NST March 2024: The Magic Roundabout

Shrewbie

Hi all, just popping on to say gracias to @apple for the magic roundabout reference.. I forgot how much I loved it and the clip made me chuckle. I`ve been sick the past few days, so I am taking it easy and I am also one week post-break up (longest break up in the world that lasted seven months and finally came to an end last week when I saw my ex off at the aiport to fly back to the UK). One of the saddest and hardest things, but I am starting to feel better. Staying with friends and they have helped me a lot. As has their german shepherd dog... hope everyone is well and hope to join you all properly soon! Shrewbie x 

lcc86

@Shrewbie sending hugs to you.

Yesterday was a NSD, managed to get all my batch cooking and other housework done. Made it to boxing class as well and got two loads of washing done and line dried.

Today was another NSD. I was going to get the car washed but the car wash was broken so I saved my NSD, which is probably for the best given the rain! Went for a really long horse ride this morning as well with a friend, was lovely and we beat the rain.

No other MSE news other than a cheaper contents insurance quote which I need to follow up on.

Edit- tomorrow will be a planned spend day as working in the Old Bailey and can't bring lunch in! But as it's a one off I'll treat myself.

f0xh0les

NSD 6 in the bag.

Having a lazy day as it is Mothers Day. Daft really, it just means there will be more for me to do tomorrow.   It is the principle. 

Gratitudes - DH being safely home after his foreign jaunt (apparently Paris smells),  rescuing buttercream soup into a  passable  icing (DS3 was being helpful!), central heating.

Thrifty_Taylor

Sending big hugs @Shrewbie, hope you feel s little better as each new day dawn's. Pleased you have friends to help along the way x

So @f0xholes was DH impressed with all you'd achieved whilst he'd been away?

NSD#4
Was woken by DS2 thudding about in the kitchen. Couldn't get back to sleep, so just got up. Read the local paper & did some Norwegian, then had breakfast. 

A rainy day, so replaced 2 coat zips, then did my jigsaw for an hour. Collected mum & DS3 from town & brought them home. Watched Meanqueen on YooToob, followed by an animated film about chickens. DH made a delicious tea. When DS1 had finished work, we drove back to town to drop mum off.

Grateful for my handmade cards, time to relax, funny tv

Flying_By

So sorry to hear your news @Shrewbie. Take care of yourself, sending hugs xx

Starlight_at_Sea

I'm sorry to hear that Shrewbie, long drawn out experiences are no less of a shock to our system when they come to an end. Glad you have good friends and 🐶 around you and we are here to cheer you on with all things moneysaving  

 A productive day today, my mum would have been proud, she liked to get stuff done! 
Grateful for good friends who came to see me in my 'new' place for the first time, and helped with a bit of DIY and rehomed a gate that I took down at Xmas. Grateful that dad's wearing the careline alarm more now, and that we have got it working in his name. Grateful to other friends who checked in on me in one way or another! Above all, very excited that DD is making a flying visit home this week so I will see her very soon!

Pleased to have done a big batch of cooking - have got 2 large lasagnes and 3 huge cakes to split between my, dads, and cousins freezer. @f0xh0les I am finally totally totally up to date with expenses submissions!  Thank you for the encouragement, there is more than a grand winging it's way to mevery very very slowly!

weenancyinAmerica

Thankful this is a quiet day. This week has been a rough one - including the computer losing all of the word program I had from mid-January to the 8th of March. Now backing up everything to the Cloud. Only lost about 13 pages as I had been printing everything out every fifteen or so pages, but still. So going back over where I found the information and adding it back into my program. At least most of my programs had been backed up to the Cloud (Excel especially), but I have never trusted computers and now I do even less. But the February minutes my roommate did weren't backed-up (at least we have the printed copy). Oh well. 

Have been having major problems walking. Today the car door swung back and hit me in the forehead, I had a major cramp in the good leg, and the cat bit me. And three of the four roommates haven't been able to pay their rents this month (a couple are even further overdue). So I have really been stretching the money.  Using a lot of vouchers and gift cards up. One person at the grocery store told me to think of the gift cards with small amounts on them like coupons and just go ahead and use them up even if the line had to wait awhile. Fortunately we have a lot of food on hand, but the problem has been cat food and kitty litter. I don't have a cat - my roommates have cats but can't afford to feed them at the moment so guess who gets to help out. The cat who bit me belongs to one of those roommates. 

Talk about living on little- my emergency pot has $2.05 in it right now. I also have about 64 cents in pennies. But my sister will pay me for taking care of her dog this week while she goes out of town. Money for kitty litter. Exciting. 

At least next Sunday I get a free luncheon out with the Mystery Writer's Luncheon. This is the 45th year and three mystery writers come each time and talk about how they got into writing. And the Book Sale is this Friday.  So I am keeping busy getting ready for that. 

If I sound a bit depressed, I am. But I like coming on MSE as it does make me feel better. Hugs to the rest of you that need them.

beanielou

@weenancyinAmerica. Sending positive vibes & energy to you & your roomies. 

grandmanerd

Yesterday's post failed and one earlier this morning - my eyes are still sore so I'm too impatient to try again when things go wrong.

Big hugs to Shrewbie and weenancy.

Friday was a good day despite a late start and thinking it was Saturday all day.  Saturday was slower but a few things got done. Over the 2 days at least 10 bin/ recycling trips happened, lots of bags of books and crafts went downstairs (some back on the shelves, some still waiting). Domestic stuff happened, I found a few things that had been buried under mounds of other stuff and on both days I spent time  in the yard scraping dust and mud off the flagstones (part had been covered by one of the covers I took to cover the mattresses last week so had mostly dried out). 

Yesterday had an unpromising start but ended up wonderful. I took my time getting ready and added extra pampering (my eyes, face, hands, knees, elbows and feet need a week of intensive therapy, I think). DS2 picked my up at 1.10 pm and we went to his house. Grand-daughter was a bit shy at first (her mother had woken her from her nap and she was a bit grumpy) but then kept grabbing hold of my hand, shouting 'grandma' and taking me off to look at and play with various things (animal sorting with noises, putting the doll in her pram and giving her her bottle, lots of play cooking and 'cup of tea' (new favourite phrase), reading, playing with blocks and musical instruments.

We had a beautiful roast lunch, then more games until DS2 settled down to watch football. D-o-l and I continued to help with the slide, the bike, nursery rhymes and the rabbit song. Grand-daughter wanted me to lie on the floor but I got away with lying on the couch - my hopping days are long past but I lifted alternate feet. She drew me a picture to bring home and then cried when DS2 picked up my bags - she thought he was leaving too. We all assured her that he was only taking grandma home and was coming back for storytime.

Came straight to bed when I got home - very tired and slept well.  Today's going to be a slow start, mainly domestic and with some reorganisation of last week's list. I'm meeting the waste wizards tomorrow for an estimate for the house clearance, so that's a good start.

Grateful for my family (I think DS1 may be having problems again, they'd declined the lunch invite and communication has been sparse - we think that maybe they both failed their second driving licence attempts or more awkwardly one passed and one failed), for waste wizards getting back to me and for rediscovering hidden treasures.

leftatthetrafficlights

I haven't updated in over a week due to a poorly grandbaby and helping out my dd as a result 😔 thankfully he's a bit better now so normal service has resumed....

Update time: 

My plans....

Me, myself and I. - I started properly yesterday with a long relaxing shower, exfoliation and moisture then doing lots of cooking and making things that i enjoy doing. I did plenty of walking yesterday but probably overdid it as I'm still recovering from this nasty cold so I'm giving the asana practice and walking a miss today. 

Avoid those things that drain you – I'm still reading the news online but now I only open the stories that interest me - it's been nice not to bombard myself with so much doom and gloom! 

Gratitudes – as ever, I'm grateful for my dh, my family, my grandbaby improving, my home, garden, the pheasants and deer I'm seeing every day and having the opportunity to do all of the mse things i did yesterday (making firebricks and ivy laundry detergent 😁)

Inquisitiveness – I've started to learn Italian again - not really enjoying it at the moment though so may just spend more time learning stuff about growing veg (learnt yesterday that potatoes are either determinate or indeterminate - it will make a huge difference in the size of crop I'll harvest!! 🙌) 

Commit to simplifying your life, bit by bit - I've started on the routines I want to establish but it's taking longer than expected due to looking after my grandbaby and dd

Remember those who are worse off than you –I've found more stuff for the charity shop- just need to get there now! 

Offload your excess baggage –  see above! 

Use it up, wear it out, make do and mend or do without - UPF'S are being used by dh, every meal we have had recently (other than brekkie) has been predominantly from stores

NSD count - 10/24 today😁 

Decisiveness - getting my routines introduced and established is still ongoing

Active lifestyle – I'm hoping that I can start properly tomorrow 🤞

Budget – I'm going to try to reduce my food budget by an additional £20 this month - ongoing but I've done pretty well so far so am on course...

Opportunities - I've not had much opportunity to do stuff yet but I made good us of the time I had yesterday! 

Understand your finances: all is going well 

The magic roundabout needed maintenance so have a good look around your house - I've started making my list - just need to start to action it!! 😂