Cherry takes the reins

charlies_tribe

Hope you manage to get a few rest days this week, sounds like you've had a busy few days.

Cherryfudge

This will be a bitty and probably much-edited post as I try to get the facts & figures together from the past nearly-a-week.

Meanwhile: I have three days off and I'm going to hold on to them, though work is imploding with a staffing 'situation'. The trouble is, the same few people have been holding the fort for a while and are exhausted. I'll be back in the melee at the end of the week, which is soon enough.

An odd bit of home news: DD left home (again) a few months ago and (long story short) this means there is now an empty chest of drawers! Although I miss DD a lot, it seems I can now have proper drawer space for my clothes! I would rather have her back, but I know she's happier in her own place, and four adults in a house this size was a bit tight. As I haven't had full sized drawer space for my clothes in all the time we've lived here, I'm looking forward to moving my tee shirts, trousers and nightwear into drawers not semi-neat stacks on a little trolley/ back of a dressing table drawer/ top of a box, which is where they are now. Once that's done, I'll have no excuse but to clear the papers I've dumped in a corner of the bedroom and which are trying to spread from there. It really is a disgrace, but I don't really see it as I see it so often, IYSWIM.

Money...

29th
Spends:
Vitamins (medical) 99p
Garden £1.75
Household £8.00
Clothing £2.00
Wool (donation) £2.55
30th
NSD.
MS stuff:
Overnight shift the night before ran on into the early hours so can claim a bit for extra hours worked.
Avoided Primarni through buying slightly different ticket to Mum's house. This saves quite a bit in the clothing budget!
Ticket was about £7 cheaper than my normal one.
Got £5 refund from Mr T for errors in my order. They didn't want the items back so I gave them to a friend who happens to love them.
Got engine oil on my jumper but remembered and managed to locate Eucalyptus oil at Mum's house, removed the stain successfully and thus saved the jumper and the cost of a new bottle of oil.
31st
Spends:
Paintstripper and dust masks (household) £11.38 - will reclaim from estate.
In not-so-good news, discovered the garage roof at Mum's house needs replacing (or the garage needs rebuilding, possibly). Also spent some time reviewing options with a company who can replace the boiler there. Turns out the chap has renovated a few properties in the area and gave his recommendations based on needs of the house/optimum for resale. Seems straight but I think I need another quotation or two. The work has to be done to comply with insurance and stop the building deteriorating over winter, and needs to be a good enough spec to lure buyers not put them off with a system needing upgrading. The radiators will all need to be replaced too! Was hoping to get away with partial replacement but it's a very old system and he showed me how they are weakening and might flood when the system is flushed (can do without flood damage :eek:). The positive is that he will replace the failing stopcock as part of the job which will save me calling out a plumber.
1st
Spends:
Coffee on train £2.50 (yes, I didn't take a flask. Naughty me. I did consider it but it was one thing too many and the journey was complicated by a rail strike so I was a bit under pressure to catch the available trains in order to get to work).
MS stuff:
Lots of bits and pieces of food to bring home (hence no room for flask).
Harvested the apple tree and stored lots by placing them on racks with space around each. Will collect a few each visit.
Brought a few apples home with me.
Confession time:
Coffee on train, see above.
Had to leave fridge/freezer plugged in due to buying ice creams.
2nd
Spends:
A real bargain at the car boot sale! Wait for it: a Pestige 4pt pan with copper base for £3! I was delighted! No space for it but it's a beauty.
Plums £2 for about 6lbs.
Donation for leaving gift £5.
MS stuff:
Resisted an identical pan that I could have had for £2 but which had a slight buckle to the base. Also resisted a huge Le Crueset marmite which I could never have afforded in the shops but for which I DO NOT have storage (I tell myself firmly).
Made jam. Plenty of it.
3rd
NSD
4th
Spends:
Gift £21

Is that it? I think I'm up to date. Sorry it's so long. Am off to revel in drawer space!

Cherryfudge

Spends today:
Toiletries £5.00
Housekeeping £7.60
Alas my favourite coffees are running low and neither is on offer!
MS stuff:
Various yellow stickers from supermarket.
Scone and coffee at my friend's house.

Should have been piano lesson but I forgot to go to the cash point so I'll drop the money round to her tomorrow. On the minimal amount of practice I'd done over the last couple of weeks, I thought I was actually going to do okay in my lesson and I did... until I got to the piece I'd been practising. At that point my skills took a dose dive! Never mind, I still have six days till my next lesson in which to become practised and proficient.

Other than that I am still revelling in days off (but I went into work to see about swapping a shift)!

Tomorrow I had better do some housework, but at least I have put clothes into the chest of drawers and now have no excuse for not clearing out the clutter in the bedroom.

Keep me on track people: tomorrow I need to take a bag to charity and decide whether or not I can face up to 3baying things again.

Treadingonplaymobil

My pompoms are out, I'm cheering you along! Charity bag at the ready. Personally I have decided I would rather chew off my own arm than spend time ebaying things, unless they are (a) worth more than £20 and (b) are collection only - can't be bothered with packaging things up and the scope for refund demands etc. Much hard for buyers to complain if they have paid in cash on collection. Saying that, I have a brand new lego set and an old pram that I need to ebay at some stage soon....

Cherryfudge

Oh so many things to do! And it's gone lunchtime already.

Here's my list so far:
Laundry Did three loads! Last one drying on the line overnight.
ironing Done
Make 3 payments from Exec account No
Make holiday payment (we are treating ourselves to a week as an anniversary present) .Done
Clean bathroom - quick clean done, stopped before I did everything as the lid had come off the bleach and the cupboard consequently needed a clear-out.
hoover bedroom and landing No
make jam No
Take bag to charity shop (put stuff in it first) No
Quick clean kitchen No
Clean ceilings: bathroom / bedroom / DD's room No
clean fridge No
Hope the rain holds off. 6pm - so far so good .
Ebay one item! The light was too poor to get decent photos so I'm passing that one on to tomorrow.
Sort ebay payment Contacted seller.
Consider if I'm going to bid for the trousers I saw (the running means my calves are getting too big for skinny jeans and my waist is getting too small! :rotfl: There are some problems it's really really nice to have!) Bid placed .
Make keep/get rid decisions on 5 items of clothing. I managed 10! And 8 of these are to go!

I did head into town with a list and got most of it: it took probably a couple of hours so I got less done at home than I'd intended (and forgot the charity bag, though it now has something in it).

Spends:
Gift £1
Housekeeping £2.78 + 3.99 + 1.00 = £7.77
Clothing £3
Medical £1
Household £2

Can you tell I went to the £1 shop?

MS stuff:
£1 shop is very cheap for sticking plasters: I wonder if they stay stuck on?
Bought a £1 version of cappuccino sachets - usual brand is £2.50 at the moment so I thought I'd try these and they're quite nice.
Was given a free pattern when I bought some scarf-type things from the place that sells knitting wool. The scarf thingies apparently knit or crochet into collars as well. They are only a pound each but I don't know if I'll experiment: the instructions look as though they'd tax my skills!

It's been quite a tiring day considering I got up very late. I'm proud of getting so much laundry done, changing our bed as well, and getting rid of a few things. Those things left undone will carry forward to tomorrow (or the next day...)

Cherryfudge

One more day off - so an accompanying list.

DH is due a hospital procedure tomorrow and today is prep day. This happens at least once a year and is always a bit miserable and I keep meals to the background as he can't eat till later tomorrow. However DS1 has invited us round this evening: I'll go and Dh will go if he feels well enough.

I've had a week off from running as I was exhausted (not by running, which was going well, but I'm advised that professional runners take a week off every four weeks - think that's right? - and do other activity, so their bodies don't get damaged). I'm still tired and have had a couple of brief moments of anxiety, though there's nothing obvious to be anxious about unless you count DH's procedure, which I hadn't been thinking about. I used to live like this all the time when Mum was ill and I'm not going back there. Having a long 'to do' list on a day off doesn't seem like a good way to steer away from it either, but I'll post it so I can cheer myself for anything I do accomplish.

Go for a run - done
Piano practice - done
Laundry - H'm... dry day forecast - must have missed us... one load to dry somehow.- done
Make 3 payments from Exec account - 1 done
hoover bedroom and landing - no
make jam - no
Take bag to charity shop - done
Quick clean kitchen - no
Clean ceilings: bathroom / bedroom / DD's room - no
clean fridge but maybe not today - no
Ebay one item! - no
Sort ebay payment - done

I ran a few errands: picked up a prescription, got a new ironing board cover, exciting stuff like that. We had fun over at DS's - food and a quiz - so I'm not sure how many calories I've eaten but I stuck to small portion sizes so hopefully it won't undo the work from earlier.

Spends:
Toiletries £13.32
Household £4.50
Housekeeping £3.94
MS stuff:
Not much really
Confession time:
Bought my decaff coffee on full price rather than not have any or buy another brand.
Gave in and got B!o oil as I've heard good things about it. It worked out a lot cheaper per ml to get the big one so I did - not sure if that's MS or foolish as I don't yet know if it will suit me.

I also got a call from work to swap my shift tomorrow so I'm out early. I'm not keen but it means I can keep an eye on DH in the evening, though DS was going to do this.

And on a good note my waist line has finally shrunk a bit so I'm no longer in the danger zone for heart attacks etc. Instead I'm merely in the somewhat dodgy zone. If anyone's interested, I highly recommend the British Heart Foundation's website which is really informative and useful. Actually, according to my fitness tracker, my heart health is 'excellent'. Family history suggests I'm much more likely to have a stroke. Anyway I'm doing something to change that. And on that cheerful note, goodnight!

Cherryfudge

Yesterday at work was absolutely exhausting. I spent most of the evening recovering and only spent once - £12.50 for the milk delivery.

DH's hospital procedure seems to have gone okay and he's recovering very well - much better than last time. He's now out and about getting weekend jobs done. This morning we decided it's time we replaced our crockery (actually we've been saying that for months). We went to the shops to see what there is in real life - we wanted to get the feel of pieces before committing to them, but we also want to buy a classic set that we can replace piece by piece if needed and that won't break too easily. As that means a lot of money (in my terms), we've bought three basic items to use for a while and see how we like them. When we asked DS2 what he thought of our choice, he said they reminded him of something you'd get in a nursing home, but it was up to us! Talk about dampening my spirits! I'm reminding myself that I've liked this brand as long as I can remember and we both like the feel of them in use - though at the same time as approving them, DH admitted he was wanting modern square plates like the ones our children have!

Seems you can't win 'em all. No, we simply haven't room to store a modern set as well as a classic one.

I was going to go for a run this afternoon but it's raining so perhaps it's time to crack on with the job list.

Make 2 payments from Exec account
Do meter readings Done
make scones
Do CC payment
hoover bedroom and landing
make jam - Sadly I'm having to compost the remainder of the plums instead as they've gone over completely.
Start a new bag for the charity shop
Quick clean kitchen
Clean ceilings: bathroom / bedroom / DD's room - Bathroon ceiling done by DH
clean fridge
Ebay one item! Done
Make picnic for tomorrow Done

At the end of the day although I haven't done half the list, the weather cleared enough for me to run for half an hour, I got to the shops for picnic things for tomorrow when we are going to cheer on the Great North Run, particularly three family members who are running (not me. Hopefully next year), and DH and I watched Strictly, Last Night of the Proms and the end of the Edinburgh Tattoo. It really must be the end of summer!

Spends:
Household £27.00
Housekeeping £10.88
MS stuff:
A few yellow stickered items to go in the picnic
Finally got an item onto 3bay! Hopefully will recoup some of what I spent on it.
Confession time:
Threw out lots of mouldy plums and two disintegrating bananas.
Am going to have to replace my running shoes soonish, I think.

Angela84

Just checking in to say hi! You've reminded me I'm supposed to be starting up at my running club again tomorrow, am half excited and half scared as haven't been for a few months!

Cherryfudge

Angela84 wrote: »

Just checking in to say hi! You've reminded me I'm supposed to be starting up at my running club again tomorrow, am half excited and half scared as haven't been for a few months!

Hi Angela! Did you go to running club? I struggle if I haven't run for a week, let alone a few months so I take my hat off to you for making plans like that. Hope it goes well .

Cherryfudge

Two NSDs, at least no spending by me. We had a good day at the GNR and went out for a meal in the evening which was also very good (and on an offer ). Then I was at work overnight (sleep in) and this morning.

Work is very tiring at the moment and that's not going to let up in the near future though it's gone from crazy a few days ago to very quiet today - and we have some new staff members at last! It will be a while till they're fully up and running but I think the ones I've met so far are going to be good. However, between that, trying to sort Mum's house (the boiler man still hasn't been in touch though I've texted him) and trying to make my home okay, I really feel I'm not getting enough rest and my nerves feel rather frayed.

Another day off tomorrow and that means another day playing catch-up with things around the house! However, I'm on top of the ironing and putting away, I've deep-cleaned the guinea pig hutch this afternoon and I've managed piano practice a few times this week - so all is not lost.

Here is my jobs list as far as it goes:

Make 2 payments from Exec account
Do CC payment
hoover bedroom and landing
Start a new bag for the charity shop
Clean kitchen floor
Clean ceilings: bedroom / DD's room
clean fridge
Ebay a second item
Trim hedge by the door
Clean fish tank

If I can feel I've made some progress tomorrow, I may treat myself to a shopping trip ton Wednesday to replace my running shoes. The extra hours at work will mean more money at the end of this month which is nice but as we're going away for a few days then, we will have extra costs. However, running has been so good for me, and it's so important to avoid injury, that the trainers are a priority. I've also noticed some of my tee shirts are getting tatty and baggy, so I might see what's new in the shops.