Giving every £ a job

Blackcats

Thank you SA.  I don't like coffee or red wine, so I'll stick to the Maltese's part of that diet plan!  

MissRikkiC - how sad for you.  It must have been so hard to have a new baby and to lose your mum when she was so young.  Life is so unfair.  My mum is 90 so I know that I've been really fortunate to have her for so long.  

Thank you Rebecca.

Blackcats

My mum has had an up and down week but she remains cheerful and any pain is managed with paracetamol.  Some days she hardly eats anything and others she eats a bit of what she fancies.  Makes it a bit tricky to plan food shopping but we are managing.  

I added a couple of ready meals to the food shop for us in case we get home late.  

Haven't spent much money so far this month - it's a quiet month for birthdays as is August.  

I'm going to buy some wool to make a couple of baby blankets for a friend and a relative who are expecting winter babies.  I find sitting and doing some crochet in the evenings is very relaxing.  I'm enjoying choosing some colour schemes for the blankets. 

 I've found a large shallow plastic storage box and I'm going to use it for my wool stash.  At the moment it's in a couple of bags and I suspect is becoming a tangled mess.  I'm making a big blanket for me to snuggle with on the sofa in the winter and this is a great way of using up odds and ends as well as having a couple of main colours to feature throughout.  

I've decided that at the very latest I will finish working at the end of July 2022.  That means that when we start August it will be my last working August.  That sounds very real and very exciting.  I know that the next few months will not be straightforward or easy to plan for but I can stick to my end date as an anchor point to aim for and be motivated by.

Roast chicken tonight with some home grown potatoes and a salad.  Yum 

foxgloves

You sound very organised & 'together' @Blackcats, despite difficult times. The blankets are a lovely idea & will be a nice de-stressing project atm.
F x

Blackcats

Hi Foxgloves - I am doing ok but can be undone without any warning - I found a handwritten recipe for crime brûlée that my mum had given me and it made me cry.  I remember her cooking the crime brûlée and bustling around at family get togethers and now she's so frail she can barely lift a tiny cup of tea.  

I combined my shopping this week with my parents online shop (will pay my share) so whilst it will cost more I've not had to traipse round a supermarket and at the moment time is valuable.  Even so, I was really shocked at the price of some basics compared to Lidl so I've been very purposeful with my purchases.  It also meant I didn't have to write a detailed shopping list for OH (arranged by supermarket layout) only to have him re-imagine the contents of the list again.  I'm not in the mood for foamy pink shrimps instead of chocolate at the moment.  😡

I need to do a budget update to see how much I can pay towards the council tax at this stage of the month.  How exciting (not!)

[Deleted User]

How is your mum Blackcats?  So so hard to see parents struggling - my dad has Parkinsons so I understand to a degree.  Hope you are ok x

Blackcats

thank you Rebecca.  After a tough week, my mum had a good day today.  She came downstairs and had a chat - she hardly eats anything but enjoyed a small bowl of custard. It's hard to watch but I'm trying to make the most of her better days while I can.  How is your dad?  I know you hadn't seen him for a while and I hope you've enjoyed your parents' visit.

Blackcats

Evening.  It dawned on me today that according to my plan I've now got 52 weeks left at work.  I'm going to do a weekly countdown as well as keeping track of money saving and other preparations for retirement.

So this week ....
frugal things -
sorted through my pandemic stash and used a carton of almond milk that was close to its use by date to make a rice pudding for my parents and had a portion myself for breakfast
didn't buy a takeaway tonight despite convincing myself that I needed/deserved one.  Instead I used some frozen prawns and some homegrown tomatoes, chilli and basil to make a delicious linguine
made the effort to request a refund for a punnet of strawberries that were not at their peak of freshness - some were decidedly slimy.  Well it only took a couple of minutes and the £1.80 is back in my account.  I salvaged a few strawberries and had them with the rice pudding

sorting things 
washed and dried some items to take to the charity shop 
shredded some papers
deleted 30 documents from my work computer desktop

little steps ....

Sun_Addict

Wow just 52 weeks, that will fly by. Time to get prepared…

joedenise

I love rice pudding made with almond milk.  It's so much creamier then the usual cows milk!

Not long until retirement  - that 52 weeks will fly by!

Blackcats

52 weeks is so exciting.   This time next year ....." we will be millionaires Rodney" .  Hopefully my plans are a bit more robust than Del Boy's.

joedenise - the almond milk worked well in the rice pudding.  I'm going to use the other carton to make overnight oats which I think will work well too. 

I've got a week off work and I'm borrowing an approach from mumof3's diary "use my time well".  I've got a bit of a list but I'm playing it by ear depending on how things are at my mum's.

I will enjoy not staring at an MS Teams screen all week.  I felt really weary last week, it's tough seeing my mum so poorly but she is remarkably chirpy and always happy to see me.

I got a refund from a concert that was initially re-scheduled to next year and is now cancelled.  I'll put the money towards my September holiday spending pot.