What you need to spend money on, versus what you want to spend it on!!

[Gemini]

We have quite a long garage which includes a small brick shed built onto the back, so a long roof. It has been in bad condition for a while and OH has patched it up a few times. The recent rain and storm made it worse, but we can't claim for it as it was old and needs replacing. We also want the flat roof which is just over the kitchen sink area of the kitchen replacing too. We want fibreglass, as we have on the porch. We have an estimate for it all and it is £3,000.

We have 2 nice sofas in our living room, a 3 seater and a 2 seater. Nice but old, and suffering from cats scratching. We bought these when we still lived separately and they were in OH's house first.
I would love to replace at least the small one (this is more cat-scratched) I want a sofa with recliners. Our friends have two, and when we go there I can't wait to recline! When we replace the larger one, I will be happy with a non recliner,
We have had nice holiday in Majorca, and we are going to Canada to see DD, and now this garage roof. As OH are in that 'retired but no state pension yet' group, money just won't stretch for ever!

I told OH we should cover the roof with a tarpaulin so I can buy the sofa Only joking but it is tempting!

[Oma]

Roof is more important the sofa can be covered with a throw

I wanted a new sitting room carpet but as I have just had two bedrooms ,stairs and landing re carpeted I will wait a little while
I need the kitchen /dining room and sitting room walls painted

[Nanto2girls]

Don't think there is anything we need for now.
Maybe i shouldn't have said that,something will probably break now.

Gem, as Oma says,the roof is the most important job.

Our eldest is having his front porch renewed in a couple of weeks.
I don't want to sound as if i'm boasting,but we have told him we will pay for it.
He says no you won't, but we have said we might as well see something for our money now,rather than wait until we have gone, and not see anything.
The youngest one is a keen cyclist, so he has been told he will get a new bike.

[Oma]

I agree Nanto I would rather see them do something with the money now than wait till we go

[Daisy]

Gem - it's always the same - competing demands on finances that don't stretch to infinity!

If your garage roof is in danger of collapsing, blowing off in a storm or developing large areas that let water in then you probably need to give that priority I think. Your home is your most valuable asset (unless you've got a couple of 6-seater jet airplanes hidden away!) so it's worth protecting. You've still got 3 cats. If you replace the sofa, you will still have 3 cats who will probably love their new scratching post! You could get a couple of footstools for the time being so you can at least put your feet up.

But I have to say, I love our reclining chairs to bits. They're very shabby now and we need to replace them, but I can't imagine getting non-recliners.

So - how big a tarpaulin do you need?

Nanto - we're the same - we'd rather give things or help our DSs now than wait till we've popped our clogs. I know we're very lucky that we're able to do this, but I think things are tough for that generations now, what with house prices etc.

[Oma]

We have a manual recliner sofa and two electric recliner chairs , I honestly wouldn't mind just a ordinary chair and low foot stool for my chair as I find my knees and legs hurt more if I sit reclined for too long,

[Daisy]

Oma - we've got the same, and I wouldn't mind not having the recliner sofa as it's quite hard to close it when you've finished reclining. The electric reclining chairs are great - I wouldn't want to give them up, just get new ones.

[Nana]

I have a crimson leather electric recliner chair whilst OH has the non-reclining 3 seater leather settee. Trouble is is that he shares it with our dog & he always ends up scrunched up in the corner on one cushion.😂

Gem I have always wanted a big enough kitchen to fit a long French style farmhouse type table in it. No luck yet.

[Gemini]

I amaze myself about this as I never want material things. I want holidays, meals out, experiences.
I do want a reclining sofa though

[Daisy]

Gem, it's not different from wanting a comfortable bed and central heating. We need a bit of comfort for our ageing bones!!

[aggie]

we had two electric recliners , sorry ladies , but I hated them and they are in DD1s storage . One was red leather , the other cloth , like the TV ads , actually I suppose they are not was ... if YKWIM

[Qwerty]

Our house always takes priority for everything don’t know if it’s right or wrong guess it’s personal choice, the maintenance on it is always good, thanks to other OH , I love my home and change it frequently the inside lol not the house, we have in different rooms 6 settees and two recliner chairs manual ones and 2 footstools to match, all leather for ease of cleaning with small children and sticky fingers 🤨 We replace 2 settees every 6/7 years I spend 50 weeks a year in this house with a couple of holidays a year , it’s just the way we are we do eat out every week,cinema, window shopping and garden centres if I want something I get it, but we are all different arnt we. We have had some long haul holidays and short haul seen lots of lovely cities here and abroad but my home and house are my love.
If I gave my children money to buy something big they would laugh as they can buy and sell us it’s us that need help lol, but I always say we have saved the our children a small fortune in childcare this past 7 yrs and that’s our contribution to my grown up children , we are very lucky we were born at the right time for a change and I got my state pension at 60 but not a full pension and our work pensions are pretty good and I do appreciate that others maybe are not as comfortable as us , so not boasting far from it 😕 Just lucky

[WeeGranny]

We have late MiL's reclining chair and DD and GS fight over it when they're here! We only kept it because she'd bought it just before she died but neither of us really use it. I prefer to cuddle up in my armchair.

We have spent a bit of money on the house recently, new kitchen,guttering,painting. However, we want to fill in a ditch which is on our property and I think that might be quite an expensive job. We're having trees cut down in October and that's not cheap either!

We bought two lovely paintings of parts of the walk round North Hill in Minehead when we were down there last month. Just got to get round to hanging them now!