Thank god we paid the mortgage off

Watty1

Love the retirement chatter as it is something I've been thinking about a lot this year. I started to track my spending to see where the money went and what could be saved in retirement and what could go up. I want to say it was enlightening but it was also a bit depressing as I realised very little would be saved and rather more potentially spent. The retirement norm is clearly not to have 3 horses - but - I spend nowhere near the amount of money on clothes they budget for, and whilst I would love a 2 week holiday in the sun I'm not leaving my animals so that won't happen and my cars are always cheap and run until they cannot.

One thing I think MSE boards teach us is that our personal figure is way more important than the twaddle in the papers and knowing our personal figure is so much more relevant.

ladybird1106

Thanks watty1, I think tracking your spending is a good idea and something I need to get back into. Mr🐞 and I sat and discussed what we envisioned retirement looking like other than the obvious. Neither of us want to travel abroad or buy flashy cars. Neither of us are particularly bothered about clothes etc. We don’t have expensive hobbies except the allotment. We to be able to afford to eat nice food, visit family and friends and holiday in the UK a couple of times a year. We want to be in fairly good health for our ages. At some point on a rainy day we are going to look into how much pension we’ll get. Mr 🐞was talking to a family member ( they have 2 very healthy wages going into their house) recently about his concerns and they said well you just need to put more into your pension. His response was we don’t have anything spare at the end of the month currently.
Ongoing issues with a sale on the bay. Another time waster on the same item. I’ve got it on click and collect. However they want to pay cash on pick up but I’ve had people try to refuse to pay agreed price before. So, I’m going to put it on postage and packaging instead.
We visited the plot today, more leeks in (175 up to date)hopefully they all take. I harvested my garlic yesterday. Some huge bulbs and others not much bigger than the clove I put in. Chatting to a neighbour and they too are having problems with parsnips. I’m still hopeful as they can take up to 4 weeks to germinate. Sowed carrots, watered, and fenced in the dill that was flopping about in it’s tubs.
Need to 😴

Love 🐞

Greying_Pilgrim

🐞 do you pre-germinate your parsnip seed? I remember having more success if I'd popped the seed out onto damp kitchen roll in a tupp3rware box (clear for preference), and popped it in a warm place. It doesn't necessarily get more seed to germinate, but at least you know what is viable. Even doing that, you always had some seed that would resolutely sit there and do nowt. You do have to be on the ball with transferring into compost and the roots go mad if they are going to grow, but it saves time and compost in the longer term. I used to use little individual pots (from W1lkos) as parsnips aren't keen on transplanting are they?

I could never get parsley to germinate/grow consistently - isn't the trick to pour boiling water over parsley seed?

Greying X

ladybird1106

I don’t pre germinate my parsnip seeds GP, never thought to do that. Will give this a go if they don’t pop up soon. This year I’ve finally got parsley to grow. Another diva of the seed world. I do believe that hot water is the key, although I didn’t do that. My Italian neighbour says not to use compost as it’s too rich and swears by soil and lots of patience. They say often people are impatient and give up too soon. They grow lots of it and this year I just used soil and now have a small pot of it. I’ve sown more and trying to be very patient.

Love 🐞

ladybird1106

So the bay item which has caused considerable issues ( I got 2 pings in the middle of the night asking questions), I’ve suspended till the weekend and I’ll do p&p. only. Had issue with v. Went to drop off a parcel and there was another parcel in there. Took it out and accidentally closed the blooming door. I’ve been using e courier and they usually put an address on of the buyer, but IP courier doesn’t. So I’m left with another person’s parcel. Reached out on FB as there is only 2 people of the name on the parcel in our town. Very frustrating. I’ve sold some books on V and also on WOB. Which meant another trip down to the lockers. Only made about £6 .
lunchtime

Love 🐞

ladybird1106

Contacted IP courier regarding package, just waiting to hear back from them.
Sowed lots of seeds after lunch , mainly winter veggies at home. Then went to the allotment , transported my outdoor cucumber plants up there, to harden off. Need to build them a frame. Planted my climbing borlotti beans and my dwarf bush beans. Weeded around my 🫛 and there is definitely pods forming 🥳. Too wet to hoe unfortunately.
Supported the youngest to purchase their partner’s birthday presents and then cooked tea. Chilli from stuff off the use it up shelf. Meal plan done for the week the aim is to eat food from the allotment, fridge, freezers and cupboards. Hopefully no money will be spent on food this week. I need to tot up how much of the food budget I have left. Plan to make more lettuce, pea and mint soup for lunches when I get chance.
I’m off to London tomorrow for my early birthday present from mum to see the Tracey Emin exhibition.
Best try and get some shut eye.
love 🐞

Cherryfudge

Have a lovely time in London!

ladybird1106

Thanks cherryfudge, really enjoyed the exhibition. Lots of walking as mum didn’t want to use the underground or get a bus. Mum was weaving by the end with exhaustion and I had to help her near the end.
Today I finally managed to offload that parcel back to the IP locker and hopefully the named person will finally get their item. Whatever it was it smelt very strongly of washing powder, I could smell it through the packaging. I’m intrigued what it was.
Walked into town as I’ve a chiropractor appointment. Called at the vol job and the worker is in, so will call back to do my weekly stint. Passed them my number for future reference. I was supposed to having lunch with the youngest as my birthday gift(it’s tomorrow), but their hayfever is bad today, as they are cutting the grass on the estate. Hey ho

Love 🐞

beanielou

Happy birthday to you for tomorrow. 🤗🌸

ladybird1106

Thanks beanielou.

https://www.nebriefing.org/expert-briefings

I went to see the above film today with Mr🐞. It was really interesting and thought provoking. It’s been played in other areas throughout the country. You can checkout on the website if it’s playing near you if you’re interested. We then used AI to give us further ideas of what else we could do. It surprisingly came up with a few more ideas.One of which as using the search engine Ecosia. Which I’ve downloaded. We are going to survey the wildflower meadow at the orchard too.
love 🐞