Cheery's buttling diary: tea in one hand, plant pot in the other, running shoes on

Cheery_Daff

:rotfl: except the small change goes in a separate pot for general treats spending house move (at the minute) only gets the big lump sum when I get paid (and at any rate I found another 1p so it's 13p now - another 12p and we'll be able to get a freddo! :j ) :rotfl: :rotfl:

You could be right with the filling, although I think it was only done this year. I'm inclined to think it's probably my sweet tooth and plasticchewig habit that's to blame but your explanation makes me sound more reasonable so yes, let's go with that

Just discovered I have NO yogurt and no 'treats' at work so am stuck with nothing but tea and oranges til home time! :eek: (unless I raid the cafe downstairs, of course, which I'm aiming NOT to do as I am NOT remotely hungry!)

Cheery_Daff

Well I also discovered that there was NO MILK :eek: so I HAD to pop downstairs to get some but I avoided snacks

Had an exciting tea tonight :j about time too - there are currently SIX pizza boxes in the recycling :eek: :rotfl:

But Mr Cheery was in a cheerful mood this evening and had bought some smoked tofu it's £1.99 and all gets used in one meal so doesn't get bought that often. But it's proper tasty had it with rice and a stir fry and a tiny bit of cheese :j

Ooh, and I met a friend for lunch today at the botanical gardens (yes, I *know* I've just said we are too stingy to pay two quid for tofu but I've happily paid threee times that for my lunch priorities and all that... )

Anyway, apparently now they make their own veggie sausages, from chick peas. They looked more like cylindrical falafels, but with the chick peas not very well mashed. Much like something Id make myself :rotfl: they were vaguely sausage shaped when they arrived but as I ate my butty they collapaed til i was basically eating chick peas on a roll :rotfl:

I actually quite enjoyed it :rotfl:

Painted the undercoat on the skirting on the stairs tonight :j looks much better vaguely white than royal blue :j will gloss tomorrow hopefully :j

Cheery_Daff

Gloss done :j On a mission to carpet the bedroom now... have discovered if you buy underlay separately online, it's less tan half the price of buying from the carpet shop :eek: Been to two local shops today - one MUCH cheaper than the other. I think you can go even cheaper if you get someone from a big national online place to come out and quote etc but the little guys can do it before Christmas if I order this week... but will check out if it's HUGELY different price and act accordingly.

Got a charity shop bargain today - tried on a coat which I loved, but there was a rip in the pocket. I was going to buy anyway and sew up, but the manager walked past and said 'are you selling THAT??' to the woman on the till... 'how much for?' she said, and when the woman said £10, she said 'we're not Oxfam!' and charged me £4 for it I would have given her the tenner but she wasn't having it

So between that and accidentally keeping some of the biscuits I intended for the foodbank yesterday, I'm not being very successful with my charity donations this week! Must try harder

Speaking of biscuits, I'm just cooking up a batch of these

oat and raisin biscuits

Most tasty Popping round to my friend's house in a bit to take her ladders back, and she's having a few folks round for crafty activities so biscuits will (hopefully!) get eaten and be appreciated :j :j

Ooh, and I got two free mince pies earlier too! :j The local church was doing a litter pick on the high street, and there were about 15 of them out with tins of mince pies to give out too. I refused the first twice, but then could think of nothing but mince pies, so I said yes the third time, refused the fourth, and said yes again to the fifth to acquire one for Mr Cheery :rotfl:

Not got much house-related done today. Went for a run with a friend this morning, then we've been mostly investigating carpets, squabbling, and visiting friends since then, and I'm off out again as soon as these biscuits are done! :rotfl: :rotfl:

Tomorrow is allocated entirely to house-buttling!

Cheery_Daff

Right, a rainbow list for today :j :j (or rather it would have been a rainbow list but MSE won't let me do colours today :eek: so you'll have to imagine - ooh, I'll experiment with fonts instead )

[STRIKE]* Finish YNAB[/STRIKE]
* strip last of paint (royal blue gloss) from bannister - been trying to do this for weeks but have finally resorted to paint stripper
* put stair carpet back down
* re-varnish bannister
* sand rest of door frames
* undercoat rest of door frames
* clean paint off bedroom steps
* fill holes in kitchen ceiling

Er, that's probably enough for one day :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Morning chums :hello:

Well, needless to say i didn't get everything done... but I did finish strippig the bannister and put the carpet back down -had the genius idea of turning the bits of underlay round so he worn part is at the back of the step and it feels like we've got a mew carpet :j :j

Also managed to repair a hole using invisible thread - not perfect but not really eye-catching if you didn't know it was there :j

And Mr Cheery found the perfect little set of drawers for the bathroom in a charity shop - completely the wrong colour so he's sanded and painted, and added an extra bit to one leg so they can sit right in the corner on top of the box skirting with just one leg on the floor :j

In MSE news... nothing much. I feel like a right old fraud with this diary looked at YNAB reports last night and I've spent well over £2000 just on my discretionary spendig this year :eek: and that doesn't include holidays, gym membership etc :eek: might invent myself an MSE challenge soon :j

In the meantime, I've been rather gloomy of late but I've been very much enjoying Greying's list of things she's grateful for on her threadso I'm going to join in and hope she doesn't mind

So today I am grateful for

* a free lunch which I will be getting later at a meeting :money:

* my new £4 charity shop coat, which I'm wearing for the first time and which is SUPER warm and also pretty smart :j Must get out the invisible thread and mend the pocket.

* skills... I love it that I can lay my own stair carpet, and switch in one breath from hammer and nails to needle and thread to repair the carpet itself :j Where would we be without learnig new things?

* chemical paintstrippers :rotfl: an odd thing, and a last resort for me, but made a tricky job easier yesterday and saved me a lot of time!

* being able to walk to work - I'm currently on a train to my old job for the day amd feeling VERY grateful I dont do this regularly any more :j

* a glorious frosty sunrise, it was beautiful ul near my house but by the time I'd descended into town everythig was covered in mist and now I can just seem gloomy tree shapes from the train window

* frost on branches, some lovely shapes out there today

There, that made me feel better :j and I just found an old train ticket in my purse that I'd forgotten about, but that I can claim on expenses :j should be about £25 once I add the bus tickets that are with it :j

Right, I promised myself I'd sit and wrte my christmas presents list - want to get most online this year but I'll have an hour or so free in a different city this afternoon so an ideal opportunity!

Have a good day all

EssexHebridean

That's a brilliant idea with the carpet - well done, and yes I bet it feels like a new carpet! :T The drawers sound fab too so well done Mr Cheery as well!

Cheery_Daff

Thanks EH

Well my free lunch has yielded a couple of sandwiches which will do for tomorrow's lunch too :money:

And I am delighted to report that my new coat is toasty :j which is a good job as it's FREEZING. Wish it had a hood! :rotfl:

Managed to make a good start on my Christmas shopping today :j not entirely sure when I'm going to do the rest of it :eek:

Karmacat

That's a lovely list, Cheery - I talk to myself late at night for my gratefulness list, but I like the idea of writing it down I like lots of the stuff on there too, particularly the skills - I definitely remember your tiling, that was a good one.

Cheery_Daff

Thanks KC I remember the tiling, seems such a long time ago now but it was definitely the start of something good! :j

Nothing got done last night, other than ringing my mum as it was her birthday. Work yesterday involved an important meeting in another city and it was qute draining, and I didn't get back til after 7.

Ate the free sandwiches with tea (pizza... again ) last night but I have juat this minute discovered that my 11am meeting today involves lunch! :j yay! :j very excited about that :rotfl:

So, continuing the theme of gratitude (mixed with some financial things), today I am grateful for...

* Mr Cheery suggeating we have breakfaat together we keep SUCH different hours, he's such a night owl and I tend to be awake by 7 so we rarely share breakfast. He dropped me at work the other week and we ate in the canteen and it was so cheery we did it again £4 for tea and porridge (with nuts, seeds, sultanas, honey) for both of us, plus 50p parking :money: not too bad, and now he's home and had a nice early start :j

* a nice early night last night (I was in bed before 10) and a decent kip :j

* a lovely work colleague who sits next to me. We've been helping each other out this morning and sharing ideas, and it's very cheerful indeed :j

* free lunch for the second day in a row! :money:

* a spare few minutes to myself... had an hour set aside thia morning for a 'drop in' session but I'm nearly half way through and only one person's dropped in so far... so a bit of unexpected breathing space for me and time to waffle in here :j

* a lovely sunrise this morning. Still very nippy though :eek: but this room I'm in for an hour is so cosy I've had to resort to opening windows as there's no way to turn the heating down - madness!

* workplace support for career progression. An odd one, but my free lunch meeting is based around this and today I'm VERY grateful for it and intend to take every opportunity offered to me

* being introduced to the Frugalwoods blog (I think Greying Pilgrim mentioned it on her diary) - not seen it before but spent a happy half hour wandering through while waking up today. Considering joining in with extreme frugal month in january! :money:

That's it I think :j what a cheerful start to the day :j

Cheery_Daff

Evening chums :hello:

Gosh, it's been a bit of a day Ok, just the whole week (whole last few weeks really) has been a succession of people parading in front of me telling me things I have to take in and/or do something about. Or alternatively me standing in front of people telling them to do things they take no notice of! :rotfl: poor brain can't handle much more

Still, let's focus on reasons to be grateful :j

* current busy period at work is coming to an end :j it'll be followed by another one :rotfl: but there will be a break, and the new one will be different activities, and a change is as good as a rest, they say... :j

* the dentist, who has refitted my filling (again) after it fell out twice in one week :eek: it's in an odd place, and it's some kind of adhesive one - if this doesn't last it'll be drilling and a proper one and neither of us want that - fingers crossed...

* lovely al anon meeting tonight - lots of people suffering this week but some good news and cheerfulness too :j

* Mr Cheery, for making my tea, and very tasty it was too :j (a kind of onion, potato and green lentil concoction)

* went Christmas shopping today and managed to buy... nothing :eek: but I have a few ideas so fingers crossed

* Mr Cheery posted my parcel :j we've been driving round with it in the car for weeks this is my boots that I'm returning so hope I haven't left it too late! :eek:

I'm sure there are other things but that will do for now