Holding On and Letting Go 🎈

Fortune_Smiles

Reconnecting

Mr F is feeling much better although he still doesn't have the stamina he had before.  He'll get there.

Health:

• I've walked FDawg with Mr F every day bar one
• we've spent an hour in the garden together most days just tidying things up for the spring
• Mr F has been enjoying his meat-based dinners and I've been enjoying veg-based alternatives.  I'll be glad when we can go back to normal eating though as we have much more in the way of fruit and veg in our usual diet
• I'm gradually getting up to speed with the housework.

Wealth:

• I've made appointments for dentists, etc to take advantage of Mr F being off.  Most will come with costs - I'm dreading what my broken molar is going to add up to 😲

Happiness:

• Mr F and I went to visit friends this weekend and also discovered a local 4x4 group for him to join
• I met with the WI Committee and stayed on for lunch with members afterwards
• I've booked to go to several workshops/events with girlfriends.

It feels as though I'm reconnecting with the world now and I'm very much looking forward to having more social interaction - I've missed it.  Mr F is good company but no wife is an island 😆

I hope everyone's safe and well.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Catching my breath

I'm taking a little time out today to catch my breath.  I don't think we're any busier than normal but, after so many weeks confined to the house, a normal week does feel a little tiring right now:

Health:

• we have finished tidying up the flower beds, the courtyard and have made a start on the veg patch.  I think this is the most on top of the garden we've been since we moved here 🥳  It feels great to look out of the windows and not have the garden shout back "When are you going to get to this then".
• I've been out with Mr F most days to walk FDawg
• I'm gradually getting back on top of the housework although it's still a little dusty here 🤭
• Mr F is making great progress.  It could be another couple of months before he's back to full strength but he's coping well.  He still gets a little tired after a busy day and is feeling the cold - which is strange because I'm normally the cold fish 😆  He even did a little light exercise in the barn yesterday so it won't be long before I have sole control of the remote in the evenings again 😆

Wealth:

• things are feeling a little tight but that's just because all of our emergency savings are currently ring-fenced to buy Mr F's company car in May
• we have extra bills to cover too - my broken molar (not budgetted for), new glasses for me (budgetted for) and another replacement diverter valve for the boiler (not budgetted for as it was last replaced in April last year).  The boiler is ageing and we expected to have higher repair bills as a result, however, less than 12 months service from a part seems a bit extreme.  The plumber is going to take a look to see if there's a specific reason for the fail
• I psyched myself up to call HMRC about Mr F's tax.  It turns out they have updated their records following my request in January but just haven't got round to telling me that 🙄  They've now updated them again as we've made a further donation to charity which we can claim gift aid on.  However, I have to call another department about self-assessment queries apparently and I'd lost the will to live by then so decided to write in instead.  Mr F can claim a professional subscription cost against tax but the on-line self-assessment forms haven't allowed him to do so for the last two years so that needs putting right.  I posted the letter to them whilst in town today
• the grocery bill is coming in a little higher than normal as I'm still having to feed Mr F copious amounts of meat 🤮 but I'll start reducing that now
• the good news - my car won't need to have new tyres in order to get through the MOT this year.  However, it will need two new rear tyres at some point because of wear and, ideally, all the tyres should be replaced because of age.  It will be about £1,000 to change them all so I've started a savings pot for that.  You'd think that would be that for another ten years or so but the tyre specialist at the garage told us that tyres rarely last longer than 3-5 years these days 😲  So I think my virtual savings pot for tyres my become a permanent fixture
• I've listed a couple of things on FB for sale.

Happiness:

• Mr F and I visited a local NT property to walk their snowdrop walk.  I went last year with some friends but Mr F had never been so we took advantage of a sunny day.  We walked several miles around the estate first, stopped for lunch and then went to see the snowdrops.  It was wonderful to be out in the calm and the fresh air.  We both said we could understand the concept of 'forest bathing' and felt much revived from our day out.  We are members and I had some NT vouchers I'd earned through CP so there was no extra 'cash' cost for the outing 😁
• Mr F went out with his new 4x4 friends on Sunday.  He took FDawg so I had the house to myself for the first times in weeks.  I took advantage by doing some work on the wedding portrait and watching a H@rry P0tt£r film 😁
• I received a card, a dozen red roses and a new scarf for Valentine's Day.  We don't usually do much for Valentine's but I think Mr F wanted to show his appreciation for my "saving his life" 🤗 (aka calling the ambulance despite his protestations).  I got him a card and a pair of garden gauntlets to spare his "soft, office hands" from the ravages of the garden shrubs 😆
• I had a routine blood test to attend today as well as going to the garage to get a quote for the tyres.  Mr F came with me and we managed to fit in coffee and cake at our favourite venue, a browse around the antique emporium plus a sandwich lunch.  Cost to be met from the fun money.

I have quite a lot of outings planned for next week - mainly catching up on appointments and meetings with friends.  So another busy but, hopefully, restorative time.  I'm hoping I can fit in some yoga sessions and some decluttering too.

Hope all is well with you guys.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

More good news...

With our financial situation feeling a bit squeaky I thought a bit more about how I'd allowed this to happen (little old risk averse me 😉) and there is some good news:

• I contacted EDF via FB and they confirmed that eligible customers will receive the Alternative Fuel Payment from 20-28 February.  We are eligible as we aren't on mains gas here and, as we're on a budget direct debit plan with them, will receive £200 direct to our bank account.  Which is good timing as I'd ordered 500 litres of heating oil through the 0il Clu8 and they delivered today
• our fixed rate for electricity runs out at the end of March but I got some on-line quotes for current tarifs and the increase will not be as bad as I feared.  Largely because we're currently overpaying on our current tarif by about 100% (a hangover from when Uncle F was living here) and because of the energy price cap
• I will go on to my revised pension from March which will be about £170 extra each month plus I get a little lump sum too
• Mr F's pension will increase by CPI from April which will be somewhere between £50 to £100 a month extra (I'm not exactly sure what the tax office have his tax code down as at the moment 🙄)
• he should also get a small pay rise from his employer and a bonus at the end of April although we don't know how much
• he'll move onto company car benefit from May which, after we've sorted out the insurance and road tax we'll become responsible for, will increase the money coming in and reduce his tax bill.

This will all help towards cost of living increases and put a little back into the emergency fund.  That will still be at less than 50% of what we're comfortable with so our focus will be on bolstering that back up as quickly as possible.  If there is a big emergency in the meantime I can always call upon my two remaining mini pension pots.

So not as squeaky as I was thinking and I feel so much easier writing it all down where I can see it.  I knew I must have given this more thought when we made the decision to buy the company car but the events of 2023 so far had put it all out of my mind.

Phew 🙂

I don't think we'll gain much, if anything, from this increased income as our outgoings have pretty much gone up by the same amount.  But we won't have to worry about heating or eating and can still llive a comfortable life here in the Shire.  And that feels like a very privileged position to be in right now with everything that's going on in the UK and in the world 🤗

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Oh and I forgot, we still have the car we bought for the Sunflowers and should be able to get something back on that.  We've been holding onto it in case the purchase of Mr F's company car doesn't got through for some reason (they've only given an approximate quote so far).

Fortune x

beanielou

All good then.
Glad love was in the air! x

SandyShores

Glad you are feeling a bit less squeaky.  I agree, as long as we can heat and eat, we are in a good place.

savingholmes

Glad things are improving. Snowdrop walk and forest bathing sound lovely.

Suffolk_lass

Whew! I have just read through this diary from the beginning (over the last three days, and glad I did  my word you have been through it. Well done for all of your planning, support and interventions. What can I say? I hope all is well now health-wise as that is the biggest thing x

Fortune_Smiles

beanielou said:

All good then.
Glad love was in the air! x

SandyShores said:

Glad you are feeling a bit less squeaky.  I agree, as long as we can heat and eat, we are in a good place.

savingholmes said:

Glad things are improving. Snowdrop walk and forest bathing sound lovely.

Thanks guys... and, of course just when you think you've got it all sorted, everything changes 😆  So a little bit of a re-think - more on that later.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Suffolk_lass said:

Whew! I have just read through this diary from the beginning (over the last three days, and glad I did  my word you have been through it. Well done for all of your planning, support and interventions. What can I say? I hope all is well now health-wise as that is the biggest thing x

Blimey @Suffolk_lass - that was a bit of a marathon!  Yes - health wise we are, not perfect, but vastly improved. Thank you.

Fortune x