Teetering on the brink

chapea

Hi don’t know if you’re looking to move the gravel or get rid but if you’re looking to get rid people often post on my local Facebook site saying if you want any bring a bag and take what you want 

saves the hard work of bagging yourself 

EatingBeans

Thanks @chapea  great suggestion. I would totally recommend this approach to anyone faced with clearing gravel!

Unfortunately this is not just clean gravel that people may want. The top layer was, but we have already moved all of that and will be reusing. What is left is random patches of very old gravel that is mixed with soil, old half disintegrated liner and various bit of rubble and rubbish. 😕 

My heart sank when I first discovered that the garden is effectively like lasagna. Well loved soil at the bottom, followed by very old half disintegrated liner which doesn’t roll up but rips everwhere, a layer of awfulness, another liner and more gravel to hide the awfulness. Oh and a path down the middle that looked like slabs but turned out to be poured concrete over the rubbish with a lot of old bricks thrown in for good measure. It took a sledgehammer and a very kind brother to break it up (in some places it was 10inches thick) and I am repurposing most of it as path edging. Oh and the garden has rampant mares tail growing through it. I can now see why they just gravelled the entire garden tbh but I hadn’t planned to move again when I first started, so I was determined to have a proper garden. Now I have to make it a garden in order to sell the house as the half way state is not a good look. The saddest bit of all is the mares tail is so bad that I wouldn’t dare take any plant with me when I leave this house. All the trees and other plants, no matter how sentimental will all have to be left behind. 😭 It is just not worth the risk. It says something when I say I would rather have a garden full of bindweed! (My old allotment started as just that so I have a fair comparison) Whilst bindweed is pretty horrid to deal with mares tail is just impossible.

Even knowing that I will have to leave all the plants behind, I still can’t bring myself to just let them die. At least I get to enjoy them before I go. 🙂

Sun_Addict

When we first moved into our current house a good half of the very long garden was concreted over with drains and several sheds as the previous owners were market gardeners and also kept goats. It took Mr SA several weeks of back breaking work breaking up all the concrete to turn it into a normal garden. What a nightmare that was! 

Cherryfudge

That's very helpful about the tub recommendation, thanks! As for pink - it's hard to lose pink things in a garden, which is why I've been known to suggest people put up for once with the 'pink tax' and get small garden implements like trowels and secateurs with pink handles. Natural coloured ones disappear when set down out of doors (ask me how I know...)

I don't know if you follow @Watty1's thread but she has (I think) a raspberry pink garden bench. You would probably get on very well! And yes, I imagine it's a lovely warm touch when the skies are grey, and sets off the trees beautifully.

dawnybabes

There’s a thread on Mumsnet about TMJ pain if you ever venture on there - it’s in AIBU.

some suggestions include the dental hospital in Leeds having a TMJ specialist and other folk have had Botox - might be something you can get out of the thread ?

EatingBeans

Not been a great few days health wise but I have still been doing the odd survey when I can and I have finally reconciled everything on the laptop for the end of the month. Considering the deviation from the original plan it is still going in the right direction overall, so I am happy...

End of	Dec-24	Jan-25	Feb-25	Mar-25
Brother	£   5,400.00	£   5,400.00	£   5,350.00	£   5,300.00
Overdraft owed	£   1,349.90	£   1,107.76	£            -	£            -
MBNA CC	£ 10,534.20	£ 10,002.26	£ 11,455.85	£ 11,292.77
Barclaycard CC	£   9,667.21	£   9,569.95	£   7,981.04	£   7,725.50
Fluid CC	£            -	£     772.50	£     762.50	£     752.50
NatWest CC	£ 12,018.14	£ 11,674.22	£ 11,634.21	£ 11,752.41
Total debt	£ 38,969.45	£ 38,526.69	£ 37,183.60	£ 36,823.18
Paid off last month		£     442.76	£   1,343.09	£     360.42
Total paid off 2025		£     442.76	£   1,785.85	£   2,146.27

dawnybabes

It’s brilliant you are still going down when feeling so !!!!!! ! 

EatingBeans

Woke up this morning and first thing I did was reconcile my spreadsheet/Fudget again. This regular start to my day is something I have been trying to do every day since I started my DFW journey as it focuses my attention on the task at hand, and oddly, makes me feel less stressed about money and more in control of it. First ✅ of the day. 

I then set myself my £5’s goal for the month. This time I am aiming for £250 aka 50 £5’s. ✅ Currently no idea how I will achieve it but that has pretty much been the case every month since I started, and yet somehow I seem to generate extra cash each time. Thinking of it in terms of, ‘how can I save a £5’ seems much more productive than trying to save an extra £100 or whatever. 

Now I know this month is going to be tight as I have to put £300 away towards the new window. Part of me wishes I hadn’t said yes to it but the other part knows it desperately needs doing (and frankly, should have been done two years ago when I moved in and discovered I can’t fully close it! If I can reach the point where I have paid for it and not added to the debt in the process I will consider that a success. 🙂

For the first time in I can’t remember how long, MBNA have stopped offering me 0% deals. This is a concern as I know so much is about to revert to standard rates but I am staying positive.  Yes, on my current trajectory I look like I will be debt free in just over 8 years, but that doesn’t account for the reduction in interest I will eventually pay should I be able to secure better deals as I owe less. Again, I am not entirely sure how I am going to make my ideal debt free target of Summer 2027, but if I don’t try, I definitely won’t achieve it. 

I am off to grab my morning coffee and find a £5!

EatingBeans

What a lovely day. 🙂

Pottered around in the garden in the sunshine, finished off the current series I have been watching with dd2 (Dexter New Blood) 😱, and then dd2 and I took the pups out for an hour and a half walk all mostly off lead so they got to properly stretch their legs bless them.  The best bit was we went just before the park closed so not many people about. Very relaxing. 

Oh, and I found £5 in the form of NatWest Rewards this morning. 😁

SuzeQStan

Morning EB - This could be a terrible idea - but I have found an old skool phone call to credit card companies in the past has achieved a result.  If they aren’t automatically offering the balance free transfers I’m wondering if there would be anything to lose by asking them if you could have one? This could be a naive proposition as my debt free day was some time ago (not bragging just showing my age!)