Flying solo

badmemory

What would we do without our Dads.  Mine fitted my kitchen in his 70s.  It used to be the family joke that if he fastened something to the wall it was never coming off.  33 years later it is still all attached.  I did suspect however that it was done to get me & his grandson out of his house.

twiggy86

badmemory said:

What would we do without our Dads.  Mine fitted my kitchen in his 70s.  It used to be the family joke that if he fastened something to the wall it was never coming off.  33 years later it is still all attached.  I did suspect however that it was done to get me & his grandson out of his house.

Yep my dad is in his 70s but insists I leave the jobs for him! He just has to manage it by doing a couple of hours at a time, spread out throughout the week. 

twiggy86

Payday today!!! 

I have done my account sweep up and sent another £70 to the misc savings and shuffled everything to the correct accounts. This also included another £230 to the misc savings and £225 set aside for debt re-payments once the statements come in. This is a bit less than I would normally send there but today I have also booked for a festival for August and later today should be booking theater tickets for July. I did use the option to pay in installments for the festival - I probably could have worked the budget to pay for it in full (as have another £100 set aside for that) but decided to do this way to give me more wiggle room this month. So I have £55 to pay each month between now and July. I'm incredibly excited/ scared about this as I think I'm going on my own!!! 

I also have something for the house that I'm going to treat myself to today - my justification is its kind of my Valentine's present to myself! (Some dried flowers for the new shelving in the living room). So today is a bit of a spendy day!!! 

However the positive is that in January (I've included the sweep up in last month's totals) I added just under £770 to the misc savings! Plus paid £225 towards the CC - so in a usual month where I wasn't saving and was instead paying straight off the CC, I would have cleared nearly £1,000! And this is without yet having a lodger! 

Today's bits and pieces:

• Wrapped a present in what I was certain was not enough wrapping paper at the end of the roll... it was! 
• Take lunch to work - leftover lasagne 
• Download a different book on habits (couldn't get along with the other one!)
• Final check of Feb budget 
• Money shuffles! 
• Work on cross stitch at lunch
• Drop present off on way home
• 30 minutes of housework 
• Dinner from stores 
• Finish frogging the project - took much longer than anticipated so I did start last night but have some more to go  
  
• Finalise Feb crochet plans! 

teapot2

Don't know if you mentioned which creating habits book you were reading but a colleague was singing the praises of 'Atomic Habits' by James Clear.  I've not read it myself though

twiggy86

teapot2 said:

Don't know if you mentioned which creating habits book you were reading but a colleague was singing the praises of 'Atomic Habits' by James Clear.  I've not read it myself though

I've reserved that one but it's obviously popular as not available on BorrowBow (free library app) until May!

twiggy86

Popped the present round last night and she opened it whilst I was there - so cute seeing kids reactions! Her sister was also very taken with it so may have to make her the same when it comes to her birthday! 

I didn't get home until quite late so didn't do any cleaning... well other than having to clean the cream and sour cream that I managed to throw on the floor!!!! In my rush to cook my dinner I tried to close the door by grabbing the shelf rather than the door - which of course came of in my hand and mess followed!!! I did however finish frogging the jumper! Next step is to do a PROPER swatch to ensure I get the sizing right next time!!! 

Tonight is straight from work, to stitch club, to netball! So won't be home until gone 10pm! The person who runs stitch club put a post on FB about making butterflies to give in packs to people who experience pregnancy loss - not something I have suffered but close friends have - so I have taken some yarn to make those tonight. 

I had the realisation this morning that if I chose to I could clear my smallest CC! I won't just yet but feels could to know that since beginning of November (I believe) I could have paid this off! 

Today's bits and bobs...

• Take double lunch to work! I'll have something at lunch time and then leftover pah thai late afternoon as won't have time for dinner (unless I bought something at stitch night but I'm opting not to this time)
  
• Listen to free audiobook 
• Order the dried flowers - opted not to do this yesterday to ensure I reach the spending limit this month to get my £5 reward from bank
• Work on cross stitch at lunch
  
• Print butterfly pattern at work 
• Go to stitch night - want to ask people's opinion on how best to do something whilst I'm there 
• Then go straight to netball (I've bought my gym stuff to work with me)
• Bed! 

twiggy86

Well I was completely knackered by the time I got home last night - left the house at 8am, got home again at 11pm having been to work, been to stitch night and then played two games of netball! I played rubbish and actually started a game of "foul bingo" (trying to achieve every type of fault that I could do!) however we won both games! So I spent £7 on stitch night (a tea and parking) and then an additional £5.60 for the extra game of netball. 

Oh and before stitch night I popped to a couple of shops trying to get a wall calendar. I was looking online and the ones I liked were about £15 and I wasn't sure I liked them THAT much! Anyway managed to get a reduced one which was £3 and I like no more or less than the £15! 

Dad was at mine early this morning having already been to B&Q so turned up with a door (this was 7:10!!) So I have transferred my parents back the £62 for the door. However dad has said this morning that he's going to give me the £412 which he is due to receive from a life insurance payout which came to light 10 years after my grandad passed away. I did argue the point that they have already given me £500 in December - but he said they don't need it and he wants me to use it to buy my dining room table. He's so good to me!!! Anyway I have left him painting my living room ceiling! 

Today's bits and bobs:

• Take double lunch to work - I'm very hungry today as haven't eaten since 4pm, plus two games of netball and a late night means I'm just accepting that I need extra food today! 
• Update spreadsheet 
• Transfer money to parents 
• Leave dad to his DIY!
• Write things in new calendar 
• Book smear test! 
• Work on cross stitch at lunch (made quite good progress just working on it in my lunch breaks!) 
• Ex coming to collect his things?! 
• Dinner from stores 
• Crochet in front of the TV!! 

Plans for the weekend include potentially seeing my brother and nephews and out for dinner with parents, aunt and uncle on Saturday - and yes my wonderful dad will probably pay (I have the money if not but history tells me he will). Productive things for this weekend include:

• Dye my own hair 
• Wax some bits that need waxing! 
• Carpet clean the spare room 
• Start on next crochet present 
• Possibly properly swatch for the jumper so that I don't have the same issue again! 

Floss

Love the sound of "foul bingo", it sounds like the "bull$hit bingo" me & colleagues sometimes play in meetings 😁

twiggy86

Oh I love that @Floss !!! I was teasing my team that I was going to intentionally get a foot fault but I think they would have chased me off the court!!! So I didn't manage to get the full house! 

twiggy86

Back from a semi-productive weekend - always feel like there's more I could have achieved! 

Ex did come on Friday and took the majority of his stuff. He was due to collect the bed last night after he finished work as he'd run out of room in the van on Friday - however he didn't turn up but texted this morning to apologise that he had forgotten! They are incredibly busy at work (he works for my brother so I know how much extra hours they are all doing at the moment) - so annoying but *fingers crossed* will be done this week. I did impress upon him that I can't sort out a lodger until he's finished clearing everything. 

I can't clean the bedroom carpet until the bed is gone but it did mean that the utility area could be sorted out this weekend. So I pulled everything out and have some-what organised and cleaned. It isn't decorated so as the saying goes "you can't polish a ***" but it does look much better! And it was a good job I did pull everything out as I found a leak behind the tumble dryer! There was a pressure surge the other week and I'm wondering if this was the cause as the stopcock was dripping! 

I then did some maintenance on myself and dyed my hair! I thought I had a box of hair dye in the cupboard but must have used it so had to pop to Tesco to grab some. I did use £8.50 in vouchers that were due to expire - so I then shuffled the money from the "beauty" pot to the misc savings. Then on Saturday night I went out for a lovely meal with my family (yes dad did pay!) - had a good laugh and food was nice even though the service was a bit rubbish! 

Yesterday I probably should have done some more cleaning/ sorting but instead I popped to a local charity shop for a nose! I did pick up a few of bits - so £19 spent there. The rest of the day was spent crocheting - I managed to finish a bag I was making and start on a kangaroo! Didn't swatch for the jumper as realised if I focused I could finish the bag so I prioritised that! 

I need to check back on what I'd set as my weekly goals to see if I achieved them all and then consider my goals for this!