Flying solo

PennysIntoPounds

Hope you have a fabulous weekend. Let us know what mse (and not so mse 😁) things you end up doing!

twiggy86

Had an absolutely lovely time with bf in London! It was mostly spent mooching around, stopping for a drink and/or food followed by further mooching! The only "thing" we did was a comedy show on Saturday night - bf bought the tickets - which was a great laugh! Otherwise we went around the Camden Market, Covent Garden and Leicester Square areas - was great enjoying the street performers and atmosphere - although as it was pride weekend it was exceptionally busy!!! Spent £180 in total whilst there - which is more than I would anticipated given that we didn't spend going into places, but that's London prices for you and it was within budget, so no guilt! We had nearly a two hour delay on the train so entitled to compensation which bf submitted the claim for this morning... grand total of £10 as we'd bought cheap tickets! However, better than nothing!  

It does technically mean (well according to my spreadsheet) that I have started the month with three NSDs!  I count "spend days" as when I pay out from either my personal spends budget or grocery budget and given that this had it's own separate pot I'm counting them!!! I do need to do a proper food shop today though as have nothing in the house! I'm working from home today so will pop out this morning as I have nothing for lunch and nearly out of milk (and I run on cups of tea!!!)

On to today's bits and pieces....

• Load of washing on 30 degree quick wash
• Hang washing on airer
• Update spreadsheet 
• Shuffle money to correct accounts
• Write shopping list 
• Shop to list!
• Return bits to Next 
• Drop old bedding into Tesco as mum informs me there is a textiles bank there 
• Snap receipt 
• Carpet clean small bedroom - dad painted it on Saturday! 
• Lunch and dinner from stores (once they're replenished!) 

Right I'm off for a cuppa with the last of the milk as I'm particularly tired today! 

_Dolly_Rocker_

Ah sounds great! I absolutely LOVE Campden Markets. 

twiggy86

Quiet evening last night - required after a busy weekend! Bf cam over and I cooked us dinner whilst he started de-weeding the front garden! Bless him - I feel guilty him doing it but he's insistent! It will probably be similar tonight, although bf wasn't feeling great this morning so he may want a night at home instead. 

I didn't manage to drop off the old bedding as there wasn't a textile bin at the shop - but it is in my car ready for me to find somewhere! I did however clean the carpet although I'm now out of the cleaning solution so will consider buying some more - have done basically everywhere now but the living room could still do with another clean! 

Back in the office today, so today's bits and bobs are...

• Put tortoises in garden 
• Take leftover pasta to work for lunch 
• Update spreadsheet 
• Make payment to Next for bras - everything else has been returned 
• Transfer money to friend for train tickets to London - going up for the day to see a show next week 
• Consider buying tickets for something for bf's birthday
• Work on crochet present at lunch 
• Pop to shop for three things I forgot yesterday (grrr!)
• Snap receipt 
• Sort out a few bits into storage boxes to continue sorting out the bedrooms 
• Dinner from stores 

twiggy86

I have decided to set out some thoughts for July... 

Financial:
I intend to only pay minimums of debts to allow me to use money towards doing bits on the house and giving flexibility for fun.
Also need to start thinking about my car - I have my car on finance (at the moment I am not counting this as debt or factoring this in) which is due to end in December. So I need to start thinking about my options. It may be that I end up using my misc savings/ rainy day fund towards this - whether that be as a payment off the current amount or a deposit on a new one.
I am working at a local fare/ festival for a weekend later in the month which will earn me £250, which at the moment I am thinking I will stick in that pot, but it may depend on what is left in the house pot (and what further expenses are required) at that stage. 

House:
Continue with sorting and decluttering. Would be good to get stuck into it this week as next week I am working from home so will have greater flexibility to arrange collections of anything I list on FB (likely for free). 
By the end of the month I would at least like to have a sofa bed ordered for the smallest room - it probably makes sense to have that in place before I work out what other furniture I want in the room. 
I would also really like to buy a BBQ - my house is finally in a place where I am feeling proud of it and would really like to have people round more often. So it would seem a shame not to have a BBQ this summer! Although having said that, my diary is already quite packed!!! 

Life in general:
I am really enjoying my life at the moment - however it does feel busy! This does mean that I haven't been finding much time to crochet, which is something that brings me calm. So I do want to try prioritise finding time for that! Plus I have a birthday present to finish this month and another I need to start thinking about as it needs to be in Australia for early September! 
However, conversely, I have signed up for an acro workshop in August which I need to work on some skills for! So I may need to find time to do some extra practice - although the person who said they'd help has hurt their back at the moment!!! 

Upcoming fun plans at the moment include...

• Watching the circus locally - cheap ticket purchased 
• Watching a show in London next Friday - ticket purchased and have money aside for train 
• Watching football match - bf purchased tickets 
• Acro weekend workshop - paid for 
• Festival at end of August - borrowing tent etc from bf and have some spending money saved

And those are just the confirmed plans!!! 

twiggy86

Had a productive evening last night - although not doing the jobs I had intended!!! 

I went out into the garden to check on the tortoises and thought "I just pull out this weed"... well an hour later bf turned up and I was still out there!  I pulled out the weeds from 4 large pots and then emptied the dirt into the border - need to decide whether to buy new plants for the pots or advertise them on FB next week. I also have a number of other pots which are empty and I love the thought of filling them with nice plants, but the truth is they will probably die as I do tend to neglect plants! I also continued de-weeding the border, although have a bit to go but have done the worst of it! Also need to take a saw to my rosemary bush and a tree which are both overhanging the border! 

Other jobs included hanging up the washing that had dried on the airer and de-scaling the kettle! However, this does mean I didn't sort out the bedroom so that still needs doing at some point this week. I did get rid of the old bedding on my way home though, so that's some of the clutter done! 

I need to decide whether or not to attend ex's dad's funeral tomorrow. His mum sent me the details so I know she would welcome me there but I'm concerned his sister may cause a scene with me - I think ex would be ok. I can't decide what to do for the best - it would feel disrespectful for me not to show up, but equally I don't want to be the cause of any drama on a tough day for them all. I may work from home tomorrow so that I have the flexibility to go if I decide. 

Today's bits and pieces include...

• Make lunch to take to work 
• Take stuff for acro to work - it's not far from my work and earlier tonight, so doesn't make sense to drive 40ish minutes home to drive 30mins back all for the sake of probably 20 minutes at home! 
• Update spreadsheet 
• Claim £4.79 from TCB 
• Download free audiobook from Borrowbox 
• Work on crochet present at lunch 
• Go to free acro session - will need to work out if there's free parking nearby 
• Dinner from stores when I get back - leftover burritos 
• Possibly do some sorting in spare room 

_Dolly_Rocker_

Ah what a dilemma to be in.

It's a shame because you will want to pay your respects. 

PennysIntoPounds

I would advise sending a message to ex's mum apologising for not being able to make it (people understand one can't get out of work etc) and saying you hope it goes okay.
But don't go- with respect, you have to prioritise your future wellbeing and while it's sad, your ex sounds likely to use your presence as a potential sign of weakness and use it against you in future when he wants to take advantage. And if there's going to be issue with the sister then tbh you're doing the respectful thing by staying away

Floss

PennysIntoPounds said:

I would advise sending a message to ex's mum apologising for not being able to make it (people understand one can't get out of work etc) and saying you hope it goes okay.
But don't go- with respect, you have to prioritise your future wellbeing and while it's sad, your ex sounds likely to use your presence as a potential sign of weakness and use it against you in future when he wants to take advantage. And if there's going to be issue with the sister then tbh you're doing the respectful thing by staying away

I agree - a respectful apology is better than a potential scene or future hassle.

twiggy86

Thanks for your comments - which part of me agrees with, but equally I want to pay my respects and don't think others potential bad behaviour should stop that. I'm not concerned about seeing ex tbh, it's his sister that may create problems. It's difficult to find the words to explain properly and I do appreciate what they are going through, however ex's sister has always been painful/ trouble and so why should I miss out on paying my respects because she may create a scene. That sounds heartless but I promise it isn't - just hard to explain. But the gist is, it wouldn't sit right with me not to go and so it that respect, I am putting myself first.

I'm working from home today so that I have the flexibility to go or not - as I may of course change my mind (it's not until 3pm). 

Today's bits and bobs...

• Load of washing on 30 degree quick cycle
• Hang washing on airers and pop in the garden
• Update spreadsheet 
• Put tortoises in the garden 
• Sort out the pile of stuff that I dumped in the second bedroom 
• Start a box of things to list on FB next week 
• Lunch and dinner from stores - didn't end up having dinner last night so still have leftover burritos
• Snap a receipt 
• Park for free at netball - I am playing an extra game tonight plus meeting my friend at the pub beforehand so a couple of extra expenses there