Champagne Lifestyle on a Lemonade Budget - 2021

sugarbaby125

Phoebe those David Austin blooms are extra special. 

weenancyinAmerica

Liberty_lily - love the garden pictures. Our lawn has been totally yellow since January - we have been under drought conditions all year. Have about ten plants that I water - and that is it. 

Humdinger1

Hello ladies, I've finally had time to immerse myself in your lucid prose! I can't just dip in, this thread requires total immersion I find.  Wonderful news all round; thanks to you all for creating a beacon of light.  My champagne moment has been snatching our puppy from the jaws of death; the vets say it's a miracle and so do we! Apologies if this is upsetting for anyone.  Love Humdinger xx 

Siebrie

Our lawn is riddled with clover, which stays green And is good for the bees And doesn't grow high, so less mowing

Wednesday2000

Humdinger1 said:

 My champagne moment has been snatching our puppy from the jaws of death; the vets say it's a miracle and so do we! 

Oh, I'm so glad.xxx

Wednesday2000

It has been so hot! I left the windows open until about 10.30 last night. At my old house we had a problem with biting insects from the nearby lake so we didn't often do that but we don't seem to have that problem here. It felt much nicer having some cool night air in the house.:)

sugarbaby125

My Champagne moments:

On Monday I went to the Ritzy cinema in Brixton to watch the film Nitram. It is a compelling film about the life of the Australian mass murderer Martin Bryant. For me this film was a 7/10 as even though the film was interesting, it is a very subjective form of entertainment. I used a Tesco Clubcard voucher worth £7.50 towards my ticket price of £7.90, then paid the remaining 40p in cash. 

On Tuesday afternoon, I went to my local Odeon cinema to watch the film The Lost City, which is an action adventure comedy. It was a silver screen film so my ticket only cost me £3.50. I got a free cup of tea, which normally costs £2.20. I also got 3 free biscuits and 3 segments of Terry's chocolate orange, all individually wrapped. The film has a very implausible plot, but Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum and Daniel Ratcliffe, looked liked they were having a great time. It had me laughing out loud again and again even if some of those laughs were at the ridiculous scenes unfolding before me. This film was a 8/10 for me. 

On Tuesday evening, I went to The Bush Theatre in Shepherd's Bush to see the play Invisible. It was a one man play, written and performed by Nikhil Palmer. He was absolutely brilliant at playing himself, and the other characters, with no props. There was just the clever use of lighting and sounds as the backdrop to his change of scenes and to punctuate his acting skills. He is a great comedic actor and playwright. This play is only 60 minutes long, but he kept the audience completely captivated and engaged. I could not stop laughing. For me this play was a  9.5/10.  I only paid £4 for my ticket which would normally have cost me £25 with my disabled discount, so I saved myself £21.   

Siebrie

Sugarbaby, I love all your outings and the reviews!

sugarbaby125

Thanks Siebrie    

liberty_lily

Thanks Nancy and Sugarbaby 🙂

Humdinger, brilliant news about your puppy 😊

There's a pleasant breeze here so it feels a *little* cooler than yesterday 🙂

My champagne moment today is of the bargain wallpaper variety -

Last month I was looking through my stockpile for any suitable wallpaper to use on the kitchen chimney breast when I found a sample we'd bought for our previous house. Although stunning, we'd never bought more than this small sample as we'd decided to sell that house. It wasn't right for the kitchen but I realised it would be perfect for our unbuilt gothic 'garden' room (which we already have the furniture and Liberty rug for!).

Not expecting success as it's fairly obscure and was discontinued a while back, I nevertheless trawled ebay just in case and was surprised to find a seller with 15 rolls for sale! This wallpaper retailed at £30 per roll and they were selling all 15 for £160 😀 However, annoyingly it was collection only 300 miles away, so although I kept it in my watch list I decided not to proceed. 

Later I noticed it was reduced to £120 which I felt was too good to miss so I contacted the seller saying I'd get shiply quotes for delivery. They said they'd get a quote from Evri but never came back to me. Meanwhile my best shiply quote was £70 which I thought a bit steep.

After more than a week's silence from the seller they messaged me to say they'd sell it for £120 including £10 delivery, which I was on the verge of accepting when they (obviously desperate to sell!) sent me an offer to buy for £100. I contacted them offering the additional £10 for delivery which they cheerfully declined 🙂

So we're getting the 15 rolls for £100 - a saving of £350 😁😁😁 I'm delighted 😍