This is the year

Thrifty tips, ideas, news & experiences on anything around the home to shopping to re-cycling etc.
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spudley
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Re: This is the year

Post by spudley »

well I dont know where the money goes.
I have arranged to pay money from the mortgage at the beginning of august but it is not as much as i expected it to be. Saying that though we have had to get a new wood stove for the small room. Its no good the sweep condemed the old one. It was burning more wood than giving off heat though, and atleast i had the money for the new one. To make sure that i cant fritter the money towards the end of the year I am also increasing my monthly payments to what they were before. This will make me feel better when i get the mortgage statments and see the capital being reduced.

Mr Spud said that the reason that we are not "rolling in it" was because that even though i am not getting anything new for myself or the house, it wasnt as if i had previously spent that much in the first place. He said that I make out that i spent a lot out of guilt, but in reality i only bought sale items that were really reduced in the first place. As i only got things in the sales my purchases were close together. therefore it just seemed like i was spending more... but i shouldnt be dissapointed by what i had saved.

Booter bargains dont count (A) if we need the item and (B) if its really cheap, at the last auction I managed to get myself a plate rack for the house for 18.00. As I have been after one like this for the past 3 years but wouldnt buy it as it was nearly 200.00, i think that 18 was a pure brilliant bargain!!!!

underwear draw is looking a bit sad though, and i have had to get a sewing kit. YES i finally managed to get the zip back into a skirt and sew a tear in another. I cant beleive that i have done it. If i was able to go out and buy then they would have been destined for the rag bag. That is a major achievment for me.

on a sadder note though Basil and Daisy got hold of my Tbar sandles gutted. I havent thrown them out though, i am using them as my chicken poo shoes as the others had really had it. Down to a very very slim range of shoes now, sometimes I long for my old life of surburbia, with its mod cons, shoes and take aways.....
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spudley
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Re: This is the year

Post by spudley »

have had to get the flu lining and vitrious pipe thing too!!

AND
Got myself a book (sorry richard not from amazon) got MR an audio book from his slush fund (abridged) fantastic so had to get the whole thing, but it is signed by the author (£15.00)

PLUS
Its hard now as my fave shop has a really really good sale on, the bed linnen is on crash down prices. A freind got some last week ohhhh new bed linnen i love it, plus they have some floaty skirts too................drift of onto a dream
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spudley
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Re: This is the year

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Bettie, I wish that I could, but then I could justifyt he stash the items for everything that I want!

I am having a bit of a self pitty moment...
When I had a small suburban life my mortgage was small, even though I hated my jobs i had the perks of buying what i needed, eating out, take aways. Dont get me wrong we were not wasteful and managed to save. My gardens were how I wanted them and I had loads of shoes and noce things. (but the neighbours from hell)

We moved to the country trebled the mortgage but got land, now we have to work in the jobs that we hate (counting blessings though we have jobs however rocky they may be) to pay the mortgage, spend more time out of the house than in (so it feels like) and my gardens are ravaged by wild animals and those that arent are dug up by dogs

On the positive side we have 5 dogs (only 2 in the old house) so have given three other difficult dogs homes, and chickens rescued and given a good life. But they - the dogs have wrecked my shoes. It doesnt matter where i out them, they eat through the wicker shoe basket quietly, bye bye red or deads, marilyn aslem boots, strappy sandles x3, and numerous other pairs that I am too depressed to mention I am down to one work pair!
I always seem to be covered in something chicken muck or dog dribble and am constantly paraniod that i sticnk of chicken poo.

I still have neighbours that I dont get on with! and my old neighbours from hell were evicted about 6 months after we left!

Sometimes I think that although contry life is lovely it is not always as lovely as it is made out to be... sometimes I feel trapped. I do count my blessings and know that there are people who have loads to worry about but sometimes the drudgery of it all gets me down, especially when you see all your hard work going down a rabbits neck, or being dragged up the field by a dog you just think why do i bother. Sorry moan over.
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roddelmae
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Re: This is the year

Post by roddelmae »

Sounds just like Liz Jones in the Mail on Sunday women's supplement. She moved from London to Cornwall, where she bought a farm, has accumulated a number of animals, and has a mutual hatred of most of her neighbours.
She is now trying to sell up and move to somewhere smaller and far away from people she doesn't like.
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irishwillow
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Re: This is the year

Post by irishwillow »

I have loved reading this posting! and laughed out loud many times...the knickers!. :-D Its happening to me but only cos I have lost weight..
I find it quite hard to manage now as I have had to give up work due to the rh arthritis. so have amended my spending drastically.. athough I suppose most of my money has always gone on the animals. Still it is satisfying to make do and spurn the whole got to have it society!
and dont get me started on Liz Jones! I read her online sometimes but had to stop...made me rage {mr.angry}
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wendy p
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Re: This is the year

Post by wendy p »

Spudley, I know exactly what you mean. I only moved 25 miles and from a larger village, but there are times when I become nostalgic for street lights, wearing something other than wellies on my feet, and walking the dogs in winter without getting muddy up to my knees. It’s a constant battle against pests, there seems to be at least four times as much weather here, there are always 100 things needing to be done, quite a few of my neighbours hate me just because I wasn’t born in the village, and the mortgage still needs to be paid every month! Then my work colleagues sigh about how idyllic my life must be. There are those who think real life doesn’t apply in the country. I don’t think there’s any such thing as an ‘idyllic’ life – even if you are rich (although I’m willing to try it as an experiment).
Ranting aside, I really wouldn’t change back though. Above all, I’d miss going out into the garden after work to ‘hunt’ my dinner, and cooking it while still warm from the sun.
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Mo
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Re: This is the year

Post by Mo »

We moved to the 'middle of nowhere' when I had 2 children under 3 and couldn't drive.
Cheshire is not as rural as some places, 3 towns under 10 miles away, 2 villages under 2 miles away. But it still felt a long walk to playgroup. And when they started school the children who lived on the housing estate in the village could make friends without any fuss, whereas ours had to arrange to have someone to play or go somewhere after school.
It suited us, but had its downsides.

Your shoes sound like the episode of the good life called something like "the last posh dress". OH tells stories of a destructive staffie they had.
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spudley
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Re: This is the year

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WendyP all my work mates think that I live a wonderful idylic life, how romantic that must be, and sometimes dont get me wrong it is. they do wonder though how i cope with the travelling and that in the winter often i smell of wood smoke but that is better than chicken poo.
Actually on my good days i wouldnt change it for a thing, and we dont have to strim the small garden now as a bunch of cows broke in and did it for us.
I agree about the weather, but sometimes watching the changes in the sky can be amazing. Noone believed me last year in the snow when i described having to drive between to walls of snow higher than the car. and I made it in everyday although on sometimes it was taking me three hours to get into work and the longest on the way home was 5 hours!!!

Irishwillow the undie situation has not changed. I have two sides to the knicker drawer now. upies and downies. It has tought me not to buy cheep pants. I have some that i have to pin into my skirt (use these for home only now due to a shopping trolly and getting over the road incident where I could only walk with my knees closed!!! its a good job i was wearing a long skirt) but then the other day i was with the dogs in the field messing around and before I knew it i had walked out of them and basil had them up the other ind of the field. I was quite glad that there was noone in the cottage that week. can you imagine what they would have thought!!! me chasing Basil aound with what looked like a white surrrender flag hanging out of his mouth!! (big to me is better in the pants department)
My older better quality pants that cost me more to start with have lasted well and in the end are going to cost less. So thats the first thing that I am going to get in the sales next year good quality pants.

I am not going to buy any tshirts though. I seem to have loads that are wearing well and some that i dont seem to wear at all. I dont know why i bought them. One of those false economy things I will get them while they are cheap. Why? i hardly wear them.
So although I am moaning on I am learning what I do and dont use, and what i should prioristise on my clothing list.
Athome the dogs and chickens dont care what i am wearing, and family have gotten in on the act by giving me a couple of pinnies-which i do wear. when you look at the state of the front of those on somedays I wounder how my clothes had survived before.

I have gone on a bit here, but I do like that people are reading the thread and are making comments (good or bad I dont mind) I find that the encouragement and the thought that others living this supposedly idylic life can sometimes feel the same helps. Roll on winter and the mud.
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Mo
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Re: This is the year

Post by Mo »

spudley wrote: Roll on winter and the mud.



Please, not you as well.
They are Christmas shopping on the last thread I read.
We are going to decorate our hall by Christmas. (Well, following a leak and flood we stripped the wallpaper so that we could decorate before Christmas - but that was last year!)
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spudley
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Re: This is the year

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Done really well last month, took a trip to the bank and paid some mortgage off. Clothes situation doing rather well, but I do really need new work shoes. the ones that i have now are less than a year old and are splitting already. The thing is though they were not that cheep really, Clarkes dont make them like they used to. I have even been taking them off when i get to work and slipping on a pair of sandles that I have been keeping under my desk so that I can get more wear out of them. The sandles were obtained a couple of years ago from a work mate who had stopped wearing them. They are now nearly dead too. I am going to have to buy shoes.
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gromit
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Re: This is the year

Post by gromit »

Thanks ever so much for your postings spudley, I was having a down morning thinking about how much there is to do and its september already, then i sat down, had another cup of tea....such extravagence!!! read this post, and now I am ready to crack on.....thankyou.
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dingdong
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Re: This is the year

Post by dingdong »

oh Spudley, it seem' s awful to be answering someones post with a grin on my face when the poor soul is obviously having one of 'those' spells when everything is all out of sorts. I've been going round saying that I am writing to the BBC to get them to do escape FROM the country , it was whilst the muck spreaders were out and about :-D . You are so right about the cheap knickers though I thought about braces maybe! Hope you get the bounce back in your bungey really soon.
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spudley
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Re: This is the year

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have sort of had a splurge! it wasnt even on something practicle like shoes. I was given a family tea set a couple of years ago, missing the tea pot. Apparently mum could never remember the tea pot even when she was young. I have been looking around for one for years. I couldnt find the pattern anywhere and have never seen the pot or any other item for sale. Then I found one on Ebay. Well I had to have it. Mr Spud said that I should as i was so excited that i had finally found something that I had been looking for for years. So I bid and kept bidding. It was hard to weigh up what I needed and what I really wanted, and then to factor in how I had been feeling all year and the things that I had gone without. The tea pot would have added nothing to my life, but will be a future investment. Its not like it was a bill or a pair of shoes. It was and still is a difficult decision to justify for myself. Anyway the devil in me took over and I got the tea pot. I am really pleased that I have it but the guilt that i am feeling is quite bad. It was something just for me. Due to this I am not buying work shoes to make up for it. It has made me think though how much is too much for something that you have been wanting and looking for for years, when you have the money as you have been saving. Mr Spud says that I should just enjoy it, he has trawled around enough flee markets and anitque fairs to know that this was and has not been just a passing whim. I have decided that I am doing a booter this weekend to sell some other stuf and make the money back, after all you only need so many things to look at dont you.
I think that this year so far has taught me quite a bit about myself. I dont really care what I wear as long as it is clean, its the older stuff in my life that has more memories that are important to me.
On a lighter note, the muck spreading season is over here hurrahhhhhhhh. wellies are back on the feet and all those blinkinghorse flies seem to be dying off. The tourists are going home so the lane is quieter, harvest is nearly over so there will be fewer tractors out and about.
PLUS as the weather is getting cooler can start wearing tights which are holding the knickers up!!!! i am amzed that I have survived the summer without being arrested, although on Monday the tights that I wore were to short in the leg so had started to slip down, so maybe the mooning worries are not over yet.
Oh yes and Wendy P we also had a heard of cows get intot he small part of a garden and did a fab job of getting the grass down and left us a couple of payment pats. We then used these on the veggy patch. This was not such a good idea as we had to keep chasing the dogs away who decided that it was food to be eaten and rolled in. Bleuchhhhh.
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spudley
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Re: This is the year

Post by spudley »

been pretty good lately, have gone through the tights and have finally started to get around to sorting out those with holes! and those that are too short in the leg that fall down taking the earstwhile undies down with them. then i put them all in a pile, forgot what i had done and put them away in the drawer with the good ones!!!!!

have made another smallish payment off the mortgage but that will probably be the last this year what with crimbo around the corner.

have found that I have not really needed to buy new clothes for the summer but have noticed that I am a bit short on the winter jumpers, but I managed last year! I think that its because I havent bought anything new that I am now sorely tempted to get the new winter coat, boots cardies and jumpers!

Oh and yes Last year I got myself some fancy rather dear sofa throws. How rubbish have they been. they are both thread bear now with holes and have rips in them. However my cheapo ones are still going strong. It sort of goes the wrong way from you get what you pay for.
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Meanqueen
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Re: This is the year

Post by Meanqueen »

Well done Spudley. Regarding tights with holes in. I do what my mum used to do, cut off the leg with the holes in, and match it with another one legged pair, so you are wearing two tops if you get my drift. Holds your pants up better. :-D
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