2023 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

skogar

Hope you are both doing OK Pip and Laura.

Slight update to coupon spends -

1 bra has gone back - I assumed that a bra in the same style but a different colour would be the same design - the blue one has a much narrower back band with only 2 hooks instead of 3 and consequently was a poor fit so has been returned (grrrr) and the pair of navy trousers I ordered at the same time as the other things has finally arrived.

Laura_Elsewhere

Thankyou, @skogar - two of my extractions have healed nicely but the most important one, next to the still-vulnerable new crowns, may be developing an infection so it's back tomorrow for an emergency check, dammit dammit...

I sympathise re your bras - last year I bought two swimsuits, same size and so muich the same model that all I did was select a different colour from a drop-down menu, so yes, very much assuming they'd be the same - one was about three inches narrower when laid flat on the bed and almost six inches less top to bottom! The larger one fits well with two inches taken out of the shoulder-straps, but the smaller one couldn't go on... ridiculous, isn't it? And yes, seams and design differences...

I bought a lovely pair of M&S pure linen shorts last year, second-hand, but found that their colour went with very few tops and shirts - a sort of dull mustard colour, which I didn't much like... so I've just machine-dyed them black (thankyou free £5 voucher from Hobbycraft!) and am now going over the top-stitching with a black permanent-marker pen... I shall wear black linen shorts far more... 

PipneyJane

Thanks all.  I have no news to report, but when I do, I promise to tell you.

@Laura_Elsewhere fingers crossed that you don't have any further dental issues.

I have come to two conclusions this week: both to do with my wardrobe.  Firstly, I need to go back on a diet and exercise program, to lose the spare tyre around my waist, which seems to have got wider over the last year.  It would make life so much easier if I could fit into more of the clothes I have in the cupboard.  If you see me opening the biscuit tin or the cake tin, you have my permission to slap me.

Secondly, what to do about my "lack" of coupons, seeing as I've blown through 40 already this year and only have 26 left.  There are a few things on my wish list: trainers for running plus a pair for lazing around; my annual pair of loafers for work; another Hexagona convertible handbag; maybe another pair of those hiking trousers that convert to shorts; possibly another suit (my "good" black suit is beginning to look shabby); possibly a summer dress...  I've decided the following:-

• I know my brand of running shoes also do fractionally heavier, leather-outer trainers for walking.  If, next time I need to replace my "runners", I buy those instead of running shoes, then I can downgrade them to every-day-shoes when I've past the 300 mile mark, saving coupons.  This also means that I'll stop getting wet feet, every time I step in a puddle, because the walking trainers are waterproof, while the running ones aren't. (My current walkers should last until then.)
• The suit:  if I get lucky, I'll find a decent separates pattern and can make it with the fabric and equipment I already have.  (I have ?six metres of black wool suiting, that I got last year from a "fabric swap".)  If I don't, then I'm going to look at the Oxfam website first, before trying other second-hand sources.
• The loafers should keep until year.  I've barely worn the current "new" pair, bought ?January 2020?.  I may save up and buy a really expensive pair, with proper leather soles (which can be repaired/replaced), so that I don't have the annual issue with the sole breaking down internally, before anything else wears out.
• The summer dress.  There is a style that I like, of the current fit-and-flare variety.  I am kicking myself that I didn't ask the girl who was wearing it at the rugby, where she got it. (That was at the end of May, on a lovely, hot, sunny day.)  If the pattern gods provide a suitable pattern, I may attempt to make one myself.
• The hiking trousers.  These are a "don't-need-them-yet-but-at-some-point-I-will" purchase, since my current pair are at least 10 years old and the shorts get worn a lot in summer.  If I see the right ones, I will buy them, even if I have to resort to negotiating with Flash Harry.  (Of course, if I lose weight, then I will be able to fit into the two pairs in a smaller size that are lurking in the wardrobe....)

- Pip

Cherryfudge

PipneyJane said:

There are a few things on my wish list: trainers for running plus a pair for lazing around; my annual pair of loafers for work; 

A thought about loafers for work: if they are what you always have for work, or are an item you wouldn't buy for outside of work, might they count as uniform?

PipneyJane

Nice thinking @Cherryfudge, but loafers are my choice of shoe not a work-imposed item.  I wear them because I like wearing trouser suits and hand-knitted socks.

- Pip

Cherryfudge

PipneyJane said:

Nice thinking @Cherryfudge, but loafers are my choice of shoe not a work-imposed item.  I wear them because I like wearing trouser suits and hand-knitted socks.

- Pip

Maybe the trousers suits ought to come off ration then? (Ditto the work socks...)

Laura_Elsewhere

@PipneyJane - I wonder if you could buy better-quality work-loafers? If you need a new pair each year and you are not on your feet all day standing or walking (like waitresses or nurses for eg) then it does sound as if the shoes are poor quality, despite your preference for good-quality suits and socks- I would expect a pair of office shoes to last years!

Laura_Elsewhere

The village hall here in Much Mending on the Borrow will be closed on Tuesday 11th - apparently they're re-decorating! We might get a new tea-urn...

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6458292/the-forum-is-getting-a-new-look/p1

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

@PipneyJane - I wonder if you could buy better-quality work-loafers? If you need a new pair each year and you are not on your feet all day standing or walking (like waitresses or nurses for eg) then it does sound as if the shoes are poor quality, despite your preference for good-quality suits and socks- I would expect a pair of office shoes to last years!

To be fair @Laura_Elsewhere , the current pair date from 2019 and I have a pair in reserve for when these ones die.  I just have it in my head that I have to factor in replacing them every year, when I plan my clothes budget.  I may yet buy the DMs that I've been considering purchasing forever.

Laura_Elsewhere said:

The village hall here in Much Mending on the Borrow will be closed on Tuesday 11th - apparently they're re-decorating! We might get a new tea-urn...

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6458292/the-forum-is-getting-a-new-look/p1

Fingers crossed. 

Hopefully, they'll be much more efficient than the contractors who are scheduled to dig up the approach road next week, to "fix the drains".  Last  time they appeared it was for "a burst water main".  While they stopped the extra flooding, they didn't cure the puddles-in-unusual-places problem that we have on the road out of the village.*

- Pip


* This is really the country road outside my office. It'll be closed daily, next week, from 9.30am to 3.30pm.  We spotted the signs yesterday. None of my highways engineer colleagues reckon the cause is drainage.  Our money is on a water leak that is overwhelming the one noticeable drain, which is half way up the hill.  The  dodgy water main they fixed in ?October last year was much further along, about half a mile closer to the motorway.

Cherryfudge

PipneyJane said:

To be fair @Laura_Elsewhere , the current pair date from 2019 and I have a pair in reserve for when these ones die.  I just have it in my head that I have to factor in replacing them every year, when I plan my clothes budget.  I may yet buy the DMs that I've been considering purchasing forever.

Get the DMs. There is no way you will regret it if you buy them, you have spare loafers if needed, your current pair isn't yet ready to dispose of and suppose in a few months' time you sprain an ankle and can't wear DMs? And then you have to wait ages till the ankle is strong enough, when you could have been wearing them all this time? Or suppose the government makes a special coupon rate whereby DMs are double the coupons? Or suppose the puddles-in-unusual-places persist and you are sitting in your office contemplating a lack of DMs, amid the general dreariness which could have been so much improved by the perfect footwear.

Please buy them. I'm getting quite emotional over the lack of DMs and thriftwizard has rehomed the embroidered hankies.