A new royal start

QueenJess

The op was fine and I have spent the last week trying to do nothing in the hope that it'll all heal quicker.  It is taking ages and I am not patient!

As everything has gone out of the window, my finances have been taking a hit.  Did the food shop this morning with a list, but didn't do my usual rigorous exercise of getting it down to the essentials and so spent £128 in sm and £16 in the zero waste shop.  Just slightly over my weekly sm aim of £70.....  However, I am sure I bought far too much and I have full cupboards and a too full freezer.  So I am playing the game now of seeing whether I can make it to the end of the month without doing another shop and just getting my fruit/veg delivery and topping up with the odd thing like milk.  If I can do most the month, I should be in a good position to get the deficit down again.

Feta cheese salad for lunch and dinner tonight is going to be lazy given I did the food shop this morning and spent 2 hours in the heat this afternoon watching sports day for DS.  Planned for fish, chips and peas (all from the freezer).  It was so hot, I made smoothies when I got back for everyone with some frozen bananas and raspberries.  At least that got some stuff out of the freezer!

Need to start sorting out the usual things I do without overdoing it, which will be an interesting balance...  I've been trying to do a few more things for myself and so booked myself in for a very much overdue haircut on Thursday and then will have a browse round the shops.  I have a couple of things on my list to get in town, but on my own it means I can spend lots of fun time browsing in bookshops etc that I wouldn't normally be able to do.

I think everything is operation frugal to save up for the summer hols now (plus school clothes!).  I did pick up some candles from Buy Nothing earlier this week as I like to burn them in the winter months (it's often my weekend treat).  They've given me more than enough for the whole of the winter, so that was free!  I also picked up an unused swimming costume for DD that is perfect for her for free as well.  The purse I bought that was very expensive came and was bigger than I expected, so I will be returning it and looking for something cheap in town on Thursday as an alternative.  I also have £50 in the mortgage overpayment account, which is great news.  Small wins..

Jessy103

Wishing you a speedy recovery, jess and make sure you look after yourself x

QueenJess

Trying to have a half resting and half doing stuff day.  No idea how I'm ever meant to catch up with the never ending to do list.  I dream of the day when I don't actually need to do anything at all...

This morning I ventured into the garden to see what's been happening whilst I've been hibernating inside.  No one has watered anything of course, so lots of sickly looking plants I hope I can revive by giving them all a water this evening when it's cooler.  The herbs have gone completely mental though and so I added coriander and chives to a feta salad for lunch - it was quite spicy, but very tasty.  Thankfully the rhubarb that I moved and then seemed to instantly die has revived and looks much better.  Hopefully it has got over the shock of being moved and is successfully fighting the raspberry plants that are going mad.  I also weeded one small pot outside, picked one bowl of redcurrants that are now in the freezer and planted out some beans that were imaginatively trying to climb up the curtains inside.  I also sowed some basil seeds.  They aren't germinating well for me (I think they are old), so I sowed far too many in the hope I will actually get some.  I need to get the packet used up and buy a fresh one for next year.  I love basil and I could never hope to grow enough    Tons to do outside, but I am planning to do just a little bit each day before it's too hot and see where I get to. I think I'll be picking redcurrants for a long time, but I love them mixed with blackberries to make my own frozen mixed berries for the winter months.

DS asked me if I was going to be able to bake anything soon (haven't made anything post op) and was very excited when I said I'd planned to make fairy cakes.  So they were made this morning (before it was too hot as well) and have been iced imaginative colours and topped with little confetti and stars.

I am now resting post my lunch until I need to pick up DS from school and probably push him along with this school project he's been given.  I don't want him to leave it until the last minute.  I also need to make pizza dough for dinner later.  I might potter a bit later and put a few things away/sort things out in the house and package up this purse to send off given I am walking past the doorstep of the drop off place when I pick up DS.

I have been rummaging around the top of the freezer (nowhere near the bottom yet) and I still have blackberries that need to be used up before I start picking the next ones!  I can foresee blackberry cake in my near future..

Very much looking forward to my haircut and town visit tomorrow.  It's rare I do stuff for myself and feels very self indulgent!

South_coast

Ooh, blackberry cake sounds delicious!

QueenJess

South_coast said:

Ooh, blackberry cake sounds delicious!

This is the one I fancy making:https://www.marksandspencer.com/c/food-and-wine/cooking/recipes/187005/blackberry-loaf-cake/

Going to be another hot day today.  I can't cope in this kind of heat - I am just not made for it.  Got up early this morning whilst it was still cool to pick another bowl of redcurrants (I might be 1/3 of the way through now...), tried to control some crazy plants with a spare plant support, planted out some basil seedlings from a window sill that I completely forgot about and then emptied two huge plant containers that I plan to get rid of (too big and dry out far too fast).  That's enough for one morning.  I have absolutely tons to do in the garden, but I struggled after being in town a couple of hours yesterday, so I am really trying not to overdo it.  A little bit is being done every day.

Whilst it still isn't too hot this morning I plan to make carrot top pesto (Riverford delivery was this morning) and also some custard creams before there is a revolt.  Dinner will be from the freezer that looks even more full than before (makes no sense as I've been taking stuff out I'm sure) - jacket potato and bean chilli.  This afternoon I need to pop to M&S to get more baked beans for the kids (I will enjoy the freezing inside), pick up DS and then we need to get more of his school project done.  Around that I should potter and do bits of tidying, but also do need to rest.

I've now got £60 in the mortgage overpayment account.  Got my fingers crossed I can get my first £100 for the next mortgage payment.  On the joint account finances, it all looks a bit grim, but then we are currently not paying enough into the account compared to the amount I think we need - it's all because of so many rises (including £200 extra for childcare a month) that we can't really afford, but hoped to scrape by as it's only 4 months of that until no more nursery fees.  The aim was to try and slowly catch up in September onwards.  It's only been 2 months, so I guess my finances are only going to get worse   I am still going to concentrate on that grocery deficit though and see how much I can get it down.  Once under control I can target another area and hopefully work from there.  Hoping for a cheap rest of June and then whole of July!

Edit: Almost forgot, but lunch will be pesto pasta with broad beans and spinach.  DH went to M&S for me as I am already starting to hurt and needed to rest. 

QueenJess

Well that didn't turn out to be a very relaxing day in the end... today I did one load of washing, made a big batch of fairy cakes for the kids and iced them, made the blackberry cake, sowed some chive seeds (probably too old, but may as well give them a go), tidied some of the plant pots away that were blowing around the garden, cut some of the mint plant to see if I can grow it into some new ones (in a water cup on the window sill), picked up some candles from Buy Nothing, set up the new cheap DVD player that arrived today (the old one doesn't work more often than it works - over 15 years old) and helped DS do a huge bit of his homework project.

Now sitting down for a bit and hopefully DH will make dinner..  Lunch was mackerel salad with lots of herbs and leaves from the garden.  Dinner is jacket pot and beans for the kids and chilli for me (we didn't have it on Friday in the end as we had other leftovers to use up).  DH is having leftover pesto pasta.

On the plus side, I got a big Prolific survey on Friday and so my mortgage overpayment fund is up to £74.  £26 left to find from rounding or surveys before 4 July.  On the negative side, I seem to have accidentally stained my hand yellow from the food colouring in the fairy cake icing..  I used a bit much and did the blue icing first in the same bowl so the icing now looks radioactive coloured

QueenJess

Well absolutely nothing happening on this end.  Went to do the food shop early this morning before it got too hot and I am now camped out in the coolest room downstairs in the dark, with a fan in front of Wimbledon.  I am not looking forward to the heat when I pick DS up from school later!  I "need" to make chocolate fairy cakes later, but I suspect that will be a late evening task given the heat.

Somehow I managed to scrape by in June for a small saving in the grocery budget despite needing various odd bathroom supplies I don't buy very often.  My spend was £716 against a budget of £750.  Overall the joint account looks terrible, which isn't the best given we are coming up to the summer holidays.  I will have to be sensible with the spending and sit it out until September when we won't have nursery fees anymore.  With the help of Prolific on top of rounding my bank account, I have £100 ready to overpay the mortgage on Friday along with the usual rounding down of the mortgage.  Hoping it all helps when I renew the mortgage for early next year.

I am also waiting on the weather to be more sensible so I can go blackberry picking soon.  I want to try making blackberry jam with it.  DD has already tasted my redcurrant jam and loves it, so looks like it is a hit

Lunch today is leftover pizza that really needs to be eaten up with salad.  Dinner is tomato pasta and garlic bread.  Dessert is strawberries and yogurt, just yogurt, ice cream or basically anything cold enough to cool us down!

QueenJess

Everything feels a bit weird here as I got a last minute interview yesterday (online) and tomorrow I am travelling in to see them for the second stage.  Not sure I was prepared to work yet really, but I was contacted online and it sounded like an interesting opportunity.

Today I've been trying to sort out my hallway cupboards, but I keep finding reasons to walk away and do other things... such is my hate for sorting through it!  I will go back and do some more before I have to pick up DS from his after school activity.  I am about to put my second load of washing on, there is hm mint choc chip ice cream in the freezer and a hm apple and blackberry crumble cooling on the side (the heat turned some apples soft more quickly than we could eat them and obviously I didn't want to waste them ).

Lunch today was poached eggs with toast and pan fried greens, mushrooms, sesame seeds and garlic in some butter.  For dinner DH has volunteered to make pesto pasta using up a pile of veg in the fridge.

Nothing to report money wise, although I got a message from Riverford to let me know the price of some of my regular orders are decreasing because they have a higher stock than they originally thought!  That will be a welcome win to my sad looking grocery budget.

QueenJess

Just a quick check in as I am tired today.  Travelled in for my interview yesterday and left lots of leeway due to not being used to commuting by train anymore!  Ended up being what felt like two people asking psychometric type questions for an hour and so my brain was completely exhausted by the end.  However, they rang me a couple of hours later and want to proceed to another interview (I've already had two).  Not sure how many there are, but basically am being introduced to everyone in the company who's in charge of anything I may need to work on.  The next one will be a video call as they are not in the UK.  I guess we'll see what happens next.  Might be a bit of a shock to go from no job to a full on job with commuting, but it's also a really good opportunity.

Being a bit lazy today and took the kids out for lunch to a local farm shop.  Was really nice.  DD found some colouring pens with inbuilt stampers she bought with her pocket money and has been playing with them all afternoon.  Dinner is chicken, chips and freezer veg (supplemented by some fridge broccoli) because I just can't be bothered today!  Dessert is chocolate cakes or mint choc chip ice cream for the kids, the adults have apple and blackberry crumble with blackberry ice cream.

The mortgage payment came out yesterday and I overpaid the £100 I saved up (plus the usual rounding down) and so the mortgage now stands at £119,900.  Need some bits at the yellow and blue shop on Monday (mainly a very small bookcase for my cooking books and a lamp for the living room), so I've been putting together a list of the things I want to get on the app so I can stick to the list.  It also adds up the price, which is handy.  I do have a £10 off voucher which will help though.  I am usually a master of only getting what is on the list, taking all the shortcuts and getting out of there quickly, so fingers crossed given the sad state of the joint account at the moment.  On the plus side, DS doesn't need any new school clothes for next year and DD has hand me down/free PE tops, cardigans/jumpers and reading folder.  So she should only need polo shirts, a couple of skirts, school shoes and some PE leggings.  I will also cash out my CC points for M&S vouchers to use against it, which should help (my kids destroy all but the M&S polo shirts for reasons only known to them...).

TallGirl

Morning they do seem to ask for a lot more interviews these days but sounds like you are interested. I do not think I could commute again and do make sure you do not take on too much especially at the beginning. Hopefully your other half can carry a bit of load and also your kids are getting older which might help. Good luck I am sure you will smash the next stage.