A whole new world, for now

beanielou

We are all good enough NOW 🤗🤩

Cherryfudge

Excellent progress on decluttering!

milann

That’s a lot of declutttering 👏👏👏

in_need_of_direction

Over the past week, another 20 items or so went to rubbish, were gifted or went to the charity shop. Two items that sold on vinted were despatched that will bring in £9 to the possibly treat pot possibly pension pot. Having had an extremely upset tummy yesterday, I’ve discovered a new but not sustainable way to shift some pounds. I’m down 3 today to 11st 12lbs which is still within my plus or minus 2 lb range. I had a complete chocolate binge day on Wednesday so I got off lightly.

I also took heed of what you were all saying about being good enough so instead of being overwhelmed by the thought of changing the bedding, I started by just changing the sheet one day with pillows and duvet tackled another day. Not the optimal approach but, it worked.

I responded to an invitation to tender on the final day. I’ve had it sitting since December and, as the incumbent, it’s pretty much mine to lose but still I dithered. I hope I have done enough as it’s a small assignment that covers three years but brings in enough to cover insurance, professional membership and close to all accountancy costs. It’s a client that is easy to work with, So why did I leave it to the last minute? There is another tender available that’s due next Friday but I have a genuine concern about working with this organisation so am dithering between giving it a go to craft a sector specific submission or ignoring it. It would be a nice fee for roughly a month’s work and dh could assist if I found it too frustrating.

over the course of the week and during my counselling session, I realised that I am at an age where I need to be less reckless with my finances. I have lived my working life convinced that money, including debt, was the easy thing to deal with. For example, giving my ex a larger financial settlement than he was entitled to just to be able to move on. I was recently considering putting all our savings into a new venture where I had no experience assuming that if it went wrong, it’d be only our money that was lost. I was even considering a contribution from ds. I heard the voices of chef Ramsay and hotel inspector polizzi querying what informed my belief of potential success. That plus realising it would drain the life blood from me forced me to critically examine a plan. I think it’s the first time my age / closeness to retirement has been a definite consideration. It did however force me to look at alternative ways to achieve some of the objectives so I will be investigating.

today I will give my coffee date a miss as I’d sooner stay close to my own facilities. Today I am grateful for

A relatively warm home for when I felt under the weather

A new monthly mse challenge that resonated

The emergence of clarity

Cherryfudge

I'm sorry to hear you've been feeling rough. I hope you're over it now? Some of that weight will try to bounce back as it went so quickly, but it's nice to see the figures going down, isn't it?

I sympathise about the reality of approaching retirement. I had a plan to work till retirement age to top up my pension as much as possible, take an obligatory month off, then go back as relief so I could pick and choose my shifts. That all changed when I went off sick then handed in my resignation and suddenly was being asked if I wanted to start to take my pension. I'm glad I didn't, but at the time I couldn't accept that the seven years I had expected to continue to pay into the funds had suddenly turned into 'that's it, you aren't contributing, do you want to draw it now?'

I don't know how long I will keep working but I don't see retirement age as a set thing. If my health will allow me, I'll probably go on working at least a bit because for me it's about mental health. However, plenty of people want to stop early, that's just what I feel.

The potential new venture, the chocolate day and the hesitation over the smaller tender all seem to indicate you are quite stretched at the moment, so go easy on yourself. Making the bed one bit at a time is very practical, especially in winter. When there's not enough dry weather to dry bedding out of doors, I often do the sheet and pillowcases more than the duvet cover. After all, are the items that get the pressure of people against them - duvet covers get away with it lightly. It's nice to have everything clean on at the same time, but it's not an obligation. You do what works for you.

doingitanyway

Lots of positives there and I like the idea of changing bedding in a piecemeal fashion. I might do that sometimes too. I'm always inspired by how you took control of your BS and weight

milann

Good result on 3lb down but I wouldn’t want to make a habit of it. Hopefully Youre feeling much better now.

jwil

I hope you are feeling better today.

in_need_of_direction

thanks everyone, I’m feeling so much better and had a fairly productive day yesterday. I cleared a long outstanding task that took under 10 minutes and is a weight lifted. I chased up some stuff and removed somethings from my to do list. Organisation is starting to creep in. I had a number of phone calls and was able to identify a potential solution to issues being faced by two former colleagues. Today I need to maintain momentum. Today I am grateful for

£200 from Ernie

A shrinking to do list

Access to some paid help for a work thing

The February challenge that is, so far, working for me

beanielou

All good then.