NST January 2025: Freedom!

dizzyblnd

Nsd#13 today. Exercise completed. All meals from stores. Looking forward to a good nights sleep today. 

Thrifty_Taylor

Also on NSD#13

Pilates & Norwegian done before breakfast, then made dinner for today & tomorrow whilst eating breakfast.

A fine day at work, followed by a quick walk with a friend afterwards. Planning to go further tomorrow night, when she has more time.

Remembered it was my night off from sewing, so did a little bit of knitting & made 4 birthday cards.

Grateful to use up more of my supplies so could fit more in my storage box, time to read, a walk after school

grandmanerd

Yesterday was fairly quiet. I did slather all manner of potions onto my skin (using up odds and ends) and tried shuffling stuff around (2 bags to the rubbish bin. Today I've done 2 paper/ card and 2 cans/ jars and started reusing empty and nearly empty boxes to stack things in (making things easier to get too as it cuts down on bending) - smaller space footprint and all the excess packaging can be sorted and recycled. Saving all the same size boxes looks neater and they can be stacked easily.

Yesterday I received a small parcel. Forgot about it until evening and it was 2 battery operated hand warmers. Darling d-i-l had told me about DS1 buying her some during a conversation - we were both in as many layers as possible, DS1 was wearing a short sleeve tee. Only used one and swapped it from hand to hand - I picked up the instructions quickly. Today I've moved more things into 'keeping' boxes and watched lots of rubbish videos (fell into a bridezilla/ Karen hole yesterday - needless to say I did not spend my childhood planning my dream wedding, never wanted to get married and find the things people think they 'need' totally ludicrous, especially people who have vision but expect others to pay for everything (parents, bridesmaids, guests given bills for the food they eat). My brain isn't coping with heavy going stuff (my latest police series is a bit disappointing - I'm finding it hard to care about the team of police officers especially the central character) and have found myself doing other things at the same time and even falling asleep.

I struggled to get upstairs this morning and hauled myself onto the landing with a decided huff. Then I decided to have a great day and pinned on a large smile. I've had some lovely food, quite a lot of chocolate cake and video called with DS2 and darling grand-daughter - we sang nursery rhymes. They recently rediscovered the bag of illustrated wooden disks I bought her and it's one of her favourite things atm. She was also playing with the doctor set I bought her.and she read several books to me - she can't read, she's just got to the stage of knowing all the words to some of her books. She's also doing potty training and got upset because she had an accident and I said grandma had accidents sometimes. I read a joke this afternoon which said 'The real Russian roulette is when as an adult you sneeze and don't know if you're going to pee your panys or put your back out'.

Grateful for a day of slow progress through not rushing to do things but ticking a couple of things off every time I was on my feet, lovely food, funny yoo toobers.

ditty1234

Grateful I have managed to collect more NSD days. 
For cover work today and looking forwards to a quiet evening. 

Happy Wednesday everybody !

DawnW

Not feeling great today, and I can't seem to get warm,  but it will at least be a NSD ( # 8 I think).

Got a few small jobs done - cleaned off and tidied a large shelf, washed my hair, kitchen tidy, walked the dog, read the meters, priced up some items to take to my sales unit tomorrow etc. Actually quite a few but only small things.

Grateful today for my hot water bottle!

laura_lau

Not feeling great either today, I decided not to go line dancing and just stay home in the warmth. I don't like to go to bed early, but in the last couple of weeks I have taken the habit of going to bed exceptionally late, even for me, so I will try and rectify that tonight, which hopefully will help. 

I will also have to send the meter readings tonight (just received an email today).

This afternoon during a break from work tasks I was having a look at my budget, repayment plan and what I am planning for the year, as I was hoping to be able to make a couple of short holidays with OH, but I am now thinking I should hold off as much as I can, and make the most of minimum spend day outs. I live in a lovely area where it is easy to have a day of "holiday" feeling just by travelling somewhere fairly nearby, and at the same time containing expenses. This week I had my performance conversation with my manager, and I have been rated successful (thankfully), so I should get some sort of additional compensation in a couple of months, similar to last year, but I don't know the amount yet, so it's difficult to make plans. I think it will be less this year, as 2024 was a tough year for business, but anything is really very welcome and I am going to make the most of it. I will use part of it to pay the water bill as usual, and then was hoping to be able to split the remaining amount between some extra payment towards one or two of my credit cards, and put some aside to replenish the emergency fund. I can't plan more than this for now, until I know the details.

In the last few days I have also started doing surveys, and I hope to be able to accumulate enough every month to cover my commuting expenses and maybe some of the food I buy while in the office.

I'm very pleased as this week I finally started working from the bedroom again instead of the kitchen, as since the works in the bedroom began in September I hadn't been able to. I found a kitchen rug which I don't use much because it's too big for the area, but it's perfect to protect the new wooden floor from the constant rolling of the wheels from my work chair. This means I can setup properly with a desk, a separate keyboard, proper wrist support, proper lighting, and it helps my posture and my eyes a lot, on top of helping me focus a lot better, and the additional benefit of being able to close the door when it gets too noisy in the rest of the flat. I consider this an extra win, as I found a solution to protect the floor without having to spend money, which is great. It does take a bit of extra time to setup in the morning and close everything in the evening, as I need to put everything away, fold the table, roll up the rug and place it in the cupboard, but I don't mind. 

Today is NSD #13, I think.

Today I am grateful for the conversation with my manager, my knitted shawl keeping me warm while I'm at the desk and for OH cooking dinner.

Thrifty_Taylor

Sending healing vibes to all the poorlies. Hope you feel a bit better tomorrow.

Did Pilates AND yoga this morning! Then half a PE lesson, football at breaktime & a 3.7 mile walk after school! Go me!! Will likely need to sleep for a week now 🤣

Had a phone appointment with the Dr, so going on more tablets too, just in case.

Work wasn't plain sailing this morning, but nothing I couldn't handle. The Head asked how things had gone today & said how great I am with my morning pupil (his progress since I started working with him  is more noticeable), which was nice.

Enjoyed my walk with one of my work besties, though had a job seeing where the pallet at the top of our drive was, to reverse past in the dark when I got home!

Got 2 sewing jobs done after tea,they went so smoothly!! 

Grateful for feeling energetic, easy sewing, a crazy cat (thanks for your comment @beanielou), the Dr being more professional

grandmanerd

Mr Builder came yesterday so I now have drawer fronts (and a cupboard door for the sink cupboard). The handles hadn't arrived the day before. They were going on holiday on the 22nd but Mrs Builder had pushed it back to the 29th. I didn't pick the handles but they are great, simple, square  and my hand fits comfortably (the old ones were getting a bit 'nippy' when I didn't hit them 'just right'). The shelf under the sink isn't done because Mr Builder hadn't got the jigsaw in his car - he's been reducing the amount if items in the car because they were going away (normally he stuffs absolutely everything in there and then has problems finding the tools he needs).

He listed what needed doing. The bathroom fitments need to be installed because they're currently under the stairs and in the area leading into it. He will also need the man who's going to do the drains (and maybe the skip to take the waste). He needs the bathroom fitments out of the way so we can take out the last few things from under the stairs and move in the fridge freezer and freezer. Then he can do the last run of units on the stairs wall. I think most of the cladding will happen after they come back. Mrs Builder will do the logistics and let me know when he's doing the next stage (juggling with other people's jobs that need to be completed, waiting for materials to come or be collected and co-ordinating with other workmen (my back garden wall phase 2 will start on the 15th February).

So I spent some time playing with drawer fitments and pulling out boxes from the cube shelves that have relevant bits in, without making the front room even more chaotic. My new non-slip socks came (+ the red dress) and I've ordered the new wellies (1 full size brown pair and one teal polka dot ankle boots with various calf/ foot/ ankle modifications). I'm planning to use them for extra support when I need to strap up my ankle or wear extra thick socks, which happens with depressing frequency.  I also ordered 3 jumpers which are budget items (I already checked out 2 cs but don't think I can get across to ones with a better selection any time soon) rather than the expensive quality items I've been looking at. I've been wearing a mucky jumper (painting jumper) almost constantly and a cardigan that has marks on (plain yoghurt and not very noticeable) because I'm waiting for my other cardigan to dry. 

There are various other things I 'need' to buy. Leggings, gloves and a second beanie. It's always a balancing act between quality items (mostly sale purchases) and budget items (need enough to wear pending hopeful weight loss) and in the past few weeks I'm definitely losing in the 'enough to wear' race. I did a clear out of 'gloves without partners' last year, I've discarded a number of dresses and 2 cs cardigans that were no longer fit for purpose and the leggings situation has been a problem for maybe 5 years. My favourite shop had mostly 7/8 and cropped ones for at least 2 years (maybe 3) and I'm not comfortable with those (3/4 sleeves irritate me as well), the 2 pairs I had were absolutely done in. 

Sorry I sound totally self-absorbed. I am atm, so apologies for everyone who I've failed to give support to. I hope to be back on an even keel very shortly. To sum up, the recent extreme weather conditions have tested my 'just enough' wardrobe to the limit. Spending an hour or so each day trying to put together enough clothes to keep warm and fit to be seen outside of the house (just going up and down the yard) is not a good use of my time. Okay enough - I need to take my morning pills and get fit enough to brave the 'stair mountain' then work out my next steps.

 I have been forgetting to count things leaving the house. I took 6 books back to the library, a bag of random items to one cs and my mother's nearly brand new mixer to the hospice shop. There are 21 kitchen items and the cooker outside the back gate (probably nearly twice as many still to be moved from near the back door) and the rubbish and recycling is phenomenal. 

Grateful for having money to purchase the things I need (forget the internal battle with spending money on myself), lovely food yesterday (tea was tuna butties, simple but delicious) and making progress (snail pace but progress is progress). The absolute luxury of being able to afford to have work done by other people rather than cobbling together my best repair/ temporary solution.

apple_muncher

Wotcha turtles! Huge apologies for my absence and complete lack of posting recently.

I have done 9 consecutive days of invigilating and Pip has been sent home twice from school - once, he threw up in the sixth form area and the other time, he was feeling very much like he was going to throw up. He's now off school with what seems to be a rough chesty cold brought on by pushing on so much. Poor thing. So, he has been absent for 6 out of the first 13 days of the term. Eek!

We have just booked our accommodation for Canada at Easter - we're going back to the place where we stayed 12 years ago for step dd1's wedding. Pip and I had fun looking back at the photos and we reckon the decor and room arrangements haven’t changed one bit!

We called the tax office the other day to ask for a refund of tax I've overpaid (not earned enough in 23/24 to pay any at all!), and that all went smoothly, so I should get a cheque through in the next few weeks.

I've been tackling my personal elephant in the room, and a friend joined me in my quest, so that is one thing I'm very very proud of facing and doing something about this month.

DawnW

I am enjoying hearing about the progress being made @grandmanerd

@apple_muncher hope Pip is better soon. Shame they are missing school, but no good going if ill, and there are so many horrible bugs about this winter.

I am feeling better today thank goodness, as it was a work day. A pretty boring day as we had few people in. The weather is awful, and the storm isn't supposed to be here yet   I have had some sales this week though, for which I am grateful. Went to the library after work, to return my books and find some new ones. I have cancelled K*ndle Unlimited and rediscovered the library instead, which is a small saving,

NSD # 8 today I think (I must check) and tomorrow should be one also.

Grateful today for feeling ok, for selling some items and being out of the wind and rain, even though the shop was very chilly.