Keep calm and carry on....

South_coast

Just finished reading my very interesting book. Absolutely fascinating - it's like MFW, Becoming Minimalist and the revelations lots of people have had during lockdown all rolled into one. Can't believe it was written 60 years ago!

South_coast

£8.26 in from Prolific 😀 Into the pot you go....😀

Apologies for the excessive use of the 😀 emoji today! 

newgirly

Glad you glad you are feeling good about things at the moment SC, funny how our our moods change so match during this time! Hope you have a good weekend 😊👍😀🦄🦩💐 have a few emojis, you can’t have too many 😬

South_coast

Thanks NG 😀😂😃😍🙌👍!

Jessy103

South_coast said:

£8.26 in from Prolific 😀 Into the pot you go....😀

Apologies for the excessive use of the 😀 emoji today! 

Isn't it weird how you were saying the other day you weren't getting any from them and I was getting loads! Now the tables have turned, and I'm not getting any! 😀

South_coast

Morning all 😀 

Yay, it's still only Saturday! (For the benefit of my - hopefully MF - future self, re-reading this in a few years' time and thinking "!!!!!! is she on about now???": Yesterday was a Friday Bank Holiday, marking the 75th anniversary of VE Day 😀)

So, as promised, I have reviewed my New year's resolutions and I'm actually doing alright. Perhaps I already am practically perfect in every way 😂! The smaller home-based ones I have nailed (at least while lockdown continues), the mortgage one I can't really tell whether I am on track to reach £18k by the end of the year (target) or £13k (stretch target) - probably not, as I now have the credit card payments to make as well - but I do now have £10k in savings, have started to invest in my S&S ISA again, will be increasing my pension contributions AND putting some money aside every month for the future bills fund, but the mortgage balance is still coming down and I'm happy with my choices, so certainly won't be beating myself up if I fall short. The weight-loss one - er, well at least I haven't put any on 😂😂😂!

However, while I'm pleased with progress on the things I wanted to improve back in December, it does feel a bit like that was a previous life and I don't want to just congratulate myself for my good work and think about improvement again in another 7 months. 

So....

When the world resets (I'm using reset rather than "get back to normal" as I'm not sure we really ever will get 100% back to "normal" as we knew it - at least not for a number of years. I don't think there's going to be a huge appetite for a lot of things now - I for one am not sitting here thinking "flipping heck, I can't wait to start setting my alarm for 5.00am again. And sitting in traffic jams? Bring. It. On." Maybe a bit of collective discontent from the nation about the old way of doing things may bring about a change). Anyway, getting a bit deep there.... When the world resets, I would like to:

* Go food shopping less. I'm going once a week (or once every two weeks) at the moment and I haven't starved yet through a lack of vision about what to have to eat (BF is topping up with odd bits from Sainsbury's, so I am cheating a bit). I still want to shop at 3 different supermarkets as I like the variety of their different offerings and have them all on my route home from either work or BF's, but I do not want to return to food shopping 5 or 6 days out of 7 because I hadn't thought ahead about what I might eat. I'm not going to commit to specific shops on specific days, as my life isn't routine like that (sometimes I can go home to a different house to the one I thought I was going back to when I left in the morning 😮), so I'm going to keep a rolling shopping list for each shop on my phone and I can pick them off as and when

* Cook more. I've really enjoyed spending more time cooking (with actual recipes 😀!) and want to keep this going. Living alone also means that I end up with lots of extra portions when I do cook, which will mean I have some tasty and quick meals to come home to during the week. While life isn't routine, I am usually home on a Saturday, so this can be my proper-cooking day. If I miss a week because I'm not here, then there should be enough from previous weeks to tide me over 

* (Tied into both of the above) Buy a second freezer. This is something I've been deliberating about for a long time, as it just seems bonkers for a one-person household to need two freezers. But, mine was often very full pre-lockdown and is even worse now. If I'm going to be shopping less and cooking more I will need more room. I have my eye on a compact model, which I will save up vouchers from S&S and Consumer Pulse for over the next few months so it doesn't cost me anything

* Increase my pension contributions. When and by how much will depend on my salary and how I feel at the time, but they will be going up by around 10% from where they are at the moment 

* Drink less, move more. Hmmm.... That says it all I think 😂! Still trying to flesh this one out - I had a vague notion of making sure I exercise enough to burn off all calories consumed through alcohol, but looking up how much you have to do to burn off 100 calories (one vodka and diet coke) was pretty horrifying (although I didn't mind the "63 minutes of reading" one - however somehow didn't think that would really achieve the desired effect)! It may at least curb the amount I drink if I realise how much I'd have to do to burn it off - which would be great news 😀

So there we go: Meet the new improved South Coast. Let's see how well I get on 😂!

Jessy103

Sounds like a good plan, SC! I love the thought of the world 'resetting', I certainly don't want to go back to how things were and hope I can make improvements too. I wish you the best of luck and will be here cheering you on! X

South_coast

Jessy103 said:

South_coast said:

£8.26 in from Prolific 😀 Into the pot you go....😀

Apologies for the excessive use of the 😀 emoji today! 

Isn't it weird how you were saying the other day you weren't getting any from them and I was getting loads! Now the tables have turned, and I'm not getting any! 😀

Sorry (not sorry) 😂!

Prolific is weird like that, it's a bit all-or-nothing. If it makes you feel any better, I got screened out of a £2.50 one last night because I mis-answered what type of company I work for! Answered private when I should have said public as it was late and I was tired and thought they meant public services instead of publicly-limited - it was only after it rudely chucked me out that it flitted across my consciousness that I'd seen the word "shareholder" in the previous question and realised my mistake 😡! Note to self: Read the questions! 

South_coast

Jessy103 said:

Sounds like a good plan, SC! I love the thought of the world 'resetting', I certainly don't want to go back to how things were and hope I can make improvements too. I wish you the best of luck and will be here cheering you on! X

Thank you. That means a lot 😍

themadvix

Hmm... the freezer one is interesting... I’d be sorely tempted but for the fact that our existing freezer is in our utility room (you have to go out the back door to get to it) as it is. But it’s always a battle to get everything in and that will only get worse with more homegrown stuff. If you’ve got space I’d say go for it!