Busy Mee's Last Leg

Cornish_mum

Dear BusyMee, I am very sorry to hear about your FIL. Many congratulations on DD’s baby that’s lovely news. Very nice to see you back and finding out what you have been doing since retirement. CM

Suffolk_lass

Hooray you are back (me too, but mine is a two week holiday with only slight withdrawal symptoms from here). I am so pleased your retirement experience echoes mine - all the reassurances that other things simply fill the work void and we are never bored, I just don't think others believe it until they have it for themselves.

I am sorry to hear about your FIL - it is hard. My Mum (92) is feeling a bit slower and less inclined to do stuff. I suspect she has mild heart failure (they only ever did one side when she was 87, and I suspect at 92 they would consider her too old now) but she still takes pleasure in life and managed a lovely roast and shepherd's pie while we were staying with her a fortnight ago (when I removed a whole shoulder of lamb from her freezer and announced we should eat it while there were enough of us to warrant cooking it!)

Your grandchild too - what a delight. Treasure every moment! I don't need to say just how fast they grow. Congratulations and enjoy! Don't forget you can gift your grandchildren some tax free cash every year... should you wish to

Your finances sound sound, although I am personally very anti-interest paying, I understand the flexibility it offers, with other things to TIC.

Busy_Mee

Morning. Thanks Guys, lovely to see you too.

I feel like I have got back on the MSE horse now. The difficulty is going to be in finding the right balance now, in terms of spending and saving. 

So yesterday Mr and Mee and I had a day out with a visit to a House and gardens about an hour away. £15 entrance and then lunch £18.90. It was lovely. 

They had a spring festival which was glorious  and I got lots of ideas for planting bulbs for next year. The entrance fee felt worth it in terms of the money going towards the upkeep of such lovely gardens and the lunch was very nice too. I gained 0.34p back in Chase cashback and 10p in my round up pot 😀 So that counts as MSE surely 🤣

We then went to the nearby market town for a wander but didn't buy anything.

This morning I took our change jars to the coin star in T'Asda and netted £29.25 ( after 10% charge)  I used to bag up and take the coins to the bank but now our local branch has shut, it would cost more in parking, fuel and effort than the £3 paid to coin star. 

I've kept my 20 p jar though and intend to feed those into the self checkout machine to use them up. (beware anyone behind me in the queue 😮)

So free shopping in T'Asda this morning and I picked up a bargain £2.50 pair of wellies for Baby Mee for when he is walking ❤️

Operation use stuff up continues. I baked a cake to use up some baking marg and eggs ( a Biscoff loaf) and finished up the remnants of a bag of muesli this morning.

I am going to batch cook a vat of bolognaise this afternoon. DS is coming for tea and I will freeze the rest.

I am now off to tackle the drawer of doom. This is top draw in the kitchen sideboard where paperwork gets stuffed when we "tidy up ". Wish me luck !

South_coast

My Mum and I disposed of £2.17 in coppers in the self-checkout the other day, as I refused to allow her to use the Coinstar on principle 🤣! We had plenty more, too - only stopped when it started spitting them back out as we must have filled it to capacity for those demoninations 😳 Going to intersperse with silver for our next visit 😀😀😀!

My BF has various drawers of doom, good luck with the clearing out!

maggiem

Pleased to see you are back BusyMee. Sorry to hear about FIL. It's hard losing a parent and I think house clearing afterwards is one of the worst jobs I have ever had to do. Reminds me I must have another go through my house so it's not that awful for my children. 

Lovely to hear about new grandson though and that they have moved closer to you. New baby cuddles make everything better and it's fascinating watching them grow and develop - if rather exhausting too. There is definitely a reason we have children when we are younger😂😂😂

hope the budgeting goes well and you get the right balance too. 

LadyGnome

Lovely to see you back Busy Mee.  It's clearly been quite a rollercoaster.  Sympathy for your loss and congratulations on the good news.

savingholmes

The garden visit sounds lovely

Busy_Mee

Morning. Back from my trip to give my Step Mum a break from caring for my Dad. He is being difficult again. Mum wanted to get carers to put him to bed as it is taking her ages (she is 82) and he wouldn't agree.

Anyway bad cop ( me) arrived and told him that if he wants to stay at home then he will have to. So he has reluctantly agreed but is barely speaking to me ......it is so stressful and draining. I was glad to get home.

We had a lovely day yesterday. The kids, dogs and Baby Mee came to watch the football and we had a barbecue. It was lovely and helped rid me of the stress of the previous few days.

In financial news I am loving the new Chase account. I have transferred our day to day living expenses and am using it like a pre loaded card. It is really helping with the budget, as I can see exactly where I am. The 1.5% on savings, 1% cashback on spending and the round up facility are all brilliant too.

I feel like I have a grip on our finances again. We have been leaking a lot of money since I retired and I feel much better to have control again.

In other frugalling news I have been feeding my 20p jar into the self service checkouts £10 at a time and then moving £10 into my odds and sods account.

I also had a great M&S haul this morning as I had a £5 off £40 spend. Lots of 3 for £10 offers and yellow stickers. So lots of things to make meals with.

Hope you are all having a great Sunday. I am looking after Baby Mee for a couple of hours this afternoon so think I will take him for a walk in the pushchair. ( Our very MSE second hand, scrubbed up like new pushchair 😊)

savingholmes

Enjoy your time with your grandson. Hopefully he outshines some of life's other challenges. 

Glad your money is back on track. Well done on helping your parents even if your Dad is unappreciative / finding it hard to adjust.

try_harder

Missing you Busy_Mee