Moving on

Cherryfudge

I had this bright idea about getting out into the garden to rescue bits and pieces that I'd then bring in to plant seeds - but it's cold and rainy so that's not happened.

DH has done multiple small excursions into town - his sister's birthday present, etc - but I think he's given up on that as the weather's got wetter. He's fixed the handle on a kitchen cupboard and started on some more of the dining room decorating too.

All I've done today is give myself a haircut (easy when it's long) and cleaned the filter on the smaller vacuum cleaner. The vacuum suddenly has a lot more suction than I ever remember so I've whizzed round downstairs. My hair feels better too: it's has started its spring growth spurt but was getting tatty at the ends after months of central heating. Now I can get a brush through it without it snagging.

We pan fried some of the salmon for dinner and had chip shop chips with it, along with some ends of peppers and cherry tomatoes and ana bit of balsamic, and in another pan, green beans. That all went down well and there's a tiny bit of freezer space again. Tomorrow will probably be corned beef hash as we have all the ingredients to use.

I'm currently busy putting off financial things, but I've updated my diary so I know what shifts I did when, and what other things are expected. We're now on the month when Auntie is coming to visit, so I know I also need to think ahead to that. DH will do most of the entertaining and J has invited her to dinner one day, but I always need to tidy the room where she'll stay as I tend to dump things there and she needs to be able to get round!

Well, I need to be accountable: having a notebook and spreadsheet will tell me nothing if I don't fill them in. DDs and SOs should mostly be out of the bank now, and I've done the manual transfer to the YBS Christmas Saver, so it's really and truly down to the boring stuff now.

Cherryfudge

Some progress made: small headache achieved.

All the cc spending to date is now categorised and the largest chunk (holiday) is paid off. Still to go (and I keep the transactions separate so I can trace where I'm up to) are a few costs from inherited money, some grocery spending which I think is mostly from me being careless which card I picked up or spending enough to get Clubcard points so deliberately using that card, along with some gifts which were also in the getting Clubcard points category. Then there's a small amount of personal spending which comes out of my pay. So one out of four categories is up to date and I'm still avoiding the most complicated bank account and the spreadsheet (thank you ADHD).

I wish the weather were nice enough to get out and walk a bit, but it really is miserable. DH has braved it to go to L!dl for discount pastries. The only other things that have happened are that I've put a stitch in an umbrella where the fabric pulled away from the spoke, and DH put a big bag of cushions out of the spare room in the loft. I like having cushions but that room has too much in so it will help make it ready for Auntie.

Oh, and I washed the door mats and fed the houseplants. Definitely a slow news day.

Cherryfudge

And just after midnight, I can announce that all the numbers for February are not only in, but processed.

What have I learned? Mm, not a huge amount. £325.57 spent on groceries which seems more than I'd like, but it did include two big grocery shops of store cupboard things which aren't yet eaten. So take about £90 off that to get a picture of how much we've eaten, but then it would have to be added on in future so we might as well leave it as it is. After all, the supermarkets don't want their old food back.

And that's a mean average of 11.22 a day, a modal average of zero (!) and a median average of 6.35, thus proving that the mode and median may mislead, my brief stint as a Maths teacher was not in vain and we don't eat too badly.  

Interestingly, having put diesel in the car right at the end of January, it's still not needed a refill. That's the benefit of living near work and getting those £1 train tickets. DH's bike, however, came in at £40.47 due to some persistent tyre problems.

Time I went to bed.

Cherryfudge

A possible Aurora day! I saw an announcement that there was a high chance of it being visible about sunset so I dashed to various doors and windows with my phone trained on the sky. There was what I thought was the last trace a colourful sunset so I took a few photos, and later in the evening saw a sort of white plume of light in another part of the sky that was too transient to photograph. However, looking back at my earlier photos, I saw how quickly the light changed colour: a rich pink to a sort of apricot then back to pink over a couple of minutes. I posted them to the family WhatsApp and my eldest seems to think it could be the Aurora. It was far north of where the remnants of the sunset were, so perhaps it was, but it was quite near the horizon, so perhaps it was the sunset.

Other than that, this morning I helped with the pre-schoolers at church. There wasn't a plan as the person who was supposed to be running it had a family emergency so some of the rest of us piled in and I read them a story and handed out paper, crayons and stickers.

DH made us corned beef hash for dinner and I had a leisurely afternoon while he went for a walk. I've made a bit more progress on the spreadsheets: DH showed me how to freeze the column headers so I can always see them, which makes life a lot easier. I would never have thought to look it up under that term as I see them as floating headers. Apart from the holiday expenditure, which came out of an account I set aside for holiday savings long ago, we were actually okay, living on the month's income last month. This month is unlikely to do so well as my income is minimal, but in April it will be better.

DH spent £4.30 in Sains, and a small payment has gone out for photo storage, but that's all for today's spending. However, I've paid off the chunk of the credit card that originated from 'inheritance spends'. That leaves me with one larger and one small chunk to pay off, after which hopefully I will stop leaving it weeks to sort it out. Ha, ha. Well, I will try to do better.

Cherryfudge

Another day older, but a year older on paper.  

Last night I dreamed I was having a Maths test, arrived late, couldn't find a desk in a crowded room, couldn't make sense of the questions because my head was still full of coming in late when I thought I was on time and being close to lots of people who I couldn't interact with but was very aware of... great illustration of ADHD, but not the way to wake up on a birthday morning!

Actually I was bit muzzy-headed for a good while, sort of matching the mist outside. Once it lifted, late morning, my head cleared a bit more and I finally got my act together and chose somewhere local to go for lunch. I then felt scared in case I saw the person who attacked me all that time ago, but when I thought it through, there was no reason they'd be there, so we went.

The meal was really good (I had a superfood salad which was full of flavour and DH had one of those artistic burgers with a stick through the middle) and I felt a lot better afterwards. We had a wander round town and didn't buy anything, then went for a coffee where I got free cake as a birthday giveaway. I chose Rocky Road and shared it with DH, so neither of us needed much to eat later.

Back at home we did some cleaning and tidying (are we the only parents who clean up before their children visit?!) and J arrived after work to give me my present and have a cup of herbal tea. Then A and H arrived with the girls but just had time to get them settled before having to hurry out to an emergency meeting. It was really nice to have the little ones to look after for half an hour, but when A and H returned, they were upset: the lovely nursery where DGD1 goes is closing. That's what the meeting was about: it's just not possible for the people to keep it open with rising costs. As H said, not only has it been N's place to go since she was a baby, but now all the families will be competing to find good child care and for some of them that will be an immediate crisis. Not quite so urgent for us as H is on maternity leave but those two days a week will make a big difference to her routine with the younger baby.

That all put a bit of a dampener on things, but I'm glad we were there to support them.

I've also heard from D and E, who are hoping to come over later in the week, and had various nice messages from people, and presents. I really didn't know what to suggest but I have some vouchers, books, plants and, from DH, a pyrography pen, which is something I've wanted for a long time. Now I need to find lots of wooden things to inscribe! I will try to find scrap wood for practice, then there are always chopping boards, wooden spoons and coat hangers.

I've had an email about helping with the class that starts tomorrow so I need to be up in the morning: best get to bed soon. Oh, and the payments I made to the credit card are stuck in the bank so I've just put across the small payment from personal expenses till I'm sure it's all working as it should. It's unusual for payments not to go through in a couple of days, but it was the weekend so that will be why. I don't want to incur charges again, though, which is why I'm a bit twitchy about it.

Expenditure:
Entertainment approx £46.

redofromstart

Happy birthday for yesterday. 

Sun_Addict

Happy belated birthday 🎂 🥳

Cherryfudge

Thank you.  

Really tired tonight: I started at the new class this morning which I found interesting, but not all the people showed up so the tutor is concerned that the funding may be pulled. We'll see how it goes next week.

I shopped on the way home and DH got in before me from looking after DGD. We discovered a nasty smell in the kitchen but couldn't find what it was. I think I've got rid of it with lots of cleaning but it's hard to tell when you've been in there a while. Anyhow I followed that up with making carrot fairy cakes, then pizza and salad and my friends came round to help me eat it and finish off the study we've been doing for ages.

Expenditure:
Housekeeping £? from mr T plus £9.25

Honeysucklelou2

Happy belated  birthday. 🎂

EssexHebridean

Another belated happy birthday from here!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who struggles with grocery budgets and stocking up on things. I know some folk have a bulk fund which works well for them, but that just feels like another budget to manage, and allowing that I run my grocery budget with any surplus remaining in the account, I'm not sure there's any point, for us. It does feel a bit brutal when you end up spending way more than a standard week and then realise that some of it is not only not allocated to that week, but often not even that MONTH though! 

How sad about the nursery - and as you say that will create a crisis for some families who find that the only alternatives are more expensive, or further away, or whatever.