Second Time Lucky

in_need_of_direction

V good positives. If you can stay focused on those, you'll be grand.

amycool

I'm feeling less grumpy today. :-) I went for a run this morning. It was awful (I wheezed the whole way) but it was nice to be out and improved my mood. Also, I was thinking that I need new running shoes as these are ancient and the advice (from running shoe manufacturers :cool:) is to change every xhundred miles. However, I'm finding that since these shoes became all flat, I'm heel striking far less, which is making my knees hurt less. It might not be the case if I hit longer distances, but for now, I'm going to stick with my very old shoes. Money saved! :T

OH got a pension letter yesterday. It appears to be bad news, at least in the short term. His contribution is going up, which equates to about £50 a month more. In return, the contribution of his employer also goes up by about the same amount, but the information about how this will affect his pension is mostly jargon and I can't work out if this means more money when he retires or exactly the same, or indeed less. I know every time I get a pension letter it's to tell me I'll be paying more and receiving less but I'll need to access his account on the website for the actual figures. Before considering leaving work, £50 wouldn't be a big deal, but on one wage, that's a huge chunk of what we'll have left each month. Having said all that, it won't come into force until next year if it's approved.

I have booked my first driving lesson! 5 hours for £65 as an introductory offer so I'll see how I get on. It's in a few weeks so I have all that time to try not to worry about it. :rotfl:

debtfreeoneday

Glad you had a lovely break.. don't let things get on top of you now you're home. Am sure your dreams will come true by this time next year and it'll all be worth it.. keep smiling!

amycool

debtfreeoneday wrote: »

Glad you had a lovely break.. don't let things get on top of you now you're home. Am sure your dreams will come true by this time next year and it'll all be worth it.. keep smiling!

What a lovely thing to say. Thank you. The sun is shining today, which always makes me happy.

amycool

Another gloriously sunny day here. I got up at 6.50am for a run through the woods and the frosty fields, which put me in a good mood.

I finally got out into the garden today to do some weeding and sow some more seeds.

So far:

The spinach is growing nicely - still under the cloche
My one broad bean plant has flowered!!! I probably should have taken the cloche off but apparently it's okay for them to flower so early as they are a dwarf variety. I've planted another load of broad beans so we'll see how they do
The lettuce that was cloched is doing great and the lettuce in the open (through a lot of hard frosts) is okay
I've planted lots more peas as the ones we planted were killed in the frost - direct into the soil
I've started off some leeks in toilet roll tubes
Coriander is sown

I could have done more but I totally forgot what is supposed to be planted where so I'll have to print out the plan at some point.

Now, my issue. I'm really averse to actually picking the leaves to eat them!! Some of the lettuce is probably almost ready but the thought of taking some of the plant away is painful to me. Maybe I'm weird. It's fine with beans or berries.

Which reminds me, the gojiberry is doing brilliantly. The tayberry has some growth and the raspberry, which we thought was dead, is showing tiny signs of life. I'm going to leave it and see what happens.

I just looked at my planting plan and I appear to have totally ignored it. Oh dear. I also completely forgot to buy any seed potatoes so they're out. I guess it's not quite so terrible to fail in crop rotation when you have tiny raised beds.

The washing is dry so no need for tumble drying today and so far no heating has been required. Yesterday my OH had it on ALL DAY despite the front of the house being roasting hot.

Meter readings are looking okay but not as low as I would like.

I made some pear puree to go with basic yoghurt yesterday but I don't think I cooked them for long enough as it's a bit lumpy. Edible though. The pears were in the super 6.

Back to work tomorrow - boo - but then it's the weekend - hooray!

It feels like forever since I overpaid anything but trying not to wish away the month.

pinkteapot

I've just read through your diary after linking to it from the club thread...

I'm also the accountant at home for us (weird as hubby is one at work) and have taken up running again this year.

I used to run a few years back but stopped after a foot injury. I was completely out of shape by new year, so had to start all over with a couch to 5k style walk/run plan. Am now happily (ish) running 5k three times a week again.

I'm plodding at ten minute miles but I don't want to risk injury again so not sure I'll improve my speed much. Feels good to get out again though - it really does clear the mind.

amycool

Hi pinkteapot!

I took up running years ago (2007 I think) on the advice of my doctor (I have lung disease and it helps to clear my chest and keep me well) but I've stopped and started a million times! The furthest I ever got was doing a few 10ks but I kept getting infections and then the drugs caused muscle pain! My goal is to make it back to parkrun. I'm naturally a 12 minute miler (or slower on hills!) so I'm always at the back but I like the atmosphere at a big event. My favourite race ever was a 5 mile trail run where I was dead last from start to finish!

It's so much easier to get outside when the sun is shining!

amycool

Garden news:

I spent the last of my garden centre vouchers at the weekend (and then some) on more compost and some strawberry plants. This means we could finally get the second raised bed finished and ready for planting. I chose 3 different strawberry plants and I'm hoping they will send out lots of runners so I have more next year.

Lots of seeds planted but still lots to go. It's a shame this week is going to be cold and wet or I could have done some outside planting.

It's quite exciting to think that we might have some produce later in the year! I'm especially looking forward to the courgettes and squashes (too early to sow yet) as they sound really interesting.

Not really money-related, but my plan to start running again has begun. 3 runs and a cycle so far!

Looking at the spreadsheet (trying to work out if I'll have enough for a big overpayment or not) this month seems to have gone on forever!

I'm trying to live without the heating today even though it's freezing. I've set the thermostat at 11.5 degrees so if I hear it come on, things have got bad. I just want a nice low gas bill for one week.

Things to do

We definitely need a water butt as I used loads of drinking water yesterday to water the plants (should have held out as it's been raining all day) and we're on a meter

The garage should be demolished on Thursday so I need to order the shed

Buy a rotary drier as we will have nowhere to put the washing line once the garage goes.

amycool

Why is it that every survey I do at the moment seems to ask how many children I have? Talk about rub it in! I don't think I've been eligible for a single survey in a week.

Talking of children, our garden is currently as un-child-friendly as it could be, but hopefully the journey to safe garden ownership has begun.

The garage demolition has begun! Which means I need to pay £480 today, and then order the shed, which is almost £700. I'll be using the remains of the "House Fund" so it shouldn't affect this month's overpayment, but the fund is now virtually empty so we'll have to start waiting to save for things now. I'm not touching the emergency fund.

I failed to buy a rotary drier, but looking at the weather, I don't think I'll need it for a week or two.

My plan to keep the heating off failed miserably. Even the warmest room in the house was hovering around 11 degrees and I'm too much of a wuss for that. So it was on all afternoon yesterday (we had a guest) and it's been on this morning for a bit. At least the rain means no extra water needed for the garden.

I've had my propagators on for the seeds but still no seedlings! I don't understand why. I hope they're just taking their time.

I'll wait until after the builders have gone to take the meter readings as I suspect my electric will be high today (6 cups of tea made and only an hour in!!).

amycool

9 cups of tea in the end!

I have ordered a cheaper shed at £350, plus I got 8% cashback and a £10 voucher, which I spent towards the rotary drier and a cover and spike.

The shed I wanted had quite high numbers of negative reviews (bits missing, not delivered on time etc) so this is only 10ft by 6ft instead of 10x8 but at half price I think it was worth going smaller. I might change my mind when I can't fit everything in! :-)

To celebrate saving (sort of) £360, I made March' s overpayment of £700, which in turn has saved me about £250 in interest. I'm definitely going to be in the lower 60s by April and will have knocked 13 months off the term by then too!