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

Cheery_Daff

rtandon27 said:

@Cheery_Daff - have you had a look at H0neydew or G00dbudget - I believe they are both free apps & can be shared.

I set up Good Budget and that's what we were planning to use - sadly Mr C's phone is too old to install it 🙄😂

Not tried the other one, will investigate, thank you! 

themadvix said:

Cheery_Daff said:

(I realise I literally just spent more than £3.49 on a coffee, I do know that 😬😂)

Ah yes, but it’s all about priorities and saving where you can to allow the coffee spends! And in all likelihood you’ll have something at home that will do the job!

Ha, you're quite right of course! 😂 For now, we're just going to use the A4 one I got for £1 in a charity shop that we used last month. 

Cheery_Daff

Lazy day here. Sorted some photos, did a massive catching-up blog post, made some soup with the end of the celery and some bendy carrots, and FINALLY sorted out the cupboard in the kitchen that holds open packets of dried things, and that was in an APPALLING mess. Things had originally been in 4 plastic tubs but a bag of sugar had leaked in one, and noodles had spilled in another, and they'd all got higgledy piggledy and things been shoved behind them 😬

Stuck the end of a bag of green lentils in my soup, but didn't find the red ones til too late. There are THREE open bags of pasta, and 2 of cous cous - both out of date in 2022 😬 I ditched some nuts and raisins, just cheapo ones that had to have been open for at least a year, the nuts were all soft and the fruit looked grey 😬. There's 2 open packets of flax seed, 2 open jars of lemon juice, three open packets of icing sugar, and four bags of sugar in various states of disarray, one entirely solid 😂

Oh dear! Better cupboard discipline needed, I think! 

Just having a cuppa then I'll get everything back in. Maybe pasta for tea, and a plan to use a significant amount of couscous in the near future 😬😂

Cheery_Daff

Popped out to stock up at the supermarket, and to bring my Vinted parcel back to the lockers. Realised that we had a full loyalty card for the cafe 😁 so here we are. Mr C's dad gave him ten £1 coins the other day (no idea why) - we used some in the 2p machines on the caravan site the other day 😂 and put the rest to good use getting ourselves a 'free' coffee. 

Weather is rather soggy, but it's feeling like a good day for soup, cafes, stocking up on food, and fiddling about with photographs 😊😊 All worthy autumnal activities 😊😊

Cheery_Daff

Evening chums 😊

More autumnal activities here, in the form of a risotto, and watching more old episodes of All Creatures Great and Small. And some flute playing - not particularly autumnal but I have got the dehumidifier running at the same time 😂

Just done some updating of the everyday pots after our trip - taken a bit of a battering already 😬amounts remaining: 

Food & household: £308.62/£350
Joint treats: £149.30/£200
My spends: £101.10/£150
Mr C spends: £144/£150
Diesel & parking: £242.99/£300

I'm not normally that profligate with my spends pot 😮 I sponsored a friend, booked a day at the co-working space with another friend, and the YHA membership came out - when I had YNAB I budgeted throughout the year for that but it's only £20 so on this occasion it's come from my pot. If I'm struggling by the end of the month I might reallocate out of the holiday fund (but really it's only for me). 

Filled the big car with diesel, spent £40 in Mr A, and stuck my vinted parcel back in the locker. 

A quietly productive day, surprisingly! 

Cheery_Daff

Evening chums 😊

Weather slightly more amenable today, although still quite blustery. 

A few more autumnal activities, although not quite as productive as yesterday. 

Finished a little craft project for a friend - that's all parcelled up waiting to go in the post tomorrow. 

Also pinned my new blanket to the floor, hoping it'll flatten itself out overnight having had a slight misting. 

Done a bit of rationalising of the spare room bedding. We have a single bed upstairs (with a single duvet) and a single downstairs that has a second single underneath it, they can slot together to make a double. The downstairs one has a double duvet, but it's actually a bit of a nuisance - it's a daybed and mostly used as a sofa for me during the working day, so having a double quilt folded on it is a bit of a nuisance. Also the background to my zoom calls, so needs to be tidy 😂

Anyway, bought 2 new sheets (the only single we have isn't deep enough for the mattress and keeps pinging off), and a single duvet. So the study daybed will have a single on (making it easier for one person to sleep in too) and the spare double quilt will have to be folded up under our bed, I think. 

Anyway, bit of messing about but it does make sense, I promise 😂

Remaining pots: 

Food & household: £285.62/£350 (bedding has come out of here)
Diesel & parking: £242.99/£300
Joint treats: £140.25/£200 - not starting the month strong here!
My spends: £99.10/£150
Mr C spends: £144/£150

Had yesterday's risotto for tea, but Mr C's just got some of the 'waste not want not' bread out of the freezer so I need to make a sandwich for tomorrow's lunch, and parcel up the leftover soup.

Not many plans this week.

Monday - co-working space with friend (no spending planned)
Tues - office, friend's for tea, no spending
Wed & Thurs - working at home
Fri - spa day with sister, all paid for including lunch (need to hire robes for £10 I think)
Weekend - no plans except band practice for me, but no doubt Mr C will want to do something sociable 

Right, that sandwich won't make itself!

greenbee

Having the right bedding is always handy I used to have one of those singles with another bed underneath that turns into a double - I ended up with two single duvets and a double for it (and two sets of bedding for each option as well) as it was quite often used as twin beds as well as a double. I don't have it anymore, but have kept the single duvets and duvet covers for use on the large single beds that usually have double duvets on as the singles are better in the summer. I'd rather have too much bedding than have to wash it in a hurry - and I have room to store it. Of course, since I moved, I've been renovating, so it's been too chaotic to have many visitors! Clearly that needs to change to justify all the bedding...

Cheery_Daff

Ha, yes, you definitely need to justify all that bedding with more visitors 😁

We've not yet had to have two singles downstairs - any combinations of visitors have always been fine with one up, one down, or a double downstairs (or use giving up our bed and sleeping in the living room - which reminds me, the living room sofa bed has lost its castors at the back and needs a plank of wood under it - not a problem as a sofa, but it was definitely rather slopy when I slept in it as a bed 😂)

Not a job for now though! 

Trying the new duvet tonight. Pinned the blanket to the floor of the study, and if I used the double duvet it'll interfere with all my pins so the single one is on there now. 

Cheery_Daff

Evening MSE chums 😊

Nicely autumnal here today 😊 I've been at the co-working space, a friend was meant to join me but was ill, so I had the place (and the biscuit supply 😬) to myself. Sun shone beautifully through the windows and I had a nice day 😊 made some progress on a task I am SO close to the end of, and when I got too sick of that, made a start on something else important that needs doing. All good. 

Mr C had an eventful start to the day. He was woken by a noise in the bedroom - not a mouse, but a wren! Somehow it had hopped in through the (not very) open window, and couldn't find its way back out again 🙄 Fortunately we have windows you can open wide enough for a human escape route upstairs, so he released the catch and it got out. What a to do! 

I've spent the last hour of proper daylight welding a pitchfork at the nettles I lopped down last week. Quite achey now, but I have five giant piles ready to be shifted somewhere else... at some point... Still not sure what to do with that ground - I think I might just have to get in there with a fork and dig the roots out 🙄 I've cut what I can with the scythe - the last few inches of everything are laying flat against the uneven ground, so a scythe won't do, and the strimmer will be equally difficult - the wire was struggling last time too. So a fork and a pair of gloves and a whole lot of elbow grease, I think! 

Last of the 'waste not want not' bread for lunch, and the last of my use-it-up soup for tea. I'll defrost a batch cooked meal to take to the office tomorrow. Love having tasty home made food without having to cook it the day you eat it 😁 So easy to get out of the habit of batch cooking but I love it when I do it!

Right, going to wash my hair and unpin this blanket from the floor 😊

Fortune_Smiles

Your wren might have been searching for a cosy roost for the winter but they are highly curious birds so it may have come in just to have a nose around 😂  We have them come into the house sometimes too.  It's supposed to mean good luck, happiness and change if they visit you.

Fortune x

Cheery_Daff

Fortune_Smiles said:

Your wren might have been searching for a cosy roost for the winter but they are highly curious birds so it may have come in just to have a nose around 😂  We have them come into the house sometimes too.  It's supposed to mean good luck, happiness and change if they visit you.

Fortune x

Ooh, well that's nice 😊 I'm glad Mr C was in and encouraged it back out before it set itself up in the wardrobe for the winter!