Off to University

Saturday was a big day for us. I took my daughter off to university. She's spent the last two years working hard to get the A'level grades that she needed. I've also been planning for university life for months to spread the costs.

Each week I've bought and extra item with the weekly shop & stored it away. The loft has been busting with boxes & bags for weeks.

I made a quilt using mostly scraps of old fabric. I had to buy a few new bits.  It was backed with an old duvet cover.

New duvets were bought using Tesco points when they were worth double. I got a summer & winter duvet for £7.50 worth of vouchers.

And that's how it all fits in a Citroen C1.

Making the best use of a day off

I had a couple of medical appointments last Friday and I really couldn't be bothered to go into work for the afternoon so I booked the day off. Having booked it, I didn't want to waste it. Time off is precious.

I started the day by getting a second coat of paint on the shed door before I went for my appointments. I did a bit of shopping on the way home after the appointments. 

I took my daughter for a trip out to West Wycombe & took a picnic.

We visited the Hell-Fire caves. 

Stopped for a nice cup of tea (of course).

Stopped off on the way home to buy some new clothes for my daughter who's off to uni soon.

I had time before dinner to finish pressure washing the decking.

And finished off by painting the skirting boards in the bathroom.

All in all a busy, successful & enjoyable day.

Tidy Workshop - Tidy Mind

I had to have some building work done to the garage at the end of last year due to a crack in the wall. The garage was in a bit if a mess to start with and I only got 24 notice to clear things out of the way before the work started. Stuff just got dumped into boxes & stored wherever I could find space. Sorting it out is one of my targets for 2015. The plan, as usual, is to be as frugal as possible.

Thanks to a top tip-off from my favourite blogger Frugal Queen, I bought some wall planters from B&M for £1.50 each. Great for the dust pan & brush and garden things that used to kick around on the work bench.  

 I used some of the wood that I saved from my daughter's old bed to enhance the shelving.

I made a board to start with to attach a tool rack to & hang things on.

I made the rack - it was rubbish. I made another tool rack a few years ago which was also rubbish. (So rubbish in fact that the builders didn't recognise it as my hand crafted tool rack & threw it in the skip.)  I still can't find my jigsaw so made the holes by drilling & chiseling. A coat of paint hid the rubbishness a bit.

The tools I use the most are ready to go. My saws are stored on the back.

I treated myself to some new workshop pencils (£3.99 from Screwfix). I had a bird feeder kicking around, which I converted to a pencil pot. No more hunting around for a pencil.

This old in-tray was under my bed for years with old paperwork in it. It then sat in the utility room for a year or so with a different set of old paper work in. I liberated it from the paperwork & removed the front panel.

Perfect for storing sandpaper. I had several packets lying around. Now it's all in one place & easy to find.

An old bookcase from my daughter's room has become a shelf unit.

Spirit levels have been hung up & the drills have an official home & charging point. I'm loving getting it all organised.

Now I just have to sort this lot out ........

Frosted Glass Film on the Bathroom Window

When the house was extended about 20 years ago, we made a bit of a boo-boo with the bathroom window & put in a clear not frosted one. We didn't actually notice until the work was finished & we started using the room. It was added to the list of things to sort out one day.

2015 is my year to sort these jobs out as frugally as possible. I found some frosted glass film on e-bay for £7.99. It comes with a paper backing. I cut it slightly larger than the window. 

I'd cleaned the widow to within an inch of its life the day before. I cleaned it again with a slip of washing up liquid & water. I sprayed the window again, peeled off the backing & positioned the film. The kit came with a squeegee to smooth the film down.

Once it was as air bubble free as I could get it, I trimmed the edges with a sharp knife & a straight edge. It was rather like hanging wallpaper, a skill which my Dad trained me in at a very young age.

All done and other job crossed off the list.

Make Do & Mend - the Laundry Basket

I hate throwing things away and will always try to fix something to get a bit more life out of it.

The laundry basket lid was showing the signs of its age, not helped by that fact that my youngest cat Brian liked to chew it & run off with bits he'd broken off.

I decided to recover the lid to stop any more bits disappearing. I drew round the lid onto some calico.

Cut it out & sewed it onto the lid. The sewing was a bit tough as I couldn't always find a gap in the basket weave to put the needle though.

It took me several evenings of sewing to complete.

A similar basket in B&M was priced at £14.99. I spent about 70p and the basket is maybe not as good as new, but has a few more years left.

2015 - The year to get things sorted

I'm not really into New Year resolutions but I have decided that 2015 would be the year to sort out stuff that I've been putting off.

First thing to tackle was the mortgage. I've been paying it on my own for 7 years, but it's still in joint name with my Ex. How much work is it to apply for a mortgage these days? After what seemed like a lifetime on the phone I've had an offer and the application is in process. I'd put off re-mortgaging because I thought there would be all sorts of expenses.

 As it turned out I've stuck with my bank that the current mortgage is with and I've got no set up fees & no survey fees. I've also managed to knock a year of the repayment terms. The only expense that I'll have is the legal bit, but that does mean that I can get his name off the deeds. Over all, a little expense and a great deal of peace of mind.

Next was a new carpet & bed for my daughter's bedroom. I decorated the room a couple of years ago but had to stick with the existing furnishing. I bought a room sized piece of carpet that worked out cheaper than buying off the roll.

I saved all the fixings from her old bed to use for something else. My Ex took the wood from the bed to make shelves for his shed so we recycled as much as we could.

2 bags of gravel for the front garden. I say garden but it's just a car park really with a couple of shrubs. It had become a muddy mess and the new gravel was overdue & has tidied it up nicely. 

 I've been debt free for over a year now. It's such a good feeling to able to tackle some of these jobs. What a difference to be in control of the money rather than the money being in control of me. 

Next job - tidy up the downstairs loo. I've set myself a completion target of next Christmas. Gently & frugally does it.

A Relaxing Crafty Christmas Break

It's been a busy & difficult few months and have haven't had much spare time for my usual craft & DIY. I had a 2 week break from work over Christmas and I managed to catch up with myself.

This craft kit was in my Christmas Stocking.

Everything that I needed to make 3 felt Christmas cupcakes.

I spent a couple of rather enjoyable afternoons, with a large pot of tea, sewing & relaxing.

There was even a cake box to make.

But I decided to turn them into tree decorations.

  .

I spent a few more afternoons, with pots of tea, working on my crochet blanket kit that my friend bought me for my birthday.

I rounded off the Christmas break by revamping the lamps in the living room, with a coat of paint and some new shades that I picked up in the sales.

Shame I had to go back to work........