Weekly Flylady Thread 29th December 2025

Honey_Bear

Glad you're on the mend Jazee.

Belovéd and I have planned his birthday lunch tomorrow and heard from the chap with manflu that he might be able to make it, which we're hopeful about.  Actually, I say man flu but if it's the cold that has everyone going down with it that he and I had before we went to St Malo he probably has been pretty unwell.  Lovely neighbour also has it at the moment but is also on the mend.  

Tidied kitchen and sorted animals.  Now in my office and back to wrestling with figures.  They're starting to make sense but I do keep spotting errors that I've made because I haven't had a clear run at this job.  

Honey_Bear

kazmeister said:

Finances are mostly done just need to set up the recurring spreadsheet for another year. Shocking (to me) to think that in a house that's now paid for that it costs us over £18k per year to run the house and 1 car plus insurance for the dog and caravan and that's without food or fuel! Is it just me or does that sound like a lot.

You asked the question and my answer would be - a bit, yes, but it depends on what you've included and I've left out.  I've had a real trawl through last year's figures and come up with these numbers, which I'm going to itemise because we probably allocate costs slightly differently.  I needed to do a huge amount of work on my record keeping because it's been so sloppy of late and these figures sort of dropped out of the bottom of that work and I thought you might find them useful for comparison.

Power (gas and electricity)     £1,912.07

Council Tax                             £2,298.42

Water                                      £   594.00

House Insurance                    £   770.44

Car Costs (including petrol)    £   441.56

Computers and Wifi               £   581.80

TV Licence                             £   174.50

Animals (inc insurance)          £2,021.25

Total                                        £8,793.48

So our total for what is described as a five bedroomed house is £8793.48 but there are other costs, like contributing to the communal garden and gardening generally which I haven't included.  

We have a very small car and really only use it locally most of the time because we don't go anywhere much, trains are pretty good here all things considered, neither of us particularly enjoys driving, we live in the city centre and both have bus passes.  

Belovéd is extremely good at negotiating our bills down and managing that side of our finances, but I'd like to leave Virgin because although the wifi is powerful and reliable I'm convinced they're expensive and I can't trust Blue Yonder emails any more after the debacle earlier this year.  Once I'd opened up an Apple email account and told pretty much everyone I about the new email address I was ready to leave, but he won't consider it at the moment.  

Other people's figures will differ hugely because we all have different priorities - at our age we just won't be cold during the day in the winter and we both work at home so the central heating is on most of the day but obviously if the house were empty during the day we would turn it off. 

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi all

Valli has your friend who suffers with anxiety listened to Claire Weekes podcasts?  Sorry if that's not a good suggestion but I found her helpful when things were difficult. 

Speaking of anxiety we had a very stressful 3.5 hour journey from Northumberland to Leeds today after an amazing New Year break.  The snow was coming down thick and fast and even the A roads were white over.  DH was driving, DS2 was in the front and I was actually glad to be in the back where I couldn't really see the road ahead.  We arrived in Leeds to sunshine and not a flake of the white stuff so the last couple of hours from DSs house to ours was easy.

We have our Christmas tree lights on for one last time, the tree will come down tomorrow when I need to get organised for back to normality on Monday.  Where did Christmas go?  It feels very odd without an offspring in the house. 

kazmeister

Hi lovelies, hope you are all ok, healing vibes sent to all those in need.

Thanks Honey Bear for the comparison. I’m gonna check ours to see what is included/compares. We are similar size as are 4 bed with a large attic room (unofficial bedroom).

I have had an easy day today it was needed. Have done exercise routine, walked dogs with DH (DS dog is now here until Monday when I can take him with me when I got to look after the kids.) I’ve loaded the DW and put on a nipped out to get dog food for DS dog as he has to have grain free and we will run out, and a few more bits that came to over £40. I am definitely getting too old as I continue to think how much! 

Dinner will be leftovers from Thursdays tortilla pocket thingys made into nachos with some salad so not too much effort then I will take the tree down and the few bits that are left from Christmas. I can then do a quick clean through the house tomorrow. 

Also on tomorrow’s list is I must rejig and list all the freezer contents and make a meal plan to use up for the rest of the month. I will also need to put a final coat on the fireplace and the doorframe as 2 wasn’t enough then just do touch ups on the walls. We were then looking at desk set ups in there so it can be used as a home office if required without being too cluttered and love the look of the foldaway ones from pith and stem but it is a significant outlay (and a 10-12 week wait) so will need some serious thought before purchase.

Oh and we have missed the white stuff again, we have not had anything enough to call snow for at least 5 years.

Blackcats

We had quite a bit of snow here and it's now turned the side roads and pavements into a skating rink.

i cleaned the wardrobe doors so they are now smear free and ready to gleam in the winter sunshine tomorrow.  I dusted the bedroom and tidies the drawers in my bedside cabinet.  I found a forgotten handcream so that will be a nice treat and save a bit of money.

my 2026 diary and wall planner are now set up ready for the year ahead.

ionafan

I am also horrified by how much it costs me to run a 3-bedroomed house and feed the two of us and pay all Rosie's bills (including pet insurance - which I've never had reason to use, but as she is getting old I can't risk stopping it now - and L the dog walker three times a week).  Our water bill has just gone up from £28 to £35 per month which, together with rising food price,  makes a big difference to my savings.   I deal with most of the household bills (DH contributes) and work to a strict budget where every penny is allocated a job, but I've decided not to allow myself any discretionary (i.e. unplanned) spending during January. in order to boost my emergency pot.

This afternoon/evening I have
- walked Rosie
- unbagged the Christmas gifts and 4 pre-loved ring binders that DS1 no longer had any use for, that we received yesterday
- loaded, run and emptied the DW
- taken down the Christmas cards that I had stood inside the glass-fronted cabinet where I keep the good crockery, because they were in my way  - I haven't put them back because all the rest of the cards are likely to come down tomorrow
- cut down some roses that I've had for 10 days already and put them in a smaller vase
- used the bigger vase for a new bunch of roses that DH bought for me when he went into town this afternoon
- stripped the spare beds
- thrown all the dirty laundry downstairs, carried it into the utility,  sorted it into 3 piles and started the WM with all the whites
- cooked a simple tea of meatballs and veg followed by leftover rice pudding
- enjoyed some of my chocolate ginger (DGS1+2 make it for me every Christmas) whilst catching up with episodes 2 and 3 of Traitors; I hated the first series, only really got into watching the one with the celebrities and began to understand what it's all about, so I'm now ever so slightly hooked!
- decided that I'm not going to church in the morning because my car is iced up, we've still got snow in the shady areas and icy roads, and we'll still have minus temperatures at 9.45am when I would have to drive to the other side of town.

Enjoy what's left of the weekend, and please take extra care if you're going up stepladders or climbing on chairs to get the decorations down - we don't want anybody carted off to A&E xxx

roundtuit

Morning all xx 

-2° here but it's so dry that my car hasn't frozen over - yet. A few flakes of snow yesterday morning. That's all so far- it'll be waiting for Tuesday morning when I have to drive to work!!!

I had a lovely meal at the village pub with DS and DDil last night...my treat for DS's recent birthday. Today is Pops' 91st birthday so I'll pop round later with his card, containing Euros. Babs has been cleared to fly so they're setting off for the airport at 2 and will be winging their way to Benidorm early tomorrow morning. For two months! Fingers crossed that there are no emergencies while they are over there 🤞

I'm up, made my bed, taken my meds, turned over the calendars, changed Joey's seed and water, completed Strands with no hints, completed Wordle in three, completed Connections with three lives lost,  and I'm supping my first brew.

Yesterday I transferred everything across to my 2026 calendar,  and carried over all those ''it can wait' jobs from the last two weekends onto this weekend's list. So I'm feeling more organised although still somewhat discombobulated. 

Stay toasty my friends.
Rxx

MinnieMousesMummy

Morning all, 

My list for today
Do dailies
Laundry x 2 loads
Take DD to the stables so she can check on and feed her pony
Iron work stuff for next week
Have some me time before going back to the grind tomorrow
Remind kids to get their school bags ready for Monday
Set alarms and get an early night, as back to work tomorrow

I think that is everything that I need to tackle today. I hope everyone has a lovely Sunday

Fayolle

Morning all,
Happy birthday to Pops 🥳. Is it really a year since Benidorm?
Yesterday, the LR got a good clean. Partly as the decorations were all away and partly because the low winter sun meant that I really couldn’t ignore the dust any more.  Well, obviously, I was very tempted to ignore it… 2 loads of washing and HHI, plus Christmas tags made for next year and stowed away. Thanks to Valli’s reminder, I know that I have 3 cards to make or buy for January. The ones that slip my mind are always the ones right at the beginning of the new month, of which February has 3.
This morning I have done wm x2 to finally catch up on guest bedding etc, plus the dw is running. Broccoli soup is simmering from the saved broccoli stalks. The freezer finally has wriggle room as well, probably for the first time since the spring. 

There is still snow lying outside as the temperature isn’t rising enough to melt it in the shade. When I went to bed last night, the Feels Like temperature was -8 🥶. I am so grateful that I am able to have a warm house.

eltee2

Morning all

Beautiful day today, albeit blooming cold but that's how it should be in January I guess.  No snow yet, just extremely slippery outside.

Today so far....
• Windows opened (shutting again soon 🥶)
• DW on
• TD quick blast to finish off yesterdays washing
• Nice warming brekkers of porridge, blueberries & honey washed down with a cuppa
(Guess who's finally discovered where the bullet points are - they disappeared when phone updated)

Next...
• Cuppa number 2
• FUPA - all of it!
• Strip*, air & remake bed with lovely clean bedding and extra warm duvet

Later...
• Begin operation Pack Away Christmas
• S&S kitchen & bathroom

Much later...
• Flop on setee with cuppa and the last of the Christmas chocs

Keep warm everyone

El
*strip the bed! 😯