5 months to emerge as a butterfly

Buffythedebtslayer

Could you use the frozen veg to make a pasta bake? It is annoying how that happens with oven chips.
Hope your leg feels better 
XXX

benbenandme

Gosh it's been a while since I last posted - lots has been going on!
So much for saving money while the shops are shut ... the plumber call-out for the boiler was £40, the fridge-freezer packed up unexpectedly so was £340 to replace and 3 fence panels had to be replaced after finally giving up, so another £95 there too. Luckily I just managed to cover it all with the money I put away each month into my household maintenance budget but it has wiped it out so I'm hoping there won't be anything else come along for a while  
We have got so much done around the house though during lock-down so I am not too worried about the household pot and am amazed at how much of a difference we've made. We've done loads in the garden - obviously replaced some of the fence, painted all the fences (still on-going), removed loads of bushes / weeds / unknown things growing in the garden Mr S got a load of grey slate / gravel from work for the borders and at some point we want to turf the middle bit (currently pea shingle). We've also stained the decking. We do need to get some plants for some colour out there but otherwise it is finally coming together.
Indoors there has been lots of minor improvemnets done, nothing huge but lots of those little jobs that you never get around to like putting up a blind, replacing the shower head, resealing the bath etc. 
In other news the cruise was finally cancelled. I will get a creidt note for the deposit, not sure if we will use it or not, has to be used next year, but at least I still have £3.5k sat in my account in case we do
Workwise I've been working from home, I am going back every other week after half-term - still not sure how on earth it will work in school but we'll see My cards are doing well at the moment, lots of online orders has made up for various events being cancelled. 
Today I'm catching up on jobs as it's half-term - I've already deep-cleaned ds bedroom, it was beyond disgusting ... teenage boys are not pleasant are they His bedding is on the line and his duvet is in the machine. The washing basket that was empty is once again overflowing but at least this nice weather should mean it drys pretty quick. I've also roasted a chicken which we'll have cold tonight and have opened a new bank account with Lloyds as I always used to put my small change in a bottle but I never use cash anymore so am not building it up, so I want an account that rounds up your payments into a savings account.

The rest of the day involves some facebook advertising for my cards, taking the dog out for a walk once it cools down, making sure i do my steps (have done 10,000 every day since the start of the Easter holidays).  Possibly some more fence painting and maybe a trip to the tip as I have so much rubbish again

benbenandme

Today looks like being another hot one - I plan to potter about a bit and make sure the housework is all up to date, gut my inbox and do some banking related stuff. Then i might get rid of some of the garden rubbish into Mums skip (she's having her garden paved), do my steps and make a bumper list of jobs that are still left to do around the house.

Looking at the end of the month banking stuff it seems I have about £200 left over this month which never happens, however having checked it does appear to be right (less petrol, less spends generally). I am very pleased but could quite easily spend this amount ten times over ... I need to put money away to get my hair sorted once this is all over, that will be around £100 for cut and highlights, my jeans have become threadbare around the bum and are in danger of completely ripping, I could do with some sandals for the summer and my underwear drawer desperately needs new life breathed into it. That's before i even begin to think about some plants for the garden, some new makeup, some Air Max trainers that I've wanted for months or anything else that just might be a nice treat   I think I'll put some away towards my hair (and try to do the same again next month), then think carefully about what to spend the rest of it on That's a nice thing to spend my day doing today  

benbenandme

Morning all, this morning I've been to B&Q to buy Mum a new rotary clothes line. Now i'm going to potter at home and do bits and pieces then take the dog out later. I did do another trip to the tip yesterday with a car full of garden rubbish, it was nice to clear some of it finally. I probably ought to do one more trip but sitting in the car for 30-45 minutes queuing is not fun in this weather. 
I'm back to school on Monday (one week on, one week off for now), so need to make sure I'm ready for that. 
Lots going on with my cards overnight - there is a very popular card supplier called Emotional Rescue who do black and white funny cards, you would have seen them in the supermarkwets / Whsmith etc ... anyway, they share a warehouse with us and they have been unable to get their stock to the stores that are closed on the high street so the cards were going to be pulped. Anyway, our head office have done a deal where we can sell some of them on our websites for 6 weeks. They are totally different to our normal style of cards so it is interesting seeing peoples reactions to it. Personally I love them and buy them mainly for men / younger generations (gosh I sound like my mother ), anyway, I have been very busy doing lots of facebook posting as I'm ordering tonight. 

savingholmes

All sounding really positive. Glad the home and garden is coming together and you are doing okay financially.

savingmore

great to great to see you back benben....and I guessed you would be having a productive time.  I have too, but not as much as I wouldn’t like as still working, at home but work still. trying to fit it’s all in tuesday-thursday to have long weekend, but that hasn’t panned out too well.  worked more than a full day yesterday but should be able to take monday as slow day.   it is great to get jobs out of way though!  only thing we haven’t sorted out are photos and still not sure i am ready for that yet!  retirement project i am convinced!

benbenandme

So today was day one back in school - all was fine, we only had 25 kids in (out of 1400), I am much more productive working from home though
Today is also the start of a new month and one that brings a brand new challenge. Today is day one of a so day sugar detox  My plan is to do 30 days of no sugar, then go back onto My Fitness Pal and count calories on there, hopefully by then I'll be over the worst of cutting junk and will find it easier to stick to. My rules are: I can eat / drink whatever I want as long as it doesn't have sugar or sweeteners in it. So that means water and the occasional peppermint tea to drink. I have bought some unsweetened almond milk for tea but I usually have one sugar or sweetener in it so probably won't drink much of it if I can't have that. I am limiting fruit for the first week but will add in more next week. 
So today I have had nothing for breakfast (I never eat it), chicken slices, slices of pepper and a chunk of cheese for lunch and some watermelon and then some cashew nuts as a snack. Dinner is salmon, wholemeal rice and roasted veg. I have had a headache already but nothing that a paracetamol didn't sort. 
My biggest problems will be not eating sweets/mints and not having ketchup, salad cream etc. I am a huge sugar addict and everyday I suffer with heartburn / reflux and am regularly sick. I want to see if this will help with my digestion problems, I know it will be super tough but hey ho, day one is going well so far

Drawingaline

Good luck! Day one one weight watchers for me.

benbenandme

Good luck to you too Drawingaline!
Day two nearly done here - it's not been too bad so far, I ate almost the same again today, I am going to need to mix it up a bit. Dinner was chicken, rice and salad, it was nice but needs some sort of sauce or dressing, I need to look into that.

savingholmes

Glad the return to work went okay. Well done on the healthy eating plan.