Tales from The Shire

Cheery_Daff

What a lovely weekend Fortune! And you have some excellent figures there, well done! Lovely to have a full emergency fund, and those mortgage figures are ace too!

savingholmes

Glad you had a lovely time celebrating - and on a budget too. All sounding good.

Fortune_Smiles

Blooming

It's warming up in the Shire and we've had sunny spells so far this week.  Flowers are starting to bloom in the garden - I've had enough tulips this year to cut them for the house 🌷

Progress has been made on this year's goals:

Wealth

• Mr F has dug out the sign in details for his pensions so I can now keep track of those on line
• he received a small pay rise which we won't see as it's been offset by the rise in tax on his company car.  But at least we're not going to be any worse off 😊
• he also received his full bonus which is amazing given the challenges of last year.  We won't see that either as it's ear marked for replacement window costs 😆  In one hand...
• I'm thinking of having all of the remaining dodgy windows replaced.  That would be 8 in total and would mean using some of our emergency fund money but at least they would be done.  Mr F's bonus would cover the cost of 6-ish leaving just 2 so we might as well just bite the bullet.  We think we can restore any others ourselves
• I've given Mr F the go ahead to buy the roller/aerator thingie he needs for the garden
• we've rotivated all but one of the veg beds and planted chard, spinach, spring onions and kale in addition to the broad beans we put in last weekend
• we bought compost and a couple of new pots to replace ones which were frost damaged which meant I could re-pot my kitchen herbs

Health

• I'm walking FDawg every day
• practising yoga twice a week - although I have a knee problem at the moment so can only do yoga poses that don't require kneeling 😆
• and spending a hour or two in the garden on two week days and at least a morning over the weekend
• we're back to eating healthily and I've lost 5lbs... which sounds great but it's only what I put on after celebrating our birthdays and Easter 😲

Happiness

• I'll be getting my hair cut on Monday - yay!  I haven't touched it at all this lockdown and I look like a bag lady 😲
• Mr F and I went to the garden centre on Sunday which felt like a day out 😆
• I'm scheduling some creative time in my week and did some writing yesterday.

I'm definitely feeling a lot more positive about the virus situation.  We do seem to be moving in the right direction with vaccines and the easing of restrictions.  I have to pick up a prescription tomorrow and I may even brave the shops whilst I'm out 🛒

I hope everyone is doing ok

Fortune x

rtandon27

Fortune_Smiles said:

Blooming...

Fortune - I absolutely love that 'Blooming' has it's own category! xx RT

beanielou

All sounding good 

Fortune_Smiles

rtandon27 said:

Fortune_Smiles said:

Blooming...

Fortune - I absolutely love that 'Blooming' has it's own category! xx RT

Ah but is it 'blooming lovely' or is it 'blooming heck' RT? 😂😂😂

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

beanielou said:

All sounding good 

Thank you beanie - lovely to 'see' you.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

All to plan

Well, I'm sticking to the plan so far, getting through chores and freeing up a bit of creative time.  I joined my Writing Group for a Z00m last night and did a bit more writing today.  I've been very inspired by @savingholmes who, despite having a very busy life, makes great progress with her writing and, I think, is currently working on a second book 👏

Lunch yesterday was pitta pizzas loaded with as much veg as possible.  Supper was Beetroot Couscous & Chilli Mint Halloumi.  Today we had Wild Garlic & Potato Soup with Wholemeal Cheese Scones.  I used strong, wholemeal flour as that's what I had in and left the sugar out (sugar in savoury scones 😝).  They turned out really well and I think I prefer them to scones made with white flour - result!  Tonight's supper was Cauliflower, Paneer & Pea Curry, a favourite of mine and there's enough of the curry and the soup left for tomorrow so I can have a break from cooking 😁

This week's grocery shop came in on budget.  I'm buying more from the veg box people and less from the supermarket so that's a good sign that I'm eating more healthily.  I've certainly got more energy.  The knee problem is holding me back a bit as I'm having to work around it.  It's been playing up for about a month now so, if there's no improvement soon, I may have to see the doc.

I've arranged to meet a girlfriend for lunch on Monday before getting my hair done.  It'll be a 'proper' day out!  First one in about six months!

Happy hump day all

Fortune x

Cheery_Daff

Oob, excellent progress Fortune, and I'm most impressed at you eating so healthily and having lots of energy, and also making time for your creative pursuits. Enjoy your day out, how exciting!

SandyShores

Love your update Fortune, all sounds really positive (its motivating me to get and do some things).  And I'm glad its all going well.  Thanks for the recipe links, MrShores will love Cauliflower, Paneer and Pea Curry - that will be on the menu tonight and its very healthy.  We are losing weight in the Shore's household and its having a very good effect on the household budget.  Third month in a row I'm not having to raid my personal account for food shopping.