Champagne Lifestyle on a Lemonade Budget - 2021

sugarbaby125

Michelle, I hope your son is feeling much more comfortable now that he has had a few days taking the prescribed medications. How terrifying for you. I hope you are also feeling much more at ease now that he is recovering. 

MichelleG123

Thanks everyone, he's getting there, a few more days at home and he should be good. He's trying to convince me that putting the Xmas decorations up will help, I'm resisting for another couple of weeks, is anyone else getting on the Christmas mood? Xx

chanie

I’m definitely getting into the Christmas mood. Because the last two years have been pretty dull, due to lockdowns etc, my threshold for excitement is really low. I bought Christmas themed loo roll and I’m excited to use it!!!!

Wednesday2000

I was planning on buying a Christmas tree for my new house but that doesn't look like it's going to happen by then now so I might buy one for this house.

I am looking forward to going out this weekend although it won't be very lemonade budget!

chanie

That’s a shame that you won’t be in your new home for Xmas Wednesday.  Personally, I’d be relieved as I think Xmas must be quite an inconvenient time to move.  Hopefully, the new year will spur on the move.

Wednesday2000

chanie said:

That’s a shame that you won’t be in your new home for Xmas Wednesday.  Personally, I’d be relieved as I think Xmas must be quite an inconvenient time to move.  Hopefully, the new year will spur on the move.

Yes, I suppose so. I'm wondering if we will be in by my birthday, in March!

sugarbaby125

My Champagne moment last Wednesday was going to the discussion group in the morning at Blackfriars Settlement. It is good for me to have a really safe space to talk about my issues and to listen to my new friends and their concerns. 

In the evening on Wednesday I went to an event at Brixton library titled; This is the Canon: How to decolonise your bookshelves in 50 books. I could not purchase the book with the same title at the event as I did not have enough cash on me, and they were only accepting cash payments. I managed to find the book for sale on eBay for £11 rather than £16.99 which is the current retail price. It was such a great  question and answer session with the 3 female authors. 

On Friday, I went to Poetic Unity's Open Mic event at Black Cultural Archives. There were less poets than usual, but it was a really enjoyable evening for me and the other poets. I performed 2 of my poems: I Could Not Speak and Simon Today Is Your Birthday.   

On Saturday I paid my 1st visit to Theatre 503 to watch the play Milk and Gall. As I am on one of the qualifying benefits to allow me to buy a pay whatever you want price for my ticket, I paid 50p which saved me £18.50 on the full price of a ticket. I had to show proof of my qualifying benefit at the box office. The theatre is above The Latchmere pub in Battersea, so it is only a small theatre, but I look forward to watching other plays that I have booked tickets for in the future.  The only downside for me, is that the bench seating is not very comfortable for me, as I have Arthritis, but it is great to discover another local theatre. 

Siebrie

Our village had their annual St Martin's parade on 10 November. Last year, they had to cancel due to Covid, but this year they went ahead. We all wore masks and kept our distance; the children had their colourful made-at-school lanterns, the brassband was playing, the youth organisation had their real torches (the only year allowed to carry them is the 13-year-old members), the campfire at the end was huge! A local band played children's songs for the kindergarten and primary school children to sing along to in a tent off the side, mulled wine could be bought (I didn't, but I enjoy the smell), the children received a free rooster shaped bun on a stick (I don't know the reason for that, but it's appreciated). I talked to a few friends, dd2 enjoyed just walking around. And then we went home again.

phoebe1989seb

Michelle, I do hope your little boy is feeling much better now?

Helen - sorry to hear you've had the lurgy - hope you are recovered now, too?

Siebrie, your St Martin's parade sounds lovely...so good to be able to do this sort of stuff again!

Wednesday, I can't believe you still haven't moved house! It seems to have been dragging on for ages. I agree that moving close to Christmas isn't always ideal though, so probably for the best - our last-but-one sale/purchase completed a week before the big day and - being long distance (200 miles) - was pretty hectic, what with having to put our three cats and two dogs into kennels for the duration, finding someone available to securely fence the garden ahead of our arrival at that time of year, then the move itself taking five days despite using professional movers 🙄
Hopefully you'll be in your lovely new home very soon after the Christmas break!

Phase 1 of my dental treatment is well underway, so I've been tied up with appointments (6 so far, 2 more booked). As hideous - not to mention expensive - as it all is, I'm so pleased I took the plunge and that this phase will be done and dusted in plenty of time for Christmas! Depending on the outcome, phase 2 will hopefully happen during 2022.

I've tried to keep up with reading the thread when time has allowed and was particularly interested to read about prepareathome and Michelle's  forays into vintage fabrics and dressmaking etc, having been a fashion graduate myself back in the day (although these days the most you'll find me sewing is a cushion or curtain, lol!) and I still have vast reserves of fabric remnants and trimmings. One day I hope to make use of these 😉

Sugarbaby, you have been really busy and productive too with all your poetic output! It puts me to shame, having barely written a paragraph of my 'book' since the spring 🙁

Despite plenty of invasive dental procedures there have still been a few champagne moments here....

We sold some unwanted furniture, a rug and some architectural salvage items (a couple of items had been originally gifted to us, so had cost us nothing) for around £900 and put this towards a (second hand, but barely used) boho teal velvet sofa for the kitchen, a vintage and very stylish Lebus sideboard for the snug and a brand new jute rug, also for the kitchen. The sofa was originally £2k - we got it for just over a quarter of that, the sideboard was a snip at £410, whilst the rug - identical to one (out of stock) in Dunelm - was £50 less than their price, plus it was delivered within 24 hours 😃

All fab, all found on my favourite online shopping destination (eBay) 😁

At the weekend, whilst Christmas shopping in Homesense, we stumbled upon the perfect pair of mirrors for our bedroom. These originally retailed at £210 each, but were on sale at £70 each. Unfortunately, one had a small but noticeable area of damage, as a result of which we secured the two for £105 😆 In addition, I couldn't resist an embroidered William Morris cushion for £7...marked down from £50!

Wednesday2000

I know Phoebe! The couple we are buying from haven't even found a house yet as they have been gazumped several times. The estate agent said that they have made an offer and she thinks that it will be accepted. This was earlier this week. It has been 4 and a half months since our offer on the house was accepted. The person buying our house will have the mortgage offer run out at the end of this month so will have to get an extension if they still want to buy our house.

I was just saying on another thread that I wanted my husband to retire early and maybe downsize to a flat after this to free up equity but the idea of moving house again is unbearable after this experience!