Eating a Vegetarian Elephant

Chiglepig

We can't leave anything carb based in the kitchen because of the cat. She will rip into any packaging for croissants, English muffins, bread . . . not great, but better than eating money and headphones

themadvix

We have a lock on our kitchen door - inside and out - to stop ours getting in. You couldn't make it up - I despair of our naughty cats! 

South_coast

The only cash I have had in over a year now is an old £1 coin, which I was given in change last March and is still languishing in my purse 🤦‍♀️

Add that to the £20 of Arcadia vouchers still in there and the cards really are the only thing worth having 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️!

Chiglepig

South_coast said:

The only cash I have had in over a year now is an old £1 coin, which I was given in change last March and is still languishing in my purse 🤦‍♀️

Add that to the £20 of Arcadia vouchers still in there and the cards really are the only thing worth having 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️!

The bits and pieces around the house have clearly been here well over a year because I know I haven't used a cash point  since well before first lockdown. At least the John Lewis vouchers are still valid if I ever go to the city centre again!

Chiglepig

I keep saying it, but Mr Chigle has FINALLY done his TP form. I asked about his plans for the lump sum - he hasn't thought much beyond an en suite/bedroom make-over, so I need to get him focussed on planning for the longer term. But it's probably a good thing that he's being cautious about coming out of lockdown - it might have burnt a whole in his pocket!

Chiglepig

Finally a decent amount of rain! I've had all of the containers I could find out in the garden catching rainwater, and I've been making little cages for my new plants to stop doggo treading on them. The garden is looking really good, so I'd like it to stay that way! But everything is so behind, this time last year my hanging baskets had been out for most of the month, I haven't even planted them up yet.

Cheery_Daff

I was ahead in the garden, certainly in terms of growing seeds, but now the whole place looks like some kind of jungle wilderness 😮 Once my work deadline has passed I think I'm going to have to take a day or two off to get on top of everything 😮

Good luck with the pension! Most of Mr Cheery's lump sum is sitting in the premium bonds, waiting to make us millionnaires 😂  Some will pay for the kitchen, and the rest will help to ensure I can eventually leave work early!

Chiglepig

I have at least two days a week booked as leave every week from the first of June until the new leave year starts in August, so I'm hoing for lots of time to just sit in the garden - I still have the books I bought for the holiday that was cancelled last year to get through.

I think a good chunk will go into PBs for the time-being, we can always hope

Baileys_Babe

That sounds lovely @Chiglepig my OH has masses of annual leave building up, he and the rest of the management team are all working crazy hours so no opportunity to take it and they are all building up TOIL. They are aware that eventually this will come back and they will end up with a skeleton management team working for quite some time, but this situation is not of their making and has been thrust on them without guidance from an external agency.

Chiglepig

@Baileys_Babe we're both in a use it or lose it situation  

Anyway, got confirmation that my phone is fully paid for this weekend - 0% over 12 months and could have bought it straight away at the time, but it's useful to borrow occasionally if there's no cost. So that's £23/m less going out. And I took the plunge and opened a SIPP only a small amount a month, because I already have 22 years in TP, but I'm looking at how I bridge the gaps between various bits of it being available without reduction, or retiring early.