards for them and put the dates in my diary I need to post them by.

I'm having a big dilemma in my own head at the moment about what to do about dying my hair. During the pandemic I grew out the dye, but last year I got bored and dyed it again and have been dying it since.  My roots are through and it needs dying again -  if I decide to keep dying it. The problem is at the moment I am really into the idea of living simply, that I have all I need and don't need to hoard things or damage the environment by acquiring more. And anyway you look at it those boxes of hair dye with all the chemicals being poured into our sewage can't be good for the environment. So do I grow it out and live au natruale? I can't see any natural dyes online, but I guess investigating them is another option. Or bite the bullet and dye it again while I think about it more? I also have 2 boxes of dye my Mum gave me but both are lighter thank normally go, so should I use them up?  Hmmmmmmmm.......

House wise today, other than making bread, I have some clothes I still need to unpack. I could do with making up some more of Nancy's all purpose spray as well. A quick run around the house with the hoover wouldn't hurt either. Tomorrow evening, which is my free evening, I must cut the grass. Other than that, the house is still quite clean and tidy from my big clean before I went away so not much to worry about.

Right, onwards and upwards. Hope everyone's day is lovely and productive 😊.

Moorviews

Lovely to see you and hear that life generally has been going well. You sound happy which is great! Hopefully you have turned the corner with your illness and are now on the mend. It sounds as though you are with your plans for the day. Well done to your dog for being so understanding while you are unwell. 

Life is definitely simpler without dyeing hair and I found that the condition improved. It’s such a personal decision though and feelings matter with regard to how you see yourself. 

I make Nancy’s household cleaning recipes too and love that there aren’t any toxic fumes to deal with when I am cleaning my home. 

WinterWarrior

Welcome back and I hope you feel better soon.
i stopped colouring my hair about 4 years ago and it’s still not fully grown out yet. My main concern was all of the chemicals I was pouring on my head. I don’t regret stopping, although I do sometimes see photos of browner haired me and feel wistful for my lost youth 😬 Mine did go a bit dryer and unmanageable without the dye so I started hair oiling in December and the condition is amazing now. It’s really soft.
I don’t blame people for colouring though, it is a bit of a shock to change hair colour, it feels like changing your entire identity somehow. 

puckishpixie

@Elisheba I know that years ago Lu$h did Henna hair dyes. No idea if they still do them but figure that it's probably better than whatever the big brands are mixing into the dyes if au naturel is not your current choice. And I'm sure other vendors would do it too.