Simple living in the country - back to basics

themadvix

Well done Cheery! Fingers crossed for you now. Have you made a note of the bits you wished you’d included so that you can mention them at interview if relevant?

Fortune_Smiles

Crossing fingers and toes for you Cheery 🤞🤞

Fortune x

Karmacat

Well done Cheery!  And ooh, I like MV's suggestion there - get the additions snuck in another way, yay.

Cheery_Daff

Thank you all 😊

Missed bits were things like a list of all the places I've presented at 😂 which they didn't ask for, and which I was planning to do but didn't have time 🙄 So probably not much use in an interview 😂 but if I think of anything else, I'll keep a list! 

Today has been a winding down day. Threw yesterday's washing on the line in a sunny spell this morning - it's still there and now considerably wetter 🙄

Had a solo cafe trip to organise work stuff - spent an hour just going through notebook, emails, all lists etc to get my head round exactly what needs doing, and a few hours at home ticking things off. 

Then we stopped (i wasn't meant to be working today, just making up for doing job form yesterday! 😂). Went into town, Mr Cheery bought a jumper and me a skirt, both charity shops. Also our local Mr A closed down the other day and reopened in a different location - I was Very Annoyed to discover it has a stupid 5 aisle system 😡 Up one, down the next, up, down, up - and then you have to come back down the SAME ONE to get back to the tills 😡 Our old one had an even number of aisles and I much preferred it. This one made me irrationally angry 😡😂 Probably not angry enough to shop anywhere else, just enough to make me grumble every time I go in 😂

Home now. Cooked tea (and enough for dinner tomorrow) and now I'm trying to get my act together for some small activity 🙄 Mr Cheery cleared the cupboard under the bathroom sink the other day, but hasn't actually sorted anything out, and now he feels unwell and I want a bath 🙄 So I'm going in there with a bin bag and I will be ruthless - it's crammed full of half used toiletries and out of date medication and I'm sick of it! 

Right, going to set a timer for 15 mins and tackle the worst. Will report back.

Cheery_Daff

Well, 15 mins somehow turned into half an hour, then Mr Cheery got involved, and it took another 45 mins, and we've not actually finished 🙄😂 You wouldn't think a small bathroom could hold so much rubbish or need so many decisions! 😱

Anyway, a giant carrier bag of stuff to go out, and 3 boxes to sort out tomorrow - medical/first aid, grooming (including nail varnish etc), and general stuff (spare soap, hair dye etc). Clearly we need an area of the pantry for this stuff, as we often end up with more than one thing (partly from seeing unopened stuff in charity shops 🙄). 

I'm adopting a snowballing approach to toiletries 😂 and have moved a bottle of facial cleanser with about a centimetre left into the bathroom. I don't usually use it (although clearly did at one point - or was it a cast off from my mum?!) Anyway, having just seen the filth that came off my face, I think I should probably go back to using something other than a cursory wipe with a flannel 😂😂

Bathroom-related decluttering will continue over the weekend, and I hope to end up with a lot more useable space than previously, and an ever-decreasing stash of rarepy-used toiletries (and possibly a whole new skin care regime 😂)

EssexHebridean

I have my regularly used toiletries in the bathroom or dressing room as appropriate, then a stash of stuff waiting to go into use in a wardrobe. I’ve worked with a stash system for years - it used to be wildly out of control, ironically enough mostly because I’d se bargains mentioned on here! Far better now - someone started. “No new toiletries until I’ e used what I have” thread years ago, it was still running until relatively recently I think. (And yes, I still feel faintly ludicrous referring to the “dressing room” - but it definitely sounds better than “bedroom 3” which made us both feel like estate agents!)  

Well done on getting the application in as well! 

SuperSecretSquirrel

I've implemented the opposite approach EH... We used to do similar to you, but the bedroom eventually became overrun with stashed products. The stash now lives in situ in the bathroom, if there's no room for more, no more is purchased. When I discovered shower gels and shampoos and toothpastes in the double digits it became pretty clear we'd have a hard time running low and having to buy at a high price. I've also stopped saving the expensive stuff received as birthday and Christmas gifts etc "for best", it all gets thrown in the mix with the intention of actually getting used.

Cheery_Daff

Ours is a really bizarre mix, mostly nothing so useful as 18 tubes of toothpaste 😂 More like 5 half used flavours of body lotion, 9 random face mask sachets etc. Not so much a deliberate stash, as poor management and losing things 😂

Anyway, a morning of excitement- we have booked our trip to Berlin!! 🥳🥳 We have only once left the country together in our 18 year relationship - and that was to visit the same friends for 3 days in 2017 😂 That was also the last time I flew anywhere I think (Mr Cheery has had one flight without me in 20 years).

So this is extremely exciting 😁 Flights were slightly more expensive than if we'd booked when we first saw them, and since we last flew the airline have introduced a stupid rule of paying an extra £100 to sit together 🙄 but it's ended up costing £351 for both of us for the return flights, not too bad. Also need to sort airport parking and travel insurance and whatever the updated equivalent of the EHIC card is.

Parking looks to be about £60 for the 4 days. No sensible alternative really. Flight is 10.45, there's a bus from the nearest town but it takes almost 2 hours (and we'd have to drive to town anyway), so we'd need to leave home around 5.20am, and it'd cost £25. Driving takes less than an hour (so we could leave home about 7 and still have plenty of time), so for the extra £35 that's worth it. 

I think that's it to sort in advance, but I travel abroad SO rarely that if you think I've missed anything please do shout! 

We're staying with friends, so no cost there. We're going to a gig while we're there so there will be costs for that, and I imagine the rest of spends will be food and drink 😁 

Anticipating around £650-700 all in, but will obviously keep track.

Lovely to have something to look forward to, and only 18 days to go! 😃

Karmacat

Very exciting!  Well done both of you ✈  don't forget to think about *how* you want to spend - taking cash with you, travellers cheques, taking the hit on your plastic?  

Have you made your list on TripAdvisor? 😅

themadvix

Enjoy Cheery, I’m envious! 😁 Make sure you sort insurance asap but also be aware that you’re likely to have issues getting Mr C’s ongoing stuff insured.

GHIC is the new EHIC… still the same in every other way I think!

 Will you take cash? Pre-Covid Germany was still very much a cash economy (hangover from the Nazis), but I’ve not been since to know if that’s changed - I guess your friends might be the best people to ask.

 How exciting, and so soon!