Getting FIREd up 😀

kaycastle

Hiya @South_coast
ooh I'll have to check out the frugality discussions. I think I have similar thoughts to you - I'm not sure I could describe myself as frugal - I'm just usually good at not spending much as there isn't much I want. But when I want something I quite happily spend money. But I can easily adopt frugality when I'm saving for something I want - I quite enjoy the challenge of it.

But I've had plenty of spare £££ every month so in new place will need to make some more careful decisions.

I'm starting to get a bit fussier about eating out - I'm not finding many places worth it anymore - I'll quite happily spend money on something nice but the prices seem to be getting a bit cheeky and the quality of the cooking not always great. 

Are you planning a new kitchen soon?

South_coast

I am planning a new everything 😀😀😀! Kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, electrics, floor coverings, plastering, furniture etc etc etc. In fact, I have actually made my first purchase for my new swanky flat this afternoon - £4.00 on a new magazine rack 🤣! I would have happily paid a lot more, but that was the one I liked 😀!

On the eating out, we are lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it 🤔) enough to have loads of fab independent restaurants both in my town and the one just the other side of BF's village (actually, there is a pub in his village that does great food too), so sadly we can always think of somewhere great to go. Although the £15 Chinese buffet restaurant is definitely a regular favourite 😀!

edinburgher

I am a non-frugal bellwether - if you want to check whether you're being frugal just ask yourself "could I imagine Ed writing about this on his diary?" 

South_coast

I'll bear that in mind, Ed 🤣!

Have just remembered something else past-SC used to do - she spent a fortune on Tigi styling products - bought from the salon, at a ridiculous mark-up 😱🤦‍♀️! She did eventually wise up and buy them from eBay (telling the salon "Oh, my Mum stocked me up on a load for Christmas/birthday" every time they tried to sell me more), then eventually wised up even further after forgetting to take them on a work trip and realised she didn't need them at all anyway! 

South_coast

Uni-SC also started off life buying textbooks from the bookshops in town (needed for a whole semester, so not feasible to borrow from the library). I was so impressed when someone introduced me to Amazon and I could get them cheaper 🤣! Now-SC would definitely have been looking at second-hand options though!

ruby_eskimo

South_coast said:

Uni-SC also started off life buying textbooks from the bookshops in town (needed for a whole semester, so not feasible to borrow from the library). I was so impressed when someone introduced me to Amazon and I could get them cheaper 🤣! Now-SC would definitely have been looking at second-hand options though!

I think we were all like that (in first year anyway!) because it was part of the fresher thing of going to get registered and then going and buying all the books 😆  Uni-Ruby was frugal with food and bought second hand clothes but also spent way too much money on high end makeup on ebay 😂

Excited to hear about your "new" flat plans.

South_coast

Dry January has a lot to answer for! Not only have I just been screened out on Norstatpanel for not having had a drink in the last two days (🤦‍♀️ - now 2 coins away from £10), but I keep having bizarre and very detailed dreams. Last night's dream saw me fretting about the layout of my new kitchen. Woke up with a satisfied feeling that I'd cracked it - except that's not my kitchen at all 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️! The main point I was pondering was how to deal with a doorway that isn't there, that leads onto a rear lobby that isn't there, that leads to a downstairs loo and back yard that aren't there! Apparently my befuddled sober subconscious thinks I now live in a house 🤣 I was also trying to take into consideration a dog I don't have (although I did at least recognise the name, it belongs to some friends of BF's - never met it though 🤦‍♀️)

As a consequence, woke up 2 hours early and couldn't get back to sleep - and I still don't have the perfect kitchen layout 🤣!

themadvix

That’s brilliant! 😂 Just shows that alcohol is dulling your creativity normally!

QueenJess

Apparently giving up alcohol does make you dream more: https://www.insider.com/quit-alcohol-things-that-happen-to-your-brain-body-2022-1#speaking-of-sleep-you-may-have-vivid-dreams-or-even-nightmares-at-first-2

South_coast

Great, so they're here to stay 🙄 I tend to dream quite a bit anyway, and they're always completely random (once had a very erotic dream about a colleague I had ABSOLUTELY no desires towards 😬 - the things he was doing to me 😳!), just would be helpful if they helped me in some way, like actually working out how everything is going to fit in my kitchen 🤣!