Bricks Not Books

sunshineli

Enjoyed reading about your goals for the year. I like that you have included the personal goals too, not just focussing solely on financial ones. Which OU courses might you be interested in? I have recently signed up a creative writing one as I would love to write a fiction book one day.

VintageHistorian

Watty1 said:

I do wish you had not mentioned the OU courses as that is a rabbit hole I knew nothing about and have now fallen down

I'd say "sorry" but...well it'll keep you entertained for free when the warm weather disappears

sunshineli said:

Enjoyed reading about your goals for the year. I like that you have included the personal goals too, not just focussing solely on financial ones. Which OU courses might you be interested in? I have recently signed up a creative writing one as I would love to write a fiction book one day.

It can't all be money all the time! And there are so many things that I think to myself "I'd like to do/try that" and never get around to it, I only realised back in the New Year that I can and should write them down. Then I have a reminder that I want to do them, and I'm more likely to make the time for them!

The OU list has actually expanded since I last looked but there's a few on primary school education that I'd like to watch before DS hits that stage so I know how we can support him best. And then there's quite a few history ones that I think I would find quite interesting too. I do need to actually make a list next!

VintageHistorian

DS was awake at 5:30 this morning. Perfectly happy to lie in his cot and burble to himself, didn't need me or Mr VH to come in and amuse him or take him downstairs to play, but awake and chatting nonethless. So I have a headache and Mr VH is currently having a nap. He was feeling very rough with a cold on Friday night so an early morning wake-up call hasn't helped.

I've taken some Neurofen and had a cup of tea and a cupcake. I needed to do some baking but had no chocolate chips. I had one lemon but I need some of the juice for dinner tonight so couldn't really do a proper lemon drizzle cake. So in the end I made plain sponge, put half of it in cupcake cases, mixed some cocoa powder into the remaining mixture, spooned that into the cases and used a knife to swirl the mixtures together. So we have marble cupcakes for the week.

May OPs finished at £37.21, mostly TTs with one PA payout that I hadn't dealt with in April. I still only have £2 sitting in PA at the moment so I nhope some academics and PhD students start doing some research soon. Given the state of the sector though most are probably just sitting quietly at their desks, trying not to scream.

I have accidentally booked 2 WI talks for next April. I'm now trying to work out if I want to change one of them or just suck it up. That serves me right for not keeping a paper note in my planner and just relying on a spreadsheet I can't access from work.

I have one talk this month! So that will be £35 plus mileage to go in my S&S ISA. And I still need to list DS's clothes on the work sales mailing list.

Lots of money coming out this month. TV Licence, website hosting fees, URL renewal fees, I want to make a small donation to a content creator whose work me and DH both enjoy, and I need to pay my WI fee for the year as well. I might try to get most of that paid this week as the mortgage money comes out on Wednesday so I'll then know where I stand.

And after listing my targets last weekend I had a proper think about my ebook and remembered that I turn 40 in November. So what better date to release said book than my birthday? That's given me a target (which I really needed) and it's realistic but still pushes me a bit. I went through my tracker spreadsheet for it and made a note on progress. I've got 9 women done, 7 who need a second draft, 6 who have a first draft started but not finished, and at least 4 who I want to include and haven't started yet.

The second drafts shouldn't be too onerous, they tend to be adding in missing dates and amending some sentences, so I might prioritise those this month and then take a look at the first drafts and the unstarted ones. I'm still not 100% sure I want them all in one book (they're not long chapters), but I could always do a volume two

This month I am enjoying watching Youtube videos of people walking around Tokyo. They're labelled as tours but no one speaks, they just record their walk with all the noise of traffic, people, shops etc. It's quite nice to have on in the background. There's quite a few creators doing this kind of thing now so if anyone wants to visit the world from their sofa I give the genre a gentle recommendation!

Dinner tonight is the terribly decadent chicken and parma ham pasta. Horrifically expensive to make nowadays but we only live once and I'd rather eat delicious pasta and save money elsewhere. Now that we no longer need the microwave on to sterilise baby bottles I'm getting back into the habit of switching off small appliances in the kitchen after use. The penny I am saving can go towards delicious meals

Have a good week everyone!

VintageHistorian

OPs for June had started off at £19.94, consisting of £14.20 standard OP plus £5.74 TT (it was going to be just 74 pence but I didn't like that so added an extra fiver).

TV licence has been paid for. Most of the web hosting fee has been set aside in the back up account and the rest is sitting in Paypal. I donated to the content creator's Patreon. Had a money fail as Disney+ renewed without telling me it was going to go through, only £4.99 and we are still using it but it's annoying as I have a Tesco Clubcard offer sitting waiting to be used for it.

On Friday I finished work early and popped to Tesco to pick up a free Higgidy pie (free through an offer I saw on Instagram), and a free multipack of own brand crisps (free through the Checkout Smart app). I also got some tortilla chips for Mr VH for Fathers Day next week and will probably get another pack in the shopping this week, and I got a jar of his favourite coffee which was on Clubcard offer, that's been put aside for Christmas. Fathers Day cards for Mr VH and my Dad have been ordered off Etsy, hopefully they arrive this week. I'm going to take DS to M&S next Saturday to get the rest of Mr VH's gift (a selection of dips and condiments).

Yesterday I took DS down the road to the local church fair. DS walked down very nicely, got upset when he saw lots of people (he's in his shy phase) and demanded to be picked up and carried around the church, and then would not walk back up. There was lots of crying and clinging to me, even though no one was around. He did cheer up a bit in Co-Op when I asked him to carry the basket for me, but once back outside he would not walk back to the car and simply lay down on the pavement. It was frustrating and hilarious at the same time and I had a lot of difficulty trying not to laugh at him when he decided the pavement was a legitimate form of protest.

He was then super clingy with Mr VH yesterday afternoon so clearly something was up. He also spent most of the afternoon after his nap eating like he hadn't been fed for days. He's had a cold this past week and all the signs of teething for 3 weeks now, I'm wondering if we're now getting a growth spurt on top of it all. Or failing that it's powering the new teeth working their way through.

One of my teeth has been quite sensitive this week. It's one of the ones that had a filling replaced at the beginning of the year. I suspect it's a combination of bruising the gum with my toothbrush and work stress, as I find stress often brings out random aches and pains for me, and historically it has included random tooth pain. I don't like to mention it too much on here as you never know who's reading and how identifiable you are, but I will say the workplace has been exceptionally atrocious this week.

Once again there is a large chicken in the slow cooker. Roast chicken with spuds, veg and yorkies for dinner tonight, with leftover meat for dinner on Monday and Wednesday and hopefully a sandwich for me for a lunch during the week.

Have a good week everyone!

VintageHistorian

Just did a money shuffle so a TT of £3.96 has gone to mortgage. There's a pending payment of DS's child benefit money coming in on Monday so I'll try to remember to pay that into his savings during the week and do a mid-week TT as well.

Mr VH mentioned during the week that we should take DS to Clarks this weekend to get his feet measured. I agreed and then completely forgot about it until he reminded me mid-morning when I mentioned an Aldi visit, so we popped into town quickly and then went to Aldi for nappies, getting home in time for DS's lunch. Clarks has a 50% off sale but there was very little in DS's new size so we've spent £32 on a new pair. He's only just reached the new size as we had him measured 5 weeks ago and they said he wasn't there yet, so at least we should get months of wear out of them.

Annoyingly because it was a rushed visit I completely forgot about the speakers cheque burning a hole in my purse after Tuesday's talk, so didn't pay that in. It'll probably be another 2 weeks before I can get into town and pay it in. Mostly annoying because if it's in my purse it can't be put to better use in my S&S ISA (unless I transfer the money out of my backup account...actually I might do that, and then repay the backup account once the cheque is depostied and cleared).

This laptop will need to be replaced at the end of this month. The battery can no longer charge to 100% and the amount it will hold is decreasing, last week it was 70% and today it's 64%. I use this laptop for my talks and I can't risk it shutting off while in my bag driving to the next one. So money will have to come out of savings. It's taking a long time to load etc as well, I've had it since 2019 so 6 years isn't a bad run, I think I paid about £450 for it so it's less than £100 a year. And I use it a LOT. I've already identified a potential replacement on the John Lewis website, I just need to bite the bullet. It's transferring all my harddrive over, downloading software and games and getting things set up again that I hate.

I have got some more storage boxes so a task for this weekend is to pack away DS's baby bottles and the microwave steriliser, and his 18-24 month clothes as most of those have been moved out of regular rotation and into the middle drawer. I sold 2 of his outgrown reusable swimming nappies at work for £5 each, so that's £10 to go in the Disney jar (which still doesn't have a label, another task for this weekend).

I've just had to bring in the clothes horse as the wind keeps blowing it over on the patio. It's only got my bathtowels and some napkins on it and they're all pretty dry anyway. DS is having a nap, once he's up and had a snack I'll take him to M&S to get the last of Mr VH's fathers day gift.

Dinner tonight is toad in the hole. Appropriate for a 24 degree summers day? Absolutely not, but I'm not giving up my yorkie puds and gravy just because of some daft hot weather! The batter is in the fridge and the potatoes are peeled and sitting in a pan of water so it'll mostly be assembly this evening.

Have a good weekend everyone!

South_coast

Who do you bank with? Most banks let you pay cheques in via their app, could be worth checking?

VintageHistorian

South_coast said:

Who do you bank with? Most banks let you pay cheques in via their app, could be worth checking?

I am definitely with one that lets you do that, but I don't have any banking apps on my phone. I'm very paranoid about my phone being stolen and that data being compromised, so I only do online banking on my laptop.

I'm also not logged into to Paypal on my phone, nor do I have any of the Apple Pay etc apps (although my iPhone does occasionally try to insist I should sign up to Apple Pay). It's my main luddite trait (that and not having other networked devices in our house, so no Alexa, no NEST for the heating, no Ring doorbell cam etc).

in_need_of_direction

I agree about not using mobile banking but ds will happily install apps, use them and then remove them.

Watty1

Always intended to avoid networked devices and wireless internet but somehow ended up with internet, then a heating system as the heating baffled me, then a Ring doorbell (that one was needed for personal security) then an alexa gadget as it came at a really cheap price with the ring then - somehow from my intentions I ended up in haze of gadgets lOL

ladysummerisle

I’ve just read this from the beginning over the past couple of days. You’re doing well and you’re very much in the trenches when it comes to DS. It’ll get easier when school starts, which btw you shouldn’t worry about. It’s an eye opener looking the curriculum and realising how slow paced it is!

I’m going to send you a PM.