Cherry takes the reins

hex2 wrote: »

Hi cherryfudge. I'm with you on the magazines, only i buy them and don't read them for months which is daft. Might be worth googling for an offer though. The 5 for £5 offers are rarely in the magazine itself.

Like your maths overpayment logic too

Oh, I have some unread ones that are months old, myself!

I have just dropped the order for the mag into the post (yes, at a quarter to midnight, so I could have an NSD tomorrow! ) so I will have to save your tip about the 5 for £5 for next time... but it's good to know, thanks. Magazines make good gifts for certain people (the ones whose hobbies don't need much in the way of accessories and who have birthdays near enough to combine with Christmas), so I will be trying to remember to google in time for that!

No spending and no run today. Busy day though: church, family meal and work till an hour ago.

Nothing particular to report so here's my April summary:

30 days in April...
NSDs 11/10, Exercise 10/15

Housekeeping this week: 27.51/40.00

I've been getting het up about the mortgage we've inherited on Mum's house. It's set up so the interest keeps on growing but we have the choice of whether or not to make repayments. I don't even know what the interest rate is, but the sum owed is over £91K. The idea is that that is paid off when the house is sold but of course the longer that takes, the less we get at the end and the mortgage people will be laughing.

In better news, I now have 4 watchers on my 3bay stuff.

Not enough sleep last night: bought a 99p book to read myself to sleep because tired as I was, I went to bed a bit early (for me), dozed then woke and ended up going down to put the kettle on and make toast. In the end I turned the light off at 20 to 3 then got woken by someone's alarm about five hours later.

Today I've been for a run. After yesterday's not feeling up to it, this was really good so I'm feeling the benefit. Then I had some training at work for a couple of hours, followed by grocery and my piano lesson, and can now feel myself getting sleepy with 'only' some prep to do for a session I'm taking this evening, and tea to make.

If I stop now I'm not sure what I'll get down so here goes with spends then I'll get on with tea and the evening's prep.

Spends:
Book 99p (I read it all, it was only a little one)
piano lesson 10.00
Grocery shopping 29.25

That was an indulgent shop: rather a lot of fruits as DD and I like them with out overnight oats, a treat rice pudding (the brown one with sultanas in - so glad that's back on the shelves), some snacks for DS2 who is on the ward this week and managed a full day with nothing to eat or drink last week and probably won't have time to get his own protein bars this week, some black beans to try out Colombian Black Bean Casserole as mentioned by TOPM, extra hot choc while it's on offer, etc. etc.

I need to get that paid off the credit card before the due date (tomorrow).

Oh, and I have a third bidder on my listings.

Today just failed to be an NSD as I paid the windowcleaner (£10 for two sessions as I missed him last time).

I put a bid on 3bay but the item doesn't finish for ages so it will count as a spend if and when I win it.

After this morning's number crunching on our mortgage think I need to increase our basic payment instead of the fun stuff which is adding random overpayments. However, I feel incapable of making a good decision about an amount as my head aches...

It's been an odd sort of day: totally gorgeous outside and I've hardly seen it. The morning, when I meant to go for a run, was taken up with printing out bank & mortgage statements and making little notes using a blunt pencil with a wobbly giraffe on top. In the afternoon I had a work meeting in an overheated room, but for a wonder we had more staff than we needed so I took the remainder of last year's leave and some time back for meetings I've been to, and got four and half hours off.

I knew I should do something stupendous and worthwhile with that time but all I've managed is a bit of filing of Mum's papers. Either that or the coffee I had with it brought on a cracking headache which has come and gone since. I have somewhat reduced the horrendous piles of paper - some are even in the recycling - played on an on-line jigsaw and done some cooking, so not a wasted day.

Tomorrow I'm on an early at work but might be able to take more time back. That would be lovely! I might get a run AND some pet food (poor piggies are down to the last couple of helpings but they have plenty of hay and a couple of lawns to mow, so I'm not too worried).

Oh, and I've found the email I sent to cancel a magazine of Mum's months ago. I don't know what their general enquiries people do but I never heard back and the magazines kept coming, which I assumed was because she paid for a year at a time. Well, she did, but unless you actively cancel they assume you want more and, as I found out when I finally opened one, they send bills for the unwanted periodicals too. I've now emailed to the address hidden inside the magazine wrapper and attached the original email, asking why they haven't done anything about it and how difficult should it be to cancel a magazine? I found exactly the same with various other magazine subscriptions but at least I had eventually found some viable contact. There ought to be a law to compel these companies to make it as easy to unsubscribe as it is to subscribe. The only reason they don't do so can only be that people will then continue to pay for an unwanted product out of inertia or because they can't find how to get rid. :mad:

Rant over.

MS stuff:
Cooked two tins of condensed milk to make caramel - triple MS as they were a cheaper brand, I did two at once which saves fuel, and the ready-made tinned caramel is about 60p a tin more expensive. Of course, milk from a 6 pt carton works out considerably cheaper but I want caramel.
Washing is drying so well on the line now that I don't need to iron as much - small saving in leccy which in no way offsets the fuel used in three hours of heating condensed milk (sigh).
I have the beans ready to try the black bean stew.
I bid for the jeans on 3bay which will be a big saving if I win them, and I decided I really could do with another 'nice' pair since my best ones died recently.
I'm in a flapjack-making mood and I haven't made any... does that count as money saving?
I also finished one of the sample books I downloaded the other day and the jury's out on whether to buy the whole thing. (ETA: bought it. 99p).

Bedtime.