Teetering on the brink

badmemory

I had always had glasses for screens, then one time a youngster just assumed that because I was over 70 I needed book reading glasses.  An absolute disaster.  Backache from leaning forward & swaying side to side all the time & a splitting head.  Thankfully they replaced them.  Always say what you what them for, although I think the ought to ask, but they don't.  I think I will go for both next time, but then I go to specsavers & get 2 dist & 2 reading & think I will get a really cheapo pair of book ones (no-one is going to see them!).  I did try a very expensive pair of variofocals - not my finest hour.

Makingabobor2

Ooh donuts.....enjoy!

ellenvan

I am looking forward to seeing a pic of tonight's Olio haul 
A really good idea to swap round the roast and shopping until after you see what goodies you have for free.

EatingBeans

It feels like a super spendy day today. Nothing that wasn’t budgeted for, but it still feels uncomfortable spending any money at the moment. 

First I edited my final Morrisons shop due tomorrow to ensure food came in under budget. The Olio figure is likely to substantially underestimate the real Olio contribution this week because I have had to buy a lot of non food items in the Morrisons shop, but I am at least keeping a track of how many of my meals Olio is replacing for me so I can sense-check the values over the course of the whole month. I remembered to go through TopCashback for Morrisons, so eventually I should get a bit of cashback on the shop. 

Next I got on to Amazon to edit my Spend and Save order for the month. Big dog has seemed a little off since I switched his food to the cheaper brand so I wanted to try going back to the old stuff and see if that makes a difference. To stay within budget I had to leave off a new chew toy I had planned to get them this month, but I am sure they will do just fine without it.

As it has now turned the 1st October I also ordered a bale of straw and a roll of fleece for the garden. Time to think about putting my musa bajoo palms to bed for the winter soon and I want to be ready. Thankfully, the cost of this does not come out of my £50 unforeseen spending money, as I had a separate line planned in specially for this purchase - and I came in £2.90 under budget. 👍 From tiny 10 inch stalks a couple of years ago, the biggest leaves on these gorgeous plants are now almost 5ft long each! I am so glad I managed to bring them back from their near death experience in my bathroom in the early part of the year, I will be gutted if I lose them. Amazing to think that when I first planted them out I thought I might have to bring them back into the bathroom again this year - no way that is happening as the largest plant is now over 7ft tall! 🤣 Honestly, they are just as fantastic as I had hoped, so I have everything crossed they make it through to next year! 

My final spending of the day has been to let dd2 do some jobs to earn some more pocket money. I was running out of ideas for things she could usefully do in the house, so I opted for asking her help to bring things in from the shed. Not the ideal day to be doing this given the windy conditions and my Trigeminal Neuralgia, but it was the most useful thing I could think of to get her to help with. Now, this shed was literally bought when we moved in three years ago as we moved with so much stuff that we had nowhere to put it all (The joy of moving from a five bed house to a two bed!). It’s a 7ft by 5ft shed, stacked floor to ceiling and all the way to the door. There is everything in there from a weight lifting bench and a 5ft filing cabinet, to camping stuff and garden tools, all surrounded by boxes and boxes of stuff that could be anything as it just never got unpacked. How much is still any good is anyones guess, but in my quest to list more items on ebay, I thought now would be a good time to sort through it and see if there is anything like toys etc that might sell better in the run up to Christmas. Two and a half hours later dd2 quit on me (which I was actually super glad of because I am absolutely shattered today and needed to lay down). But, I do now have more boxes of stuff to list, all nicely stacked in my living room at the ready. Several bags of rubbish have now been thrown out, and I can now take one step into the shed! 🎉🤦‍♀️ I have also managed to dig the lawnmower out - something that will be much appreciated come the spring as the grass dd2 helped me recently sow is growing away like mad! 😁

Makingabobor2

Sounds like a very productive day

bubblycrazy

Could your daughter list things on ebay as a way to earn money? 

EatingBeans

Ah, see I tried asking dd2 to list things on ebay but she only manages about 4 things an hour and she hates it, so to avoid falling out, I list it myself. I do ask her to take pictures of things on my phone though so I can list at a later point. 👍

I think today’s extra money chores have thoroughly worn dd2 out today. We called it quits to go for a nap, then about 2hours ago she came to join me in my single bed. Normally she just comes for a cuddle but she quickly fell asleep so I turned over and had another nap too (I was squished up the wall so I didn’t want to try and get out and disturb her as she was clearly tired). I needn’t have worried though as I woke up from my nap desperate for the loo, so I had to shimmy down the bed to get out. That was 20mins ago and she is still asleep! Something tells me she is still a bit ill too. 😕 I’m going to have to get her up soon if she has any hope at all of getting up for college on Monday! 

EatingBeans

Not much to show in actual £ terms today …



… but it was still a few extra £’s towards the goals. I literally listed one item today - a large wooden castle which took dd2 and I 20 minutes to build as it was just lots of pieces and neither of us could quite remember what it should even look like! We got there in the end so fingers crossed someone buys it. 🤞

Olio was a bit of an odd mix tonight. Enough to make a few meals out of, and the 7kgs of carrots should mean we finally have enough carrots to last the week. Honestly, we buy two bags every week and even then we have to ration them - not this week! 

The many packs of ham will make great dog training treats (though some might need freezing to space it out a bit or the salt might be a bit too much for them). My favourite item this week - a cucumber! dd2’s favourite item - Yum Yum’s! 😋

Cherryfudge

A lovely lot from Olio again! The guinea pigs and pups will have a good week and you humans won't do too badly either! Will you have to wrestle the guineas for a share in the cucumber?

I assume the wooden castle was in the shed... the things from there will keep you busy for a while, I imagine.

EatingBeans

Yes, the wooden castle was in the shed and remarkably shows zero signs of any damage - I felt sure it would all be riddled with mould or something but literally no sign at all on anything. 😁 Honestly, I have no idea what is in any of the boxes so for all I know it could just be junk that’s only fit for the bin. It will still take time to go through and will be worthwhile either way, as we might actually be able to use the shed for normal purposes then, but for now it’s a case of lucky dip. 

As for the cucumber, there is no chance the guinea pigs are eating it! Far too much humus that still needs gobbling up to be giving cucumber away to the furry ones. They have several bags of carrots to munch through first! 🤣