Champagne Lifestyle on a Lemonade Budget - 2021

sugarbaby125

Positive thought for today:


Accept your past without regret, handle your present with confidence and face your future without fear (Author unknown)

phoebe1989seb

He's such a cutie, LL 😃

Skibunny40

LL - what  a cutie!

Sheilavw - I tried to get the garden sofa set from Aldi without joy. I logged onto the Aldi site at 7.30am on Sunday and there were 102,000 people ahead of me in the queue!! Heaven knows what time they got up!

sheilavw

skibunny, only 20.000 on when i was up (just after 6am), after an hr I was down to 16.000th but it came up on screen that the egg chair and patio headers were sold out so I left the site!

mrs_slapshot

Hi everyone - you've probably forgotten who I am it's been so long (again!) since I last posted. Life hasn't got any less hectic - I stayed at my friend's for 3 weeks while the plastering, electrics and moving the boiler happened. Oh my goodness the mess when I moved back in. Luckily I had friends to help me clean up or I'd still have been doing it now...it's lovely to be back home (although I really enjoyed my time at my friends), but we are still in upheaval as we are decorating the bedrooms so my son is on the sofa bed in the front and I have hijacked his bed which in temporarily in the back room! Aiming to finish the painting by Sunday evening, then the carpet should be fitted by the end of the month, and the blinds installed. Then it will be straight on with decorating the boxroom...

The bill was quite a lot more than I'd been quoted originally due to the additional work (electrics, plastering and a couple of jobs I added on) so I am having to pull my belt in and rein my plans back. It will be a refurbed kitchen rather than a new one, and I am keeping an eye on eBay and FB marketplace for furniture etc.

It's been lovely to catch up on everyone's news - Phoebe I am madly jealous of your egg chair and LL and Sugarbaby the photos of your grandchildren are just too cute!!

I had my covid jab a few weeks ago too and I felt tired for a week, but nothing else (bit of a sore arm).

My best champagne moment was looking at my pension funds and working out that I could finish work in about 2.5 years and have enough to pay off what will be left on the mortgage and enough left over to also cover my (basic) living expenses! It's sooner than I thought but now I want it to be even sooner....I've done a lot of youtube watching and podcast listening (especially while painting!) on financial independence and it has really fired me up again (no pun intended!!).

helensbiggestfan

Hello everyone.  

Mrs S - great news about your pensions and that you are close to FIRE.  Exciting.  😁.  The world will be your oyster.  Go You.  

FIRE is a wonderful concept, one that finally seems to be steadily growing traction here in the U.K, although a lot of people still don't seem to understand what it really means. They see it as being forced to retire when of course it's no such thing,  FIRE is about choices.  

I see FIRE not as the end of something, ie career or job but as a new beginning. A time when we get the chance to do something new and different without having to worry about keeping a roof over head or putting food on the table.  

Some people fear retirement but I think it's because they have been conditioned to see it as the end rather than a new beginning.  I have never felt that fear.  In fact just the opposite, I often saw my life as "Corporate Woman" as holding me back from doing all the things I wanted to to do because work took up so much of my time and energy I had to put all my dreams on hold.  

I love the total freedom of being retired.  I can work or not as I please, with my own timetable and no one breathing down my neck.  It's not laziness. My dislike of "working for the man" was never about not wanting to work, it was about not having autonomy and freedom of choice. I am very much a self starter and push myself far harder than any boss ever pushed me.  😉.  I often work far harder now than I ever did when I was "Corporate Woman". 

I hope to be able to "work" at something for a long time yet, even if It means I might have to buy in help from time to time.  I enjoy "work" and I think it's good for us.  It keeps us active, engaged and yes, even younger.  

As you know I have been on a few cruises and whilst they were enjoyable I have to say I met a lot of fellow cruisers who were retired and who seemed to do nothing else but go on holiday.  Very nice of course but I happen to think there's more to life than holidays.  I know this sounds horrible of me but I found a lot of them very dull and boring.  They had no conversation to speak of and seemed to spend all their time on holiday and could talk about little else.  Tbh I'm all cruised out for now.  

I think we need a purpose in life.   When my husband died I felt I had lost my sense of purpose. I had been his carer for 9 years and it just subsumed me.  For quite some time after his death I just couldn't envisage a future, it all seemed very bleak.  The Japanese called this need for purpose "Ikigai". It's that indefinable something that gives meaning and joy to our lives.  It can be anything .....our families, our hobbies, a small business, charity work. I don't think it really matters what form it takes but I think it's vital that we have a passion, something we truly love to do, something which inspires us and gives meaning to our lives. 

  I think that's why so many people can't cope with the idea of FIRE......they see it as the end rather than the new beginning that it can be.  My friends husband was a classic case in point.  He was devastated when he retired, he lost his sense of self because his identity was so wrapped up in his career.  (He was a dentist). When he lost that he went to pieces, and was dead within a few years.  So sad, because he was a clever man and could have used his intellect and talents to good purpose.  But he just sunk into a deep depression and more or less drank himself to death.  

Granny duty yesterday - fabulous fun but very tiring so having a quieter day today. Having said that I have been blitzing the kitchen/diner.  Even cleaned the oven, 😱😂. Not quite finished, still need to wash some glassware and crockery that isn't used regularly but I can leave that for another day.   

Thankfully a bit warmer here today.....but not quite gardening weather for me.....I'm strictly a fair weather gardener.  😂😁. 

mrs_slapshot

LL I couldn’t have put it better myself! I was trying to explain to someone yesterday I don’t want to stop work because I’m lazy - far from it - it’s because there are other things I wish to do with my time than be at the whim of corporate bosses. 

I too will always do something - I could never just sit around. It’s very exciting to think of all the possibilities....😁

Siebrie

We (Husband, dds 9 and 12, and I) are going to 'Spain' this weekend. We have packed our bags, will take a long drive in the company car, go through McD for dinner and eat it in the car. DD1 has written a letter in Spanish welcoming us to our cabin, has made Spanish signs for all the doors, has picked out some Spanish dishes to make for all the meals we will have.

The planning is to watch a Spanish children's movie, dance to Spanish songs, watch a youtoob 'walk through Madrid' (or any other Spanish city), take a walk through a major city near us and pretend it's Spanish . And then on Sunday, drive back home.

DD1 did the internet search, and I have ordered some books about Spain from the library.

sugarbaby125

My Champagne moment today was taking receipt of my 2 Boots orders, I had money that I could use to buy gift items from the No7 bath and body range. There were money off offers, 3 for 2 offers, buy one get one half price offers and £10 worth of bonus points with each order 

My 1st order:

2 X No7 Indulgent Collection Gift Sets after discount £28.09 containing products worth £117 I saved £88.91

4 X No7 Beautiful Skin Perfecting Body Polish £25.41 worth £42 I saved £16.59

3 X Boots Tea Tree & Witch Hazel Night Gel £7 worth £10.50 I saved £3.50

I got free delivery worth £3.50

I got a total of 1300 Boots Advantage card points on this order worth £13


My 2nd order:

4 X No7 Beautiful Skin Blissful Body Wash £26.79 worth £38 I saved £11.21

2 X No7 Indulgent Collection Gift Sets after discount £27.19 containing products worth £117 I saved £89.91

2 X No7 Skin Bath Milk £13.76 worth £23 I saved £9.24

Free No7 Hydrate and Glow Collection Gift Set worth £23

Free delivery worth £3.50

I received 1296 Advantage card points on this order worth £12.96


My total spend on the 2 orders was £128.24, I saved a total of £249.36 and earned myself £25.96 of Boots Advantage card points 

sugarbaby125

Siebrie, your family trip to 'Spain' sounds like fun