14 months to go!

honeybee1234

Morning everyone!

Another quiet day, thankfully as I am in no way properly awake despite ingesting a lovely huge cuppa not long ago!

In a bit, I'm going to A**a to pick up a couple of bits with DP, which are necessary items from my list which weren't available when I went shopping on Saturday. I'm really happy with how the menu planning and eliminating food waste is going so far, though I do need to remember to label what I'm freezing! 

When I get home, I'll be working on my to do list, which is a rolling list of things I need to get sorted. A really difficult part of my mental health is how my memory has been affected - it's one of those things that you don't really understand how it can happen until it does, and for someone who's previously got two degrees... it's really, really hard to deal with. I have to operate with constant lists and reminders on my phone so I make a point of doing puzzles and games that boost things, and I have been noticing a difference, and DP has said so too so it seems to be helping! I do love a Wordle everyday.

Gardening later if the weather holds out - the lawn needs mowing as it's like a jungle and gardening is so soothing for my brain so looking forward to it!

Have a good day everyone! 

joedenise

I've got a bit addicted to Wordle, Dordle, Quordle, Quordle Sequence, Tightrope, Duotriordle!  I spend quite a bit of time every morning doing them all - DH and I sort of compete against each other to see who can do them in the least moves!

honeybee1234

joedenise said:

I've got a bit addicted to Wordle, Dordle, Quordle, Quordle Sequence, Tightrope, Duotriordle!  I spend quite a bit of time every morning doing them all - DH and I sort of compete against each other to see who can do them in the least moves!

Haha I honestly haven't heard of the rest of those, I must investigate immediately! 😁 We like to do some of the NYT puzzles as a collaborative thing of an evening, and when we get together with family, grown ups and kids all like to compete with Wordle so it's obviously a theme with it! 

joedenise

There are more "ordles"!  There's one with 8 and one with 16 in between quordle and duotriordle.

Once you find quordle you'll find the sequence, tightrope and a couple of other ones that I don't do - I already spend far too much time of playing these games, LOL!

dawnybabes

Ooh, off to hunt the puzzles down 😁😁

honeybee1234

Ahh so we have a blip incoming... 

Yesterday, we went on a trip to Ikea. Now, Ikea restaurant is somewhere we *love* to visit, and I'd planned for us to eat there, then go for the obligatory walk round the store. Which we did (three meals for £10!) and I had a small list of things I wanted.

For reasons I don't fully understand, I splurged and put it on my credit card. A "splurge" for me is £70, comprised of things I'd had on my list for a while. I actually edited out a couple of things so would've been more, in some semblance of "sensible decisions", but as we'd gotten to the tills, and I was getting my credit card out of my purse, I was thinking, "what are you doing?!"  And I still did it 😔

So, I had the cash available for about half of what I bought, and DP is going to contribute £19 for something he wanted. But I've still put it on the card when I really shouldn't have and I'm having post-shopping guilt. I've been doing way better than I imagined I could with paying my cards down, and now I've bumped up the balance - and not even for an emergency, just because I fancied a couple of bits earlier than I'd planned to buy them. 

In other news, yesterday morning I got a text message from DWP saying:

"Your PIP review is complete. You should receive your decision letter in 2 weeks. Once you receive your letter, contact us if you have any questions. Do not call before you get the letter as we will not be able to tell you the decision. Please remember to contact us if your circumstances change."

*Obviously* I've sat trying to analyse this but I've got it very wrong before sooooooo...! I had a lengthy phone conversation with my case manager a few months ago and the hope was that because there's been no change, it could be dealt with "in house" and not need to be outsourced to the wonderful Capita. I'm thinking with this text arriving way, way sooner than expected - I was told the waiting time was 12 months in January - that hopefully, they've been able to process it themselves. I shall update when I know more. 

Have a good day everyone! 

honeybee1234

Afternoon!

This morning was an early one for me. I went out first thing to Li*l armed with shopping list, having done a bit of reverse meal planning. Got everyone except chicken grills, fake Pringles (Fringles? 😁) and a couple of toiletry bits. Claimed my two free bakery treats, spent 35.48, which was nearly all fresh (milk, yogurt, fruit, veg, eggs, rolls.) Small amount of longlife stuff (curry sauce, gnocchi, frozen bean burgers.)

I could deffo switch to a cheaper way of making curry rather than jar sauces, only got these for ease of convenience - and also make naans maybe?

Other thoughts:

> I can get some of the veggies cheaper by buying frozen, though I find certain ones not so palatable frozen (broccoli, cauliflower, sweetcorn) but this could be the brand I'm buying? (usually Aldi.)

> I bought a couple of further bakery treats as well as the two freebies - I do actually bake but have recently been lured in by Li*l bakery - exactly what they planned really 😳 

> Bought 6 gala apples for 1.59 - this is more than I'd usually pay as I previously bought the mini apples from Al*i/Li*l for around 99p. I've found the mini apples recently to be not great quality so have spent a little more hoping to get something a bit better.

After I got back and put the shopping away, I sat down and worked out I have 12.59 until the end of the month 😱 I have better stocked cupboards than I have in ages, my food waste this month is nearly zero save a pot of yogurt that was off when I opened it, and so it's quite disheartening as I haven't quite got to keeping in budget yet. 

I only buy a small handful of branded items, so it's not that. I do include household items such as toothpaste/toilet roll/washing up liquid but I'm pretty economical. We have supermarket wheat bisks and porridge for breakfasts and light lunches, eg HM soup/sandwiches/etc. I cook every two days, so each meal is double portions at least, then the last day of the week is a use-up day or easy meal like beans on toast or a jacket potato. So I'm not sure what's going on! 

foxgloves

Food inflation has been such a thing over the last few years (& it still is). Are you sure your grocery budget is a realistic amount for how many people you are feeding? The Hairy Bikers did a basic curry sauce recipe which makes several portions & freezes well. 
F x

honeybee1234

foxgloves said:

Food inflation has been such a thing over the last few years (& it still is). Are you sure your grocery budget is a realistic amount for how many people you are feeding? The Hairy Bikers did a basic curry sauce recipe which makes several portions & freezes well. 
F x

Ahhh @foxgloves well this is the thing! So there's me, then I have two teenage DSs, one of which eats like two people, the other is getting there, who are here at least two full weekends, Friday evening to Sunday evening. They can be quite often here inbetween for tea, or to stay over, and are always here more in the holidays. 

DP is here often for tea. He eats very generous helpings! He will buy anything he eats that I don't, and I did say that anything I'm buying for the boys that he eats, I'm happy for him to have as well, eg chicken, eggs, anything meat really. I also said don't worry about stuff like pasta, rice,, bread, squash etc as I always have them in anyway, buuuuut after a period a couple of months back where he wasn't around at teatime for a few weeks... I started to realise just how much difference there is in how much I need to buy. Is it weird that I just hadn't fully appreciated how much food he eats? I'm genuinely not sure how I didn't realise!

I should try and work this out actually. 

honeybee1234

Yesterday was both pluses and minuses... I had a very unexpected but lovely surprise visit from my grown up DD. We're very close but she doesn't live here so catch ups are maybe every couple of months usually. Both my DSs were here so we went into town as DD wanted to do a bit of window shopping.

We stopped by a coffee shop and I treated them all to smoothies and lattes, and we went for a wander. It was great to see her, however the finances took a mini hammering as I put the expenses on my M&S card - coffee shop, a couple of bits DD needed, and a replacement train ticket as her train back was cancelled and I got her a new one.

Now I'm dealing with residual guilt 😞 I have approximately £50 extra on the M&S card, which was due to be cleared on September 1st but is now just over by about £31, which unless I make any extra overpayments, will now be cleared October 1st.

This is an issue I need to address as it repeats itself - any kind of celebratory circumstance, I feel compelled to splash out. In the past, it's been going out for a meal, I've reduced it but it's still there. It's cemented in guilt, partly for money always being a struggle when the kids were younger, and partly because me and the ex divorced and not being able to be with them as much as I'd like. In 'normal' real life, I'd never pay 4.50 for a smoothie but somehow I'm out with the kids and it seems like a great idea? 

I did start a 'kids' pot for situations such as this, but I can't seem to get on top of it to get enough money in it before it gets depleted!

I need to overhaul everything... I need to anticipate situations like this and be prepared because it will arise again and I want to know what I want to do when it happens - and I need to look at my budget more generally because I've really gone in hard with overpaying, and barely given myself any extra to do anything at all fun with, which I'm guessing is also a factor!