Next steps; grip-relaxing bimbling, and avoiding the temptations

LadyWithAPlan

Interesting re your  grocery tracking and results on PB batches. I had about £16k in there and won £325  in 2024  - so well below interest rates - may I ask yours?  I am now down to £13,225 now. 
I pay interest on my tax 

I also have repotted a couple succulents today as I watered all - as they were getting too  big for their pot - had an old coriander plant I was about to use so repurposed the container and some of the soil.
I am trying to not have too many indoor plants but counted and its 27 (including some orchids) which is a lot for a  small 2 bed flat... and they will not be fun moving - some were gifted to me by neighbours when they moved out - and in nice pots as well so my lounge looking like a jungle is ok.

dawnybabes

It tells you on the subscription reminder if the price has changed - if it’s a lot then I normally ‘skip’ that delivery 

Suffolk_lass

LadyWithAPlan said:

Interesting re your  grocery tracking and results on PB batches. I had about £16k in there and won £325  in 2024  - so well below interest rates - may I ask yours?  I am now down to £13,225 now. 
I pay interest on my tax 

I also have repotted a couple succulents today as I watered all - as they were getting too  big for their pot - had an old coriander plant I was about to use so repurposed the container and some of the soil.
I am trying to not have too many indoor plants but counted and its 27 (including some orchids) which is a lot for a  small 2 bed flat... and they will not be fun moving - some were gifted to me by neighbours when they moved out - and in nice pots as well so my lounge looking like a jungle is ok.

In 2024 I started the year at just under £35k, and won £1125 in the year. So a 3.2% return, whereas yours was more like 2%. When I am not studying, I might check back on which bonds won and record it, but not today. My ability to distract myself is legendary! 

Thanks @dawnybabes - so do you check if the price you think you are going to pay when you check, is what you actually pay when it is delivered a week or so later? That is the bit I want to confirm. I must admit, I skip, postpone and cancel something every month. I used to include a pack of something for £1 to ensure I reached the threshold for 15% too, and that is another reason why I postpone to batch things up

Suffolk_lass

This morning I have been in the blanket chest and packed away a small blanket, a bedspread and a (fake) fur throw. I did not want to declutter any but I found some other candidates to go. Not yet though. I also packed away all the towels and bed-linen that had been piled on a chair when I couldn't get to the linen press to pack them away, that clutter has been cleared to enter. The work of maybe 20 minutes but boy, do I feel virtuous. I might use the steam cleaner on the shower next. Despite several environmentally low-impact attempts to keep it clear of soap-scum, limescale and water marks, it now needs a blast to recover the situation before it gets worse. I can cope with cobwebs (we live in an old house, you have to) but not a dusty, dirty-looking or neglected bathroom (or kitchen!). It will be the make or break moment for the silicone seal. If it doesn't clean to my level of satisfaction I shall redo it, a job I loathe.

I am supposed to be studying this morning but I'm on here (more putting things off!). I will, just not just yet! I didn't roast the chicken yesterday! I made turkey and ham sangers at 3.30pm and we just were not hungry, so leek and potato soup was for supper. Enough for a repeat today, be it lunch or supper.

I intend making parmentier potatoes with homegrown squash for a bit of custom cooking. I have lots of fresh rosemary and dried mint that I think will go well with that. I think a lemon inside the chicken too (I accidentally left a pack of four in my basket so I have ten now). 

My plan to sow seeds was also postponed as the forecast remains perishing cold, bitter wind!

Have a good one, and remember, there is a reason shops are empty on Mondays. Keep our purses shut and spend nothing!

Suffolk_lass

I’m not very good (as in useless) at posting in my own thread every day. I am never sure if it is of interest, but I will summarise a few things from this week.

The week started and ended with the ex treasurer of our little trust, saying that the bank won’t transfer the account control to the new treasurer because the trustees are not up to date on the Charity Commission site. Cue for a week of trying to get this sorted (me). It seemed I was the only one of the four registered trustees with a charity commission account. I had this because the beekeeping association for which I am a trustee, invited me to do so when I became a trustee.

Neither of the other two had done so, vesting all control in the hands of the (ex) treasurer and the former administrator, respectively. I could see the Chairman of the ex treasurer trust was the contact person, but I was it for the other - so the administrator had changed it to me, but not transferred the admin role. She tried to do this, during the week, giving me full access, but you have to be the admin to invite others into roles, and you can’t have more than one primary admin. So she removed herself and instead of it becoming me, the account said we had no administrator. It also said it can take 24 hours. So we waited.

With no change yesterday, I rang the Charity Commission. A bit of time to be connected, but the lovely, helpful lady went into the back office and just made me the admin for both our little trusts. So I immediately invited all the trustees of the ex treasurer trust to have online accounts and added the new treasurer, telling the Chairman what happened, he was frankly relieved, thinking he had done something wrong. Nobody had, you can’t have more than one primary admin as there can only be one, and you need to be it, to give roles to trustees. When they resign, it sits in a vacuum. It’s a relatively new set of guidance and I’m not sure the IT works as they intended, as the VN lady said, “you have full control”, when I queried it, “but the banner says we have no administrator, and I don’t see the admin field I need to invite the other trustees to have accounts” - it’s what my Grandma called a b*gger’s muddle.

Anyway, the ex-treasurer knows and he has raised a complaint, having been through three in-person exchanges with the Spaniards, with reassurances that each additional request for more information was the last piece of the required information. I mentioned this last night at our Village social club and two people had had similar experiences with banks no longer in the nearby town, and our other little trust took six months to resolve the signatories issue. 

In non-MSE news, I came downstairs to a bouquet of flowers that Mr SL had brought home after bike club conversations on Thursday. He said to me, I was passing Tosco so I just went in. He elaborated further; there were thousands of bouquets in the front of the store, and literally hundreds of men in there, grabbing a bouquet and then to the chocolates. All at close to 11pm. Lovely, but not our usual - half price roses day is much more our style. I had explained this to my gardener on Thursday too!.

Right, off to get some flowers for my neighbour for her birthday now (hopefully half price)

rtandon27

Haha - SL I did have a giggle about the 1/2 price flowers comment! 

We too are big fans of the yellow sticker variety.  The last time (several years ago ) that OH bought flowers without me being around, the sweet young assistant in Waitflower offered to take the price tag off and wrap them in extra tissue/plastic for him.  He had to explain that if she did that he would be in big trouble, as my first question would be 'how much did you pay for these' and the second would be an eco-lecture on the merits of reducing our footprint and not bringing home extra paper and plastic.  The next time we went in together, and I picked up a couple of 75% off bouquets for the house, she remembered the conversation with him and told me why she wasn't going to wrap them!

We picked up a couple of large MrL bouquets of mums on Thursday as the gloomy weather has been having an effect of us - they were about 1/2 the price of Waitflower, but they did need a whole lot of trimming and tlc before they could go in the two waterjugs I use for rustic flowers.  No flower food attached either, so I crushed up an electrolyte tablet and diluted into 2L of water.  They are looking quite content today, so hoping they will last for a good 2 weeks.

What a kerfuffle with the accounts!  You are incredibly resilient, I'd not have had the patience for all that faff.

Suffolk_lass

Thank you @rtandon27that has made me really chuckle this morning, hearing about the assistant in Waitflower!

I never use the flower food. I use a level teaspoon of sugar and a quarter of a Milton sterilising tablet in the water, and they thrive and last, and the water stays clear for over a week unless they are particularly sappy. It's always good to hear what others do.

Mr SL has decided to prepare the animals for the clock change next month, by feeding them a few minutes early. That sounds like a good idea in principle but it has the unintended consequence of the cat coming looking for food at around 05.00. It is me who is the early riser, who feeds them in the morning, and once I am up, I am up. So she was purring on the top of my pillow and I was trying to stay asleep. Level 2 was to walk down the bed, between us. Either she didn't realise the dog was there, or she was just pretending to be @foxgloves' pestery cat as she stepped on him. He was fast asleep and shot about a foot in the air, and so did she, claws out, landing on my hip, at which point, so did I. All up, 05.08. Mission accomplished. 

The trouble with this was I fell asleep in the chair when I had things to do. So lots to catch up on. Purse is staying firmly shut today. Have a good Sunday all

Suffolk_lass

Gardening - at last!
At last, yesterday, I planted some tomato seeds and set the two little heated propagators going in the greenhouse.

I need some decent weather to clear up the disaster area outside the greenhouse. I have at least two trays of perennials to get planted out into the front garden, and loads of flower seeds to get going. And masses of empty pots that need a scrub to get the green muck off them. The ones already in the greenhouse have spiders webs all over them too. So Thursday, if it rains but is 13c, is my target day for that lot. I am hoping I can use the pots (which I have) instead of seed trays (of which I have a few, but not enough). I am hoping for some dense little plug plants to get that large front bed replanted. If it is not pouring on Thursday, I will get my gardener going on the strawberry bed, moving the runners to new places, then composting the old plants. I have two dozen new ones due next month. 

Indoor tasks
Other than that, I need to study more (we have the in-between session tomorrow night, to reinforce last week's session), stop talking about reading my book club book and actually read it (rubbish, so far) and I want to galvanise Mr Sl to pick up the pace on cleaning the beekeeping kit.
Cleaning-wise, I need to clean another panel of the shower with a scourer and cream to remove the limescale/soap scum that has been neglected and allowed to develop with my knee being too bad to kneel and sort it with the regular periodic deep clean. It is a major task now and after several efforts, I am having to use a bit of minimal chemical assistance. 

Bees
I might paint the new poly nucleus I bought in the sale and then we can go through the cleaning stack and move the recoverable (reusable) brood frames ready for spring. If it is really 13 on Thursday the bees will be out and looking for pollen (they will find plenty, as there are masses of snowdrops, and flowering hazel in the hedgerows around here).

MSE
We are almost in the dead zone, money-wise at least, with one CC, the new broadband contract, a newspaper subscription, plus the weekly milk bills left but nothing else left, this month. I am hoping for the surplus so I can contribute to the house insurance renewal without going into the savings pot for it, at the end of March.

I propose eating from what we already have and tonight will be cold lamb (I roasted half a leg yesterday), with a bit of salad and some potato of some description (maybe parmentier). I have soup so we can have that for lunch. 

With blue skies, I shall get going in a minute, and take the birthday card and a jar of honey over to my cousin. Her daughter and family have just moved out, so she might have somewhere to sit! That is a whole other discussion to be returned to at some point

foxgloves

I've also earmarked some better looking days for garden tasks this week. I don't mind gardening in cold weather but it does need to be dry. Mr F has promised some time at the weekend so that we can tackle a problem area of pernicious weeds together so I'm not letting that offer pass by.
F

Suffolk_lass

Ooh, I'm glad you popped by @foxgloves. When do you sow your echium seeds please? I was looking at March?

Having gone through the flower seeds I bought (as a member of the RHS I can have 10 packs for £10 and went for it this year) - I realise that while confident with the edibles we grow, I have historically relied on perennials to just grow, and apart from sweet peas which reside in the veg garden to attract pollinators, I haven't grown much from flower seeds for years. Literally since the first house we had, maybe even before we were married.

We did the measuring up yesterday so I can calculate how many used scaffold boards I need now to replace the edging - it has rotted to nothing in places. I want some to smarten things up, but more importantly, to retain the soil and compost and stop the gravel from combining into the beds. The width of the boards will mean I need to get them delivered. I have found a supplier for just over 25% of the price of new ones (which I used last time!). I will check with Mr Sl as I think we will need stakes to retain them too. This would let them be more on the surface than last time, where we mostly buried them. I do want them more as a retainer than as an edging, really, so I think that would work.

He also measured up for the (industrial style) barn door fittings. The track needs to be 4.9m, so it isn't going to be cheap (but neither is some of the valuable stuff in the cart lodge that we want to protect). I have been Tilly tidying for ages to build up what we need for these projects to come to fruition.

The other two parts are to improve the stability of the churned up gravel parking area (I have the mats the gravel will be in, and more membrane so the weeds are suppressed, but the existing arrangement needs sorting out before we can lay it, as the aggregate delivery forklift on three wheels did quite a bit of unavoidable churning up, when that was delivered last Thursday. Finally there is the planting of the bed. A few things are in there but much more is needed (hence the seed buying).

Right, enough gabbing from me. I shall mostly study today and I plan to mince the leftover lamb to make some sort of dinner from. I will probably add an onion, chopped carrot and some breadcrumbs to it with plenty of seasoning and stock, and might top it with sliced potato, for a sort of hotpot without a proper recipe