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

Baileys_Babe

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81862889#Comment_81862889

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81862891#Comment_81862891

Echoing these sentiments

Watty1

Hope the news is good this morning.

KajiKita

Sending good vibes for Mr C Snr x

KK

Cheery_Daff

Thank you lovely people xx

Mr C Snr is in good spirits, especially as he is 88 years old and has been stuck on a chair in a corridor all day as there are no beds 😬 But he's fine, feeling marginally better with IV antibiotics, and chatting with everyone who goes past. It is at least a corridor within the ward, so it's the same nurses back and forth chatting to him. He'll have a bed tonight, we are assured. The food is apparently excellent and so all is good. He's a cheerful soul on the whole.

We are, inevitably, in a cafe. Lots of driving today and still 2.5-3 hours before we get home, so we are fortifying ourselves as we will inevitably hit rush hour somewhere along the way 😬

Potato day was cheerful. I have 15 tubers for planting - 10 'swift' first earliest, and 5 'kestrel' second earliest. I know nothing about either variety, except they are quicker to harvest than the main crop varieties, which is good given our frost windows. Swift is apparently very speedy (hence the name) and kestrel is apparently very flavoursome. Also got 2 bulbs of garlic, a packet of French beans and another of seeds, and some mustard for green manure, grand total of £10 all in. I'm pleased I finally got there, I've been meaning to go to Potato Day for about 15 years 😂

Got my half stone award at slimming world today too. I started in October, but as I wiggled up a pound and down a pound for the first 3 months and found myself at Christmas the same weight as in October, I am willfully ignoring that bit. Half a stone has been lost since the new year, so that's good 😊

So not a bad day Allington all. A shiny sticker at SW, the promise of a good harvest at the Potato Day, and Mr C Snr is being well looked after. And we are in a cafe, which is one of our favourite places. All good 😊

Merlin's_Beard

Glad to hear Mr CSenior is looking up. And well done on achieving your SW goals!

edwink

Well done on your half stone award at SW Cheery.

Love Edwink x

Sun_Addict

Lots of good news there. Hope Mr C senior continues to improve.

greent

Well done on the SW sticker! Hope Mr C snr continues to improve on the antibs

Cheery_Daff

Thank you all 😊

Having a quiet day today. Made some veggie cottage pie, reorganised the freezer, cleaned the bathroom, played my flute for a bit, did the round up of January finances.

Totals spent (and overspent):

Food & household: £329.66/£350

Joint treats: £201.01/£200

Diesel & parking: £419.92/£300

My treats: £185.79/£150

Mr C treats: £67.60/£150

Total: £1203.98/£1150

So £53.98 overspent in total.

What happened? Treats budget was pretty much dead on, not worried about that. Food was under for a change. We only did 2 'big shops' (£40 + £67), the rest was smaller, and that also included things like a snow shovel, logs & kindling etc (which didn't get used).

My Treats budget was all over the place! Met my sister for lunch, and a friend at a National Trust place for lunch, entered a race (£36), and the rest looks to have been books and charity shop clothes etc. Need to reign myself in 🙄

Mr C far more abstemious, as usual 😬

Diesel was extortionate, although both cars have been filled in the last couple of days so hopefully that'll last a bit - 7 tanks of diesel in total. Four lots of parking at work, not too bad (£32 total) and some other parking, plus a couple of trams/trains and a taxi when the car was in the garage (twice).

So not too wildly out of control.

SprSpreadsheet needs topping up, there's been a bit of spending from pots - garage, boiler, a train that i can claim on expenses, Mr C's NI contributions etc.

cash book set up for Feb, and now I need to head to band practice. Going to take some of the excess bread that won't fit in the freezer or else it'll just go for waste

Cheery_Daff

Evening chums, where on earth has the week gone??

Work, mostly, and travelling. In the office Monday then home. Back in the office Tuesday, met a friend from far off for lunch, then a train down south, a work meal, a late night finishing pre-meeting homework, an all day meeting on Wednesday, late train back, stayed at a friend's house, then office again today.

Finally made it home about 5.30 tonight - came home after my final meeting because it was snowing on the route 🙄 Quite a bit of snow, and fog, but bizarrely concentrated in just one place, and for once none at our house 😂

Very tired now.

Not spent loads though. Paid for parking on Monday, but on Tuesday I left the car at my friend's house. Paid for dinner out with friend on Tuesday (about £8 in total), but I'd packed food for the journey, and even had food with me for Wednesday's journey home! Paid for a taxi to friend's house (it was almost 10pm, and raining hard) but that was only £6. Not too bad.

Very much looking forward to a quiet weekend! I can feel a list coming on....