The Frugal Hearth: Stories of Simple Living and Living Well

beanielou

You will have no joy with ikea at all. They are beyond dire. My DS will never ever order from them again. As it happens they can’t arrange a pick up in a car park never mind anything else.

Elisheba

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81977490#Comment_81977490

Oooh, I'll need to put Annan on my visiting list then 😁

Elisheba

The Men's Shed is a good idea! If and when Ik3a give up on building my cupboard I'll have to are what I can do.

Elisheba

I do have one, and after reading your comment I used it. It's not ideal as he gets himself tangled in things with the chain, but it was a good short term solution 😊

Elisheba

Morning, frugalistas,

Just making porridge and having coffee as I write this.

Yesterday went well, and I got a few things done. Local church seems nice, if small and the minister seems lovely.

Picked up some kindling from the local shop on the way home - £6.15, which isn't bad for a big bag. About the only thing the shop is reasonably priced as as it's super expensive for everything else.

I had a bit of lunch, then got out into the garden. About half my patio is now weeded. The other half is much more overgrown so will need to have a think about how and when to tackle it. Also got my egg chair built again, and cut back a bush that was a bit out of hand. Not the right time of year for pruning but I don't care much for the bush, and it wasn't a massive prune.

Ideally I need one of those bush cutters come strimmers for a large part of the garden. Electric cordless ones are about £100-150. It was in my original budget, but obviously with the bathroom that's gone out of the window, so I'll just need to assess my finances and see when I can afford one.

The broom handle snapped when I was sweeping the patio, so I've ordered a new one. To be fair to the broom handle I think it was pretty old - fairly certain in was in one of my houses from about 15 years ago went I moved into it.

Also had to order some WD40 as I have the chimney sweep tomorrow and he asked me to oil one of the vents in the stove for him tonight as it's stuck and he is going to try to unstick it.

Silly dog was out in the garden with me on a chain. He managed to get it tangled in everything, including my feet, so I'll be glad when I can get the fencing up and don't need the chain anymore!

Back to work today and I have loads to catch up on, after being pretty focused for the last fortnight on the thing I had to do last week.

The forecast today is for showers in the afternoon, so I'll leave the washing until tomorrow. Got a pile of dishes to do after I post this, then I'll have shower and get started.

Lunch today will be cheese on sourdough, and dinner veggie sausages, mushrooms, halloumi, and eggs.

I've reapplied the silicone mastic to the back of the loo twice now, and I think I've finally stopped it leaking. I'll double check when I have a shower but I couldn't see any drips when I got up.

End of the month totals need to be sorted out this week. I have to admit to being very frustrated at going from having lots of money in the back, to having nothing, and still having lots of work that needs done on the house. It is what it is I suppose. Hopefully the bathroom will stay watertight from now on.

My old house deposit should be winding it's way towards me this week. My land lord has taken £75 for damage to the grass, and I couldn't be bothered to argue. The gazebo, which I bought to put on the patio but which the neighbour didn't like there as it blocked her view, ended up on the grass for a summer and the grass never grew back afterwards just weeds. £75 seems a bit steep for what essentially should just need some grass seed, but I have too much going on to argue. Touching wood I will never again be in a position where I have to worry about landlords!

I've chased up my solicitor on the claim I'm making to my sellers for the cost of a new shower pump - £668, which I'm not counting on but would be very nice if I could get it back. And my ex has said I don't need to pay him back for my half of the joint account overdraft which he paid off in the pandemic, which is very nice of him. It was on my list to pay back next year, but now I don't have to that's £1k odd I can spend on something else.

Right, time to do some dishes! Have a great day, everyone, and hope it's a good start to the week for you 😊