Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

Another day, another dollar (earned, not spent). I had online church this morning, seeing as it's been a busy few days and there's Covid about. The talk was well worth hearing, lots of food for thought/action.

DS2 didn't emerge - I know he was up till gone 3 as he texted me to say he'd borrowed a phone charger - but I called in to see him for a quick chat before I went to work. Guess what? Shift lead again, but this time I got caught up in a phone call and later with supporting a client, so I had to let the others do a lot of the work, which they did. I finished about 10.15 which is better than recently!

Things to be thankful for: seeing DS2, some nice photos from J and L who are in Paris, yet more apples from the free tree and an extra hour of sleep last night.

Sun_Addict

It’s a shame they can’t give you a bit extra in your wages when you’ve been shift lead but understand the reasons why. 

I’m glad you’re escaping the latest round of Covid so far - fingers crossed 🤞 

Cherryfudge

Sun_Addict said:

It’s a shame they can’t give you a bit extra in your wages when you’ve been shift lead but understand the reasons why. 

Well, it would be nice... I'm not signing up for anything without asking some direct questions, that's supposing the proposition comes to anything.

It was a day off today (though I checked work emails, but not for long. I'd emailed about something and had a reply). The laundry got done and line dried (nearly). DH did more plastering and has cooked a batch of apples for his puddings.

I spent some time this afternoon catching up on a series from church (started on the wrong talk, watched it through and got halfway through the right one...) then joined a video tour of Barcelona which I'd seen advertised. It was a freebie: the guide was knowledgeable, but the sound quality was poor. DH came in from his afternoon at work and joined me and we're both agreed we missed some lovely parts of the city. That was largely due to the weather, which was evil when we went. Somebody had the good idea of asking the guide what times of year he recommended. He said summer is very busy but May, the first half of June and late October are good.

We finished the salmon from the freezer for dinner, so I went to L1dl to look for bargains after seven. I got some basics plus bakery items and discounted cheese but nothing to base a meal around. I also called in at T3sco pharmacy for my prescription, but they have staff sickness so it wasn't ready. He did do the one item that's urgent, but I have to go back later as they are short of a delivery. Their service has been better recently after vanishing temporarily a couple of months ago. It's rather worrying: I know I can get by for a while without medication but I don't want to try it out.

I'll add spending when I have my purse to hand.

Things I'm thankful for: getting the washing dry and keeping the heating off (glad of a hot water bottle when catching up on videos), DH's work colleagues liking the apples he took in the other day, potentilly a trip out of town tomorrow as DH needs to do clothes shopping and we could combine it with dropping L's birthday present off.

Cherryfudge

I started this morning mumbling 'How did it get to ten o'clock already?!' DH had been up and about for some time.

As it was, I had a really lazy morning and DH beat me at Wordle (it's often a close run thing) and by the time I'd had my morning medication (collected by DH from the pharmacy before I woke up, bless him) and allowed time for it to 'soak in', it was lunch time, so I'd like to think I saved a few calories. I ate them later - see 'crisps' below.

We had a bit of a search for the 'perfect' birthday card which I spotted for L a few weeks ago and put in a safe place. Eventually it turned up in the box of gifts-already-bought. DH has said a few times recently that I have so much stuff it's hard for him to cope with, so when we set out for the afternoon I decided to stay in the car. That lasted about five minutes because I really hadn't had enough to drink so when we stopped to get the voucher for L's birthday, I went in to buy a bottle. To do myself credit, I resisted what the place had as it felt overpriced and not really to my taste, and I got a £2 coffee later.

We drove over to J and L's and had a chat with J who was working from home. I got to cuddle the dog, but not J who is coming down with a cold. We shared some butter, apples and lettuce that we had in surplus: a nice feeling. DH and I then went shopping for the jeans and shoes he needed. I was a bad influence as I saw a Christmas jumper that really suited him, and talked him into buying it, but he got the jeans and shoes, and I didn't buy anything apart from drinks and a snack which are now gone. I will justify the jumper as he's hard on jumpers and very conservative, so I never see him wearing festive stuff. This one is a nice colourway that can be worn before Christmas so it's not as wasteful as a lot of Christmas clothing can be.

It was 15.5C indoors when we got home so the heating went on for about half an hour and after that we didn't need it. I'm so much more sensitive to the weather now - different weather seems to affect indoor temperatures quite a bit.

Tea was the rest of Sunday's Southern Fried chicken, and I did double portions of onions and mash to save prep and cooking tomorrow. I then undid the good work of doubling up on portions, because as I was about to throw out the potato peel, it occurred to me to try to use it. That meant half an hour of the oven being on while I made 'crisps'. They were okay if a bit overdone. The cost of the heat, if Googling tells me correctly, will have been about 15p, which is actually a very cheap way of getting crisps! (I reckon I made the equivalent of 3 or 4 packets, which total around £3 if bought separately). I also looked up the food value of potato skin, which is impressive.

We've spent quite a bit today:
Fuel - don't know but we managed to find somewhere slightly less than the usual £1.89+ for diesel. Dh didn't fill up in case the price comes down again.
Clothing (DH's) £109.99
Housekeeping (coffee, juice and a packet of crisps) approx. £5
Gift £30

MS things:
Not filling up the car, making my own crisps (admittedly spurred on by DH's bought packet!), sharing food rather than letting it go to waste, turning the heat off once we were comfortable and wearing jumpers/shutting doors/leaving hot oven door open to use the heat after cooking., paying for DH's things on my CC so we get loyalty points.

DH also cancelled out Engl!sh Her1tage membership as we've not used it in the past year or so. Quite a bit saved there, though quite a bit wasted over the past year.  

And the things to be thankful for: autumn colours, sunshine, progress on a problem with the goldfish tank (I overfed him and the water developed 'bloom' but improving the oxygen via the pump seems to have cleared it). Seeing J and the dog, L being happy with his present and the special card (I've said I'll get him a frame for it: the picture is just like their dog).

Cherryfudge

I saw this on the Foodbank donation thread - I'm posting it here to remind me and in case anyone else is interested:

Cherryfudge

The last of three days off - DH is back at work but I put the heating on for half an hour first thing as it was down to 7C outside. This afternoon is forecast to be very windy, so I plan to go out imminently and reach the market before the rain does. I abandoned the idea of doing the hot wash as it's things that need to line dry as much as possible. Tomorrow morning should do it.

Some oddments of laundry are now handwashed, the ironing is done and I've started clearing the base of the wardrobe where DH stores heaps of family history documents. They needed to come out so I can clear up where one of those dehumidifying bags has split. I don't think anything's damaged as it seems to be mostly on a carrier bag. Such a nuisance, but I've found a couple of items for the charity shop bag so all is not lost. I'm also looking up mending techniques for jeans with the hope of keeping DH's old pair going a bit longer.

Cherryfudge

The afternoon was very wet and windy. I went to the market regardless and bought various biscuits and two beautiful edible pumpkins One is a 'Turk's beard' according to the stall holder, but when I looked it up it's a Turban Squash. The other is a small white one which I think may be the variety 'Baby Boo'.

There were a few other bits to find around the shops - a new ironing board cover for instance, and a notebook to use for tonight's group. I'm not going receipt hunting at this time of night so I'll add details tomorrow.

I was 'good' and resisted lots of oddments of yarn in a couple of charity shops. I realised there was nothing really calling my name, and I do have more than enough to be going on with.

My friends came round tonight for our church meeting. It was someone's birthday and they brought luxury macaroons for us to share.  
The storm has gone now and there's a clear sky so it may get cold. It's been nice having the heating on for a couple of hours - the house is still warm though I won't need it once I'm in bed.

Things I'm thankful for: managing to get some jobs done and the clothes back in the wardrobe, and that the dehumidifier spill doesn't seem to have damaged anything. For a better forecast tomorrow and the prospect of coffee with my friend. For a week off from the church cleaning that I hadn't realised is imminent!

Cherryfudge

quick post to hid my place

Cherryfudge

Spending on 2nd:
Household (a lightbulb with such a long projected period of use that I realised I might not outlive it!) £2.99 and £4.50 (ironing board cover)
Stationery £3.55
Housekeeping 10.88 (of which the market bargains were 2 x jars of jam originally £1.50 each, now half price; bag of gorgeous broken biscuits £1, mallow teacakes £1.50, something else I can't remember)
Also some bulbs for the garden at work but I'll claim back for those.


Spending on 3rd:
Entertainment £5 (coffee with friend)
Housekeeping £2.94
Hobbies £1

The coffee with my friend was really nice. She's just started a new job and is a lot more cheerful than I'd seen her for a while. We mulled over the future of our Tuesday group which has been down on numbers, and we seem to get so tired that we often call it off. I talked about how I used to manage Tuesday when the kids were at primary school and a friend and her children used to come round every Tuesday after school. I'd always pop a pizza in the oven so tea was ready in time and I could still socialise. Today, my friend came up with the idea of 'Pizza Tuesdays' so we meet earlier, whoever is hosting does pizza for all and we can have a catch-up while we eat followed by our study time. So far, from feedback, it sounds as though this is going to be worth a try.

I had a quick trip round the shops after the coffees, not finding the film I'm looking for but getting two new crochet hooks in a charity shop.

Work: we had a good handover from the morning shift lead (makes a difference to how the afternoon goes) and generally everything seems to have gone well. I saw my supervisor and asked him if he can get me my job description and person spec (goodness knows where the original has gone). Mine's always been a bit of an anomaly and he reckons it's a throw-back to how the jo was envisaged many years ago. Once I have it I'll see if I can get hold of a copy of the job description above mine and do some comparing to see if I can work out what I want out of the position I find myself in.

Things to be thankful for: a chance of a lie-in tomorrow, another load of washing 50% line dried (though the sheet had to go through the dryer again) and nice weather after yesterday's storm. I haven't missed the heating though DH had to put it on this evening as the temperature was down. It shows what an influence the weather has, as it was colder today but no wind and rain. 

Cherryfudge

I meant to add: I resisted a ready meal today and used up some eggs and anchovies in a salade nicoise which turned out to be two days' worth. Guiltily, I'll have to throw out half a dozen eggs as they're well out of date. I need to find out how to freeze them and set an alarm on my phone or something for when they need to be dealt with.