NST March 2023 LIONS and LAMBS

NinjaSavingKat · 5 March 2023 at 9:25PM

ldee2111..said:

Nice to virtually meet you @NinjaSavingKat and thank you for starting the NST!

I started following Dave Ramsey about 8 years ago and although I don’t agree with some of his views, I do find his money advice brilliantly logical and him to be very motivational. In a way he led me to find the turtles because I was searching online for people who were trying to pay off debt and save.

X

Thanking you ..

Yes Dave can be a bit much at times. The accent alone makes me want to punch him however the idea of the emergency fund got my brain in gear and made me sit up and think - with an aging car and an aging cat it was an important step. So glad it lead you to the Turtles though - that so important. When people know there are others out there as well doing the same thing.

ldee2111 · 5 March 2023 at 10:39PM

Staying on NSD 2.

Enjoyed a spa day with a gf today. Paid for it in January with some Christmas gift money. It was so lovely getting a massage… it’s been so long since having one. But we had a light lunch and smoothies which blew my NSD.

Happy with our household underspending this week and a decent amount transferred into savings in our Sunday Sweep. Stopping multiple trips to the local sm and OH working closer to home this week made a big difference.

🍎 Food (underspends)	£17
🚙 Transport (underspends)	£72
☀️ Leisure (underspends)	£33

Grateful for a day relaxing with my friend, for getting to read some of my book, for DS allowing me to finally start reading him Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (managed 2 chapters before he got restless, and for finding a £1 on the ground. 🤣

Thrifty_Taylor · 5 March 2023 at 11:25PM

Welcome to Mustard 🐱, may he bring you lots of cuddles & purrs @beanielou.

NSD#2
I've had a wonderful day! Was up before DH, so I practiced my Norwegian & listened to the birds singing in the garden. Once he got up & had drank his cuppa, I hung the washing out & we assembled the raised herb bed. He'd cut wood for it last year, & I'd dug the ground over ready, but we never got it finished, due to his transplant. I weeded it all, then planted loads of thyme & a parsley in it. Need to get more soil for the second half of it, but I was pleased with what we'd done.
Read my book whilst eating dinner, then had s half hour nap. Did 3 sewing jobs & some pottering. More Norwegian after tea, then some paperwork, before a bath with my book & a facemask.

Grateful for being in the garden, lots of spring flowers, sewing jobs done, a 3bay sale & a nice bath

Shrewbie · 6 March 2023 at 9:17AM

Your day sounds perfect @Thrifty_Taylor!
welcome col mustard @beanielou

happy shiny-new-week day all!

The weather was gloomy yesterday so we changed our plans to go for a long walk and went for a cheap brekkie and then got the weekly shop done. The closest supermarket to us has closed for a few days for refurbishment so we had to lug the bags up the hill from the next nearest which was a good workout. Brekkie was good too. Bf and I then batch cooked two different meals, spicy bean stew and dhal - so much easier when we do it together! then I did some writing and journaling… a couple of mini-epiphanies/realisations 😊 one being that I am usually driven by fear/ego and I’d rather be driven by love. Bit deep for a shiny-new-week day but there we go!

Later on I ironed everything that needed it for the work week and set out my clothes for each day. Watched a couple of episodes of the chippendales which I enjoyed and an episode of la chica invisible. Bf went to watch the football and when he came back we made black bean and mushroom quesadillas.

I am so grateful for the fact that I slept through the whole night without waking a single time. I can’t remember the last time that happened. I was puzzled and then amazed when the alarm woke me up… grateful also for feeling inspired and motivated to write.

Have a wonderful day turtles!!!!

grandmanerd · 6 March 2023 at 10:11AM

Good morning turtles. My injection went well, the radiologist and her assistant were wonderful. The first taxi driver had never been there before and they had programmed the Country Club into his instructions, not the hospital (shows how posh that end of Wigan and into Lancashire is) but we got there okay and in plenty of time (I'd rather be early and of course I had a book with me). The taxi driver who came to pick me up was bewildered and anxious (I think the girl on reception is new and rather young - she phoned me back to say she couldn't find it, so I fished out my appointment letter and gave her the postcode and then the full address when she and the driver phoned again).

The driver was well out of his comfort zone (he kept saying it was 'so far' and wondered why I went to that hospital). He kept saying I should tell him if I knew a better or quicker route than the satnav - he was worried about overcharging me. The journey was fairly simple - onto the M6, then the Lancs, turn off at Lane Head and then on the bypass. When we passed a sign for Haydock racecourse I told him we used to go nearly that far to have babies (nearer St Helens in Merseyside). That hospital relocated in between my pre-op for my hysterectomy (2004) and having the operation.

Then I started reeling off places and their history (I've actually walked much further than the place we turned off the Lancs. We are on the edge of our Borough and of Greater Manchester and in my youth I frequently walked into both Cheshire and Merseyside. I'd eaten my sandwich at the hospital (took drinks as well) whilst waiting for the taxi but slumped on the couch as soon as I got in and when DS3 went to bed I stretched out with the duvet and my book.

I woke once in the night with pain in my leg (back on paracetemol again as steroids and metformin are enough without adding ibuprofen - all in a group that can potentially lead to liver/ kidney damage) and a second time because I slept on my right side and everything hurt by then. They said it might be painful for the first couple of days but most of all, I'm sleepy (I said I'd deliberately not booked a couple of appointments this week until I knew how much it affected me). So no plans to move from my bed for now (I had to go down for drinks, celery and yoghurts and have taken a bag of popcorn that's Beloved's but she's not allowed it atm - DS3 wasn't on messages or I'd have summoned him).

There's lots I can do up here (I may need to do a small delivery as I only have paracetamol for today and tomorrow and only have caffeinated drinks left). Checked the fridge when I went for yoghurts and I have crab spread (there may be crackers on the far side of the kitchen), a chicken breast I defrosted on Saturday, some prawns left (made prawn coleslaw yesterday using odd teaspoons of ingredients) and courgettes, an aubergine and a bns when I feel okay standing up (they said my leg might feel like it doesn't belong to me because of the anaesthetic but it's my head that's all over the show).

Will be back later (might try to find the joke from yesterday - not sure it's funny enough to bother). Had something to say earlier but it's gone for now. What is in that anaesthetic?

Grateful for the NHS, all it's staff and taxi drivers (even when they're scared out of their comfort zone) and a nice drive out into the country amongst the hills (could see Winter Hill, Billinge Hill, the Beacon and the Pennines - beyond Manchester).

ditty1234 · 6 March 2023 at 10:13AM

Hi All had a very quiet weekend, spent yesterday cleaning and putting together a PowerPoint for an evening class. Today is my dedicated writing day, but so far all I have done is called HMRC to chase my tax credit repayments, which originally were lost. It's not exactly clear, but they seems to have found £110 out of £135 so better than nothing. Once the DWP have confirmed the new balance, I can't wait to just clear the rest. But I'm not paying in money, to then wait for them to return it. Typically me it all got a bit complicated, because I started paying too early.
Tonight I have exchange students coming and all is ready and tidy for them. So should be ok.
Sorry about being a bit light on reading, I hope everybody has a lovely week.

thriftylass · 6 March 2023 at 11:18AM

Good morning,

DH is away for three days and we enjoyed not having to be quiet this morning, it makes such a difference.

Today is finally NSD 1

.

The court just phoned and I might have to start jury duty this afternoon, if I get selected. That's the 6th time I got called in 20 years. Bit miffed, paid my taxes for 25 years in this country, am married to a "local" with kids, good enough to do jury duty but still can't vote and would still have to pay £1300+ if I'd like to become a citizen (and do the living in the UK test)? Side rant over. I love living here for the people and not the politics

It's freezing again up here but glorious sunshine.

grandmanerd · 6 March 2023 at 12:32PM

Monday 6th March 2023

One thing I realised was that everything always ends up working out. Sometimes even better than you can imagine. Remember this when you feel like you're in a hard place or feel like you're being challenged the most. Believe in where you're headed. See the bigger picture. (Idil Ahmed)

You can't keep getting mad at people for sucking the life out of you, if you keep giving them the straw (unknown)

People may call what happens at midlife 'a crisis' but it's not. It's an unravelling - a time when you feel a desperate pull to live the life you want to live, not the one you're "supposed" to live ... to let go of who you are supposed to be and to embrace who you are (Brene Brown).

(me) So I think I wanted to say something about 'significant' birthdays and how they affect us and also the disparity between our 'age' and the age we are inside. I have had a mental 'dip' a few months either side of being 30 and 40. It's not vanity because I've always been an ugly duckling so it wasn't the wrinkles or no longer feeling attractive. 50 may have automatically passed me by because my brother died when he was 47 and I was 49 and I was still 'putting my grief on hold' whilst I dealt with all the paperwork and officialdom for mum. DS2's 21st and DS3's 18th followed close on the heels of my 50th so I more or less ignored it.

Inside I'm still 24 (and DS3 says I'm beautiful on the inside and that's what counts) - the bit where I'd just moved into my house (I spent a year having a basic bathroom installed and the electricity rewired whilst doing everything else myself with some help from mum) and I had a lover who was there when I needed him but not hanging around at other times but before my ex kidnapped my life, drove all my friends out and set off a massive derailment of my plans. I also remember being quietly satisfied at around the age of 31, quietly married our little family about to be completed by DS3's arrival (absolutely no idea how that happened, I was in despair after a very early miscarriage and couldn't afford to get pregnant 'deliberately') but before OH messed everything up with his gambling.

I've loved my sons since their conception and I wouldn't be without them despite the difficulties of bringing them up alone and feeling guilty that I should not have had children when one or more of them was being bullied and I had nothing more to give. But it's taken until now (65) to get within sight of the life I had 'planned' (an old lady who would wear a hat and gloves whilst gardening and sewed and read). I still want the gardening and the reading and a simple life (sewing, especially embroidery has become increasingly difficult over the past 7 years - did loads 9 years ago when recovering from my hip replacement).

So for now I'm content and I have 'options' but am still trying to work out the way forward (and my grand-daughter is an ever present quiet joy), my boys are all settled with loving partners (RL adds bumps from time to time). I'm vaguely wondering when I might get to the 'quiet life' - when my boys were younger and I was spinning so many plates, I'd find myself thinking that if I just ran a little faster I'd catch up or even be in front but it hasn't happened yet and I can't run or even walk for very long.

It wasn't planned and it has frequently been hard but it's helped make me who I am so 'no regrets' (but not in a Frank Sinatra 'I did it my way' - I hate that song , it must be the anthem of every drunk and strutting little braggart who's trampled all over his family at every turn). I'm here, I'm still standing, I'm a survivor (or a warrior) and still managing to be happy each day, despite living with long term depression. And I'm a proud turtle

thriftylass · 6 March 2023 at 12:43PM

Thank you @grandmanerd. That was a lovely reminder for me not to wish my life away but enjoy the here and now and make the most of it. It might get better, it might get worse. Now is as good as it gets till I make it better (as far as it is in my control). Agree with the no regrets, we can't change the past and it made us who we are today.