The Big Adventure

Goldiegirl

Here's this weeks update

Health

• Walking - January results. Walks achieved 27/31. Total mileage 69.74. To do 1000 miles in 2018 I need to be nearer a monthly average of 83 miles. So a bit off target, but it is winter, hopefully I'll pick up pace when spring starts.
  
• Mental health - much better. I've felt really positive this week. Have noted everyone's suggestions for further consideration
  
• New glasses picked up, really pleased with them

Mindful spending

• Aldi £34.35 groceries
• M&S £9.50 slippers for Mr G. £10 voucher used
• Sunglasses £133.50. I decided to take up Vision Expresss's half price second pair offer. As I hope to spend time outside in the better weather I should get a lot of use out of them
• Also my moisturiser and antiperspirant on offer in Boots, so I stocked up

Making money

• £1000 x 2 transferred to S&S ISA. I try to pay in to the ISA when the markets have slipped a bit, like they did last week
• £13 M&S vouchers received for M&S Premium Club points
• 12 X £2.70 coffee vouchers from M&S Premium Club
• £5.10 from Quidco
• 100 pts You Gov surveys
• Nothing from Prolific - they have suddenly dried up for me
• Three pieces of furniture sold on eBay £58. 2 already collected, and the other one to be collected tommorrow

Enjoying life

• A general declutter. I 'finished' decluttering a couple of years ago, and since then there's been a bit of a build up, so got rid of various bits and pieces, so everything it much neater in the cupboards now
  
• Emptied the welsh dresser and corner unit that have been sold. The spare room is now very cluttered, but it's only for a month or two. Eventually everything will be stored 'better'
  
• Living room walls are now a fetching shade of grey. It looks very nice

Karmacat

That's a *lot* of progress, and some very mindful spending - particularly the prescription sunglasses.

AlexLK

All sounding really positive, Goldie.

michelle09

You're doing brilliantly Goldie! The declutter sounds perfect.

Goldiegirl

A couple of weeks ago I was talking about applying for the Halifax Clarity card. I finally got round to doing it yesterday. In the end, I decided we should apply in Mr Goldie's name as his income is higher than mine and I'll be an additional card holder

When I had originally done the pre-application check, I was 95% likely to be accepted. I did the check on Mr Goldie, and he scored 100% and the application was guaranteed to be accepted. Then they gave him double the credit limit he applied for! He's feeling quite pleased with himself! :rotfl:

The furniture that I sold on eBay was collected at the weekend, so I'm pleased that has been done

On Saturday I sold two lamps, and the woman was due to be collecting them at 2pm..... nearly two hours ago. Our communication has been fine up to this point and she's got nearly 2000 feedback, so she's an experienced eBayer. It seems really odd that she's stopped communicating. I have a couple of cupboards in the kitchen I'd like get tidy, but havent got stuck in just in case she turns up, so it seems like a wasted afternoon

Karmacat

Ach, I hope she *did* turn up in the end, Goldie, but even if she did, thats very late. Hope you salvaged some of the afternoon.

Goldiegirl

How strange, when I logged in, I had to change my password, as my existing password was 1902 days old.

The lamps were finally collected, on the third attempt. She was prevaricating, and said she'd collect them when the 'weather was better'. As the weather hasn't been that bad here, it sounded as if she wanted to wait until spring. So I had to push her a bit, saying I needed to get them out of the house, and she eventually picked them up on Thursday.

This week we painted the dining room and papered one wall with a very funky wall paper. We've had the Hillary's man round and have ordered curtains, roller blinds, curtain poles and some cushion covers. We are going on holiday in 4 weeks time, so the curtains will be delivered after we get back, at the end of March. So we are now having a break from home improvements, and will start again at the end of the March. When the curtains are done, we'll look at carpets/floor covering.

It'll be nice to have a hiatus, as it's been quite busy since the new year.

Goldiegirl

Weekly Update

Health

• Walking for February 9/10 days - so far, so good
• Mental health - some anxiety - but it didn't get out of hand and felt I managed the situation well. So I'm pleased with that

Mindful spending

• £100 for 2 rolls of wallpaper - the most I've ever spent on wallpaper, but I really love it.
• £12 for snow grips for our holiday
• £88.76 at Sainsbury, but I did stock up on sum items
• A rather large sum of money on Hillary's blinds and curtains. More than I had in mind, but we managed to get the quote down by 35%, so I'm happy with that

Making money

• £4.65 Prolific surveys
• 150 You Gov points
• Halifax Clarity Card applied for and accepted ( in Mr Goldie's name)
• £21.00 from eBay sales (corner unity and lamps)
• 2 Halifax ISAs matured. Money added to M&S ISA proceeds. Will put some in our SIPPS in April and the rest has gone in a 2 year fixed rate bond with Kent Reliance (rate 1.85%)
• £500 tfr'd to both our S&S ISAs - hopefully the markets will pick up

Enjoying life

• Appreciating newly painted dining room and funky wallpaper
• Kitchen cupboard sorting ongoing.

Karmacat

Lovely progress! And snow grips ... I don't think I'll need snow grips, not in June in the northern hemisphere, but I'm tempted

Goldie, what cruise forum do you use, please? I want to get our act together on what we should know about in plenty of time ... its the most I've ever spent on a holiday (I'm usually hostelling or something!) so its a new experience for me.

Goldiegirl

Hi KC, I've found the Cruise Critic forum to be the best one. There's a section for each cruise line and there's lots of port info too. Over the years I've picked up lots of useful info from this site. The advanced search function is very good, so it's easy to find what you are interested in

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/