Simple living in the country - back to basics

EssexHebridean

Soap experimenting sounds like fun - my current shower gel is a coconut and Shea butter one and smells lovely! 

Hope your first day back at work runs at least relatively smoothly allowing that you have an annoying day of moving around tomorrow. 

Cheery_Daff

Thanks EH 😊

Today was indeed acceptable 😂 Waded through emails in an hour and deleted most of them - nothing remotely interesting happened, which affirmed my decision to take a long time off over Christmas 😁 Definitely something I'll try again in the future! 

My meeting tomorrow morning has been rearranged, which means I can just go straight to the office and stay there, which is much better than what I originally had planned. Looks like I might have to go in on Wednesday though, which is slightly vexing.

And Thursday is ridiculous - at the minute I'm going to the office 9-10, then to the doctors (near home) for 11.30, then back to the office again so I can be there for a leaving do late afternoon. Ridiculous! I can't rearrange the morning meeting (one of the attendees is the person who's leaving later that day) but I might be able to go online - thank heavens for hybrid meetings, as much as I don't like them! We'll see. 

Anyway, nothing much financial to report. I went back to Slimming World after being absent since November - didn't have to pay as I'd bought 12 weeks upfront, and then not attended most of them, and this was the last week of the 12. And surprisingly enough I was exactly the same weight as the last time I went 😂😂 Bought the new magazine, but that was it, and came straight home (forgetting all about my plan to get caustic soda from B&Q!)

All ready for tomorrow - I'm having tea at a friend's house so I've got belated Christmas presents for her kids all ready to go too. Going to park over near her house and walk in rather than paying for parking.

And on that note, I'd best go to sleep. I'd like to leave at 7am tomorrow, so if you catch me poking around on here after 6.30 when I should be up and getting ready, tell me off! 🙄😂

EssexHebridean

Well done for NOT having been on here this morning Cheery...  

themadvix

Thanks for mentioning about B&Q for caustic soda - prompted me to look and see if they stock citric acid and they do, so will pop in there later today! (Have been trying to get hold of it for a while after my supply from zero-waste shop ran out.)

Cheery_Daff

EssexHebridean said:

Well done for NOT having been on here this morning Cheery...  

😂😂 I was just looking - with my eyes, not my hands, as an old relative used to say 😂

Didn't help, mind you. I left home at 7.10 and didn't get to work til 9.10 😱 so much traffic in the rain! Still, I stuck with my free parking plan 😁

Cheery_Daff

Morning chums, happy weekend! 😁 (and apologies if it's not your weekend - I just love my Fridays off 😁)

First week back at work has been ok. not as productive as I'd like but getting there. I've been into the office three days this week, including TWICE yesterday, when I drove home in the middle of the day for a docs appointment, then back to the office for a leaving do. Ridiculous, and not something I'll be repeating often! 

Still, had a nice time in the evening, although I did spent about £18 just on soft drinks (oh, and a pint for the person who was leaving). Will update my signature but I'm certainly burning through my spends budget this month 😱

What else? There are a few things I want to do today:

* New chickens tomorrow 😱 So we need to partition off the run, sort out separate food & water containers, change bedding etc ready for the new arrivals.

* Also need to text friend to see if we can meet for a cuppa as we're collecting them from not too far from where he lives. 

* ring family member to say happy birthday

* check banks and budget

* buy caustic soda and try a batch of soap!

Other pottering, but I don't think there's anything else particularly pressing on the list. First job is getting out of bed 😂

KajiKita

Do you have names in mind for the Chickky-bucks, or will you wait until you meet them / get to know them?

KK 

Cheery_Daff

We have a rolling list of potentially suitable chicken names, which we add to whenever we think of one We've got two earmarked for these, but we'll see if they suit them when they arrive. Sometimes they have particular characteristics or colourings that makes one name more suitable than another (personally I'm still arguing for Pumpkin but Mr Cheery isn't convinced!)

So. We have had a nice cafe trip, mostly paid for by Christmas vouchers (we contributed £3.20 so as not to lose a £5 voucher without getting change). Still got enough left for another trip, possibly two, so that's nice

Nipped to B&Q to pick up some caustic soda - when did it become so expensive?! I'm sure I used to buy a 1kg bag in Wilkos for 99p or something, but they don't sell it any more, and I haven't found it anywhere else locally for ages. You can buy it online, but then postage is extortionate, so I just found myself paying £10 for 1kg. TEN POUNDS! Shocking. At least I'll only use 125g of it for this batch of soap, and so won't need any more for a while, but even so. Will definitely be keeping an eye out for a cheaper source. 

Home now, and the weather is grim. Mr Cheery has been rooting around for wood for the chicken partition - he's found some but we need to de-nail it, fix it in place, add mesh, and create a suitable door/gate out of... something. This is going within the existing run, so it doesn't need to be predator proof, just enough to keep the new chickens away from the old ones (but still visible) until they get used to each other. Not really a day to be messing around outside! 

I've checked the banks, transferred £50 to the new NW regular saver, and withdrawn most of the dosh from my premium bonds account as planned, ready to transfer into the new easy access building society account as the letter with account details arrived yesterday. That money should be in the current account on 18th, so I'll transfer it over then.

Next job after that will be to set up Mr Cheery with a premium bonds account, and put the same amount in his as is in mine. Then set up the other regular savers as planned, to drip feed the savings each month. 

In other money news - MB is shocking this month. I won £27 yesterday, but am down £70 for the month overall, and they've not even taken the annual payments for the subscription services yet. Can't imagine I'm going to come out with a positive balance this month, but I shall persevere nonetheless! 

I've done nothing on Prolific for weeks - I shall nip in and rectify that now over another cup of tea and some eggs that I boiled the other day and then promptly forgot about, and some reduced avocado (45p for 2!)

I think that's it for now. Just warming up, having lunch, and then I'll wrap up and see if I can concoct some kind of door for the chicken partition. If we don't do it today, Mr Cheery will have to stay behind to do it while I'm collecting them tomorrow. This is what we did last time, so it's fine, but it's probably more cheerful if we both do both things! Also I'm not sure the weather is going to be any better tomorrow anyway... 

beanielou

Happy new chickens

edinburgher

I love Pumpkin as a chicken name, or maybe a Shetland pony