Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

Another quick pre-work update.

Officially an NSD today though not really.

I bought a gardening tool but remembered I had a credit note for the shop which meant I got it 'free', with 3p change which has gone in the savings pot.

DH and I have been out researching carpets again. The lounge is a very odd shape so we have to buy a bigger carpet than you'd think, but can still occasionally get a roll-end to fit, which we now think we've found. We checked the measurements just now and it can be done! There's isn't what you'd call much choice in carpets nowadays, is there? Beige or grey! We have found a grey fleck that looks good with the colour swatches we took along.

I had £16 and some small change left in this week's food money! I've given £15 of it to DH but it's the third week running that we've had some left over. This never happens...

Mind you we've a long way to go to recoup the overspends already made.

25p added to the 10th coins saved. And the 3p change from the credit note. Don't forget the 3p change.

Dining room a complete mess as I pulled a load of books out to find the old mortgage details, but they aren't there and the books will have to wait till tomorrow to go back.

No actual decluttering, of course. I did find one of Mum's diaries - from 1960 - I love reading them, she was an amazing writer and of course I have early memories of the same people and places she talks about even though I wasn't around at the time of writing.

Got to dash - work can't hang around waiting for me!

Sun_Addict

Well done with underspending on the food budget

I've got some of my mum's diaries from the 50s, I love reading them too, so interesting.

VelvetFreak

That’s so wonderful re. your mum’s diaries. I try to keep a diary but then end up throwing them out because I am embarrassed of myself :rotfl:
What kind of things did she write about it? Is it about “feelings” or just day-to-day facts about what’s going on at the time?

Cherryfudge

The diaries are lovely - lots of detail of working on the house - they bought an old house with a big garden as a doer-upper. I think it cost about £1,500 back in the day! Dad would go to work all day while she stayed at home being a very active home-maker. She loved it. A stray cat would come in during the day, if the weather and her health were good enough she'd be out doing the garden and she makes notes of what they ate. She was an excellent cook, and was forever trying out new recipes which my Dad duly appreciated. When he got days off they'd go on long walks, some of which I've 'inherited' and passed on to my children. There are also the little details of people I just remember - the lady who lives next door now and has grown up children must appear in it as one of the children who then lived opposite and were 'very friendly' to the point where Mum would take cover after an hour or so of them! There are also village surnames of people whose descendants I know: they are all 'Mrs. so-and-so' not 'Gladys or 'Brenda' or whatever their Christian names were. On Wednesday there was a ladies' meeting at the Chapel which was obviously a bit of a social thing with a speaker so there are notes on what Mum wore and whether the speaker was interesting! She obviously did the 'small' laundry by hand and details how many hankies, pairs of pyjamas etc were washed, but bedding (and towels, I suppose) was collected by a laundry van each week and delivered back. I just remember the laundry deliveries: each household had a code (ours was 0110, I think) inked onto a corner of each piece so it went back to the right household. I think that stopped some time in the Seventies when we got a washing machine.
There's often a note about the weather, but she even makes that interesting.
Feelings do come into it: I've just read about her not being able to go to a friend's wedding and thinking about her friend all day, hoping she will be 'as happy as I am'. Then again (the days before they had a phone) having a pleasant letter from her Mum after writing to ask her to stop moaning!

Got to go now, may pop in later between church and work but no sleep in tonight. Doing three on the trot hasn't been too tiring. I got a decent night's sleep each time which makes all the difference but I'm getting a bit anxious as I'm not getting down time between this and going to work on the old house next week.

Cherryfudge

We haven't had an evening like this in weeks. It's cool, still, dry and dark.

Work is done for a few days, tomorrow we head off to do some sorting at Mum's old place for a few days so I may well not be in touch. Internet access is difficult. I'm very glad DH is coming with me as there are jobs I need extra muscle for and we have some nice activities planned in between work.

Today was extraordinarily productive: I woke up early at work, but not too early. We had loads of time before Church so I made a bit of progress on the laundry and texted a couple of friends about the reunion we're arranging. After church DH had arranged a walk and lunch with friends so I had a couple of free hours and got a third load of washing done, picked half a pound of blackberries (first of the year), made a pan of my favourite soup and some banana muffins and in doing so decluttered some foods, either by cooking them or by composting/binning others.

NSD - but yesterday DH paid for the new carpet (£234, and there will be another £50 for fitting).
MS:
Homegrown blackberries
No Sunday dinner as everyone's busy doing other stuff
Turned a few ingredients into useful food: going to waist instead of waste.
Decluttered:
2 bags of potatoes into compost, 1 bag of sweet potatoes into soup, 1 opened jar of red Thai curry paste (ancient) down the sink, another into the soup. Bananas into banana bread. That's six items.

Today I'm thankful for a night at home between work and work.

Honeysucklelou2

It's great to see the blackberries starting to appear .

Cherryfudge

For some reason I forgot to add to my decluttering list that I threw out a butter dish. It was ostensibly a present from Mum, but actually bought by DH on her behalf when she got beyond remembering birthdays. The thing is, it never really worked for me despite having a sunflower pattern.. no amount of washing got rid of a lingering smell of rancid butter! The perfect replacement is one of the lidded glass dishes I bought a few weeks ago. A very KonMarie piece of decluttering.

Of course, we are soon to head off to her old house to do more clearing/sorting, and there are things I want to bring back, mostly plants and plant pots that I couldn't take on the train. I've been dropping big hints about needing more bookcases and there are some there, but of course nowhere to put them over here. There are always bits and pieces to bring, though - tiny things like soap and pencils that don't go off, books of course, and usually one or two pretty things that may or may not work here. I unexpectedly ended up with a number of pieces of cut glass. Why on earth did that go out of fashion? It's just gorgeous when the light falls on it.

It's up to me when we set off, so I need to get moving or the time will evaporate. Here's my to-do list:
Look up M33rcat Movies/travel insurance and insure the London trip.
Check if we can use the cinema discount to see The Lion King locally. Checked - we can.
Wash my hair
Gather together gardening tools
Freeze perishables from the fridge
Pack

Cherryfudge

£440 sent to DS2 for his car insurance... hopefully we will eventually get it back. He needs the car for work. He starts earning late in September so I'm guessing no substantial pay till the end of October and probably paying off his OD then so it could be November.

The travel agents have just rung to confirm our seats on the plane, I've washed my hair and packed the gardening stuff and personal packing. Still trying to sort out insurance/cinema tickets!

Cherryfudge

The list is done... sort of.

Look up M33rcat Movies/travel insurance and insure the London trip.
Check if we can use the cinema discount to see The Lion King locally. Checked - we can.
Wash my hair
Gather together gardening tools
Freeze perishables from the fridge
Pack

Unfortunately I haven't been able to sort the insurance / cheap cinema so we will just have to pay full price. Only quotes I could get were too high to make much difference and there isn't time to look further. Good job I don't go to the cinema often!

I really hate going away but I need to get moving now or we won't make the most of the little time we have. What's good is that the forecast over there is good and the forecast here (which is miserable) hasn't turned out. In fact we have sun, and DH has £20 left of last week's food money! So all is much better than it could have been. I've also received the little jug I ordered off 3bay last week and it's lovely. It matches the tea and coffee pots I have from the same set and I like just looking at them, they're so pretty.

Off I go, should be back late on Wednesday but may not post then.

Cherryfudge

Back home, both of us weary! Dh has to be in work tomorrow but thankfully I have a day off.

We spent the rest of last week's food money plus (I think) £1.94 of this week's so we are doing okay on the food spending. The cinema was £10 for both of us but it was The Lion King which lived up to my highest expectations - it was superb, and a good break from working on the house. We also had a couple of local walks down the canal towpath which is a favourite of mine.

DH spotted a charity shop on the way over so we focussed on getting things there - three car loads over two days, so I feel we've made real (not huge, but real) progress. We had a look at doing the repainting needed at the front of the house but there wasn't a long enough ladder so we had to content ourselves with scraping the peeling paint off. The garden is growing fast with all the rain and I made a start on getting weeds from the path, but had to come in as today's rain has been so heavy. We also took our hoover over and DH did the whole house as it's faster and more efficient than the little vacuum cleaner I bought for the old house.

It doesn't sound much for two days of work but as I said to DH, there aren't going to be any big wins, but the small ones add up.

I admit I brought back a few bits and pieces! There is a large fish tank which needs cleaning up but I'm hoping to sell it. I also gathered up about half a dozen cleaning products as I've been buying these for the house and had overbought. We will probably get through them at home but until we need them they're in the shed as cupboard space indoors is at a premium! I didn't manage much in the way of plant pots of books, and no plants as it was just too wet at the end of our visit. I did a round up of small baskets, of all things - I found eleven! One is for use at home and the rest are going to a friend who can use them for crafts. there are also various aquarium decorations which can go in our fish tank - any that don't work there can go with the for-sale tank.

I'm not sure of the decluttering total yet but I know over 100 items have gone!

When we got home we found another big change. DD and DS2 have tackled the bedroom that used to be DD's and which DS2 had for a year in order that we could accommodate the others. I won't say it's empty - DS2's old bed frame is stacked to one side and there is one box of DD's stuff still to be collected, but visually she has moved out. I can't help but feel a little sad: it must be the end of an era though of course she actually left home some years ago and she's always welcome back.

I'm not going to do lists today - I need sleep! However I'm thankful for a productive visit and DH to share it with, also that he doesn't have a lot of travelling to do for work tomorrow, that we got home safely through the rain and that the roof repairs on the old house have held.