Apple muncher's number crunching

Pearla*Merle

Ooh yay, life planning :T Looking forward to hearing your thoughts

HP tourism sounds fab! Glad to hear you've had a fab time - despite more toe woes! Hope it heals up quick!

PS what are these money advice tools you've been using? All sounds very intriguing...

apple_muncher

We got to see my friend - yay! For all of 2 hours - boo. But at least we saw her an both our dds had a chance to play.

Very glad of our reserved seats home, esp as the train had two delays so we were 35 mins late into KX.

Also very glad to be in my own bed. I have had a lovely night's sleep.

Today:
-trampolining party for dd
-workout
-check work emails - I go back on fri and don't want to be overwhelmed next weekend with tasks to complete.
-washing - de-cattify all clothes worn at big sis's place
-get on with my reading plan so I can start a new one in Sept

earthgirl

Ooh can't wait for your sept plan apple. Glad you had a good trip away. Fingers crossed for the toe

apple_muncher

Gosh, I hope that I haven't bigged up September too much...!

apple_muncher

We all went up to the woods today, to find the pond that dd had been to on a sch visit. Whilst meandering along I had a useful chat with dh about feeling inadequate in my job, not good enough, mediocre. He was v kind and told me that he thought i was a good teacher, bless him. It means a lot to have his support, and also to know that he now knows how I'm feeling without me going in to a slump before I say anything.

He fully expects to still be working in 10 years' time, probably on his self-employed stuff. And in 10 years, I shall probably be nearing the end of my teaching as I can draw my teaching pension at 60, lucky me.

The last few days have been a mixture of feeling a little overwhelmed by 'the future', and plotting and planning and getting enthused and excited. It's like making NY resolutions, but making them in warm sunshiney days where anything seems possible.

So, in September, I plan to:
-cycle to work 2 or 3 times a week, as it will still be light enough
-do a workout on the days I haven't cycled
-start a new reading programme
-do headspace more regularly, 4x per week
-continue seeing my counsellor
-give up playing a certain game on my tablet and use the time for reading books or planning the project I want to do
-make 30 items for fairs (and start to check dates )
-instead of a 'to do' list, schedule the items into a time slot

Some other numbers:
13 days a work
17 days not at work
3 dance classes
3 taekwondo classes
4? Counsellor visits
1 cousins bash
1 wedding
1 open morning
1 brownie weekend
1 visit to mum
1 governor meeting
1 y10 info evening
1 paediatric dietician visit

Once back at work, it may work, it may not. But I'll give it a jolly good attempt.

apple_muncher

Today has been a good day.

Got dd some school shoes from m+s. I appreciate that they have all the shoes out for you to try on and there's a handy (footy?!) foot measurer left out for you to use. Unlike a certain other popular shoes shop where only they can measure your child's feet (and, suprise of surprises, your child ALWAYS needs a bigger size than they currently wear) and only 1 shoe in 1 size is ever displayed.

We also had an enjoyable mooch around the d1sney store and sm1ggle. No money was parted with. But I can see that if you frequently - or even regularly - go round the shops, your measure of what is a 'fair/good price' gets awfully squiffed very quickly.

Dh finally found - and purchased - a waterproof. Hurrah!

Dd and I had a lovely time in the sandpit/playground in that town, and the weather was gorgeous, and it was surprisingly unbusy. We bought a pack of ice lollies from icyland for £1 instead of spending a silly amount at the van, which left us with a spare one to give away.

Then, once home, I got myself up and dug up a bush that I dislike. And dug over a fair bit of soil, getting out some weeds and more plants. And replanted 4 lavender bushes. Now, my hands are extremely feeble, especially my fingers, so I shall have to give them some TLC for a few days.

As I was mucky and sweaty from the gardening, I did a workout. Gotta earn my shower!

Food purchases spreadsheet has been updated and thus far, is well down on last month. Still have 3 days left though...

apple_muncher

Update week 11/12. Yikes.

Health: doing well. No weightloss though. Sigh. Despite some feelings if inadequacy, it has been a good week. Workouts, logging (most of) what I eat.

Wealth: Not much spent - yay! Dh set up a FD saver account a while back, and it already has £2100 in it. :T

Life well lived: did more HP stuff - at KX and Durham. Visited big sis and BIL. Saw old friend and her kiddies and her mum. Ponderations and plans for next month (and some for a bit longer term) mulled over. Good chat with dh. Am looking forward to seeing my counsellor this week, after a 4 week gap.

apple_muncher

I spent a fair bit of time working through a 'how to write your life goals' article this morning, as dd obligingly slept for 11+ hours and dh went to do some admin work. And I actually rather enjoyed the process. I dug out an A4 sized notebook, to have lots of space for scribbling, but, true to form, I kept to the lines!

This evening I completed a personal reading challenge that I had set myself to do this year - read through the whole Bible. 4 months and 2 days early. Go me! The next reading challenge is to read it again but using notes that take me through it chronologically. So, a bit more bitty and jumping around. But I'll have an extra 4 months to do it, won't I.

Dd and I meandered up to the library where I got out some books on writing a business plan - part of my project. I also did some sewing once home, but had to take it really gently due to my pesky hands being feeble and achey. We found a lovely tartan skirt for £1, which I bought to use for bunnies, but which dd has comandeered as it fits her.

The weather is due to change now, with tomorrow being 10 degrees cooler than today. That means that the daytime temp will be less than tonight's night time temp. Weird.

Have signed up for the NST september scrimping challenge. I do love these monthly challenges. After July's mahoosive food spends, August does seem to be down on that figure by a fair amount so far. And once we are in September and back in a routine, it should go down further...

Enfeebled hands made me do a legs workout today - a Zuzka Light one. It was a 15 min AMRAP but I continued to 15m58 in order to finish my 2nd round. It was tough and I looked like a beetroot afterwards. Not a good look!

apple_muncher

Final bit of food shopping done and items all inputted into the spreadsheet. The total spend is 17% down on last month :j. And we have not really made any effort to change our habits ... yet, it has simply been an exercise in tracking.

Let's see what September brings. Dd will be back at school (packed lunch) all week; I'll take packed lunch for 3 days; dh has some full time work for at least 2 weeks (plus the evening bit) so packed lunches for him too. I hope to be the one to do the shopping and it may drop a little more...

I have even suggested to dh that we make a list of what we might eat each evening, to simplify things. And have said that he should come home after his work and not try to do other things - like SHOPPING - as well. He was remarkably compliant .

apple_muncher

The month has started. Back to work. My ambitious exercise plans are already unravelling, as I was unable to cycle in - I overdid the digging, transplanting and weeding last Monday,and 4 days hasn't been enough for my poor hands to stop aching. And you use your hands rather a lot when cycling, so I had to forego that sweaty pleasure.

Work was training, rather a waste of all our time. Yawn. The day was fully allocated so no time to squeeze in any of the pre-term jobs that need doing before the kiddies arrive. Sigh. Ah well.

I did do Headspace on the bus, and I have done my reading and a workout. And I haven't played 'that' game on my tablet thus far :rotfl: this month.