After all of my talk of thrift and saving last week it seems the universe has been out to challenge me to put my money where my mouth is, or not as the case may me. Last week my car clock started to blink at me on the way to school - 'oo er' I thought, 'I'd better just get it to school and then I'll take it to the garage straight after'. Well of course I got to school, turned off the car, it went 'tututututututut' and swiftly died. Hmm. I took Ivy into school anyway, and seemingly by fate the man who runs our garage was just coming out from dropping off his daughter and I almost snagged him to come and get my car with his truck, I even opening my mouth to say it, but something stopped me. I'll wait and see, I thought, which I did, until Will came home. We went out to have a look at my car - turned out the battery had just come loose, so he popped it back in, tightened it up, £0.
As I said we made a little guest bedroom in our house. I was looking for a second hand divan on gumtree and every time I kept finding one they would go, so in the end I put out a call on facebook to see if anyone was selling one - turned out someone I know had one to give away. It's seen better days, but with a couple of mattress protectors it'll do us for now until we have a bit of spare cash, £0.
A day later our hoover died. Hmm, again. Will took it all apart, put it all back together, nothing. He looked it up on the internet which reckoned it could only be one of three parts that had gone pop, all of which were about £25 each. Hmm, but which one? Then he looked again on youtube and found out a common fault with this particular model, where the little computer in it (or something??) dies, but can be bypassed to make the hoover work again. So that's what Will did, and it works! £0.
Meanwhile, I have sold two more things on ebay - a jacket from the charity shop I bought for £2.50 which I don't wear anymore, sold for £21, and a pair of shoes which end in a couple of days, I bought from a car boot never worn for £1, wore them once then broke my foot shortly after (they are running shoes) and decided perhaps my running days are over. They are bidding now at £20, so up at least £41 on the week.
However I have also spent £29 buying a printer. I ummed and ahhed over it for a while. It is to make prints of my paintings to sell at markets, and they are quite expensive to have made professionally, and also I would like to have the option to make them on request so that I don't have more than I need sitting around, so anyway the printer feels like a long term investment.
To add to our run of not-too-good luck, a couple of days ago our boiler went bang too. We are currently trying to get an engineer out (we have kept the boiler under warranty - phew) but were unable to do this at the weekend because they don't have an emergency number (????), and right now are taking a little convincing to get someone out as they are quibbling over our service history (The engineer we get to service our boiler is a bit tardy) so wish us luck on this one, I hope it will be another £0 fix, although not really as we have spent money keeping the warranty up for 3 years.
Oh, and also, my final triumphant save which I almost forgot - today I repaired my favourite pair of doc martens. I bought them second hand 5 years ago, and they have at least another 10 years left in them except that the stitching came away on one of the straps. They've been sat on my fixing pile for about 6 months as it was a bit of a tricky job (stitching through 3 layers of leather), but I finally got around to it this morning. They would be over £100 to replace, which is fairly academic I suppose as I don't have that kind of money to spend on shoes these days, but it still feels like a big win.
That's all for now, but I will be back in a couple of days. I have finally begun work sorting out what I will be selling for the Christmas markets, which will definitely be a bit of an investment - I hope it pays off!
Monday, 21 October 2019
Thursday, 17 October 2019
Turns out everything is going to be okay
Blimey, whinge whinge, moan moan, I'm a barrel of laughs aren't I? I don't know what got into me in my last post.
Anyway, it has been a really positive couple of weeks in lots of ways. I have started to feel a little bit better in myself and have begun tackling some of the jobs that have needed doing in the house and garden, including clearing and planting up the polytunnel for winter, transforming the little room from my dusty, unloved studio into a sweet, albeit teeny weeny guest bedroom, and touching up some of the scruffy paint on the walls about the house. Lots left to do, but I'm quite determined to keep up the momentum and get as many of my jobs finished before winter so that I can spend a little time sewing and making in the evenings instead.
Another very bright note is that I have been back in touch with a very dear friend who I have not seen for some months. As well as the pleasure of seeing her and feeling the brightness that we bring into one another's lives, it has also been an eye opening experience into why you should never be afraid to reach out. I think that I have helped her, and she has helped me more than she knows.
I have done absolutely zip to prepare for these Christmas markets, the soonest of which is approaching in about a month. I seriously need to remedy this, I guess I am just waiting for inspiration to strike. But a very positive thing is that I have been scratching around the house for things to sell on ebay and have certainly made enough money to cover the costs of having cards and prints made for the sale, which I obviously hope to recoup.
Actually I have had a bit of a moment with regards to money and saving. I don't know what happened to change things. We have always tried to be careful with money but it is still sometimes a struggle, and various events in the past few months like cars breaking led to our savings being completely depleted. After a bit of a think recently I realised that, probably for the first time, I really don't want anything. I don't want to wear fancy clothes or name brands. I don't want more books than I can read, or make up or jewellery or trinkets. Actually I have been having a bit of a detox from everything, just wearing the same few items of clothing over and over, not wearing any jewellery apart from my wedding ring, tying my hair in a bun every day, walking everywhere I can, and even barely listening to music which I have always done every day. It has felt very nice indeed and has been a striking exercise in learning what I am quite happy to do without. I think when you are very young you are searching for identity, and for ways to express your identity for others, so that you become like a walking advert of your own personal brand. Lately this has all felt too silly for words. But what a positive revelation this has been for me, and it has meant that not only have I saved twice as much this month as usual, I have also made an additional £200 (half of which will be saved, the other half will be spent on having cards made - then any profits from that will also be saved) just by scouring the house and removing anything flashy. I am not finished yet either, as I keep coming across remnants of our past life living and working in London, earning big(ish) bucks, and buying expensive things because I was unhappy. All of that and we haven't been without anything, in fact have just had more time and enthusiasm to fix and make nice all that we already have.
Anyway, I don't know where this is going, I have rambled quite enough. Now I must go and finish folding laundry before it's time to pick up Ivy from school. We are visiting another friend who I have not seen for several months in Swansea today.
I hope in time being kind and loving will just be a part of my being. Sometimes I think I have let that muscle become rather weak.
Anyway, it has been a really positive couple of weeks in lots of ways. I have started to feel a little bit better in myself and have begun tackling some of the jobs that have needed doing in the house and garden, including clearing and planting up the polytunnel for winter, transforming the little room from my dusty, unloved studio into a sweet, albeit teeny weeny guest bedroom, and touching up some of the scruffy paint on the walls about the house. Lots left to do, but I'm quite determined to keep up the momentum and get as many of my jobs finished before winter so that I can spend a little time sewing and making in the evenings instead.
Another very bright note is that I have been back in touch with a very dear friend who I have not seen for some months. As well as the pleasure of seeing her and feeling the brightness that we bring into one another's lives, it has also been an eye opening experience into why you should never be afraid to reach out. I think that I have helped her, and she has helped me more than she knows.
I have done absolutely zip to prepare for these Christmas markets, the soonest of which is approaching in about a month. I seriously need to remedy this, I guess I am just waiting for inspiration to strike. But a very positive thing is that I have been scratching around the house for things to sell on ebay and have certainly made enough money to cover the costs of having cards and prints made for the sale, which I obviously hope to recoup.
Actually I have had a bit of a moment with regards to money and saving. I don't know what happened to change things. We have always tried to be careful with money but it is still sometimes a struggle, and various events in the past few months like cars breaking led to our savings being completely depleted. After a bit of a think recently I realised that, probably for the first time, I really don't want anything. I don't want to wear fancy clothes or name brands. I don't want more books than I can read, or make up or jewellery or trinkets. Actually I have been having a bit of a detox from everything, just wearing the same few items of clothing over and over, not wearing any jewellery apart from my wedding ring, tying my hair in a bun every day, walking everywhere I can, and even barely listening to music which I have always done every day. It has felt very nice indeed and has been a striking exercise in learning what I am quite happy to do without. I think when you are very young you are searching for identity, and for ways to express your identity for others, so that you become like a walking advert of your own personal brand. Lately this has all felt too silly for words. But what a positive revelation this has been for me, and it has meant that not only have I saved twice as much this month as usual, I have also made an additional £200 (half of which will be saved, the other half will be spent on having cards made - then any profits from that will also be saved) just by scouring the house and removing anything flashy. I am not finished yet either, as I keep coming across remnants of our past life living and working in London, earning big(ish) bucks, and buying expensive things because I was unhappy. All of that and we haven't been without anything, in fact have just had more time and enthusiasm to fix and make nice all that we already have.
Anyway, I don't know where this is going, I have rambled quite enough. Now I must go and finish folding laundry before it's time to pick up Ivy from school. We are visiting another friend who I have not seen for several months in Swansea today.
I hope in time being kind and loving will just be a part of my being. Sometimes I think I have let that muscle become rather weak.
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