NST September 2022 Picture yourself on a boat on a canal

grandmanerd

Tuesday 6th September 2022

It's Choose-day
Choose kindness
Choose passion
Choose gratitude
Choose happiness
Choose yourself
(I know we've had it before but it bears repeating)

Today
We had proper rain in the night. Thankfully all the barges seem to be fully waterproof. It was quite noisy with the rain drumming on the roof but it was cosy to be tucked up warm inside (the wood burner's been going full pelt) with mugs of soup and my warm socks on. the thunder and lightning show was fantastic.

Dave Ramsey Baby Steps
The first stage is the 3 steps listed yesterday (Emergency fund, paying off credit cards, 3-6 months living expenses). 
Steps 4 to 7 are meant to be done all together, where possible. I can't relate to all of them but maybe younger turtles find them more relevant.
4   Invest 15% of your income for retirement
5   Save for your kids college fund
6   Pay off your mortgage early
7   Build wealth and give

Keeping things short today as I have a lot of stuff to sort and need to try wrangling with ASkmygp.

Toni'sfriend

Morning Shipmates

Grandmanerd - Thanks for all your lovely, inspirational posts. Hope you're feeling better today.
Beannie - I love your cat
Ditty - Well done on getting the grant
Idee - I also keep a stash of cards from the C@rd Factory plus wrapping paper whenever I can find it cheap. I also keep a supply of children's books. There are usually a lot of good quality ones on offer at Amazon. Very handy when an unexpected party arises.

Got quite a lot done yesterday. Himself is meeting his friends today and then back to watch a very important football match (so I'm told!). That should give me peace and quiet to power ahead with the things on my very long list. Some are just five minute jobs though so it's not as bad as it looks.

Hope everyone has a productive and peaceful day.

cybertortoise

I've fallen behind with posting but I'll catch up after I post this.

All going ok so far.

I'm off placement today as we had some loft hatches being fitted. One is in the living room so not ideal, but it means we can insulate the little bits of roof that stick out from the sides of the house. Unfortunately I'm going to have to pay for pest control as there are rats living up there.

After walking to and from placement yesterday I was in so much pain I had to order dinner in. I used a couple of vouchers so saved a bit. I will make sure to go food shopping today so that doesn't have to happen again. I definitely cannot manage walking to and from placement and being on my feet all day long in between. I've researched the buses and should be fine going forward. I've had to pay for my youngest to go to breakfast club at £2 per day, but I only need to book the days I need so that's not too bad.

So a couple of extra expenses this month and we're only a few days in. Not great but could be much worse! NO decluttering done as I'm pretty well caught up and far too tired after placement. I've managed to get a couple of extra days in work but not til October. So that will offset the expenses I wasn't expecting and maybe help a little towards buying a second hand car.

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for a fab day at work, for dc having a fab day at school, for dc's form tutor and art teacher and head of year, for dh making tea, for not being out in the downpours.

We had an assembly this morning about choices, grandmanerd!

Shrewbie

Hi turtles. 

I concur that is a beauty of a cat @beanielou
Thanks @grandmanerd for the inspo... all things I need to do. 

Checking in now before I forget. NSD 4 today, meditation and morning pages done. Ran for 30 min on the treadmill at lunchtime.

Have stuck to the meal plan but CBA to prepare anything this eve, might just have a large bowl of porridge. Grateful for being able to tick loads off the to do list, for bf coming home from Mallorca this eve (although this means I can kiss goodbye to my run of good behaviour  ) have a lovely evening turtles xx 

f0xh0les

Today I think I have done all I can to finalise s/g's estate.  There is nothing else I can do, it is down to the solicitors to contact step-great aunt and step-great uncle to find out how they want to proceed. There are no more forms for me  to fill out, or accounts to close, or policies to inform, I am finished.  I now have to step back and be patient (I am rubbish at being patient). I have to find something else to focus on, and then it will all be a lovely surprise when something happens.

I might buy myself a big old chrysanthemum plant or two from the Orange Warehouse of DIY and build myself a planter to stick it in, and tart up the brick paved garden at the front (as those crazy Victorians liked to do outside terraced houses).

I have a fabulous 6 days of no DH, and so I am planning early nights with a rubbish book and a hot chocolate, catching up on Van-der-Valk which I seem to have missed somehow, and using up all the veg in the fridge so nothing gets wasted.

There is a meal plan, it is flexible, it will involve lots of apples - currently 7 stuffed apples baking in the oven. 

Turns out that a filo pastry apple pie is a perfectly acceptable breakfast for my boys. Jolly good as it feeds 6 for less than  30p.  Frugal-Scrumpers' delight.  69p filo from The Wading Bird shop. - only needed 3 sheets cut in half.

ldee2111

BadBookkeeper said:

@ldee2111 @rgos used to do 2 for £20 on £15 toys.  Maybe take a look there.  Craft things or Lego were usually a hit.  C@rd factory usually do 5 cards for £1 too although I’ve noticed t£sco now do cards for 25p if that’s any help. 

So helpful. Thanks a lot BadBookkeeper x

ldee2111

Had a positive start this morning that set me up for the day. DS met a classmate on our way to school so they walked and chatted together. Had a brief chat to one of the Mum’s who goes into the school on a Friday to help prepare classroom resources. After seeing DS through the school gates, I walked back to the car saying hi / good morning to, what felt like, everyone and their granny. It just felt so nice to have that many pleasant interactions at 9am in the morning. 

Invited gf over for lunch. Made cheese toasties. Nice to have her company and some chat before we both got back to working.

Staying on NSD 4/15 because I did a small top-up shop - milk, fruit juice, yoghurt. Also got a couple of YS.

OH is at a meeting this evening so my plan is to get into my cosy bed early and read my book. Might follow @f0xh0les and have a hot choc too!

Grateful today for good vibes, for gf visiting and having lunch with me, for my current bedtime book ‘Motherwell’ which I got in CS for £1 ages ago, for an easy freezer bolognaise for dinner, and for DS being such a good sleeper.

 

BadBookkeeper

Simplify  - Nothing here today. 

Essentials - nothing spent today so that’s 3/15 NSDs.  Already had a letter from school asking for money for swimming. Nearly paid today but wanted an NSD!! 

Planning & Preparation - Used leftovers for tea.  As I’d planned the meal I had all the ingredients.

Think about spends - As above, delayed paying for school activity until a spend day!

Eat to nourish - Quite healthy today, fruit & veg.   Drank water and had a small snack. Very tired though as stated awake last night to watch a thunderstorm.  No alcohol today.  

Mindfulness - I’ve noticed when I’m chatting to people I’m not really listening or I interrupt and sometimes talk about myself too much.  Now I’m conscious of it, I will try to change it.

Be kind - Helped a colleague resolve and issue and to be king to myself wore comfy trousers today instead of too tight jeans!! 

Exercise - Hmmmmm!  

Report daily - Done ✅ 

lcc86

Evening turtles. Planned spend today for a bring and share lunch at work for myself and a colleague's leaving do. Unplanned spend as work arranged impromptu after work drinks. It's not something I would normally do but as I'm leaving I thought it would be nice, they're a great team. And I only spent £12 so wasn't too bad. Luckily I did all my little jobs this morning before I left so it all worked out okay.

Did the shopping list when I was on the train to work this morning ready for delivery tomorrow. Managing to keep spends down as much as I can.