Aim: Mortgage Free / Time For Me

Cornish_mum

You can do it! 👏

postmenopause

Today’s quote:

“We’ll try this first.  If it doesn’t work, we’ll try something else.  That’s life, isn’t it?”

Money / household saving:

• The brussel sprouts from my ‘free supermarket’ (allotment) are now blanched and frozen.  I froze them on a tray and then bagged them up when they were frozen so they didn’t stick together.
• When we transferred from our old bank to first direct we were promised £130 for switching to them.  Last week I asked when we will receive it and i was told 30/1.  I checked today and we haven’t received it so i contacted them.  I was told we would receive £100 on 3/2 as our application was received after 22/11 which was the deadline for the £130 offer.  I ended up speaking to a manager as we actually have a letter dated 22/11 from them, thanking us for our application, so we know we applied before this .  After a lengthy conversation she apologised and said it would be £130 on 3/2….. to be honest i’ll believe it when we see it.  It just goes to show you have to be on top of things as these banks will wriggle out of everything they can and most people won’t actually notice they are paid less than advertised.
• Our dishwasher broke today 😰😰😰, but at least we took out a warranty when we purchased it. They cant come until 9/2 to fix it though, which is a shame…but at least we wont have to pay.  We seem to have had a bad run of things breaking in the last month…..washing machine, dishwasher, hairdryer, car and yesterday the clothes prop broke in half and our dog lead broke….. oh well….at least we are lucky that we can afford to replace things and my dh’s ‘love to shop’ voucher from his work came at just the right time for us lol.

Well being:

• Day one of my new healthy diet went well 👏👏👏.  Thank you so much for your support @Kantankrus_Mare  @beanielou  and @South_coast @Cornish_mum , it means the world to me.  Today is ‘day two’ and so far so good.  Tonight is roast chicken with homegrown veg….i will make sure i don’t eat the fatty bits (even though they are the best bits lol).
• Today i should be doing my next ‘couch to 5k’ run ( run number 7), but my knees are still hurting so it would be madness to do it…..I won’t manage to brisk walk for 30 minutes either.  Im so sad as i have worked so hard over the last two weeks, but hey ho it’s important i don’t wreck my knees.  I have decided to start using my bike to go to the allotment again instead of the ‘couch to 5k’  ( as i really don’t want to ruin my knees).  I tried to cycle last summer but i found it hard, but maybe i’m a bit fitter now?  It is 30 minutes in total there and back, so it should still do me some good…..i’m going to wait a few days for my knees to get back to normal first and then i will cycle every other day and go back to brisk walking for 30 minutes the days in between……so at least i have a plan and i’m not just giving up with my fitness.
• So today i saw my first snowdrop in the garden….snowdrops remind me of my best friend that died of a brain tumour in February 2013. I remember on the day I found out that she had peacefully passed away, i went for a walk and saw loads and loads of snowdrops and i remember thinking just how beautiful they were.  Also when we walked outside after the funeral service ended, the heavens opened with snow and the ground was covered in minutes…again it was beautiful, just like the beautiful person she was.   And so over the last few years i have planted lots and lots of snowdrops in my garden at home and my allotment, to make sure i never ever forget her.  I still miss her lots.

Anyway, that’s it for today

XXX

beanielou

I thi nk FD will come up trumps.

postmenopause

beanielou said:

I thi nk FD will come up trumps.

Hope so @beanielou XXX

beanielou

I have found them great.  xx

postmenopause

Today’s quote:

“Today is the first day of the new month.  So take a deep breath and start moving towards your goals and dreams”

 

Money / household savings:

1. Tonight i am having some left over chicken (from yesterday) with a big salad for my tea. I brought some quinoa to try with it as well ( ive never had it before).  I also found a small amount of cheese sauce in my freezer ( must have been left over at some stage), so i will make Marconi cheese for my dh with this (Love using leftovers up).
2. This morning i have made a big pan of thick vegetable soup which me and my dh had for lunch.  I managed to get nine portions out of it so i will freeze what we didn’t have today.  It works out as a very cheap lunch.
3. I did another load of washing and hung it out on my washing line to dry as it was a fab day for drying (sunny and windy) 👏👏👏.  Now my dd2 is back at university i will have so much less washing each week lol, i don’t know how she manages to wear so much.
4. This afternoon at my allotment i found my fence wobbling like mad in the gusts of wind.  I have patched it up the best i could with bits of wood and ropes and i will have to fix it properly in the next few days 😢😢😢.
5. Most of our direct debits come out of our bank account on the first of each month and this includes our mortgage payments.  So we have paid another £358.02 off our house mortgage and another £159.34 off our kitchen mortgage which is another step in the right direction 👏👏👏
6. I was thinking about healthy snacks today and i suddenly remembered i have a box of stored apples outside where they are protected from frost.  The apples came from my allotment and i wrapped each one up individually in newspaper in autumn ready to store them.  I took a few out and they have stored great, so i will have these for daily snacks (after they have had a good wash).

Wellbeing:

1. Day three of my healthy diet…..so far so good.  I am trying very hard to be organised with my meals so i know exactly what we are having, so I don’t feel overwhelmed and end up eating things I shouldn’t.
2. My dd1 popped in this morning and she is feeling a bit brighter and my dd2 rang last night to say she was having a takeaway with her friend back at university, so this made me happy.
3. My knees are still hurting, goodness knows what i have done to them….but now i’m not exercising (while they recover) i have had two dreadful nights sleep again😰…the exercise must have really been helping me.  I can’t wait to start exercising again ( now thats a sentence i never thought i’d hear myself say lol).

Anyway thats it for now

XXX

Fortune_Smiles

Hi PM 😃

I got right to the end of C25K then had to stop because I developed hip bursitis.  I may give it another go but perhaps do one run a week rather than the three suggested - that's probably too much to expect of my old body 😆  Of course I'm doing nada at the moment because of the back injury I somehow acquired.  I'm intending to start walking again as a first step when I am able, then Tai Chi, then Yoga and finally Belly Dancing.  If that all goes to plan I shall mountain bike around our field to try and build my leg muscles up a bit and then.... eventually... C25K.  Fingers crossed.

Hope your knees recover soon.

Fortune x

Bargainhunter30

I would suggest looking into strength training and how aging, menopause and hormones affect exercise and our bodies. I have just started learning about it and realised how little I know. Strength training can help joints and prepare them for running and other forms of exercise. If some hormones are lacking, then this may also affect you. Good luck and hope you get back to c25k, it great to do.

postmenopause

Oh @Fortune_Smiles im sorry tohear about your bursitis and your back, however the things you want to do when you are able to wore me out just reading them lol….lets hope you get to do them soon.

And thank you for advice @Bargainhunter30 , i will look into strength training.  Menopause affects us in so many ways doesn’t it

XXX

postmenopause

Today’s quote:

“The best things happen unexpectedly”

Money / household savings:

• Today my allotment friend took me to ‘The Company Shop’.  I’d never heard of it before, he gave me a ‘guest - one shop pass’.   Basically it’s a shop that sells surplus food stocks from the leading supermarkets or near date stuff, for cheaper prices (though my friend said to be careful as not everything is cheaper).  You have to be a member to shop and it appears that NHS workers, charity workers, armed forces etc can become members.  Anyway i was very good and only spent £9.80 on things that we actually needed and were cheaper ( there were loads of xmas chocolates which i would have normally brought but I didn’t due to my diet).  When i got home I checked on their website and it says retired council employees can apply for a temporary membership also, so i have filled in the form to see if they accept me (though i don’t know if they will, as i didn’t work for the council for long and i have taken my pension early from them and it is only a tiny tiny amount per month….i can but try and i wont have lost anything if they say no).
• This afternoon i am about to start to sow some more seeds for my allotment and my garden at home.  They will mostly be flowers seeds today……. By sowing seeds i get more plants than i could afford if i brought then from a garden centre.  I use my double radiator to germinate the seeds in propagators and i then keep them on windowsills etc for as long as possible before they go into my heated greenhouse in my garden ( though I’m a bit worried this year because electricity is so expensive, so ill keep them inside for as long as possible).
• Tonight is steak slice, veg and gravy for my dh and leftover chicken (from Monday) veg and gravy for me.  Instead of potatoes i will be having half of a ‘baked potato squash’ that i grew in the summer for the first time - they store for ages and they are fab.  I cut it in half, scoop the seeds out and spray with a tiny bit of oil and then roast for 50 mins at 200C ….i then scoop the squash out and fluff it up like the insides of a baked potato …apparently compared to potatoes it is low calorie, low carbs, but high fibre - but it actually tastes quite like potato and i really like them (when they grow the plants look very similar to courgette plants).  I will definitely be growing these again this year.  Below is a photo of them ‘curing’ in my greenhouse before I took them inside to store them over winter:

Wellbeing:

• Today i am feeling ok.  I will be sowing my seeds whilst listening to podcasts and music, which i find very relaxing.  
• My knees are STILL hurting and i nearly had to take pain killers last night.  I also found it very frustrating not brisk walking this lunchtime with the dog, so i put on some calm, relaxing music as i walked slowly with her.  Also when i knelt down to take her harness off i found it hurts my knees….so no exercise yet for me.  
• A strange thing i’ve found with our dishwashing not working is I can’t stand pots and pans hanging around so i wash them up straight away (my dh usually washes any pots up in the morning that can’t go into the dishwasher)…..but when I wash up i swill the bowl round afterwards and have a clean round the sink and wipe down the work surfaces and the kitchen looks so much tidier for it lol ( i daren’t tell my dh this 🤣🤣🤣).  I’m finding it so lovely to have a clean kitchen sink and work surfaces, especially first thing in the morning when you come down stairs and it makes me feel much better when i see it lol.

Anyway that’s it for today 

XXXX