EH - Keeping on track. (AKA focus Woman! FOCUS!)

EssexHebridean

Oh how exciting...I have just pushed the button to tell HMRC that I am no longer self-employed...now let's see what a hash they can make of dealing with THAT information! :rotfl:

EssexHebridean

Well checking this morning I've had an email from HMRC confirming that they've received my information so fingers crossed!

Organisation of a sort continued last night - including a 15 minute tidy in the bedroom and clearance of some clutter on the chest of drawers in there, notably. However disturbing that level of dust late in the evening is probably not the best idea as I woke this morning with an annoying tickly cough. I think I'm going to suggest to MrEH that this evening's mission - to be done directly after dinner - is to clear the bookcase in there - removing any books that we no longer want to keep to the charity shop bag and removing all the dust to the inside of the hoover. will probably take more than the 15 minutes, to be honest, but will be well worth doing. A separate task for that bookcase is to sort out my jewellery box which sits on top of it and send anything from there that's no longer wanted to the charity shop, too.

Rugby kit went through the wash last night - apparently there was "still some needing doing from before Christmas" :eek: which I'm trying not to dwell on too much... :rotfl: I'll put the mixed coloured load into the machine tonight but it might not be able to go through until tomorrow depending how dry everything else feels.

My plan for a cheap shopping week might get scrapped as apparently the water filter cartridges we use are on special offer so I will stock up on those a bit I think. Will still see if I can keep the total to below £30 though. Must also remember that I owe the shopping budget £13 - last week I found that Tesco had the memory cards my new camera uses on special offer for £6.50 each for really good ones so I grabbed a couple - as that was about half the price they'd normally be I was pretty chuffed with that!

The money has transferred across from the ISA to the bank now for the mortgage OP so I've just transferred that across to the joint account ready for the cheque to clear.

Spendiness coming up - in the immediate future not a vast amount. I'm planning a trip to Lincoln on Friday to point the camera at little red jets - Claire and I may well go to the pub at lunchtime if timings allow. I will also probably need to fill the car up at some stage but as I'll probably use my own car for work tomorrow I might well do it then. I have NOTHING planned for the weekend - apart from the usual routine shopping and stuff which is ace - MrEH will have rugby training or a match on Saturday - I need to check with him which it is. Think we'll try to get the shopping out of the way early though, whichever, then the rest of the day is my own! :T

Need a shopping list
Need some more meals planned
Need to think what else we can use up...

EssexHebridean

Last night's decluttering/clearing session on the bedroom bookcase netted a stack of books to give to Mum, and a bag full for the charity shop. The bookcase was totally cleared, moved out and hoovered behind...first time that's happened in a few years I'm afraid to say. Oddly enough we don't seem to have gained much space on there...but then some books did come through from the front room so we probably HAVE gained space on the bookcase in there, I guess.

Using up is going reasonably...

Last night's dinner saw off the last of a pot of cream and the last of a tub of soft cheese. Also the rest of the salad leaves that went with the pizza last night.
Tonight will see the remains of a bottle of pipe-unblocker/clearer go down the kitchen sink.
Tonight's mashed potato will see off the end of a pot of garlic salt - got a new one to start.

Meals for the weekend:
Tomorrow night is going to be hot-dogs and potato wedges - I'll fry the other half of the onion I used last night to go with them.
Salmon pate brought back from the Hebrides with crackers
Crumpets and cheese
Possibly turkey curry - I've got turkey in the freezer from christmas. If so I'll substitute flatbreads or pittas from the freezer for naans.
Soup & pitta bread?

Tonight I need to:
Stop on the way home to put fuel in the car.
Get sausages out of the freezer to defrost
Prepare potato wedges ready to bake tomorrow - I'll season them with fajita seasoning that needs used up.
15 minute tidy/dust in the bedroom. (My chest of drawers next to the bed)
Sort out my jewellery box.
Check the fridge for other stuff that needs using and plan it in.
Write next week's meal plan & shopping list.
Set washing machine to run over night
Get my camera gear checked over and sorted for tomorrow :T

Tragically I'm quite excited about this using things up lark - I do love coming to the end of a bottle of something in the bathroom too - although that might be more about the excitement of what I can pull out of my stash to use next!

starnac

Morning EH. Sounds like your "use up" month is going well already. Well done :T

Exciting to hear you are seeing the red jets on Friday. You must be so excited

EssexHebridean

starnac wrote: »

Morning EH. Sounds like your "use up" month is going well already. Well done :T

Exciting to hear you are seeing the red jets on Friday. You must be so excited

Really am! Always love a trip up - and this time it's the proper gang of the three of us - Me Claire & Tom - who've had so many laughs and amazing experiences over the past couple of years! :T


Tonight I need to:
[STRIKE]Stop on the way home to put fuel in the car. [/STRIKE] 99.7p a litre for diesel! woo hoo!
[STRIKE]Get sausages out of the freezer to defrost[/STRIKE]Yes, and the hot dog rolls too - got some nice reduced brioche ones the other week
[STRIKE]Prepare potato wedges ready to bake tomorrow - I'll season them with fajita seasoning that needs used up. [/STRIKE] Done!
15 minute tidy/dust in the bedroom. (My chest of drawers next to the bed)
Sort out my jewellery box. - No, this can wait.
Check the fridge for other stuff that needs using and plan it in.
Write next week's meal plan & shopping list.
Set washing machine to run over night
Get my camera gear checked over and sorted for tomorrow :T

Realised that the sausages are pork with mushroom and garlic so I'll finely slice the remaining mushrooms and fry up to have with them too.

Just time to do the 15 minute tidy up before MrEH gets home I'd say.

EssexHebridean

Well well - VERY exciting time on Friday as we got our "VIP" visit to the squadron at Scampton! I've obviously been on base a number of times now but this is the first time we've ever been allowed to venture to the hallowed turf known only as "Upstairs!" :rotfl: Being told that "All the pilots know you're coming" was a bit bizarre - I said to Claire "thus giving them time to make a strategic escape?!" but no, everyone came to say hello and it was lovely to have a chance for a proper chat with those we know the best. SO weird just hanging out in the crewroom that we've seen pictures of so often drinking tea and chatting with them! We got the full tour of the upstairs bit - seeing all the random bits like Flight Operations was interesting too, and got to sit in on a pilots de-brief after flying too which was incredible. Most surreal moment of the day was when, sitting in the briefing room beforehand, very conscious of having to do our best "we're not here!" impression and stay absolutely silent, Red 1 bowled in to start the debrief and promptly started chatting to us instead - none of us could answer for a second as we were so taken aback! :rotfl::p A very very special day indeed - one none of the three of us are likely to forget in a hurry! Once we'd done with the tour etc PR handed us over to our pals in the photo section and we just hung out with them for the rest of the afternoon which was cool - always fun being able to photograph flying from out by the tower with those guys too!

IN order to get the above back onto a slightly more MSE related track - I'm pleased to say that all that meant that not a penny left my purse all day on Friday, and in fact from a personal spending point of view this applies to the entire weekend! :T Assuming the week continues in the same vein then I'll roll over this week's money to next and transfer another £30 from the bank to my airshow account on Friday! I've got nearly £100 to pay out of there for Air Tattoo tickets at some stage this month - must remember to do that while I can still grab the early booking discount.

My Tax & NI is paid now too - I know I had until the end of the month to deal with that but in the end I just thought it was better to get that done. Need to work out where I stand on what tax I still have to pay - the whole system of payments on account totally baffle me!

So - this week:
Meals:
Tonight: Omelettes, probably cheese & bacon, with salad.
Tomorrow: Jackets, sausage & beans using remaining sausages from Friday which have been frozen. I've got cabbage to finish up as the veg with this.
Wednesday: Warm bacon & mixed bean salad.
Thursday: Sardines & butterbeans in tomato sauce with pasta (this may end up being marinaded anchovies instead as I have some in the freezer that need using!)
Friday: undecided - we may go for a takewaway option

Did a quick freezer audit on Friday evening to assess the situation with that - we're working through it pretty well. I reckon by the end of next week I'll be able to sort through it properly and really plan in using up the last odds and ends. :T

To do:
MrEH's car needs fuel.
Check prices of fuel closer to work, may be better to wait to do it at home.
15 minutes: General wander around tidying and dusting.
Last night's load of towels etc from washing machine > airer if MrEH didn't do it this morning
Washing to machine - enough to go on overnight or not?
Continue processing Friday's photos!

starnac

Oh my word! How exciting!! I bet your face aches from all the smiling now doesn't it? Looking forward to seeing the pictures now

EssexHebridean

Ha ha Starnac yeah I essentially looked like this: all weekend! :rotfl: Pics are filtering through - mostly on instagram but I've put a few on twitter too so far.

Yesterday's list:
[STRIKE]MrEH's car needs fuel.
Check prices of fuel closer to work, may be better to wait to do it at home. [/STRIKE]Yes - far cheaper at home than in London at the moment so he filled her up last night
[STRIKE]15 minutes: General wander around tidying and dusting. [/STRIKE] Yes - took a damp cloth to the surfaces in the front room and the bookcase in the hallway.
Last night's load of towels etc from washing machine > airer if MrEH didn't do it this morning :o:o I opened the door. I even wiped the inside of the door. I didn;t get any further than that though.
[STRIKE]Washing to machine - enough to go on overnight or not? [/STRIKE]Nope - but may well be tonight
[STRIKE]Continue processing Friday's photos![/STRIKE] Work in progress!

In the spirit of Flylady-ish ness I'm going to add a "15 minutes for me" category into my routine from today. I also need to remember to sort the following days clothes out when I get home in the evening. I forgot last night which irritated me this morning.
So tonight:
Change & sort clothes
Cook dinner.
15 minutes - Bedroom
15 minutes: Starting to re-read the Beyond Chocolate book
1 load to washing machine
Dishwasher? Does it need emptying? Or setting to run overnight?

Financial stuff:
Still don't 100% know how much I'll be getting paid at the end of this month but probably can't find out for certain until it lands now, either.
Could do with confirming what date they've settled on, though.
Life Insurance- dig out paperwork on current policy

With the way our mortgage has fallen since we took out the policy I'm pretty certain we're overpaying. Before we explore the route of a new policy for what might not be very long, I want to ring the current lot up and see if they will reduce what we're paying.

I also want to do a plan of what needs to happen with savings accounts. I spotted a Nationwide regular saver account yesterday that might suit us rather nicely, so may well use that in conjunction with an ISA for next year, but need to make a plan of campaign as to what we're likely to have and where it needs to go so I can get everything straight in my own head. With the end of the tax year coming up I want to stash as much as possible from our random other savings account into the ISA - seems to make sense!

starnac

Yes I would agree with stashing as much as you can in the ISA. It does seem to make sense doesn't it. As does looking at your life insurance. I know for a fact we could get our life insurance cheaper but we stick with them as due to a complicated mortgage situation it is worth staying with them. Also we've had the policy for over 13 years now and the critical illness list of illness they'll pay out for is a LOT longer than any policies you can get now. If our situation was a bit more simple then we would definitely shop around and the fact that your mortgage is smaller now than it was then it's worth checking.

Sorry for waffling

EssexHebridean

Not waffle at all lovely - that made total sense! Yes we're reluctant to change too as MrEH's Mum has a condition that apparently CAN be inherited. Now while MrEH is currently showing clear of it, and even if he got it it would be annoying and uncomfortable, but not life-threatening, it does mean that a lot of insurers will either not touch him at all or will want to hike up the premium. So we'll be leaving him with the current people whatever, and in fact when the mortgage finishes altogether we'll probably look to just take a different policy with them for him too. I however am a simple type and thus can be insured by almost anyone!

Finally acknowledged defeat yesterday and went to the Boux Avenue website to do some bra shopping - managed to find one in my size which was in the sale but not showing under a sale listing. Also stumbled across a couple of sleep-vests in the sale for £3 each - total spend will be £46 if I keep everything but as that would average at £20 a bra I'll take that. Scaffolding doesn't come cheap!

So - on a total mission last night I cooked dinner, emptied the dishwasher, emptied the washing machine and hung the load up, put a new load in and set it to run overnight, gave the kitchen a wipe down, did a bit of washing up, sorted my clothes ready for today and got the bedroom floor cleared off round three quarters of the room...oddly the bit I can't *quite* clear is MrEH's domain in front of his chest of drawers... :mad: Still, got the hoover round most of it so that's better than nothing! Didn't do 15 minutes reading that book, but I did do that this morning as I got into London earlier than I needed to be at my desk. Go me.

Tonight's mission:
Dinner (should be quite quick)
Washing from machine > Airer
Next load > Machine
15 minutes: clothes sort in bedroom
15 minutes: Reading beyond Chocolate
Pull life insurance paperwork out of the cabinet ready to ring them on Friday.

Credit card statement should be in any time now so that will need going through and money shuffling done. Another phone call I could make on Friday is to them asking them to change the Direct Debit date - it's currently about a week later than I'd really like.
Also need to check back on how soon I can stash any spare money in the ISA - it's a regular saver one so it has a monthly limit of how much you can add.

Friday Admin-ny type jobs:
Update tax spreadsheet ready for April.
Check on ISA details
Sort out CC statement
Ring Life Insurance people
Ring CC people to change date on DD.
Review savings situation
Back up PC files onto Ext HD.