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redofromstart

Today, in between juggling work handover plates, I have been looking at pensions and tax.

Not the most interesting or comprehensible of subjects. I've ended up opening a bottle on a school night! 

Starting position needs to be a (pension) store cupboard check I think. 

redofromstart

And then work out what we actually need - what is 'enough' is a very individual decision I think. What do we want to be able to do in our retirement and what would we sacrifice to make it start sooner? 

redofromstart

I haven't done anything much about the pensions. A slow burn project.

bread making has continued, and the one who doesn't eat enough quite likes it so that is a result. 

Pay day shuffle completed. Only two more paydays to go before the role ends. 

Sun_Addict

Do you plan to look for another role when this one finishes? 

Pensions are the devil’s work and deliberately full of jargon so no one understands them 😆 I know the rough amount I’ll get when I retire and I’ll be ok but won’t be booking a world cruise that’s for sure! 

redofromstart

I will have to at some point @Sun_Addict but the idea is to have a bit of time off and do the two person jobs on the house first. 

Mr Redo has done a lot of things since he took early retirement but there are things that would be easier, faster and safer with me actively around.

I might even declutter and thoroughly deep clean the house. We are already almost ready for a skip with building work rubble etc.  if the weather stays dry I may be able to burn sone if the un shreddable confidential waste later this evening. We have an incinerator but it may still be too wet to cross the patio swamp still. 

I am making space in the freezer for the Christmas meat offers, so the last bit of Christmas gammon is out and defrosting. Roasted for Sunday lunch, then Ham, egg, chips and peas tomorrow. Pea and ham soup for lunches. I'd better get some bread rising too. 

I made some Lancashire oat flips yesterday which are essentially creamed butter and sugar mixed with blitzed oats to make biscuits. Very nice and no flour to trigger my stomach etc. I think they all got eaten last night, whoops.

EssexHebridean

The oat flips sound tasty - and yes, freeze space being required is a thing here too - if I want to take advantage of the nice hams and things that are always on special around Christmas, plus have space ready for LO turkey, then I really do need to start being single minded about consuming he stuff taking up the space right now! 

redofromstart

I am convinced that there is some truth in the idea that food removed from the freezer expands and returns to the freezer in bigger portions (assuming it wasn't previously cooked etc!). We did eat all of the gammon though - instant pot in some spices orange juice and then fat removed, cloves, and a mix of marmalade and grainy mustard. It was very nice indeed and fed us for a few days. 

DS1 is having one of his periodical fits of enthusiasm for porridge in the microwave. It rarely ends well as it inevitably overflows long before it cooks. Luckily he likes experimenting . The expensive pouches work better than just oats. Soaking the oats overnight didn't help much. Tonight we will be blitzing the oats a little but I haven't got any powdered milk to try the camping food blog suggestion of 40g oats/10g each of brown sugar and skim milk powder. 

I looked at the stupid market order and did !how much! Squeal for milk powder but spotted that the nice molasses sugar is on offer (which I cut with cheap white sugar to make it go further). 

redofromstart

Where does the time go?

Blitzing the oats down a little helps, but so does reducing the power of the microwave. I didn't find any reasonably priced dried milk.

today I tidied the store cupboards and found a shameful 9 tins of tuna. I may tidy the freezer tomorrow but I think it's mostly ping tubs of leftovers and veg. 

redofromstart

Anker power banks bought for both boys for stocking fillers.

I want more kittens. You know you are to blame for this, unnamed diarist!

greenbee

redofromstart said:

Anker power banks bought for both boys for stocking fillers.

I want more kittens. You know you are to blame for this, unnamed diarist!

😇 😂 😇 😂 😇 😂