Cherry takes the reins

Seasidegal58

Congrats on becoming mortgage free!  Brilliant!  A big frog gone!  🐸🐸🐸🐸

I agree with @maggiem about posting on the Pensions board - the people on there are extremely knowledgable and helpful. 

Cherryfudge

Thanks for that folks, I will pop over there and have a look. Scary new board, LOL.

DH and I shifted the new bookcase into the spare room this morning - a feat of Tetris-like manoeuvres as the spare room was full of boxes, bags and stacks of books. A lot of these had to come out but are now stacked against the back wall while the loose books have gone on the shelves. The dining room bookshelf looks better without the mountain of double-stacked volumes on the lower shelves, and it's lovely to be able to walk up to it and see what was behind them! Yes, I probably have too many books.

Dh has ditched the new meds. They were doing very well for his condition but the side effects have been increasing: terrible headaches and snuffly nose. This is what happened with the related medication he had to come off a year ago. He has some other stuff that worked well for him for years so he's back on that till the specialist can advise.

I spent the afternoon on the household budgeting course: week one of four is now complete. After that I went shopping including a few bits to go into a back-up larder. DH rightly pointed out that we aren't at particularly high risk from the Covid virus but my concern is in case we come across someone with it and have to self-isolate. So I have bought porridge oats, flour, sausages and tinned fruit so far. I decided against trying to use the EmandEs voucher as there's no way I can make it pay. Dh and I both accidentally bought peas and hot cross buns, so we have a surfeit. I did notice I was charged £2.75 for something that should have been £1 so I will be back to the shop tomorrow, hopefully.

I also noticed pine nuts, which I buy loose, were £2.55 for a tiny jar. Will have to go sparingly with them, but they're so nice!

Now the weather had gone windy and rainy again, a bit of a shame after the day being sunny but cold. Storm Jorge, I believe. Why do storms seem to prefer Saturdays?

Spending
Housekeeping £21.40, including £10 or so from DH. He has £11.61 left of the week's housekeeping and I have 5p.
MS
That 5p change from my housekeeping is going to savings.  
I gave Dh a haircut which has probably saved us a bout a tenner (I was rather pleased with the result, too).
I mended two pairs of 'good' socks and a sweatshirt so they are back in circulation (and that counts as decluttering too).
Went to buy my leave-in hair conditioner but it's nearly £8! I bought it on a three-for-two offer last time, I think. Left without it, determined to make do with the less-satisfactory ones I already have.
Have started drinking the cans of shandy DFiL didn't have... .

This evening I'm thankful for the bookcase and finding the floor in the spare room, and for a sunny day and progress on my course.

Sun_Addict

Fabulous news about the mortgage 🎉🥂

Seasidegal58

Sorry that I missed this in your diary Cherry, but what courses are you taking?

Cherryfudge

Mostly for me to look back on - this is the link to my post in the roll of honour.

Cherryfudge

Seasidegal58 said:

Sorry that I missed this in your diary Cherry, but what courses are you taking?

They're on a site called Futurelearn, Seasidegal, which I think I found through Earthgirl's diary. Free courses, though you can pay up if you want to do the tests and certificates. One is Grand Challenges: Food for Thought which is about food and the environment. The other is an OU course called Finance Fundamentals: Managing the Household Balance Sheet. In the past I've done one on professional resilience, which was excellent, and started some others that I didn't have time to finish.

There are courses on all sorts of things so I have a great long wish list!

beanielou

Massive congratulations Cherry ~~So pleased for you    

VelvetFreak

YAY! Goodbye mortgage! You must be feeling so relieved

Cherryfudge

I'm focussing on my pension next. It seems rather on the small side as I was late starting payments into it, and although I've been paying for a few years now, it's only the regular default payment.

I've been looking at interest rates and realising they are extremely low right now so I need to shift money around to minimise losses. Our savings accounts are at 0.10% while inflation is something like 1.8%!

Most of today has been quite quiet apart from lots of phone calls between us and DSiL to arrange details of DFiL's service. She is coming over tomorrow so she and I are meeting for lunch. DH is supposed to be at work but the side effects of the medication are still hitting hard so he might be off sick. He's left a message for the specialist nurse so hopefully tomorrow she'll call back.

Meanwhile DH and I both had a sudden attack of what I think might be mild food poisoning, but we can't think of anything we've both eaten apart from frozen peas. It lasted maybe a couple of hours and we both feel a lot better already. In fact I feel it's nearly gone. Very strange. Obviously if I get D&V I won't be able to go to work tomorrow in case I'm infectious but I expect to be all right.

I didn't get to the shop to complain about the wrong price in yesterday's shopping but I hope to go in the morning.
Spending
e-book 99p
MS
No one around to do Sunday lunch for so we finished up leftovers from the freezer. Also didn't have much tea due to feeling peculiar around then.
Decluttering
Finally finished sewing a cushion cover that's been hanging around for years, and put it on a chair in the lounge.

Tonight I'm thankful for being able to help out by proofreading for the service sheet, and for our bout of feeling ill being so brief.

in_need_of_direction

In NI, funerals generally take place three days after a death unless there’s a reason to delay.  It always amazes me how long the process takes elsewhere but I suppose time to proofread has to be a big help.