Goodbye 2015

So often I can't wait for the new year to start as I can't wait for the old year to be behind me. This year is different. I look back on 2015 as a great year.

Apart from a minor blip with an unexpected vet bill, I have remained debt free and intend to continue doing so. 

My major task this year was was to remortgage & remove the ex from the mortgage & house deeds. Such a relief when it was all done.

I faced my biggest car repair ever, but had the money put away to cover it.

I've tackled DIY tasks that have long needed doing.

My frugal journey continues but my budgeting allows for a bit of living as well. We had a VIP trip to Les Miserables to celebrate my daughter's 18th birthday. All saved and budgeted for.

We had a relaxing holiday on the Isle of Wight where we walked alpacas & fed wallabies. Holidays are important family time to me. I have a small budget for them but it's worth every penny.

I kitted her out for university  She worked so hard to get there.We went to see Benedict Cumberbatch in Hamlet to celebrate the end of her A levels.

I've improved my crochet skills by doing courses at The Fabric Warehouse.

All in all 2015 has been a good year. Here's to 2016. Happy New Year!

Bathroom Makeover - Part 1

The room in my house referred to as the 'downstairs bathroom' doesn't actually have a bath or shower in it. It's on 2015 hit list. It was originally the kitchen, was briefly a utility room and then started its life as a bathroom.

It never got finished and a few years ago, a leaking toilet meant that I have to have the toilet & bath taken out & and an off-the-shelf toilet & sink put in. It was the first time that I'd employed a plumber. I was never happy with the work but have been living with for about 5 years.

For the last few years it's been Top Gear & Stig themed, complete with a Cool Wall,  which I did for a laugh as I was fed up with the state the room was in. Due to the demise of Top Gear as we know it was time for a change. 

I found an old roll of the wallpaper in the garage so I papered over the 'Some say...'. I've saved money by using vouchers that I can buy through work. I bought some MDF panels from Wickes to cover the wall that really needed to be re-plastered where the bath had been. I bought new skirting board from the local wood yard. They cut it to the right length for me & I only paid for what I needed. 

Some new wallpaper, bought with vouchers, to cover the slogans on the wall.

The wall above the door had been bare brick with a big gap since the door was installed. I boxed it in using bit's of spare MDF & wood. The wallpaper covers over my rather messy DIY.

I'm going to build a cupboard to box in the piping & stop cock.

The waste pipe also needs boxing in.

This will have to wait until 2016 due to recent car repair & cat repair bills.

Watch this space.......

Scrappy Draught Excluder

Another item on the 2015 to do list was tidy up the lobby by the back door, It's been a bit of a dumping ground over the years. The back door was also in need of some TLC.

Once I'd cleared all the junk out, I could get to the door, sand it down & give it a couple of coats of varnish. 

The lobby can be cold & there's quite a draught that comes in around the door. This has been wasting me money as my heat escapes. I put some sticky back draught excluder around the door frame.

The longer term plan is to make a door curtain to help to keep the heat in. 

That's going to take a while to finish so I made scrappy draught excluder for the bottom of the door from leftovers from other projects.

 I covered a length of pipe insulation with some wadding.

 I just tucked the ends of the wadding into the tube.

Final Step was to cover it all in fabric. It took less than 2 hours to make and cost me nothing.

Holding back the draught & helping me be a bit more frugal.

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.