Progress is...

teapot2

'bit of fun and a lot of rest' - sounds good to me and not too spendy = bonus 

Greying_Pilgrim

rt - your 'staycation' sounds pretty spiffy!  I'm sad to report that despite staying in a purple hotel in Marlborough, at the height of the 'Mopfair' (the big one I think, not the small one.... or was it the small, to be followed by the big 🤔), we didn't venture into Marlborough at all 😔 I did pop to the MrT's for milk in the morning - and we passed the school, which was clearly having an open day - but that's about the sum of my experience of the lovely town (our bad).

Mmmm, I'm pondering your seasidey expedition.  I'm pondering the mouth of the bourne, but wonder if this is chi-chi enough?  I didn't realise how spread out as a place that is.  Maybe C'church?  Loverly beaches there - and the wild ponies 🥰.  Our claim to fame is having a picnic lunch in a random carpark there, surrounded by multi million £ homes, watching wild ponies and dog walkers in a torrential downpour........  Gee, we know how to live 🤣

I'm intrigued - does the cooking pot have 2 lids?  I only ask as the ticky-tocky vids I was watching included a ceramic cooking pot that had a 'flat' lid, and a 'domed' lid, and the dish was 'done' when the steam whooshed out of the domed lid (cooking on a commercial gas hob).  I've not seen anything like it before. 

Enjoy the rest of the weekend .  Greying X

themadvix

Can recommend Slow Horses, Shrinking and For All Mankind on the fruitytv RT, if you’ve got it for a while.

 Your week sounds like a lovely balance of home and out and about.

Baileys_Babe

Your staycation sounds like a good blend of adventure and relaxing.

rtandon27

@Greying_Pilgrim
* haha - not sure if spiffy is the word, but it was done on our terms & just the right thing for our current financial situation and my need to have some proper rest!
* I had to g00gle Mopfair, as I'd no clue what that was - everyday is a school day - I'll have to remember festival that as it falls around the same date as Canadian Thanksgiving & might make for a fun outing!  If you do ever go back, there is a lovely church at one end of the High Street free to enter and often has free art shows - on occasion, I've also seen cream teas for sale for a fraction of the tourist places.  We tend to frequent the Waitflower café as a cheaper option than the chain coffee shops - toasties are quite nice too!
* Yes indeed you have guessed the correct town, the town-of-mouth is quite cosmopolitan, though I'm not sure I'd describe any part of it as chi-chi - it is a town of character & quite a bit of fun to explore, not all parts of it are palitable or even safe, but all the other lovely parts make up for that! We also have friends there who live 5 minutes from the beach so we tend to go with them to enjoy sunsets on the sand (not sure if we've done C-church, though OH seems to think we have!)
* the cooking pot is solid clay - an old-fashioned thing similar to this one but a faction of the cost! I've never seen a fancy one like the one you've described - my experience is only with stone bowls for bibimbap or clay bowls for stew/soups/steamed things.

@themadvix - thanks for the recommendations Vix!  have bookmarked them in our watch list - I'd watched the trailer for Shrinking and it looked quite good.  We are currently watching Schmigadoon & Mythic Quest - OH is binging Ted Lasso on his own & my pick is Wondla - He's also hankering after Foundation, having read the books eons ago.

@Baileys_Babe - definitely a good balance for us this week - I'm still full of fatigue so have to reign everything back to a slower pace so as to avoid the boom or bust cycle!

HEALTH & WELLBEING
* Went to the loveliest afterhours clinic today - ironically the doctor on duty is a lovely chappy from my practice.  He got to hear all about my frustrations with the ladies who run the front desk at our practice.  He took one look at my legs and asked why I'd not come in 3 weeks ago!  (So I told him exactly why, which reflected quite poorly on the battle axes!) I've had an unpleasant reaction to one of my meds which has resulted in swelling & eczema from the knees down.  Well I'm off that particular med and have a series of instructions of what to do as follow-up and the timeline it should happen in.  The lovely receptionist at the after-hours practice reminded me that there is the option of evening hours as well so don't take no for an answer from my own practice harpies!
* found some replacements for my beloved peacock embroidered jeans.  They fit well, so no alterations needed in the length & with 20gbp off the sale prices are quite the deal - much plainer than my favs but will do for now. - I revived an old trick, buying crop trousers that end up being full length on my not too tall self, but would be that most unflattering of lengths on a person of average height.  It's always been a trend I just don't understand!

WEALTH
* Our monthly phone/internet bill came in with a 10 pound increase - I don't usually pay much attention to this particular bill as in theory OH does, but I had a look through it online and have instructed OH to call them up on Monday and cancel both our unlimited minutes and international freedom.  I always use wotsapp for my international calls these days and we both use our unlimited mobile minutes for UK calls.  We will save almost 30 pounds a months which will go straight to Project H20 once he confirms the changes.  He's also having a look for a cheaper internet package & it looks like we could reduce that by 5 pounds a month by locking into a 3 year contract.  He's a gamer and I work from home so we need an unlimited high-speed connection.  Even with the stated in-contract increases we would still only be paying what we pay now by the end of the contract.

GRATITUDES
* Our staycation was calm and slower paced than any away-holiday we could have organized - just what was needed.
* My overactive imagination has been calmed down by a confirmation that my leg situation is only an allergy/reaction, entirely reversible and nothing more.
* even when you think there is no wiggle room in a tight budget, opportunities show that savings can be made!

Baileys_Babe

rtandon27 said:

@Baileys_Babe - definitely a good balance for us this week - I'm still full of fatigue so have to reign everything back to a slower pace so as to avoid the boom or bust cycle!

Sorry to hear that your fatigue is still in a bad phase. My OH's fatigue is also rather full on at present which he is finding particularly frustrating this time round 😞 I hope you both manage to improve and stabilise.

foxgloves

My main memory of visiting Marlborough was how good the charity shop hunting was, as it so often is in affluent communities. There was stuff on sale in them way better than the contents of my wardrobe! Came away with a skirt & handbag.
F

rtandon27

Quick midweek update...

Payday today & budget cleaned up - all the basics covered for May/Jun/Jul & mortgage overpayment for May as well.  Once OH's pension comes in we'll juggle again!  We may or may not make be able to pay Jun & Jul overpayments - TBC.

Underspent categories are my lunch budget & toiletries/make-up budget - 20 pounds put into June's bills.  We did overspend on the grocery budget by a touch, but moved money from vacation budget to cover this as we staycationed for Easter.  All other pots spot on as planned, we were well disciplined this month.  I'm wondering how well we will do for the next 2 months as we have an anniversary in May and my birthday in June.  I'm all for being frugal, but some things need to be celebrated!

OH cashed out 57.25 PA for the month & we can update PROJECT H2O
30.00/30.00 (month1)
30.00/30.00 (month2)
10.84/30.00 (month3)
Projected savings from Internet/Phone for 12 months approx 408 - but will count this on a month by month basis once I've seen what comes out on D/D each month.  I think we've hit the challenge target & can put the extra to mortgage overpayments along with survey income.  

Cheery_Daff

Glad you had a lovely break 😊

Cherryfudge

It sounds like a really nice relaxing time away. I'm glad to hear your poor leg's had the attention it needed.