Cherry takes the reins

WannabeFree

Hope DS is feeling better soon and I hope DH's work problems are resolved in his favour rather than otherwise! Doesn't sound like the manager is being very nice.

Hope you have a lovely weekend Cherry

x

Cherryfudge

Nothing much to report today: no spending, work was quiet, so is the house as J and L are away.

DS2's 12 year old goldfish died which has been a bit of a surprise but it hasn't thrived for a while so maybe not entirely unexpected. I have days off coming up but need to go to work on Mum's place again... surely it will be completed eventually!

Cherryfudge

Morning all.

A grey day, but not oppressively so. I am in procrastination mode, coupled with a tendency to overface myself, which of course is going to be the underlying reason for the procrastination.
I have to say to myself firmly 'There is absolutely nothing you have to do today', then make a list (feel free to skip it as I'm just thinking aloud) and try to hone it down to something workable.
List
quiet time
run
wash hair but not until after run
get changed into running clothes (ideally before run)
Sort through heap of papers near the computer.
Book train tickets
Buy e-book I have my eye on while it's still reduced
go into online banking and have yet another go at sorting the supermarket spends/top up paypal so I can then pay extra on the mortgage and put the remains of this month's money into savings.
When I was at the garden centre a couple of weeks ago I spotted some single-handed edging shears which I still want and have vouchers I could use. The garden really needs the edges done and the lawns need mowing yet again... but it's a long walk to the garden centre and the energy either goes on that or a run: too far for me to run in present state of fitness... could look up distances and investigate running there, buying shears, walking back? (Did I mention this is me thinking aloud?) ETA - it's two miles there, two back. Not impossible, especially with a new toy as incentive.

I will leave out the house-work-y type things that ought to be done but aren't weighing on my mind. It would be good to have the place fairly nice before I head off to work on Mum's old place but I know I need to save some energy for that.

Meanwhile DH continues to make progress with the decorating: we have some shiny white skirting and he thinks the old bookcase is too fragile to go back so he's found one we both like online. Don't know when we could go to pick it up, possibly Saturday?

I forgot to mention yesterday that DS2 has paid me the change from the euros I gave him for his holiday (he bought a breakfast and a bottle of whisky, which is 50% of the way to what I intended ). Anyway I'm now E39 (just realised I can't do Euros on this computer, it must be a pro-Brexit model ) and 60 cents better off. That goes in my Euros purse for some holiday someday. There is also a random 0.25 Swiss francs which will buy almost nothing but I'll add it to the holiday purse anyway. ETA 56.87 euros now in the purse: I cold buy us a meal in the south of France if we happened to find ourselves there!

HairyHandofDartmoor

I hope you manage to get some of the things on your list done Cherry. If only we could halve our to do lists and double our time and energy .

Cherryfudge

I'm delighted to say I got quite a bit of the list done and that included a two-mile run, the longest I've done in nearly a year, then a visit to the garden centre where I purchased my shears before walking back. Of course by then I was well and truly warmed up (the sales assistant was too polite to say anything but I must have been absolutely scarlet in the face and no makeup to boot! ) so the walk back was easy.

I sat down for a cuppa and a biscuit then mowed the grass and tried out my new shears on some of the bits the mower can't reach, so I'm very smug. Then I had a shower and shoved all the grassy running gear in the wash.

This evening I decided to ride the wave of energy and walked down to the station to pick up my tickets for tomorrow, and back via the supermarket for all sorts of things we were running out of. I also got a pack of bedding plants to put in hanging baskets to keep Mum's house looking occupied: the neighbour is very good and waters them when the gardening lady and I aren't around, so I have hopes for them.

I'll reclaim the tickets and plants from the estate. I used a split-ticketing site so I have a handful of tickets for a fairly simple journey.

The list now looks like this
quiet time Done
run Done
wash hair but not until after run Done
get changed into running clothes (ideally before run) Done
Sort through heap of papers near the computer. Woefully neglected
Book train tickets Done
Buy e-book I have my eye on while it's still reduced Done
go into online banking and have yet another go at sorting the supermarket spends Not done /top up paypal Done so I can then pay extra on the mortgage and put the remains of this month's money into savings. Not done
Buy shears Done

I may not be online for a few days so I will catch up at the end of the week and meanwhile wave as I go past Wannabe's house!

Spending:
Train tickets £56.62 (to reclaim from estate) reclaimed
Plants £3.00 (to reclaim from estate) reclaimed
Housekeeping £15.13
e-book £0.99
Milk bill (housekeeping) £8.76
Mortgage overpayment £100
(not a cheap day).
MS:
Saved £5.18 on tickets
More cheap laundry capsules (reduced to clear)
10th coins saved £1.00
Multibuy on onions at Mr T (£1 for 3 bags of 3, usually 89p each, had to invest in those especially as I had just finished some manky onions and three miniscule ones in order to make dinner)
Resisted coffee and lunch at the garden centre
Gift voucher to pay for my shears so they cost me nothing (actually £14.99).
Decluttering:
None unless you count 400,000 grass clippings, give or take.
Today I'm very thankful for a fulfilling day: I can run again, I have a handy set of garden shears that don't take both hands and I have plans to retrieve some of Mum's cut glass from the house.

Cherryfudge

Finally sorted the oddments of supermarket payments when I've used my CC. The smaller payments I'm happy to admit to but there was one for £24-something on someone's birthday and I had a feeling part of that was housekeeping and part was beer and soft drinks as a gift. I just remembered that DS2 said we'd got the wrong beer and DH borrowed the receipt from me so he could change it. I got a refund which shows up on the accounts but the receipt got lost. DH then paid for the replacement beers! Anyway it means all that receipt was in fact housekeeping apart from two soft drinks and I'm just going to roll them into our housekeeping - so it's all paid off.

That mess being sorted, I got back into the account my wages go into and yay! May's money has just arrived! That meant I could do the sums on the remainder of April's money (leaving a little as DH hasn't taken his share of housekeeping out yet) and have divided it between the mortgage overpayment and savings. The mortgage total overpayment for April is therefore £194.15. I'll put that into my signature at some point once the MF spreadsheet is updated.

I've also been going in and out of various accounts putting payments where they belong including the money I've now reclaimed from Mum's estate. However I need to ask DH what the estate owes him for petrol from our visit back in March.

Eventually I'll get to bed... off to make a hot chocolate now.

WannabeFree

Things sound busy Cherry

Hope you're all okay

x

HairyHandofDartmoor

I hope things are going well at your mum's old house Cherry.

Cherryfudge

Home again and progress made, thanks. I'm so tired again! It's a heavy few days at work so I'm hoping I sleep well tonight.
For now I'll make a few notes which I'll probably need to edit.
Tuesday, 30/4/19
Saved money en route by taking a flask but bought milk and chocolate in the local shop. The chocolate was an impulse buy and I didn't touch it - it's still in my cupboard at Mum's! When I got there I found a packet of pasta in sauce so had that for tea, together with some bits of chocolate orange, crisps, just generally not the sort of food that makes me feel well and strong. I didn't get much done either, I was pretty shattered.
Wednesday, 1/5/19
Did a load of cleaning in the morning which is going over old ground but needed to be done for me to feel okay. I had a visit from J and A in the afternoon - it was so nice! The idea was that they were going to help me but we started off with a supermarket trip where I spent about £30, totally not planned for. Part of that was a real feeling of need for healthy food, so there was quite a lot of fresh stuff there, but also rather a lot of cake and a can of rum and coke (oops). I also got a few more plants to add to those I've planted at the house, but I can reclaim them (£2.49) from the estate.
Anyway, the three of us had a very late lunch then went through some things my sister had set aside to send to charity, and bagged it all up. We were nearly ready to go when A had the forethought to check on opening times of chariy shops and realised we were too late to take the stuff! Still, it's ready to go when there's a car available, or if it gets much more, I could ask a charity to collect it.
I was determined to show off some of the area - it's gorgeous - so we had an hour's walk then they cooked tea for us before setting off, and I spent the rest of the evening planting the hanging basket up.
Thursday, 2/5/19
An NSD, apart from paying the lady who does the garden. She stayed for a while and we chatted, but apart from that I gardened, packed a box with some bits of my sister's that I discovered at the bottom of a hamper, and commandeered a blanket chest that had been used to put things aside for my sister. Now it's somewhere for me to stash things for me, as she doesn't want it. (I don't want it either but it's handy). My only significant bit of clearing the whole time, apart from work on the garden, was another big box that turned out to full of old pillows and cushions. There were two nice cushions that might go on some chairs of ours so I washed those and some cusion covers that I've since given away, but most of it was bin fodder as no one really wants ancient, stained, musty, lumpy soft furnishings.
The 'treasure' this time was a childhood favourite book which I finished on the train home.
Today:
NSD, travelled back, DS2 gave me a lift from the station and I went to work.
No decluttering or detailed spending for tonight, I'm too tired and keep making mistakes.

I'm grateful for a A and J visiting, for DS2 giving me a lift and for nice colleagues who made a tough shift a lot better than it could have been,

Cherryfudge

Last night I just couldn't sleep! I think it was three and a half hours in the end, which isn't brilliant, is it? However we went shopping for our new bookcase today: it's still in a flatpack in the hall but we have it. I bought a couple of edibles while there, and we grabbed some takeaway lunch which DH said was about a fiver. Then I went to work, which was quieter than yesterday (phew).
Spending:
Housekeeping £6.95
Household £70.00
Both the above paid on CC so I need to get that paid off.
MS:
2 x £2 coins into £2 savings
Decluttering:
Money... 6 tickets, 2 other bits of paper and some Weetabix that have been in my locker at work for ages. An easy tea!
I'm glad of a hot bath and a cosy duvet tonight (it's cold out!)