More WIRE than FIRE, simplifying, saving and savvy spending

ShyAndRetiring

Humboldt said:

Morning @ShyAndRetiring your resilience shines through on your recent update. Every hiccup is followed by positive forward thinking, every plan is considered in a balanced and measured way. What an inspiration to all.

Go you £130 free money!.  Enjoy the weekend.

Hi @Humboldt, awww that's kind of you, not sure about being an inspiration but definitely feel inspired to just keep going and making the best of things! 

Weekend was good thank you, and hoping your week is being a positive one ~ gotta love the fact that the sun is shining a bit at last!

S&R x

ShyAndRetiring

BrilliantButScary said:

Good morning @ShyAndRetiring,

I have been called a 'Pollyanna' by an ex-colleague, but it has served me well both on the personal and professional fronts. This does not mean that I am not pragmatic as well, and like you need to focus on sorting 'Life Admin'. 
Hope you are not waiting too long for those health appointments to come through for your OH.

Best Wishes. BBS x

Hi @BrilliantButScary ... interesting that being positive (alongside pragmatic) gets a 'pollyanna' spin but hey, better than being called Eyore I suppose! 

Yes, Life Admin is always going to be there (until it isn't  ) so it's an ongoing focus really.

No appointment yet, very frustrating all round really. GP appointment was helpful but not especially reassuring! Just have to keep waiting and hoping.

Hope all is well with you and our OH now, S&R x

ShyAndRetiring

   Wow, April already! 

Hope everyone is well. Quick update on things so far: 

Extra income / surveys / freebies

• £4.65 / £50 so far this month. Surveys seem slow at the moment or just pennies at a time, which I don't really have time / motivation for! Must try harder!

Spending

• Aiming for 4 NSDs each week in April. 1 / 4 so far this week (today) as had to spend yesterday on a few household extras.

Saving

• Our main emergency fund (all things pets, house and OH ) are saved as Premium Bonds, so delighted today to find we've won £100 in April's draw. Apart from extra funds like pension lump sums coming up in due course, this year's budget doesn't really allow for adding to our general savings much, so will be letting this (and any other wins) reinvest, in the hope of boosting the savings that way. 

Sorting

• Declutter #1: Progress on CAL blanket continues and another ball bites the dust! 21 / 52 used.
• Declutter #2: Another big box of items left the house last week - all old electronic items and gadgets we no longer have a use for (or have upgraded from). These have gone to a person who refurbishes then sells on behalf of a charity, so they are being usefully recycled. 215 / 365 items OOH (Out of Here).
• I currently have 2 sorting zones going on - my work space and a large bookcase in the bedroom (I need to empty this so I can move it to decorate the room). Ultimately it won't be coming back into the bedroom so I need to get rid of what's on it and / or relocate the items elsewhere in the house, so it's a good exercise in decluttering.
• OH has sorted a cupboard as we suspected a mouse has been visiting. Evidence showed it has been enjoying a box of Bonio biscuits that the dog's not keen on. Bit of a clean up and sort out done there ~ constant issue of rural living!

Debt

• No payments yet made in April, but no debt added yet either! 

All Good Things …

• It's a windy week so able to get lots of washing dried quickly and for free outside on the washing line!
• Enjoying the extra hour of light in the evening after the clock change. Not sure I've made the most of it with activity and ambition (need to recover from the 'jet-lag' of losing the hour first) but hey, am absolutely loving that it's not dark till later!
• Also enjoying that low tide this week has coincided with pm / evening dog walk, so lots of beach fun outdoors (and sand indoors as the dog dries off)! Signs of summer already! 

Hope everyone has had a positive start to the week too, S&R x

Humboldt

Hi @ShyAndRetiring we also won £100 on the premium bonds this month. Whilst we don't hold the full amount, we feel that we do ok in terms of return, plus the added bonus is that the savings are tax free of course. Pleased to read that your decluttering continues, as does mine. I managed to sell a few more books to W0rld of B0oks this week (every little helps). Great that you live near the beach.

BrilliantButScary

ShyAndRetiring said:

BrSorryilliantButScary said:

Good morning @ShyAndRetiring,

I have been called a 'Pollyanna' by an ex-colleague, but it has served me well both on the personal and professional fronts. This does not mean that I am not pragmatic as well, and like you need to focus on sorting 'Life Admin'. 
Hope you are not waiting too long for those health appointments to come through for your OH.

Best Wishes. BBS x

Hi @BrilliantButScary ... interesting that being positive (alongside pragmatic) gets a 'pollyanna' spin but hey, better than being called Eyore I suppose! 

Yes, Life Admin is always going to be there (until it isn't  ) so it's an ongoing focus really.

No appointment yet, very frustrating all round really. GP appointment was helpful but not especially reassuring! Just have to keep waiting and hoping.

Hope all is well with you and our OH now, S&R x

Sorry, should have replied sooner.
Yes, we are both well and have been busy in the garden, amongst other things.

Have you heard anything appointment wise for your husband?

Humboldt

No pressure to respond @ShyAndRetiring.  Just wanted to say that I was thinking of you.

Ordinary_Yet_Unique

Just wondering how your plans are progressing. 

ShyAndRetiring

  Finally sneaking back in! 

@Humboldt @BrilliantButScary @Ordinary_Yet_Unique thank you all so much for checking in on me ... apologies for my absence, I've missed being around and being accountable.

So it's almost the end of July and it really feels like life just got in the way for a good few weeks there. OH's health has been the primary distraction as I've been doing everything whilst he's been off his feet and going through the mill:

  Negatives: two long-term conditions diagnosed with ongoing issues, major surgery (not actually related to either condition, but conditions gave rise to extra risk factors), still unable to drive, more procedures and investigations to come.

Positives: diagnoses mean we know what we're working with and all seems manageable at the mo; surgery has improved mobility so things are actually going to become a little easier as he'll be able to get out and about more and get back to helping around the house!   

We are very much focusing on the positives and hoping to make the most of the rest of the summer, then I can get back on track into the autumn. 

Kind of forgot where I was at, so general round up:

Extra income / surveys / freebies

• Had some success with this over last couple of months ~ over £70 extra since last time I was here.

Spending

• Spending was minimal throughout June and July whilst we just focused on OH. Biggest saving has been petrol as we've gone from me driving every day, to just once a week. Apart from medical appointments, we've not really been far, not even to help the Older Ones as things here meant I couldn't be there. 
• MOT is coming up this week though! 

Saving

• Had another small PB win this month, so that's gone straight back into more bonds.
• Small saver has matured with princely sum of £19 interest. Need to find another saver as a goal for August.
• Have saved money on salads through June / July ~ we had lots of success with lettuce and tomatoes (toms still ongoing) plus squash are doing well for the autumn.

Sorting

• Declutter #1: Yarn use up took a step back as I took the opportunity to crochet something for the house and needed certain colours. However, only purchased the 15 balls needed and have used them all. Kind of a saving as the cost of yarn was a fraction compared to the reupholstery quote we'd had! However, won't call this a use up as it was an extra purchase (insert smack wrist emoji here) so pick up the count from when I was last on: 21 / 52 used and 2 big projects (gifts for family) ongoing.
• Declutter #2: So many items have left the house as summer clothing came down from the loft and got sorted. 365 items have definitely gone OOH so will start again with goal of another 365 from August. 

Stuff

• Have started getting organised for big family wedding which is now just a couple of months away. Have saved us (and other family members) a bit of cash by organising transport similar to taxi drop offs for getting us all to and from the town of the wedding. Soooooo much cheaper than trains, none of which actually run to anywhere near the hotel or venue. Transport is booked and budgeted, just need to pay next month.
• NHS appliances to support OH after surgery have come into the house and have now all been returned. 

Debt

• No debt incurred over recent difficult times.

All Good Things …

• Had fun with neighbours as we're the young ones and some of the neighbours had 'just the thing' to help OH through his recovery, so we were grateful to have the loans of some items from lovely kind people too! I think this is the equivalent of the 'jam pan' which used to be borrowed up and down the street when I was growing up. Now it's 'toilet seat raiser' up and down the road!
  
• I've been doing all the dog walking so have cleared over 20k steps a day for goodness knows how long. Some days it's been exhausting but overall I'm feeling better for it. Not lost a single kg in weight though! 

That's it for the mo, cant wait to be back to normal and WIRE planning. In the meantime, I truly hope everyone else has been OK and hope to catch up with diaries soon, S&R x

Ordinary_Yet_Unique

Many thanks for your detailed and informative update.

BrilliantButScary

Lovely to hear from you @ShyAndRetiring. 

You know, I have a theory, that sometimes things happen for a reason. You're WIRE light bulb moment, has enabled you to support your husband through the last few months, which would have proved more challenging had you still been working.

It sounds like your husband is on the mend from his operation and that you have been resilient and productive, whilst supporting him.

I would love to see a photograph of your crocheted item for the house. You never know, one day I might decide to do some crochet, (I have bought a book from the charity shop), but I am a bit of a procrastinator at times.