Debt Reset....

Blackcats

Sounds like the HT and the locusts have enjoyed their festivities.
the scrap book and instant camera sounds like a lovely idea.  I might see if my granddaughters would like to do that for their mum's birthday next month.  In fact I think I have a nice photo album upstairs in my office so we could get some photos printed too .... very inspired by this idea.  Thanks HT!!!

EssexHebridean

WinterWarrior said:

Out of date mincemeat would go all sugary and crystallised I imagine…no wonder they were good 😋
I hope the pizza party goes well.

Yep - it can do, and do you know what? In the cooking process it all just goes back to normal again. (I know this because the mincemeat I used in our mice pies had gone exactly like that!) 

The photo scrapbook is a lovely idea! I did something similar a couple of years ago using photos from my phone and made a photobook through one of the online companies - really nice to look back on several years of adventuring like that. I'll probably put together another one at some stage to cover the years since too. 

CRANKY40

Morning all, 

The HT has gone to his work experience place this morning so I've already made his lunch and dropped him off with the aforementioned lunch and I have also baked some oat cookies. The HT's favourite bit of work experience is the kettle.  

I have about an hour to myself now before making two more packed lunches and going to best friend's house to have lunch, do some crosswords and hopefully get on with the garden. Friend does sometimes make a bacon butty for us instead of me making lunch but anything other than that and he gets that "rabbit caught in the headlights" look. He's very generous otherwise and we went halves on the HT's christmas presents so I don't mind making lunch on gardening days. 

I've made a list of essentials and wants moneywise to see what will happen to my finances when the HT leaves college. I can just about manage to pay everything myself so if the HT gets a job or apprenticeship and can give me some keep that will be a bonus. I will look for another job eventually but I need to have a few months break first as I need two knee replacement operations. I'd be happier doing those without some HR department breathing down my neck and I don't feel it's fair to take a job knowing that I will need possible lengthy sick leave. 

On Monday the HT and I went into town and sorted his child trust fund into a new current and savings account at the building society. He still has his normal current account but as the interest rates are rubbish he's going to move his savings across into the new one. We also ordered prints of all the photos that I have of friend's garden to make a scrapbook. I don't want a photo book because I want to write about the photos and sort them into order for each part of the garden then leave a space for more photos for each part. I had 210 photos and it cost £25 but I reckon I would have spent more than that on photo paper and ink if I printed them myself (not to mention the swearing and bad temper).

Take care all of you 😊

WinterWarrior

A new job must be hard to settle into while juggling expected time off. I don’t blame you for waiting.
The photo journal will be so much fun to do and will look so good when it’s done. 

CRANKY40

So..... the debt has gone and so has my job.I still have three things that I'd like to achieve. A clean and tidy house minus the clutter, to increase my savings/emergency fund and to continue with weight loss. I've made a start with the weight loss - official weigh day will be Saturday as that is the day when I'm not trying to do other things or transport the House Troll somewhere. I've also tidied the spare room so most things are in drawers and it looks a bit tidier. 

Talking of House Trolls he decided that with a week to go for UCAS closing that he should probably apply to university. The night before the closing date his tutor emailed him to say that he'd left something off the form. Cue a massive "my life is over" tantrum like episode the morning of the 6pm deadline followed by going to college (I made him go), finding the right person to return the form to him, him getting the form back, completing it and it all being sent off. It had to be done by mid day as he had two teeth out ready for his brace at 12:30pm. He's had the teeth out and I quote "dentistry hasn't really moved forward since the middle ages has it? He took my teeth out with a spanner".

He's also going on a 3 week all expenses paid internship to Malta over Easter. I don't know how he does it because it should have been for the accountancy students but there weren't enough of them that wanted to go. That's when I plan to paint the hall stairs and landong because I won't have to sit at the top of the stairs saying "Don't touch the handrail" every five minutes. 

Today I need to make the HT a packed lunch and drop him off at his work experience, go and check that someone has put the bin back at  my friend's house that we have cleared after her death, make some oat biscuits and turn up at best friends house at 12:30 with two more packed lunches ready for gardening or seed planting duty as the weather dictates. So far this week I have moved £250 to savings, deep cleaned the bathroom and also cleaned the kitchen. I walked into the HT's room yesterday and walked back out. He says we'll have a housework day tomorrow and sort it all out. 

Take care all of you 😊

WinterWarrior

Oh so nice that you are included in the trolls housework day 🤭
He’s pulled a blinder with the Malta trip. Very impressive.
enjoy your gardening day ⭐️

badmemory

I do wish they got better.  I close my eyes if I need to go into DSs room, I've given up.  He will put the bins out if asked & once even asked me if there are bins needing putting out.  To me it is the always having to ask & not being able to see something right in front of them.  It grinds you down if you are not careful.  I know they can't help it, but it makes life a worry.

CRANKY40

I was 1 lb lighter on Saturday. I've been losing and gaining that same 1 lb since November (apart from Christmas week when I put on 3 lbs but I lost that fairly quickly). Never mind, we're gardening again now the weather is dry so hopefully that will help. Well I say gardening but......

We started last year with an overgrown jungle that was mostly brambles. Up until the end of October we dug enough concrete, bricks and paving slabs out to fill a skip. We're still finding more. I started last week digging up an invasive species of lily that had shoots coming up by the baby apple tree. Then I found a space while I was digging with a trowel so I sent best friend in with a spade (my spade because he broke his but it's his garden so he gets the heavy jobs). We were "rewarded" after a fair bit of digging by a very old tap that had about 4ft of lead pipe attached to it. He's since dug up some big chunks of rusty metal and half a bucket full of glass shards. I carried on taking the lilies prisoner. They're poisonous lilies by the way which seems to be a bit of a theme in this garden and that's without taking into account the shards of broken glass that are in the soil with the sharp broken edge upwards.

In between the digging last year we managed to plant some stuff and ended up with some potatoes, some broad beans, a lot of tomatoes and a squash plant that wanted to take over the world. We also have a small patch of cauliflowers that we planted just before Christmas that are growing nicely. Somewhat optimistically we planted onions in the raised bed that we built but the squirrels keep digging those up. It turns out that squirrels like baby sweetcorn too because the ones that we planted in the summer were eaten way before any corn cobs formed. We're hoping to be more organised this year. 

We thought that there would be less of the heavy labour type stuff this year but at least we're getting it out of the way before summer I suppose. If we manage to produce anything edible that will be useful too given the current economic climate and my attempts at moneysaving. We have lots of rests in between the digging as well because we're old and my knees are currently out of order. I also fell over and face planted the lawn this week which is normal for me but it scared my friend. 

Take care all of you 😊

WinterWarrior

I feel your pain with the pound. I’m gradually going down, but each pound goes up and down several times 🙄 I really want to do something with our gardens, but I hate gardening 😟 I’ve started taking the secateurs out when I take dog out so I can lop bits back as I go. I really can’t face digging yet…you have my admiration.

Sun_Addict

I’m useless at digging, I don’t have enough weight behind me. I stand on a spade and nothing happens except I fall off. I’d love to dig up the bottom part of our garden to grow produce but it’s not going to happen as the ground is rock hard.