Get a grip woman! 28 January 2017 at 12:18PM edited 30 November -1 at 12:00AM in Debt Free Diaries 1.8K replies 143.3K views

Suffolk_lass

I hope everyone had a great Christmas Day and if you are reading this on Boxing Day because you are looking on-line - I urge you to consider looking things up on-line and then compare with your local shops.

Sorry if this sounds a bit preachy - as well as Martin's mantras before you spend, if you buy things locally the people who serve you are employed in some premises that contribute their business rates to your local community, their employment taxes pay for our schools and NHS, and their earnings contribute to your local businesses and keeping them going. They might not manufacture much in the UK but we can support our economy by making sure we buy it here.

If you buy things on-line for less than £15 the chances are that they will be delivered from a warehouse outside the UK - you will pay the same but what would be £20% VAT won't be collected and goes to pay for the movement of the items from outside the UK to your address, and to the untaxed profits of the Company you are buying from. There is a box you can uncheck on Amazing's site that defaults to "send me my stuff as soon as it is ready to ship" - this means they will package each item under £15 separately and send it from outside the UK.

Suffolk_lass

We now have the plague of flies (no doubt these are emanating from the dead rat bodies somewhere), every now and again the blue-light bug zapper crackles and smokes. I have just ordered a second to put in the loft-space of the spare room that seems to be the source. Please let them be gone before NYE when the next lot of visitors are due to stay.

Today is all about food processing. And please can someone explain how my fridge can be more full of food after two wholly gluttonous days and a houseful of people eating virtually non-stop? How does that work?

Off to start with soup, pies and curries

Busy_Mee1

Ha despite my resolution to not go over the top this year ...our fridge is also still chockerblock. DS is coming tonight for cold turkey Christmas dinner and I need to do some do some consolidation of the dishes in there. It is like playing fridge Jenga at the moment :rotfl:

Hope you get rid of the flies :eek:

Karmacat

SL! You poor thing There must be a lot I have one of those blue zapper things, I bought it before I got a new loft hatch and everything was coming through into the house but I never heard it crackle like that I hope its all gone really soon.

Suffolk_lass

Happy New Year Everyone! :beer:

I have not done a plan for 2019 yet (I am practising being retired and not doing much today - so far it feels very slothful!). :eek:

I intend making soup as it is my turn for the Community Lunch tomorrow - it will be fridge-veg soup as I have loads left (over-cater? Moi?). I am also going to make a bread pudding as we have loads of shop-bought bread that we had over Christmas. No wonder we are feeling fat! I reckon the diet proper will start next week as I am too mean to throw away the remaining trifle and there are four portions left.

I might post a list of what I eat as it might help (me to be accountable) and it will help with shopping lists and grocery challenge. I will do my end of year update later (if I get round to it!)

Suffolk_lass

Ghastly rat update

Ooh, meant to say I bought a new bug-zapper from Amazing and it is marvellous. It is a higher wattage beast and instead of frying the plague and smoking it just makes a discreet crack and they are dead. It is in the loft space, where the rat bodies are (we think). The fly plague is showing little evidence of reducing - we have vacuumed out several hundred now. The zapper in the kitchen is awful - it seems to crackle and electrocute them slowly. While it may be perfect for a sadist I don't like it at all. Once this phase is over I am going to swap them.

Suffolk_lass

Moving rapidly on...

I think I am around £175 short of where I want to be to complete my target for the Mortgage Free in Three (Take 4) challenge. I have roughly a fortnight to Tilly Tidy or conjure it from elsewhere. I really wanted to have hit this before posting my update for December and round off 2018 but I should just draw a line.

In the procrastination space I have various fridge veg cooking slowly and a bread pudding in the oven. And I have spotted some houmus I had forgotten in the depths of the fridge so am off to snack some with celery and carrot sticks...

beanielou

You can do it

enthusiasticsaver

Oh my goodness. Rats and flies. I hate them both but beyond a plague of fruit flies in the early autumn luckily we don't have problems. Zapper sounds good anyway.

We tend to find we find plenty to do even though retired although a lot of it is now enjoyable stuff instead of working. Nothing wrong with a more relaxed lifestyle ( I like that word better than slothful):rotfl:

It may take you a while to adjust to retirement if you work full time. I worked part time for last 5 years so found it easier but DH worked full time until the end but has lots of hobbies to keep him busy.

Suffolk_lass

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

We tend to find we find plenty to do even though retired although a lot of it is now enjoyable stuff instead of working. Nothing wrong with a more relaxed lifestyle ( I like that word better than slothful):rotfl:

It may take you a while to adjust to retirement if you work full time. I worked part time for last 5 years so found it easier but DH worked full time until the end but has lots of hobbies to keep him busy.

Sorry, yes, it only feels slothful in my pre-retirement head - it is not meant to imply that others who have relaxed into retirement are being slothful!

DH went back to work today and it feels quite empty here without him. I have been working compressed hours for a number of years, but have not actually managed to honour my tenth day (non-working) this year due to the amount of work, combined with the immovable deadlines. So I imagine it will take some time to work through to the relaxation point, after I stop. I think less so for DH. His ability to sit around, doing little cannot be questioned in recent times.