Prosperous soul embraces creativity & mortgage neutrality

lucielle

Take things easy and be kind to yourself.
L

WelshmansDaughter

My treat after too much peopling is to give myself 15 minutes with noise cancelling headphones, top of my self soothe list 

Alchemilla

Too much peopling! Great expression!

I like a literal lie down in a darkened room!

beanielou

Too much peopling.
So apt for today.

badmemory

I've never been terribly sociable & I have found that lockdown has made me worse - well in other people's eyes, it doesn't bother me at all.

savingholmes

Thanks Crystal - good advice as always. lucielle said:

Take things easy and be kind to yourself.
L

I tried - I made my fairly tasteless leftovers into a cajun chicken and have a portion left for tomorrow. Also had some lemon cake... 

WelshmansDaughter said:

My treat after too much peopling is to give myself 15 minutes with noise cancelling headphones, top of my self soothe list 

If only 15 mins was long enough but yes I do that sometimes as a short term fix. Headphones do help a lot.

Alchemilla said:

Too much peopling! Great expression!

I like a literal lie down in a darkened room!

I gave up working around 4pm today and went and lay down in the literal darkened room for 2 hours before emerging. I still feel wiped. 2 days out of 5 worked, 3 to go. Because yesterday was elsewhere - it felt strange to realise today was Tuesday.

beanielou said:

Too much peopling.
So apt for today.

Hope you are okay Beanie! They reckon in the olden days you perhaps knew about 100-200 people... No wonder we find the modern world so overwhelming!

badmemory said:

I've never been terribly sociable & I have found that lockdown has made me worse - well in other people's eyes, it doesn't bother me at all.

Same here. It makes it more of a shock to the system. I 'performed' well and did enjoy the challenge but it and the journey took a lot out of me.

Work will confirm tomorrow if they will pay the accommodation but it is looking positive. Once I know - I will submit my mileage claim too. 

Vet for the cat's booster tomorrow. Hopefully the cleaner. The handyman is coming. I got a grocery delivery as I couldn't face the shops... I'm going to nip out and get some cash for the handyman tonight. That will give me some fresh air.

The cat has stayed in the last few days and not wanted to go out at all. I've had to put a litter tray out (which stinks!!) which we don't normally bother with. It does have a scoop which I saw Sunday - but knowing my luck it is buried underneath! I've ordered more cat litter - just the cheap stuff and more cat treats.

savingholmes

Financials goals

My goal currently is to get my 5%+ B account up to its £5K limit. The B one is also paying interest monthly which is quite motivating. For a part month I just got over £3 in interest which was a nice start.

So savings list - Just over £4.5K: [So nice to be a savings rather than owed list!!]

• £2003 Saver B1
• £1       Saver B2 
• £1600 Saver N1 - potentially withdrawing £1550 and moving to Saver B tomorrow - will then amend to £25 reg saver 
• £401   Saver N2 - now £1 - withdrawn £400 ready to move to Saver B tomorrow
• £450   Saver S - will leave as £25 a month reg saver
• £100   Saver L - reg saver - plan to fill up after Saver B - but at least £25 a month to start

My goal is to reach £6K total savings by the end of the year - which is achievable if COL pay is paid in Dec (and there are no emergencies). That would represent a 3+ month EF (if I kept P1p on top). That feels like a miracle from where I started. It is double what I would have achieved without the extra income I've had.

Really hope my cleaner comes tomorrow - my house needs help!! 

savingholmes

Did dishwasher last night and this morning.

Cleaner not been yet. Family emergency so don't know if she will come later or not.

Handyman has improved my moving stairs!!!! He has also unstuck a door and is now edging paths with free second hand wood he brought with him.

He will potentially do a further fix to the stairs at some point.

My switch went through without issue. CC now largely cleared. I have moved £400 into higher rate savings. Still need to do the other move.

Confirmed should get COL rise in December. 

lucielle

All sounding good re the bank shifts. Hope the cleaner makes it. 

L

savingholmes

Thanks lucielle. My cleaner did a couple of hours. Better than nothing. She's been having a rubbish time of it recently.

• As well as fixing part of the stairs earlier, the handyman unstuck a door that kept catching by planing some of the top off. 
• He has reattached the vent on my extraction fan so it actually extracts. It had come loose in two places so we hadn't been able to use it properly for months - before we realised - it had marked the ceiling with grease spots. That still needs repainting at some point..
• He's filled in some holes in another room from an old curtain rail. He was going to fit my roman blind but the brackets were missing so he's going to buy some for me - I gave him the £.
• He also dug out some more unwanted plants for me. He filled my garden bin.
• He pulled a load more cobbles and small stones out of my pond/rill feature. Next time he's bringing me free rocks to go around my pond. I've got new pond liner coming tomorrow - it's relatively cheap stuff. I've also bought some special tape to patch the old one. He's going to lay underlay, then the old patched pond liner, then the new one and then put the rocks and stone around it. Then we can find out whether the existing pond pump still works to recirculate the water for my water feature.
• Handyman says he will come back another day with a mate to take down the too tall tree. He reckons I can get it done for £200. The last person quoted me £280 and another quoted £350 so happy with £200. However, not really in the budget - so need to think about where to get that £ from. I'd have the money in December pay - but not easily before unless I amend my savings plans. It's so hard to get workman though that I plan to go for it while he's available.
• He's going to try and get free/cheap wood to make me some raised veg beds too - although I'm also looking at possible options on FB. I may take a trip out at the weekend. Need to measure the internal dimensions of my car and see what I could fit in.
• He still needs to dig out more bamboo.
• He's going to get some better wood to fix my stairs too on a couple of the other treads - potentially cutting out a section underneath so he can see better what is going on and what support there is for the stairs if any.
• I've bought some hooks ready for him to hang my existing 3 packs of outdoor lights.
• I need to organise an electrician to come and put in outdoor sockets. I need to find the money for that too. If I did that before Xmas though - it would make the garden look more festive and make it a more usable space over winter.

I've had porridge today then Mr A veg soup for lunch and lasagne and chips for tea. I shared the latter with DD as she's still not feeling right. My taxi services are about to be called upon. 

The vet said the cat was fine. I'd helped him lose 200g of weight - but he has more left to go. Apparently the claw is ripped rather than all the way out but is in an area that normally heals without intervention. It was a booster appointment but he seemed to give him a thorough check which was good. It cost me £10!!!! more than last year which is effectively over 33% higher! £37.50.