Returning to MFW, my elusive unicorn!

coldcazzie

• ebay parcels posted ✔
• ebay fees paid ✔
• ebay sales money moved to OP acc ✔ (signature updated: balance is £181.55)
• exam centre emailed ✔ (they are planning a mailing later today or tomorrow, so hopeful that will answer some questions!)
• grocery shopping done ✔ (spends below) should cover us until Saturday when it's my turn to go
• silk painting kit paid for ✔
• splosh subscription paid for ✔
• money moved from cleaning/toiletries accs into joint acc ready for the splosh payment to be made tomorrow ✔

Grocery spends
Aldi (food): £14.81
Tesco (food): £24.08
Alcohol: £8.79
Toiletries (precious loo rolls lol): £5.99

Other spends
Silk painting kit: £56, and it will do 5 Christmas presents, plus a painting for the wall in the hallway.

Pilates this evening 💪

Merry Tuesdsy everyone!

coldcazzie

• eBay postage has left the jt acc.

• Splosh subscription payment has left the jt acc. Dishwasher tablets and handwash concentrate will land soon, although who knows when that will actually be as the post is obviously slow right now. (Btw, if anybody wants to join Splosh, I have a code that gives you a bit off your first order.)

• Jt acc is now back at its current "zero" where it should stay until next week. As far as I can recall there's nothing else to pay for between now and then.

• Payday is a week tomorrow; everything on the spreadsheet is primed and ready for the money shuffle to happen and bills to be paid. Hoping to end the month with a credit buffer of £100, although there's a bit of me wondering if that money would actually be better squirrelled away into a savings account where at least it would be earning a smidge of interest.... I will ponder this, and speak with The Manwife™.

• With the CC tickover having happened, and the bread mould I was planning on buying out of stock, I have bought one of the things we wanted to finish off the bathroom revamp, which was a freestanding loo roll holder. Over five years we've lived here and the loo roll has been balanced on the edge of the bath all that time. No more. (I know. It's the little things.)

• I had a small splurge on a pot plant today, which should be delivered (to our patio, with no close contact involved) in the next few days. I felt guilty for a while but I am not anymore because:
1, I bought it with the money my FIL gave us a couple of weeks back that was allocated "my" money, and I can spend that money on whatever I want, including houseplants.
2, I'm supporting a local business that is struggling right now because of the closures.
3, Rule 18: You can never have too many houseplants. Yes, I made that up just now and added it to the list.

• Started clearing the area round the back of the shed. Purposefully didn't do a lot. I'd rather feel like we might not be doing enough than keeping on going and then running out of spoons and having to recover for several days/weeks. That area of the garden is swathed in wild garlic - it used to be in the shade of a large tree that was cut down about 3 years ago. I picked enough wild garlic to fill an old mayo jar filled with water, and put them in the middle of the dining table like a bizarre flower display ate some in a salad for lunch and used some to make twice baked potatoes at tea time to put in the freezer. Gave some to our neighbour too. Planning to dig out all the bulbs I can find and transplant them elsewhere in the garden, as well as giving them to friends. That area will eventually be covered with weed fabric and sand, have slabs laid on it and then 2 water butts - we already have everything we need, hence why this is a good job to do while we can't get out and buy supplies!

Hope everybody has had a pleasant hump day!

coldcazzie

I think I've currently dug out about 10 pots of varying sizes of wild garlic (and I'm not being stingy in the pots!), and I'm not even a quarter of the way through the patch! 😂😂 Manwife™ is going "I think you've got enough there" like, love... I've not even started on the stuff we're keeping! This is just for other people!

The less fun part of digging out that particular section of garden is the ridiculous quantity of glass in the soil. Hardcore was expected - it was essentially a dumping ground for the previous owners, and because of the sloped ground hardcore was put there to stop the garden sliding into next door - but there is SO MUCH GLASS it is ridiculous! 😱😱 when I dug out the area for the shed, which is 8x13 ft, I removed over FIVE buckets full of glass, and it's looking like this area is going to be the same.

My new houseplant was delivered today, which prompted a massive repotting of multiple houseplants that have been looking desperate for some TLC for ages. Probably a good couple of hours spent doing that, AFTER I spent an hour digging behind the shed this morning, followed by an hour of pilates, followed by half an hour of supervising the kids with various parts of their learning. Feeling rather productive today, and I will try to get out and do some more digging this evening when the sun is less strong.

The kids' dance teacher popped by and dropped off the DVD of their last show. Chatted for a bit (safely distanced half way down the drive) and the kids were very pleased to see her  

I ordered some more suncream last night as my current tube is almost empty and gardening + sun + fair skin = ouch! That was not cheap but will be worth it.

I also bought some polyester resin - the stuff used for car body repairs. Reason: it's supposed to be brilliant for repairing rotten wooden benches. Last autumn I snagged 2 matching benches for free off fb marketplace, the kind made with rounded wood that looks like thin logs. They've been sheltered as best we could under tarps all winter and I intend to fix them up. Each one is about 4 foot wide, so will fit 2 people on, but one is in much worse shape than the other. I may need to replace some wood on that rather than repairing, which I'm less enthusiastic about (just because of the way they're put together). I am really excited about them being finished though, and being able to say that I revamped them and saved them from being firewood.

Slow cooker is getting well used this week. About to put tonight's tea in it, and I made chicken soup yesterday with some chicken thighs which have been in the freezer so long I have been thinking for at least a year "oh I should use those soon" and it takes a long time for me to even start thinking that sentence 😳😂 

Merry Friday MFWs!! 

coldcazzie

Almost a new week (not that we can tell...); hope everyone has had a lovely weekend!

Achievements: 
• We have done some more digging in the garden, moved some hardcore, dug out some more wild garlic, and I found a battleship (from a battleships game - obviously I've kept it!).
• Grocery shop done, by Manwife™ rather than me as I had horrible backache (unrelated to the digging - it's hormonal 🙄🙄). Receipts are on the side of the sofa waiting for me to pull my finger out and put them in the spreadsheet.
• Today I made a plant shelf out of a piece of wood we found in the cupboard under the stairs. Dunno what we bought it for originally, but it's been chopped up and screwed/dowelled together now, and has 6 succulents on it in the living room window 😁
• I also fetched the first bench out that I am going to repair, and spent a while gouging out all the areas of rotten wood that I could find. There was a bit on each of the arms but it was mostly the leg ends, unsurprisingly. My original plan was to soak the leg ends in wood preservative before filling them with resin but I'm not sure I can do that now.... on the other hand, I will need to buy paint, so perhaps I can order both at the same time.
• Finished my final large silk painting, and got in touch with my friend to talk about ordering more supplies.... I feel it could easily become rather addictive! 😂
• Played Ravine, which was one of the new games I panic bought before going into "lockdown". Absolutely brilliant. Played it twice; kids wanted to play it a third time but we had to put them off because it was Small Small's bedtime. Definitely a good purchase and already planning to buy the Expansion pack!

Generally, a good weekend has been had by all here! Bring on the new week! 💪🤟

coldcazzie

It's PAYSLIP DAY!!

Slightly higher than usual, which will be useful as next month is going to be HARD. Aiming to have £120 as our new 0 on May 1st, which will involve a large TT of about £7 into the OP account.

CC is currently looking okay. Couple of online purchases but mostly the usual suspects of food, toiletries, health stuff etc.

Medium Small is going to need new shoes soon. Not sure how that will work - he has incredibly narrow feet which makes it hard to buy shoes for him at the best of times, and I am genuinely uncertain we can do it without him being able to try them on first. 

Twice yesterday Prolific sent me emails inviting me to take part in studies, only for me to then be told I'm not eligible. It would bother me less if the emails didn't say "and you're eligible to participate!" in them.....!

Garden digging is still happening... but we are going to have to start sifting soil and storing it in a heap on the grass because the level of part of the area will be dropping by almost a foot. I am doing perhaps an hour or two a day, depending on how my back is feeling, and always stopping before I feel like I'm done. Progress is slow, but it is noticeable. I am thinking about a giant greenhouse made out of pallet wood, and upcycled old doors and windows. It feels like a marvellous idea, but whether the reality matches up to my imagination.... well it likely won't be an option until next year anyway so I'm trying not to obsess too much for now!

coldcazzie

Grocery shopping today. Made the mistake of wandering down the special buys aisle in Aldi and almost came out with a table saw! thing is, I would genuinely use something like that. I love power tools and I love woodwork, but we really don't have anywhere to put it. I dithered, took a picture to send to Manwife, and then walked swiftly away lol. My circular saw and jigsaw will have to do for now!  

[I will, however, snap up a fold away workbench type thing (with a vise?) if something like that ever appears! Balancing pieces of wood on the patio on dining chairs and getting family members to hold them still while they get chopped is really not a good substitute for a proper workbench.]

Total spends today, and running totals
* Food (Aldi and Morris combined): £66.67 (fiver off courtesy of my More pts). Total is now £194.53, 41% of budget.
* Fat balls for the garden birds: £3.99. (Planned purchase of hay, bird seed and peanuts soon.)
* Big trug to move hardcore around in the garden: £3.49. (I may have appropriated our old smaller one in the chicken run, to stop them jumping in their feeder!)
* Wood preservative, paint, and brushes to apply: £57. These are on click&collect so hoping I can pick them up tomorrow, and also run to the PO to post an eBay parcel and also buy the animal stuff in one big round trip.

Payday has happened. I am not thinking about the fact that this is the first month I have not paid myself in years and years, because if I think about it I might cry. The first part of the money shuffle is done. Pension paid. One bill goes out tomorrow but the rest are next week. Will do the second half of the money shuffle over the weekend.

Think that's all. Fluffy butt Friday tomorrow! Make sure to find a fluffy butt and enjoy it!  

coldcazzie

It's the weekend! And it is looking LOVELY outside!

• Manwife has booked next week off as AL, after having a long discussion with various colleagues about the future of his job (he is currently on secondment, and being either tuped or made redundant has been hanging over his head for well over 2 years now), so that he can spend some time reflecting and making decisions about what he wants to do and how to achieve it.

• Wood preservative and paint have been collected. The click&collect process went off without a hitch, but I then got stuck at a light that refused to turn green (down the little side street where the car park entrance is) and eventually I just drove through it - EEP! Got a massive rush of adrenaline! I am clearly such a badass I started sanding down the bench, and will be using our electric hand sander for the more awkward places. It's already looking better just with the little bit of sanding I've done.

• Hay and wild bird food purchased, also very smooth. Garden birds are happy. Sparrows in the hedge this morning with nest materials in their beaks. We've seen a Great Spotted Woodpecker on the bird feeder twice in the last two weeks, having never seen one before in our lives. Hoping it's moving into the area!

• Second half of the money shuffle is done. Several bills going out on Monday, most of the rest on Tuesday. Last one is on Friday, at which point I get to do a TT to bring the jt acc to a nice round number, which will be its new 0 for a while. Rather excited about it! I know you guys will understand... Manwife certainly doesn't!!   

• Digging. My back hurts.

Grogged

Fingers crossed for marmite deliberations (maybe he'll give you a PowerPoint presentation on his options 😂)

Now I can't OP I live for the TT just to keep my hand in...

coldcazzie

• Great Spotted Woodpecker has made multiple more appearances on the bird feeder. We are rather chuffed.

• Prolific cash out, plus an ebay sale, plus skipping pilates last week due to chronic backache and therefore carrying the payments over to this week = £15.21 added to the OP/SHTF acc. Balance now stands at £196.78.

• Grocery shopping today. Totals added to spreadsheet. This month is already looking rather higher than last month (currently half way through the CC month) we had a takeaway over the weekend which we paid for out of the surplus from last month's budget. It was worth it.

• Only two bills left for this month. Everything is as planned so far.

• Pilates this evening. Chicken tikka in the slow cooker - smells delish.

coldcazzie

• It's Beltane! If the rain stays gone this evening I think we may light a fire in the fire pit  

• Bills are now all paid for the month. TT of £2.90 into the OP account, bringing the joint account to the nice round figure of £120. OP acc balance now standing at £199.68, which is frustratingly "close, but no cigar" to £200 sig has been updated.

• Apparently we've an unscheduled small CTC payment going in to our account on Monday. I really hate it when they do this. I have no idea what it's for, and I haven't done the renewal yet, so it's not part of their new calculations. However, it has reminded me that I need to send the form back to the CB office that Big Small is staying in full time education in September.

• Happy fluffy butt Friday - if you see a fluffy butt, be sure to enjoy it!