Cherry takes the reins

Sun_Addict

It really does help to keep up with a diary, it makes you accountable I think.

The stove sounds fabulous

We get condensation in our house in winter, it's a pain but as we've been told by many a builder it's the downside of double glazing in an old house.

HairyHandofDartmoor

We get condensation too. We have old single pane windows at the back of the house and double glazed plastic windows at the front of the house. The condensation is much worse on the old single pane windows.

Onebrokelady

The plans for your room sound lovely, my daughter has a wood burner in her living room and in the winter it looks so cosy in there,I like to see some wooden furniture that's not painted,DD2 bought a writing bureau from the charity shop,it's such lovely wood we just sanded some bits and waxed it,it's a lovely piece of furniture and it would have been a shame to paint it

HairyHandofDartmoor

I like stripped wood too as the wood grain is lovely. I don't care about furniture fashions, I just like quality.

Cherryfudge

I can see I have a lovely audience to regale with tales of old furniture! Thank you all for the nice comments about that and cosy stoves too.

I'm quite a few days behind so I will probably forget stuff and have to edit this post.

The trip to Mum's old house was productive, though not massively so. A couple of bags of rubbish and three charity bags aren't much in the total scheme of things but nonetheless they are progress. I also deep-cleaned part of the bedroom I use while there - it takes time when an area hasn't been dusted for maybe 10 years! - and did some work on the garden to set it up for winter. I looked at the back of a wardrobe that had had stuff in front of the door and found (no, not Narnia) some beautiful old coats including one which I think Mum had made herself and which I've brought home to clean. The lining is coming to pieces (it's probably 60 years old) but the outside is in good condition and it's very chic. I doubt it would fit me but perhaps DD might like to try it. Anyway the house now smells of wet wool but it washed well.

I was at work yesterday almost straight from the train: it's got colder over the last few days, hasn't it? I took a fleece but not a coat on my travels and was adding scarves as the journey progressed. Something tells me I won't get away without a coat for a few months now, as we had snow this morning! It didn't settle but t's bloomin' cold out there.

In an unusual move, DS2 has let us see some of his student finance details. I think we're going to have to help him out as part of the reason he has so little is because we had more income last year. He lives at home for free but has to use his car a lot, and pays for just about everything himself. He has to attend placements for his course which make it hard to have a job, especially now he's in his final year. He's been very resistant to letting us help before so I think things must be tough for him to allow us to see what he gets now.

Spending: 24th
Plants £10 (reclaimed)
Coffee (housekeeping) £3.99
25th
NSD, I think
26th
Housekeeping £0.28
27th
NSD for me but gave DH £6 of housekeeping money to fund Sunday lunch.
Mortgage overpayment £160.00
MS:
The 28p was a yellow-stickered loaf of nice bread that had been £1.10
Took packed lunch and snacks to last me till 7pm on Friday, and a flask so I didn't 'need' to buy coffee on the train. I've really grown to prefer taking a flask as I know the coffee will be to my taste and I don't have to hope there's a trolley on the train... and it costs a fraction of the price.
Winter coat and jumpers are down from the loft so I won't be so tempted to emergency shopping.
I've been living off the freezer since I got back so we now have freezer space (double bonus).
Decluttering:
5 bags of stuff from Mum's.
A few items of clothing to textiles/charity this afternoon.

HairyHandofDartmoor

I'm with you on the flask lately. Apart from Costalot who do lovely coffee, you can pay £2.75 for a lukewarm cup of bitter tasting coffee in some cafes. Definitely not worth it. Yesterday I took my travel cup full of milky coffee on my walk and really enjoyed it. I also enjoyed saving money .

It was very cold here last night, although not snow cold. But gloves are starting to be needed first thing and last thing.

Cherryfudge

Our snow didn't settle, Hairy, but we had enormous blobs (rather than flakes) of wet snow. Today it looks like autumn again.

Cherryfudge

I knew I was tired the other day - I completely forgot a mortgage overpayment of £160 had been made!

In other financial news, we're going to offer DS2 more financial support as his student money is woefully inadequate for someone who has to run a car to get to Uni and placements. That's without allowing for other car costs, so I think we are going to fund whatever it takes to get it through the MOT next month. It won't show in my spending figures as it will be on standing order, but along with my new work rota it will mean there's less money to save. I'm going to continue overpaying what I can on the mortgage, it will just go down more slowly than it did previously.

This week will see the start of my new work contract - a decrease of about 15% in my working hours, though I won't 'see the benefit' yet as I swapped some shifts.

I had last weekend off: it was effectively down-time after a couple of days working on the house and was a really nice relaxing time, but I needed it to get back to normal energy levels. I also found I'd run out of my medication so this may affect energy till the new lot comes through, but that's temporary.
The issue remains that I can only work so much: more days off should give me more time to relax and for running, home cooking etc., and also to help sort the clutter. However none of that will happen unless I make it happen, and last week's experience shows me I can't throw as much energy at physical work as I used to be able to.

I also have an appointment through for another aspect of post-op care, and I'm quite looking forward to it as my amended duties note is running out soon and while I can do a lot more than I used to be able to, I'm not ready for full duties and this appointment should help the healing.

This week will be quite busy: someone is visiting for a couple of days mid-week. They won't be staying with us but we're catering so I need to do some planning. Then we will have 2 or 3 days of chaos as the building work is done to install the new stove. I actually told everyone to make the most of the drafts last night as they won't be getting them for much longer!

I have the usual housework etc to get done and it's a glorious morning so I'm going to wrap up warmly and get the shopping in. Nice to have a new week's worth on money as I've been running low on lunch stuff. More planning needed of course. Back later!

Cherryfudge

Various bits of shopping achieved before work:

Medical £2.75
Housekeeping £10.39
Gift £9.67 + £16.36 = £26.03
MS
10th coins savings 40p

Far too tired to write more!

Cherryfudge

Expenses from last trip to Mum's house are now reclaimed, the bank has texted me to say there's a risk of me going into my overdraft but I've checked and we're okay so long as we don't use that account today, and it's raining...oh, and sunny.

Last minute negotiations on the stove are going on by text: the extras we want will add about £500! I'm sure it will be worth it but DH isn't. As someone pointed out to me, though, if I really think these things are for the best and I can afford it but don't go for it, I'll regret it. It may mean more cosy evenings by the fire but fewer wonderful holidays, but in the long term, chances are we'll be enjoying the cosy evenings long after we are able to do long-haul flights (and neither is good for the environment, but at least logs are renewable).