Holding On and Letting Go 🎈

Fortune_Smiles

What a headache!

I've been under the weather for the last few days.  I got into the habit of drinking coffee when the Sunflowers were here.  They liked to have a coffee with breakfast and lunch.  Unfortunately I am intolerant to coffee and had started to get headaches from it recently.  So.... I bit the bullet and went cold turkey which meant a throbbing headache for about three days.  I'm out the other side now feeling much better for kicking the habit.  Such a shame though as I really love a good coffee and it would be soooo nice to be able to have just one cup in the morning.

Anyhoo I'm bright-eyed and bushy-tailed now and getting on with stuff:

Health

• coffee kicked 😢
• juicer has been juicing
• chores are being completed

Wealth

• my alarm clock stopped working 😢  Mr F says I should just use my mobile but I don't like having my phone in the bedroom.  Plus I loved my little alarm clock.  It was pastel pink and one of those that you turned over to switch it on or off.  Despite it waking me every morning it brought me joy so I have ordered another one
• I dropped my favourite frying pan and its handle shattered into a million pieces on the kitchen floor 😢  Fortunately Denby have a half price sale on this weekend so I was able to replace it without breaking the bank.  Aren't saucepans expensive 🍳
• calculated how much our energy bill is going to go up once our fixed rate ends 😲 Ouch, ouch, ouch.  We can stretch to it but it really worries me that others won't be able to
• I have been emailing with Fencing Man.  It's a long and sorry story but, in a nutshell, part of the work we asked him to do was done very badly.  We asked him to fix it.  He firstly denied there was anything wrong with the work.  Then said 'it was like that before'.  I provided evidence to show that it wasn't.  He said he'd done it the way we asked and we'd changed our minds.  Now he's saying that he never agreed to do that part of the work in the first place.  This despite obviously doing it and specifically invoicing for it.  He is saying he'll correct some of the work but not until November.  I think this is too late (the original work was carried out in July) plus I don't think he has any intention of doing it and they'll be further delays.  So... I'm debating what to do next
• Mr F is unhappy about something at work and threatening to hand in his notice 🙄
• but... we are warm and dry and the cupboards are full.  So we've nothing to be unhappy about.

Happiness

I've had quite a few things to do for the WI.  There are two aspects to our membership fees - 50% goes to the National Federation and 50% goes to the local WI.  Last year we waived the local aspect as Covid had prevented us for doing much for our group.  This year we want to do the same in light of the cost of living crisis.  However, we don't have the funds to do that so we are making money with coffee mornings, garden produce and book sales, car boot sales and supper evenings.

I wish I had a crystal ball.  It's so difficult to make decisions at the moment.  I'd love for Mr F to retire but it seems foolish to give up that level of income with costs going up left right and centre.  I'm going to crunch the numbers tomorrow and see what our options are.

Hope everyone's ok

Fortune x

savingholmes

Good luck with the number crunching. Such decisions are never easy and there's an element of both heart and head.

themadvix

Have you threatened fence man with small claims court? It might be that just the threat is enough to get him to come back and sort it. If not and you had to go through with it, you’d hopefully get money back to be able to employ someone else to put it right. Surely in this climate it would be better for him to avoid the cost of going to court over something he’d surely lose and just sort it out.

greent

We've successfully used small claims court a couple of times for shoddy work/ service - definitely worth considering. 

Fortune_Smiles

savingholmes said:

Good luck with the number crunching. Such decisions are never easy and there's an element of both heart and head.

Thanks SH.  I'm putting my sensible head on at the moment but still finding it tricky making any sort of decision in the current chaos.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

themadvix said:

Have you threatened fence man with small claims court? It might be that just the threat is enough to get him to come back and sort it. If not and you had to go through with it, you’d hopefully get money back to be able to employ someone else to put it right. Surely in this climate it would be better for him to avoid the cost of going to court over something he’d surely lose and just sort it out.

Not yet MV but it's looking like it's going to go that way.  I've decided I don't want him back now.  He's lied to me many times and I don't trust him as far as I could throw him.

greent said:

We've successfully used small claims court a couple of times for shoddy work/ service - definitely worth considering. 

Thanks greent - that's good to know.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

🌞The sun has got his hat on... 🌞

What a glorious weekend 😃  We made the most of the weather yesterday and spent the day in the garden.  Mr F mowed and strimmed and hedge trimmed and I pulled up dead stuff and cut things back in the veg patch.

Meals were: Huevos Rancheros for breakfast (to use up some gluten free tortillas from the freezer), Courgette, Potato & Cheddar Soup for lunch (using courgettes from the veg patch) and Broad Bean and Lancashire Cheese Tart with new potatoes and sweetcorn for supper (although the last of the veg patch broad beans had gone over so I used peas instead).

I have picked the last of the blackcurrants and started to harvest and freeze the plums.  Our blackberries seem to be quite late this year but we managed to pick a large bowlful yesterday evening so I'll freeze those today too.

I've done the monthly money shuffle this morning and budgeted for September and October.  Main costs this month will be preparing for the colder months - so logs, getting the chimney swept etc.  Funny to be thinking about that when it's so warm and sunny at the moment.

We've had a very late start this morning as Mr F had a long lie in 😴  Then a lazy breakfast of syrniki with creme fraiche and blackcurrant compote on the patio (a Sunday treat introduced to us by the Sunflowers).

Pruning is on the agenda for today so I'll be going out to join Mr F in the garden soon.  But first.. those blackberries.

Enjoy your weekend folks

Fortune x

themadvix

Had to look up syrniki, but they sound delicious! 

Fortune_Smiles

themadvix said:

Had to look up syrniki, but they sound delicious! 

This is a good recipe for them MV although I make ten little ones using a tablespoon of dough each because that's the way the Sunflowers made them.  I think little ones are nicer than the four enormous ones which this recipe calls for.  You can get the Twarog cheese in Tesco here.  They don't take long to do once you get the hang of them.

savingholmes

Lovely photo - looks tasty food