Simple living in the country - back to basics

Tescodealqueen

badmemory said:

Another one butting in.  It is possible that you have enough contributions to get the full state pension already.

Indeed. Important to view your pension forecast first and remember the rules changed in 2016 so gaps before that certainly may not be worthwhile as your starting amount would have been calculated at that point. You may be able to qualify for credits rather than paying and It is more complicated when you have been in a contracted out scheme so the gov.uk site does advise a discussion to talk to the Future Pension Centre to see if it is beneficial to pay any years. My knowledge is way out of date now so always good to get facts checked. Thanks badmemory, it is easy to forget and I am reminded of a friend who couldn’t understand why she hadn’t been contacted yet about claiming her pension when it became due. She hadn’t worked or claimed benefits for many years and had lived in six different countries since she last worked but “surely they know how to contact me”. If nothing else getting a pension forecast will remind us to update our address if needs be.

sorry Cheery again, back to enjoying Talk of lovely weather and tea and scones.

Cheery_Daff

Ha, don't worry about talking about pensions in here! I'm just not sure I can add anything useful! 

As usual, I have one day of the long weekend left and am feeling like I've wasted it, and that makes me grouchy and grumbly 🙄

We had a nice lazy morning, nipped to a nearby town for some errands (and a supermarket cafe trip) and now home and it's half four! What happened?? 

Anyway, we have moved a bookcase, and had a small squabble 🙄 and now I am having a nice cup of tea while Mr Cheery has made himself scarce upstairs 🙄

Need to feel like I've achieved something today, but I'm not sure what - there are things that need doing everywhere, and I never quite know where to start 🙄 I've pegged the washing out - the sun has gone in but it's still relatively warm out there. And done the washing up, and, as I say, moved this bookcase - so I suspect the first thing is to start putting all my craft stuff back on it.

We popped in a charity shop today and they are willing to take all the bags I've got stacked up - I didn't have them with me, but I might drop them in tomorrow. They'll take my old magazines too which is great, since nobody on Freegle seems to want them.

Did a bit more decluttering yesterday - lots of little bits of *stuff*, including a Manchester A-Z from goodness knows when - the pages weren't even glued in any more and there was no bar code. And 19 little plastic chewing gum boxes - kept for some kind of project that never materialised and now I'm sick of looking at them. What a waste - won't be buying that stuff again - I was just having a stressful few weeks at work and chipped the edge of my tooth off chewing a pen and got a bit paranoid so switched to gum for a while...

Anyway, enough moaning. I'll definitely feel better if I get off my bum and do something useful, and sorting these shelves, and maybe finding more stuff for the charity shop, is ideal.

Cheery_Daff

Evening chums 😊

Well, I am slightly less complainy now 🙄😂

A third bookcase has been moved (yes, we spend half our lives moving furniture around). So we've shifted one from the study to the new bedroom, one from the landing to the study, and one from the living room to the landing 😂😂 And of course all the stuff has come off all three of them and is being sorted through before being put back so we are in chaos.

Got rid of more stuff though. Got five bags for the charity shop now (plus magazines, must remember those). And two boxes to go in the loft - I'm getting more ruthless with decluttering old stuff, but still have NO desire to get rid of old notebooks, not even work ones, and since we have a LOT of attic space, I'm not forcing myself to, certainly not now. I do actually spend quite a bit of time reading back over them over the years  and I think I would feel very bereft if they all went in the recycling!

What else? Oh. The dosh from We Buy Books has arrived and is in the bank account, so £19.59 added to the extra money total, taking it to £61.86 in April (plus the Happy wheel money, which I'm counting separately). Just waiting for the Ziffit stuff now, but that got posted later. 

Oh, and I've been toying with the idea of buying a petrol lawnmower... We've managed without for 4 years through a combination of a push along one (my overenthusiasm when we first moved here knew literally no bounds 😂😂), scythe, and petrol strimmer, but all of these require rather a lot of (my) muscles... We have quite a lot of grass... but it's all bumpy and spread over awkward spaces.

Anyway, it's manageable with the strimmer (and occasional scythe when I fancy it), but the strimmer is heavy for me and I keep putting it off... So instead of spending £200 on a self propelled petrol lawnmower, which is what I was looking at, I've spent £21 on a two-shoulder harness, which will apparently make it feel like it weighs nothing. I'll believe that when I try it 😂😂 but it will hopefully make it a bit easier. And if I end up resorting to the lawnmower eventually, it'll still be worth keeping for strimming the drive and other awkward bits.

Right, got a nice hot bath waiting, best get in it!

South_coast

Hope you've put the notebooks in sturdy boxes, Cheery - don't you have mice in your attic? Wouldn't want you to hang onto them, only to find they've been nibbled when you really want them!

Baileys_Babe

In the autumn we did a great bookcase shuffle, it felt like it took ages but in reality, it wasn't that long what actually took the time was deciding what was going in what bookcase. One benefit has been I can get to my books more easily so I am now reading a wider variety of books 😊

Cheery_Daff

South_coast said:

Hope you've put the notebooks in sturdy boxes, Cheery - don't you have mice in your attic? Wouldn't want you to hang onto them, only to find they've been nibbled when you really want them!

Loads of mice - on the whole they mostly nibble the insulation 🙄😂 had some fabric ruined up there but (touch wood) never paper. They're picky mice, clearly!

Baileys_Babe said:

In the autumn we did a great bookcase shuffle, it felt like it took ages but in reality, it wasn't that long what actually took the time was deciding what was going in what bookcase. One benefit has been I can get to my books more easily so I am now reading a wider variety of books 😊

Oddly enough only one of ours had actual books on 😂😂 the one in the study had boxes of craft stuff etc which have mostly just been plonked on the new one (although some oddments have been let go). The one on the landing had books, but some of those will be going as I rarely use cookbooks. The one in the living room was empty anyway- it was only really there awaiting a new home... 

Cheery_Daff

Poh, remembered as I wrote that post that I'd not done the Happy Wheel today. Figured I might as well use the free spins I had on one thing, and qualify for more tomorrow, but I was running out of time...

Hit a bonus round after a few spins and it took forever nd the clock rolled over midnight, so I've missed qualifying for tomorrow's free spins- but I won £62.44 in the bonus round anyway so never mind. Definitely an 'up'  day on the Happy Wheel front! Up to £117 ish on there for April now which is considerably better than yesterday. Just shows how it can turn round (in either direction, although overall up) in an instant.

And now I really must stop messing around and go to sleep! Not working tomorrow but even so.. 

Cheery_Daff

Morning MSE chums 😊

Sun is shining on and off, washing is on (and I hope will be finished eventually, it's been going for hours), washing up is done, and I am still finding things to get rid of in the study 🙄

Added another bag to the charity shop pile - we'll drop those off later today I think. Three boxes to go into the loft now, and another bag to go to work (some for the confidential waste, some for the library, so not just cluttering up my newly sorted out desk!)

A bin bag of actual rubbish too.

Where does it all come from? Well, I know the answer to that - years and years of me thinking 'oh, that's interesting' in charity shops, printing stuff out, keeping things just in case, and never wanting to throw anything away, that's where.

Going to be EXTREMELY careful about what gets let in the door from now on.

Nothing much financial to report. We're going to pop to charity shop and tip today, so that will get rid of a few more things. I'm going to batch cook... something... later - not sure what yet, just want to get another few meals in the freezer. Maybe a curry? And a flapjack or something for work snacks. 

Need to have a sort through my seeds too. Not going to plant any today, but I think next weekend might finally be the time... I've got plenty, but been offered a rummage through someone else's stash too so I need to work out what will eventually go where.

Right, best get my act together. Ooh, and I need to take these magazines,ones down from Freegle since nobody wants them before I drop them at the charity shop.

EssexHebridean

You’ve reminded me I was meant to be decluttering too - I had my sights set on my wardrobe before we went away so might turn my attention to that this afternoon, not though I can get anything to the charity shop until at least the weekend, mind you! 

The harness for the strimmer sounds like a good idea - hopefully it will be as effective as they reckon. Definitely better than a £200 lawnmower if so! 

Cheery_Daff

Indeed! Annoyingly I missed the next day cut off last night so it's not going to be ready until Wednesday, and we can't collect til Thursday. Should have just had it delivered, but never mind! 

Charity shop bags dropped off 😊 Gosh I do feel lighter for getting rid of all this stuff.

QMee up to £1.19, ticking along 😊