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

Cheery_Daff

I am not eligible for my own bus pass for another 23 years (at least) so I am quite jealous! 😂

Spends to report today. £50 in Mr A, just normal food etc. And £99 in the garden centre 😱 But part of a planned project - climbers to go up the new fence behind the living room, and some bamboo to screen off a bit of the garden. 

There was 20% off all plants today, no idea why, and I signed up to their loyalty card scheme - we'd just come out of the cafe so they added points on for that too. So we've now got £6.19 worth of points, another £2.50 to be added for registering the card, and we can spend £5 at a time as it accumulates. 

Not been to that garden centre before but might go back if I ever need to. 

So that all needs planting, although not today, because it's raining, and Mr C has gone to pick a friend up from the bus (different town to the garden centre) so I'm having a quick tidy round before they get back. What i actually want is a shower but there isn't really time (although there might be if I stopped sitting here talking to you! 😂)

Cheery_Daff

Afternoon MSE chums! 

Feeling very autumnal here - probably because I have a month off work, so it's likely we won't see the sun again til I go back in September 😡

Still, we did eat outside last night (well wrapped up 😂) and I got up and went for a very blustery and rainy run while the others were still asleep. So I got my shower eventually! 😂

Mr C's gone off to a band practice now, dropping friend at the bus stop on the way, so I have the place to myself for a few hours.

So, a plan! 

* re-do the washing from the other day - I never hung it up and it needs re-washing. Annoying, but just how it is sometimes. Been raining, and friend has been sleeping where I usually hang it.

* finish making curtains for the study. One set left- I cut and pinned them weeks ago, just need to sew and hang. Shouldn't take more than a couple of hours. I might finish the decorations on the upstairs ones while I'm at it.

* make some soup in the hay box. Definitely a day for soup! 

* small bit of decluttering - trying to do a bit every day while I'm off

* flute practice 

* get the IPL machine out later

That should all keep me occupied!

rtandon27

That's an uncharacteristically short & acheivable list! 🤣🤣🤣

Cheery_Daff

😂😂 It is, and yet I've still not done most of it yet 😂😂

Washing has been second washed (I did add this morning's running kit) and is now on the line. We've been having showers but it's sunny right now and the wind is so strong that I figured everything might be dry before the next shower anyway 😂

Photos sorted and blog post written. 

Soup is in the hay box, and back out to heat up again, and back in. Green lentils take a while!

Off upstairs to get these curtains done. The craft room has gotten a bit dishevelled so I'll have a bit of a tidy while I'm up there.

Cheery_Daff

Oops, sidetracked when I remembered I meant to ring to FINALLY sort a mortgage overpayment

Been paying £1051.57 a month since our fix in November - an amount I know annoys many of you (Probably not as much as our previous £919.99 )

Planned to increase to £1060, but at the last minute decided we could manage an extra tenner. So payment now sitting at £1070. 

Original end date was Feb 2043, new end date Sept 2042. I'll be 62, Mr C just turned 80. Interest saved around £2000. Hard to know exactly as my calculator spreadsheet calculates interest saved on the basis of our original 1.8% interest rate, so even with the overpayment it says we will have saved minus £42,374

So, £152.761.53 left at the minute. 

Mr C collects his state pension in 2029 - at that point we'll have about £127k left. If we throw his whole pension at it (based on current figures) it'll be gone by May 2036, and we will have saved £47,830 (much better than minus £44k) I'd be 56, he'd be 73. Much better!

Not sure whether we'll actually do that - that's the plan, but we may use some of that to let me drop down to 3 days at work (if I haven't already done so). Obviously it'll also depend on health, whether we're still living in this house, etc etc. 

My spreadsheet tells me this is the first overpayment we've made since June 2021 Which was before I dropped to 4 days, and before we had the building work done. So we've had other priorities, but it feels good to get back to this again, especially now the interest rate is higher (4.46% now - 2.26% last fix, and 1.8% at the start). 

Onwards! (And upstairs to get those blithering curtains done!)

Cheery_Daff

Curtains done! 😃 All fully finished and hung up 😊😊

Really pleased - they're plain and boring but they just look like normal curtains, rather than something odd and homemade (I love the ones upstairs, but they do look like I made them 😂😂 and the sari blinds in the kitchen are fab but they don't look remotely normal 😂).

Anyway, curtains on all 3 windows anyway match and are an easy length to open and close 😃

Didn't work out full cost, but the fabric was reduced to £3 a metre (i might have gone for something more interesting but couldn't resist that price). Making 6 curtains, hot on the heels of making 4 for upstairs, has given me a good appreciation if how curtain-making works - another skill to add to my pot 😊

Soup is ready, blended, eaten, and 3 portions in bags, cooling for the freezer 😊

Gosh I'm productive when I'm here on my own and I haven't had to go to work for a few days 🙄😂 Roll on retirement!

earthgirl2

Great progress and glad your curtains are up and looking good! 

ladyholly

Who wants normal curtains?

Cheery_Daff

ladyholly said:

Who wants normal curtains?

Ha, well sometimes I like them to look a little bit normal 😂 

Anyway, thank you both 😊

Windy and rainy this morning, so I designated today an English Heritage day, and toddled off to Brodsworth Hall, and then nipped into Conisbrough Castle too. There was a Victorian falconry display at the hall, so I watched that while eating lunch, and had an ice cream from the kiosk. 

They were both interesting in different ways, but I likely won't be returning to either.

Pondering English Heritage membership next year - I got a deal when I signed up so this one has run from August last year til December this year, I paid £57, and have used £122 worth of entrance fees, so it's definitely paid for itself! I've enjoyed it - but I've been to everywhere within about a 2 hour radius now, and it's unlikely I'll be a repeat visitor. I'll be going to at least one place on my solo weekend away (not sure where yet!) and maybe I'll sneak in a couple more places before the year is up, but not sure if I'll continue with it next year, especially as it's not something we're doing together. 

Anyway, not a completely free day out, but I did take lunch and a cup of tea with me, so only bought tea and ice cream. 

Mr C has been sorting out his music room, so the table is covered in boxes of Small Things To Be Put Away 😬 I've amassed several bags of change, and will nip to the bank with them in the morning. Have also assigned several items to the bin (and having sat in a different chair i can now see several more 😂). 

Feeling very ready for more decluttering! 

Weather looks nice tomorrow, so aside from popping out on an errand in the morning, I think we'll have a washing and gardening day. Got bits of fence still to get up, and all those plants we bought the other day to get in. 

Not much more activity for tonight though. Must wash my hands again - I washed all the change, but my hands still smell coppery 😂

Cheery_Daff

Also need to decide about youth hostel membership. £20 a year, and gives a discount (will check how much). I used it for my solo weekend lat year, and it runs til the end of September, so I'll get this year's solo weekend out of it too, but is it worth renewing? 

Holiday-wise, we have decided that our trip away for Mr C's birthday this month will be a No Quibble weekend - meaning I will organise, and he will just get in the car and be driven, and there will be NO QUIBBLING about destination or activities 😂 We regularly used to have No Quibble weekends away several years ago (to save arguments and compromises) but fell out of the habit when we got the chickens and didn't go anywhere at all. 

So I need to investigate something exciting! But not too expensive 😂 Have been looking at Groupon but nothing is grabbing me. Any suggestions? Don't want to fly anywhere!