December 2022: The Turtles do the Cha Cha Cha

thriftylass

Hello,

Lovely sunny but bitter cold day here again. Thought just out of curiosity I'll do a mid-month meter read. We used half the units we did last month for electricity, so on track, but already the same number of gas units that we used in the whole of November . Anyway, be grateful for what I have:

• 17C in the living room (could be worse)
• food on the table
• a warm onesie

Needed to order a last minute family present  but the website that sold it the cheapest was sold out. So went to Cu££ys and found out they do a price match, asked and got it - result. Cheapest price, CB and good customer service.

Nothing else to report.

apple_muncher

f0xh0les - congrats on that contract extension!

grandmanerd - hope your nap was energising.

Today I am grateful for not having anything that absolutely had to be done, for the car still working, for dc doing most of the day, for bumping into some neighbours and having a chat, for central heating!

lcc86

Evening turtles 

Have had quite a relaxed day off work today. Walked my friend's dog first thing, came home and did a few jobs around the house then went to pilates. Am considering paying for an app once I've properly got the hang of it as it'll save money paying for classes.

Have spent the rest of the afternoon watching TV with OH, he can't work this week due to the ice (he works outdoors). I have to go to work tomorrow so have got all my stuff together and defrosted my lunch. Going to be a very busy day so will be glad when it's done. At least it's only one day and then it's the weekend!

grandmanerd

apple_muncher said:

f0xh0les - congrats on that contract extension!

grandmanerd - hope your nap was energising.

Today I am grateful for not having anything that absolutely had to be done, for the car still working, for dc doing most of the day, for bumping into some neighbours and having a chat, for central heating!

Didn't get much of a nap.  DS3 came upstairs to tell  me someone was at the door. The man claimed to be doing work next door but  had noticed my roof needed some work. He gave me what seemed like a reasonable quote but would do it in January (which gave me the 14 day cooling off period to change my mind. The work does need doing but the best person for the job has a 3 year waiting list. Anyway I signed and next minute he and his friend were up on my roof. Thought about it and was sure my ridge tiles were fine - he'd pulled 4 pieces of mortar out of his pocket which had allegedly come off my roof. 

I went across the road to have a look but the building stopped me going far enough back so I got out the walker and went round onto the car park. Well he was scampering across the roofline and his mate was sitting on the roof behind the leftover  stump of the chimney and seemed to be brushing his hands across the top. He saw me looking, told his mate and they both turned to look at me so I shouted for them to stop and get down off the roof.

I asked to look in his bucket (I wasn't even sure he had anything in it), he certainly wasn't doing the level of work needed if the ridge tiles were loose. I said he'd said he'd start after Christmas which he denied. DS3 stood at the back door behind me and backed me up. I 'd signed to waive the 14 day cooling off period - he'd put crosses where he wanted me to sign (I think Monday's failure to close the bungalow sale made me want to make something happen) so I asked to look at the contract  (was concerned he'd would do a tiny amount of work and then demand the amount for the full job. He showed me the signature where he'd told me to sign and I passed the paper over my shoulder to DS3 and told him to rip it up. I told them what I'd seen from the car park (them both messing about).

He went into a poor little me routine, why was I treating him like this, why had I gone psycho on him, he had to pay for his materials and his mate's labour (they can't have done more than 10 minutes sitting/ dancing on the roof). DS3 asked if he'd photographed the roof before he started work so we could see the before and after. Then he started on about going to Citizen's Advice (he'd asked for a thousand pounds, then came down to £400, I said I'd pay him £3 for the mortar in his bucket). Then I said to DS3 that as it was Christmas (he'd already dragged Christmas into his tale of woe) we'd give him £10. He wanted to go back to 'scrape his mortar off', as I wasn't going to pay him. I thought he was more likely to do some actual damage so said he wasn't going onto my roof. They took their ladder and left. I walked back round to the front with the walker and they'd already left - they didn't do anything next door where they were supposedly working.

After that I felt a bit more energised. I've looked at a lot of property in my time - this house was a shell when I bought it but I've seen much worse properties. For years I had a book that had been passed on by a friend. It had been written by squatters (1960's - early 70's, the movement was all about taking over unused buildings and making them habitable) and showed the anatomy of a house's systems, what to look for and how to fix bits that had been vandalised. I also did a year of law for my Management accounting course. It always feels really good to be able to use that knowledge (especially with poor customer service people telling you how they can't do x, y, z because 'the law' doesn't let them - they get flummoxed if you start quoting actual laws at them). I also thought if there were something seriously wrong with my ridge tiles Mr Builder or last week's brickie would have told me.

I had lunch and a short break and then took a book back to the library and another bag of books to the cs (they were on the bottom shelf and only became accessible after I'd dealt with the 300 records - even DS3 has commented on the extra floor space). I had thought I might go to Icyland but needed the toilet so crossed to Tessimo and did a small shop there including quite a lot of ys goodies - not 10p but at least half off. Decided to walk back home even though my ankle was throbbing. Had a chat and watched internet things with DS3 and have been fed and am now back upstairs - I did suggest we start moving the classical records to under the stairs but he wasn't keen and I certainly wasn't in any shape to do it alone (maybe tomorrow - I have a nearly empty box I can start with). 

I have ordered my pills, put another load of washing in and done a little more tidying up here. I did check that I wasn't supposed to meet my niece - she had asked if I was available earlier in the week. It was just to see if her boyfriend could fix the broken walker so told her I thought I'd binned the wheel.

Grateful for standing my ground, knowing enough to assess work being and knowing it wasn't right, happy bargains in Tessimo.

DrCarrie

I a still cha cha charting my spending very closely - I have to say that Christmas shopping is making me feel quite queasy, neer really experienced this feeling before about shopping at this time of year.

I guess it has been exacerbated by the fact that my promotion and covering my supervisors whilst they are on ing term sick has led to working long hours and not having much headspace for the whole festive spend up. Slightly regretting not prioritising the Christmas planning and shopping last weekend, but I did really have a lovely weekend to myself doing nourishing things - in the cheap seats. 

I am very privileged... it's all learning how i chart from fluid spending on Credit Cards for over a decade (it 2) to frugal and having sinking funds to plan and not overspend. Its not going to happen, i am going to overspend, again, partly on postal fees! Becasue I didn't get my butt in gear. 

Nevertheless, I am super grateful for not using a CC to buy Christmas presents, a glorious cold, crisp gloriously sunny walk around the park yesterday at lunch time, and delish salad leaves that i bought from the farmers market stall last Saturday and the bread from the fancy bakery I walked to last Saturday.

Yesterday I definitely had a spend day. 

lcc86

Evening turtles

I woke up to a voicemail on my work phone to say a planned visit about 50 miles away had had to be cancelled. A little bit happy internally to not be out in the ice and cold but it will be rescheduled so I won't get too excited!

Luckily not having to drive allowed me a bit more time to get back up to speed with work after having been off all week. I am almost caught up now but refuse to work a moment longer!

Did a quick workout this morning and went for a walk at lunchtime. Received a £10 payout from the postcode lottery, will put that in my premium bonds account I think. No spends today, was able to work from home thanks to my visit being cancelled. 

My transport fund is running low so I need to make sure I get the train next week when I'm in work as I have money on my oyster and they should (hopefully) be running. Weirdly they have run pretty normally on strike days here, but on non strike days they've been a mess. Couldn't get to my work Xmas do last night as a result but am not too fussed.

I have yoga and a sound bath booked later this evening which I'm looking forward to!

BadBookkeeper

Hi turtles,

Late posting again so an update on yesterday and today.

Yesterday was an NSD so now 7/15.  Caught up on wrapping presents and feel a bit more organised.  

Today been to work, then to buy ds birthday cake and a few bits from @sda. Everything Christmas decorations wise has been reduced but didn’t dare look.  

I think I’m £180 over budget for Christmas so for next year I’m upping my payments to the Christmas pot by £15 a month.  I have paid more for things to save time and travel so that’s something I should improve on next year.

We’re hosting a sleepover tomorrow for ds & his friends.  Hoping they’ll settle and watch a Christmas movie with popcorn before bed! 

I’m not feeling very festive, I think I’ve peaked too early 😂. There just seems an endless to-do list and the fun things are being squeezed in!  I’m not sure what I could have done any different to improve on this. 

Have a night of little bits to do, but nothing major and I’m thankful for that.  Have a good weekend. 

beanielou

Quite a lot of snow here!

apple_muncher

Keep warm, beanie x. Have some Olaf warm hugs!

Today I am grateful for the clear and crisp weather, for dc having a fair day, for being offered a job (whoop whoop 🎉, I'm gonna be an invigilator!!!), for a chat with a neighbour, for fun at the gym, for using up all my old stamps and only needing to buy a couple more, for fairy lights, for DH coming home with a couple of gf/df cupcakes for me and dc.

grandmanerd

I started well yesterday (unfortunately the nearly gone frost and ice came back with a vengeance). Went downhill in the afternoon, cough got much worse and think the cold is back, throbbing head, throbbing nose, felt like I was drowning so spent my time curled under the bedclothes reading and eating a selection of ys bits (the weather made me very glad I'd pushed myself and done that bit of shopping the day before),  the grapes and berries mix was lovely.

Walked to my hair appointment (I had actually been thinking about the best place for a taxi to drop me off) very slowly and cautiously. Hair is lovely - she does wonderful pixie bits and said my hair was very well behaved (it goes where it's supposed to without argument). I'd definitely gone beyond fluffy and into tatty so very happy with it. Very glad to curl up in bed again and lots of dozing and reading. My right arm and shoulder were hurting a lot and sleeping helped. Wrapped one present (had gathered everything together and the paper decided to hide so when it reappeared I put it together before other things decided to hide. I have 2 cards for cousins that I need to write letters for and get sent off and a small parcel for the IOM (2 cards, small book, another found photo, update on the letter inside the card) - my mission for today. There are others but I'm past caring if they get there on time, or at all.

I'm going to be very non-MSE and use the tumble dryer. There's so many rubble sacks full of washing in the kitchen that I can't do anything and I need to have all my clothes to decide what I'll take with me to DS1's and still have something to wear when I get home again. Hoping weather improves enough today to get everything into the requisite bins - there are bags in my bedroom/ top of the stairs, bags in the kitchen and at the bottom of the stairs, bags near the end of the garden and some in the backs which have been thrown as near to the bins as possible (only cans and bottles not rubbish). I could get to the bottom of the yard on Thursday but there's a patch of ice running along outside the gate.

Grateful for books, my bed, ys bargain food (sandwiches, fruit, beans and rice, raspberry cheesecake). Today's treat will be half a tub of raspberry sorbet from the freezer.