Cherry takes the reins

Sun_Addict

Don’t give up hope with the job just yet, it’s early days. If they were interviewing quite a few they may want to deliberate. 23k steps sounds like my sort of step count 👏

Cherryfudge

Thank you @Honeysucklelou2 and @Sun_Addict.

I had a birthday yesterday! DH and I both took the day off so we could spend it together, though I was on the cleaning rota for church so that's how I spent most of the morning. It was pouring down so DH took me there and collected me afterwards, then we had lunch out. In the afternoon the weather cleared and I took my friend's dog out for an hour, then we tidied up at home ready for the family.

H, A and the baby arrived first which was sweet of them as H's parents are visiting (they were invited too but had been driving all day so they had a lazy evening instead). J and L rang to say two of her colleagues had just tested positive and could they borrow some flow tests to be sure they could come in. I had a new box which I'll now have to replace as it's one of a batch where there isn't enough fluid to make the tests work and J had to do four before she could get a result. Anyway, they were fine. I had to ask them not to bring the dog in as the baby had been awake most of the day and night and H was trying really hard to get her to sleep. Eventually DS2 also arrived which was a relief as he had offered to supply and cook pizzas for us all. I had some lovely presents, mostly things that will get used up (essential with the level of possessions I already have). People were particularly generous with garden centre vouchers so at some point I hope to invest in a bird bath and possibly build some raised beds.

We had a great evening: it was back to normal once we got past the tests (negative, I hasten to add). We've always enjoyed getting together as a family. The pizzas were very good and we finished the remnants up today. We have salad, soft drinks, garlic bread and cake left over.

The baby didn't sleep so H and A went home early and we let the dog in. She went absolutely scatty! Later in the evening J, L, DS2 and I took her for a walk before people went home, and this morning DH and I cleared up the kitchen and swept up the pine cone that the dog had decimated over the carpet.

The weather's been good today and again DH and I had the day off but my phone storage filled up this morning so I've had some hassle trying to get it to back up. Tomorrow I need to brave deleting the photos. They are all backed up to the cloud but when I've tried to delete them before I get a worrying message about them being deleted from all devices. I don't think this should include the cloud but I don't want to risk it. Perhaps I need to put them on a memory stick or whatever is the latest equivalent.

With the weather being nice, we've done a couple of loads of washing though we had to use the tumble drier to finish it off. We were determined to get through some of the to-do list so we went looking for a new mattress and think we have found the perfect one though we are thinking about it (not 'sleeping on it', LOL) before we buy. It wasn't the one we found in the posh shop that was over £6,000! I did find myself a new pillow though and bought it on the spot. It's stuffed with wool which appeals to the eco side of me and is apparently hypoallergenic. My old pillows are very old and I think they are probably full of dust mites.  

Another dog walk this afternoon though my friend is feeling a lot better so this will be coming to an end quite soon. I will miss the little fellow but she says I can borrow him from time to time!

Spending over yesterday and today:
Housekeeping £16.39
Household £40

I'm thankful for my family making the effort to be together, for their generosity and gifts, for a feeling of spring though the wind was icy, for having found the 'right thing' to replace our old mattress and for pizzas galore.

Honeysucklelou2

Happy belated birthday Cherryfudge 🥳🎂🥳🎂
Glad you were able to have a lovely evening with your family.

Sun_Addict

Happy belated birthday 🥳🎂

in_need_of_direction

Glad to hear you enjoyed your birthday and have the prospect of guilt free garden spends

Cherryfudge

Honeysucklelou2 said:

Happy belated birthday Cherryfudge 🥳🎂🥳🎂
Glad you were able to have a lovely evening with your family.

Sun_Addict said:

Happy belated birthday 🥳🎂

in_need_of_direction said:

Glad to hear you enjoyed your birthday and have the prospect of guilt free garden spends

Thank you everyone. Another sunny day today and the white blossom is coming out on the wild plum tree in the back lane.  

Cherryfudge

It's getting a bit warmer every day at the moment. I've noticed the heating isn't coming on as much but as DH gets very cold we do need it.

Lunch was leek and potato soup - a lot cheaper than the roasts which we don't bother with nowadays unless we have guests. Both of us are trying to get our weight down for J and L's wedding! We did have a hot cross bun between us and I had some chocolate afterwards too which was perhaps a bit counterproductive! 

We went on a dog walk this afternoon - coats not required though it got cold towards the end and we were glad to accept my friend's invitation to go in for coffee. It's rapidly getting lighter in the evenings, so when we got home I went in the garden to put stray twigs in the green bin. There weren't many. They are probably blasted into the next county after the winds of a few weeks ago. I then had fun emptying an old feather pillow into the compost bin. I binned the cover - there was no way it counted as textile recycling. It was mostly a sort of felt of feather fragments. Interestingly, this pillow was a pillow case that my Mum had stuffed with an old eiderdown. The cloth of the eiderdown, nearly empty, was there too! I remember coming home from school to find my sister's and my old eiderdowns (which in those days went over a sheet and blanket(s) and under a candlewick counterpane) were gone. I was furious and searched hard because I wanted to keep mine. Well, now I've found it!  

This evening, after watching the final of the pottery programme, I decided to do some financial stuff. I haven't found another job I like enough to apply for yet, but I've been wasting money on a largely-unused Am@zon Pr!me subscription (£7.99 a month) and a completely unused contact lens subscription (£14 a month) so I've cancelled the Pr!me and six months' worth of the lenses. Pr!me will probably be restarted in October but meanwhile I'll save up to £56. That's including a refund for this month. I have a backlog of contact lenses and I only use them once in a blue moon so I have suspended £84's worth. I keep the subscription up because it gets me cheaper glasses but they're only cheaper if I don't waste money by forgetting to cancel.

I've also updated my Am@zon wish list so people don't try to buy me things I've already been given. I got a novel and a book on sewing off it for my birthday.

What else? I've unsubbed from a couple of emails and texted the head of the cleaning team as we're trying to sort out the deep clean for reopening the church kitchen. Oddly, I find this quite interesting! Takes all sorts.  

This evening I'm thankful for a report from A that the baby is sleeping better, for the wildflowers starting to bloom in the verges, for hot cross buns even if it's not Easter week yet!

Cherryfudge

We decided on our mattress and went to order it this morning, along with a protector and disposal of the old one. I used my CC to get loyalty points but cleared the balance beforehand. Annoyingly, the pending transaction is now showing but it won't let me pay off the new purchase because I've already had a transaction of that value today. Perhaps if I wait till the payment has cleared, I can get it paid off? I risk ending up paying charges if it takes more than a day to clear (due date being three days' time, after which I get charged interest).

Dh has taken the contents of the garden bin to recycling and is now having an office lunch with a former colleague then going on to his shop job. I have the house to myself for a while. We had frost this morning and it's still icily cold but I will make the most of the dog-walking time while I'm in the rhythm of it. It's already benefitted me in that my weight's down from a couple of weeks ago.

There is washing on the line and the washing machine has started to sound rough, so another expense coming up... it doesn't owe us anything, I think we've had it about 12 years. I hope it can do another 12, of course! Other expenses to come include a new microwave as ours is horrible. We've been advised to get one with metal inside not a spray-painted interior as those rust so easily. They are proving hard to track down.

I'm finding my mental health is down a bit, between the war and work and sundry other things, so I've decided to go back to the NHS's five things for well-being. I generally track them in my bullet journal: give, connect, be active, learn, be mindful.

Spending so far today:
Household £874.98 (I reckon about £1.63 a week over ten-twelve years once disposal of the old mattress is taken off).

Cherryfudge

At the end of the day the mattress transaction is still pending and the Pr!me refund hasn't yet arrived (would have been super-quick if it had) so no progress there. I resisted going to the shops and did half an hour's gardening instead. It was just tidying up but it looks better without the thick layer of birch twigs on the front lawn. It's a small lawn but they filled the green wheelie bin so there will be another recycling centre trip in a while.

I checked if my friend wanted me to walk her dog but she's decided to go herself and try to get back into the swing of it. I did get some fresh air and exercise from the garden though.

I've been reading Old-Style frugal things on the forums and it's inspiring. We are away next week, visiting my sister's UK house (they live abroad so this is available for hols). She's reminded me that the cooker died on us at the end of our September visit and as no one else is there, it's still not working! There is a microwave and from memory the hobs still work so the situation isn't impossible but I'm tempted to get a small slow cooker. We had a slow cooker for years and I miss it (the crock broke) but really we don't have storage for it... though we could leave it there till our next visit... or permanently as a sort of welcome home present for them in the summer... and I can get one for £15-20...

Not doing this frugal thing very well today, am I?

A couple of attempts to ring last week's interviewer have got nowhere. The number is a central one where you need to give the person's name to a machine, and the machine clearly wasn't looking at the list properly because it came up with the right first name but various surnames. In the end I emailed the feedback address and explained about the problems I'd had with my initial application, lack of promised email response and now phone contact.

...thinking back to our last visit to my sister's, I know there's a good chip shop and we will be away from the house for two nights so I don't need to plan every last meal. I intend to make ahead a bit, particularly things I can freeze in advance and heat in the microwave, then have with something rehydrated by the kettle. I'm afraid at least some of the food shopping will be here as the local shops there are more expensive.

And tonight I'm thankful for having made a start on the garden, for Dh having lunch with his friend, for a day off at home before getting back to work and for a nice new mattress to look forward to!

Cherryfudge

No further yet with clearing the mattress payment, and I've now agreed to do the sleep in at work tonight followed by the early shift that I was doing anyway so I probably won't get to check it again till this time tomorrow, but at least the paying-off-the-balance-pre-mattress money has cleared, so that's about £107 on which I can't get charged interest.

I've had a reply to the email I sent yesterday about the foibles of the job application system, saying that if I can send the job number, they may be able to put me in touch with the right person. So that's been sent.

Spending
Housekeeping £6.94 (Dh buys salmon which is nice but expensive!)
ETA holiday £45.83 train tickets (saved £6.97 by split ticketing).

This afternoon I'm thankful for another sunny day with blossom visible from my window, for supportive work colleagues and for meeting with my friends this evening.