Simple living in the country - back to basics

beanielou

Happy weekend Cheery. 🤩

Cheery_Daff

You too beanie 😊

Well, no more plotting and scheming happened. I did go and investigate the cow mystery - I suspect a couple of escapees while they were being moved along the track as there's no other field they could have directly come from. All gates now seem shut, and cows weren't in our fields any more, so fingers crossed that's the end of it. 

Had a lovely long walk with my friend 😊 and a nice afternoon with a mix of lazing around, baking, garden pottering, and a tiny bit of kitchen painting. 

Mr Cheery and his friend came back - Mr Cheery acquired a kilt jacket from a charity shop, and discovered an unexpected bow tie in a pocket 😂

I've just taken advantage of the Gruum (or however you spell it) offer at the end of the page - shampoo bar, soap, and facial cleansing bar for £2.95 which seemed like a reasonable bargain 😊

And on that note I'm off again. Have a lovely rest of the weekend if I don't get back 😊

teapot2

I got the Gruum offer too @Cheery_Daff, they arrived last week and smell good - not tried them as yet though

greent

How are the chickens??? - haven't had chicken news in aaages! 🐔🐔🐔🐔

Cheery_Daff

Evening MSE chums 😊 Monday finances day here today, and so I thought I'd sneak in a visit to you all.

Teapot, do let me know how you get on with your Grüum stuff! Mine hasn't arrived yet. 

Greent! Thank you for asking - I am pleased to report all chickens are (touch wood) healthy and cheerful. Bonny even sat down on the sofa with Mr Cheery today! A regular occurance for the others, but she's always been a bit of a scared cat so this was quite the achievement! 

In chicken finance news, I ordered new food and corn yesterday - a new brand of corn which was £3 cheaper - let's see if they turn up their beaks 🙄

There is also non-chicken financial news (although not much of it).

* realised we'd neglected to pay a renewal for a membership for Mr Cheery - no consequences, but that does need paying. I'm hoping they'll still treat it as a renewal rather than starting it afresh (with extra fees).

* the washing machine has done a couple of loads which haven't properly spun. I've tried with a different cycle and a shorter spin, and that did seem to work OK- although with a shorter spin they did still come out not quite as wrung out as usual. They did all have duvet covers or blankets in though, so I'll try again with a smaller load of smaller items - rather miraculously i have reached the end of the washing basket so have nothing to try with!! 😂😂 That washing machine really doesn't owe us anything though - Mr Cheery bought it second hand about 20 years ago and it has done sterling service ever since. Still, I'll rather it didn't break - and will continue using it on whichever programme still works until it actually falls to pieces.

* today's 15 mins of flylady zone activity led me to the cabinet under the bathroom sink, a dire wasteland of ancient medicines, unidentifiable lotions, and free soaps. All has been wiped and cleaned, ancient medicines consigned to ancient history, and usable lotions, potions, and face masks all put where I can see them (and therefore have half a chance of using them)

* used the last of our Covid supermarket vouchers yesterday thinking that was the end of the study, then bizarrely had a text from a researcher last night who came to do swabs this morning. He did think this was really the last though. So another £40 of vouchers and that will be our lot. Can't complain - we've probably had about £900 from them all in all.

* Happy wheel a bit up and down the last few days but currently sitting at £150 for the month

* Commuting costs outrageous at the minute. I have to go to work FOUR TIMES this week!! One I can combine with Mr Cheery's trip to see his dad, but the other three are unavoidable (well, they're unavoidable now I've agreed to them, anyway...). I do at least have free parking for two, and will endeavour to sort free parking for the other too. Topped up the car at 189.9p a litre the other day, and today I spotted that garage was at 191.9, and another garage at 193.9. Crikey. 

* I have booked my holidays from work for the remainder of the holiday year (it starts again on 1st Sept). Lots to use up, so I've got a single week in July, a fortnight in August, and after this week, I'm only working a single 4 day week until September- the rest are all two or three days. Going to aim to travel to the office no more than one day a week, and NEVER to pay for parking.

* we completely forgot about renewing Mr Cheery's prescription prepayment, which we are very annoyed about. We were waiting to see if the free prescriptions age would be changed, and then it just went out of our heads. Anyway, we ended up paying for three prescriptions before we remembered, and now it's not worth it, because he's not likely to have another 4 in less than two months (hopefully...) and even then we'd only save £8. Hey ho. He'll be 60 in August, and as far as I can see the age hasn't changed, which means we'll both be on free prescriptions at that point. Quite a saving - he's on pretty regular medication now so we'll save the cost of a prepayment certificate at least. Mine are free on a medical exemption anyway.

Anyway, I'm sure there's more but it's high time I was in bed. Night night 😊

Suffolk_lass

I believe it is still 60 as we now both benefit from it. I contacted the PPC people in my naivety asking why they had not invited me to renew! The answer - you are too old to pay (wrapped up far more pleasantly but made me laugh)!

A good resolution re parking!

Cheery_Daff

Ha, hope they've got a sensitive form of words for that SL!😂😂

I always had a 'no paying for parking' resolution before covid. I was organised with applying for permits (I can theoretically have one every day, but have to apply 7 working days in advance or there probably won't be any left, and even then it doesn't guarantee a space, just the right to look for a space). If I didn't have one I used to either arrive by 7am in the hope of an on-street free one, or just park further away and walk - but I've got lazy recently and ended up parking closer and paying, which at £2.80 for 4 hours adds up.

Just passed up the chance for a free cuppa - I'm registered for an event but caught sight of the opening hour - about 5 people standing round and a guy on a stage with a microphone - and decided to buy a cuppa and find a quiet room to sit in instead until the thing i actually came to see starts...

Anyway, found myself accidentally sneaking in here, should sneak back off!

EssexHebridean

It's always lovely to see you whether sneaking in or not! And yep - the price of a bought cuppa sounds like good value if it also buys you some quiet time NOT having to stand awkwardly listening to stuff you're not interested in! 

(Also - thank you for the card, and apologies for not saying it sooner - head is still in a bit of an odd place and I'm really struggling with messages etc at the moment! xx) 

beanielou

All the very best people are 60 in August 
Vintage 62 was a great year.

Baileys_Babe

Cheery_Daff said:

 Mine are free on a medical exemption anyway.

Make sure you know when it expires so you have plenty of time to renew. OH's medical exemption certificate is only valid for 5 years (before needing to be renewed) despite him needing qualifying medication for life.

Aiming for free parking seems wise, £2.80 soon adds up.