EH - Essex > Hebrides...the next step of the adventure?

Sunshine_girl2

Great photos , glad you had a good trip. 

savingholmes

The photos and scenery are lovely. Well done on the PB win. Glad you had a good time away. Hope the car issue is nothing serious.

starnac

Financial planning sounds good. If you have the means then I see nothing wrong with upping your food and entertainment budget. It's miserable when you are pinching every penny. 

Well done on the PB win. My kids have PB, bought for them every year by friends of ours. DS has had numerous £25 wins. DD has had 2!! It's the luck of the draw really.

EssexHebridean

"nub ends" Redo - loving that phrase! They're delicious - and roughly 50% of the cost of the posh packs so a bargain! 

Starnac it truly *IS* the luck of the draw isn't it - in every sense!  we truthfully expected nothing at all back from them yet though so this was a real boost! (And far above any interest rate we could have got on savings, obviously! 

GAP - thank you - motivation eh? Hmmm...well I do my best! 

L - how was Skye? It was dark both ways driving through for us this time so for the first time ever we pretty much saw none of it, which was a shame! We did get some lovely views across to the Cuillin from Uist on the clear days though!

Well I'm back in the office...I'd say "ugh" but actually the only real "ugh" bit is the commute, and even that wasn't too grim this morning. It did feel hard work cycling after a three week break though! nothing much planned for the rest of this week until Friday when I've (finally!) got my booster booked and then Saturday morning when we have a beer festival planning meeting via Teams (mental note, I need to read the agenda and check the minutes of the last one).  Quite deliberately leaving this week pretty quiet. I plan to head straight to the gym from my booster on Friday to get signed up as a member and do my session - that (again deliberately) will be my only session this week though. 

My 0% card now stands at £68.76

Prolific: £8.12 paid/£2.25 pending
OnePoll: 2130 points

I have now closed my Power of Opinions account after cashing out before Christmas. The £10 I cashed out from that is sitting in Amazon so I need to decide what to do with that - it is NOT getting frittered on routine stuff! 

Aim for this month is to get Prolific to cashout once, and get OnePoll as close as I possibly can. That ought to then leave me in a position when I can clear the card next month (fingers crossed) which would be exciting. I have a feeling I made some plans for what I'd use survey money for after that point - and I have a feeling it was to stash it somewhere in a bid to make my gym membership "cash neutral" so I'll need to plan out how that will best work. 

starnac

Could you buy a gift card with it rather than let it sit in your Amazon account (which is dangerous ) That way you can have the gift card ready for birthdays or Christmas and you know it won't be frittered away?

lucielle

@EssexHebridean We're still on Skye, just over a week to go.  Making the most of decent weather if it comes!
L

HairyHandofDartmoor

What a beautiful place to spend the new year, your photos are stunning. I'd love to go to the Scottish islands one day.

Your new year budget allocations sound sensible.

beanielou

OOOH tattie scones & white puddings   
Glad that you enjoyed being in your happy place 

EssexHebridean

Starnac - I'm going to debate whether there is anything I need, and if so I'll just get it sorted. of course this soon after Christmas, there's not so much, as the Christmas list saw to quite a bit of it! It's definitely NOT being used for anything for anyone else, and if worse comes to worst if it goes on something "everyday" I can just transfer the money from the relevant budget to my own account to cover it! 

Ahh L I'm envious - glad you're having a wonderful time! 

Hello HH - good to see you! The Islands are beautiful - they really are, definitely worth adding to a travel list! 

OK - so some thinking on the whole 2022 goals thing - and I've decided it can more accurately be called a "focus" - as I want to look at health generally. I'll be 50 this year (Yeah, I know, who've have thought it, eh?! ) and although I'm not someone for any outlandish "50 before 50" type plans (does ANYONE ever actually complete those things?) I do want to make sure that I'm setting myself up for a smooth transition into a new decade.  So - my focus is: 
 SLEEP, HYDRATE, MOVE, STRETCH  All really important factors for overall health, and all areas where I can make improvements. It's also all stuff that I've been moving towards working on over the last few years - so in a lot of ways this will not be anything new, just a continuation, and a focus on building good habits. 
I want to really refine my weekday sleep routine - working on timings, thinking properly about tiredness levels (ie do I want to read a book in bed to finish unwinding, or if I just settle down will I just drift off almost right away) and giving consideration to how soon before I want to sleep I do things that will challenge my brain.
I will be aiming to improve my hydration right through the week - not just the days I'm in the office when I find it really easy. At home this means making sure I drink my way right through a 1 litre bottle of water, and plenty of cups of tea too - ordinary in the mornings and decaf in the afternoons/evenings. I'm also planning to try to increase the variety of fruits and veggies we're eating, and of course they help with hydration too! 
My foot injury is now "mostly" healed and I'm keen to get back to running - but generally I'm aiming to consciously move my body in an enjoyable way daily - that can be a walk, a cycle, a run, a gym session, a swim or some yoga. A bit like the fruit & veg thing though, I'd like to ensure some variety.  
The final one comes under the heading of movement too in a lot of ways - regular stretching and mobility REALLY improves the way my body feels - my job is mostly desk based and I find a lot of hours sitting at a desk, in the car for the commute etc really leaves me with tight hips in particular. I've started on Adriene Yoga's current 30 day challenge and I'm aiming to work through that in as close to the 30 days as possible - although there will be some gaps when other calls on my time come along. There is so much truth in "use it or lose it" when it comes to mobility and flexibiity - so much of what we love to do involves keeping our physical health and fitness in place as far as possible for as long as possible.

I need to refine the detail around a lot of this - most of it is free- or at least thrifty-ish - some bits less so - the gym membership for example although that really will be money well spent. Also swimming isn't particularly cheap but I do love it - just not so much at this time of year! 

lucielle

Snap I'm 50 as well this year.  It still shocks me when I think about it!  Can totally relate to the tight hips.  I certainly need to get a bit more 'bendy' but not sure where to start.
L