Put away your purse & become debt-averse

wishingthemortgaheaway · 7 June 2018 at 5:20PM

I think that that is a very sensible purchase. Well thought out. The only thing I will question is the 'stashing it upstairs for after the kitchen make over'
Either: the kitchen tart up is imminent and it doesn't need stashing upstairs

Or: the tart up is not so imminent and therefore the object need not have been bought becuase you don't need it.

So: de stash it, use it and let it bring you joy.

(I sound really mean and harsh there, sorry, it is meant with love, and to allow you to have joy in your surroundings)

Wish

foxgloves · 7 June 2018 at 6:23PM

Lol, WTMA, you make a good point.
But the Kitchen Tart-up is imminent, it's in the diary, & as it is going to involve removing all paraphernalia from counter tops so that mr f can re-sand & oil them, plus everything off my beloved dresser to enable me to wash all my old vintage crockery & re-wax the wood, I am not adding any additional or new items until all the painting, sanding & oiling has been finished. mr f is a good painter, but a messy one!
I am not sure anyone ever really NEEDS a compost caddy. It's perfectly possible just to use a standard plastic bucket, although it doesn't look as nice & mice would occasionally be a problem in our house (despite our large ever-hungry cat!) but I think my purchase was a good compromise, especially as the only other purchases for the kitchen tidy-up will be very low. I find I'm quite good these days at getting a 'new' look by moving stuff around & swapping what stuff I have out on display.
I am happy to be called out on any of my spending. It's such a fraction of what it was in times gone by that I know I shall still feel like a reformed character!
F x

Working_Mum · 8 June 2018 at 2:36PM

The plastic compost bins our local council supply are huge so I found a lovely square, grey tin in Dunelm - it is meant for washing powder and has "wash" printed on one side- so I turn that to the wall and use it - cost me £3.99 and I was so proud of this purchase!! People ask me where I get it from all the time ....I love having a need for something and finding something perfect in the most unexpected of places!

Good luck with the kitchen reno - I have definitely become much more of a minimalist over recent years!

((Hugs))

foxgloves · 8 June 2018 at 5:26PM

Hi Working Mum,
That was a great find, & defo beats my £10 find! I'd have bought that £40 one back in the Spendy Decades, I just know I would. I was so good at inventing reasons to justify why spending money on stuff I couldn't afford was a great idea.
We also had a compost caddy from the council which they gave us when we went to collect a big garden compost bin. It was too big to keep in the kitchen, I agree. By the time it was full, the stuff at the bottom had started rotting & smelling like evil old slippers. I took it down the veggie garden & used it for brewing comfrey liquid for free plant food.
Looking forward to kitchen tart-up. It needs a massive deep clean as much as anything, as I don't move the dresser very often, it just takes too long as all my treasures have to come off it & be put in another room first.
F x

Kantankrus_Mare · 8 June 2018 at 5:55PM

Hope you both enjoy your new compost caddies.

Was making me wonder where I got my green caddy from that I use and keep in the cupboard.
I guess I must have received off the council years ago. Anything for nothing...me.

Have to agree its a tad on the large side but just make sure I take it to the allotment to put in one of my 5 compost bins there each time I go which is daily at the moment.
Had our first strawberries this week. Just gorgeous. I refuse to buy imported strawberries. Picked a load of rhubarb as well yesterday and have been looking at smoothie recipes to use them in.
Fully intending to make the most of the fruit we grow this year.
Have blackcurrants, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, plums and of course oodles of brambles which I make wine with.

Still loving the spendy stories. £40 for a pot to put peelings in :eek:
Amazing what a different attitude does for your finances.

foxgloves · 8 June 2018 at 5:55PM

Hi Friday Debt-busters,
Well, I've had a useful day........the climbing beans have finally been planted out (everything seems behind this year) & the sweetcorn will be next.

I read an interesting quote about money today, which is probably well-known, but which I hadn't heard before. I'm not sure where it originated, but it seems to have been popullised by various financial gurus, a rapper & probably others too. Anyway, it is:

"You can't afford to buy something unless you can afford to buy it twice".

Well, I've been pondering that while I've been down the veggie garden sorting out the beans. It felt almost like an essay question......you know....."Bla bla bla bla blah....Discuss".
Often these things have more than a kernel of wisdom, don't they? I was raking & watering and trying to extract a scenario to which I could apply this, to get at the truth of it.
I thought of an imaginary purchase which wouldn't financially ruin us, but for which we'd have to save up. So let's say a £700 TV (I wouldn't spend that on a telly, actually, but mr f would bloody love to, if he didn't have to convince me first, lol!) So, for the purpose of the test case, let's say we at Chez Foxgloves save up £700 for this TV & feeling very proud of ourselves for saving & not putting it on a credit card, we troll off to buy it. I suppose whoever originally came up with this advice, which is now a 'quote' was getting at the point that having now spent that £700 on a 'want', it isn't available for a 'need'. I guess it's that old thing of as soon as you've just spent some money on something you don't need even if you saved it, you can pretty much guarantee that'll be the time the boiler decides to have a melt-down or the car needs a new clutch, or some other big horrid bill hoves into view. But if you had that £700 saved for a TV & also £700 still saved, your expenditure on a 'want' wouldn't have ruled out being able to deal with a 'need'. So while saving up for stuff is really important - & I utterly believe now, since my LBM, that credit is just 'someone else's money', so not mine - it still isn't foolproof if at least that same amount of cash isn't there to then deal with a 'need'.
Even though we do have an Emergency Fund, I would still be reluctant to tap it for a bill I might be able to pay from my regular budget through employing a bit of frugality. I want it to be there for a real WTSHTF-type of emergency, such as a 2nd redundancy or the roof flying off.
So I've been pottering around the veggie garden thinking about 'wants' & 'needs', saving up for stuff & stashing for security and I reckon this quote isn't as trite as it might initially seem. It's actually pretty sensible. I guess it really just boils down to the importance of saving as much as we can. I spent years saving absolutely nothing at all, so anything has to be a big improvement on that!
Have a good Friday night, all.
F x

foxgloves · 8 June 2018 at 6:09PM

Kantankrus Mare - Oooh, you have an allotment, lovely! I'd like one, but I have to be realistic, as we have quite a big garden, & I don't think I could manage both. About a third of our garden is turned over to growing food. I won't buy imported strawberries either. I grew up on the edge of the fens & during summer, there was an amazing market stall which sold only local strawberries. They were piled high & were simply gorgeous. As children, we looked forward to strawberry season & they provided so many desserts while they were available. I don't think we'd ever have thought of buying them from a supermarket & certainly not all year round, flown in from abroad. I have constructed a sort of tower for growing strawberries, using a criss-cross of old troughs & there are loads of fruits coming, but none anywhere near ripe yet. I haven't made wine for years.....funnily enough, back when I was so spendy, I DID used to make wine, & would boast to my friends how my rosehip wine only cost 11p a bottle to make! I do make a fruit gin or vodka every year - last year I made blackberry & pear vodka & it's so nice. You wouldn't think you'd be able to taste the pears with the blackberries being so strong, but you can. It's lovely! I also made blackberry whisky for mr f & he loved it. I don't like whisky, so can't comment. Fruit-wise, we grow apples, pears, greengages, strawberries & rhubarb. We are thinking about ditching the asparagus bed, which has been infiltrated with the worst bindweed ever, so we may re-do that with raspberry canes, as we like to use as much of our growing space as possible. Anyway, lovely to hear about your allotment - F.

Kantankrus_Mare · 8 June 2018 at 6:17PM

Probably easier to keep on top of when its only just out the back door so I'm a little jealous in that respect. I've had an allotment for just over 11 years now and couldnt imagine life without it. My dad has been helping for the last couple of years and that really helps to keep on top of things. Always learning and trying new things which is why I love it and we have just come back from Corfu where we have eaten courgettes in abundance mainly as fritters so looking forward to courgettes being ready to pick.

I love it when you can pick your own food to save money in certain recipes.

foxgloves · 9 June 2018 at 5:56PM

Agree, Kantankrus, that there's always something new to learn with growing food & gardening and lots of it is money saving. I'm experimenting with 3 different ways of using comfrey this summer. I have only used it to make liquid fertilizer so far, but recently read that it can be used in other less stenchy ways, so I cut an enormous heap of it & let it wilt for 2 or 3 days as suggested, then I chopped some of it up & just lightly forked it into the soil before planting out the beans. Then the 2nd lot, I layered the whole stems into the bottom of a small raised bed, covered it in soil & planted a squash. I spread the final lot over the top of another squash bed as a kind of mulch. Looking forward to seeing how they do. Free, anyway!
F

foxgloves · 9 June 2018 at 8:41PM

Lol, 1LL.......I have established the following TV ground rules in case mr f goes rogue:
1. We will not be buying a new TV until the old one dies. It appears to be working perfectly. I really couldn't give two sh*ts if it 'isn't compatible' with a load of stuff we don't even own.
2. When we do replace it, the budget will be £500 absolute tops......
3........which will not be going on credit.
4. It will not be massive, as we live in a very modest 1930s house with a small lounge, not a humungous modern apartment.
5. Items 1- 4 are non-negotiable.
Funnily enough, he seems ok with all of the above!!!
F x

Put away your purse & become debt-averse

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