A Small Charity Shop Haul

This week whilst out doing the weekly shop, I ventured into one of my favourite charity shops. It's been a couple of weeks since I last visited, so I was happy to return. To be honest, I didn't see a whole lot that interested me.  I think perhaps the best items are put in the shop for the weekend and I never visit at weekends, it's always a Monday, when possibly all the best things have probably been bought up.

Anyway, I still had a good look around. I only really need clothing for work, black tops mainly for the coming warmer weather, but I didn't find anything suitable. I didn't even try any clothes on, such were the slim pickings this visit. This is virtually unheard of for me.

What I did find, however, was this pair of brand new ASOS chunky biker boots.  They're probably not going to be to everyone's taste, but I do like a chunky boot with skirts and dresses and for £5 brand new, I couldn't leave them in the shop.

The next item I bought was this belt for £1. It looks unused, synthetic with no brand, but I thought it might be good to cinch in a dress and I like the khaki colour and style of it. I tried it around my waist and it fitted, even with a big sweater on, so that came home with me too.

The only other clothing/accessory item I bought was this lovely pair of bamboo socks. They cost £2 and have this lovely feather design. I love me a pair of socks and as they are brand new, I'll probably put these away for OH to give me for my birthday later in the year.

I also bought a couple of books. I have lots of books to read, but at two books for £1, I found the one referencing native indigenous American traditions first and couldn't resist it. I've been watching Yellowstone on Netflix recently and it has brought their culture to mind. I admire their beliefs about living as one with nature, not taking too much from the earth and taking good care of it, which is something that we should all be doing more of in my humble opinion. I'm looking forward to reading more about these beliefs and how in combination with science, they can lead to a better understanding of nature.

The second book, by Patricia Highsmith, I bought to make up the 2 for £1, but it sounds really good, so I think I might enjoy reading this one. I've never read this author's work before but it has some good reviews.

I bought one other small organisation item which isn't shown here, but it cost £1, so in total I spent £10, which is okay. I'm happy with the items I bought. All of them are new or if not, as new. Sometimes, when I get the thrifting itch, I just have to scratch it and this little outing has done just that, without causing too much damage to the budget.

Getting Back into the Swing of Things and Some Bad News - W/E 1st March 2025

On Sunday morning, I had a bit of a lie in after staying awake until the early hours waiting for LB to come home. LB had an even longer one, as she was a bit hungover after her night out. Eventually, OH came home from cycling, LB got up and we all headed out for lunch at a local restaurant, before she headed back to her flat. 

Afterwards, we saw her onto the bus and then came home and had a chill afternoon. We'd had a nice meal, but to be honest, I don't really enjoy eating out as much as I enjoy eating at home. It's nice in terms of being social and getting out and about, but the food doesn't quite hit the same when it's made by someone else. I don't want to sound ungrateful and many people might disagree with me on this point, but it's just how I feel about it. I think we've eaten out a bit too much this week and we're both looking forward to eating at home more from hereon in.

On Monday, I did my usual of heading out of town to shop. The bill was quite a bit more than the previous week, but I did throw something in the trolley from the Middle of Lidl for LB, so that accounted for some of it. We are pretty well stocked up though on most things going into March.

On Tuesday morning, we woke up to some bad news. One of OH's siblings was in hospital after suffering from a stroke, which kind of threw us completely. We spent most of the day waiting for news from family members going to visit them. I went to my usual class at the gym, as I was already booked in, but I was pretty distracted. We eventually did get some news and OH decided to go up by train the following day to visit them. I agreed to stay home, as we had engineers coming to connect fibre optic internet cables the next day and I'd arranged to meet with friends, although I could easily have cancelled the latter.

On Wednesday, I stayed close to home all day. I wanted to go for a run, but it was raining quite heavily so I gave it a miss. I did some pottering and sewing and then got ready to go out and meet my friends for supper. We had a nice evening and had a good catch up. OH in the meantime was messaging me updates from the hospital. I'm hoping to get up to Yorkshire to visit in the very near future, but OH was reasonably reassured that they seem to be getting good care in the hospital and had their family around them every day.

On Thursday morning, the engineers came earlier than expected, so it was just as well I'd stayed home.  OH was back a couple of hours later, as he needed to be back for a hospital appointment himself and I went out for a run once he was back, did some work on my monthly finances and then got ready for work in the evening. I've got quite a few shifts between now and the middle of next week, but maybe after that we might travel back north to visit again, hopefully things will have stabilised a little by then.

Work on Thursday was okay. It felt like quite a while since I'd been there. The shift passed okay though. It's that time of year when staff reviews are taking place, so I expect I'll be called in for mine sometime in the next week or so.

On Friday morning, I had a lie in and a late breakfast. OH was due at a hospital appointment and had to fast, so I didn't go down to breakfast until he'd gone for his appointment, as it didn't seem fair to eat in front of him whilst he was fasting. 

There was a global anti-capitalist protest taking place on Friday, encouraging people not to buy from large multibillion pound/dollar corporations for the day, so I decided to join in and avoided spending any money today. I don't really need anything and it's not difficult for me to have a no spend day. I will be considering much more seriously what I buy in the future. Wealth is very unevenly distributed in the world and some individuals/economies really don't need any more wealth than they already wield. Enough said.

On Saturday, I hit the over 50's free gym session again, which was good. It was a lovely sunny day on Saturday, so I pottered outside for a bit and then pottered inside for a bit, potting on some baby houseplants, that I've been meaning to do for a while now. I then got ready for work and headed off there for an evening shift. Work was pretty busy. I think the sunshine and the fact that it was a payday weekend, brought people out and led to them spending money in the store. As a consequence, the shift passed pretty quickly and I enjoyed it. I always like to keep busy at work. I'm not the shirking kind.

I hope you had a good week.

Conspicuously Using My Spending Power

I've read recently about economic blackouts which are due to take place in the next few months, as a protest against wealth inequalities, diversity/human rights issues and as a protest against the increasing vast wealth of large corporations the world over. This is mainly taking place in America, but anyone, anywhere can join in and refuse to spend any of their hard earned money on American or other origin products produced by large multi-billion pound corporations and more especially the ones that do not treat their employees well or with spurious diversity policies.  It has been organised to allow us the little people to demonstrate our concern about growing inequalities in wealth/human rights.

The first protest took place on 28th February and was for just one day. I joined in with this and had a no spend day on this day. I don't buy many American products, save for Coke Zero and my current brand of toothpaste, plus perhaps, the odd McDonalds. There are probably many more American owned companies I buy from or through, such as Ebay, Nestle, Proctor and Gamble, etc., so to play it safe I'll be spending with no-one on this day and this includes the multimillion pound supermarkets in this country.

Following this, I've heard that there is also a planned economic blackout on Amazon from 7th through to 14th March, mainly due to some of the treatment dished out to Amazon employees by the company. I rarely use Amazon, only as a very last resort. Mr Bezos has quite enough money already and I'm not prepared to add to his billions just for my own convenience, when I can share my money out amongst other people who I consider to be more deserving of receiving it.

I've been watching a YouTube channel lately called Gary's Economics. Gary Stevenson, who studied for his Economics degree at the London School of Economics and for his Masters at Oxford, was born into a working class East London family and subsequently ended up working in Canary Wharf as a trader. 

Having quit working for Citibank, he has subsequently launched his channel to highlight how the super rich 1% are eating up most of the financial assets in the world, leaving less and less for the average working person and in doing so creating ever widening inequalities in housing, health, wealth, etc. His videos are very interesting and he advocates for making the world a more equal place, by way of co-operation and working together to make sure that wealthy corporations pay appropriate levels of tax in order to redistribute wealth and help provide housing, health care, etc. to those that need it. He argues that our grandparents got together to do this in the past and that we can do this today, if we stick together and pressure for change.

He argues that in todays world, we are encouraged to act as individuals and only be interested in ourselves and bettering our own financial position/keeping our own heads above water, but that we need to change this and join forces with others to effect change in our societies. The alternative, is an ever widening gap in wealth with young people being unable to afford homes and unable to obtain good jobs, leading to despair, increased mental health problems and increased financial struggle and poverty. It is refreshing to hear his honest and very easy to understand explanations of todays politics of greed.

We may not think that we can do anything as individuals, but we can. We can refuse to line the pockets of large corporations and support political parties whose policies widen the gap further or solely serve the interests of the already rich. We can keep ourselves informed of what is really going on in the world and make our views known to our local/national politicians and we can use our voices to pressure for change. I for one am rethinking some of my everyday behaviours. I don't have all the answers, but I'm trying to work out what I can do to play my part going forward.

February 2025 Clothing Purchases

It's been a much better front on spending this month and consequently, there were only a few clothing purchases during February.

The first item I bought was this polka dot ruffle skirt from my favourite charity shop. It is originally from M&S, but cost me just £2. I like the polka dots and the burgundy colour of this skirt, but I am in two minds about the length. I did think I might shorten it to the length of the upper ruffle, which would make it longer at the back than the front, but when I tried it on again I decided not to rush into this, as maybe I like the original length.  The jury is still out on this one, but I like the skirt, it's cute and it was a steal for £2 and could easily be worn year round. I was thinking with chunky boots and a big sweater in winter and with a vest or t-shirt in the summer.

The second item I bought was this super cute handmade dress from a local charity shop. It was reduced to £3 on the sale rail and I just couldn't resist it. It is a little snug and possibly a little short, but I'm working on the former and tights will aide with the latter issue. I really liked the style of dress. The collar and rolled back sleeves are flattering as is the slight flare of the skirt and the print is adorable. I've provided a close up of this, as it's difficult to see in the full length photo. It had a lot of ends of cotton hanging from it, as if it's never quite been finished or worn, so I cut them all off and hopefully I'll actually wear it at some point as it deserves to be worn, it's very well made.

The final item that I bought from another local charity shop was this black vest sweater. It's a good long length and is quite loose and can be worn over dresses/jeans/skirts. It's very versatile, especially as we come into slightly warmer weather. It was a bit pilled, but I did some depilling when I got it home. It also had slits up the sides, which I didn't like, so I've sewn the slits closed as I find it more flattering worn that way. It cost £7, which is a bit more expensive, but if it becomes something I wear a lot it will be worth it.

One way that I have already worn it is over this dress, that I previously bought at a charity shop a few months ago. This dress was a maxi length and didn't look quite right on me so I've shortened it (possibly a little too much), but it is much more wearable now. The vest sweater covers the shirred top of the dress which I don't find too flattering and makes the dress more wearable.

The only other items of clothing I have bought this month were some gym socks. I've tended to wear trainer socks for the gym, but I'm much preferring a longer sock for both gym and running these days, so I'm slowly changing over to longer socks. I bought a pack of 3, two white, one black for £4.50 at Primark and I really like them.

Thankfully, a lot less clothing has come into the house this month, my wardrobe is probably grateful for it, although whilst decluttering a few weeks ago, I did bring some things out of storage to start wearing again. I'm hoping to continue in this vein this year and make good use of what I already have.

Monthly Financial Round Up - February 2025

This month has been much more successful in terms of it being low spend. I've taken care to not buy inessentials on the whole, although a few did slip by me. It has helped that it has been a short month, I can't deny this, but I did drastically reduce my expenditure by over £400 or one third compared to last month, so this has been a big win as far as I'm concerned.

In terms of the budget, I was just about on target for food, a little over, mainly due to meeting some friends for supper at the end of the month, but I'm not going to punish myself over this. I managed to keep well within budget for household and miscellaneous items,  but spent over budget on the house and garden due to buying some new bedding and a new toilet seat, plus a few bits for the garden/home. 

I also spent a little too much on myself, on account of my £25 thrifting budget, which I stuck to. (I haven't really felt the urge to visit the charity shop so often this month, I think because I already have so much stuff in my house that I don't want to bring any more in.) I did, however, succumb to buying a new silver ring I'd been watching on Etsy for a while and a couple of other small items. The main overspend this month, however, was gifting, as I had a 21st birthday gift of money that I gave. This did come out of money I'd already saved up throughout the last year though, which was good.

In terms of putting money aside in savings, I did my usual £100 for gifting, £50 toward a contingency fund for LB, in case her bills turned out to be more than she could afford (I've been doing this for the past 6 months and if it is not needed, I can either give it to her to spend/pay off her overdraft once she's finished Uni, continue to save it for her or use it for something else). In addition, I got the ball rolling this month on the car fund, putting aside £200 for this purpose, another £16 into another savings account to round up the figure in there and put aside £30 in cash for a rainy day.  I also won £100 on the Premium Bonds which got reinvested in more bonds, so altogether it's not been a bad month on the savings front.

I'm also trying to give more to charity on a monthly basis, where I can. I regularly give £18 per month to 3 different charities by direct debit and I've continued to contribute 7 items to the Food Bank every week. In a Some weeks it costs more than others, depending on what I donate, and sometimes I get freebies (or discounts on item) through my Lidl plus account, which I often donate if they're not something I buy regularly or would use. I do intend to continue with this, unless, of course, there is a change in my circumstances that means I can no longer afford do so, as I like to try to do something charitable in my everyday life, especially now I'm no longer volunteering or working in the Charity sector. 

Looking ahead to March, there aren't really many large expenses on the horizon, save that I still need a dental checkup and a haircut. I keep putting both off, but I do need to book appointments for these. Otherwise, I'm hoping to keep expenditure low again and save more towards the car fund. I'll keep you posted with progress.

How was February for you? Have you got any financial plans for March?

A Week Off and a Trip to Yorkshire - W/E 22nd February 2025

This week, I had a week off work to use up the remainder of my annual leave, as the year end where I work is the end of February. The week got off to a slow start. I had a quiet day on Sunday and made sure to make some time to do some sewing. I spent a bit of time in the sewing room choosing some fabrics for a few new projects that I want to attempt.

One of the projects was to make a slow stitched journal cover. It was fun to find things to sew onto it from my scraps and button jars. I made a fabric cover using some fabric I had bought to make a tailored jacket at a class I used to attend and which I never finished. Once I'd fashioned it into a basic cover, I then proceeded to place all the bits and pieces of fabric and haberdashery onto it ready to sew them into place.  I almost got the front finished. I just need to iron and then stitch the big bird onto the front and sew and eye onto it.

I took a photo of how I want the back to look, but I haven't yet sewn all the scraps, buttons and bits onto it yet.

It's pretty random, but it is colourful (mainly pinks and purples) and was fun to sew and I'm very happy to use up lots of little bits of fabric, buttons, patches, lace, etc. from my stash.

On Monday, I did a few jobs around the house in the morning before heading out of town to do the weekly shop. I needed to drop into Dunelm to get a new toilet seat for the bathroom. I kept the weekly shop to a minimum this week, as we were planning to go up to Yorkshire for a few days later in the week. I just got enough to tide us over. I did also need to buy some more pillow cases to use the fabric for my hexi star quilt, but couldn't get them, so had to buy a single fitted sheet instead. It will give me plenty of fabric to hopefully finish the project though and possibly bind it too and cost just £6.

By the time I got back, OH had finished fitting the new bath and then went on to fit the new toilet seat. We've got a bit more work to do on the bathroom yet as the flooring needs replacing, due to the tiles being badly cracked and we need a new bath panel too. It's looking a lot better though and no more plumbing noises in the middle of the night thankfully.

On Tuesday, I went back to my usual class at the gym. I was glad to get moving again, although I'm still not feeling 100%. I felt better for the class though.  When I got home, OH and I filled the car with the old bath and plumbing bits, plus lots of gardening waste from all the pruning we did last month and we took it all to the local tip. It felt good to get rid of it all and free up some space in both the house and garden.

In the evening, I made us a veggie chilli with tortilla chips for supper. OH was out cycling for the evening, so I had a shower in the new bath, re-painted my nails and got packed in preparation of heading out of London the following day.

On Wednesday morning, we set off to go up to Yorkshire and visit family. We'd booked into a hotel for a couple of nights, where we'd previously stayed that has a pool, gym, sauna and gym classes, which we were looking forward to utilising. We got a good deal on account of using some cash back on the booking platform, so it will make for a nice break on my week off work. OH's mum had the decorator in, which is why we decided to stay elsewhere on this particular visit.

We had a good journey up north, with few delays. We went straight to OH's mum's house to catch up for a couple of hours, before heading to the hotel. We spent the evening in the fitness suite. I did a Zumba class, which is something I haven't done for a few years now. I really enjoyed it. We then both went in the gym for a workout before getting changed and heading down to the bar for supper. It was a nice evening.

On Thursday, we got up and did a few errands. OH needed to get a new tyre put on our car as it had a slow puncture, turns out there was a nail in it. Meanwhile, I went to Boyes and then later we met my sister at a pub for lunch and a catch up. I'd not seen her since last November. Later, we went to OH's mum's house and took her out for supper at a local pub. We haven't done this for years in Yorkshire, so it made a nice change for all of us.

When we got back to the hotel, we went for a swim and used the sauna and hot tub, which was a lovely relaxing way to end our visit.

On Friday, we packed up and checked out, filled the car with petrol for our journey home, picked up a few parts from ScrewFix, so that OH could secure his mum's back door and then headed to her house, so he could do this job before we set off back to London. It was very windy on our journey back and the roads were very busy on account of it being a Friday and half term holidays from school, so it took a bit longer to get home, but we got back safely.

LB came home a little later for a couple of nights and to work at a local shop on Saturday, so it was lovely to see her and catch up with her news.

On Saturday, I went to the free session at the gym first thing, which I enjoyed. LB was working all day. I retired to bed on Saturday afternoon for a few hours. I'd not slept well whilst we'd been away, so I think I just needed to catch up on some sleep. I felt a lot better for it.

We spent the evening watching Yellowstone on Netflix and then I watched a new series called The Story of My Family, which was good. LB was out with friends and came home in the early hours. I always tend to stay awake until I hear her safely come home.

Taking a New Financial Approach in February

This week, having had some time off work, I had some time to really think about our finances and what steps we might need to take going forward, to keep living within our means as we head towards retirement in the next decade. 

In all honesty, I've been a bit of an ostrich over the years and I've never really known or asked how much it costs to run our house. I've tended to leave all that to OH, as he was the main breadwinner over the years, whilst I, being a stay at home mum or working part-time and earning significantly less, mainly concentrated on buying what we've needed on a monthly basis in terms of food/household expenses. 

This week though, I decided to put on my big girl pants at long last, and asked him what our monthly bills actually amount to. It was quite an eye opener. I did this with a view to seriously contemplating our retirement finances, which are now less than 10 years away and how we might manage on a reduced income. It will be the ideal time to reconsider our joint finances and re-distribute the financial burden of all of the household and other bills, as there will be less disparity in our income in retirement. 

There have been and still are things that I can do now to share the burden. LB has almost finished University and thankfully some savings I put aside for her have helped her to manage financially whilst studying. I'm not a great planner for big purchases such as cars, holidays, etc. but I have planned financially for LB's studying in the past and do plan for smaller expenses such as birthdays/Christmas. Putting money aside every month for these things does work quite well in spreading the cost and also reducing the stress of trying to find the money when needed. I realise that I now really need to get serious about planning for necessary bigger purchases for our family going forward. OH has plenty of other things to think about, so I feel it is easier for me to start the ball rolling so to speak.

Having had time to think about the amount of money I've been wasting lately, on things I don't really need or even use (i.e. Project Pan/charity shopping), it's made me realise that a lot of what I earn could definitely be better utilised by putting it aside to save up for a new car. So I've now decided to use my low buy year to this effect. Starting from this month, I'm going to start putting aside as much money as I can into a new car fund. This may be a couple of hundred pounds per month or less, it might even be more, but at least it will be something going towards this major future expense. I will also still be putting aside money in other savings too, where I can afford to, but my major focus will be the car.

We've had our current car, a hybrid Toyota Prius, since we bought it virtually new in 2012 and although it's still very reliable, we love it and don't intend to get rid of it anytime soon, we are starting to think that there will come a time when we will need a new car. OH is very keen to go fully electric and electric cars are very expensive. As a consequence, I think it's time to start seriously saving towards this.

It may possibly be the last car we buy, as we head towards retirement and it's going to be quite an outlay. I don't know that we'll buy one new, it will depend how much we manage to save, but such an expense does need planning and saving for, as I don't really want to go down the car financing or leasing route.

This February, I've been a lot more successful at curtailing spending on unnecessary things, and my expenditure has somewhat fallen off a cliff and reduced significantly. I've spent relatively little compared to some previous months and it feels a lot more sustainable financially. I think I've recovered from all the overconsumption of Xmas and settled back into living more frugally and simply and not wasting money. I'm hoping that it continues as we go through the year and I can make serious inroads into the car fund. It's good to have savings goals, as it keeps you accountable and gives you something to work towards and I'm looking forward to the challenge of saving as much as I can.

I'll keep you posted with my progress. Are you saving for any major purchases?