The Diary Of Onebrokelady Aged 60 And A Half

Onebrokelady

Payday today and it was a shocker. The sick pay we get must roll over because I got half pay this month. We are supposed to get full pay for 6  months but I had 5 months off last year and only went back for a little over 2 months before I fell ill again so last years sickness must be counted. I thought it would be but wasn’t sure. So I am now on a very tight budget indeed 😬 I do have a sizeable chunk of my lump sum left so can top up my wages with that until I can claim some benefits and I have luckily built up a surplus in my current account so that for the next couple of months I won’t need to top it up. Hopefully after that I will know what’s going on and be able to claim some sort of benefit.

I now need to be very mindful of what I’m spending. I also decided that I should stop paying into the pension I’ve still got going too. It’s not much of a pension and I’ve claimed my main one but this is the one we were all put into after our original scheme ended in 2015, I’m not even sure if I’ll be here to claim it so I’m not paying for it anymore 😀

I sold the travel cot today so that’s gone and the money is going into the bank as soon as I can get there to pay it in. I’ve bagged up all the books so they are ready to go and I’m going to message a charity shop that collects to see if they want them along with the two bags of toys I’ve got. 

The walking pad arrived today and I’m seriously impressed. These walking pads are smaller than a treadmill and don’t have a handle at the front so I was a bit worried it would be a bit small, I decided to go for it because I’m short so have a short stride but it’s pretty roomy to be honest. It was easy to set up and link with the app that goes with it. It’s got wheels on the front so you can move it around and I have for the moment leaned it against the wall in the back hallway because that’s where I will be using it until the spare room is sorted out. It’s got a remote control that you loop around your wrist so you can start and stop it without having to bend down and it’s really easy to use. I did a little 10minute walk on it today at 3kph which left me a little sweaty but not too out of breath. I don’t want to go too crazy until I’ve had my appointment and know what I should be doing . It does go up to 6kph which for me would be a jog but I can’t see that happening in my immediate future. I used to go to the gym and run for 30 minutes at 12kph but those days are long gone now ☹️   I spent my 10 minute walk watching a squirrel doing acrobatics on the peanut feeder today but when I move it upstairs I’ll probably either watch a video or listen to a podcast.

Tomorrow I’m meeting DD2 for coffee then she is going off to have her hair cut and I will be going to buy the ingredients to make a leek croustade which will feed me for four days. On Sunday I am planning on finally defrosting my freezer, I’ve eaten most of the contents but I found my cool bag so I’m going to freeze some ice packs and chuck  the rest of the food in there while I defrost it. There isn’t much left in there to be honest, there’s a half a bag of mince which I will make a cottage pie with while the freezer is defrosting then that can go back in once it’s done. At the moment I’m having porridge for breakfast and omelette for lunch or cheese and crackers with pickled onions chopped up on top and what ever I’ve cooked for tea. I think I can shave some money off my food bill so will see how that goes over the next month. If I put the effort in and cook properly instead of buying convenience foods I should be able to cut it down a bit. The leek croustade and cottage pie is eight days meals for me at not much cost really, I will also make a veg curry too. I normally eat Quorn meat products but I’m going off it so will be using veg and nuts instead. I’m not too keen on lentils sadly but I do like a lentil Dahl.
I’m not panicking about my finances at all which is good.

I’m sort of seeing it as a challenge to see how I can get by on as little as possible. I’m lucky that I’ve got my garden to potter in and it needs a lot work to tidy it up which doesn’t involve spending any money. I’ve also got a lot of craft projects to finish and of course the jobs on the house. The jobs on the house will cost me but unfortunately they have to be done so I will have to suck it up. I have also got used to reading magazines on my library app so that’s free too and of course there’s the library for books. I do have a big to be read pile at the moment so it will be a while before I run out of books and both DDs have piles of books they want me to read so that’s my summer sorted 😀 I am relieved I don’t have any pets to think about at the moment apart from the chicken but she’s really cheap to keep. I’ve sorted a fixed price tariff for my gas and electric and now need to sort cheaper internet. I would like to cancel my tv license too because I normally only used to watch the news but I’m not watching that either now so don’t know why I’m paying it. I only turn my tv on at teatime everyday to watch the news and I can easily do without watching that 😀

jwil

Sorry about the sick pay but it sounds like you've got a good plan for managing.

BalanceBy50

I am glad that you are not panicking. Please try and make sure you have a little bit left so you can meet friends for a coffee. Putting the world to rights with good friends, I believe does great things for our mental health.

could you please post a link to the walking pad you have bought I think it maybe what I need to get me started to some kind of fitness xx

BalanceBy50

I am glad that you are not panicking. Please try and make sure you have a little bit left so you can meet friends for a coffee. Putting the world to rights with good friends, I believe does great things for our mental health.

could you please post a link to the walking pad you have bought I think it maybe what I need to get me started to some kind of fitness xx

Onebrokelady

BalanceBy50 said:

I am glad that you are not panicking. Please try and make sure you have a little bit left so you can meet friends for a coffee. Putting the world to rights with good friends, I believe does great things for our mental health.

could you please post a link to the walking pad you have bought I think it maybe what I need to get me started to some kind of fitness xx

Hi I’m no good at posting links but the walking pad I’ve bought is by Deer Run, I ordered it direct from the company and paid £167.00 but I also bought an extra long power cable because the reviews did say the cable was short and I wasn’t sure where I was going to be pugging it in. The cable that comes with it is ok if you have a socket not too far away and would have been ok for me to be honest. They are available on Amazon it I don’t shop on there anymore so bought direct from the company. I will also definitely be making sure I have pocket money, I’ve spent too many years without it and after working so hard I think I deserve a coffee when I want one 😀

Onebrokelady

jwil said:

Sorry about the sick pay but it sounds like you've got a good plan for managing.

Thanks it’s a bit of a bummer but I did think it would happen. I’m so glad I managed to build some surplus in my current account though because that will give me a bit of breathing room .

Suffolksue

Please check before you stop paying into your pension - you may be entitled to more if you take ill health retirement whilst it is still ‘live’ 

Onebrokelady

Today I met DD2 for coffee which was lovely although there was a horrible lady at the front of the queue holding every one up because she was complaining that they only had takeaway cups as their dishwasher had broke down , the poor girl dealing with her was almost in tears and I couldn’t help but think that if the staff hadn’t all been young people she might have been less rude. I don’t like the use of takeaway cups and having to put food in cartons but they didn’t really have a choice and if you don’t like it just go somewhere else 😡🙄 

DD then went off to have her hair cut and I went off in search of latex free washing up gloves which have become hard to get hold of, I ended up in Lakeland’s in the end which isn’t ideal but I have a life threatening latex allergy so it’s worth paying extra for my gloves. I don’t wear gloves for doing the washing up but I’ve got mould remover to wash off in the built in wardrobe so needed some for that, it’s quite lethal stuff so I also bought some masks too. I also needed to buy some more washing up liquid becasue the stuff I’ve got is trying to kill me 😀

The day went a little astray after that because I came home to what I thought was an injured pigeon in my garden. I managed to catch it and put  it in a cat basket to keep it away from the neighbourhood cats and my chicken which was lucky because it wasn’t injured it was ill 😩 any way I got hold of a lady who rescues birds so someone came and collected it from me at 10pm 😳 it was quite funny because I had to have a pigeon collected last year and I was wondering if it would be the same man and it was 😀he said didn’t I come here last year and I replied yes you did but don’t worry I’m not a serial pigeon killer. He took it away but I honestly think it was nearly dead, he was taking it down to the vet to be put to sleep . I’ve just got to hope now that it wasn’t bloody bird flu 🤞🤞🤞🤞I will have to disinfect my patio tomorrow but I don’t know where else it went in the garden and it was over by the chicken run so I’m hoping the chicken kept away from it,she will have to be kept locked in while I sort the patio which she won’t be happy about. 

Tomorrow I will be washing the patio first of all then I need to make a start on cleaning that wardrobe so I can paint it, once that’s done the bedroom will be ready for the carpet. I’m hoping to make the Leek croustade  tomorrow as well but will see how I get on. I think the freezer will have to wait until Monday though so I will make the cottage pie I was going to make on Monday instead. I also bought some plastic food containers today because if I’m batch cooking I didn’t have enough for all the meals, I’ve got 16 now so I can make 16 portions of whatever for the freezer then just reheat in the microwave on the day I want it.

Onebrokelady

Suffolksue said:

Please check before you stop paying into your pension - you may be entitled to more if you take ill health retirement whilst it is still ‘live’ 

Ok I will check first, it’s not my main pension though because I’ve already claimed that,I don’t know if that makes a difference 

Suffolksue

I don’t either but I just feel I’d read something once ,but not sure