Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

So, since last night's rain... and this morning's rain... and this afternoon's rain... everything is cooler and wetter, and some places even look greener! It's come to something when I put a cosy jumper and long PJs on again and I'm quite comfortable with them! However, the gale that blew in between times dried four loads of washing on the line including a duvet.

We spent quite a bit today as we had to pay for a couple of injections each before travelling, I bought pyjamas and hair scrunchies and we've overspent on the food budget by £6 between us. I also realised I've gone about £12 over last week. DH also had to put some diesel in the car. The inoculations, fuel and clothes don't come out of my wages and I didn't note exactly how much change I had because I just handed it over to add to DH's share when paying for food.
The supermarket shop wasn't the best experience and I'm wondering whether to do a customer feedback survey about it. We noticed a customer picking up then discarding unwrapped rolls - yuck! IMO those should have been in a supervised area, preferably behind glass and handled by staff. Needless to say we didn't buy any. Then DH went to buy wrapped bread and found a live fly inside the wrapper. He handed it over to staff who were suitably disgusted. Then when we went to pay we used the remainder of our cash and went to pay the balance by card. The woman on the till told us the total but acted as though we had given her £10 instead of £20. She still had what we had given her in her hand, but it was late on a Saturday and I think her concentration was possibly flagging. If DH hadn't been on the ball we would have overpaid £10. However, if I complain to the supermarket, will it put the woman's job at risk? I wouldn't do that, especially as she kept her head, recalculated, and apologised. Also, they can hardly be blamed for their customers' behaviour, even if it was only possible because of the layout of their store... thinking on from that, it IS actually their fault. They have a duty towards their other customers and allowed two breaches of HACCP principles in one department, either of which is potentially a cause for food poisoning (e-coli, salmonella, staphylococcus and potentially anything borne on body fluids, from a quick google).

Spending:
Housekeeping £? About £3 - the balance of the £40 I had in cash from earlier in the week.
Clothing £14.98
Travel (injections) £180.00
Fuel ?
Mortgage overpayment £372.11
MS:
Put back a few items I tried on... however nice, I didn't need them.
Found a freebie course on the OU and impulsively signed up, even though it's nothing to do with work and I've been looking for work-related ones and been put off due to a bad experience with buying a course some years ago. At least I know the OU has a good reputation!
Bargain bread and bag of chickpeas
DH spotted the supermarket was about to overcharge him by £10!
Confessions:
Spent nearly £8 on hair bobbles! That's not a good idea as I already have quite a lot.
Didn't total up the shopping as we went round so ended up overspending.
Decluttering:
I had a brief sort through our overstuffed receipts and guarantees file and, while I didn't have time to do it in detail, I weeded out and recycled lots of paper. We seem to get through a lot of kettles and irons!
Pulled out a table's worth of books to get to a file for medical records. Know better than to store it there in future. The bookcase looks a lot better but that doesn't really count as one side of the dining table and a chair are buried under stacks of homeless books.

WannabeFree

The food thing in supermarkets worries me Makes me so paranoid who has been touching things. I know we should be trying to focus on less packaging but I just can't do it

I'd send an email of to them so maybe they can consider changing how it's set up currently?


Hope you're well and have a lovely day

x

Cherryfudge

WannabeFree wrote: »

The food thing in supermarkets worries me Makes me so paranoid who has been touching things. I know we should be trying to focus on less packaging but I just can't do it

DH pointed out that the fruit, which can be washed, was in plastic while the bread wasn't! It's really put me off. Mind you I also get put off when shop assistants lick their fingers to open bags, but I don't see that as often now I usually remember to bring a cloth bag.

Cherryfudge

Bit of a late update for Sunday, 29/7/18.

I had some sharp pain in my elbow this morning as well as aches and swelling, and after church I saw a friend who's a physio and asked her opinion. She compared my arms and advised A&E so that's where I spent the afternoon! A few blood tests have ruled out infection but I now need to go back to the consultant... and I ended up buying some bits for lunch, which reminds me I will need to check the fridge at work tomorrow in case I left anything in there back in May! :eek::rotfl: Actually I suspect my colleagues will have got rid of anything that threatened to walk out.

Spending:
Housekeeping £3.10
MS:
Found an unusual coin in my change so am putting it aside for a stocking-filler for DS2 who is a collector. Looks as though it's worth a few pounds on the open market but I got it for face value.
Decluttering:
I have a bag of stuff ready either for charity or sales and have bumped an item on the local sales site. Nothing has actually left the house...

WannabeFree

Oh no hope the elbow settles down and behaves!

x

Cherryfudge

I'm back to work! A very short shift today then nothing more for a couple of days but it was lovely to see my colleagues and catch up a bit.

The arm is better behaved today, perhaps it was objecting to the muggy weather. There was no one available when I tried to ring the consultant so I'll try again tomorrow. Meanwhile I feel the need of some sort of list:

• wash hair Done by 5pm
• shop for dinner
• take items to charity
• find more items for charity
• Find DS's missing uniform!!! Last seen a few weeks ago and totally disappeared so he is making do with similar trousers (he has the shirt, thankfully) and hoping no one notices.
• Find bookcase space for some more of the overspill from the dining room.
• declutter a few papers.
• message my friends to see what out plans are for tomorrow Done by 5pm
• ring up for quote to change fireplace Done by 5pm
  

Cherryfudge

I got no further with the list as DH got the shopping so I had an NSD and after tea we went for a walk. That was lovely - got plenty of steps in and it's a beautiful evening.

Tomorrow is a day off but I have a couple of phone calls to make and a friend is coming for coffee - all in the morning. After that I'm hoping to get something constructive done, even if it's just taking items to charity.

A has been helping around the house in an unusual way - taking up carpet and un-squeaking a couple of floorboards! They had been bothering me for a while and we discovered that when we had some workmen in a while ago, they had cut through a section of board and put it back without securing it to anything! No wonder it moved if I walked over it!

So I feel it's been quite a productive evening even if my list is no smaller.

Cherryfudge

Quite a few phone calls made today: appointment booked with the consultant, Occupational Health very helpful, someone coming to discuss installing a woodburning stove, then my friend came round for coffee. That was the morning, then in the afternoon I deep-cleaned the bathroom and bought some groceries, and after tea we went for a walk (again). Free, social and healthy.

I wanted to increase the day's step count so I asked DH if he wanted anything from the shops and he did so I did a second lot of shopping, arriving just in time to get an assortment of discounted breads. The breads were £1.23 reduced from £5.00 which is nice even though we are once again on very reduced freezer space!

I've also paid A for the wood he used to replace the floorboard.

Spending:
Household £9.50
Housekeeping £15.18
Toiletries £2.00
MS:
YS breads (really nice ones!)
10th coin was a £2 so it's going in my £2 savings jar
Wombled 18p
Decluttering:
I'm going to count cleaning the bathroom although I didn't get rid of much, as I've tidied and it looks less cluttered despite what DS2 says (half the rubble in there is his ).
A few more books have found shelf space.

Cherryfudge

NSD.

Work this morning then mooched on the computer and in the garden at home, waiting in for the man to come to talk about wood burning stoves. He had some lovely photos of ones he's done over the years (he came recommended by someone we know): I can see we will be spoilt for choice. I've also rung up for an estimate for a new loft hatch and ladder.

Once he'd gone I got down to some cooking: a batch of marmalade for DH, some little cakes and salmon fishcakes, a new recipe which I liked a lot. Unlike all previous fishcakes, they only moderately fell to pieces.

Another walk with DH this evening so 11,000 steps. I'm determined to get fitter even if I'm not allowed to run yet! I do notice it's going dark soon after 9pm though.

Spending:
None
MS:
Nothing spectacular: I used ingredients I had in apart from the salmon that I got yesterday.
Decluttering:
Progress in the garden - some cutting back of borders. Those I did a few weeks ago are growing back looking a lot less tatty.
Progress on the baking supplies! For someone who rarely ices ckes, I still have far too many pretty things to shake over icing, but at least I now have less icing on which to shake them.

Honeysucklelou2

Wood burning stoves are fab. I love ours and makes the winter evenings cosy and warm. It's surprising how much heat they can give out. Have fun choosing!!