"Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it."

rtandon27

Phew - glad you could shuffle to cover being overdrawn!

After having been off work for over a year on medical leave, I now like to have 3 months of expenses sitting in the main account at any time!  That way I know everything can/will tick along in the background.

greenbee

I have my emergency fund elsewhere ... I also still have savings left for the renovation, but have been sitting on that and cashflowing as much as I can. However, that doesn't really work if I leave myself short of money to live on. I also hate budgeting as I find numbers scramble my brain - so I work with the big numbers not the individual line items. 

greenbee

Big tree coming down today (big bill, huge pile of logs to process, huge pile of chippings to compost). 

I've put two pictures up as well. There are quite a few more to go and I need to get hold of the picture framers to find out whether the ones they have are ready for collection. If they are, I need to find time to go and get cash out to pay for them.

I've got a few days leave booked to help with prepping for the next lot of renovations as there's a LOT of stuff to move!

I need to make a list of things that need to be done while I'm off. These include a CS run (or two), getting two new tyres put on the car, clearing the bedroom, and having a tidy up in the veg plot. 

greenbee

Tree is down. Have a massive pile of logs to sort out. It'll be interesting to see the difference it makes to solar generation too as it used to cause a slight dip in the middle of the day. 

greenbee

Haven't had a full day of sun since the tree came down, so really can't tell what the difference it. Neighbours are all surprised that you can't really tell that the tree is missing - and from further away the view is improved as it looked really odd being twice the height of everything else. 

Vat of apples has been stewed in the SC and a muntjac cut up and frozen for Stinky and Fatty. I need to unpack the cat food delivery for Fatty and Stripy and get another sack of kibble out of the workshop for Stinky. I need to research raw feeding in more detail, as muntjac is significantly cheaper than cat food (and possibly dog food), but I'm not sure it would be nutritionally complete. It would be good to know how much they should have and what they should have with it. 

Not much has happened towards emptying my bedroom, as today would have been my dad's birthday so my mum took me and Stinky to the pub. Stinky's first pub visit and he was VERY good and lay down under the table wagging his tail, looking interested and being quiet while we ate. The pub wasn't very busy, but it was still a new environment. The staff were very good and when we explained that it was his first visit they ignored him.

Still need to sort out paint colours for my bedroom/bathroom/wardrobe, lights for the hall, colours for hall/stairs/landing. As well as emptying my bedroom, bathroom, and wardrobe!

greenbee

Log burner was still warm when I got up (checked at breakfast time, not ‘everyone out for a wee’ time!), so I’m going to try to remember to see whether it’ll relight if I deal with it when Stripey cat decides it’s time to get up tomorrow morning. I have plenty of logs and need to get my act together on minimising oil use over the winter given than the wood is all paid for (although a lot of splitting and moving is on the cards!).

I’ve also realised that I’m stalling on the bedroom emptying as I don’t want to sleep in a half-empty room, so I need to get the bedroom I’m moving into set up and ready, move into it, and then clear the rest into other spaces. 

Having said that, I’m back in bed with coffee and planning on doing some reading before taking the dog for a walk. 

greenbee

Yesterday was the first day that the solar didn't fill the battery and heat the hot water during the day. It still generated a fair amount, but the battery was down to 30% this morning. Thankfully it's now full and the DW is on and the WM will be soon.

Another day off today, so I've had a nice (short) sunny walk with the dog, dropped a suitcase-full of stuff off at the CS, taken my car to have new tyres put on it, walked back to the bank, transferred an old ISA to a new one with the same bank (interested calculated and transferred and account closed), got some cash out, and walked back to pick up the car. Back tyres have plenty of tread but some perishing. He seems to think they'll be fine for a while but to keep an eye on them... I have no clue what I'm looking for! But at least he didn't take advantage and tell me to come back next week to replace those as well. And the price was good - beat the online price for tyres and that included fitting and disposal. 

The plan for today is to get some laundry done, then potter about in the garden and house. By the end of the day I need to have cooked up BNS for the dog's kong's and lick mats and started processing and freezing them; moved myself into the spare room so I can spend the night in there; pulled up the courgettes and runner beans to compost, weeded a couple of veg beds and mulched them ... and ideally sown something in there for the winter. As it's nice, another dog walk would be a good idea too, although I've already met my step target for the day (the dog hasn't though). 

Windows are open for fresh air, so I must remember not to leave them open too long! I also want to start swapping the light-filtering blinds for thermal ones this week. I've been lighting the fire in the afternoons and keeping it going until bed time, which has made a significant difference to the temperature in the house in the morning - enough to mean I can keep the heating off for a bit longer anyway. 

EssexHebridean

Looks like the wind is getting up again towards the weekend so we should see some cheap overnight prices which could be good on the heating front - I fully intend to do the same this winter as I did last, and substitute the central heating for electric when that works best - I can't see the point of paying best part of 6p a kWh for gas if electric will be cheaper! 

We were discussing last night that we reckon Friday night might be our first lighting of the fire this autumn. 

greenbee

Fingers crossed for some nice cheap electricity EH! I have a LOT of logs, so need to make more of an effort to light the fire at lunchtime/in a break in the afternoon and keep it going. 

greenbee

Carpet fitter has just asked to come and lift the old carpet on Thursday instead of Friday - I guess that should focus me on getting stuff moved out. I have said they may need to help me move the furniture out, but otherwise they can do it once I'm back from the dentist.

It's been nice outside - washing is done and on the line, and I've got the courgette bed cleared and done some sorting out of the compost heaps. I remember now why I kept the gardener away from the compost last year... he packs it too tightly in layers so no air can get in, had put perennial weeds in it, and he's mixed the older stuff with the new stuff so I now have two bays that are still unusable. He's also lined the pallet bay I put together for the woodchip to go in with ply, which kind of defeats the object of using pallets - I did point out that no air could get in, but he's convinced that otherwise everything will fall through the gaps. As I can't manage without him until a. lots more of the structural stuff is done and b. I've retired and have more time for stuff like mowing and cutting hedges, I'm just going to have to grit my teeth and try not to be annoyed. As the ground is still very dry, it's not really ready for mulching anyway.

Perennial weed barrel has been topped up and filled with water, so hopefully that will start rotting nicely. The borage barrel is looking good (I could probably cut some more to top that up). So hopefully by the spring I'll have some decent mulch to use and won't have to spend a small fortune on commercial compost and mulch again.