Balancing the books

Blackcats

@Makingabobor2 - you can sail from Portsmouth which is a slow crossing and sometimes overnight so a cabin is worth booking or from Poole which is quicker (about 3hours). You can take your car on both services. It's Brittney Ferries. Guernsey is lovely - smaller than IoW, sublime sandy beaches, history, nice walks and interesting places to eat. Can you tell that we like it there? 🤣

Makingabobor2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82132521#Comment_82132521

Will have to add it to our bucket list of places to go I think.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

We were thinking of taking our car to Jersey and then to Guernsey across a week. It sounds like they’re both beautiful places 🤩

Blackcats

I should be on commission from Guernsey tourism 🤣. @ohdearhowdidthathappen the two island trip sounds like a good idea. There are also options for a day trip to Herm or Sark (no cars on the islands) travel by horse taxi on Sark and by foot on Herm. They are fascinating, beautiful places.

Anyway, what else has been happening? The great thing about a short break is that in 7 days we've travelled, holidayed, travelled home and are back full of energy and refreshed.

Our grocery budget is looking healthy and today's planned batch cooking of a chili has been deferred to tomorrow so that eeks out the budget. A couple of our teen grandkids asked if we wanted to meet for brunch and of course we did. It was so nice that they wanted to see us and even the usually non-communicative child was chatty.

I am gradually sorting through assorted boxes from the garage. I wonder why I wrapped up half a broken candlestick and put it away in the garage about 3 years ago? Another box sorted and I've boxed up some nice bits that I no longer want for the charity shop.

I did a tiny top up to all our savings pots today which was strangely motivating. I saw on another diary that the poster was giving a red/amber/green rating to their pots to help with allocating money. I might do that before October's funds are shared out.

It's Saturday evening so it's wine and movie night. MrBC's turn to chose the film and I fear his choice is going to be a Matrix type film. 🥴

Makingabobor2

I ended up with marmite on toast & DH had chip butty. We are watching StarTrek Strange New World.

Blackcats

DH's Saturday night film choice was The Driver which is a 1970's film with Ryan O'Neal. Car chases, lots of skidding and squeaking of brakes, robberies, some shooting and not much dialogue so definitely easier to comprehend than the Matrix series. It's my turn to chose this Saturday and I'm trying to think of a good British film so any ideas gratefully received.

It's the quiet time of the financial month when bills are all paid and pension payments are a few days away so I'm focussing on little wins and shopping from home opportunities. I'm actually enjoying using up shampoo, shower gels etc rather than buying new which helps tidy up the cupboard and is quite satisfying seeing how long dregs can last. I won't need to stock up until October and it's nice having different choices to enjoy each day. I've also done a fridge and freezer inventory and made fridge bottom soup for lunch served with a hunk of homemade bread that was in the freezer - not quite a free lunch but no new spending needed. I made a banana and chocolate cake which we took out with a flask for a nice walk in the sunshine. We enjoyed tea and cake for "free" in a lovely spot for our own pop up coffee shop.

I was also dangerously loitering with intent looking at cushions on home furnishings websites. I want to refresh the lounge for the Autumn and cushions seem like a good option, however, whilst continuing with the never ending garage clearing I found some lovely cushion covers that I'd forgotten about. One good thing about past spendiness is that it certainly offers lots of shopping from home opportunities.

Makingabobor2

I'd make him watch Notting Hill, great film & definitely British. Or have you seen The Thursday Murder Club? That's really good

PennysIntoPounds

There are some fab Agatha Christies on iplayer if you're allowed a film in several parts

ohdearhowdidthathappen

I always like films like 4 weddings or Notting Hill. Love Actually at Christmas ☺️ Or a good period drama 😁 The sequel to the devil wears prada is on my ‘to watch’ list.

Blackcats

In the end our film choice was Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy which we both thoroughly enjoyed. We made a Thai meal of coconut and lime chicken, pad Thai and Thai fish cakes with spicy mango salad for a starter. A glass of chilled NZ Sav Blanc made it seem like a real treat. I will add Notting Hill and some Agatha Christie to our advent film choices as I think they will be better received by MrBC as we snuggle down to make the most of long, dark, chilly Advent evenings.

This week has turned into a very sociable few days - we were invited for Sunday lunch with chums, lunch today with my aunty and tomorrow is lunch with MrBC's brother. A chum is coming round for coffee and cake on Thursday. I do enjoy socialising but I need to re-charge and have downtime as my social battery runs flat. I have a friend who gets her energy from lots of mixing, eating, drinking and conversation whereas it saps my energy. I think it's an introvert / extrovert response.

Money is looking ok and I'm hoping for some underspends but I mustn't get complacent as there's still 8 days left of this month! At this stage the grocery budget is looking healthy, eating out & fun pot is holding up well considering this week's flurry of activity. I need to buy petrol tomorrow and it's anybody's guess what the price will be 🙀