Busy Mee's Last Leg

kaycastle

Well done on your no clothes spend!

Keep up with the weeding!! If you have any little relatives that would appreciate a bit of pocket money you could ask them. Not encouraging child labour but I remember this is what my brother and I used to do and wash cars for 50p etc. :T

I also did gardening yesterday - it was lovely. Hurting very much today though - a lot of our garden still needs a complete overhaul from the decades of neglect before we got the house. We spent most of last summer clearing huge thorns.. And now we have the other half of the garden. But I just tell myself it means I don't have to pay to do any exercise or do extra on top...

Suffolk_lass

Happy Mothering Sunday! We were also in the garden for most of yesterday - I forget how tiring it is until about 2 hours afterwards when I get up like a little old lady and hobble around until things start working again :rotfl: - nothing a good long hot shower doesn't fix.

We have another dump run today (prunings and weeds mixed in those 1 ton builders bags!) - 3 more to take today. One of our veg beds was covered in grass so it was like cutting turves and so heavy - it is such hard going. I shall also be weeding all year after two years of not doing enough.

Your savings are doing well. Mr SL has five pay-packets left now - how many for Mr Mee? I know they are both finishing this year. As a teacher Mr SL has just 63 more get ups left (he tells me) after Easter. If I can pay down another £12k on the mortgage we will be able to clear it with his lump sum, giving another £500 per month to spend

Busy_Mee1

Thank you for popping in Suffolk Lass and Kay. I am glad it is not just me that is suffering from the after affects of manual labour. I have done another couple of hours today but have packed in now because I fear my back is broken

I think we may have to have the gardener back this summer whilst we are still working, but I guess anything I can do myself will cut down on the cost. Mr Mee has been out with me today but doing his type of gardening, i.e anything that involves a machine or gadget...today he thought pressure washing the paving would be a top priority job (where is the rolly eyes emoji when you need it ?). He has never been a gardener and I think he will need some training before next summer :rotfl:.

Mr Mee only has seven more pay days until he retires :eek: and the little chalk board in the study tells me he only has 150 more working days to do .....so a few more than Mr Suffolk Lass. We also intend paying £50k off the repayment Mortgage when he gets his tax free lump sum, which will reduce our outgoings by around £900 a month. We will continue to offset the interest only part of the mortgage with savings until the end of term in 2024 unless interest rate increase during that period.

I have had a spendy weekend so far ( you can tell it is pay day !)

I have spent £49.93 on stuff for the garden (bargain shelf plants and compost). I love the bargain shelf and nuturing plants back to full health . I also went supermarket shopping and spent £106.91 in Homebargains, M&S and @ldi, but I got a huge haul of half price food in @ldi. We are busy for the next 2 weekends so this shop needs to last us until Easter weekend...so essentially 3 weeks. I am hoping to manage this with minimal top up shops for milk, fruit and salad.

And finally my big confession ( Kay I think you jinxed this) I have ordered two tunic dresses and a scarf from Banana Republic (an extra 50% off sale items so around £250 worth of clothing for £55.98) I love Banana Republic clothes but obviously would never pay full price

I need to haul my back side off the sofa shortly and start peeling veg for dinner....we are having a bargain joint of beef out of the freezer and home made Yorkshire puddings. My Yorkshire puds are good even though I do say so myself, but of course I am a Yorkshire Lass so they ought to be :rotfl:

Busy_Mee1

It has been a very busy week work wise and there is a lot of change afoot at work. Some of which could effect me and my retirement date.....by which I mean, I could end up working longer as there is a job I would be interested in doing for the next 1-2 years. I am just waiting to see what happens over the next few weeks. It is great having the choice though - I can retire if I want to at 56 or stay if I want to beyond that.

Other than that I have been doing some general faffing as a number of the regular savers have finished, so a lot of moving money and opening new regular savers needed to be done. I have had to make a list....you always know when I am busy, when I need a list :rotfl:

It has felt quite spendy since pay day, with the spending on the garden and various birthdays and anniversaries and I need to put my foot on the ball and add it all up....it just feels bad at the moment, with more to spend next week. I have a long travel trip next week to take one of the elderly parentals to hospital. I feel like burying my head in the sand and not bothering to track spending this month, but know that I must.

Oo and I might have booked some more long haul flights ...I know I know . I have put them on the credit card, so they will need paying in May along with the big insurance bill. Luckily we have some money in the annual bills pot and holiday pot, so hoping it won't be too bad. It is a good job I may be working a bit longer

However this trip includes the kids, so will make brilliant memories and I would rather carry on working a bit longer if it means I can do stuff like this. We are all very excited :T

Also I am very pleased this week, as I have now lost half a stone since Christmas. I have been taking a gentle, more balanced approach to exercise and weight loss this year. Not exhausting myself with excessive exercise......just lots of dog walking and a weekly yoga and gym session. I have also been just trying to eat more healthily rather than starving myself or cutting out entire food groups. I am really pleased with the result, none of it has felt difficult, it has just taken a little longer to come off. The important thing I feel like this is baked into my lifestyle now

We have a busy weekend with various social occasions, but first need to go and get my hair cut and coloured this morning, so that I look respectable. Have a great weekend

try_harder

At the end of the day its all about choices and the fact that you have given yourself that choice is brilliant and of course all down to your dedicated hard work in every aspect of your life .How you are able to juggle so many things plus work i have no idea , i take my hat off to you .

Great numbers for March as always

teapot2

Sounds like you have lots going on and coming up. Good to have a choice around work and the possibility of a new challenge there.

themadvix

Where are you off to this time? It sounds like it will make wonderful memories!

Busy_Mee1

I am so glad to have hit the weekend as it has been a long week. I have been away both for work and to take one of the elderly parentals to hospital. So some long train journeys and around £140 spent on rail tickets and food on the go. I seem to have picked up the lurgy along the way and now have a horrible cough. I am not surprised...any level of selfcare has gone out of the window. I have spent the week eating rubbish, sitting on public transport, with little fresh air or exercise. I am hoping to sort myself again this weekend, although we have another trip tomorrow to visit a different parental......I am really looking forward to the long Easter Weekend next week.

Enough of the moaning. In MSE news I did buy the Times last weekend to nab the £10 off coupon from Lidl. I did a bit of stocking up to hit the £40 spend ( and I might have also bought a bottle of pink gin :rotfl:). I have also done more general faffing as the HSBC regular savers matured, so some shuffling of money around. At the moment I have all the regular savings sat in the mortgage offset account, gaining effectively 1.43% interest whilst I decide whether to put it in fixed rate ISAs or not. I am inclined to wait until June when the Tesco interest rate changes and then I can consolidate it all and make things a bit simpler.

Thanks for popping in Try Harder, Teapot and MadVix. We are going to NYC for Mr Mee's birthday and we are all very excited about it. DD and I have been before but Mr Mee and DS haven't. So we will have fun showing them the sights :T

Mr Mee didn't want a party....he really isn't a party sort of a guy so this will be a great way to celebrate. He will literally retire on one day and we fly the next, so that when we get home he will be officially retired......and I will be going back to work

Have a great weekend x

teapot2

Sorry to hear you have the lurgy and its sounds like a stressful week. Hope you can get some rest and fresh air over the weekend.

Lovely to have a trip to NYC to look forward to though - even if you have to come back to work afterwards :cool:

themadvix

Sorry to hear you've had a stressful week - hope the weekend helped matters.

New York sounds like it will be wonderful!