Prosperous soul, mortgage neutrality & creativity Year 2

EssexHebridean

Lovely frosty plants and lights! I caved and threw a few of our cheapy sets of fairy lights up round the place over the weekend - I've also been using my bottle lights most nights which adds a nice little glow and they're USB rechargeable so cost next to nothing. 

All I know about silver sheets behind rads is that they're meant to be used only on outside walls as otherwise it prevent the rad from heating the structure on the inside wall fixed ones - and the walls can act as a heat-store. Probably nothing you weren't already aware of! 

MovingForwards

You're doing well getting the decorations up and making outside sparkle too. 

The buckled window might need a slight adjustment on the hinge. Perhaps one for your HM to try.

jwil

Love the photos

savingholmes

Thanks Ruby, Left, EH, Jwil and MF

Booked the dental work using 0% points CC. Debating whether to pay off in full this year - or wait until I've had the work done Jan/Feb. I'd put the equivalent £ into savings if I didn't pay it off immediately - and I could earn 5%+.

I think the other thing I took from the Gail utubes was the importance of home maintenance - and life generally is promoting energy saving. 

I'm looking into getting an internal letterbox brush guard - I just have a brass flap currently. I need better ladders if anyone is going to go up in the loft to do insulation - but will see if handyman has those already. I have a ladder he could use temporarily but it it's poor. Ex took the best ones - which was fair enough as I kept most stuff. I've been slowly adding insulating tape around my front door and the kitchen windows.

MF - I wonder if it is xmas lights in the past that has forced the windows out of alignment - although I seem to have similar issues at the bottom of the ones in the kitchen so it could just be a fault with the windows. I got my office study up to 19 degrees today with brief bursts of heating (when main thermostat on 18) but my front room is a stubborn 15. My other issue is my gas fire - as I think that makes the lounge colder (due to the metal vent behind it) - it looks pretty even unused - but the ignition knob seems to be broken which is frustrating so I couldn't use it even if I wanted to. The boiler guy hasn't come back to me yet with a date of when he can come. If he doesn't respond tomorrow - I may double check with my friends that he hasn't changed his number. 

I've ordered some more copper nails to kill my remaining tree stump and a couple of radiator keys. My kitchen door handle is in the process of breaking - so may see if my cleaner can fix that for me. Worst case I have a spare set of handles in the shed - but the internal mechanism is what's sticking. 

DD and her friend had a fab time away and got home safely. She's gone out again now though.

I have out of date milk - so just using up on macaroni milk. Also put in a lamb casserole using YS lamb that I got a couple of weeks ago (now defrosted).

Blackcats

the frosty photo is lovely. isn't nature wonderful? 

WelshmansDaughter

Looks nice and cheerful with the lights. Is the balance class still on the go?

astrocytic_kitten

SH I’ve just found your new diary and caught up! Forgot to bookmark it when you posted the link on your old one 🤦‍♀️

Love the lights, I think they make such a difference to the spirits at this time of year. Have you read Wintering by Katherine May? I love her stuff about rituals to push back against the dark and remember the light will come back at this time of year.

On the boiler, I know 3 people with broken boilers at the moment so he may just be snowed under with urgent stuff like that. 

savingholmes

Thanks Blackcats, WD and @astrocytic_kitten - glad you found me again.

Today has been a weird day. I really hurt my arm last night - and was in agony all night and barely slept. It's painful to move my arm, I don't want to put any weight on it - and I find it hard to raise it up so really struggled in the shower. Luckily I'm covered through work - so managed to get a same day assessment. They are going to send me some exercises to do and will give me a physio session Friday, next Tuesday and possibly even the following Friday if needed to help me be right for Xmas. I can have 4 sessions altogether - although I can potentially extend if needed. 

My £10 xmas pressie from the gov arrived thanks to p1p. I've googled and I'm entitled to free insulation if my loft insulation is less than 10cm - so job for DS to check when home I think - as I very much doubt it's thicker than that. It should ideally be 27cm. That would save me a lot of money if it is as thin as I think.

My payslip came with all the backpay - and I thought they would recalculate more of my deductions than they did - so I've ended up with about £400 more in my hand than I expected. So now need to redo my spreadsheet for positive reasons.

I'm off out shortly with a friend.

savingholmes

My gas bill was £148 - which means I'm using 71% of what I did this time last year. Thankfully I still have a healthy credit balance.

lucielle

Hope you have a good time with your friend. 

L