NST OCTOBER 2022: Autumn Leaves and Sloe Berries

firsview

Evening Turtles. Just having 5 minutes peace with the tv off whilst OH is washing up. Well it would be if cat#1 would stop snoring.
Not an NSD as clicked and collected my shopping from Mr T. Think I may have to change my supermarket as they are building a well known fast food chain in the car park and it is bedlam. Temporary traffic lights causing huge traffic jams just so they can make a pedestrian crossing so people have to waddle 20 metres less for their food (there are 2 more in very close proximity)The local council rejected the plans due to potential traffic chaos but they were overruled by the Secretary of State on appeal, idiots!
Oh well, rant over. In other news DS2 has a job! Customer service for a well known digital media company and starts in November. At least he can make a meaningful contribution to the household income now. Unfortunately that will be 3 of them working from home, so more electricity use but you can’t have everything.
Today I am grateful for DS2 being (almost) gainfully employed,  naughty kitten coming in for the evening after 10 minutes of calling rather than the 3 hours it has taken the last few days and finding enough pizzas for everyone meaning I didn’t have to spend hours in the kitchen.

beanielou

A Tesco near me did that too @firsview.
Also another two near it!
Well done to DS2 

Dfw38

Thank you @beanielou, it gave me a boost and is £6 towards being free from debt again. 

BadBookkeeper

Evening Turtles

Outside - Walked from car to work & back through park/field. 

Inside - Found enough space to hang out all of our washing!

Fun - Cosy night in with magazine, wine & footy

Food / alcohol - Lots of treats & I’ve had wine. 

Read - Finally read & really enjoyed my magazine bought last week. 

Plan for December - Had a half hearted conversation with DH about main December day plans. 

NSD - Yes now 7/15

MSE - Had our energy bill which suggests we need to pay another £100 a month so now £400! I will be ringing on Monday to discuss.  If they are estimating usage on this time last year it will be too much as we no longer run our hot tub. 

Gratitude - It’s Friday! 

Thrifty_Taylor

I loved those books @Shrewbie! I've got the last one on my shelf, but don't think I've read it yet. Would need to re-read the other 4 again first.

Up at the normal workday time, as even though I'm still on holiday I had lots to do. Did my flexibility yoga, then after breakfast me & DS3 went to town. Mum still not well, but testing negative. A friend is feeling the same & says a Dr told her it's this year's flu jab that's causing it in a lot of people. Looked in a couple of CS, then went shopping. It was so good to have some fruit in the house again, with me being away last week, then testing +, & DH not driving, we've had to use up everything we had. No bad thing!

Shopping put away, DS3's friend came over. After tea, I made the sponges for his birthday cake & washed the dishes. Sat knitting & watching TV.

Grateful for fruit supplies stocked up, DS1 surviving his wild camping, licking out the mixing bowl 😋

Esmeralda2662

@Dfw38 - Sorry to hear you were down in the dumps. Funny how it can just come on. Well done on the sales. Every pound adds up and can make a difference!

Nought some slippers today ready for hospital next week. My old ones made my feet smell like cat wee so they've had to go! Rather spendy day with those and food shopping.

Found a new knitting pattern and needles in the CS for mum and some brand new kids pants for the shoebox appeal.

Wanted to use up pizza vouchers but OH wasn't keen. He wanted 3 starters instead which was fine until we realised it was an old menu and 2 of them were nolonger available. Need to use vouchers within 4 weeks or they expire and we can't allow that!

OH had covid and flu jabs together so has had 2 very painful arms. He only had them done together as he can't be bothered to go twice.

Lovely neighbour gave me some magazines so looking forward to browsing through them.

Was looking at hot water bottles today as i find electric blankets burn my legs. Very tempted to buy one of the long ones but wondered if they're any good. Any turtles got one and like/hate it? Wondered how many kettles of water they take.

Will try and get in at hairdressers tomorrow as my hair is driving me mad. Every time i lean forward to work it covers my eyes.

Gratitudes: OH being ok after jabs apart from sore arms, new slippers, knitting pattern and needles for mum, lovely slow cooker stew.

ldee2111

Dfw38 said:

Thank you @beanielou, it gave me a boost and is £6 towards being free from debt again. 

I say to myself that every penny paid is a penny that I will never pay interest on again. x

ldee2111

It’s grocery delivery day so staying on NSD 5. And since it’s a spend day anyway, I think I’ll buy a sprouts day gift or two. 

I was at DS’s school yesterday volunteering myself to help out with reading groups and in-class activities on my day off from work. Really excited about it. Just need my PVG done before I can muck in. 

We’ve no plans for this weekend so I’m hoping it’ll be restful… some game playing and film watching. Is Hocus Pocus too scary for a 5-year-old? The witches do suck the lives out of  children. 

I listed DS’s current bike on Gummytree as the man with the bag is bringing him a new one on sprouts day. Fingers crossed it sells quickly. It’s in excellent condition because it’s hardly been used as DS has only just recently learned to cycle forward! Very exasperating times but we got there in the end.

I’ve done Sunday sweeps already because we’ve no plans for this weekend but for the next few weeks we have lots of outings… and I just know we will be tempted with hot chocolate stalls, marshmallow toasting stations, and the likes of helter skelter rides! Thankfully a good sweep this week because OH worked from home and we underspent on our food budget. Underspends this week have all gone into our Leisure budget to handle the outing expenses. 

Have a good weekend, turtles x

ditty1234

Every time I log on here there is 40 new posts, it is amazing to be part of this thread. It is only the 15th and I am already getting to face the actual challenge:

Inside
I finished decorating my hallway and stairs and landing took about 5-6 weeks all together. This included all doors, wood work, ceiling hatch and over stairs w a telescope stick! But it is done. Still awaiting a new low cabinet to be identified, a large plant possibly red banana, now about a meter square, or aloe, about 70 cm square, or something new and smaller. 
My bedroom still needs doing, it got parked, when I started hallway, so that is the half term project, bith organising, boxing up some exhibition prints properly and possibly reorganising. 
On a day to day note I managed to vacuum the whole house yesterday after work, before swimming, so is now nice and fresh. 

outside
Not sure where to start. Garden have been redone a bit, needs one more mow, but squirrel keeps digging up my new grass that is growing, need to get cover for it, and other plants I might sow later in winter.
Running - I skipped Wednesday as was tired and sat down on couch! Need to always eat inner at dining room table - just better for activities afterwards. 

fun not a huge amount of fun, but am going to see an exhibition on Sunday w ds1 so that will be nice, it is the first time we are actually going to London together, so that will be nice. Catching the Cornelia Parker exhibition on the last day. I am looking forwards to that. 

food
I keep struggling with food. I want to be eating more healthy food, but keep reverting to carby quick and cheap. So that is under ongoing evaluation, but not much action has been taken. I also need to start eating my vitamins - I need my b's and d's and calcium. More spinach and fish! Today is chicken slow cooked tagine style chicken, so not too bad. 

read
I struggle with reading. Just saw an old interview with orhan pamiuk, I am looking for new and interesting writers and looking for reading focus, that is my main problem. I count interviews and documentary items into my reading, as I get information, and have to focus to actually be transported.

December
I have tickets to go to old country, sponsored partly by my mum and by ds1 (who has money in the bank) I will pay ds1 back for mine and ds2's tickets, but I am not doing great on cash. I will have to get gifts for everybody as we are actually going so will start to pick up stuff soon, and try to put a bit of money aside as well for food for my sister who is hosting. 
I can buys the extra train tickets and parking as and when I get paid for my cover work. 

I am facing up to challenge. Not doing well on nsd days, but have quite a few low spend days. 
On a budget note - this is the year where I want to pay out all of my insurances up front, I want to reset my tv licence to do the same, I feel I am getting eaten alive by monthly payments, and since I feel I should be better at budgets now - I want to do that grown up thing and just pay up. This month I was able to just buy a new phone when the other one disappeared! And I love it, even if it has made the rest of the month a bit of a struggle. 

Happy weekend everybody, I Will try to catch up on reading, posts here and at least one chapter in my actual book this weekend. 

grandmanerd

firsview said:

Evening Turtles. Just having 5 minutes peace with the tv off whilst OH is washing up. Well it would be if cat#1 would stop snoring.
Not an NSD as clicked and collected my shopping from Mr T. Think I may have to change my supermarket as they are building a well known fast food chain in the car park and it is bedlam. Temporary traffic lights causing huge traffic jams just so they can make a pedestrian crossing so people have to waddle 20 metres less for their food (there are 2 more in very close proximity)The local council rejected the plans due to potential traffic chaos but they were overruled by the Secretary of State on appeal, idiots!
Oh well, rant over. In other news DS2 has a job! Customer service for a well known digital media company and starts in November. At least he can make a meaningful contribution to the household income now. Unfortunately that will be 3 of them working from home, so more electricity use but you can’t have everything.
Today I am grateful for DS2 being (almost) gainfully employed,  naughty kitten coming in for the evening after 10 minutes of calling rather than the 3 hours it has taken the last few days and finding enough pizzas for everyone meaning I didn’t have to spend hours in the kitchen.

We have the opposite problem - every road 'improvement' means that pedestrians have to go further. By taking short cuts and doing diagonals across car parks I could shorten the trip to the top end of town (usually to the sorting office to collect parcels). Once upon a time the crossing went from the top of the main shopping street to Leedle. When they rearranged it they put the crossing to the other side of the point where I emerge. I now have to go back a few yards to the crossing, wait for the lights, then do four mini streams of traffic with lights to cross one road (drivers coming out of tessimo and leedle chose their lane according to whether they're going left or right), often waiting for lights changing each time (nippier pedestrians may manage 2 streams, I'm wise enough to pause rather than rush forward and have all the drivers honking or growling). The whole corner is fenced off so I can no longer hop over the leedle fence and do a long diagonal, I'm herded along the pavement, down a path onto the car park which loses my previous clear line of sight so I have to skirt round the edges of the car park, watching in every direction. If I have to go to the 'main' surgery it takes hours even if I get the bus to the nearest stop.

Had lovely peaceful taxi rides going to the hospital and coming back (booked the taxi as I was stressed enough just getting dressed and finding all the bits I needed or thought I might need). Made the appointment just in time, even though the girl on reception took ages to process me. I have good compliance with using the machine and was loaded up with goodies, a new mask to replace the torn one, a new hose (see through with white banding rather than solid grey - so I don't worry about how much carp is building up inside) and lots of spare filters.

Spent a fortune (£40.10) in the mini m'n's - sandwich meal deals (could only buy a single banana to go in a meal deal, when I wanted to buy a bunch), a few deli bits (on offer) and tomatoes, baby carrots and mushrooms to eat raw. No celery and only boring basic lettuce (got spinach in my falafel wrap). Limited choice of bread but they did have tea cakes (well 'luxury fruited hot cross buns' - not sure if they're very late for this year or very early for next, I may have to introduce an Easter Bunny gets it in the  neck rule) which I've been craving, so chose those over the bread (if I buy a whole loaf it will go off but no small loaf for toasting except wide selection of gf bread). I think the Warrington bakery does a super spicy fruit loaf for Isaac Newton's birthday so maybe that's why no-one seems to have fruit loaf (small toast loaf with fruit) atm. Super spicy will be in stock soon.

Had to wait a long time for my taxi home - I had lunch and read my book but had resorted to stretches and walking up and down the walkway to ease the kinks and seizing up. Came upstairs as soon as I got in (DS3 carried all  my supplies up) and stayed there for the rest of the day, eating (second lunch nearly as soon as I got in), resting, reading, watching last week's Bake Off, more of my current serial and started a new film (the Great Debaters, starring and directed by Denzel). Whizzed through one quarter of my new puzzle book having struggles with last month's - use it as a way of assessing my MH but runny nose, streaming eyes and cotton wool head also impede progress.

Found my missing pinsentry machine whilst looking for other things in the morning so have done a food delivery order to arrive on Sunday evening. The only people who will take my money without verification were just eat. Last week's (top up) shop was done via Beloved's mother's prime account with me offering cash in exchange. The week before (or possibly the week before that) I went on the infirmary bus to collect blood test papers then used it to get to the other end of the line for a couple of bags worth from Morries and then got off at the town hall stop to come home. 

One thing I love about town centre living is that no matter how ill I am, I can get to little Arseda/ former Netto (it's only 3 houses, car park entrance, back of the library, then across the store car park). Illness in combination with general infirmity seems to have defeated me. Locking their broken trolleys up doesn't help - could still manage if I could just put it all back in a trolley and get home holding onto that (broken trolleys don't trip the alarm when you leave the car park). 

Tried to do another order (have had things on hold because no pinsentry and the one time I had it, they wanted to send a confirmation code to my phone and the blasted thing ran out of charge) but the item I wanted most has sold out. Did check up on my bank account. had done a balance check and taken some cash on Thursday and my bank balance was much better than expected. However I had to wait until finding the pinsentry to check up on what money has come from whom. Might be able to go ahead with the roof repairs before the weather turns.    

Grateful for a healthy bank balance despite overspending in some areas (through limited choice), a good appointment with all my needs being met, interesting (if expensive) food, having everything I needed for resting and relaxing close to hand.