Crazy Cat Lady Chapter 4 - The Aftermath

Tescodealqueen

So pleased that you had a good Christmas and starting to shake off that cold. Enjoy the rest of your time off xx

foxgloves

That's all sounding good, CCL. Lovely that you could see your family, too. Plenty of relaxation for you!
F x

crazy_cat_lady

Morning all
I'm venturing out today for the first time since Christmas Day. The car is booked in for its annual service and first ever MOT. I'm crossing everything that it goes through without a problem - I've only budgeted £80 extra on top of the service and MOT costs. Unfortunately I have to sit in and wait at the garage while its done. I normally have the car picked up and dropped off, but they aren't offering that service at the moment. Nor the service where they drive you home and pick you up. And I refuse to pay the £25 they want to charge me to borrow one of their cars just so I can drive home and back again. So I've sorted out a book and my diary and I intend to get a bit of admin done while I'm waiting. Tweak the January budget, finalise my meetings and appointments for the month ahead as I have a busy one in terms of exam work (that's before I even think about whatever might happen when I go back to school - nobody knows just yet) and finish a shopping list. I'm all out of milk and almost out of cat litter - both of which would be a disaster. Thankfully I think that I have enough food left in the house to minimise grocery spends in January. Budget is tight but should be doable. I hope.
After the car is done and I have done a bit of shopping, the plan was to go for a long walk this afternoon. Unfortunately it's been snowing and looks a bit muddy/icy out there. I don't have wellies as my legs are too fat so probably best avoiding a walk unless a lot of thawing out happens and the roads aren't too slippy.
Anyway. Best be getting on. Have a good day all and take care.

slm6002

Glad to see you are feeling better.  I really hope the MOT goes well - got mine mid January and now no OH to check it over I am a little worried.  As for no wellies, I have a similar issue of fat legs.  I got my scissors and chopped of the top of the wellies so they are more like ankle wellies.  Good enough for mud and as I don't plan of splashing in deep puddles they should be ok.  You can buy ankle one without attacking normal ones if you prefer lol

Buffythedebtslayer

Just an aside about the wellies. I am sure your legs aren't too fat (you sound like me!!) I ordered a cheap pair which I love but I don't think Amazon have them any more 
What about these?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ladeheid-Womens-Wellington-LAZT201801-Pattern-4/dp/B079M38W4L/ref=sr_1_25?dchild=1&keywords=Wellies&qid=1609244663&sr=8-25
Perhaps not that pair but I didn't know they made dinky wellies! 

Buffythedebtslayer

slm6002 said:

Glad to see you are feeling better.  I really hope the MOT goes well - got mine mid January and now no OH to check it over I am a little worried.  As for no wellies, I have a similar issue of fat legs.  I got my scissors and chopped of the top of the wellies so they are more like ankle wellies.  Good enough for mud and as I don't plan of splashing in deep puddles they should be ok.  You can buy ankle one without attacking normal ones if you prefer lol

ooo I bought the cheap pair because a woman had done exactly that in the reviews!! and I thought I would have to do it. 

crazy_cat_lady

Hello
Well the service and MOT took longer than I thought - I was there almost 3 hours, sitting on my own at a little desk working and reading, and not allowed to get up and get a drink or use the loo or anything. It was good news mostly though - I needed a new rear window wiper, which was £18. Apart from that the car went through it's MOT with no bother and the service is already prepaid monthly. Made good use of the time finalising my budget for January, and seeing if there was anywhere I could find extra teeny payments to the debt. I think I'm going to try and PAD again if I can - just think that my budget might be too tight for that at the moment. My finances are as uncertain as anything in terms of exam work because there's no certainty about what will or won't go ahead next year so no certainty about if/when/what I will get paid. I have some work lined up in January so fingers crossed. My plan is to try and use my exam money for day to day living expenses and then throw my salary at the bills and the debt. Only works if I manage to bring a bit of exam money home though doesn't it? January has a couple of extra expenses (boiler service, haircuts for all and colour for dd, my sister's birthday) so a lot of my current exam stash is allocated already. Plus goodness knows what will happen to grocery prices after Friday... so the key to 2021 is flexibility and determination (I hope). I've done this before and I can do it again. I just need to find it somewhere to get my head in the right place... and a few extra hours in every day would be useful as well.
So I drove home from the garage and picked dd up to go and do the grocery shopping. Mostly done and Herr Aldee and Bee Emm with two extras at Mr S that I just couldn't get at either of the other places. Stuck to the list apart from one thing (a bag of potatoes because they were still only 29p and my kids will always eat roast potatoes) and spent £41, which I'm hoping will be enough for at least the week ahead. I know ds is definitely home schooling next week, and I suspect dd might be after all as well so there's always extra food needed when that happens. God only knows what is happening with schools. I certainly don't, and I'm in touch with the Head and he doesn't either. We're all hoping that there will be some information tomorrow, but it usually changes right up until the last minute so I have no doubt that something else will happen on Sunday. I will plan to go into work as normal, and then see what happens. I still think I'd rather be in the building than working from home, but I suspect that's not going to be allowed if we go down to key worker and vulnerable child levels. It'll be back to Z00m meetings and kids ignoring every bit of work that you put online for them.
Ah well...

crazy_cat_lady

Thanks for the advice too about the wellies. I may consider it as I didn't get out for my walk today after all. Truth is though that I have proper walking shoes and can't really find room in the budget for wellies. Definitely not January anyway.

janb5

Or have a look on E*bay...got my last pair on there.

crazy_cat_lady

Good morning
Finally made it to the end of 2020. It's been a weird old year, but I'm not going to lie - I think the positives have outweighed the negatives for me. I got my house redecorated right through, finalised the court stuff so ex is gone for good from my life, landed my dream exam board job and got my lockdown kitten. So I choose to think about that rather than the negatives (although the sneak in when I'm tired).
Also, in the strangest turn of luck ever, both me and the kids had hair appointments yesterday - which has turned out to be a massive positive considering that we've just landed in tier 4 and everything is closed again. DS is safe from my home hairdressing attempts in the short term.
God only knows what is going to happen with school - I will just wait for an email to land or for the Head to get in touch and let me know what's what. The only thing I'm not surprised about is that the government seem to have absolutely no clue as to what's going on, or what they are expecting us to do. 
Today is a part busy day. I have some work to do in regards to the exam stuff (who knows what's going on there either but I will continue with that until I hear otherwise), but I also have to take NT2 to the vet this afternoon. She's been scratching under her chin to the point of bleeding for days and I can't continue ignoring it. Apart from that, I desperately need to get out for a short walk at some point, for the sake of my mental health, and I have to make some roast potatoes as requested by both kids as I picked up two bags of potatoes reduced to 6p in Mr M yesterday. Had to go there after the hairdressers for cat food as my expected delivery didn't arrive and I don't fancy my chances with 7 hungry cats and no food that they like in the house. 
I wish I could say that I had done more, but dd's highlights took 3 hours and that was blimming ages as far as the rest of the day went. Cleaned the bathroom, hoovered through, watched TV etc. That was about it.
Anyway. I need to get on with my work for today. I will feel better once the exam stuff is done and ticked off the list.