Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

Bit of a celebratory moment - having paid the last of DH's last month's wages into the holiday savings account, I noticed a small Mr T payment on that account and, querying that (it was legit) checked the account that my wages go into and mortgage and housekeeping come out of. I then proved to DH that what he thinks is a 'small amount' when the pays for something on his card then gets cash back, e.g. £1.55 spent on the card then the housekeeping money on top of that, actually adds up to lots of money. While in that account I can see the mortgage and noticed that the £20 overpayment went through straight away and there was £9,164.48 of mortgage left to pay.

I already have my wages in the bank and know I will have a surplus in there, much of which will go to overpay the mortgage so I had a stroke of inspiration and overpaid £164.50 ahead of next month's figures. It may not go through till Monday or Tuesday but the psychological advantage is - we now owe under £8,000 on the house! :beer::beer::beer:

I really does feel that I'm within sight of the goal, though in much the same way as a marathon runner could be in sight of a goal that's still 10 miles away.

Onebrokelady

Cherryfudge wrote: »

Thanks SA and OBL Another dolls' house person, eh? Mine is 1/16th scale so a lot of things are too big but I love miniatures and there's no rush to get it kitted out.

I finally got round to posting a few items for sale and have two buyers - only a fiver's worth but I'd rather it went to someone who will enjoy it.

Nothing spent yesterday: the puddings for the BBQ helped use up some ingredients and today I'm planning on banana bread and yogurt cake which will probably get sliced up and frozen because I do not (repeat, not) need all those carbs in one go.

So far today I've downloaded a recipe book for 99p which will come off my voucher, and sent DS2 for kitchen paper (£1) which is bulky for me to carry. I need to go shopping properly later so I'll post separately with final totals.

I don't think I mentioned our kettle sprang a leak and rather than buy another DH commandeered one that his Dad had stuck in a cupboard because it was too heavy. So temporary M/S but it takes ages to switch off and we don't want to ruin the kitchen units with steam...

Here's last week's list, amended for today:
tidying/decluttering:
wrap sold item and check if payment is through/take to Post Office if paid - buyer is in hospital so this is on hold
categorise paperwork currently strewn over dining table
bake banana bread
bake yogurt cake
tidy DD's room of pile of papers and empty bin
our bedroom (worst room!) - just do something!
Kitchen - measure cupboard space for a box for overflow of spices which currently get in the way
Put baking stuff away
Improve area under bottom larder shelf

Wow 1/16th is little,mine is 1/12th scale,I had always wanted a dolls house so my daughters bought me a kit for Xmas a few years ago,I spent several months building and painting it and now I'm doing the furnishings,it's taking a while especially as I am now on a strict budget ,it's a Georgian townhouse called The Beeches if you want to google and see what it's like,I've really enjoyed doing it so far,I'm doing it up in a modern country style,it looks like the kind of house I would buy for myself if only I had the money :rotfl: I've bought plain wood furniture and painted it because I'm not skilled enough to make it myself but I've made duvets and window blinds myself as they were easy to do

Cherryfudge

On the whole prescriptions thing... we have a choice of pharmacies including one attached to the surgery but I don't think I've ever been offered a delivery. I originally went to one near the nursing home where Mum lived but after she passed away I only needed to go to that area occasionally and when I did I would sometimes find I was overshooting the chemist and heading to the nursing home - which was poignant so I changed pharmacy.

I'm also 'lucky' enough to have permanent health condition which entitles me to free prescriptions, but I'm fit enough to get to the pharmacy to collect them - sort of best of both worlds in a way

I've generally had good service and helpful advice from pharmacists but the one I'm using now seems to be never the same person twice. I think the system is as secure as that at the doctor's and it will all be covered by data protection too. However good the staff, though, mistakes can happen so it's worth knowing what your medication is and checking the dose and everything is right. I did once come across something going out on prescription that was clearly an error and the pharmacy held an enquiry over it.

Cherryfudge

Onebrokelady wrote: »

Wow 1/16th is little,mine is 1/12th scale,I had always wanted a dolls house so my daughters bought me a kit for Xmas a few years ago,I spent several months building and painting it and now I'm doing the furnishings,it's taking a while especially as I am now on a strict budget ,it's a Georgian townhouse called The Beeches if you want to google and see what it's like,I've really enjoyed doing it so far,I'm doing it up in a modern country style,it looks like the kind of house I would buy for myself if only I had the money :rotfl: I've bought plain wood furniture and painted it because I'm not skilled enough to make it myself but I've made duvets and window blinds myself as they were easy to do

The Beeches is lovely - so stately! I'm with you, my dream dolls' house would be the sort of house I'd like to live in. I would like have a go at modelling things with clay for it too. I haven't done any more than clean mine so far. If you google Triang 1939 dolls house, mine is the double-fronted half-timbered style with a garage to the left.

Cherryfudge

Just popping in for a bit of a rant! Sorry about this.

I've spent several hours getting all the data together to switch bank accounts: logging in here there and everywhere, getting postcodes, working out how long we've banked at places, how long we've lived here, how long we've been in our current posts... takes ages. We had just got DH's financial details together and entered onto the form and clicked through to the next page to find the system had finally thrown us off completely and all that work is invisible, apart from notes on backs of envelopes, notes in my brain, notes in a notebook, details in online banking etc etc.

I've got it all to do again!

I'm going to get the shopping for Sunday dinner and leave the new account for now.

Grrrrrrr....

Cherryfudge

Not awake enough to attempt the massive forms again... on a positive note, though, we are definitely not spending nearly as much on food at the moment. We usually have £80 between us (much more than the national average: I've never worked out how people do it as we aren't in too expensive an area, but I think my shift pattern is partly guilty as we cook and eat separately). Anyway, £80 a week covers the two of us, bits for DS 2 and a Sunday meal for anywhere from 3 to 7 of us. This week we have £36.40 left over! I'm going to roll it forward to next week which could be a whole different ball game with a household of four from tomorrow and five from later in the week.

Spends:
Clothing (for DH but on my card) £31.40
Housekeeping £7.91

MS stuff:
Wombled 4p
10th coin savings £1
Trying out a Moroccan-style dish from Love Food Hate Waste tomorrow and am going to try substituting chicken liver for some of the meat and adding chickpeas (still have a tub in my freezer). I think with all the other things in there I might get away with it.

Decluttering
Garden waste gone to the tip
A bit of deep-cleaning in the lounge and kitchen
Tidied J's room ready for D's use and DH put some spare duvets in the loft. We are determined this house share will be as comfortable as possible!

Cherryfudge

I decided in favour of actually buying the Early Retirement Extreme book yesterday - £7.46 off a birthday present voucher as a download so no actual cost to me. I'm enjoying it a lot (though I have to look things up to try to understand some bits) and I like to highlight which I can't do on the website.

The Moroccan chicken stew (modified a bit by J and I as she came to help me cook) was a great success: I'll certainly make it again. It got quite a bit more spicy as she added a stock cube, chilli flakes and garam masala and I added apricots and sultanas, but it was scrumptious.

Two of our travellers have returned and it turns out there is no travelling girlfriend - she was a friend of a friend visiting at the same time: H was winding J up and it turns out DH and I got caught in the cross fire! Ah well... I suppose a girlfriend on the other side of Europe would have been a complication.
DS2 is now in Italy... lucky thing.

I really haven't got much done today: the washing is on the line and the handwashing is all up to date. I need to get to the shops and I am knowingly and unashamedly avoiding that huge bank account form. I suppose they all want to know the same amount of detail but honestly... I might have a look and see if there's a downloadable version that I could print out but I didn't notice one before.

Am also annoyed with the account that pays the mortgage - as usual the money has gone out of our account but isn't yet showing in theirs, though it's with the same people and I authorised the payment last week. In theory that puts us behind on our payments though I've done everything I can to make sure the money goes through in good time.

The poorly arm is giving me a bit of stick at the moment so I need to go and do some physio. I suppose progress was likely to slow up as time went on. I had a long chat with the window cleaner this morning and learned that his broken elbow hasn't stopped him doing his job, which is reassuring. I also chatted to a neighbour so the morning wasn't wasted.

Hope to be back later with some degree of things done, meanwhile enjoy this everlasting sunshine everyone.

Cherryfudge

I got as far as the shops this afternoon, all inspired by Extreme Retirement, and had a debate with myself about 1) whether to buy eggs as I wasn't actually planning an egg meal but They Are Always Useful and I Might Want To Bake, or 2) cous cous as we ran out on Sunday but don't actually plan to use any more this week, or 3)porridge oats as I'm running low but haven't had any for a while. Of course I hadn't thought this through 100% so I bought quite a few things: faced with a book about low-budget living a box of fish for £3 seemed indulgent but it will work out as 75p per person per meal for a main portion of protein which could be a lots worse. I cooked hassleback potatoes, peas and cherry tomatoes with it.

I got all the washing in off the line and A put theirs out after work, then our newish neighbour started burning garden rubbish which annoys me. I put up with it at first as he was doing loads of work on the house and garden but it happens quite often still and tiny bits of ash were floating down. He does keep an eye on it, though, and it's always out by last thing in the evening.

1/7/18 Spends:
Ebook £7.46
MS stuff:
Home grown raspberries with dinner.
2/7/18 Spends:
Housekeeping £20.27 (including £5 window cleaning)
MS stuff:
Flapjacks - baked while the tea was in the oven, used up ingredients I already had. Apricot and almond... works quite well so long as I don't eat too many!
Didn't buy cous cous or grated cheese but bought the rest of the list.
Wombled 4p
10th coin savings 20p
Decluttering:
No papers decluttered or items listed for sale.
Kitchen - used up dried apricots, flaked almonds, a tin of syrup, some oats and a packet of peas. (On the minus side, have replaced the oats already, have half a pack of fish in the freezer, bought 3 lots of fruit that hasn't been started yet, have half a pack of new potatoes to use up and replaced the chopped onions - so as much came in as went out).
Confession time:
Had to throw out some grapes and plums that had gone past edible. Plan better, Cherry!

Chrystal

Isn't it law that fires shouldn't be lit in gardens until after 7pm?

NoOneAround

Eager_Elephant wrote: »

Sorry to butt in but just wanted to comment on the delivery of prescriptions, our local GP surgery sent a letter to everyone about the online system and tried to get everyone to stay with collecting from their pharmacy.

The online system is the NHS' way of trying to save money because if they fulfill prescriptions then they dont have to pay paharmacies to do it - I can see a lot of downsides and not to many upsides.

There are plenty of comments on line which are good and bad.

Personally I would rather support my local pharmacy, they know who we are, can help when there is a problem, they can speak to a GP immediately about any prescription query and also I worry that if more people get it through the post then pharmacies will close and where will that leave older people??

In my area some of the pharmacies offer delivery for free which works well especially for older people, my f-i-l had his delivered weekly and so did everyone else in his bloack.
It worked really well.

I also worry about security, what if the prescription went missing, what if the wrong ones were delivered?

Thanks EE and Cherry,
That's answered my question! I also prefer to support the local pharmacies, it feels like the right thing to do these days with so much local business struggling to keep afloat. and as you say, if a prescription went astray it would be more hassle to get a replacement quickly/on time. Because my surgery has a dispensary it is so easy for the pharmacist to directly speak to a doctor and sort out any issues. Not to mention our RM deliveries leave a lot to be desired!