NST March 2024: The Magic Roundabout

Thrifty_Taylor

Perfect @apple_muncher, thank you 😃

To say I was up late last night, I was awake & more alert this morning! 😂 Had a great day at work - the teacher had made rabbit footprints outside the classroom, using a stencil & icing sugar, then left carrots, boiled eggs & chocolate lollipops dotted around in baskets. The 5 & 6 years olds were beyond excited!! Decorated the boiled eggs later, then went outside & rolled them down a slope. Great fun! Had a good chat with the teacher after work, wish she worked more than 2 days, she's so lovely.

DH felt queasy when I got home, do had a lie down. I read the local paper, then did some tidying. After tea, I visited my friend before she heads off for radiotherapy on Monday.

Had a long soak in the bath after practising my hair style for staff meal out tomorrow night & the end of term 🎉🥳

Grateful for watching the children's excitement, a good chat with the teacher & my friend, watching Starlings murmurating on the way home

lcc86

Morning turtles and happy long weekend to those not working.

My time away with family was mixed as I came down with a migraine on the one full day I was there and was pretty much laid up all day, which was frustrating, but not much I could've done about it. It was still nice to see them as I haven't been able to get up there this year until now. Had spend days on Tuesday and Thursday, nothing major though. 

I'm back home now and finally feeling much better! Have done a few jobs this morning. I logged onto my work laptop to finalise my April budget (note to self - buy Office for your own laptop!) and saw an email confirming my "direct competition" for this promotion attended to a management meeting while I've been off, so my OCD symptoms have gone into complete overdrive with catastrophising. Absolutely nothing I can do about it but it doesn't stop negative thoughts. I'll still do my interview prep this weekend but it's put a bit of a downer on things for me. I've not long finished CBT so I need to really make an effort today to use some of those techniques to ensure I don't let it overwhelm me.

Today's plans are to possibly go to the gym a bit later for a bit of distraction, aquarium maintenance, and to sort my diary for the month ahead. I've also moved money into my various savings pots and paid a couple of bills that needed paying ready for April.

apple_muncher

April is live;

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6517080/nst-april-2024-april-appreciation/p1?new=1

DawnW

lcc86 said:

I'm back home now and finally feeling much better! Have done a few jobs this morning. I logged onto my work laptop to finalise my April budget (note to self - buy Office for your own laptop!)

Or better still, download Apache Open Office for free! I use it all the time, and it is fine for home use, including budgets.

Hope everyone is having a nice Good Friday. The weather is odd here, sunny one minute and quite pleasant, and a huge downpour the next   Still, I managed to spread a bag of manure on the veg patch and pot up some sedums I bought at L*dl earlier in the week. Also transplanted some tiny seedlings from the propagator, but that was an indoor on a large tray job!

We aren't planning to go anywhere, as the roads round here are chaotic with flooding (again!), roadworks and accidents. We did the shopping on Tuesday, and if we haven't got something, we will do without it to be honest. So another NSD, although I have lost count as usual   

I am working tomorrow, so have got lots of niggling little jobs out of the way. The downstairs could do with hoovering, but the dog has to go out for that, as he doesn't like the hoover, and it is raining and he doesn't like that either   That sounds a ridiculous set of excuses I know!

Dinner tonight will be a frittata which is excellent for using up lots of little bits and leftovers from the fridge. I might make a rice pudding too  

Work tomorrow, as the shop is closed today for the BH. I usually do Fridays, so happy to do tomorrow instead. I have a box of items to price up for my sales unit, so better get on with that.

Grateful for a day at home, my ridiculous dog and not getting too wet earlier in the garden.

beanielou

The weather the same here @DawnW. 

lcc86

DawnW said:

lcc86 said:

I'm back home now and finally feeling much better! Have done a few jobs this morning. I logged onto my work laptop to finalise my April budget (note to self - buy Office for your own laptop!)

Or better still, download Apache Open Office for free! I use it all the time, and it is fine for home use, including budgets.

Hope everyone is having a nice Good Friday. The weather is odd here, sunny one minute and quite pleasant, and a huge downpour the next   Still, I managed to spread a bag of manure on the veg patch and pot up some sedums I bought at L*dl earlier in the week. Also transplanted some tiny seedlings from the propagator, but that was an indoor on a large tray job!

We aren't planning to go anywhere, as the roads round here are chaotic with flooding (again!), roadworks and accidents. We did the shopping on Tuesday, and if we haven't got something, we will do without it to be honest. So another NSD, although I have lost count as usual   

I am working tomorrow, so have got lots of niggling little jobs out of the way. The downstairs could do with hoovering, but the dog has to go out for that, as he doesn't like the hoover, and it is raining and he doesn't like that either   That sounds a ridiculous set of excuses I know!

Dinner tonight will be a frittata which is excellent for using up lots of little bits and leftovers from the fridge. I might make a rice pudding too  

Work tomorrow, as the shop is closed today for the BH. I usually do Fridays, so happy to do tomorrow instead. I have a box of items to price up for my sales unit, so better get on with that.

Grateful for a day at home, my ridiculous dog and not getting too wet earlier in the garden.

Thanks for the tip, I'll definitely look into that!

Starlight_at_Sea

I hope everyone is coming through the storm ok, we had lots of tree damage and high water levels but not too much disruption to infrastructure this time! 
I hope end of term celebrations go well Thrifty! Thanks apple for the April challenge. I'm really not too sure where March went to be honest... 

Some nice things happened:
DD was home briefly 
Dad and I got away for a few days
Lots of time with kids in the extended family 
Friends came down for a weekend
I managed a couple of work trips including catching the Pullman dining train home this week! 
Dad delivered a history talk to 180 people!
The painting was done in the flat courtesy of friends visiting
Lots of overtime / Flexi built up on urgent work project which I delivered quite awesomely I think!
mortgage on the house dipped below the next 10's of thousands marker let's not think about where the mortgage on the flat is right now 
friends came over for dinner one night and I cooked a proper meal, just like old times 

Some necessary things happened: 
Boiler got repaired at my house
Garage got repaired at dads house
I finally sorted out my water bills at the flat 
A few paying guests visited 
New cleaner started at the flat as I need some backup somewhere! 

Some tough stuff happened: 
3 relatives in hospital, two discharged with life changing situations, one of which brings a lot of complexity to get used to on a day to day basis 
bills, bills and even more bills 
not really too sure how long I can stomach this job for, for various reasons and yet (see above!)

There was largely inertia/ no change on:
Sorting out mum's things and estate 
Improving physical health and fitness and progressing some medical appts
sorting out my fairly clapped out car 
reconnecting with some important people in my life  

weenancyinAmerica

All of our plans for Easter are on hold - for another week. We are still having weird weather here in Southern California - expecting a huge storm over the weekend, including possible hail and thunderstorms - and 4 inches of rain here, 6-8 inches at my sister's, where we were going for Easter. So we will be celebrating next Sunday instead - hopefully the storms will stop as this having storms every weekend is getting old. We did have our Good Friday miracle today as one of my roommates had a call from one of his daughters for the first time in several years. Found out he has five grandchildren. His other daughters aren't in contact with him at all, so this was a special event. And another roommate actually has an appointment to go try out for a job at an amusement park (about an hour away). He plans to work at the local amusement park too as they have him on a waiting list for a job. It may be a couple of months before he goes to work - but it will be very good for him to be regularly employed again. 

lcc86

Morning turtles

Spent most of yesterday in a bit of a funk, couldn't shake the mood for whatever reason. I did get all my jobs done, including interview prep and sorting out my LinkedIn profile in the event I don't get the promotion. Went for a walk for an hour as well but not much else to report.

Woke up really early this morning for some reason, plan was for boxing class today but my headache is coming back so have taken some paracetamol and will see how I get on. Also need to do some batch cooking and finish the washing I started yesterday. It feels as though about 10 people live in this house sometimes not 2!

grandmanerd

A week ago (Saturday) I nearly fell in the back yard. After the original stumble I took 2 lurching side steps and managed to correct myself, but wrenched my ankle and knee (area between my ankle and my calf was swollen and painful on Sunday and awkward for a couple more days) and was very shaken. There have been about 4 other minor incidents over the past 3 weeks - maybe just clumsy or maybe a sign that my mental health is 'off balance'. I took my last hayfever tablet on Saturday and could not find the new packs. Spent Sunday with my eyes and nose streaming (all  3 of us also have a cough/ cold/ sore throat - not COVID as Beloved did a test, but it's very disabling). Finally gave in and did a food order including the tablets.  Took extra tablets 2 or 3 times (it was bad enough to stop me getting to sleep or back to sleep in the night).

I'm very sleepy (may be the tablets or just me not able to cope with my life as it is atm). Some things have been done each day but not much. I'm bothered by how quickly my energy dissipates and how many days it takes me to recover from any effort to get things done. I'm also very cross with DS3, my brother and my niece but I'm just holding it inside, so that's hurting me again. DS3 made a remark yesterday and I snapped back that he could go and live in a cardboard box. My niece is trying to be helpful but her last text says my brother is improving but then 'will shortly be okay to talk about the tenant'? Well no, he's gone, that's over with, the primary mess has been dealt with. Any further hints that I should track him down and drag him back to deal with the mess, will be met with extreme prejudice. 

And my brother (stuck again with the can't yell at someone with multiple conditions dealing with the aftermath of cancer treatment) but in many ways he's got  on with his life. he bought himself a lovely new camper van and he and the dog have been away several times. His daughter sorted all  his new (non- means tested) benefits, still sorts all his paperwork, food deliveries and  hauls  him off to the doctor/ A & E as required. Meanwhile I'm still dealing with my domestic stuff, ill health, DS3 and Beloved's traumas and problems, fallout from house problems that haven't been fixed and still dealing with mum's estate. It took from mum's death in January 2022 to August to clear and clean her bungalow and get it up for sale. It sold quickly but then the process of selling dragged on until January last year (with more jumping through hoops for me). I couldn't walk for most of last year (now okay for a steady totter on good days) and the last thing I needed was to start another house sale (grandma's house). Another 6 months dealing with the tenant and winter bugs and now another mess of a house to deal with.

No holiday, no new kitchen, leaks from the bathroom (going through the hole in the ceiling into the kitchen), black mould in the corner of the  room I'm in,  no cleaner, no space and the mess is building up again, despite my admittedly poor efforts/ just doing my best. So I've been physically and mentally down this week and as usual withdrawing (many many apologies for failing to respond to those of you struggling with illness and bereavement and horrible jobs - I'm reading but finding it hard to respond appropriately). I'll just keep sending hugs.

I'm still being positive, still getting in the shower each day and doing extra grooming bits, I finally managed to empty (decant into the tall freezer and other fridge-freezer), my fridge freezer,  turn it off, do a full defrost (getting rid of the huge ice lumps at the back of the fridge, then clean it out and turn it back on (over 3 days). Some food waste unfortunately (but some things embedded in the ice were 'gone' already, it was just a matter of accepting it. A wider purge of garden/ non urgent rubbish put in bins belonging to the 2 empty rented houses.

A lot of rubbish and recycling has gone out, some clothes and bedding have been washed, dried, returned (some went out for several days before coming back inside. I've  cut down the e-mail list and unsubscribed to reduce the volume coming in. Some washing was done (the pipework under the sink won't  go back in place and bowls and buckets need to be taken outside), I may bring a new bowl up  here and wash pots in the bathroom (find some way of moving things along in the kitchen). No more appointments have been made for work to be done or estimates of the cost. One item was missing from my prescription and I opted for  the chemist resubmitting it as I didn't thing my voice would hold out if I phoned the doctor.

All my daily slimpod tips have been taken from my emails and put in my diary, I had positive responses from the first batch of grand-daughter pictures I posted and I've trawled through my online diaries and bits of notes and got all my estate expenses up to date (taxis, bin bags - 3 sorts, power bill, Council Tax bill and waste wizards bills). I've read lots, have watched several gripping dramas (and rediscovered a few new episodes of ones I was watching previously) and enjoyed some daft films - Sally Phillips (Smack the Pony) has written/ directed some lovely stuff and I've overdosed a bit on David Tennant and the odd American comedy (last nights had only 2 British accents - received pronunciation for all the rich people with enormous houses/ small castles including the bride to be who had an American mother and a French father and 'mockney' for all 'staff' (caterers, waiting staff in restaurants, drivers, hotel staff).

I'm also considering moving into grandma's house myself. Considering pros and cons - I like being in the town centre and close to the library/ shops but those options are increasingly less viable. Grandma's house has a far better kitchen layout (and is 'usable in it's  present state) but a smaller and darker yard (next door built a full  length extension in the sixties). I love my garden here but it needs sorting out and if I leave DS3 and Beloved here 
I can still use it as they only venture outside once a week to put out the bins. Grandma's house has a S/ N facing roof so could have solar panels (energy company has a scheme). Next door's extension makes the yard fairly private so I might be able to have a full yard 'conservatory/ geodesic long dome' with a toilet and shower inside (there used to be an outside toilet attached to the house so the pipework should still be in place) Or maybe I need to accept that I need a bungalow.

It's mainly because if I can come to an agreement with my brother (if there are arguments then my opening offer reduces by £1k per month - I've had enough), I can proceed with repairs/ improvements on the basis of what I want (and could get DS1 and DS2 on board for  help with cleaning/ painting and moving) rather than trying to get decisions from DS3/  Beloved on choices of floor coverings, paint colours, curtains as well as continuing to prod them in the direction of mortgages. Once I've  gone, I could persuade them to go on a little holiday and get the essential repairs done - bath seal redone, hole in floor/  kitchen ceiling mended, a new sink unit.  Then they can continue paying rent (more than now) be responsible for all the bills and it's up to them to sort out a mortgage, getting the kitchen they want, painting the grubby bits. I can take the things I love and leave them with things I don't and the bits they did to my house without asking (tv on an arm on the chimney breast, sound proof panelling in the bedroom). And all their mess.

Ah well, it's making me feel better. 

So once again I need to start building good habits and stacking them, concentrate on the basics (food, hygiene, clean clothes money) and building in lots of self-care.

Grateful for nearly everything, despite my grumbling.