La Dolce Vita - 2024

helensbiggestfan

Happy New Year.  

Hello Everyone. 

I continue on my mission to live La Dolce Vita (The Sweet Life) - living the best possible life I can with what can be politely termed a modest budget.  😂

I want to have it all......a beautiful home, gorgeous clothes, gourmet quality food, exotic travel and fun.  

Alas I am not a trust fund babe.  Lol. 

So I shall have to make do with my limited means and S T R E E E E T C H my meagre budget to its limit, all the while whilst avoiding the dreaded "D" word.  DEBT!!!   

I'm determined not to let lack of funds cramp my style.  

Join me and push the envelope.  Let's get this Champagne Lifestyle started.😂

Time for a breakfast and off for a walk.  It's a lovely bright day, perfect for some free exercise in the fresh air.  

Debsnewbudget

Joining the new thread. Thank you for starting it.  I want some adventures this year, so need to start planning. 

Foofoopuppy

I would like to join again, to keep going with some good habits I started and build in new ones. Also looking to minimise spending this year, so looking to use stuff from home and/or freebies.

Thanks for starting a new thread 😊

helensbiggestfan

Ooops just typed a post and lost it.  So I'll just make this a quickie.  

Good Morning Everyone and Welcome to both the newbies and the returners.  

So what's the thread all about then. Well it's my attempt to live a full rich and rewarding life whilst being almost a pauper.....😂🤣.   

You may have noticed that I have also started a new Frump to Fab thread.  I firmly believe that health and well-being is paramount to living a full and fun filled life, after all is health is wealth. We can't get the most out of life if we are battling health issues such as weight gain and lack of energy but I wanted to separate the two so that  I could concentrate this thread into finding ways of being more creative in my quest on how to live La Dolce Vita on slender means.  I have a few ideas and am raring to go but first I need to clear the decks ready for action.  

I have decided not to continue with theme days as such but instead to set myself a series of challenges, some weekly, some monthly.  My first challenge is to concentrate on my finances.  

This year I need to finance a house move and a new car and if possible some travel.  A big ask.  So it's extreme frugality for the next couple of months.  No new clothes, OK maybe the odd chazza bargain if it's truly sensational. 

My car goes in for its MOT on Saturday. It may well fail.  I have decided I am not ready to go car free just yet after all but it might take a few weeks to find a replacement so this week the plan is to do a couple of big shops, fill up the  freezer and stock up on cleaning materials etc.  I am happy to shop online if necessary but. I do find it cheaper if I shop at Aldi or Lidl.  

So it's wait and see what happens with MOT and take it from there.  In the meantime I need to pay some bIlls and maybe move some money around, rejig my accounts and hopefully set up some longer term investments.  I also aim to look for ways to increase my income and have joined the make £2024 in 2024 challenge.  

Right I'd better get cracking. It's horrible here today so just a quick schlepp round Aldi and a catch up with some much needed tidying up.  

Have a great day y'all.  

sheilavw

Happy New Year everyone. Looking forward to reading, and contributing too. I always seem to be busy, need to make more time!

helensbiggestfan

Good Morning Lovely Friends 

it's a beautiful morning here, so will grab some fresh air whilst the sun is shining.  

  I was up with the larks, have taken down the Christmas decorations and will do a thorough clean later.  Nice to reset the house. It always looks a bit bare when you take the decs down so I bought some flowers to brighten the place up a bit.  

I have nothing special planned for the next few weeks so I have decided to make January a declutter month, going through one room at a time.  Anything which can't go to the charity shop or get thrown away in the usual dustbins will go into the garage for now,  Then, once I've done and when the weather gets better, I will hire a skip and go through the garage.  I am determined not to pay removal men to move a load of rubbish.  

Caffeine reduction going ok, a few headaches and feeling a bit tired and achey but I will persevere.  Then I'm hoping to declutter some weight.  

That's about it for today, nothing very exciting just taking small incremental steps, concentrating on small wins.  I need/want to be extra frugal for the next couple of months so that when I've lost weight I can have a little splurge in some new spring/summer clothes.  

I have also decided not to go away for Easter this year because I will probably buy a new car instead but my sister and I are aiming for a trip to Belguim in the summer.  I definitely want to be slim and chic by then.......😉

helensbiggestfan

Good Morning my lovely friends......

Great news.  My car passed its MOT with flying colours.  Didn't expect that. Lol. I will still trade up this year.  Have instructed my trusty mechanic to look out for a nice little replacement,  

Gorgeous day here.  Have just been for a little stroll in the sunshine,  it feels like spring.  🌞. Definitely a mood lifter.  

helensbiggestfan

Blimmin heck, it's cold.  At least no floods here.  I do feel sorry for people whose houses are flooded. 

All good here.  Spent the weekend deep cleaning the bedrooms and having a good old sort out. You can't beat it can you.  Didn't manage to dispose of many clothes, wont be able to do that till I have lost some weight.  Will tackle another couple of rooms tomorrow.  I want to have blitzed the house by the end of January so that I can glide into spring with a nice clean house and tidy cupboards.  

Have you ever watched a film that really stays with you and makes you think.   I can recommend "Saltburn". It's a sort of cross between The Talented Mr Ripley and Brideshead Revisted. 

The protagonist, Oliver, is a manipulative psychopath, a guy from a modest background who wins a scholarship to Oxford.  There he meets and falls in love with the aristocratic and mercurial Felix, handsome, rich and effortlessly popular..........I wont give too much away.  There's lots of famous actors in it.  Rosamund Pike is up for an award for her role as Felix's mother, as is Barry Keoghan who plays the depraved, warped and twisted Oliver.  (Golden Globes I think). It was released in cinemas last autumn.  I watched it on Amazon but if Pike and Keoghan also get nominated for Oscar's it may well be released in cinemas again, as is often the case with award winning films.  

It's all about obsession and jealousy, a darkly comic tragedy, worthy of Shakespeare. 

WARNING.  Some of the scenes are very dark indeed and they made me gasp in places.  They weren't gratuitous though, rather they are an integral part of the narrative and really do illuminate obsessive love, ambition, jealousy and despair.  Well worth a watch, partly because the subject matter is such an excellent study of the darker side of romantic love but also due to the outstanding performances of the actors who bring the story to life.   

Five stars from me.  But be aware, it's not for the squeamish. 😉. 

sheilavw

Helen, your car seems to do really well each MOT. We owned a 2002 Yaris, bought in 2004 and owned it until 2018 and that was like that, so reliable. We only got rid of it after my Husband's MND diagnosis, we bought an SUV automatic in Dec 2018 which I still have. He only actually drove it twice. We were never ones for continuiously changing cars

helensbiggestfan

I know it's astonishing. She is 17 years old and still going strong,  She actually goes like the clappers.  My dad bought it when it was 2 years old and it's been in the family since.  It's done a very low mileage. I think that helps its reliability and of course we never "thrash" it.  

My mechanic just texted me saying he had a buyer for my car and offered a very good price. . I discussed it with my son and we came to the conclusion I  would be best to keep it for a bit longer. Better the devil you know and all that. Lol.  I really want to concentrate on buying a house first and then I might think about upgrading,  

I personally think regularly changing cars is a total waste of money.  I read a book called the  Millionaire  Next Door, a survey about the spending habits of self made millionaires.  Just ordinary people who had worked hard and made their own money.  All of them were quite thrifty and not one of them leased a car, or took out loans.  They all paid in cash and never bought brand new, instead buying one a couple of years old and running it until it more or less died.  

sheilavw

Same here. Never owned a new car.

Well up early after an early night. Back to work for me today. Yesterday was an inset, but of course I don't work Mondays now so yesterday was a swim today and a little food shopping done.

Enjoy your Tuesday everyone