Paid off the £31,000! BUT - still scrimping!

Seasidegal58

Thank you all. 

I picked up my keyboard and mouse yesterday in town. I took the train rather than the bus as it gave me a walk to the station. There wereca few people about picking up bits and pieces - the big greengrocer was stocked fully. I passed Savers and popped in to see if I could get some bathroom cleaner spray and managed to get a Flash two pack for £2.49. Also picked up some vegan vitamin and Vitamin D sprays in Holland and Barrett. 

I was going to take the train back but on seeing such a large line of taxis decided to get one home to at least give a driver some work - £8. Usually there would only be a couple of taxis at the rank at that time of day on a Saturday. The driver said they were hardly getting any fares and it would only get worse for them.

i managed to get my monthly pedicure done yesterday afternoon - probably the last for the foreseeable future.  The Thai family who run the shop were all masked and gloved up and spraying everything down.  

And it's another beautiful day today weather wise. I had a lovely Mother's Day card from DD.  I usually go and and stay with them for a weekend near but not on Mother's Day as it's usually so crowded everywhere on the big day.  I had booked my train ticket for the weekend after next but will go on the train company's website today and try and get a refund as I won't be going now. ☹️

The only other thing I have booked holiday wise are flights booked to Inverness for the Whit weekend. DSIs, her OH, little nephew and I were all flying up to stay with DD and her OH but we'll be looking to cancel this too. 

So nothing to go out for today although I will go for a walk later to get some fresh air. 

SCRIMPY MSE THINGS

Apart from the odd things bought in the shops, there's been cash for DSis's birthday and Mother's Day flowers for Mum's grave (DSis drove over to the cemetery during the week to put the flowers on).  As some have posted on their diaries the whole MSE thing is going a bit by the wayside in these strange times - especially on food and household goods - one is having to buy things as they come available and can't really shop around for the cheapest items.  

Happy Mother's Day to all the lovely mums out there holding it together for their families and those vulnerable group mums who can't get out. Let's hope things get back to normal soon. 🌷🌷🥰🥰

HairyHandofDartmoor

Happy Mother's Day SSG 🌷.

I'm glad you've found food items. You're right about the food budget going awol and just buying things when you see them. But needs must. 

I've got flights booked to Inverness to visit my sister at the end of July but I'm wondering whether we'll be able to go. It depends upon how bad things get, only time will tell. 

HappyNow

I've just spent a lovely 10 minutes catching up on your diary SSG, the holiday sounds FAB! 
For the last ten years I've worked 50% office, 50% from home and loved that balance. Like a lot of people it's gone to 100% homeworking now. There are lots of advantages (no travelling time, no make up etc) but I'll miss that office vibe. Looks like it could go on some time too.

Seasidegal58

Hi @HairyHandofDartmoor   I've had an email this afternoon from easyJet re our Inverness flights at end May. They're offering to let us change the flights without charge to another day up until February 2021. That's not really helpful as we don't know when we would be travelling up there again - I could be going in the New Year if things get back to normal, but  DSis and family probably wouldn't go until next spring!  I'm going to have to have a further look at the email and the terms and conditions.  

Hi @HappyNow  I spent my first day today working from home. It went quite well. I used my ironing board desk and everything fitted quite nicely on it. I started at 8.30am in the end and knocked off at 5pm.  All the applications I was using went well apart from a couple of very minor glitches where I've raised tickets with our IT department. I was actually very busy!  It's coming up to the end of the quarter and there's always extra to do. We're all staying in touch via the WhatsApp group, phone and email. I asked my boss if I could have an early lunch at 11.30 to pop out to get a couple of bits and had a couple of coffee breaks too. I quite like this working from home lark!😀

Other cancellations have been DSis and my tickets to see Pretty Woman at end April. They're cancelling the show for now and have refunded DSis's money. She's also waiting to hear from the Festival Hall as we have tickets booked for a Judy Garland tribute around the same time. I've also booked tickets for her and me to see Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat in mid-summer so will have to wait and see re. this. 

Plus I've had texts from my nail girl who can't work from the salon as they're closing and she doesn't want to risk contaminating her clients by going mobile. The hairdresser texted too as they're shutting up shop in the City. 

I popped out to get some bits this morning. I was thinking that now I'm working from home I'll probably need more things like Oatly milk and coffee, dishwashing tablets etc. I went out and bought a very large pack of PersiL, large pack of dishwashing tablets, two large bottles of fizzy water, some marigolds, microfibre cloths, bread, tomatoes and broccoli - all sourced from our little Co-op, Tesco and greengrocer!  I couldn't get dishwashing salt or Oatly milk so I'll try tomorrow at Waitrose. 

Our local little high street was very quiet - not many about - everyone keeping distance - most shops shut - banks, small supermarkets and greengrocer open - some cafes offering take away service. Everything else closed. 😞

SCRIMPY MSE BLAH

ive been looking at my budget categories. I think I can safely say I won't be raiding the coffees/eating out budget for the foreseeable future, but I'll be hitting the ITunes/Books/Kindle budget more than usual!😁. I actually watched an excellent film yesterday - the latest Helen Mirren - The Good Liar. It was excellent - highly recommended (£4.99 on ITunes)

Hope everyone has had a good day. Stay safe. 

X

Sun_Addict

Welcome to the working from home club or WFH to us regulars 😂 The novelty does wear off after a while, especially when you’re not sure what day it is when you get up in the morning.

beanielou

Stay safe too  x

Seasidegal58

So just heard the new Government directives. Will be changing my grocery shopping habits to shopping twice weekly. Also one early morning fast walk for exercise. 

brizzlegirl

Glad WFH has its upsides and is working well...stay safe SSG xx

Seasidegal58

Thanks so much @brizzle. You take care too!👍

Just a very quick post (I'm working from home on my coffee break at the mo!). I've not posted the last couple of days because frankly I seem to run out of time!  I'm sleeping like a log for some weird reason and the morning walk never got started. My day pans out as get up, shower, make breakfast, log on work laptop and start working day which is really busy, plus applications aren't as fast as working from the office. I have a walk during my lunch hour then back on laptop. Knock off at five, prepare dinner and quick tidy around flat. Then my evenings have literally been taken up with talking to friends and family - catching up with everyone's news including those I haven't spoken to for a while. Then watch news and some TV - I find then I'm really tired and go to bed!  I was speaking to another WFH forumite the other day and she agreed that she is really tired when she knocks off work. 

So will make a concerted effort to type a longer post tonight and catch up on diary news!

Now back to fire up the laptop!😀

HairyHandofDartmoor

I'm glad you're so busy SSG and have a good routine going .

Maybe working from home suits you. Do you think your office could make it permanent once this nightmare is over? Would you want it to be permanent?

Where do you go for your walks and do you meet many other people when you're out and about? I would have thought lunchtime would be a popular time for walking.