Keeping up appearances.......

Dolphin1

Update for yesterday...

1) A few wine gums eaten (so still on 4 NCDs).
2) Just over 11,000 steps :j.
3) Light off at 10.20pm :j.
4) No spends on other people :j.
5) Nothing else done but I'm happy with my progress so far :j.

Honey_Bear

Dolphin, well done on limiting it to four winegums. How you managed to stop at four is utterly beyond me because I'd eat them until I felt sick.

Hi Happy! :wave:

• Carry on with contacting possible outlets, a county a fortnight should be about right. Still: Must make a listy. Made two follow up phone calls, one totally lovely but a rejection and the other fine.
• 15 minutes a day flying five days a week. More stuff done.
  
• No sugary stuff until Easter Sunday. I had such strong sugar cravings yesterday I even went to the local C0-0p to buy something disasteriously sweet. I spent an age looking at the chilled cabinet desserts and then realised what I was doing was the thin edge of the wedge. Those cravings happened because I ate Twinks the day before, so I marched myself out without buying anything and decided I deserved egg and chips for supper instead. No chips in the freezer. Ooooookaaaaaay, saute potatoes. They were lovely and it's not often eating saute potatoes is virtuous, but yesterday, in the circumstances, it was. Lesson learned. (I might have been able to resist the Twinks if I hadn't had chocolate on Sunday. Bu*mer)
  
• No computer after 9.00 pm (except my ipod so that I can choose my night-time listening) and lights out by 11.30 pm. Tick and tick, three nights running. *Preens self again*
• 5 fruit and veg a day. Yes.
• Spring clean the office - dust the shelves first. One section of shelf sorted.
• Electric toothbrush once a day. Tick.
  
• No ***ing swearing, fine of £1 a word. Had to add this back in for myself, obvs, as it turns out it's quite a profitable little sideline. *holds out hand for cash* I owe it a few more quid, I think but I have nothing in my purse, although I have it elsewhere. I changed up the shrapnel from Non-Sweary February and the bank teller phoned me to say she was up on what she should have by £7.20, and I was the only person who'd changed money up yesterday; had I banked more than she'd credited me with? When I worked it out - she had and I hadn't noticed. I heart my bank for their honesty.

Dolphin1

Honey_Bear wrote: »

Dolphin, well done on limiting it to four winegums. How you managed to stop at four is utterly beyond me because I'd eat them until I felt sick.

Well I said 'a few' but it was more like ten !

Hi Happy! :wave:

• Carry on with contacting possible outlets, a county a fortnight should be about right. Still: Must make a listy. Made two follow up phone calls, one totally lovely but a rejection and the other fine.
• 15 minutes a day flying five days a week. More stuff done.
  
• No sugary stuff until Easter Sunday. I had such strong sugar cravings yesterday I even went to the local C0-0p to buy something disasteriously sweet. I spent an age looking at the chilled cabinet desserts and then realised what I was doing was the thin edge of the wedge. Those cravings happened because I ate Twinks the day before, so I marched myself out without buying anything and decided I deserved egg and chips for supper instead. No chips in the freezer. Ooooookaaaaaay, saute potatoes. They were lovely and it's not often eating saute potatoes is virtuous, but yesterday, in the circumstances, it was. Lesson learned. (I might have been able to resist the Twinks if I hadn't had chocolate on Sunday. Bu*mer)
  
  Very impressed that you managed to walk out of the shop without buying anything naughty :T. One of my favourite meals is egg and chips, yum!
  
  
• No computer after 9.00 pm (except my ipod so that I can choose my night-time listening) and lights out by 11.30 pm. Tick and tick, three nights running. *Preens self again*
• 5 fruit and veg a day. Yes.
• Spring clean the office - dust the shelves first. One section of shelf sorted.
• Electric toothbrush once a day. Tick.
  
• No ***ing swearing, fine of £1 a word. Had to add this back in for myself, obvs, as it turns out it's quite a profitable little sideline. *holds out hand for cash* I owe it a few more quid, I think but I have nothing in my purse, although I have it elsewhere. I changed up the shrapnel from Non-Sweary February and the bank teller phoned me to say she was up on what she should have by £7.20, and I was the only person who'd changed money up yesterday; had I banked more than she'd credited me with? When I worked it out - she had and I hadn't noticed. I heart my bank for their honesty.

Wow to the bank contacting you about the £7.20, very honest of them.

joeyjimbles

Love egg and chips - one of my absolute favourite meals too.
And wine gums, sports gums etc are my downfall when it comes to sweets - I couldn't have just ten. An open bag is an empty bag if I'm around. I do prefer the old fashioned Lion or Squirrel ones though, the hard ones, not the squidgy Maynards or supermarket brands.
I am locked in battle with the second attic. I have boxes of stuff that need to be kept - treasured toys, books, camping equipment - and now I no longer have the room of doom, I am mystified as to where there new home should be. Add to that the decorations, cake stands etc that I need to put away but be able to readily access and I am stumped. Everything is nicely boxed up - though not matching. Any ideas clever people?
How good about the bank? That's really heartening. I had a letter from HMRC saying that I had overpaid my National Insurance. I knew I'd done it as I hit the wrong thing on my online banking and paid them £20 rather than the next thing down which was my Visa. I couldn't find a way to reverse it so assumed it would just go forward to my next bill. Anyway that was nearly a year ago and now they are repaying me £23.50 which seems very generous for something that was my fault.

Honey_Bear

Hi Happy! :wave:

We all forget that honesty still exists out there because we're so used to stories about corporate greed. I bank with the C0-0p just in case anyone needs to know. I've found them to be absolutely the best and over the years I've been with all the former 'Big Four.'

• Carry on with contacting possible outlets, a county a fortnight should be about right. Still: Must make a listy. Another follow up to be made today to a distributor, so fingers crossed.
  
• 15 minutes a day flying five days a week. Hot spot and gibble sorting. And I swept the kitchen floor which needed it. It rather needs more but hey ho.
  
• No sugary stuff until Easter Sunday. Glad to know my culinary delights are as popular in other quarters.
  
• No computer after 9.00 pm (except my ipod so that I can choose my night-time listening) and lights out by 11.30 pm. Tick and tick, three nights running. *gets tired of preening self*
• 5 fruit and veg a day. Yes.
• Spring clean the office - dust the shelves first. Nuffink.
• Electric toothbrush once a day. Tick.
  
• No ***ing swearing, fine of £1 a word. Had to add this back in for myself, obvs, as it turns out it's quite a profitable little sideline. *holds out hand for cash* Off to the Credit Union with my sweary savings today, with nothing to add so things are improving. Old habits do die very hard, though.

Honey_Bear

joeyjimbles wrote: »

I am locked in battle with the second attic. I have boxes of stuff that need to be kept - treasured toys, books, camping equipment - and now I no longer have the room of doom, I am mystified as to where there new home should be. Add to that the decorations, cake stands etc that I need to put away but be able to readily access and I am stumped. Everything is nicely boxed up - though not matching. Any ideas clever people?

I had to resort to matching stacking boxes, and I've labelled some of them even though I can sort of see through them. The first batch I bought were really big, about 600ml x 400 ml x 25ml but they're a pain to shift about. The last lot are 420 x 350 x 250 and I can see from the price tag still stuck on it they should have cost £3.15 each, although I think I managed to get them on a sale day at 30% from Trago Mills - a sort of pile it high, sell it cheap, end of line south west outlets.

I know the secret is to get rid of the stuff, but everything in the attic means something, or has an occasional use, so I can't or won't. Every year I do some sorting up there and every year I can get rid of quite a bit but it is never-ending and I accept that. I can at least find stuff - I went up there yesterday to find some vaccuum flasks that had been up there for four years and did so quite quickly. The great thing about plastic stackers is that they can be used over and over again.

I've currently got three in my office labelled Chichester, France and Portugal, all of which are overnights or holidays and have got listies and stuff I'll need to take on each trip, tickets, passport, euros, EHIC etc etc. That way when I come back from the first trip the stuff I'll need for the second one goes straight into the French box etc. If that makes sense.

Dolphin1

Update for yesterday...

1) None eaten :j (taking me to 5 NCDs).
2) Just over 12,000 steps :j.
3) Light off at 10.30pm :j (but it took me ages to get to sleep :mad:).
4) No spends on other people :j.
5) Nothing else done but I'm happy with my progress so far :j.

Dolphin1

joeyjimbles wrote: »

I am locked in battle with the second attic. I have boxes of stuff that need to be kept - treasured toys, books, camping equipment - and now I no longer have the room of doom, I am mystified as to where there new home should be. Add to that the decorations, cake stands etc that I need to put away but be able to readily access and I am stumped. Everything is nicely boxed up - though not matching. Any ideas clever people?

We do not have easy access to the attic in our current house and even though we have a garage, there are some things that I won't store in there in case they get damp. Therefore, I had to resort to buying under bed boxes with wheels on to slide in and out (obviously no good if you have divans).

I don't particularly like putting stuff under beds but I can just about bear it if it's done in an organised way. The things I keep under there are things like curtains, winter clothes in summer, summer clothes in winter, some bedding, some towels and a few bits and pieces that we rarely use but need occasionally.

Would the boxes that you have now go under the beds?

joeyjimbles

Good suggestions, thank you both. The boxes I have now are large and blue, rigid plastic - too tall to go under beds. I think I have decided they will have to stay where they are for now, a space just outside the attic bathroom - think it might have been a kitchen when that space was rented out (probably illegally and not by us) to students. Anyway, stacked up and with a neat set of shelves in front as a sort of screen they will probably be passable.
I have culled the rubbish and this is just stuff that either gets used occasionally or cannot be discarded for varying reasons. The loft is accessible but the hole to access it is too small to put anything useful up there without massive faff.

Hope you're all well - Helloooo Happy.

basketcase

Hi All - especially Happy - whose thread this is, after all! Is everything OK with Clan Happy?

It seems like ages since I actually logged anything. You've all been doing sooooooo well. I haven't, really...

So. It seems easier to give a summary!

• Organise my surplus money into 'pots'. (Set up YNAB) Looked at YNAB. I think the idea's excellent, although the US mindset has to be tweaked as you go. Don't think the new 'rolling payments' aot a once-off is very MSE. Also I read a lot of reviews and even a lot of fans don't seem to like the new one. Am working on a spreadsheet. We'll see how that goes!

• Work on the Week's FLYzone. Erm... Variable. Some done, some not. I have been sticking to my daily routine better, though, and have started dividing up the Zones to add onto that. Which is why I've done more that I normally would. So I'm actually fairly pleased with progress.
  
• Eat a minimum of 3 F&V per day.This is harder than it looks! It does highlight the fact that my diet needs overhauling, though. Managed most days, but not Wednesday or yesterday.
• Floss my teeth daily. Again, managed most days, but not Wednesday or yesterday. Not sure why...
  
• Bed by 2230h Sunday to Thursday. Every night but Tuesday, when I give someone a lift at 2230 - so it's never going to happen when I think about it. 2330, yes...:o
• Do at least 4 rows of knitting per day. Errrr... Moving swiftly on! Did some, though.

Better dash. Going to get my hair done. :eek::rotfl: