Balancing not just the budget

RosaBernicia

moneyonmymindsam wrote: »

I had a venus fly trap on an office desk once :cool: lol until I gave it to an office junior who then spend all day looking for "things" to feed into it

I had one as a kid but my mum fed it a fly she thought was dead and was guilt stricken when it wriggled for hours while being slowly dissolved ... after that we both 'forgot' to look after it.

RosaBernicia

Company at Easter turns out to only want to stay over one night after all, which is great for getting other stuff sorted but a bit hmphh after the amount of tidying it has taken to get the spare room even vaguely presentable. Still, it does mean the decluttering process is being slowly cornered. I have books to reshuffle, one cupboard and a few boxes of bits to sort, and a rail plus box full of clothes to be rehomed. Which is pretty good progress really. Oh, and I suppose there is a bunch of stuff in the garage but that is mostly either gardening stuff that should be there or awaiting rehoming. I need to look through a couple of bin bags of textiles as I suddenly realised that the old sheets can be rescued and become dust sheets for painting. I think I've washed pretty much every other bit of bedding in the house over the last few days as most of it was piled on the spare bed - thank goodness for washing machine delay timer.

Home office has also acquired a cardboard box with cushion, in an attempt to keep small nosy furry off my keyboard. Amazingly it seems to work at least some of the time.

kerri_gt

Hey Rosa, just popping in to say hello. Your office sounds lovely. We've just had the home office decorated and it makes such a difference, I also splashed out on some Ikea draws to replace the archive box that had been living under the desk for nearly 3yrs and it I shall so nice to feel like the room is permanent and taking shape as a proper space.

We must be channeling each other as we replaced our bed just before Xmas and sized up, so consequently I had a lot of sheets left (after I sorted the bedding and gave some away) so now we also have plenty of decorating sheets.

I also have a nice little pile of stuff in the garage waiting to go to the tip.

You sound like your house has really become a home to love x

kerri_gt

Oh, forgot to say, peace lillies make good low maintenance plants - not sure if cats should be kept away from them if they flower but mog here has never so much as sniffed at ours. I don't really 'do' houseplants and inherited these as on plant from the office but split it into three and somehow still have two. They don't need direct sunlight and only need watering when they start to dropp a bit. Basically, they seem to thrive on being left alone....my kinda plant :rotfl:

RosaBernicia

Thanks Kerri - my archiving is still awaiting being moved from the pile on top of the filing cabinet into the cabinet but it will get there.

Turns out it appears I am a bedding hoarder :rotfl: ... this has now been cut down to three sets for my bed, two for the spare bed, and two for the extra duvet that for some reason I am keeping in case anyone stay over on the sofa (though I don't quite understand this myself... the flatmate who used to turn up with a dozen mates crashing over is long gone!). The rest is now folded and bagged up as dust sheets ready to be put in the loft. I am also oddly annoyed that I seem to be short a set of pillows when I'm sure I had extra, but I think I binned some when I moved.

Good point re cats and plants... though so far they have ignored vases of flowers.


Rosa xx

RosaBernicia

Sunday shuffles...

None to do really, all sorted on payday. Budget remains technically overspent as the office furniture went on the credit card awaiting April payday, but it's all covered so that's fine - very glad I didn't try and face the Swedish store around a bank hol.

This month should also see the back of the huge electric bill as that's finally sorted and I am in credit with the current supplier. Did remember to give them readings so will be able to keep better track of it, and I finally got round to finding the storage heater instruction manual online - not that it really told me anything as I only wanted to understand the controls, not how to fit the thing.

Hoping to also get my tax squared this month if HMRC send me the actual amount they'd like paid.

Small :money: things... P1zza Xpre55 voucher and got the app for free pizza next time; friend who came to stay kindly brought me stuff from town which saves a trip; another ShopNScan voucher due after today's points which will pay for some 4ma70n bits for the office.


Home blessing...

• Messaged friend for a recommendation for some garden work
• Cleared the guttering on the garage after realising it was full of grass and not draining... turned out easily enough done with a stepladder, must remind myself to do again in autumn. Should also get the house guttering checked next time a leaflet comes through the door.
• Emailed the council about a small thing that I suspect technically needs planning approval - hoping it won't be an issue as already done by several houses along the street, but want to be sure I go about it right.
• Washed just about every bit of bedding in the house - and that was a lot - all now sorted into keep, dust sheets, bin.
• Chopped down a shrub in the front garden that's needed doing for ages. Need to get it chopped up and stuffed into bin later in the week but can't face that today as have a cold coming on . Ideally it needs to come out altogether but that can wait until I know about the planning issue as that affects other decisions.
• Pleased the spare room is now sorted, it feels like properly part of the house again. The cats have decided it's very boring after all, now that there aren't piles of boxes in there, so have given up dashing in every time I go near it :rotfl:

All this means I've been ducking the assignment I'm supposed to be writing so I suppose I'd better do something about that ...


Rosa xx

RosaBernicia

Also... have emailed to request collection of old furniture. I've asked a different charity than the shop I regularly go in so I won't have to see it there. I know I could sell it, but I get really nervous about 3bay and FB horror stories about nasty people arriving at collection, so have decided the stress is not worth the amount I'd get for it... better to let it go with a blessing and make space in my life for new things

doingitanyway

I have sold on gumtree a few times and both were positive experiences. However I am also thinking of letting go of some things I could sell. It is another way of giving and as we are both debt free I think it is good to give where possible.

You did well on sorting out jobs for the house

RosaBernicia

• the NHS
• the loveliness of all our local NHS staff
• having a budget that allowed for unexpected taxi fares
• paid sick leave
• home delivery that turns out to be free when spending as much as I end up doing in store anyway.

I won't put details on a public forum, but ended up in hospital at the weekend. An ongoing issue that's never required that before. Very glad to be home quickly and improving.

Have been lectured by friends about taking appropriate time off work and actually will this time. Emailed to request further extension to assignment so that it really is sick leave and not just different work time.

I have got naff all done on my lists, not surprisingly, but the furniture collection charity called so think we have a doable date for that.

It did really make me think that a couple of years ago I would have been worried about coming up with the cost of the taxi. This time I didn't have to because there was money in a pot and a buffer fund behind that. Thank you again :money: and DFW buddies :A:)


Rosa xx

beanielou

You take care of you xx