Debt Reset....

EssexHebridean

Sun_Addict said:

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. 

Try soaking it thoroughly, leaving it an hour, then digging with a fork rather than a spade. If the fork will initially only just sink in, then use it to spike all the way over - getting it as deep as you can, then repeat the soaking the following day, and ty again. Over time it should loosen. Once you dig over shove lots of compost in to loosen up and improve the soil structure. our little pocket handkerchief at the front used to start every growing season like that - we're just on the edge of London Clay so it bakes and "sets" effectively. Over the years though we've managed to make a big improvement - it's actually easy to dig now!  Also - potatoes are great for breaking up ground - as long as you can get enough dug to get them going in the first place. 

Cranky sorry to hear that your job has finally finished - I bet you are missing LAP too! I felt quite exhausted reading your plan for all the things you are planning mind! As for the HT - well played on the Malta trip! 

CRANKY40

Good morning, 

I've been busy trying to do normal (or what passes for normal) life here whilst "babysitting" best friend who is having work done on his house and doesn't feel comfortable with people that he doesn't know well. It's big work as the damp course has been done which has meant drilling plaster off the walls. It's being done by a company that I've used before so I know the boss and some of the lads. It's also being done quite quickly - a lot of the extra jobs have been done too. We'd usually be out in the garden but best friend has been under the weather this past week so we've spent most of it indoors hiding from builders in the first room that was finished. I've also made a lot of tea. 

I haven't managed to post on the grocery challenge as much as I'd hoped - I might post here instead as it's easier but despite half term and making lunches for friend I was 89p under budget. Yay me 😂I've also bought some wool for a project that I saw online and really wanted to do. I've decided after 45 years of being able to crochet the three basic stitches that this will be the year that I improve and learn to follow a pattern properly. Minding BF was an excellent sit down opportunity and I've ticked off moss stitch, c2c and bobble pattern this past week as well as working on my two current projects. 

I'm 2.5 lbs lighter than when I posted about losing weight so it's still going in the right direction. The HT has been offered a place by all of the universities that he had on his UCAS application.  That means that we will need to apply for student finance soon 😨 That'll be interesting. The HT has also had his brace fitted together with "bite blocks" on his back teeth  so I'm having to cut his food into small pieces. He spent one day last week learning to talk and eat whilst not being able to bite things. He has managed to lose the lisp that it gave him initially.  

Today and tomorrow will be my housework catch up days. I need to go and make a list so that I can tick things off - that makes me feel like I've achieved something at the end of the day. 

Take care all of you  😊

WinterWarrior

Well done on the weight loss. It’s hard to be a slow loser, but we’ll get there in the end.
What will you spend the 89p on? 😁

Sun_Addict

There you are 😆 Good to hear from you again. Well done on making a start on the weight loss, every little helps 😀

jwil

Well done on the weightloss!

CRANKY40

Thanks all of you. I've added the 89p to this months's grocery budget 🤣I haven't spent any of it yet and the teens paid for their own takeaway yesterday evening (pizza of course). They were supposed to be going to someone else's house last night but the person's mum said no so they ended up here. They're very good, always tidy up before they go and I told them midnight was home time. 

Luckily I found out they were coming here before I felt the need to do any housework downstairs. That'll be today's job then. I also have some primroses to plant outside. The garden flower bed that I made last year is looking a bit sorry for itself. It was a last minute idea so it ended up with just spare bits from elsewhere like lobelia which has died over winter. 

Take care all of you 😊

CRANKY40

I've been at best friend's house today keeping him company while more plaster was drilled off the walls. The rooms that have been worked on are nearly finished so we will be able to start putting things back in them soon. 

The grocery budget remains untouched but I did buy the HT his dinner from the burger place that begins with M tonight. I paid for this out of my money as firstly I need a favour from him tomorrow and he's always in a better mood when he has food in his hand. We also needed to find out in private if he was able to eat what he usually orders from there now that he has bite blocks and a brace. It's better that he figures out how to do it before he goes out with his friends and they eat there. He's already mastered pizza so that's half of his eating out options fixed. 

I've started making Attic24's Springfrost blanket for me because I like it. I also bought the yarn to make some sheep but I'm putting the sheep off until I've finished the baby blanket that I'm working on while I'm at BF's house. The baby blanket is an easy pattern that I found on youtube. I've already made one in rose pink and cream for the baby sister of one of the HT's friends and my sister took a blue one that I made for my great nephew so it will be handy to have one spare again. 

I have been MSE though - the HT doesn't feel the cold so the heating has stayed off all day and BF does so I've been nice and warm on BF's sofa with my work in progress blanket on my lap as extra warmth. 

Take care all of you 😊

Blackcats

You made me laugh about HT's 2 eating out options.  I hope the Golden Arches option is doable for him - I'm no expert but I would think that pizza would be more challenging than "2 all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickle and onions all in a sesame seed bun" as the catchy jingle used to say.

CRANKY40

Blackcats, he had a bacon double cheeseburger with fries and seemed to manage it ok. I'm on a roll today as he wanted a favour from me so he took his dirty plates straight to the kitchen and then carried the clean washing upstairs for me. He usually does bring the washing upstairs but in his own time.....

NSD today - I have done an order for a grocery delivery tomorrow though.  Today I did some garden work with best friend while the joiner finished a few bits in BF's bedroom. BF had to take a family member for an appointment this afternoon so while he was out I cleaned his bedroom thoroughly. I should probably say that the "gardening" is more like hard labour as we've dug up rocks, paving slabs and drainpipes and that's just in a smallish patch. Today was dumping our finds in the builders skip while we had the chance. 

Once the builders finished for the day I came home to make dinner here for the HT and I. I liberated a smallish piece of steak from the freezer this morning, and added some chicken nuggets (to appeal more to HT). Together with some chips (and beans for him, mushrooms for me) it made a yummy dinner. 

Take care all of you 😊

CRANKY40

The food shop was delivered this evening - £60.09. I will need fresh fruit on Friday morning (and no doubt something that I forgot to add to today's order) so I'll call in after dropping the HT off at his work experience. 

The budget is £75 per week and while I'm babysitting best friend during the week I'm making his lunch too so the budget is being stretched a little. BF doesn't actually have a kitchen just now and I had to dust all his house plants yesterday so anything that I eat there comes from my own kitchen. He sees germs lurking in every corner so it seems kinder to make him a sandwich as well. He can microwave a ready meal for dinner - he only needs a fork for that if he eats it out of the carton it comes in  😄

The HT and I had lasagne tonight - batch cooked by me and liberated from the freezer this morning before I left home. The HT says if he had to pick a last meal then it would be my lasagne. As he thoughtfully told me last night that if anything happened to him he'd like to be buried in his Greggs slides/sliders/dodgy footwear I'm not really sure that his taste in anything is something to judge by. 

Keep your collective fingers crossed for no snow here tomorrow as the HT's cat needs to go to the vet for her 3 monthly steroid check and prescription. I'm fed up of being bitten so if the monthly injection isn't the price of carpeting a mansion I will be giving us both a month off from the "every other day tablet challenge".

Take care all of you, especially anyone with the white slippy stuff outside the house ☃️