2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Liverpool_Anne

@Laura_Elsewhere, thank you, very interesting and informative. I suppose the thickness of the yarn also depends on what it is made from, looking at how thick the shetland looks compared to the other yarns even though they have the same weight name. If I ever come across some I will know what to expect. I must admit I love the idea of combining different yarns, the results are stunning but I don't have a stash to experiment with atm but I can foresee a time when I might .
@Cherryfudge, I also find the confusion with USA things difficult, maybe there is a market for a translator

Rah

Hello everyone! Long time no see etc, apologies for the lengthy absence, I just cannot seem to keep up with the speed of this thread! 
Anyway I have my first purchases of the year to report - 1x bra, 4x pairs of knickers, and 1 nightdress (6 coupons). On the basis that a bra is half of a corset, that's 1.5 coupons, and if modern knickers are half of cami-knickers that's 2 coupons a pair (still seems very high compared to other items!) which makes 8 coupons for the 4-pack. Total spend 15.5 coupons. Which leaves 50.5 remaining, hooray! 
Very pleased to have got to May/June before shopping.  lol - we'll see if the rest of the year continues this well! I have bought a few second-hand items of clothing though (happily coupon free). 
P.S. Loving the sewing bee this year, the recycle week was my fave. 

Liverpool_Anne

@PipneyJane, sorry if this is a bit off topic but I have noted you post about your clothes and yarn budget. Can I ask do you have different bank accounts for these or are you super organised with spreadsheets etc. I am thinking I probably need to do something like this.
Anne

PipneyJane

Liverpool_Anne said:

@PipneyJane, sorry if this is a bit off topic but I have noted you post about your clothes and yarn budget. Can I ask do you have different bank accounts for these or are you super organised with spreadsheets etc. I am thinking I probably need to do something like this.
Anne

Sleepless night, @Liverpool_Anne?  (You posted at 3.22am.). Were you disturbed by bombers at the American airbase?

I’m happy to talk about budgeting.  I have three cheque accounts and multiple small savings accounts at my main bank.  Everything gets automatically transferred to its designated budget pot on payday (usually the last day of the month).    I’m quite lazy - once everything is set up, it takes care of itself.  I can always see how much is in each pot, just by logging into the bank.  When I purchase something, e.g. yarn, I use my credit card and (almost) immediately go onto my banking app and transfer the money over from its designated pot. 

I have pots for yarn, clothing, cricket, football, choir, haircuts, phone/computer, concerts, date nights with DH, Christmas/birthday gifting, “The Running Away Fund”, the “Petrol Accrual” (for filling up the car each month), a separate “Car Account” (for insurance, repairs, and the eventual replacement), etc.   

My first lightbulb moment was when I realised that if I left money in my main bank account, it’d get spent evaporate before its designated transaction took place. I learned this the hard way, when I was a couple of months into owning my first home and I couldn’t pay the mortgage which was deducted mid month!  Enter the “Bills Account”.  My bank kindly moved all the direct debits (gas, electricity, council tax, mortgage, insurance, etc) to a separate cheque account and set up a standing order to transfer the necessary cash - plus a small buffer - each pay day.  (This was the 1990’s, so pre-internet banking.). At my request, that account does not have a cheque book or a debit card.  

When DH and I got married and bought our house, we opened a Joint Account - the third cheque account - for all the household bills.  Again, no cheque book or cards.  (I rented out my flat, so my Bills Account is just for that.) 

The small savings pots started as a Sanity Fund, an idea I borrowed from an Australian writer, Anita Bell, after reading her book “Your Mortgage.  How to Pay It Off in Five Years, by Someone Who Did It in Three”.  As Anita explains it, your Sanity Fund is a small pot of money set aside each month, for those small things that are important to you.  (Reading her book was my second lightbulb moment.). Originally, it was just for books, yarn and clothes. The other accounts have been added when I realised there was a gap in my budgeting, e.g. I added the account for fuel for the car, the Petrol Accrual, when I realised that my main account was always ending up in overdraft at month end because I’d forget about having to fill up the car. 

The most important concept is quarantine.  Once the cash has moved from my main account, I don’t view it as mine.  Money in a given pot can only be used for its designated purpose.

HTH

- Pip

Liverpool_Anne

@PipneyJane, yes a bit of a sleepless night, I was too hot and as usual if I wake my mind starts wandering. After working shifts over 25 years ago I can still switch to a night shift in the blink of an eye lol. I will be retiring in 3 months and although I have planned for this I do sometimes get a minor panic about going from a reasonable income which allows me to do more or less what I want, (new footy season ticket bought for example), to an income which will need closer control so I have been pondering the best way to do this. A trip to the bank may be required . Thank you for sharing your method, I will let you know how I get on. 
Anne

TwibbleDee

@Liverpool_Anne We have a spreadsheet set up each month where we can break down each paycheck into what needs to come out of it.  Hubby set it up with all the formulas and such needed.  For even more fun, I put them all together into 1 document and linked them together this year, so our funds budgeted for each category will carry over to the next month without having to manually transfer.  

CAFCGirl

Either a blessing or a potential for ruin but I've found a shop with yarn   
None of the brand I need for the next 'big project' but they did have plenty of the weight I use for the looms (chunky) and reasonable prices. Odd type of shop which also had haberdashery in it, hardware and then clothing - Yorkshire Trading Company if anyone knows of it. Can't think of any equivalent we had in the South 
Charity shops visited today, more plant pots acquired for my green babies. Tragically no new green baby but I'm sure I'll find a new one to adopt soon enough 

Cherryfudge

CAFCGirl said:

Either a blessing or a potential for ruin but I've found a shop with yarn   
None of the brand I need for the next 'big project' but they did have plenty of the weight I use for the looms (chunky) and reasonable prices. Odd type of shop which also had haberdashery in it, hardware and then clothing - Yorkshire Trading Company if anyone knows of it. Can't think of any equivalent we had in the South 

I know it.

Great shop, I use it for various bits and pieces. It used to be owned by the (now closed) shop next door which was the nearest we had to a pound shop. If you like cooking, Yorkshire Trading is also worth checking for bits and pieces like muffin cases and tin ware, and is quite a good source for bird food, sweets, storage boxes, fairy lights and notebooks. You did say it's varied!

The haberdashery section is fun, so colourful and some nice fabrics too.

The biggest source of yarn is Boyes department store on the High Street (upstairs). The Sue Ryder charity shop off the Applegarth has a small amount of second hand yarns, Strikes Garden Centre (just to the north of town) has a craft department with some yarn, and then there's the knitting shop on Friarage Street which I've never dared enter as I fear I'd spend a lot. I think that's the one Pip recommended.

If you go exploring, there's a charity shop in Kirkbymoorside called something like 'Children in Distress' which is great for oddments and sometimes several balls of yarn, though last time I went there was a power cut and you have to take cash (or a cash-carrying companion) as they don't have a machine. All in the interests of adventure of course and nothing to do with adding to my stash.

P.S. I don't know if you've been in Boyes yet but their one-way system is confusing - you go in on the right and take the staircase just ahead to get to the upper floor, then come down by the staircase on the opposite side. If you want to get to somewhere in the middle of the ground floor, it's tricky from upstairs but possible now that people aren't as strict.

Laura_Elsewhere

Cherryfudge said:

CAFCGirl said:

Either a blessing or a potential for ruin but I've found a shop with yarn   
None of the brand I need for the next 'big project' but they did have plenty of the weight I use for the looms (chunky) and reasonable prices. Odd type of shop which also had haberdashery in it, hardware and then clothing - Yorkshire Trading Company if anyone knows of it. Can't think of any equivalent we had in the South 

I know it.

Great shop, I use it for various bits and pieces. It used to be owned by the (now closed) shop next door which was the nearest we had to a pound shop. If you like cooking, Yorkshire Trading is also worth checking for bits and pieces like muffin cases and tin ware, and is quite a good source for bird food, sweets, storage boxes, fairy lights and notebooks. You did say it's varied!

Sounds very like the useful Edinburgh Bargain Stores on Nicholson St in Edinburgh! Every town should have an equivalent... 

Cherryfudge

Laura_Elsewhere said:

Sounds very like the useful Edinburgh Bargain Stores on Nicholson St in Edinburgh! Every town should have an equivalent... 

Hang on a minute... (adds Edinburgh Bargains Stores to her list for when she finally goes to Edinburgh).

We could create a directory.