Greying's Gaining Ground - with Gratitude & Grace

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, that's good news then! There were lots of things I did NOT enjoy about moving house, but I was rather fond of daydreaming over pictures of houses....

Greying_Pilgrim

Phew!  Another workout in the bag!  And I got 11 out of 15 on the Geography test 😁  THANK YOU Mr Wicks!

Away for a sit down now..........................................................

Greying X

badmemory

Re your living in your home whilst a bathroom is replaced, I did this as although I could have stayed with friends, my DS doesn't leave the house.  They did promise that we would never be left looless overnight, but hitches do happen & I knew that I wasn't going to go a full working day without needing the toilet a couple of times anyway.  So I bought a commode & the pads to go with it.  It cost just over £40 altogether, it is probably more like £50 now 5 years later.  I must have saved that in car costs & spending the odd £1 when I nipped into a shops toilet.  It is now sitting happily in the loft waiting until I'm decrepit & need it again!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening!

badmemory - thanks for the suggestion.  I shall bear it in mind!

Curate's egg of a day today.  Mostly good (YAY!).  But......

Anyhoo, we managed an exercise walk - it blew the cobwebs away, there weren't so many people about on the route we went (YAY!) and we managed to swing by the house that I saw for sale on the web last night.  Mmmmmmmmm, camera angles are all.  Considering it would be at the top of our budget, I wasn't overly taken with the 'kerb appeal'.  I suspect (but don't know), that it has either been a rental property that has been minimally maintained, or that then owners have gone all out to make the inside 'modern' and have forgotten then outside.  It was down at heel paintwork, weedy driveway, carelessly abandoned car in the drive.........  I'm sure it will sell, but I don't think it's worth us pursuing.  There is also the fact that it's location COULD mean that it gets all the prevailing weather (which may explain the battered paintwork) so it could be a 'cold' house - i know that this house here gets fog and frost 'dropped' onto it, and the front of the house gets very cold.

Onwards and upwards!

LG has been a trooper today.  I MUST be more aware of trying to meet their requests better.  They really are so enthusiastic about trying things, and seeing how they work.  I'm trying to balance all the things I've got to do too, (I NEED to do some serious admin, but there is never the time....) along with being present.  I really haven't got the balance right at the mo - and if I'm not careful, they will lose their natural curiosity and enthusiasm, by the time I have found the time to do all that needs to be done.  I don't know what the answer is 😕  

Tea was as slated.  I managed to put the Bobotie together through out the day.  I cooked the lentils first, then made the 'curry gravy' and then put it together to meld the flavours over the afternoon.  I should have said that it is a 'deconstructed' veggie bobotie, as conventionally bobotie is a meat-heavy dish not dissimilar to moussakka.  I don't bother with the topping in my version anymore.  I served it with brown basmati rice tonight, but it partners baked potato well too.  I served with cauliflower and green beans - and LG ate a piece of cauli with no fuss!!! 😁  Don't ask how BIG the piece was.... they ate it.......... 😉

Filled a gap, made a meal, and there is a splodge for me for lunch tomoz.

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

1) a video sent to me by a chum - was just the ticket, making me roar with laughter.  Such a tonic.
2) LG's continued good nature and forbearance - we're so blessed with our wee one.
3) Managing to stick to the meal-plan.  It will save costs - whether enough remains to be seen, but it is the right thing to do.

Today was another NSD.  I plan on doing food shopping tomorrow, so I will need to spend.  But in light of trying hard to stick to the meal plan, considered purchases should keep expenditure down.

Ta for popping in.  

Greying X

facethemusic

Hello, I used to read your diary but never posted on it - I tend to do more lurking than posting! You seem to work miracles with minimal budgets, not sure how you do it. Will read along and "may" very occasionally pop up to comment. We "did" Joe all through lockdown 1 when I was furloughed, I'm still working this time round- I was MUCH fitter by the time I went back to work 🤣. 

edinburgher

It depends how much new bathroom is required. When we had our old one (lovely mint green suite) ripped out back to bare plaster it took about 3 days (screed for the floor, fully tiled, new suite plumbed in in a different part of the room etc.) As there was no toilet for much of that, moving out was the only option!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening

facethemusic - I would settle for fitter 😊  Plus I do like the mood boost that ensues on completing the exercises, but that could be because LG and I are just giggling thru it all 🤣

Well, today has been pretty spiffy.  Full on, busy and spendy, but pretty spiffy 😁  I'm hopeful that next week will only need a milk/loaf and apple type shop, as I currently only have £10 + some shrapnel of my £150 budget left.  To be fair to me, it has had to fund some non-food (but household) stuff, plus some **ahem** necessary clothing items for DH, this month.  The cupboards are pretty full, so it should be 'doable', but at the risk of sounding like a moody teen, I'm not sure we have much 'food'.... and of course, by that I mean 'exciting' stuff that you can just 'grab & munch' 🤣  But as I'm an adult, I have to be frightfully resolute, and commit to make 'nutritious and delicious' meals from what I've got........... with a soupcon of imagination, a speck of planning and a dollop of tenacity to stick to, and execute any plan!  EEK! 🤣  Still, it has rather stuffed my plan of saving 'anything' this month 🙁    There is still the CT refund, but they are messing around and trying to pay it back in instalments, rather than just refunding the amount they owe 😡  Onwards and Upwards!

Tea this evening had to be 'quick & easy', so I defrosted the additional portion of 'Quorn Bolognese' that i made last month.  I made it with the frozen Quorn mince that was on offer in the co-op.  I happened to notice that it is on offer again (£1.50 a bag) with them, and it is also on offer in Morrisons for the same price.  I know Quorn isn't everyone's cup of tea - we use it very occasionally (prefer lentils), but it did make a tasty bolognese, so as an occasional 'treat', it'll do for us.  I still have some Quorn 'chunks' to use - bought under the same offer.  See!  We won't starve 😁  this evenings bolognese was served with pasta.

I dropped a little bit lucky with the shopping in Lidl this afternoon, they had reduced alot of their bread products - so I got our bread for 20p a loaf. In total, I spent just a few pennies under £10 - but this was definitely a 'top up' shop, certainly wouldn't provide meals for the week. We also now have plenty of fruit - so i'm hopeful we won't get scurvy....... 

I had a ganders, but nowt new in the property listings.....

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

1) timing - necessary shopping took place in very quiet stores.....for which I'm masked, sanitised & grateful
2) That I still have some capacity to help.
3) My family

Ta for popping by.  Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning

ed, sorry - you posted on the thread last night whilst I was posting - I have only just spotted your post - apologies!  In an ideal world (!) should we be in a position that would eg need a bathroom renovation, we would try to do it before moving in. As I agree that timetables can be set, and then slip........ But still, this at present is all theoretical..... Actually, there was a house that I liked for sale yesterday, and it was certainly within our budget.  However, it was in an area that I would be absolutely happy to live in, but that might count against LG's schooling in the longer term.  Difficult to know which way to lurch, as the house had pretty much our 'tick list' covered.  If I was being super picky, I would say the garden was a little bit small, but that is getting to nit-pick stage!  The house was definitely in 'move in and live on auto-pilot' condition.  

Today will be a NSD!  It's got to be 🤣  Pizza and wedges for tea (YAY!)  i think I may make it half mushroom (which mum & dad like) and half black olive (LG's fave), and then the leftovers will be frozen so that we can have a pizza buffet from 'stores' next Friday - that will have a bit of variety 😁  That's the plan anyway.

We'll be joining in with Mr Wicks!  I'd be lying if I said there were no 'twinges' here and there..... but it's better (much better) than I feared it would be!  And I can still move.... YAY! 🤣

Can't think of owt else MSE/MFW to mention.

Ta for popping in.  Greying X

badmemory

The problem with moving to an area because it is within a certain school's catchment area is that school can very easily change.  We had 2 really good schools round here & one that was the over my dead body will my child go there.  There were others but these were the extremes.  The good science based school is still very good, the other more arts based one has become the one you don't want your child going to.  All it took was the head to retire, the good senior teachers to see the way the wind was blowing (it took them one term) & it all became about how much they could charge for the bits of the uniform they could only get from the school.  The over my dead body one has now become the one they all want their kids to go to & the best behaved when they are going to & fro.  That all took less than 5 years to be done & dusted!

Greying_Pilgrim

badmemory said:

The problem with moving to an area because it is within a certain school's catchment area is that school can very easily change.  We had 2 really good schools round here & one that was the over my dead body will my child go there.  There were others but these were the extremes.  The good science based school is still very good, the other more arts based one has become the one you don't want your child going to.  All it took was the head to retire, the good senior teachers to see the way the wind was blowing (it took them one term) & it all became about how much they could charge for the bits of the uniform they could only get from the school.  The over my dead body one has now become the one they all want their kids to go to & the best behaved when they are going to & fro.  That all took less than 5 years to be done & dusted!

badmemory - i totally agree with EVERYTHING you have written, which is why it is so hard to totally write off the house I saw.  Added to which there are already changes to the catchment areas of the existing schools all the time - and a new educational facility (allegedly) being built within the next 10 years (!?!?) which means things are altering all the time.  Plus, being totally realistic, the 'great' school is very slick at marketing, but the kids that go there are 'kids', and are deliciously varied in their behaviour, achievement, attitude, attainment....... etc etc.  So nowt is guaranteed.  Anyway, at this rate, in a few years time, will schools exist, or will some departmental pen-pusher come up with the idea of expecting all children to stay home to be educated............  

Certainly the 'new' house that I have seen throws serious shade on the one that we wandered around to see the other day.  It is a 'fair' price - the one we went to see (from the outside), now looks like someone has thought of a figure and seen if some mug will pay.........

Still, I'm grateful that there is already starting to be a little bit of 'choice' - even if, as yet, it's confined to being a 'paper' exercise.

Greying X