Cutting it Fine - the challenge is on!

SandyShores

There are so many birds around at the moment, its really lovely to see and hear them.  Lots of bumble bees and buzzing from the Laurel bushes.  I haven't seen many butterflies, but then we don't have many flowers to attract them yet.  We all finished work early today, so sat out on the patio for half an hour together just enjoying the garden.

Moneywise I need to sort out this month's mortgage op.  Popped another £5 into the xmas saver, so only another £2 to raise  this month to be on target at the end of June.

Stress-wise, two of the stressful things have ended today, one just for a few weeks.  But, here's hoping by then the other three stressful things will be a distant memory.  I guess nothing worth having is easy, and we are really fortunate in lots of ways.  

SandyShores

Very stressed yesterday, so I took off to town for a walk.  It was definitely the right thing to do, as I set off with my head buzzing and returned just worried about my sore feet - nothing like a potential blister to take your mind off things.  I managed to use a voucher for some face cream, but I resisted using the Boots No.7 vouchers.  There's a £5 off offer at the moment and on the main MSE website there's a guide on how to get £43 of stuff for £10.  Luckily I realised that I don't need and won't use the £43 of stuff, no matter now cheap it is.  And besides, it would just sit around cluttering my cupboards and drawers until it all dried up.  Sadly it was not until I got home that I realised the assistant had put something through twice and I ended up paying another £1.50 for absolutely nothing!  Note to self to check receipts in future before leaving the shop - no matter how hot it is.  Really irritating.

One of our neighbours is being extra irritating at the moment.  Their usual moa is turning on the 'fairy' lights bright enough to land a plane and smelly fires - goodness knows what they are burning.  But they are being a bit over intrusive during the day right now with their activities.  When we were a lot younger we probably behaved just as inconsiderately to our neighbours at times, but these are an age when they should know better - so there is no point in talking to them.  We have plans afoot which will block them out completely, it won't be in place for a while, but it will be lovely when its completed. 

Just logged into the mortgage account, but need to log in again tomorrow so I can calculate the difference and work out the daily interest.  I've decided to make my overpayments at the end of the month in future.  If I log in on 29 and 30 June, I should be able to work out the maximum interest - it goes down when the payment hits the account and then starts going up again as the daily interest is added.  At that point I can also work out how much the overpayment for June needs to be.  It makes sense (to me)

Weight loss isn't going anywhere fast, but I'm not putting any weight on!  I am normally someone who eats my stress (unless I'm so stressed I can't eat) so this is actually quite good for me.  

All in all, its all positive.  Minor irritations which have end dates in sight, will resolve themselves, and job worries will do the same.  Very grateful to have what we have, especially in these Covid times.  We were able to sit out yesterday tea time and enjoy the garden, it makes it all worth it

Moneyfordreams

Good luck with the neighbours, we moved house because I was fed up with the neighbour's son drumming, then guitar playing. He was 40 odd!! 
Our new neighbours are very particular so we are too scared to put a foot wrong..   

SandyShores

Makes me think of the film stepbrothers Moneyfordreams!  
We lived in a lovely place once, where the neighbours told us off for talking quietly in the garden after 9pm - we really were the noisy neighbours of that quiet hamlet.  They also told us off when someone parked by accident in front of their house for half an hour.  I think we were just a lot younger than them, and they didn't bother us in any other way.  But I'd still rather that then the inconsiderates we have.  Our immediate neighbours are really lovely thank goodness

Chiglepig

We have been really lucky with neighbours - so I'm a little nervous that nextdoor have sold their house . The worst we've had was in the previous house where they had a windchime fetish - I lost count in the high 30s (this was a small, semi-detached suburban garden).

debtfreeoneday

Neighbours really can make or break a house can’t they. Hopefully the plans will come to fruition soon. Ours involved a 6 foot high fence last year which sorted ours out to a degree. 

Well done on the weight loss maintenance but hope the stress ends soon for you x

SandyShores

Sounds like windchime hell Chiglepig.  Yup debtfreeoneday, they can make such a difference.  Apparently good fences make good neighbours.  We are torn between paying for trellis, or being patience and letting the hedge grow to 10ft (or more ).  It will take time to grow, but at least we know that it is only time until a nice barrier will be in place and peace returns.  I'm not sure that privacy trellis will be enough, and once the hedge has grown we won't even see it.  I do feel a lot less stressed at the moment, thank you.  We had a lovely cream tea at the garden centre this morning, followed by take away and board games this evening.  Its a matter of keeping my head on, while things play themselves out.   

savingholmes

I would use a trellis in the meantime...

SandyShores

We went out for Sunday lunch at the weekend as well, DD's treat.  I've really had enough of eating out for a while - just not used to it anymore - but it was a nice change.

The neighbour issue came to a bit of a head over the last couple of days.  They are just a bit short of a full brain cell, and not intentionally nasty, just inconsiderate/ignorant of how to be good neighbours.  I don't think we'll be best of friends ever, they didn't like our answers, but it was quite polite, and we normally rarely see them anyway.  Once our hedge is grown, we probably won't see them in a blue moon.  We are reclaiming the garden and thinking of enhancing it with a nice noisey water-feature, and Chiglepig has made me look at wind chimes in a different way

Yup savingholmes, we were thinking exactly that, but just think how many wind chimes we could buy instead   

So stress levels going down.  The next few weeks will be a struggle, but it is getting easier.  Looking forward to the Sewing Bee final tomorrow.  

savingholmes

War of wind chimes... Ouch for noise sensitive people like me...