Pay for the future and not the past

MissRikkiC

Everything does seem to be happening since I’ve been cutting stuff out @Suffolk_lass so you could be right! 

KajiKita

Hi - mushroom stroganoff recipe enclosed. Please forgive the amendments! 😉



KK

MissRikkiC

KajiKita said:

Hi - mushroom stroganoff recipe enclosed. Please forgive the amendments! 😉



KK

Superstar thank you! 

MissRikkiC

Spends yesterday on some allergen free stuff.  I’ve decided to stop being mad about the fact Im having to cut stuff out as well as the cost of the alternatives and just buy some nice things that are free from to lessen the blow. I enjoyed some nice chocolate, I’ve bought coconut yogurt, custard, some pea milk to try, Greek style cheese and some more biscuits. I felt happier than I’ve done for a few weeks about food once I had. 

Found my vouchers for completing the study I did, they were in my emails from about 3 weeks ago. Whoops. 

In money saving news, I’ve been gifted some tiles for the bathroom downstairs instead of buying them. That said I couldve shopped from home (the shed has a few boxes of tiles left over from the kitchen) but these will be lovely anyway. 

Back to the gym this week, Monday and tonight, it felt great to be back and I ran yesterday too. Specialist class tomorrow for weight lifting then rest on Friday (or maybe a run!)

Throat still isn’t quite right but slowly it’s getting better and my daughter is still not 100% after last week but she’s slowly getting there too and it’s already nearly Thursday!! Slowly but surely getting back to a bit of normal and it’s feeling good! 

MissRikkiC

Ooohhh and on Monday when the oven was on I cooked a vegan Mac n cheese (swede) for yesterdays dinner and tuna fish cakes for tonight’s dinner so haven’t had to cook extra stuff and the evenings have been a bit more chilled hence giving me time to paint the bathroom. Maybe a front loaded week is the way for me. 

MissRikkiC

I’ve been busy sorting the downstairs bathroom this last week. At the weekend my friend came over to disconnect the old toilet and sink and put all the new stuff in. We now have a functioning downstairs toilet 🥳 

There is more filling, sanding, painting, glossing, tiling, caulking and boxing in to do so still a lot! But at least with the exception of the boxing in, once the tiles are cut I can actually do the rest myself. I owe my friend a rather nice meal given that he worked 2 full days and won’t charge me and he had a mare of a time too! 

Money talk, I shopped last week and spent £27 and then another £6 on a weekly top up and some nappies. 

We had some lovely meals over the weekend, my husband did a lot of the cooking and it was a nice change to have meals from recipe books which felt luxury despite having all the ingredients in except a lemon! 

I have a TGTG bag to collect tonight so will get that and hope it’s all veg. 

I’ve not got a meal plan for this week but on Mondays I have bath children at home (will be Fridays when I go back to work) and so today we made pizza dough and topped them with roasted veg and grated cheese all of which had been prepared at the weekend. The oven went on but it was well worth it to see my daughter looking so grown up kneading her own pizza dough 🥰 

I know there is a tin of jalfezi and another tub of chorizo and white bean stew in the freezer for a lazy day, plus my husband made a tuna pasta bake at the weekend when the oven was on so that will be tomorrows dinner. With a aubergine, pepper, carrots. Cauliflower, spuds and onions in the fridge, plus the TGTG bag tonight I’m sure I won’t need any more fresh veg until next week. It’s payday Friday, I wonder if I can make it last until then! Hmmm. 

We picked up a few bits from Olio this weekend, lots of basil and mint, which was welcomed since our basil isn’t any more than 2 little leaves at the moment, a few packs of fennel, a few free from everything loaves, and a few bunches of lillies which are making my house smell wonderful. 

I also had the best realisation that I could have my morning ‘porridge’ again if I made it with quinoa which I used to always do! It felt like a really lightbulb moment! However if they say this week that my sons now allergic to oats I’ll quickly revert back. I love porridge. 

MissRikkiC

Finally got around to sorting out my daughters premium bonds yesterday! It’s been a job I’ve been half arsed trying to do for some time now. 

Something sold on Vinted which is another £2.50 towards the ninja. Pot now stands at £35.21 with £20 of Amazon vouchers to be added. 

I grabbed a few more bits from Aldo yesterday that were needed, water for the coffee machine, limes, wraps, vegan cheese and a nice spot of vegan Mayo! 

 

I made a soup at the weekend which requires lime juice but for the quantity I made, 1 lime which I had in wasn’t enough hence the others. 

I really must meal plan and cook today, if I don’t stuff will just be got out of the freezer and we’ve plenty of fresh stuff in. I’m finding not wanting to switch the oven on quite limiting recently.

My council tax bill arrived this morning and I was surprised to see such an increase per month. I did expect a bit more though, just maybe not that much. 

5 weeks left before going back to work and have started to feel a little teeny bit nervous but not because of the work, or job. More so because there are some things which I know need sorting first such as a new laptop and access to certain things which I haven’t needed for some time. I know I can deal with these things on day 1 but knowing I need them now makes me want to be proactive and sort it out!

KajiKita

5 weeks left before going back to work and have started to feel a little teeny bit nervous but not because of the work, or job. More so because there are some things which I know need sorting first such as a new laptop and access to certain things which I haven’t needed for some time. I know I can deal with these things on day 1 but knowing I need them now makes me want to be proactive and sort it out!

FWIW, as a manager of a team, if I had a member returning from maternity who wanted things like this to be resolved or improved, I would be happy to hear from them ahead of their return a) so I could help support in sorting them out and b) because it would show me that employee is engaged and committed to returning.

Might be worth dropping your boss an email detailing what you have described above? It would take the pressure off your first day as well, when you will have lots of catching up to do on all the things people thought were too trivial to mention whilst you were on maternity leave   

KK

MissRikkiC

I absolutely agree with you @KajiKita I’d want the same from my team too. I’ll sort it out before I go back. 

Well we had an appointment for my boy to be tested for various allergens and seems he is only immediately reactive to dairy. The others because they’re not immediate there isn’t another way to test to confirm so instead we’ve got to add them all back in using ladders. At least we know where we’re at to a degree. 

Blackcats

Good that you've had the allergen tests for your boy and that there's a plan.
my friend has 2 "oven on" dinners a week - one is the Sunday roast which gives leftovers and the other is pizza night.  Her children (who are a bit older than yours) now treat "oven-on night" as a big treat!