A Small Charity Shop Haul

I paid a visit to one of my favourite local charity shops this last week after not visiting for probably a couple of months. The shop itself is an RSPCA shop, so I'm always happy to give my money to a charity for animals that have been cruelly treated.

I found a few small things on this visit, the first being this book about craft for £2.50:

This is the second book on the subject of crafts that I've bought this month, but I love to read about makers and making things. It helps to inspire me to be creative and get sewing, although I don't have much spare time to do any at the moment. I'm so looking forward to getting all my college work completed and submitted, so that I can indulge in my favourite past time once again.

On the subject of crafts, I also bought these three balls of cotton yarn for £1 each. I haven't a specific project in mind at the moment, but I'm sure I'll think of something.

The next item I bought was this pack of three pretty card envelope folders for £3.

These will make a pretty storage solution for paperwork, so I look forward to using them.

Finally, I succumbed to buying these two lovely tin vintage brooches from Japan. I have many bird brooches, so the kingfisher appealled to add to this collection, but the moth was also lovely so I bought that too. They cost £2 each. 

In total, I spent £12.50 this visit, which I think was good for the items I bought. I think after being so busy this month on college work and working, I just needed a bit of an outlet for the stress, and charity shopping seemed to hit the spot this month. There are worse things I could do, as the song goes.

Ditto, But Some Positives Too - W/E 20th June 2025

Another week, another shift on Sunday. I was working 12 till 6 this week, which was a bit longer than normal. OH was away on a cycling holiday with some friends. He departed on Friday morning, and I'd been home alone since then. I didn't mind it though and I was working most of the time, doing college work or at college, so I was very busy.

When I got home on Sunday night, I finally had a few hours to do some college work. I spent about 3 hours doing some prep for my practical assessments, which was tiring after work, but I couldn't waste the opportunity.

On Monday morning, I woke up feeling a bit groggy. I'd slept well, but had gone to bed way too late. I couldn't lie in, as I had to do some food shopping. I went locally this week and just bagged the absolute essentials to get me through to Wednesday, when I could do a top up shop in time for OH coming home in the evening.

I then just had enough time to get lunch, pack up a something for supper on my break, and head into work to do a 1pm till 10pm shift. This was the last shift for a couple of days, and it went okay, more so because a certain member of staff wasn't working and I had a good chat to a colleague, which was very illuminating.

When I got home, I was shattered. I did some financial stuff, as I had some bills to pay, did a bit of blogging and then went to bed. I probably should have done some more college work, but just didn't have the band width after a long intense shift.

Tuesday, was my usual day to go to a gym class, but I decided not to go to the class this week and instead, booked myself into the gym, as this meant that I could go in early, get my session done and get home. I also decided to skip my sewing class, as I had my first practical assessment on Wednesday and needed the day to prepare.  I had to message my tutor a few times with some last minute questions, but I think I'm as prepared as I can be in the circumstances. I just hope it goes okay.

I had a shower in the evening so I could get up early and not need much time to get ready. I aimed to get to college early and do a bit more prep before the assessment. 

I was super tired when I woke at 6 ish the next morning. I had to drag myself out of bed. I didn't quite get to college as early as I'd hoped, but managed a little bit of  revision/prep before our tutor arrived. To be honest, I don't know if much went in, as I was so nervous. 

My actual assessment was a formative one, before a final assessment next week. As such, it was like a practice run, but still had to be done correctly. You could repeat parts of it, if the tutor felt it necessary, which I did need to do, as on a couple of occasions my mind went totally blank, but I got through it okay and so did the person I was partnered up with. I got some really good feedback from my tutor too, which gave me a bit more confidence going forward.

I felt so relieved once it was done. I was glad I'd persevered with it and it felt worth the effort. I needed to stop off on the way home and do a top up shop at Aldi and Home Bargains nearby. It felt like a luxury to be able to do such things, as I haven't had the time to do any but essential food shopping lately, and then always with a time limit hanging over me.

When I got home, I had some time to just chill, for what felt like the first time in ages. I ended up going back to bed for a few hours, as the last week has been really intense and I just needed to catch up on some sleep and reset. Besides it was really hot and the heat made me feel sleepy too.

By the time I woke up, OH was almost back in the country. I had arranged to pick him up from a local train station. I just had time to drop into the allotment, as I'd not managed to go whilst he was away and everything desperately needed watering. It thought it would look worse than it did, which was lucky. We did have a downpour on Friday night, so I think that helped. There's lots of stuff growing well and some berries to harvest, which I didn't have time to do on this occasion.

I came home, watered the garden and then had half an hour to chill, blog, watch YouTube, etc., before going to pick up OH. It was good to hear all about his trip. He'd had a really good time, despite the cycling being hard going.

On Thursday, I woke early. I've been sleeping well lately, but waking quite early. I got up and had some breakfast. OH and I headed out to the allotment after breakfast to harvest, feed, weed and water the plot. It was looking good. 

After lunch I got a call from work, asking if I'd go in a couple of hours early. I ended up going in for 3.30pm instead of 5pm, but we left by 9.30pm, which was good. It was pretty busy.

Friday morning, I booked into the gym for 10am. I walked there and had a pretty good workout. I've changed my routine around quite a bit, which I'll explain in another post at some point. It's working out well for me and I look forward to my gym sessions rather than them feeling like a chore.

On the way home from the gym, I dropped into a local charity shop that I haven't visited for a couple of months. I bought a few small things and did go over my £25 monthly thrifting budget, but I haven't spent much money this month as I've been so busy, so I don't feel too bad about it. I'll post separately about what I bought.

I was due at work for 4pm, so after having some lunch and chilling for a while, I got showered and ready for work. Work was busy, but OK. I was glad to get home though, knowing that I had Saturday off to go to see LB's degree Show at her Uni.

On Saturday, we drove over to Wimbledon in South West London, to see LB's work in her degree show. We got there at about 1.30pm and met her at a nearby pub for lunch and a catch up, which was nice. We then walked down the road to her University campus where we wandered through the degree shows of the various courses on the campus. There were film, costume design, technical arts and theatre design course work on display, so it was really interesting to see the students' work. Some of it was amazing. They were so talented. I have to say that being a sewist, I particularly enjoyed the costume design work, which was done to an amazing standard.

It was lovely to see LB's work too, of course. She's worked really hard for the last couple of years and we're very pround of her for completing her course and doing so well. We hung around until 5pm, when the show finished and the students could take their work home with them. We ended up bringing LB's model home with us, so that she didn't have to carry it home herself. We then took her back to her flat and chatted for a while with her and her flatmate. They will be both moving out at the end of this month. It felt like the end of an era. They've both enjoyed living in the flat though, so it's been mostly a good experience for them.

We then headed home and brought some of LB's stuff back with us. We will be returning in a week to collect the rest of it in a van.  Both OH and I were really tired when we got home and were both in bed quite early, which marked the end to another busy week.

A Week of Too Much Work and Not Enough Play - W/E 14th June 2023

The week began with work as usual. I was working from 2pm til 6pm on Sunday and I was tired after working the previous three busy days. It was fairly busy, but it didn't pass as quickly as some shifts do and I was super glad to get to the end of it. On the way home, I was disappointed to see that I'd been given 5 shifts again next week. I'm finding all these extra hours a bit too much at the moment. It's hard to get any kind of work/life balance.

On Monday, I headed out to do the weekly shop as usual. This week, I just did a whizz round the grocery stores to get what we needed. I didn't have time to hang around, as I was due at work in the evening. I really didn't enjoy my shift in the evening for a couple of reasons. One was that I was tired, as it was my 5th consequetive shift and the other reason I won't go into here. I'm just grateful to have two days off now. I feel like I'm too old for this.

On Tuesday, it was lovely to have a bit of a lie in and know that I didn't need to go to work. I don't really get much of a lie in, as the builders next door start work at 8am each morning and it gets noisy. They do tend to knock off before 3 though, which is good on the days I'm not working, as I get to enjoy a bit of peace and quiet and can venture out into the garden.

I was booked into my usual class at the gym, but I had a bit of time before I needed to head out, so I made a small start on my sewing class project, winding some thread onto a bobbin ready for class and also sewing a couple of seams on the dress bodice. I then headed off to my class which was okay. When I got home, I had lunch and then got ready to go to my sewing class.

It is really lovely to sew in a different space where you've got room to spread out all your things on a double table. There were only 6 or 7 of us there this week, so there was plenty of room. I did some more work on my dress, sewing together the pieces for the sleeves and skirt. It's getting a bit tricky, as it's not really coming together perfectly. It's my fault, because I cut some of the fabric pieces bigger, just in case and now I'm struggling to get everything to fit together well. I need to work on it at home and figure out a solution. I enjoyed the couple of hours there though and it passes so quickly. It's quite peaceful and meditative.

I took a couple of library books back whilst there, as I'd finished reading them, I think that 's 5 or 6 books now read this year. I got one of Nancy Birtwhistle's books out this week and started reading it on the bus home.

OH had made us a curry when I got in, which was a treat. After supper, we both headed down to the allotment. I did some harvesting of strawberries and raspberries and then a bit of weeding and OH watered and fed the plants. It's choc full now, no room for any more plants until we harvest some potatoes or lettuce. The baby fox was out and about, but kept his distance from us. He's very cute.

When we got back home, we sat in the garden for half an hour and had a drink. I potted on a verbena bonariensis that OH bought me at B&Q the other week. There was 20% off all plants, so it only cost £5.60 which was a steal. It's got an amazing root ball and really needed a bigger pot, so I just decided to give it one.  In all, it was a lovely day, just great not to be working.

I booked myself in to see a film on Wednesday, at our small local independent cinema on our high street. The film was The Salt Path, and I went on my own, as it's not really OH's bag, plus he was busy and couldn't spare the time. The showing was at 11.15am, so it was a nice treat for myself after working so much these last few weeks. I really enjoyed the film. I've heard some people have suggested that it was boring, but I don't know how they could find it so. It was based on a real story of resiliance and finding hope after difficulty. A real storyline. I thought it was really good and the scenery amazing. It made me want to get my walking boots and rucksack on and just go do it.

I came home after the film and had some lunch and then shortly afterwards I needed to head out to meet some friends for supper. The timing wasn't great, as I have so much on my plate right now, but I didn't want to be a party pooper. I walked all the way to a fabric warehouse on the way, to get some steps in, where I bought some fabric to make another dungaree dress and maybe a skirt too. It was a camoflauge design, which I think is a high percentage cotton and cost £4 per meter, so I bought 3 metres. I also picked up some elastic, a floral patch and a zip, which the guy threw in for free, which was nice of him. Here's a picture of my little haul:

I then hopped onto a bus and met up with my friends at our usual haunt. It was nice to catch up. I ended up walking all the way home, as the buses were being diverted. It was probably 3 miles or so. I got a bit hassled by some guy part of the way, but I managed to shake him off eventually.

On Thursday morning, I headed out to the gym for a session, which I enjoyed. I've changed my gym routine now and it's feeling a lot more strenuous and beneficial. LB was coming home for a few hours later to pick something up, so I had a small window of time to try to do some college work. I then discovered via an email from my tutor, that I had more multiple choice quizzes to complete for the course, so I got distracted by that and didn't do the actual work that I needed to. I did get some of the quizzes completed though which was good, but still had a few more to do.

LB came home and it was lovely to see her and catch up with her news.  She's been so busy with Uni work and is now on the final stretch, as she's preparing for her degree show, which starts at the weekend. Unfortunately, I can't visit until next week, due to work commitments, but I'm hoping to go with OH next Saturday. Once this is over, she's just got her graduation in July and it will all be finished. She's due to come back home at the beginning of July, so I'm looking forward to that. We will need to hire a van to pick her up and move all of her stuff out of the flat. I'm thinking of staying over a night or two to help her clean up the flat and pack, work allowing. It might mean missing my last sewing class, but I'm fine with that.

I was then due at work for 5pm, so I had to head out. Work was okay, but I was just happy to get through it. That seems to be a recurring theme at the moment.

On Friday morning, I was due at college for 9am. I was supposed to have some work done, but I didn't get it completed. I made a start over breakfast, but didn't have time to complete it. I am still hanging by a thread in terms of staying on the course and doing the final practical assessments. I explained this to my tutor and fellow students in class when I got there and they were really supportive which was helpful to me. We then had to do some practical role playing work, which did give me a bit more confidence, but I've still got a lot of work to do and very little spare time to do it due to work committments.

I had to leave promptly at 12.30pm, as I was due at work for 3pm. Work was okay, but it felt like a long shift and I was very tired. I did get a break, which helped. I'm just taking it a day at a time at the moment. It's all I can do.

Saturday, I decided not to go to the free gym session as I was too tired. Something had to give and on this occasion it was this. I then got a message from a neighbour asking if I could look after their dog, as they were going out for the day and couldn't take him with them. I agreed to have him for the morning and then drop him home when I went to work for 3pm. It was an extra thing I could have done without, but he's a sweet boy and I didn't like to think of him being home alone all day.  Besides, I figured a walk with him late morning would be lovely. He settled quite well, made himself at home and we did have a lovely walk, so I did get some steps in.

I finished all of the remaining multiple choice assessments for college on Saturday morning, so at least that is all completed now and I can focus on the practical stuff going forward, which is currently the most pressing, as I have my practical assessments coming up in the next two weeks.

Work on Saturday night was busy but okay, ending another crazy busy week. Once I get to the end of June, I'm hoping things will calm down again.

Trying to Get My Act Together - W/E 7th June 2025 - Part 2

The first half of this week I was busy with work, the weekly shop and classes and although work was due to resume in the second half of the week, on Wednesday, I had a day of respite from needing to be anywhere or do anything in particular.

When I got up, I did need to finish the wardrobe clear out, by putting away the clothes I took out that didn't fit and rearranging the out of season storage to make it more accessible. Once I'd done that, I got ready and went down for breakfast.

I decided to go for a 3.5km run this morning, thinking that it would be my only chance to do so this week. I had it in my head that I was in college on Friday, instead of Wednesday this week and had shortened a shift at work as a consequence. When I checked my timetable, I realised that I wasn't in college at all until next Friday, which was a relief if I'm honest. I hadn't even looked at my college stuff since before half term and it was calling to me, as there's quite a lot of work that I need to do.

I was even considering not bothering to complete the course, as I was feeling overwhelmed with having so many shifts at work and all the college work to do. Today though, I got my books out and made a bit of an effort to do some work. I went online and completed 9 out of the 10 online open exam sections that I needed to complete. There's just one left, but I'm really struggling with it. I had to give up on it eventually. I felt a bit better for doing some work, although there is still a lot left to do, but I should have a bit of time next week to do what I need to do before I go back. Most of my deadlines are the end of the month, but I do have to complete something by the next time I go in.

The hand shredder that I considered getting and did eventually buy, was delivered today. It only actually takes one sheet of paper at a time, which makes it a little slow going, but I finished off what shredding had built up and I will do any future shredding as it arises, which should make it less laborious. It seems to work okay. I don't know how long it will last, but it was cheaper than the electric one that instantly broke, doesn't have a motor to burn out and doesn't need any electricity to use it, which is all good.

Later, we watched the penultimate episode of Race Across the World which was good. I always enjoy this series.

On Thursday, I didn't want to get up. I felt really tired. I did eventually get up and headed off to the gym. I did some new strength training exercises on a machine that I've never used before at my gym, which was good. After my workout, I felt exhausted, so I must have done something right. I came straight home and had lunch and then needed to get ready for work at 2pm. Work was very busy, with some additional stuff going on in the background which had us all on our best behaviour, but the eventual outcome was a good one. 

I wasn't working until 5pm on Friday, so I was very happy to have most of the day to do as I pleased. I did not do any exercise. I needed a day off. I had a lie in, as I'd gone to bed late after a hectic shift at work and then decided that I was going to use the time I had to do some more sewing. As a consequence, I spent the morning altering a pair of trousers from my wardrobe clearout and transforming them into a skirt. It went okay. I was quite happy with the outcome. I'm doing a separate post about clothing alterations, as I've got a few planned for when I get the time to do them.

Work was busy again on Friday, so I just put my head down and worked through it.

On Saturday morning, I got up early and headed off to the free gym session, which was good. I'm developing the courage to venture into a different part of the gym and do some new to me exercises and the workouts do feel more strenuous in a good way. 

When I got home, I chilled for a bit before getting ready for work. I was due to go for a mammogram before work, in a mobile screening unit. Luckily, it was round the corner from work. My work schedule had been changed at the last minute, to start work a couple of hours earlier, so at least this meant that I didn't need to kill two hours in the shops after my appointment, as that could have been expensive. Work was very busy and I was shattered by the time I got home. Working all these extra hours is taking it's toll a bit, if I'm honest, so I ended the week feeling pretty tired.

A Week of Feeling Overwhelmed and a Wardrobe Sort Out - Part One - W/E 7th June 2025

This week began as most weeks have lately, with a shift at work on Sunday. I was due to work 11am to 3pm, but almost as soon as I got there, I was asked if I would work until closing at 6pm, which I agreed to do seeing as I was already there.  I did have to go out at my break and buy a very unappetising and a not too healthy lunch from a nearby shop, as I'd not taken anything in with me, but such is life.  

The shift itself was probably one of the most stressful I've experienced in recent months. It was Payday weekend and we were very busy with shoppers, which is good for business, but I seemed to get a lot of complicated transactions come my way and by the end of the shift I was mentally and physically drained. 

I was so happy to go home and chill, but then didn't sleep well, as I got to thinking about LB, who was facing her final Uni deadline and I knew that she would probably be pulling an allnighter, which she was, as she messaged us to that effect the following day and to tell us that everything was finished and done. I was so relieved for her.

I headed out of town to do the weekly shop as usual on Monday. It was quite an expensive shop as were were out of quite a few things and I needed to get a couple of small gifts for OH for Fathers' Day. I also dropped into the charity shop for the first time in a few weeks. I had a good look through the rails, but this time I concentrated only on items made with materials made from natural fibres i.e. cotton, linen, viscose,etc.  

I tried quite a few things on, but many of them looked awful. I did come away with 4 items of clothing though; a navy linen top for £3 (which I intend to shorten), a blue floral linen dress for £5 (which I'm going to cut down to make a skirt), a floral viscose top for £2 and a very pretty viscose dress for £5. 

It really makes looking a lot easier, when you're only looking for natural fibres, as there are so few of them to look at. Most clothing in this particular shop, as in many charity shops these days, is synthetic, so it rules out a lot of what is on the rails. I've been inspired to do this by the books I've been reading lately, as they suggest that these fabrics are more sustainable. ( although viscose and cotton not so much!) I'll post about my finds in this months clothing purchases post.

I was working again in the evening, so after getting home and unpacking the shopping, I had to get ready and head into work. A couple of new staff started work tonight and I caught my first glimpse of our new Store Manager. It was busy again tonight though and as it was my fourth consequetive shift, I felt really tired and overwhelmed. I was so glad to go home at the end of the night, knowing I had a couple of days off, before it starts all over again.

On Tuesday, I managed to get booked into my usual class at the gym. I was looking forward to it as I'd missed the previous week on account of my dentist appointment. I made myself boiled eggs for breakfast and then did some financial stuff before heading out. I'd received my tax rebate, so I redistributed it into savings accounts. I also checked my Premium bonds and was happy to have won £100, which was a major bonus. 

My gym class was okay, not as good as usual though. When I came home, I made some lunch and then got ready to go out to my sewing class. I was looking forward to going back, as I'm loving sewing at the moment and feeling very inspired by some books I've been reading lately and the camaraderie at the class. 

I enjoyed the class. I didn't do any real sewing, just prepping of my fabric pattern pieces ready to start constructing the garment. The teacher did a little teaching session on different types of zips and how to install them and also demonstrated how to change the thread on the overlocker which was useful. It feels lovely to be amongst fellow sewists, as it's often something I do alone at home.

Talking to another class member, I discovered one of the reasons why I'm probably working so many shifts this week. Eid is taking place at the weekend and many people are buying gifts for family members, which is partly why work is busy. In addition, I think that many of the staff may be taking time off to celebrate with their families, hence my getting more shifts, which is fair enough. It's just come at a difficult time for me, as I have a lot going on out of work at the moment, which makes life a bit overwhelming at times.

Anyway, I took out a few more library books after my class (which takes place in a library), as I've almost finished the previous book I borrowed and will be returning it next week. Here's a picture of the books I borrowed:

After supper, I decided that I needed to sort out my wardrobe. I've been buying quite a few items of clothing lately, and I think it partly stems from feeling like I haven't got any nice clothes to wear that fit well. To be honest, my wardrobe was so packed full, I couldn't see half of what was in there, so it was quite enlightening to go through and try everything on, remove what didn't fit well and just leave what did, so I know what I've got to choose from. It made me realise that I had more choices than I thought. 

I think I'm just feeling annoyed with myself for putting weight back on. Some of the things I used to love wearing when I lost the weight, I can no longer wear, and it is so disappointing. I'm hanging on to quite a few of them, just in case, and some other items from my wardrobe I may alter to make them more wearable, or cut them up for the fabric to make something else. Some other things I will donate. 

One positive from doing this, aside from having much more room in my wardrobe and a clearer idea of what I can wear everyday, was that I found some extra clothes to wear for work this summer that still fit (just). 

Here's a photo of how it looked when I'd finished:

Everything is now much more accessible and seasonally appropriate which should make getting dressed every day much easier. I do feel much better now it has been done and it may just curb my urge to spend money on more clothes, although I don't like to make promises I can't keep.

A Week of Just Going with my Sewing MoJo

Half term week from both college courses meant that I had a few days to myself, to do as I pleased. I haven't had much free time in the last few weeks, so it was wonderful to be able to choose what I did each day. I probably should have been doing college work, but my heart was telling me to sew, and I didn't take much persuading. I seemed to have lots of ideas of things I wanted to make, so I just decided to go with the flow.

The first project I started was a patchwork project. I wanted to make a patchwork skirt to attach to a t-shirt and make a dress. The t-shirt was a brown colour with pretty broiderie anglaise sleeves, so I picked out brown, gold and green fabrics from my stash which I thought would go with it and made a large piece of pieced together fabric to make the skirt from.

When I tried to put the two together, I decided that I didn't actually like the fit of the t-shirt on me. It looked too tight, which wasn't flattering. As a consequence, I decided to just make a skirt in a completely different style, using an old pattern that I've used numerous times before, so I proceeded to cut the pattern pieces out of the patchwork pieced fabric.

I didn't get any further with this project this week, but it doesn't actually take long to make this skirt, if I can find some spare time. I just got distracted with other things I wanted to make.

The next project I decided to start, was to make a quilted vest, using the one I'd recently bought from Primark to make a pattern. This had been something I had planned to make before I bought the vest, so I'd already put some fabric aside for it.

To begin with, I created a paper pattern by drawing around the bought vest. This was a bit tricky, but I think it turned out okay.  I then cut out the fabric pieces and also some lining pieces in a co-ordinationg plain fabric that I had in my stash.

I wasn't originally intending to use any kind of wadding, but the fabric I was using was quite flimsy unlike the denim of the original, and as I had some thin wadding, I decided to include a layer of it, so that it would give a better quilted effect. Luckily, I just had enough wadding in my stash. I then pinned and tacked the wadding and layers of fabric in place ready to iron and quilt.

Here's a picture of the pieces ready to quilt:

I am a bit nervous about quilting the pieces, as I need to keep the lines straight and even. I decided not to use the diagonal quilting on the bought vest and to instead just quilt in vertical lines 2cm apart, as I thought there might be less room for error doing it this way, or that errors might not show as much. The pattern on the fabric that I am using does have rows of polka dots on it, so I'm hoping that this might help me to keep my lines straight by following the dots as much as possible.

Once again, I didn't get any further with this project this week, but I made a start, which is something. Sometimes, that's all it takes to get your creative ideas flowing and I do like to have lots of different projects on the go, so that I don't get bored with any one of them.

The final project I started during this week, was to make a patchwork duvet cover for the spare bedroom/sewing room. It was a bit of a random idea, but I've seen some on Pinterest and it's such a great stash buster.  Besides, cotton duvet covers are very expensive these days, so why not make my own with cotton fabric I already have and don't use. I used some of the same fabrics that I'd used for the patchwork skirt, as I wanted to use them up. I stuck to greens though on this project, to go with bedding we already had (i.e. fitted sheets and pillow cases). 

I think I managed to cut enough pieces of fabric to make the duvet cover top, as can be seen from the photo (Please note that some of the colours don't show true on camera). I may still need to add the odd row or two once I start sewing them together, which is what I now need to do. Again, I didn't really get the time to do this during half term week, so this is still an ongoing project, but one that I look forward to moving forward with. I'm not sure what I'm going to use for the back of the cover yet, but I do have some vintage flat sheets, so one of those will probably do the job.

I'll keep you posted with progress on all these projects, but I'm not sure when I'll get chance to work on them again for a while.

Monthly Finances - May 2025

This month has been a much more expensive month than the previous one. The main reasons being OH's birthday falling within this month, on which I spent about £100, as he didn't really want much. I also needed to pay for more dental treatment that I had done this month. I paid £75 as a deposit for my treatment and then another £235 for the filling and clean that I actually had done.

As a consequence, it was a very expensive month. I was a little over on the food budget and also the household budget, as I bought quite a few household items this month, stocking up on washing sheets, scent booster beads, eco washing up liquid, toilet cleaner, dental products, etc.

I also bought a shredder, that broke after just a couple of minutes. I'm contemplating now buying a hand shredder, in the hope that it might work better and not break so easily, although it takes only 2 sheets of paper at a time, so will take longer to do any shredding. If I shred as I go, it might work for me.

As usual, I did spend some money on clothes for myself, namely £68, but I've gone into more detail about this in my monthly clothing purchases post.

Other things I spent money on this month included some notions for my sewing class and other projects to the tune of about £20, plus the bus fares to actually get to class. I topped up my oyster card twice this month at £10 each time.

I also put £10 into a leaving kitty at work and spent £44 on bits for the house, including a new cotton sheet and matching pillow cases and a large bath mat. They were things that we needed, so I don't regret this expenditure.

In terms of my £25 charity shop budget that I allow myself, I only spent £9.79 in charity shops this month, which was progress for me. This was spent on a few sewing bits, some packing cubes and a book.

I didn't win anything on the Premium bonds this month, but I did receive £175 in interest on a fixed rate Isa I'd set up a couple of years ago, which has now come to term and this ended up being shared between the car fund, rounding up balances in various savings accounts and also used for the purchase of more Premium Bonds.

I managed to put £200 in the car fund, £100 in the birthday fund (although £50 of this was spent on OH's birthday) and £50 in LB's overdraft fund to help her clear it when she finishes Uni next month.

Despite the expense, I feel like I've still made progress financially this month, but I'm hoping to spend a little less next month and maybe save a little more.

(OH spent about £1100 this month, on bricks and sand for the new garden patio, which is virtually complete and looks great. It was definitely £1000 well spent, as it probably cost us a lot less than paying someone else to do the work. We're both very happy with how it turned out)

Next month, I don't really have any big expenses on the horizon, save for paying off my credit cards (I use these for online purchases and some other expenses, i.e. dental bills) and getting by. It will be a month of working quite a lot and focussing on getting my college work done and my floral dress made at sewing class, so I might not have too much time to trawl the charity shops or spend money, but then being busy hasn't stopped me in the past.

I hope you've had a much less expensive month than I have.