Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

I slept badly last night for some reason, and today I've nearly run out of energy. The weather is beautiful and at long last there's a lot of colour in the leaves and quite a lot of leaves on the ground.

I've done a a couple of small mends on tee shirts: tee shirt fabric is tricky and I avoid mending it if possible but these concealed themselves nicely along stripes so those tees will last a while longer.

The important thing this morning was signing my new contract and submitting it, so that's done and dusted. I wasn't on team for the holiday club as it my turn on the cleaning team. The holiday club people did a lot of cleaning up after themselves which saved me quite some effort, but there was still enough to do. I plodded home wearily and stopped for a couple of items at the shops.

DS2 has asked if he can stay tonight. I've said 'yes' but that he may have to clear the stuff dumped on his bed (by me). Then I've thought again as I need to rescue my emergency overnight bag off that bed, in case the baby turns up tonight, and I also need to take down the airing rack and put some aired items away. Having sat down for a while I might move those soon.

Lunch was leftovers and dinner will be lentil and chorizo soup.

Expenditure:
Housekeeping £4.44

Cherryfudge

We swapped our plans around yesterday evening as we were too tired to cook. DH went out for fish and chips and the soup, which is store cupboard ingredients anyway, can be made another day. It was lovely spending a bit of time with DS2 who was in town for a costume party, which I assume is the same as Fancy Dress. He stopped overnight with us but as he got in about 3 and got up about one this afternoon, we mostly saw him in the evening.

I slept well and woke up feeling better, the cold does seem to be on the retreat already.

This afternoon I've been back to the optician's for yet another glasses repair. I think the last one wasn't very strong as they came to pieces half a dozen times yesterday evening! I am still avoiding making the Christmas cake: when I should have been mixing it I was wandering round charity shops. I did quite well out of that, though: a couple of Christmas gifts from Dh and me to each other, a paperback and some embroidery thread. This last will add to my two jars of embroidery thread from a number of projects (I can see what I've got through the glass, and it doesn't get tangled or dirty). Now that I know how useful it is for repairs, the chance to have a dozen different colour for £1 was too good to pass by. I'll put that under the 'clothing' budget because that's how I envisage using it, but I might actually embroider at some point, too.

We didn't do a 'big' meal today as we've had some large ones recently. DH bought a soup and I had porridge with fruit so it was fairly cost-cutting too. I've just got more liver and bacon out of the freezer to make a casserole tomorrow.

This evening all banking apps were working and I dived in only to find I'd not cancelled the standing order to pay into the YBS Christmas account, which has now closed and re-opened as a saver account. That's not too bad in terms of the money, which is now on a decent interest rate, but not good in that it only left £136.79 in the account I get paid into, to last the month! Thankfully almost all direct debits and standing orders are already through and I was able to transfer from low interest rate savings to current, to cover the amount that's gone into higher interest rate savings... that will cover the credit card for the month and leave a reserve - phew. Incidentally, the cc hasn't sent me a reminder text but will automatically take a minimum out by Tuesday. I need to see if I can get them to text a day earlier as I can't always sort things out in the turn around time they give (hence setting up a DD for them to take out some money). This month, I can't pay it off until the transferred money hits the account, which doesn't allow enough time for me to authorise and them to process another transaction. I'm blaming the slow internet the other day, when the bank statement wouldn't load!

I don't suppose it's serious really but I don't like not being on top of it, and this time I'm not. the root of it probably lies in not keeping on op of it often enough. I hasten to explain the food is now paid from from a different account so we won't be struggling.

I've gone through most of the statements and all seems okay so far. Just not enough time to finish the one we pay housekeeping from, which is always complicated. As for the spreadsheet... these are all in a notebook and the spreadsheet has a lean and hungry look. The notebook has a fat and uncomfortable look due to so much going out at the beginning of each month that it won't all fit on one page.

Not much else to record apart from that Duolingo has given me an apparently random three free days on their paid version. That's nice as I can do things like use the higher scoring parts of the app without having to 'pay' with accrued points. I'm at about 975 days continuous use now: wouldn't it be nice if they repeated the freebie at 1,000 days!

Expenditure:

Gift 20p (L!dl is selling off seeds and I asked Dh to get a packet to add to the 'junk drawer starter kit' we're making for DS2 and his girlfriend if and when their house purchase goes through. They're getting China Asters.
Housekeeping: unknown - DH got soup and a pastry.
Gifts £6.50
Clothing £1 (fashion on the ration coupon free as embroidery thread wasn't rationed).

Sun_Addict

I didn’t get anything when I hit 1000 day streak which really disappointed me! I often get random 3 day freebies though, there doesn’t seem to be a pattern to it. 

Cherryfudge

Sun_Addict said:

I didn’t get anything when I hit 1000 day streak which really disappointed me! I often get random 3 day freebies though, there doesn’t seem to be a pattern to it. 

Thanks for the warning! I will make the most of this one. Perhaps they wait for the three year mark? I think that's 1095/6 days depending on Leap Years.

Cherryfudge

It's been a full day. Church, Christmas Cake, Bonfire Night. The only spending was for milk and ground almonds, and £2.01 into the collection bucket at the public firework display.

Dh went to church this morning as he was on a rota but I opted to stay at home and conserve my energy, start the dinner (casserole) and mind the phone in case baby decided to put in an appearance (which it didn't). I watched online: there were some extras happening - new members joining and the holiday club finale, for instance - which made it a bit longer than usual, and the speaker was the former pastor who we've known for years. We have met him from time to time since he left, but it was good to have him back to speak.

DH and I watched Repair Shop over lunch (we love it), then he had his now-habitual Sunday afternoon walk to make up for spending three days a week in an office. I was going to slump in front of the computer but remembered the Christmas cake needed to be made and what with one thing and another, it took most of the afternoon to mix it. No idea where the correct size of square tin has gone, so it's a round cake this year. I've also started to feel I have too many fancy cake tins and the like and need to make some decisions, if only to be able to find and focus on the things I actually use. Lots of what I have seemed like a good idea at the time but just take up space. If I were renting them I could save a fortune by sending them back!

(I'm reading an interesting book on the sharing economy - Thanks for Sharing by Eleanor Tucker - which set off that train of thought. Why am I giving house space to things that don't get used or which I could lend out or borrow from others?)

Anyway, I eventually got the cake in the oven, and even remembered to use the top oven which is normally a grill and only  used about once a month as we don't tend to grill things. The thing is, it doesn't have a fan and the recipe is an old Be-ro one that was written before fan ovens. I found the main oven (with fan) dries the cake out a bit too much. It's cooked now and I dare it to be even the slightest bit dry. The fruit has been soaking a week and was very plump and soft.

We went to the town firework display and bonfire this evening. There must have been thousands there, and the fireworks were superb. Are they getting louder, or am I getting older? The only downside was the music - it was so loud the ground shook. We live a mile from the site and during the afternoon I'd thought it was someone down our street with a car radio blaring much louder than usual. At the venue, it was too loud, full stop. It did occur to me that it would be audible at the hospital which is nearer the venue than our house is, so some poor soul was probably having to listen to Tina Turner as they breathed their last. DH said perhaps they'd like that, but I think if it were me I'd have preferred to have had a choice about it. Oh, and there must be some rich people near here, because we stopped a few times to watch really beautiful rockets going off from people's gardens. not one or two but proper displays. It was a nice free display for us, but the last ones finished at ten by which time I just wanted peace and quiet again.

Time I went to bed: I have a new job to start in the morning!

Cherryfudge

I've managed five and a half hours of online training today before deciding to catch some daylight and exercise. All okay so far. My new manager is very prompt at replying to emails, which is handy as I had a few questions. I'm afraid I was getting a bit restless towards the end, though the quality of online training seems to have improved recently. As a consequence I have detail-cleaned my keyboard.

I gave myself a proper lunchbreak and texted some former colleagues

There was a rather lovely November sunset, reminding me of the red sky over the snow a day or so before DS2 was born. I walked to the far end of the High Street for some groceries and a donation item for my friend's fundraiser. There was a nice Christmassy hand cream in a fancy china house on half price, so I bought one to donate and one for a family gift. Good old Sains was marking things down as I went through, so I got satsumas for 29p, cherry tomatoes for 39p, and Sea Bass for £2.49. I called into L!dl on the way home as I wanted salad, but ended up getting a few things, including chocolate. The good intentions were there.

Sea Bass and salad for dinner.

A texted to say H has started to have contractions but not to come over yet as last time they went away for a couple of days. Nevertheless Grandma's bags are all ready in the hall!

Expenditure:
Donation £6
Gift £6
Housekeeping £9.53

MS:
Discounted fruit and fish
Actively earned some money for the fist time in months. I'm not sure there will be any students for me immediately as we're half way through a term, but there's more training to be done.

Sun_Addict

Ooh exciting times new baby incoming 🙂 Keep us posted. 

in_need_of_direction

Glad to hear that today went well. Keep us updated on the baby

Cherryfudge

No further news. Not about the baby, anyway.

I remembered to check banking and the transfer has gone through to replace the money that accidentally went into savings. I received my reminder text earlier and haven't found a way to have the text sent earlier, though I could do with another day's notice.. They will go ahead and take out the direct debit anyway, but rather than have the total build up, I've paid £100 off, leaving about £18 on the card which is manageable.

I'm not sure when I'll get paid for the holiday I'm owed (and no sign of them paying for the holiday entitlement that timed out due to sickness, grr). I should be getting the cash equivalent of eight month's worth of holiday this year, but whether it will go through this month or next, I don't know. 

24ta

Delurking, did you seek advice re the holiday entitlement while you are sick?  
extract from HMRC website

Sick leave and holiday

Statutory holiday entitlement is built up (accrued) while an employee is off work sick (no matter how long they’re off).

Sorry if you have already been advised, just don't want you to lose out