Struggling along as best I can

Chrystal

Hope your car is now OK, and you definitely deserve the occasional Costa!  XX

nannygladys

It's so long since I've even looked on the forums, nothings happened just been getting on with it all, as you do!!

Crystal - the car is fine now and all the work, MOT, service and any small (thank goodness) bits that were needed came from it's sinking fund. Putting away all this money into sinking funds may seem as if I have nothing left to spend but I'm so glad knowing it's all paid for.

Not a lot has been happening really, I still do granny duties on a Tuesday and I've looked after the two littleys (as I call them), for my eldest DD a couple of times as well. I've been to the Lottie and started clearing and putting the beds to bed, for the winter. I've planted more chard in the poly tunnel to see if I can keep it it going over winter and I've still some cabbage, turnips, swede and kale growing outside, but the kale doesn't seem to be growing very well. I'll be going once a week over winter if the weather's ok as I'm doing a bit of moving around on there to accommodate more fruit bushes and hopefully a cooking apple tree, well that's the plan anyway. I'm hoping to create a couple of raised beds in my back garden, I have one at the moment and I'm hoping to make three more if I can acquire some wood 🙂 next year my new garden swing will get put up (I had it for my birthday) so I'm hoping it's going to be a nice summer, I keep imagining me swinging and sipping a gin&t on the long summer evenings with a book in hand 😃

 Back to earth, I'm defrosting my fridge freezer tomorrow, I have finally managed to empty it enough - yay, I didn't know I could get so excited about such a mundane thing!!! And then its to Iceland to spend my voucher🙂 and then do a bit of batch cooking of sos rolls and mince pies for a start off.

Anyway better get to bed, I put the electric blanket on about an hour ago so it's going to be hot hot hot by now 😂

Nannyg 

peb

Good to see you. However if you have an Iceland voucher then maybe go on a Tuesday? I think you are of an age to get the ten percent off.

nannygladys

Peb - unfortunately I grandma sit all day for my dgs on a Tuesday and they live 16 miles in the wrong direction and he's at that age where he hates his pushchair and wants to walk everywhere. I will check their opening times as I can get there for about 6.30pm instead of going straight home so I will definitely check as every little bit helps!!!

nannygladys

I forgot to say yesterday that I went to Asda and had my soup, roll and mug of coffee for a £1, bargain 🙂 I'll definitely go again when I'm out shopping, it's too far away to visit only the cafe. The soup was tomato and basil and it was delicious.

I was paid yesterday so all money has been moved to various pots and as I've been stocking up the last couple of months I've realised I've overspent by quite a bit and need to rein it in now. So back closely budgeting again on the food front.
I'm taking eldest dgd out for a meal tomorrow but that has already been budgeted for. It was her 18th birthday a couple of weeks ago and it's a treat.

So today has been a lazy one, the weather has been atrocious, I don't think it has stopped drizzling or pouring with rain all day🙁 so I've been reading, cooking and gentle tidying up!!

I saw a bit of the budget and it wasnt until council tax was mentioned that I realised I hadn't even thought about that bill. I pay by direct debit over 12 months at the moment and can manage it ok, but I'm not sure about how I'm going to manage a large increase but I will pass that bridge when it happens, it's not worth worrying about it at the moment. I'm going to enjoy Xmas first.

I'll amend my signature after posting this. I know the grocery amount of £936 has been surpassed, down to food rises and stocking up so I will start a new one to run to the end of the year, I'll have to have a serious think about it all after Xmas, we can't live on fresh air and pay bills so it's .... Whatever!!!!!!

Anyway I'll go and have a quick tidy round before I settle for the night.
Nannyg 

nannygladys

Where do the days go? Time seems to racing by me at the moment. It's not as if I've been racing about!
Anyway, it's just  been a round of doing bits and bobs. I took eldest out for a meal of sorts, she opted to go to a milkshake/oatcake café, so she had this huge fancy milkshake that was full of extra sweet drink, sprinkles, chocolate, ice-cream and a huge unicorn lolly, to me it was pretty but set my teeth on edge looking at it, but she enjoyed it, I had a coffee and oatcake !!!!! 😃
After that we went to Trentham gardens and had a wander round and had some more food (proper!!) And enjoyed all the Xmas decorations and singing reindeer 😃 so it was a lovely day with a lovely young human, I could say adult but she'll always be a 'kid', to me.
I was paid last week and haven't spent any grocery money yet, I still haven't defrosted the freezer but that will be done this week sometime as I have two completely empty shelves - yay. I looked after 'pup' and a different dgd on Saturday and yesterday I had a lie in 🤣
I'm sat here with 'not my cat' on my knee an empty coffee cup on the side table and no idea what to do first 😃. I have checked my bank account and all's good in there. I haven't received any cold weather payments for oaps yet, but it's usually here just before Xmas, so it's on its way I'm sure, it will be going into my annual bill sinking fund to go towards next year's g&e bills, I usually put half on it straight away in my g&e account with the provider but I have quite a bit of credit in it so I'll save it until needed. I still haven't heard from pension credit so I must follow it up, as things are getting tighter and tighter, mind you it's great we are getting a pension increase, but what I can't understand is why people think we will be so well off, my annual amount will still be under £10,000 (no private pension to speak of🙁) and that's still very low, it's people who have decent private pensions that benefit, but I'm not disappointed as anything I receive is great, I know someone who pays more tax now than when they were working as they have a really good private pension, so they will be paying even more now! My pp isn't enough to pay my groceries each week and I only spend 10-15 pounds a week 🤣
Anyway I will have to move the cat as I've been sat long enough, although I'm going to have a quick look at the grocery thread recipes to get a few ideas so that might be another rabbit hole 🤣
Nannyg 

cbsexec

I feel the difference if I stray onto the Pensions board and read the posts from people with personal pensions per year of more than I have ever earned in a year in my whole working life plus they have huge savings pots 😱.  And they wonder how they will manage 🤷‍♀️   I’m sure there are more people managing on basic pensions than have these huge amounts. 

nannygladys

cbsexec - I may go and have a look on there, I can't remember the last time as a lot of what was 'going' on didn't apply to me. Oh for a big savings pot! Mind you these days I usually save for a specific reason like Xmas, days out or the repairs on my house. So at a push there's always something in a pot somewhere 😀

Sunshine_girl2

Always read your diary but rarely comment. However the mention of Trentham Gardens made me want to go . I really enjoy my summer visit . I get one of my pensions next month but it won't make me rich , but never mind . 

nannygladys

Today I've been grandma sitting, in fact I'm still here, picked dgd up from school and made a cup of tea and a slice of cake for us!
I went shopping yesterday in Asda and whilst there had soup and roll and a mug of coffee for a £1, bargain!!  Put fuel in the car for the next two weeks and also a very small amount of food, I'll update sig when I get home as the receipt is in my shopping list book. I know I managed two bags of sprouts for 10p each and a fresh stir fry for 20p, so that's for tonight's tea and the sprouts I froze.
Well it's nearly finishing time for me as DD will be in soon, so I might get on later

Nannyg