Building The Burrow!

apple_muncher

Hope the weekend is as good and restful and inspirational as you need x (weather looks set fair, which might help!)

in_need_of_direction

Good news on the blood tests.

misscousinitt

It's amazing how that can happen! Having your eye on the money defiantly makes it easier to make decisions about your future.

That book about living on a pound a day sounds interesting, might give that a read myself.

Enjoy pottering this weekend and it's really good news on the blood test front.

Take care.

MCI

apple_muncher

Coooeee! Popping over to say hello and hope all is well with you both xx

apple_muncher

Tis the time of Cmas fayres soon and that always makes me think of you, m'dear x. (Still not done owt with etsy, but I do finally have a name for meself. Only took me, oooooh, about 2 years to do that)

Pearla*Merle

Aww Apple, thanks for thinking of me I hope the fairs went well and you're having a restful Yuletide? I had a couple of stints of catching up on here over the past few months but never managed to get myself posting again - until now! (Full news & gossip to follow )

PS. yay on a shop name! Lets make 2018 the year of Online Boutiques A Go Go! I've half-started one as well, and am determined to get it going again properly. Would very much like some extra pennies rolling in

apple_muncher

Heloooo pearla! Great to hear from you. Looking forward to getting caught up with your news x

Pearla*Merle

Whew - got in for a last post before 2017 exhausted itself, go me. :rotfl:

Family have returned home after a spell here over Christmas, last few days have been full to the brim with cups of tea and films and now I'm feeling rather more rested, it's time for a major catch up!

Not sure where to start, but will try to condense the last several months into some sort of sense. Has mostly been spent under a Cloud of Blah. Pain ricocheting around my body like a pinball machine, but I've managed to work out that it's mostly a resurgence of my ME (doctor now thinks it's likely to have been Fibromyalgia all this time) and I think I've done something dodgy to a ligament around my shoulder/arm. Stupidly getting sucked into mainstream news has also not been in any way helpful.

Cue cutting off from such things (including Facebook - am amazed I've not been on there in over a month!) and returning to much more uplifting reading matter, such as Beatrix Potter books. Am also undergoing major health reboot - that slow creep of dairy and sugar into my diet has been nixed and I feel soooo much better. Migraines, exhaustion and pain have lessened considerably, thank heavens. Need to get back into some hardcore exercise next - a few stints pottering in the garden and the odd walk has helped but I think it's time to crack open the Davina DVDs again.

Am pleased to report that all that decluttering is paying dividends now - the place is kept in a vaguely reasonable shape and it'll be even better when I manage to sort out the remaining bags and boxes of random bits that are languishing in odd places. I didn't even have to completely kill myself getting the house ready for visitors - amazing transformation! Best part is - in honour of the beautifully tidy space, I've managed to resist all catalogues coming through the door and have not been tempted to buy anything at all really. I'd rather have the space! My bank balance is obviously also thankful. :rotfl:

Talking of bank balance, things are still pretty much on track. Stoozed CC will pay off in Feb, and I'll look to get another 0% spending CC around then. S&S ISA has around £2k in there. I need to top up my emergency fund as moving house and some other expenses this year has depleted that a bit but in theory that should be back to a level I'd like (though I'm upping it - think I'll aim for around £5-6k), but the current plan is that it should be pretty healthy by around June time, at which point I'll up my S&S contributions. If I can up my income in some way (with freelance ventures) before then, that obviously that helps but at least things are roughly going to plan. I do think that a supercharged Saving Extravaganza for Q1 of 2018 wouldn't go amiss, so I shall have a ponder about that.

In theory I shouldn't have many major expenses this year, though I need to do an inventory and have a think about it. I'm sure I should have enough clothes & shoes but in my company these things have a habit of disintegrating when least expected. :eek:

My plan for next year is to keep to pretty much the same budget as always, though again, I need to check this over and shall report back then. I've been a tad useless keeping my spending diary this year due to health shenanigans, but shall try harder next year. :A

Not really sure what on earth we're heading into next year though (and this also explains a lot of the exhaustion experienced this year), the feeling of being in total limbo hasn't really lifted. Mr M & I have come to the conclusion that heading abroad is probably the most likely turn of events and safer prospect job-wise for Mr M. A huge swathe of his contacts have already relocated to Europe. I'm always up for an adventure and would quite enjoy going abroad (despite having to leave my job, which is still very lovely) - I always wanted to have some stints living in different places but I'll be rather sad to leave our lovely little cottage and the garden. It would have been nice to feel settled for more than five minutes - we always seem to have to be looking towards The Next Thing. I need to cultivate a better sense of 'contented where I am, wherever I am'. I've definitely gotten better at this but still work to do.

But this change would be quite a big one, and feels rather forced on us (and therefore it is hard not to dissolve into anger and upset over some of the reasons it's come about - again, am trying to remind myself that in actual fact I'd love an adventure and forget all the other fluff around it).

To combat the awful on-edge feeling about it all, am trying to be proactive. Additional decluttering helps ("would I take this with me?") and have also been language-learning (we have a preferred country to relocate to so am getting a headstart ). Can heartily recommend the Memrise app for language learning - videos of locals speaking and they make it into a bit of a point-gathering game, which is fun. It's so good I even shelled out for the paid version. :eek: (At 50% discount, of course). Am now 10% fluent (ooh err), and it's nice to be ticking off the 'be fluent in another language' bucket list item. And as mentioned above, time to get started on some other income streams - having a few things in place would be handy for any transition period.

:www: MFW Wonderment: am completely sold on foraged natural decorations for Christmas! Free ivy, holly and evergreens from the garden - they look so pretty, and when it comes to clear up, into the garden recycling they go! Free and no storage required. Perfect.

Have squirrelled away some of the excess Christmas munchies, which will be perfect for New Year's Even. Am already planning a Storecupboard January. Lets see what I can whip up from there. The freezer is also overflowing, so who knows what lies in it's icy depths!

We've been baking bread again. :A

:coffee: Simple Pleasures: was observing what needing doing in the garden this lunchtime, only to see a long-tailed tit on the bird feeder! Then saw another one, then another one - in the end there were around 6 on the feeder and another 6 popping about on the branches of the apple tree. Mere inches away from me! Amazing :smileyhea

Saw a huge, chunky fox beside the railway lines the other week. :heart2:

A perfect, curved vine of ivy that fitted perfectly around the clock in our kitchen

:heartsmil Burrow Building: have been playing lots of music on our record player recently (finally listened to Rufus Wainwright's Shakespeare's Sonnets - sublime!); cosying up and reading books and pottering about doing some baking.

I've waffled enough! But at least I'm now back in the fray. :money: Now to put together the nuts and bolts of moneysaving plans for 2018 - I'll be back! :cool:

PS. Apple - I'm sure it was you that's mentioned Tim Ferriss in the past? Have now properly read some of his blog (and was given Tools for Titans for Christmas ). Love so many of his ideas, definitely all food for thought. xx

themadvix

Sorry to hear you've not been too well Pearla and about the upheaval caused by OH's job. Glad to hear you're feeling better now though.

The long-tailed tits and natural Christmas decorations sound lovely though. My mum gets the ltts in her garden - I think it's normal for them to form small flocks, but they are such pretty birds aren't they?!

Pearla*Merle

Oh. My. Gosh.

Looks like it's been rather a while since I've been here! (still remembered the code for the embarrassed emoticon though :rotfl:)

Been rather a mad, disappearing year. Health just dropped off a cliff last year (nothing too sinister - just lots of little things - plus recurrent ME-symptoms - adding up into a mound of nonsense and couldn't do much more than go to work and come home again. Though even that has been a bit touch-and-go!).

Autumn whirls around and back-to-schoolness has made me feel all studious and feeling rather like I should get back on track!

Money-wise I've not been totally on it (:o) simply due to being out of sorts - it's hard to go at things full-throttle so a few emergency buying-shoes-at-full-price-etc has ensued but in happy news the direct debit into my S&S ISA has ticked over and savings are pretty much on track OOOH YEAH! :T Yay for automated savings.

Have gone into Super Major Healthy Eating which is a) kicking in, yay and b) so flipping cheap as all I seem to eat is kale and black beans. :rotfl: Have also done some serious developing of self-employed-work/life-plans and feel a lot more like my old self after a few years of being all over the place. Thank you apple muncher for putting me on the case with Tim Ferriss - his books/blogs etc have given me some seriously brilliant insights :smileyhea

What else has been happening? Got to go on [STRIKE]holiday[/STRIKE] a free trip abroad with work (I was a bit ill and delirious but I survived and got to go to the beach so all-in-all a great time away :rotfl:), booked a trip to see family using airmiles :money: and convinced so many friends to sign up to Amex that I can probably book another few trips away :rotfl::money:

Feeling like I need to up my game with my daily MFW-ways again though... I feel a list coming on.

Hope everyone is good out there in MWF-land :hello: it's been far, faaaar too long! Hoping to catch up with you all soon xxx