Progress not Perfection

ladyholly

I sympathise with your travails with the pond. We will have to do ours soon but as its a fish pond we completely empty it and relocate the fish temporarily into large plastic tubs. Mr LH does clean the pond but the baskets of plants are my problem and I usually end up cleaning the paths and the drive where all the dirty water goes. I wouldnt mind so much but the drive is shared with our neighbour and her half is in a very poor state so I cant use the pressure washer as it lifts the surface and I am not mean enough to just clean ours.

Sun_Addict

Morning all, happy Sunday.

My back's feeling rather stiff this morning after yesterday's shenanigans. Not used to manual labour 😆

@ladyholly Mr SA used to regularly clean out the pond when he was well and a few years ago we paid someone to give it a really good clean. Our last fish died a few weeks ago so it seemed like a good opportunity to clear it before we get some more fish. 

Hoping to get the pond finished today. If the frogs are out and about I'm sure the newts will be too and I don't want to upset their habitat for too long. I've given Mr SA just two jobs today - to clean the pond pump and top the pond back up. I will need to don those size 12 wellies again to get back in the pond and clear round the sides and also cut back a fern that's difficult to get to normally. 

As the new 4 week budget period starts tomorrow and today will be NSD1 of March, I've closed off the current budget period this morning. Total underspend of £159.80 across all pots. A tiny underspend of £13.11 left in the grocery pot. £9.80 sent to the Christmas pot and the rest divided between the vet pot, entertainment and house. The vet pot is looking a lot healthier now but still a way to go until I'm happy with it.

£150 overpayment gone to the mortgage, the cc balance has been cleared and all the regular savers have been fed with the maximum amounts apart from the 6 months saver that holds the holiday pot as I need to check the account number. 

Interest of £1.01 in the current account was sent to the Christmas pot. 

I've got loads to do today once we've been out with the dog including cleaning the rugs with the carpet cleaner. A new brown stain has appeared at the top of the stairs so will need to go over that - Mr SA is the prime suspect for this one. 

DD has gone to work so it's an opportunity to give the kitchen and bathroom a good clean. I also need to vacuum and steam scrub the floors as Mr SA has shuffled some mud in from outside. 

Also need to do a load of washing and hang it out while the weather is so nice. 

If I get time I want to start planting a few seeds in the heated propagator. 

Tonight's dinner will be curry for me, going to find a recipe that involves aubergine as picked a couple up for 69p each from Mr T yesterday. There is also left over Prosecco from last night. 

Also need to make a batch of soup for work lunches - only need 4 portions as I'm out for lunch with friends on Friday.

A yoga session will be needed I think before I have a nice soak in the bath with a face mask later. 

PennysIntoPounds

Ooh you must be getting so near on the mortgage now, lovely OP

Sun_Addict

PennysIntoPounds said:

Ooh you must be getting so near on the mortgage now, lovely OP

I’ve actually got more in the sinking funds than owed on the mortgage. Only a few more payments to go, will be gone by the end of the year. Not before time - had a mortgage since 1985!!

PennysIntoPounds

That is so exciting, do you have a celebration/reward in mind for your achievement when you make the last payment?

badmemory

There is nothing quite like that "it's mine all mine" feeling.  It isn't even about not having to pay anymore.  It is over 20 years since I paid mine off & I still get that feeling when I think about it.

Sun_Addict

PennysIntoPounds said:

That is so exciting, do you have a celebration/reward in mind for your achievement when you make the last payment?

Not really, it’s never been a big chunk of our income thankfully we bought in the 80s when prices were low and have only ever lived in two houses. As a child we moved a lot, my dad was a naval officer, I hated the constant new schools/friends/areas. 

Sun_Addict

The pond is done 🥳 Blooming hard work though. Finished off as much sludge clearing as I could, you should see the pile 😱 Chopped back the fern. Mr SA cleaned the pump but couldn’t work out how to put it back together so that became my job. Then I had to get back in the pond to position it. Thank goodness I’m fit and quite flexible as clambering in and out of that pond wasn’t an easy task with it being quite deep. Mr SA was tired at this point and went for his siesta so I ended up filling it back up. 

After that cleaned the whole house which included a very deep clean of the kitchen thanks to Mr SA and the pets trailing mud from the garden in. 

The dog has been a little s0d dropping her ball in the pond constantly and generally getting in the way. She’s been on the go outside all day so should sleep well tonight - a bit like me 🤣

I set my hanging chair back up and managed 5 minutes sat in it enjoying the quite warm sunshine. Was very tempted just to stay there and read my book as it was lovely to be outside without a coat again. 

Did a lovely yoga stretching session before getting in the bath. Talk about losing the plot, I started running the bath and forgot to put the plug in. Then wondered why I couldn’t hear my relaxing music only to find it was playing loudly via the Bluetooth speaker in my office I’d forgotten to switch off 😞

Was too tired to even think about recipes for my curry so just bunged everything in a pot, thankfully it turned out delicious. Also didn’t make my soup, as I was having salad for lunch just made extra for tomorrow. 

Cherryfudge

That's a lot of work to get through in a day! I'm glad you have your special chair out again (and hopefully Mr SA hasn't noticed it yet). You deserved that bit of relaxation after all your hard work.

PennysIntoPounds

Sounds like an exhausting day but well done you 👏 

Re mortgage free celebration, of course it's entirely up to you, but regardless of circumstance it's still an achievement and one that you achieved with a whole lot more to deal with than is at all fair.

I humbly suggest that Sun_Addict spends the first month's not-paying-mortgage pay on an overnight spa break with prosecco and pampering