Cheery's path to fulfilment - finishing the DIY, looking after myself, appreciating the garden 🌻

Cheery_Daff

Thanks Beanie 🥰

Shower uneventful (but aided nicely by grab handles, which i shall be arguing to keep in any future bathroom renovations).

Banking finished and everything allocated where it should be. This time of year I need hold my nerve for the next 3 months or so - this is when the majority of our annual expenses occur, so savings pots get alarmingly depleted, one by one, and the YNAB 'net worth' figure (which shows the total of all your accounts) drops dramatically - I try to ignore this as mostly we're just spending stuff we've saved for, like car insurance and LPG, but even so).

Yesterday's energy use chart is in, nothing dramatic, so it is very obvious when I've put the kettle on 😂


Overall cheaper than the other tariff, and mostly avoided peak times so all good. Not sure what happened at 6.30, I was about to blame Mr C for putting something in the microwave but he went out at 5pm so perhaps it was just me putting the kettle on again! 😂 Interestingly, I stewed my apples at 7.30 and used 0.31kwh (including background freezer etc), not much more than the half hour slots where I used the kettle. But I only had the hob on high for about 5 mins, then turned it right down, probably for another 20.

Will be interesting to see how much of a spike the washing machine has had this morning. 

I've retrieved several jars from the cupboard, mostly just with very last dregs of thing that should never have been put back in 🙄 A bit of supermarket honey has been decanted into another part-jar (which was plastic, rather than glass). I've finally ditched the fire cider I made almost 4 years ago and then barely drank because it was disgusting 😂 It's a large jar, so it might not get filled, but I'll keep that one myself.

Right, onwards. Jam-making scheduled for cheap electric time from 1.30.

I was going to hang the washing out but it looks like a mist is descending, so the study with the dehumidifier it is.

KajiKita

What Beanie said. 

Plus, that’s a fairly ambitious list with a sore back - take it sloooowly! 

KK

badmemory

I am going to have to do one of these Octopus rates & frankly the more I see the terrified I am.  If i don't then from mid October at least the solar & batteries seem to be totally pointless.

greenbee

@badmemory - Flux is probably the easiest for you. Cheap 2am-5am to charge the battery (and do anything else you can put on delayed start), expensive 4pm-7pm when you can sit in the dark using a phone/laptop/tablet that you charged earlier! If you have more in the battery than you need at 4pm to get you through to 2am you can export then and you get back a tiny bit more than you paid for it. Obviously when it's sunny you probably don't need the night-time import so you make even more 'profit' when you export as much as possible at peak rate. 

badmemory

That sounds good thank you so much.  I am just feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment.  Moments of wondering what on earth I was thinking, but I will get there.  I always do.  To be honest I sometimes wonder what I would do without MSE & the people on here.  No-one in my real life seems to have a clue so there is no-one to chat about it with.  AND I STILL HAVEN'T GOT THE PAPERWORK.  Again promised on Friday pm.  Somehow grinding my teeth doesn't seem to help.  It is a good job I have a sense of humour.

greenbee

The more I hear from other people the more I realise how lucky I was with my installer and his efficiency with the paperwork.

Cheery_Daff

Thank you for sharing energy advice greenbee! We can continue the MSE love-in from @themadvix thread earlier today 😂

A surprisingly productive and pottery day today. Jam took forever, of course 😂 I used both apples and blackcurrants from the freezer and umi should have been more diligent about thawing first, but never mind. Ten variously-sized jars of apple & blackcurrant jam, to add to the seven I made the other day 😮 we are awash! 😂

Mr C has been out of sorts today so we had a cafe trip, where a very endearing toddler from the next table took great interest in my writing 🥰😂 I drew a smiley face, and they pointed and looked VERY closely, so a drew something else, and something else, and they did the same thing 😂 eventually i gave them the pen, and they drew an epic masterpiece in my notebook while their parents looked faintly embarrassed and kept trying to encourage them away (although not very energetically 😂 But it was quite clear that I was fine with it, and they were sitting very close)

Then we wandered through the park - I'd be hoping to catch the big fireworks display, but sadly we were just too late for the quieter kids display, and far too early for the big one. Hey ho 

Stopped for diesel, Mr C nipped in the shop and came out with tea that required the oven being on - fortunately I managed to convince him to wait 9 minutes until after 7pm so it was slightly cheaper at least 😂

Between that and two pans of jam and sterilising jars in the oven I don't hold much hope for a low-energy day when the readings come in tomorrow... 🙈

Not sure what to do with myself now. We are both slightly physically uncomfortable in different ways, and generally not being at our most patient and cheerful, so I suspect it's best if one of us gets in the bath and locks the door. Question is, which one?!

Cheery_Daff

Well, yesterday's verdict wasn't too bad, considering, and still overall cheaper than the standard tariff.



Even putting the oven on at 7pm wasn't too bad.



I'm struggling today 😕 Back is behaving abominably, and is NOT remotely happy about sitting at a desk, whether at a normal height or propped up with me on a higher stool. I do have a standing desk, but lent it to someone... have sent a few emails to try and find it. I'm going to have a go at standing at the kitchen counter this afternoon - there's a step, so one side of the counter has bar stools under, and is actually a pretty good height for standing.

In the meantime I'm running a lunchtime bath, trying to get my muscles to relax a bit. 

We have some friends staying not too far away who said they may pop in this afternoon. It would be good to know either way - Mr C wants to nip out for a bit (and I might get him to get me stronger painkillers) and it would be good if they didn't arrive while I was here on my own and in the bath 😂

Hey ho. Mr C had a slipped disc 20 odd years ago, before he met me, and was off work for 6 months, so while this is nowhere near as dramatic, he is sympathetic, and has since been pretty good with his own back health. I need to get better about mine! 

rtandon27

Ouch to the back Cheery - hope the luxurious mid-day bath helps!

I woke up this morning with every joint aching so got up and had a very long shower to ease the ache.  The USB heating pad has been in constant use all day, but my next step is an anti-inflammatory.  The joys of getting older, eh?

Cheery_Daff

Urgh, sorry you're suffering too RT! 

I experimented with cold compress this morning rather than hot - in more pain than I have been (but that might be because sitting at a desk). Returning to hot this afternoon, I think! 

No sign of friends yet, or even a message from them 🤔 Mr Cheery has gone out anyway, with instructions for better painkillers. Going to attempt some standing up work this afternoon - might be functional stuff rather than deep concentration stuff...