Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

Quite a bit has happened over the past few days: I had a somewhat productive time sorting through old photos at my parents' old house: lots of discoveries including my Mum's 1950s holidays, Dad's photo album from 1949 and a very old but partially labelled album that's much older, showing my Grandma's family from the late C19th and early C20th. There were also albums of postcards dating as far back as 1910 with little notes from some of the people in the pictures, helping me build an idea of them and their world.

I've packed up the older albums and dismantled lots of those that have the cellophane overlay as they can damage photos. All set aside in a row in a bedroom waiting till we go with the car to pick them up. I sorted through literally hundreds of old receipts too - anyone remember the days when Mr T's receipts were slim without details of the items? Right in among these, most of which are now in recycling, I also found little treasures like my Dad's membership card of a London ex-servicemen's club which is the only document I have that shows he was in the RAMC and RAOC, things I was vaguely aware of from stories he told but it's nice to have it in writing.

I sorted the little pile of books for the church library: I think I've got most of those now. So no huge bulky sorting achieved but some wonderful things saved for posterity. There was also a reminder letter about some shares - most of the shares were sold a few years ago but this small bundle remains for me to sort so I've asked my sister if she wants to divide them with me or sell me hers. (I quite fancy becoming a share holder!)

A narrow cardboard box which I thought contained old calendars turned out to be collectables but it's more the sort of thing my brother in law might find interesting and certainly has some value, though not huge. So I've offered that to them... if not wanted I'll try to sell as it's not something of personal importance.

Spending
Wednesday housekeeping £1.76
Thursday housekeeping £4.80
Friday NSD

Friday was nearly a very expensive day as I ran out of data and discovered that with my new phone provider, the first top up has to be done in store for security reasons. That's fine, but not on a station platform with the nearest store four miles away and ten minutes till the train that you have to catch... and you can't open the app to show your tickets because there's no internet access. I asked the attendant at the kiosk if there was any free wi-fi and was told that some of the newer trains have it, so I risked getting the train anyway, knowing I could get internet access at a main station. Of course this would be the one time there was actually a guard checking tickets on that line! I explained to her and I must have looked genuine because she said it was okay and I could load the data when I changed trains. I tried for free wi-fi at every station and soon found some so I opened my app and showed her the tickets. She gave me the very sensible tip to screen shot tickets in future in case I lost access again. It's so nice when you get that human touch - she could easily have charged me for a journey I'd already paid for, but maybe she's met newbie e-ticket users like me before.

While on the train I got a text from work to see if I could cover last night's sleep due to staff sickness, which I did. I didn't get a lot of sleep, though, so I'm not going to be at my best for this evening's shift. Work is more than full-on at the moment: a couple of us are sufficiently concerned to have texted our manager during the day yesterday so by the time I got into work there was a mini-meeting going on and a little later our manager's manager showed up and seems to be asking the right questions.

We had an 'eventful' night - no sooner had one 'event' passed (in the earlyy hours) than someone else woke up. I ended up with under four hours' sleep and keep making typos!

MS
Picked up more shifts...
£25 housekeeping left but gave £20 of that to DH to fund this weekend's food.

Lunch is ready, hopefully more this evening if I'm awake long enough.

Today I'm thankful for a kindly train guard, lots of snowdrops popping out everywhere and a tiny daffodil right by the house.

Cherryfudge

No spending to report for yesterday or today.

I'm very tired having been up till three this morning and woken up at half past seven due to a nasty incident at work that I had to write up while on the overnight shift. When I got home I went on the computer and immediately got into correspondence with colleagues so in the end I went back to work: might as well be there and talk in person! I had a short meeting with the manager who was helpful, then on to a team meeting, a couple of new colleagues and the evening shift.

Of course having been very sleepy earlier I've subsequently woken up a bit but I need to organise myself and sleep. Tomorrow is a day off but I'm doing another sleep in at the end of it.

Very thankful that the thing that went wrong went no further than it did (not the fault of the team either) and that DH is tentatively feeling that the new medication may be helping his condition.

Cherryfudge

I've had my lazy Tuesday morning and will soon be hanging out the washing and thinking what needs to be done. I really thought I'd have a proper long sleep but I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. Everyone's out so according to my new plan I could have picked up some hours at work but the last few days have been nearly all about work and I need time off. I don't regret going in yesterday though I could have asked for time off after recent events. I think it was better to keep going and get back to normal.

I've been so busy I've forgotten to look at bank statements, though recent hours will be reflected in my end of February pay. So that's a job for today, as is tidying the dining room, prepping some material for this evening's meeting and maybe doing some more course work. There's plenty of laundry and I'm working tomorrow so I will put another load in today.

I'm also in charge of cooking tea tonight so I need a plan and some shopping.

VelvetFreak

Hi Cherry, just popping in to say hello
How wonderful to find all of those old photos, I live for that kind of stuff

Cherryfudge

Lovely to see you Velvet.

Work is still dominant. Today was quite quiet so I was able to do some required reading. Tomorrow I'm swapping shifts and will have to be shift lead, but I'm not panicking about it. I'm looking forward to my early shift on Friday as I'm not shift lead then (:D) and have the weekend off.

Yesterday I got some shopping but today I haven't spent anything.

Last night and today at work were both uneventful but earlies always make me tired so I fell asleep for a couple of hours when I got home. This had the dual advantage of giving me some good quality rest and stopping me snacking. DH got the dinner so I haven't spent anything but it would be useful if I could stock up on nuts and some more fruit rather than snacking on chocolate.

DH was out later in the evening so I watched telly and caught up on the ironing, meaning I once again have plenty of work clothes to choose from. Always useful.

I had a look at the bank accounts and got very excited as the total mortgage is now about £350! Also the account DH pays into was much more healthy than I can explain. We just had no major expenses. I've put some into general savings and the rest into the holiday fund. As I don't think we will be able to add much to holiday savings in the future, it's nice that we have a buffer there to treat ourselves some time. Meanwhile DH has booked us a trip to London in March which has cost £116 in rail fares (split tickets) so far.

I've mentioned to DH that we need to review what goes out of 'his' account and move necessary direct debits over to the one I pay into, but we haven't got on with it yet.

DS2 mentioned to me that the state of DD's old room is distressing him, and I have to admit he has a point. It's full of stuff that doesn't belong anywhere. I don't think it's realistic for me to think I can tackle it all at once but I might be able to chip away at it.

4&5/2/20
Spending
Toiletries £0.49
ebook 99p
Electronics (new F!tbit strap) £5.99?
Housekeeping £12.68
MS
Had a useful chat with my manager in which, among other things, he mentioned that the vacant staff hours are going to be advertised and I said I'd thought about increasing my hours but decided it wasn't wise. He has suggested I look at available shifts and look at covering the core hours of shifts that are too long for me. I haven't investigated yet but it might be a useful extra that I needn't do unless I have time and energy.

Tonight I'm thankful for a quiet shift, a sleep this afternoon and a whole pile of ironing put away.

in_need_of_direction

Could ds2 help clearing DD’s room?

Cherryfudge

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

Could ds2 help clearing DD’s room?

Quite possibly, INOD... but his own is a tip!

The problem is mostly that I've retrieved things from my parents' house that I want to hang on to - hundreds of photos and books galore. The photos need suitable storage and until I find the right thing they are just in boxes which aren't efficient use of space. Other than that there is a bag of bits waiting to go to charity - maybe that's an easy win - some books stacked up and wanting a bookcase and those mysterious items, the 'goodness knows what' category. I'll have a look this morning and even if I just tidy, it will begin to sort out.

Cherryfudge

I've made brief inroads into the above-mentioned catastrophe of a storage room. I haven't actually removed anything but I've restacked a few bits so I can get through, and noted a few things that will need to be rehoused at some point:
Tins of paint - brought in from the shed till frosts are over.
A bag of Christmas gifts for DFiL - waiting till he's well enough to open them
A hamper of Mum's jewellery - waiting till my sister and I can get together to sort it which won't be till summer at the earliest. (When I say 'jewellery', don't be imagining a huge security risk. There's a lot of plastic and base metal 'pretty stuff').
My bag of yarn - waiting till I magically find the cardigan pattern I have in mind, which isn't going to happen till I look for it.
A small Christmas biscuit tin saved for my niece who loves tins.
A box of those things that go over coats to protect them in the wardrobe.
Some 1950s embroidery magazines -waiting for me to look through and copy before passing them to my sister.

That's just a few...
Other than that I've done a small load of washing, made some porridge with fruit for my tea at work, cleaned a couple of kitchen shelves and admired the lovely sunshine. I'm feeling I haven't done anything but that's because I can see procrastination mode in the background, trying to avoid the shift lead this afternoon.

To be honest the day didn't start too well as DH got an email to say his Dad isn't eligible for Council support to stay at the nursing home while his flat sells. It's been on the market for ages and is a nice flat in a good location but the ground rent is high and the lease gets shorter all the time which must be putting people off. Reducing the price hasn't got us anywhere and DH is afraid his Dad will have to change care homes if his money runs out.

Apart from that I keep thinking of my Dad retiring early, as DH is about to do. In Dad's case it was to look after my brother, who was disabled. In DH's case it will be to try to preserve his health. Looking back though, I saw my parents' income decline and they became more isolated, and it's hard not to project that onto us. If DH doesn't get a job in the fairly near future we will need to draw on his pension as my income won't be enough to get us through (I'm so glad the mortgage will be gone!). I would rather he could leave it untouched until official retirement age.

I think we need to start to look in detail at our outgoings this weekend.

Meanwhile I'm going to pop into town for some food, then go to work. It's absolutely beautiful out: a bit on the cool side but sunny and peaceful. I love the fact the grass is growing and is at that young stage where it's all fresh green spears. It will be good to be out of doors for a while.

Cherryfudge

Like everyone else, I'm wandering round the new-look forum with a sign announcing 'confused dot com'... I found myself relatively easily, so that bit was probably an accident, and I've had a look at some of the busier threads I subscribe to, where helpful people are pulling each other out of bramble thickets, turning each other round and pointing out which way they think is North, sending up flares, trying to remember Morse code and sitting round impromptu campfires writing songs about the good old days.
If I usually pop into someone's thread and don't manage it for a while, it's not personal: I'm still wandering in little circles trying to extricate the directions from the campfire songs. I'll get there eventually.

Cherryfudge

So there has been some spending yesterday and today: I think all of it was on food. DH and I have also listed our outgoings from the account he pays into - they come to more than I'd be able to cover from mine, that is until a bills contribution from DS2 comes in. (I've reminded DS2 - he said to invoice him.  ) Of course this would only continue as long as he lives with us but then, some outgoings would decrease if he weren't here, as well. I doubt the balance would be right, but it would be less of a discrepancy. 
There are the usual adjustables: utilities providers can be changed, etc. I did wonder about giving up the car but where we live that would create problems of its own. DH will get a lump sum when he retires and we have some savings but not enough to live off without using his pension as well.
I had thought that we'd have to cancel or alter gift aid that was given via his income but apparently not: if and when he draws his pension he may still be paying tax. So we don't need to do anything about that till we see if he can get a job.
Today's interview was okay, but DH isn't terribly confident. He was supposed to get the results by the end of today and hasn't heard anything, though someone has told him it can actually take a few days.
I've managed to get through today without either picking up another shift or buying an e-book. I still have 45 minutes of the day left, though.
Sadly it looks as though the DCs have fallen out again. I had a phone call from DS1 to tell me what had happened and that he'd texted the others to make up, but at the moment J and L have left the two group chats we had going. Sigh. Everyone is still talking to DH and me, and I think they're talking to DS as well. Hopefully a few days will make a difference.
Spending
Housekeeping yesterday £10.04 (DH paid today's but I happen to know it was £4.20).
My remaining housekeeping money: £7.58/£30.
MS
Free meal at work yesterday as I had cooked too much by accident and we couldn't reheat it.
10th coin saved = 50p.
Got my beloved walnuts on a multi-buy and saved £1. Ditto half price smoothie and margarine (which also had a 2 for 1 entry token that we might be able to use).
Made a big batch of soup tonight from things we had in store - three portions in the freezer and fed tow of us for tea AND made a bit of fridge space.
Invitation to Sunday dinner at DS1's.
Decluttering
Two jars of defunct jam that were realistically not going to be used. One empty toiletries bottle - my full sized oil that cost £20 has lasted me a couple of years and I'm now down to the travel sized one, but they were worth it.

Tonight I'm thankful for the phone call from DS1 and a text from DD, for DS2 saying for about the third time that the soup smells good (though he doesn't want to try it ) and for miniature daffodils, viburnum and vinca all blooming in the garden.