Get a grip woman!

Suffolk_lass

Monthly round up. 

• At the end of October my "Save 12k in 2021" total has exceeded the £7,500 total I set. We are over £8k with two months to go. Unlikely to make £10k but we shall see! Given ow much we have spent on bee equipment this is very encouraging!
• My grocery shopping for the year is at £2199.75, leaving £800.25 for the next two months. I am going to see how long we can go before a SM visit. I will definitely go once but hopefully a market top up for fruit and veg will be all we need until the last week (when Christmas trees are generally there for about half the price of anywhere else for a small Nordman).
• DS has settled in at work and is hopefully now making a contribution. They use him across both sites and this keeps it all varied and interesting. He has re-established contact with two women he went to school with, as a direct result of working in the Village where he went to school. One he works with and the other phoned up and they have since met for a coffee and a catch up. In my not-interfering-mother sort of way, I am delighted. He has lots of online contacts for a game he plays and for which he runs what I would call a team. Personally I prefer real-life contacts and a no-strings friendship would be great. Actually so would a strings relationship but that is not my call. A lot of his longer standing friendships have gone to the next stage with couples having children while he remains resolutely single after a stinging last relationship literally broke his heart.
• The oil tank has been replaced (you know that if you read back a bit). It is a huge relief for us. We have been fretting about the old one failing for several years. It was the right decision, even if regrettably, it is fossil fuel based. In a few years, it or the boiler will need replacing and by then the cost and availability of alternatives will have  improved. Living in a very old timber framed house with no foundations and thatched roof really does limit our options but I feel we have bought some time to look into options more fully.
• Christmas chatter has begun with my Auntie and cousins. My cousin's partner texted me in frustration that no decisions have been made about who goes where, when, other than them offering to host Boxing Day as a running buffet (great, as I have been doing it for maybe 8 years since it became too much for Auntie). We know my Mum is staying put in Scotland but we don't know if DS will be with us for more than Christmas Day and we don't know if it will be 3, 5, 7 or more of us. It does make ordering the turkey a bit troublesome but a bit of gammon and a crown on standby should sort us out! Just had an update from our bubble buddy who is cycling round Portugal. I don't know if his Christmas options will go ahead but I expect him before New year for a few days too.

themadvix

All sounding good here SL! Glad DS has settled in and has met up with someone for a real-life coffee - you're right, while online friends are great, they don't fulfil our social needs in quite the same way.

Suffolk_lass

One pension in, one yet to appear (tomorrow) but I can see it pending. Sadly 20p less than usual tips it below the usual round number plus pence. Don't you just hate it when that happens?

I have added a big lump to my credit card for next month by ordering a new ultra bee suit for DH which needs to be custom sized. It is his combined birthday and Christmas present. We carefully measured him and I was shocked to find he is an inch shorter than when we met, so I made him measure me too. I knew I had lost an inch in the aftermath of a serious back injury some years ago but I was appalled to find I am now under 5'8. I really am turning into my mother. Good grief. 4cm, nearly 2 inches less than in my thirties!!!

Expecting DS at some point today, after his morning shift, to wish DH HB and maybe hang out or have lunch with us. I must find the card I have yet to write!

Cheery_Daff

Crikey!

I must confess when I read you'd ordered DH an ultra bee suit I was imagining him actually dressed up as a really fantastic bee 🙄😂😂 Must engage brain 😂😂

trix-a-belle

Happy Birthday to Mr SL!
Don't worry Cheery I had visions of some Bee/Spaceman hybrid with a technological visor

I hope the buzzy ladies are doing well with you, a local beekeeper up the road to me found one of his hives still out frantically gathering yesterday it was so warm so is worrying about stores & how they will do over winter.

Karmacat

Loving the idea of a Bee/Spaceman hybrid I saw lots of actual bees yesterday, my neighbour that I went to check on has an ivy in the form of a seven foot high shrub, covered in those green ivy flowers, which in turn were covered in bees, it was lovely.

Yikes to getting shorter - I haven't measured myself for many years, and I know my bones have always been in good shape (dentists have commented on the density of my jawbone!) I must take the initiative on that soon.

Christmas plans - oh boy.  If things aren't locked down, I'll just be at my sister's, with her and her daughter.  Yours sound much more populated and jolly - though I'm sorry to hear your visit with your mum didn't go that well.

Suffolk_lass

Here we are

Suffolk_lass

Time to bake some bread I think. Been up since six and had a quick catch-up on here, brought the milk in and wiped it all down as it gets left in a box that spiders and beetles have parties in.

I woke early as I am covered in little nippy bites under my chin and round to my ears (from a bit of hedge trimming we did on Thursday). I've taken some anti-histamine that has started to work now.

I have dried fruit steeping in brandy ready to make some small C-cakes and I might make some mincemeat too as plenty of fruits and apples.

Planning a few Christmas prep sessions in the Village. It resembles trying to nail jelly to the wall, trying to pin some people down!

trix-a-belle

what a vision that gives

Suffolk_lass

Monday morning and here I am, contemplating "stuff". We watched that programme with Stacey Solomon last week and the impact of the work they did was amazing. We are both untidy, not very good at systems and live in a far too cluttered house. I need to talk it through with DH but I feel a two hour booking of the hall opposite (several times...) may be called for, to see what we have and tackle it, one area at a time. I especially liked the organisation techniques. He especially liked the "getting rid of more than half your stuff" part.

Money wise, it is ticking along. I have spent only on eggs (last month's), milk (this week's) and a bit of fruit, albeit in W8flower (while I was getting the dried fruit I needed for Christmas preparations) total so far is £37.44. No 3 year old own brand brandy to be had, I hailed a passing wines and spirits man and asked him to check if this was a long-term supply thing or just sold out. Sadly it was the former, so I bought a bottle of Remy XO instead. I will need all that for cocktails...